Hip-Hop
Listening Booth
Drake’s Era of Masculine Frustration
On his new album, “For All the Dogs,” the star rapper wallows in his discontent.
Our Columnists
Battle Rap’s Unwoke Representation Politics
Even if the point of battle rap is trading increasingly offensive insults, the whole thing functions on a certain system of trust.
Daily Comment
Hip-Hop at Fifty: An Elegy
A generation is still dying younger than it should—this time, of “natural causes.”
Pop Music
Central Cee, Britain’s Hip-Hop Ambassador
The musician takes Americans on a tour of British rap.
The Political Scene Podcast
Chuck D on How Hip-Hop Changed the World
The Public Enemy front man talks with Kelefa Sanneh about the history of hip-hop. The documentary he co-produced, “Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World,” is airing now on PBS.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
A Conversation with Bonnie Raitt, Plus Public Enemy’s Chuck D
After fifty years in music, the singer-songwriter is nominated for four Grammy Awards. And the hip-hop icon talks with Kelefa Sanneh.
2022 in Review
My Year in Listening
Experimental jazz trumpet, haunted London club music, and Lil Yachty’s “Poland” made for the most memorable listening of 2022.
Cultural Comment
The Despair of Generation “Notti Bop”
How do we respond to a wave of viral dance videos that reënact the killing of a fourteen-year-old?
Podcast Dept.
The Good Spirits of “Drink Champs”
Using warmth, candor, and more than a little alcohol, the show creates some of the best interviews in hip-hop.
Books
The Rules of Rhyme
True rhymes are marvels; a slant rhyme’s a sin. Or is it vice versa? Let the battle begin.
Listening Booth
Jack Harlow’s Empty Flirtations
The rapper’s new album, “Come Home the Kids Miss You,” seems to be powered more by simulation of stardom than aptitude.
Listening Booth
Luxury and Mockery on Pusha T’s “It’s Almost Dry”
The new record is as leisurely as it is confrontational, performed from a position of casual, assumed superiority.
Our Local Correspondents
Fivio Foreign’s Big Move
He made his name rapping about gang warfare. Can he go mainstream?
The Theatre
Jamie Lloyd’s Minimalist Hip-Hop “Cyrano de Bergerac”
A new staging, starring James McAvoy, gives us rappers instead of rapiers.
Listening Booth
A Dizzy Record of Newfound Fame
The young British rapper ArrDee hasn’t been famous for long, but he has been quick to adopt the confidence and paranoia of celebrity.
Culture Desk
Giving Phife Dawg the Sound of “Forever”
Dion Liverpool, who co-produced a new posthumous album by the beloved Tribe Called Quest rapper, calls it the most challenging project he’s ever worked on.
Photo Booth
When Hip-Hop Was Young
Sue Kwon photographed the artists whose music would go on to change the world.
Culture Desk
NBA YoungBoy and the Music Industry’s Unseen Stars
In 2020, a twenty-two-year-old rapper from Baton Rouge brought in nearly as much streaming revenue as Taylor Swift did. Why haven’t most people heard of him?
Pop Music
The Unexpected Introspection of Lil Nas X
Fans may have thought that the artist’s début album, “Montero,” would be a bawdy romp. Instead, it takes a turn toward the morose and the self-searching.