The United Kingdom is known for birthing a few world-renowned spitters, namely Dizzee Rascal and M.I.A. But who outside the borders of North America has the potential to follow in their hit-making footsteps? For our latest New New column, we take a trip overseas to Europe to find out who is bubbling up and rockin’ the mic right on the European continent.
X...
The 1990s have come and gone, and with them went a generation of some of the most talented women hip-hop has ever seen. Hip-hop has often been described as a young man's game—with the operative word being man—but today's crop of female MCs can give the Golden Era a run for its money. Nicki Mina...
For years, when people thought about Boston hip-hop, there was only one name that popped up—Guru, as one half of Gang Starr with DJ Premier. The city, long a hotbed for punk and indie rock—not to mention the arena-sized egos of Aerosmith and Boston—has slipped under the radar for decades on the hip-hop side of things; even Guru left the Bean for the more hip-hop-savvy shores of Brooklyn. But thes
After being one of the lesser-known faces of XXL's 2012 Freshmen Class, Seattle native Macklemore and his partner Ryan Lewis have had the best year ever. The duo has smashed charts with catchy and provocative singles like "Thrift Shop," "Same Love" and "Can't Hold Us," as their independently released debut album, The Heist, continues to inch toward platinum status...
In our first installment of The New New, we shined a spotlight on 15 young talents out of New York City who continue to bring hip-hop’s center back home, marked by a return to boom-bap beats and introspective rhymes reminiscent of the mid-'90s Golden Era.
B...