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Phonk isn’t just a new-age TikTok trend. It’s the music of a generation rallying against the state of the world.
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The Calling, the Hilltop Hoods’ third album, would be their first to reach mainstream success.
Phife and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest perform in 1994.
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In many parts of the world, hip-hop has become a way for Muslim artists to assert their belonging and identity.
Confidence is a critical component of hip-hop culture.
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The same boldness that enabled hip-hop to endure can benefit teachers in the classroom, a hip-hop scholar writes.
Hip-hop culture spread quickly – to places like London, seen here in 1984.
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On Aug. 11, 1973, a block party in the Bronx spawned a genre that would go on to influence nearly all aspects of US culture – and the music, fashion and art of countries around the world.
Hip hop artists, from top left, clockwise, DMX, Lexii Alijai, Prince Markie Dee and Trugoy the Dove have all passed away within the past decade.
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As hip-hop turns 50, an unfortunate reality is that so many of its pioneering artists never live to see much more than 50 years themselves, a professor of hip-hop writes.
The NBA suspended Ja Morant for 25 games after he posted a video of himself brandishing a gun.
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America’s veneration of gun ownership is seconded only by its commitment to rendering armed Blacks as an existential danger to the civility and structure of America.
MC Solaar, a pioneer of French rap.
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Hip-hop traveled far after being birthed by Black Americans in US cities. The journey hasn’t always been smooth.
Puerto Rican singer Residente performs in Havana in 2010. His back reads, ‘We receive flowers and bullets in the very same heart.’
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Latino artists have been forging their own paths in hip-hop for decades, giving voice to young peoples’ pain, faith and demands for change.
(From left to right) Maseo, Posdnous and Trugoy the Dove from the rap group De La Soul.
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With their back catalogue finally being made available on streaming services, a new generation of rap lovers will get to enjoy their groundbreaking work.
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Trugoy the Dove was instrumental in shaping a type of hip-hop that was more experimental and sensitive.
AKA performing in 2015, at the height of his fame.
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A cold-blooded shooting is a common trope in gangsta rap - but a disturbing new development in South African hip-hop.
Album artwork for Mount Ninji And Da Nice Time Kid.
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Controversial South African band Die Antwoord illustrates the power relations that make cultural appropriation and blackface so damaging.
The media plays an important role in the way people learn to view themselves and others.
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A scholar of race and media discusses the importance of analyzing media through a critical lens.
It’s been 10 years since Chief Keef became an internet famous rapper with the song ‘Bang.’
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The police, the media and politicians have long objected Chief Keef’s ties to gang violence. But the rapper wrote the playbook for using social media to make a career out of music.
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Hip-hop got its start as a political artistic force in the streets of Bronx. In the age of coronavirus, that same force has taken to the internet.
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Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s song has cause an uproar for its explicit expression of female sexuality.
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Clyde Stubblefield’s drumming has been sampled or imitated more than 1,000 times since it was recorded in 1970.
Members of Wu-Tang Clan at Glastonbury 2019. The group took their name from the 1983 Kung Fu film Shaolin and Wu Tang.
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Global hip-hop takes many cues from Kung Fu. Contrary to what denouncers might think, there is a rhyme and reason to using ‘words as weapons’.
Joseph Morales and company in ‘Hamilton,’ the musical that opens to sold out shows in Toronto this month. The show highlights early ambition in America.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster portrayal of Alexander Hamilton, one of the most colourful founding fathers, opens this month in Toronto.