Jay Z, hip hop superstar, entrepreneur, and husband to Beyoncé, has requested that his entire musical oeuvre be pulled from Spotify.

As a teenager in the early ‘90s, I was exposed to a variety of messages through the hip-hop of the time, which was often socially conscious, and in ways both militant and matter of fact. I just happened to pay special attention to the work of women in hip-hop, and thinking back, these are some of the things that I…

On today’s Wendy, Remy Ma discussed her ongoing feud with fellow rapper Nicki Minaj, because what else is there to talk about? You mean to tell me there is something going on in the world besides Remy’s orchestrated attacks on Nicki Minaj’s career and image? You could have fooled me.

Lately, I feel deluged by excess. Recording artists grind out single after single after mixtape after albums stuffed with enough tracks to make their running times scrape infinity. I listened to Kehlani’s recently released 19-track solo album, SweetSexySavage, and I still have no idea who this person is, except for…

Fergie and Fat Joe opened and closed Philipp Plein’s Spring 2017 runway show in Milan, which I suppose is something like a cosign of his nu-Moschino-lite, washed-ass 2002 stereotype of what hip-hop fashion looks like. Titled “Alice in Ghettoland,” he staged models (including Paris Hilton) mean-mugging and draped in…

Movie musical impresario Baz Luhrmann is deep into the 1970s Bronx—that era and place in which city blight and rampant poverty led young people to get beyond creative, inventing hip-hop, punk, salsa and disco—and finally, his Netflix show about it will debut August 12.

On Monday evening, VH1 held the 2016 Hip Hop Honors to pay tribute to the women of hip hop. During the ceremony, Queen Latifah stood up to deliver a brief but blazing speech.

For the first time in its 16-year history, tonight’s VH1 Hip Hop Honors will be devoted entirely to women in rap. Salt-N-Pepa, Queen Latifah, Missy Elliott, and Lil’ Kim will be honored. Roxanne Shanté, the first woman rapper to score a bonafide hit single, will not be. In fact, as of late last week, Shanté wasn’t…

Donald Glover has been teasing clips of his hip-hop-centric FX series Atlanta with short clips that show him strolling in the streets with his boys. But here’s a promo trailer that involves actual scenes and a baby, under the dreamlike squealing backdrop of Flume’s “Sleepless.” There’s no dialogue to give an idea of…

You’ll have to wait until August 12 to see Baz Luhrmann’s ‘70s hip-hop drama The Get Down, but in the meantime, this dazzling trailer will whet your appetite.

Sit down, my fellow children of the ‘90s. Today, rapper and leap year baby Ja Rule enters into the fifth decade of his life. But if the thought of Ja turning 40 makes you dizzy, take solace: according to the leap year schedule he’s merely 10.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have released an eight-minute song featuring Jamila Woods, “White Privilege II,” about white privilege, beginning with Macklemore’s own feeling about whether he can meaningfully participate in a Black Lives Matter march and spiraling into different movements questioning what his own white…

Lin-Manuel Miranda was reading Ron Chernow’s Hamilton on vacation, goes the fable of the year, when he was struck with inspiration. Later, at the first public performance of a song from his musical, he told his audience at the White House that Alexander Hamilton was “someone I think embodies hip-hop.”

Fetty Wap has multiple anthems about putting his lady on a pedestal, including a song about spending QT with his trap queen while cooking crack. But is he a feminist?

Recently, as if acting of their own volition or by the direction of some cruel puppeteer, my hands navigated to iTunes and purchased Drake’s single “Hotline Bling.” At first I bemoaned this purchase, which I was certain would result in nothing more than the foolhardy loss of $1.29 and some extra data languishing on my…

On Monday night Drake released the video for “Hotline Bling”—his maybe inspired, maybe remixed take on D.R.A.M.’s “Cha Cha.” As he has rather consistently done for the past few years, Drake delivered in the most deliberately viral and Drake-y way: like a huge dork.

Julia Beverly is your favorite rapper’s favorite hustler. Her Agency Twelve books MCs, R&B stars and reality TV provocateurs all around the world, including a current 40-date mixtape tour for Lil Wayne. A thriving business, Agency Twelve grew out of an unexpected extension of casually making connections between…