“The smooth criminal on beat breaks / Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes,” rapped Nas on his 1994 classic “N.Y. State of Mind.” Like other underground genres that hit their stride in the ...

It’s no secret that there are a lot of hip-hop documentaries. As the first genre to really break in an era where it could be widely documented in real time by camcorders, tape recorders, and ...

Song sharing is one of the most—if not the most—vital parts of music fandom. A hundred years ago, the medium was the phonograph record. Today, whether on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube, the playlist ...

Mixtapes used to be an integral fixture in hip-hop culture. People used to buy them out of the trunks of cars or out on the corners of busy streets. Eventually, this culture shifted online, especially ...

New books collecting objects central to rap’s physical history demonstrate the importance of celebrating these relics before they vanish. Credit... Supported by By Jon Caramanica For the last year, ...