As the legendary DJ Premiere once said, “Hip-hop is about style and finesse and being creative and different. And to do that you have to be ballsy enough to not do what everybody else does.” Rap music ...

The best rap beats are nerdy as hell. Every drum placement, every melody, every chopped-up sample sends me down a YouTube rabbit hole trying to piece together the way a producer contorts and dissects ...

In the mid-1980s, Ron G. became the master of the blend tape. By putting together R&B and hip-hop instrumentals, he and a DJ named Hot Day (whose "Hot Day Master Mix" married New Edition to Public ...

Loud Sound Studios is home to two of Rwanda's up-and-coming hip-hop acts: Pro-Zed and Kenny K-Shot. Hip-hop is all about the beats and the flow. For two Rwandan artists, that flow sometimes comes in ...

Hip-hop beat-makers are usually unseen. Not all sample-based producers are as reclusive as the torch-bearing loop artist Madlib, but even the most prominent among them are part of the backdrop. After ...