“The smooth criminal on beat breaks / Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes,” rapped Nas on his 1994 classic “N.Y. State of Mind.” Like other underground genres that hit their stride in the ...

The past two decades of hip-hop music have been well-documented, thanks to social media and streaming platforms. Today, anyone with internet access can essentially tap into a database of their ...

At first many dismissed it as a fad when it exploded out of the Bronx after a dance party in the summer of 1973 where Dj Kool Herc used two turntables to switch back and forth between two records to ...

New books collecting objects central to rap’s physical history demonstrate the importance of celebrating these relics before they vanish. Credit... Supported by By Jon Caramanica For the last year, ...

For the latest sounds in hip-hop, don't bother with the radio. Turn off your computer, too. The good stuff lives and breathes on mixtapes, unlicensed CD compilations crammed with unofficial remixes, ...

In an industry that overwhelmingly prizes youth and novelty over experience, Keith Grayson, best known as DJ Kay Slay, was a rare beacon of continuity across hip-hop’s many eras. Though his early ...

I’m from the small Central Illinois town of Decatur. My hometown is one of the sites where the war on drugs and many of its battles took place. In 2018, Decatur was listed at number seven in USA Today ...