Slain rapper Biggie Smalls was larger-than-life, but this biopic finds a satisfying groove by staying pleasantly unflashy.
By Stephanie Zacharek Jan 16, 2009
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The most jaw-droppingly bad lyrics of 2008.
By Sarah Hepola
December 23, 2008
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Axl Rose and Kanye West dropped their larger-than-life albums this week. And one of them lives up to the hype.
By Simon Reynolds
November 29, 2008
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De Palma's '80s cult classic is trash, many scoff. But the lowdown, seedy movie with Al Pacino as a Cuban thug influenced pop culture from gangsta rap to "Miami Vice."
By Louis Bayard
November 13, 2008
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Forget the Bronx and South Central. If you want to find the best hip-hop dancers in the world look farther east, to South Korea.
By Jeff Chang
June 26, 2008
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He insists he's "the best rapper alive" -- and many agree. But can his smash-hit new album really redeem a flagging genre?
By Jess Harvell
June 19, 2008
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Radiohead! Kanye! My Bloody Valentine! Dylan! Here's what to catch -- and what to skip -- on the festival circuit this summer.
By Judy Berman and Charly Wilder
June 5, 2008
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Want to watch tough female rappers shake their booties in a lesbian bar? VH1's "Miss Rap Supreme" proves no one is immune to reality TV's degradations.
By James Hannaham
May 14, 2008
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It's a sad day when a farm boy from Iowa can say that about a musical genre he once loved. When will the awful dance crazes end?
By Paul Kix
May 12, 2008
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Are Gnarls Barkley's wacky costumes and goofy antics just a smoke screen for the massively successful duo's angst?
By Miles Marshall Lewis
April 3, 2008
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The hip-hop icon's inspired new release, "American Gangster," is his best album in years -- and the best rap album of 2007.
By Bomani Jones
November 6, 2007
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The singer fights for her right to bare skin onstage by moving a planned tour date to Indonesia.
By Page Rockwell
October 2, 2007
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Author Jabari Asim talks about the history of the loaded term, when its use is valid and why Don Imus' firing was justified.
By Mark Anthony Neal
April 25, 2007
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Have some young lesbians taken a cue from mainstream rap on how to treat women?
By Tracy Clark-Flory
April 16, 2007
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With much of New Orleans still uninhabitable, drug dealers are deluging neighborhoods. Violent crime is surging -- and so is anxiety about the city's recovery.
By Bill Sasser
March 6, 2007
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Magnetic North: Staying conscious enough just to hit replay
By Andrew Leonard
October 20, 2006
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While some fans abandon the genre, a few organizations hope to help women change the culture from within.
By Adrienne So
October 20, 2006
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Women in hip-hop remain largely silent about domestic violence.
By Sarah Goldstein
June 16, 2006
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Def Jam went from a dorm room to a music empire. Its famous founders are gone -- is the label still good?
By Mark Hatch-Miller
October 20, 2005
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David LaChapelle explains why he turned his high-fashion lens to a new, anti-bling street art, and why he thinks it's the next big thing.
By Heather Havrilesky
January 27, 2005
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The year's biggest pop stars dropped the skanky booty-shaking, and -- like much of the country -- chose a conservative path.
By Thomas Bartlett
December 14, 2004
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The latest indie-publishing news: Don DeLillo, imprisoned in Texas! Ben Watts' soopa-bad hip-hop photography, Laura Flanders on how Bush bamboozled women, and Ralph Nader just called to say he loves you.
By Scott Thill
November 30, 2004
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Does hip-hop journalism live up to the music's most vibrant promise -- or just rehash its crass, Benjamin-istic cliches? A new anthology makes the case for hip-hop writing.
By Peter L'Official
October 13, 2004
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Rush Limbaugh and other angry conservatives mock John Kerry and the Dems for hanging with hip-hop stars. But they're dissing a key (and mostly white) bloc of youth voters.
By Eric Boehlert
April 23, 2004
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Is hip-hop saving poetry -- or trashing it? Beneath the feel-good rhetoric of "Def Poetry Jam" and the "spoken-word revolution" is a battle over the future of literature's oldest form.
By Scott Thill
March 18, 2004
"Notorious"
Swagger tighter than a ... yeast infection?
The egos have landed
Why "Scarface" is f-ing great
So you think they can break-dance?
Can Lil Wayne save hip-hop? 
Salon's guide to summer music festivals 
Miss Bitch USA
Hip-hop is no longer cooler than me
Hip-hop's biggest clowns
Crazy for Jay-Z
Who gets to use the N word?
"The first time I was back since the storm ... drugs were everywhere"
Chinked out
Pass the mike
Can you krump?
Goodbye, pimps and hos!
Writing in the Margins
"And It Don't Stop" edited by Raquel Cepeda
GOP "playa hatas"
Eminem vs. Robert Frost
War Room
GigaOM Network
Glenn Greenwald