“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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Song sharing is one of the most—if not the most—vital parts of music fandom. A hundred years ago, the medium was the phonograph record. Today, whether on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube, the playlist ...

In the Hip Hop universe, mixtapes have often been the unsung heroes that serve as the foundation for raw talents to blossom into legends. From the gritty streets to the digital realm of sites like ...

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, ...