XXL Mag

You don't have to go very deep down the rabbit hole to find The Cold Vein. The first full-length release on Def Jux, Cannibal Ox's debut album was hailed wide and far on college campuses and crowded subway cars. It's a classic the way only albums this confounding can be: inscrutable to the masses, irresistible to the few...

Beatking is busy putting in that work. Underground Cassette Tape Music with Gangsta Boo dropped only last October, but the Houston native is already gearing up for his next project. In the meantime, the rapper/producer releases a new track off the upcoming project, Club God 4. "Rich & Famous" fe...

With T.R.U. Jack City only seven days away, 2 Chainz and his crew drop "Keep It 100" for the streets. Cap 1, Skooly, Short Dawg, Kaleb and Tity Boi team up for a banger. This comes out a week after 2 Chainz served Nancy Grace on HLN. A battle most fans—including Mrs. Grac...

If you haven’t heard of Chicago’s latest female MC, Dreezy, get familiar. The multi-talented rapper teams up with fellow Chicagoan Lil Herb for the official remix to "Boss." Over the D.Brooks-produced beat, Dreezy and Herb shine, showing off their rapid-fire flow while spitting bone-shattering rhymes about being the next top dogs in their city. The hard-spitta's ferocio...

Some fans were confused when, at the end of J. Cole's 2014 Forest Hills Drive, he included in his extensive list of shoutouts a famous Nascar driver to whom he had no public connection. Listeners were confused, but they latched onto the obscure reference; Cole says "Everywhere I go now--the airport, the store--people say, 'Yo, Cole, I love that album, bro, it's a classic...

Over two decades in the game and Wu-Tang is still on the swarm. U-God's solo efforts are some of the more underrated and under recognized projects in the extensive Wu catalog but there's no denying that the man's lyrical prowess has held up ...

Classic Material: T.I.'s "Bring Em Out" As told to Dan Rys Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Winter 2014 issue of XXL Magazine, on stands now. In October 2004, T.I. dropped the song “Bring Em Out,” the lead single from his second album for Atlantic Records, Urban Legend. With a clever ho...

Since Chance The Rapper started to make a name for himself in the mainstream he has been actively using his stature to help his hometown city of Chicago improve. This week, Chance took another step towards helping the youth by teaming up with his brother Taylor Bennett, Sway Calloway,  and more to raise $100,000 for the Get Schooled program. The...

It sounds strange to call Trinidad Jame$ 'embattled,' but it wouldn't be wrong. Some found it easy to cast him off as a one-hit wonder, a blip in the SEO radar. Inevitable, unmemorable. There was the Def Jam deal; there was Def Jam dropping him without making so much as a dent in the commercial landscape...

Toronto native Tory Lanez blessed his fans with good news today. Along with dropping his new track, "Diego," Lanez also announced that he is going on the second leg of his Lost Cause tour. Produced by Lanez and Play Picasso, "Diego" features heavy drug talk over a booming, bass-heavy instrumental ...

Despite the drama between Lil Wayne and the label heads, it's not all bad over at Cash Money. Back in November, Juvenile announced he had resigned with the label he was instrumental in building and dropped the Drake-assisted "Sho Me Love...

"I was supposed to count a million with my nigga." The hip-hop community suffered a blow over the weekend when A$AP Yams passed away tragically at the age of 26. Best known as the architect of the A$AP Mob and, in particular, A$AP Rocky's rise to stardom, Yams was one of the sharpest curators the genre had seen in recent years...