XXL Mag

Ask anybody who has asked a person of the opposite sex for a date... First impressions are important. In life, a limp first impression can permanently ruin your chances for success, hurt your career or inadvertently create enemies for life. It happe...

We all know how that it’s important how you start an album or mixtape, but how you finish it is equally vital to the success of any project. The final song, or “Outro” if you will, is the conclusion. It’s the last piece to the puzzle the artist has been building from the moment you pressed play. The way you walk away ...

  Can you come up with a funny quote? Place your caption in the “Comments” section below. The best caption will be announced today at 4 p.m. Happy captioning! Winner: "So this (Chick) fucking with ASAp now ? Dig a grave for both they Asses" by BossLife Trev

Chief Keef is ready for whatever in the new visual for the track "Ight Doe." Pistol flashing and weed smoking is on the Glory Boyz's agenda for the day in the A Zae Production shot video. This will appear on the Chicago rapper's upcoming project, Almighty So...

Rock The Bells, the traveling hip-hop festival celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has already pulled off two successful shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco this summer. But according to local Washington, D.C. publications, as well as Ticketmaster's web site and XXL's own sources, the iterations in both the nation's capital and the New York City area have been cancelled. Rumors beg... R

"Don't think about it too much," sings Sampha on the crestfallen hook of "Too Much," one of the many highlights on Drake's Nothing Was The Same, and though it's a nice sentiment, it's not exactly easy to do when it comes to Drake. Few artists have inspired as much hand-wringing, head-scratching and face-palming as the ascendant Canadian rapper and XXL cover star...

Last night, Meek Mill made a guest appearance on Funkmaster Flex's Hot 97 radio show. While the cameras were rolling the Philly rapper spit some bars sans an instrumental. Meek's long-awaited mixtape Dreamchasers 3 drops September 29. While you wait for it, check out our list of the MMG rapper's best mixtape tracks...

Big Sean once again shed light on the extremity of Detroit's deficit crisis, mentioning a friend who was once raped on the way to school due to police cuts; Sean urges that the city is in dire need of a solution. "When I was in high school, one of my best friends got rape walking to school", Big Sean said on The Wendy Williams Show...

Last week, the FBI released its Uniform Crime Report for 2012, showing that Chicago saw 500 homicides last year, more than any other city in the nation. While many have rushed to declare Chicago the new “murder capital” of America, it’s worth noting that such distinctions don’t take into account the size or population of an area—murder rates per capita is a more revealing statistic. As the Chicago

Fredo is no longer in the cut. Fredo Santana has been a busy man lately. He was just in the video for Drake's hit single off Nothing Was The Same, "Hold On, We're Going Home." He played a villain, of course, that was apart of a crime mob that kidnapped Drizzy's girlfriend. Now we g...

As well as promoting his new album Nothing Was The Same, which dropped Tuesday (September 24), Drizzy reportedly inked a six-figure deal with EA Sports to push the new FIFA ’14 which hit shelves the same day. Champagne Papi recently touched down in NYC to make his rounds promoting the game, passing out copies to fans at every stop. A...

As promised, 2 Chainz hit New Orleans successfully reuniting the Hot Boyz in the video for his homage inspired effort, "Used 2". Partnering with Lil Wayne, Mannie Fresh, Juvenile, and Turk; the boys revived the  former group's spirit, ripping a page straight out the 1990s "Back That Ass Up" video. “We t...