Reviews

Before this album/mixtape was even released, Young Thug's Barter 6 was already steeped in drama and controversy. As soon as the Atlanta MC announced that the project would seriously be called Carter 6—which he had been mentioning in interviews for more than a year, comments that had largely been taken as a joke—hip-hop heads did a double take. And when Lil Wayne b...

Nearly four years after the release of his Shady Records debut, Radioactive, Yelawolf is finally back, this time to attempt to solidify his place in the spotlight with his sophomore album, Love Story. As many may argue and as Yelawolf has even openly admitted, on past releases the Alabama native focused more on pleasing others than staying true to his own personal craft...

Leaving behind the trap anthems found on his 2012 debut release, Stritcly 4 My P.A.P.I.Z., Bodega Bamz takes a new direction on his latest release Sidewalk Exec under the venerated Duck Down Music label. Bamz serves up an LP  that sonically and lyrically are reminiscent of the boom-bap era of New York hip-hop and that fits right alongside the refreshing Beastcoast movement coming out of New York.

Young Buck has always been G-Unit's wild child, the original quartet's lone Southern rep with a flow as unpredictable and diverse as Busta Rhymes and Ol' Dirty Bastard before him. But he's also been the member of 50's record-breaking crew who has faced the most adversity over their now-decade-plus run, getting kicked out of the Unit live on Hot 97 in 2008 (with the infamous crying tape), being rai

Tyler, The Creator’s career has firm roots in shock value. His third studio album Cherry Bomb fell right in step this month, with a surprise early release on April 12. His Coachella performance the same weekend served to hype the project, which was already tangibly buzzing thanks in part to the Kanye West, Lil Wayne, ScHoolboy Q and Pharrell features. The ...

iLoveMakonnen has had quite a year so far. After first catching the ears of Mike Will Made It, Metro Boomin and 808 Mafia, the 25-year-old MC shot to meteoric success last summer after Drake remixed "Tuesday" for optimal turn up results. Since then, the rapper/singer has signed to OVO Sound, toured internationally and has been the man of the hour on the festival circuit...

Since his 2000 major label debut, Back For The First Time, Ludacris has consistently proven that he could flow alongside great MCs like T.I., Nas and Jay Z. With a motion flick, Furious 7, breaking records at the box office, the newly wed MC is back to prove that he can wax poetically with hip-hop’s new breed on his new studio album, Ludaversal. Ever since 2003's Chicken-...

Wedged between news stories surrounding his soon-to-be ex-wife Amber Rose and his recent appearance on WWE’s Raw at the beginning of March, Wiz Khalifa announced a new collaborative EP with Ty Dolla $ign titled Talk About It In The Morning. With an already und...

Wale's Album About Nothing is presumably the most substantial rap/Seinfeld collaboration the hip-hop community will ever witness. The effort was derived around concepts and show titles from the nine season-long NBC series, which ran from 1989 to 1998. With his four...

Earl Sweatshirt’s young career has been largely enigmatic. After bursting onto the scene in 2010 as the most lyrically gifted of the cartoonish Odd Future crew, he dropped his odiously raw Earl mixtape and then disappeared, with only “Free Earl” chants left in his wake at OF shows. Shortly after hi...

Formerly one third of Durham, NC rap group Little Brother, Southern MC Rapper Big Pooh has honed his skills since his days alongside Phonte and 9th Wonder. Debuting his first solo album, Sleepers, in 2005, Pooh has cultivated a fan base all his own thanks to witty, pun-filled lyrics and smart production choices...

Mr. Wonderful is the title of an obscure 1968 Fleetwood Mac album featuring a shirtless, lanky individual on the cover. Nearly 50 years later, Action Bronson appears on the scene as the well-over 300 pound antithesis. The origins of the former chef-turned-rap-phenomenon are well-documented in the canals of viral myth via unintentionally hilarious interviews and painfully truthful autobiographical