Riley’s Best

“When I was 16, there was no such thing as a 44-year-old rapper. Now that I’m 44, this is new ground that some of my contemporaries and I are breaking. “ –Slug It’s hard to talk about the...

There is truly something special about Adrian Younge’s music. The methodical, upper echelon, level of quality and attention to detail in his unique blend of the late 60s to early 70s sound is a standard that not many...

Quality. Consistency. Hip-hop. The name Skyzoo may be one you’ve heard spoken in many circles over the years — and rightfully so. While only momentarily popping his head into the mainstream, this lyricist’s lyricist and notorious ghostwriter has...

“Clean up ya dirty money to good money; legal money last longer than drug money!” — Master P The undisputed entrepreneur and southern legend Master P — who ironically started his career on the west coast — was...

“We’re trying to put Ohio back on the map musically…hip-hop wise.” –Vice Souletric It 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. The 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,...