The Charlotte rapper's new album, Laughing so Hard, it Hurts, is more direct in thought and intention than his debut, more open and vulnerable, letting his observations guide his insights.
This week's Heat Check selects come largely from iconoclasts who have already zeroed in on their individual aesthetics: a singsong rap soulman, an alté sensation, a noise-rap radical and more.
The referential artist discusses hip-hop's repurposing spirit, reconciling zonal versions of himself, making sense of rap's "golden era" and his new album, Component System with the Auto Reverse.
Forget what F. Scott Fitzgerald said about American lives and second acts, Gibbs is on his third or fourth. $$$ is a rewarding listen that sometimes labors under the weight of a forced progression.
The artist, one of hip-hop's biggest names of the 1990s with hits including "Gangsta's Paradise" and "Fantastic Voyage," died Wednesday at age 59, his manager said.
The East Atlanta emcee brings a serious attention to detail to this stripped-down performance of tracks from his new album plus some earlier career-defining songs.
Holed up on opposite coasts, Roc Marciano and the Alchemist, two key figures in underground rap, have been gradually moving toward a shared sonic goal, reaching an apex with their new album.
For the better part of a decade, Nicki simply existing as Nicki felt like a radical act. Along the way, things changed: rap, the internet, fandom, feminism. Maybe Minaj did, too.
The rapper's second studio album reaches for a confessional mode, making space for ruminations and grief — while reaffirming her skills as one of rap's bar-for-bar heavyweights.
A proper debut LP from the voice of The Roots was rumored for two decades at least. Finally here, Cheat Codes isn't just excellent: It's a product of all the years it went unmade.
The First Nations rapper comes from "a place of understanding [that] at the end of the day everybody is human and we all have a lack of knowledge that we can expand on." His debut album is out today.
The songs we love from the first half of the year span a wide emotional and musical range, from wild percussive romps to raw pleas for empathy to Beyoncé's command to leave it all on the dance floor.
The songs we love from the first half of the year span a wide emotional and musical range, from wild percussive romps to raw pleas for empathy to Beyoncé's command to leave it all on the dance floor.
