“We’re trying to put Ohio back on the map musically…hip-hop wise.” –Vice Souletric [dropcap]I[/dropcap]t was an evening early last month when I received a cold-call — if you will — from an Ohio-based rapper named Vice Souletric. A...
Unbiased, unfiltered; an educated unity that can lead everyone to a greater good. Hip-hop can do that! Hip-hop HAS done that. [dropcap]T[/dropcap]he old saying goes if you stand for nothing, you fall for everything. Hip-hop was once a...
“It’s been tough to be a Gucci friend, a Gucci sibling, a Gucci girlfriend or a Gucci partner. I done took people through a lot, man.” —Gucci Mane; New York Times Ol’ Dirty Bastard wasn’t — by any...
I’m a writer — obviously — and I’m usually on it. But I must admit, for a good part of the early 2000s, I was an artist myself, slugging it out in the studio, flipping through beat tapes,...
Dr. Dre once famously said that this [music] business is entertainment; to believe it to be anything else then that would be “stupid [sic].” ScHoolboy Q, when examined under this lens — for me — has made him...
Twenty years later, Summer 2016 stands as a pivotal period in hip-hop. Let’s set the scene — Bill Clinton was running for re-election, VHS was still a viable format, people were still waiting for N64 to drop, EBay...
“First N–ga taught that crippin’ to your kids, huh,” proclaims Snoop Dogg — and rightfully so. Unless the average middle class American [white] kid was jamming to groups to Compton’s Most Wanted, which wasn’t a sure bet in...
“Playing her (Angie Martinez) was like a dream.” –Lian Toni Amado The hip-hop community is buzzing about the release of the long-fabled Tupac biopic, All Eyes On Me. Like most of the world, we’ve been following the movie’s...