Marc His Words: Brian “Sene” Marc on ‘Hoodrat: Stuff With My Friends’
Hoodrat offers the warmer and gentler side to rapper Brian Marc's overall art, where the rhythms are bouncier and the grooves edge closer to electropop.
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Auto-Mattic Transmission: Rapper Mattic Dispatches from the Left Field
The US-born rapper's at once expert and offhanded rhymes exude the kind of charm that has made Mattic a notable artist in his adopted home of France.
Locked and Loaded: Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud Discuss Their Classic 1988 Hip-Hop Debut
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud’s Girls I Got ‘Em Locked exuded the right amount of urban flair, boyishly sly humour, and club appeal in 1988.
Porter’s Head: Rapper Porter Ray on His Latest Hip-Hop Opus, ‘Eye of the Beholder’
Bridging disparate influences like Portishead and Das EFX in his multifarious hip-hop, Porter Ray waxes poetically about the troubles in own his life and in the world around him in this interview.
All Play and ‘No Paperwork’: An Interview with L.A.Z of Clear Soul Forces
"Natural born liberal consumer of music", Jarrel Lowman (aka L.A.Z), talks about his EP, No Paperwork, a mixture of hip-hop, smoking jazz, and calloused-fingered blues.
Sci-Fi Goes Hi-Fi: 10 Artists’ Foray into Hip-Hop Futurism
A host of artists have carved out a niche in the interplanetary margins that now rest in hip-hop culture. Some call it an expansion on Afrofuturist philosophies; others simply a long-time propensity for the science-fiction genre.
The Beauty in the Diaspora: An Interview with Australia’s N’fa Jones
From murky '70s soul and Afro-Brazilian jazz to the rhythms of Africa, Australian rapper N'fa Jones explores all reaches of sound to expand his eclectic hip-hop.
Flows Like Prose: An Interview with Rapper Libretto
Libretto talks about his ghetto blasting fusion of grinding funk, heavily strolling beats, and club-noir rhymes delivered with cool clarity in this interview with PopMatters
Saba Sends a Cry for Help for His Beloved Chicago on ‘CARE FOR ME’
Although delivered as a plea, Saba's message on Care For Me is necessarily uplifting and therapeutic.
Meet the New Übermensch: Lil Pump and the Will to Power
Unsurprisingly, Lil Pump's divergence from accepted social norms generates anger, but for similar reasons, he inspires his followers to mad devotion, as did Zarathustra. Nietzsche would have been delighted.
Bishop Nehru’s Debut Album ‘Elevators: Act I & II’ Is Well-Built But Hollow
Bishop Nehru is a technically gifted rapper, and his talents shine brightest when the BPM gets highest.