Vince Staples is matter-of-fact: about his music, about his upbringing in Long Beach and about his sobriety. If anything, the FM!rapper has become more direct and slightly prickly explaining his choice to avoid alcohol and drugs over his career — an understandable decision, considering how quickly outside observers tend pigeonhole …
Read More »Love Is Pain on A Boogie wit da Hoodie's 'Hoodie SZN'
The very first line on Hoodie SZN, the new album from 23-year-old Bronx rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie, is “All she ever wanted was my heart to hurt.” Few rappers mine their torrid affairs for lyrical inspiration with the fervor of A Boogie, who presents romance as a highly …
Read More »Tekashi 6ix9ine Releases New Album Amid Legal Troubles
Dummy Boy, the latest full-length project from rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, was positioned as a potential breakthrough project for the controversial artist. After narrowly escaping prison last month on a charge of using a child in a sexual performance that had been hanging over his entire career, his new album wrangled …
Read More »Gibson Hazard Is 22 and Making Surrealist Videos for Drake
A kaiju-sized Scorpion is chasing Drake. Wait — why is that yellow Lamborghini flying? Is Aubrey Graham is now performing on top of a great white shark, like OVO got a contract to design a new SeaWorld? These are some of the questions you might have watching Gibson Hazard‘s latest …
Read More »Hear Run the Jewels' Ominous 'Let's Go (The Royal We)'
Run the Jewels released a rugged new single titled “Let’s Go (The Royal We)” on Thursday. The song appears in the new Marvel film Venom. The beat is the star here — the instrumental is nasty, patient and buzzing. Run the Jewels’ El-P and Killer Mike take turns rapping tightly …
Read More »See Eminem Dance With Copycats in 'Lucky You' Video
Eminem and Joyner Lucas attract an army of imitators in the new video for “Lucky You.” No, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. The two rappers stroll through an empty post-industrial wasteland delivering their lines in double-time. As they walk, they’re stalked by an ever-growing number of figures wearing …
Read More »10 Essential Mac Miller Songs
In his final interview, published on Vulture just a day before his death, Mac Miller gave unwitting advice on how best to honor him: “The people that have the best chance of knowing me, that would like to” the late 26-year-old rapper said, “would just be by listening to my …
Read More »Ariana Grande's 'Sweetener' Proves That Trap Is the New Pop
Like nearly every modern pop star, Ariana Grande has flitted from genre to genre over the course of her career, easily collapsing the distance between the steroidal EDM of “Break Free” and the relaxed reggae of “Side to Side,” the clipped Eighties pop of “Love Me Harder” and the storming …
Read More »Lil Yachty Can't Keep Up With Valee on 'Wombo,' But He's Having Fun Trying
Late Monday night, Lil Yachty and Valee dropped off their first collaboration to date, the curiously titled “Wombo,” on SoundCloud. It’s an incongruous pairing. Yachty’s best known for his sheer force of personality and red braids – his technical approach to rapping can generally be described as lackadaisical. Valee, a …
Read More »On 'Kids See Ghosts,' Kid Cudi Has an Opportunity
Kid Cudi has two platinum albums and dozens of stylistic children. He has credits on (and plaques from) some of the most beloved rap records of the millennium; he starred in an HBO show that people were excited about, stopped watching, then gravitated to as a post-cancellation cult classic. He’s …
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