XXL Mag

Written in the wake of a grand jury's failure to indict Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson, Raury and Malik Shakur's "Fly" aims to be a song of healing, a processing tool in the wake of a tragedy. After Wilson killed Michael Brown in August of last year, there was an outpouring of support, vigils and protests, with artists like J...

V Magazine discovered something that works and are running with it. The last couple of issues featured Tinashe and FKA Twigs on the cover partially nude. For the summer 2015 issue, Rihanna is the cover star and is as hot as ever, completely topless wearing a blonde wig. She...

O.T. Genasis' career went to new heights with his smash hit "CoCo" and now the Conglomerate Entertainment rapper attempts a follow up hit with "Ricky." Stylistically, "Ricky" is in the same vein as "CoCo." While both songs have a catchy hook and cocaine raps, on "Ricky" Genasis tries his hand at harmonizing over the beat ...

Though Run the Jewels, his ongoing collaboration with Def Jux legend El-P, has introduced him to an entirely new set of fans, Killer Mike was honing his craft for more than a decade before the two even met. PL3DGE, the third installment in his I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind series of LPs--and fifth album overall--is a jarring, trunk-rattling work that serves as the blueprint for R.A.P. Music, th

King Los drops a soulful record featuring Marsha Ambrosius. "War" is a single off his upcoming new mixtape God, Money, War. “It’s a war going on outside on the corner/it’s a war on your TV screen every morning/not the war with the bombs and the helicopter swarming/but the war for your soul, that’s what everyone’s ignorin'," raps Los as her discuss topics like violence and attacking

Jeremih has quietly built an unimpeachable resume--his contributions to other artists' singles have guaranteed both favorable positions at Billboard and warm receptions from critics. His own single, the YG-featuring "Don't Tell 'Em," tore up 2014, taking home the award for the year's best Hip-Hop or R&B song at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. No...

Rick Ross drops the video for the Snoop Dogg-assisted banger "Quintessential." "Quintessential" is off of Ross' Hood Billionaire, the second album he released in 2014. The ultra smooth record gets even smoother visuals with Rozay playing the neighborhood pimp...

De La Soul wasted no time putting the money raised for a new album via Kickstarter to good use. With Nas in tow the crew dropped "God It," a loosie that won't appear on the aforementioned album but is a sign of things to come. "While busy at work, we also like to play," said Dave from De La Soul in a statement ...

According to reports from The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider, music streaming giant Spotify is closing in on a deal that would net them an extra $400 million in investments at an $8.4 billion valuation. The funding, which...

Bobby Shmurda, real name Ackquille Pollard, has been behind bars for the past four months on gang conspiracy, drugs and weapons charges. The Brooklyn native has gone from promising young star to just another statistic in a roller coaster year that saw his breakout hit make the Top 10 on the Hot 100 and nab him a deal with Epic Records...

J. Cole's ode to losing his virginity gets a creative twist as Cole tells the story through the eyes of two dogs. The clip opens with Cole walking his dog down the street as a leggy woman with a puppy of her own coming the other way. Instead of focusing on the blossoming relationship between the rapper and his soon-to-be partner, the camera pans down to the two dogs and shows the budding relation

The major label system can be a cold machine, and even a deal with the most commercially successful rapper of all time can't guarantee a path to success of your own. When Yelawolf's 2011 debut, Radioactive, failed to vault him to superstardom, he went back to the drawing board, retreating to the mixtape circuit that had first made him a commodity. Now...