Jordan Commandeur

Nolan The Ninja Cuts To The Front Of His Class With His Mello Music Debut (Audio)

Detroit, Michigan MC/producer Nolan The Ninja is at the forefront of Motown's Underground Hip-Hop scene. Along with his partner-in-crime A-Minus, and contemporaries like battle cat Ty Farris, the reinvented Bang Belushi, RSXGLD’s Ro Spit, and more, he is leading the charge of a hardcore brand of Rap coming out of... Read more

April 23, 2019 Audio

Your Old Droog Drops 2 Videos On The Move To Go With His Brand New Album

UPDATE: Your Old Droog released a double-video. "The Cheese" is an ode to school-bus transportation, while "Under The Train (Transporting)" examines the marketplace under the El. Your Old Droog has returned in style with the release of his latest full-length album. After a relatively prolific 2017 in which he... Read more

April 22, 2019 Audio, Video

DJ Premier Recalls Nas & Big L Signing Their Record Deals Together (Video)

DJ Premier has been a part of many albums that are considered classics by Heads. However, few can equal the importance of Nas’ 1994 debut Illmatic. Mass Appeal recently launched a new video series where producers behind this magnum opus detail its creation and importance, leading up to the LP’s... Read more

April 18, 2019 Throwback, Video

Pete Rock Has Music With Heavy D That He’s Thinking About Releasing

Pete Rock is a living legend in Hip-Hop. Throughout the last 30 years, Pete has fed a dedicated fan-base with material from his duo with C.L. Smooth, solo albums, remixes, DJ sets, plenty of collaborative albums, and production work. However, like J Dilla, Madlib, Ayatollah, and others, Pete Rock has... Read more

April 16, 2019 Video

Westside Gunn, Conway & Benny Are Releasing A Joint Album Through Shady Records

Ever since it was announced on March 3, 2017, that Griselda Records had a signed a deal with Eminem’s Shady Records, Heads have been eagerly anticipating music to stem from this partnership. A couple of months later, Westside Gunn and brother Conway The Machine dropped a video, “Machine Gun Black.”... Read more

April 12, 2019 Exclusive, News

2 Chainz, E-40 & Lil Wayne Show Lyricism Lives In All Regions (Video)

2 Chainz may have taken more than a year to deliver his latest full-length album, Rap Or Go To The League, but most fans and critics agreed it has been a highlight within the 2019 Rap landscape. There would have been plenty of buzz behind a new release from the... Read more

April 10, 2019 Video

Conway The Machine Is Back To Devour The Rap Competition On His New Album (Audio)

The Griselda Records team is well known for its prolific output since the mid-2010s. In particular, Conway The Machine has solidified a position as one of the hardest out with his Everybody Is F.O.O.D. series of albums. After his Reject drops from years previous ingratiated him with Heads, the Buffalo,... Read more

April 5, 2019 Audio

Rhymefest Reveals Black Thought’s Secret To Writing Those Monster Rhymes

Chicago, Illinois MC, songwriter, activist, and actor Rhymefest recently appeared on Ebro In The Morning. The Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe Award-winner spoke on several topics, including a recent appearance on Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Following a public 2018 dispute surrounding the condition of Donda's House, a community and arts... Read more

April 4, 2019 Video

M.O.P. & Benny Up The Ante On A Beat That’s As Hard As Nails (Audio)

Much of the Rap community has been celebrating the Griselda Records movement in recent years. While brothers Westside Gunn and Conway The Machine have made their Buffalo, New York team one of the more exciting collectives in Rap, Benny The Butcher's 2018 Tana Talk 3 LP only added to the... Read more

April 1, 2019 Audio

Yelawolf’s New Song Details How His Substance Abuse Started (Audio)

Yelawolf has been releasing freestyles and singles for the last couple months, in advance of his Trunk Muzik III album. This highly anticipated project has been in the works for more than a year and arrived at the stroke of midnight Friday. Out of the 14 tracks on TM3, “Drugs” is clearly... Read more

April 1, 2019 Audio

38 Spesh Displays Why OGs Like Kool G Rap, DJ Premier & D.I.T.C. Co-Sign Him (Video)

Rochester is not a city regularly associated with Hip-Hop. This Upstate New York burg is the home of DJ Green Lantern, who, along with Emilio Rojas, is one of the few artists from the area to make an impact on the game in the last two decades. But that is... Read more

March 27, 2019 Video

Logic’s New Video Shows The Deep Wounds Society Is Inflicting On Artists

Few artists with the profile of Logic are half as prolific. This week, Bobby Tarantino announced what appears to be his first commercial project in less than three years. After giving fans YSIV (which reached #2 on the charts) only last September, Bobby has another LP in the chamber already.... Read more

March 20, 2019 Video

Kxng Crooked Is Inspired By The X-Men & Attacks A Cube Beat Like A Wolverine (Audio)

While many Heads may have become fans of Kxng Crooked (fka Crooked I) during his time with Slaughterhouse, the Long Beach, California native had a significant fan-base as a solo artist all the way back to 1995. In fact, for a time he was the flagship artist of Death Row... Read more

March 17, 2019 Audio

Rome Streetz Is A Brooklyn MC Keeping The Borough’s Rugged Rap Tradition Alive (Video)

Brooklyn, New York has a rich Rap tradition. No matter the era or section of the borough, MCs favor gritty imagery, descriptive accounts of street life, and a song of survival. This quality is true in the music of Biggie and JAY-Z, Big Daddy Kane and Stetsasonic, Smif-n-Wessun and Smoothe... Read more

March 13, 2019 Video

The Luniz & Krayzie Bone Remake I Got 5 On It As A Horror Theme Song (Video)

When the trailer for Jordan Peele’s upcoming Horror film Us dropped at the tail end of 2018, it nodded to a mid-'90s Rap classic. Many Hip-Hop Heads had the same nostalgic reaction as the dad in the first-look footage when an eerily remixed take of the Luniz classic single “I Got... Read more

March 11, 2019 Video

Benny The Butcher And Smoke DZA Are Winning & It’s Not Because Of Luck

Smoke DZA is an MC who thrives on collaborative chemistry. The Harlem, New Yorker who came in the game as one-half of Smoke & Numbers has made some of his best work while vibing with peers. For example, he has done multiple cuts with A$AP Twelvyy, Action Bronson, and Curren$y,... Read more

March 11, 2019 Video

Reason Adopts J. Cole’s Middle Child And Makes It His Own (Audio)

If you are not familiar with the South Central-born and Carson, California raised rapper Reason, it is a great time to pay attention. Although the TDE artist only started rhyming less than half a decade ago, his 2017 debut album There You Have It caught the attention of TDE and... Read more

March 9, 2019 Audio

The Juice Crew Takes On Hieroglyphics In A War Of Lyricism (Audio)

Since the very beginning, Hip-Hop has been full of dope crews. While many of them are made up of solo artists, they still tend to come together for posse cuts or sometimes even entire albums. The Juice Crew is easily one of the most influential squads of all time. Members... Read more

March 3, 2019 Audio

DJ Premier & Evidence Add A Chapter To Masta Ace & Marco Polo’s Breukelen Story

There are very few Hip-Hop artists who started in the 1980s that are arguably making some of the best music of their careers in the late 2010s. Masta Ace is one of those MCs. Throughout the last 30 years, Ace has always remained relevant. The Brooklyn, New Yorker, who used... Read more

March 1, 2019 Audio

Mike Tyson Recalls The Time He Bribed A Cop With His Car (Video)

In late 2017, Ed Lover shared a captivating Mike Tyson story wherein the champ gave him a Bentley Azure after a wild night of New York City partying. The only catch was, the former Yo! MTV Raps host and C'mon Son Podcast creator says that he was unaware that the gesture... Read more

March 1, 2019 Throwback, Video

Billy Danze Is Releasing A Solo EP But Lil Fame Helps Him Mash Out This Song

Some Heads have stated in recent years that Hip-Hop seems to lack a certain rowdy spirit and energy. So who better than the group that epitomizes that hardcore East Coast strain of Rap to step up? After all, the M.O.P. has kept its Timberland boots planted on the face of... Read more

February 27, 2019 Audio

Black Star, DMX & Run The Jewels Are Among 2019 Soundset Headlining Performers

The Soundset Festival, the biggest annual Hip-Hop festival in the Midwest, has unveiled the all-star line-up for their 2019 event. Put on by Rhymesayers Entertainment and Rose Presents, this large draw happening takes place in Minneapolis on May 26, 2019. This year will see artists from almost every era of... Read more

February 27, 2019 Fresh

Elzhi Releases A Verse That Wins Like G Money On The Court (Audio)

On top of dropping a celebrated joint album with Khrysis last year under the group name Jericho Jackson, Elzhi also spent a lot of 2018 keeping MCs on their toes with vicious guest verses. He more than delivered on Masta Ace & Marco Polo’s A Breukelen Story, Conway The Machine’s... Read more

February 25, 2019 Audio

Vinnie Paz, Ill Bill, O.C. & Rasheed Chappell Make Hip-Hop Music To Blast On The Corner

Rasheed Chappell has been in the game for a lot longer than most Heads may realize. He is from the era of J-Love mixtapes that birthed Outdoorsmen members Action Bronson and Meyhem Lauren. However, when iconic producer Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez took him under wing, he evolved from simply a dope... Read more

February 24, 2019 Audio

Back In The Day, Ill Al Skratch Made An Anthem For Real Friends In Every Hood

Hip-Hop has had a connection to R&B since its inception. From shared session players and producers, to artists being on the same labels or under the same management, to straight up collaborations, the two genres have gone hand-in-hand for decades. However, there is a keen difference between putting an R&B... Read more

February 21, 2019 Do Remember

Ari Lennox Is The 1st Lady Of Dreamville. J. Cole Helps Bring Her Biggest Song To Video

J. Cole’s Dreamville Records has one of the most talented and expansive rosters in music. While the Hip-Hop creatives include J.I.D., Bas, Cozz, EarthGang, Lute, and Omen, Ari Lennox has been the versatile songstress on the 'Ville for almost five years. The Charlotte, North Carolina singer has had prominent features... Read more

February 20, 2019 Video

DJ Kool Herc Says He’s Still #1. Hip-Hop’s Godfather Speaks (Audio)

Despite being credited as the Godfather Of Hip-Hop, DJ Kool Herc never pursued a recording career. While he has spun records for more than 45 years, the 63-year-old Clive Campbell never produced music like other pioneering DJs such as Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grand Wizard Theodore. In 1994, Herc... Read more

February 16, 2019 Audio

Nas Delivers A Verse That Reminds Hip-Hop Is Global

It was Nas’ onetime nemesis JAY-Z that famously proclaimed, “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man,” but Nasir Jones has also lived up to that ideal in the last half-decade. The venture capitalist has invested in everything from Lyft to Dropbox, and he doesn’t show any signs of slowing... Read more

February 15, 2019 Audio, News, TV/Film

80s vs. 90s Hip-Hop: Which Is Better? A New Video Shows It’s All Love

Today is Valentine’s Day. For many Heads, love is in the air. So, what better way to celebrate than to premiere a brand new medley of iconic Hip-Hop love songs from top acapella group Naturally 7. For those unfamiliar with this New York City outfit, Ambrosia For Heads previously premiered... Read more

February 14, 2019 Exclusive, Video

Conway The Machine Is No New Jack But He Uses Nino Brown For Inspiration

Griselda Records' Conway The Machine, Westside Gunn, and Benny The Butcher brought 2018 to a boil. The three Buffalo, New Yorkers got the expanded props that longtime and cult fans had been offering for years. Even though Conway had already released The Blakk Tape and Everybody Is F.O.O.D., the MC... Read more

February 12, 2019 Video

Buckwild Gives Terror Squad Some D.I.T.C. Fire To Celebrate Big Pun (Audio)

Last week (February 7) marked 19 years since Big Pun tragically passed away. Although much of the music from the legendary lyricist has released since his death, friends and collaborators continue to find ways to light his legacy. Diggin' In The Crates producer Buckwild uploaded a new joint to celebrate... Read more

February 12, 2019 Audio

Smif-n-Wessun & Rapsody Bring The Heat On A Song That Feels Like Summer (Premiere)

The gap between Smif-n-Wessun’s last album and their upcoming LP, The All has been their most extended hiatus since they dropped The Rude Awakening in 1998 (as Cocoa Brovaz) and did not follow-up with Smif-n-Wessun: Reloaded until 2005. And while Heads never like to wait for new material from one... Read more

February 11, 2019 Audio, Exclusive

Sean Price & Small Professor Collaborated Before P’s Passing. Stream Their Album

Since Sean Price’s sudden passing in August of 2015, a lot of the music he was working on at the time of his death has released. There are his solo offerings Songs In The Key of Price from 2015 and the proper album Imperius Rex from 2017, which Ambrosia For Heads... Read more

February 8, 2019 Audio

Termanology & Lil Fame Mash Out A Tough Statik Selektah Beat

When the trio of Termanology, Lil Fame, and Statik Selektah connect, it is an energetic affair. Term' has been down with Statik Selektah throughout his career, and the same goes for M.O.P.'s Lil Fame. Not surprisingly, the Lawrence, Massachusetts MC has side groups with both artists, 1982 and Fizzyology respectively.... Read more

January 31, 2019 Video

Slick Rick Tells The Stories Of His Jewelry Collection Piece By Piece (Video)

While Slick Rick is widely recognized as one of Rap's greatest storytellers, he is also well known for his flamboyant jewelry. For more than 30 years, along with the eye-patch and colorful suits, the MC almost exclusively appears in specially-designed jewelry. Precious metals and jewels are on his fingers, around... Read more

January 30, 2019 Lifestyle, Video

Joell Ortiz & Fred The Godson Are 2 NY Giants Of Wordplay. Listen To Their New Album

Joell Ortiz and Fred The Godson have a relationship that dates back to the earliest days of Slaughterhouse. The two skilled lyricists have been hopping on tracks together for quite some time. These New York representatives introduced their "King Kong" and "Godzilla" monikers in 2015 when Fred released The Heatmakerz-produced... Read more

January 27, 2019 Audio

Lords Of The Underground Showed New Jersey MCs Were Chief Rockas Too

Along with New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, New Jersey was one of the main city-centers of Northeast Hip-Hop in the early 1990s. The Garden State produced numerous commercially-successful and critically-acclaimed acts, most of which originated in the cities of Newark and its nearby East Orange. Since the '70s, Jersey had... Read more

January 24, 2019 Do Remember

Jamla Is The Squad & This Freestyle Shows Why Reuben Vincent Made The Team

Jamla Records is a brand that Hip-Hop Heads can trust. Since its earliest days, 9th Wonder's label has put its stamp on a host of talented artists that care about music. In 2018, Jamla Is The Squad II showed a plethora of talent on the imprint the includes Rapsody, Elzhi... Read more

January 22, 2019 Video

Elzhi, Ras Kass & Large Professor Rap About The Enduring Problems From Reaganomics

Some really good Hip-Hop music can be found on producer albums. From unknown beat-makers to those getting commercial placements, these compilations of tracks can often feature a wide variety of MCs that also range from underground to legend. In this case, relative newcomer B Leafs has brought together two different... Read more

January 21, 2019 Audio

Stream The New Good People LP. It Features Great Guests Including Large Pro & Lil Fame

The Good People are two Hip-Hop purists. Together, DJ/MC Emskee and producer/MC The Saint make music with throwback sensibilities that refuses to pander. The music feels good, is accessible and it sounds really good. That is especially true of Good For Nuthin', the just-released LP that features Large Professor, M.O.P.'s... Read more

January 20, 2019 Audio

Ready Or Not? Diceman’s Been In The Game For Years. His Bars Show His Staying Power

Black Sheep burst onto the scene in the early 1990s and quickly found success and acclaim. This momentum led the group’s label, Mercury Records, to entrust Dres with his own imprint called One Love. The talented MC was then tasked with signing talent. The first act he inked was a... Read more

January 16, 2019 Ready Or Not

Problem Is Back & He’s Speaking Wins Into Existence (Video)

Having focused on his Rosecrans EP with DJ Quik in 2016 and then the full Rosecrans album in 2017, Problem has been busy. The artist who came in the game with Snoop Dogg and Quik has had less time for solo endeavors in recent years. Well, to celebrate the five-year... Read more

January 15, 2019 Video

R.A. The Rugged Man Readies His 1st Album Since 2013. He Returns With Lethal Lyricism (Video)

R.A. The Rugged Man has been a standard bearer for the sometimes-repulsive yet often-witty raps since he burst on the scene in the mid-1990s, However, since Y2K, this veteran MC has grown to be so much more. His development as a lyricist was apparent on his 2013 album, Legends Never... Read more

January 14, 2019 Video

Yelawolf Is Releasing A New Album & It’s A Return To Trunk Muzik (Audio)

After a tumultuous period leading up to and after the release of his third album, Trial By Fire, in the Fall of 2017, Yelawolf is back with some long-promised new music. The Slumerican Records CEO teased the arrival of TM3 (Trunk Music 3) for most of last year, but judging... Read more

January 10, 2019 Audio

Ready Or Not? ANoyd Shows Eminem Isn’t The Only MC With Venomous Rhymes

Bloomfield, Connecticut native ANoyd may be a sort of new name to some Heads, but he has been consistently churning out quality material for at least five years now. Since kicking a standout verse on Apathy’s 2014 Connecticut Casual album on a song titled “Locals Only!,” he has dropped at least... Read more

January 8, 2019 Ready Or Not

Westside Gunn & Conway Explain What To Expect From Their Partnership With Eminem

Even though the MCs of Griselda Records (Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine, Benny The Butcher) have been grinding for years, it wasn’t until 2018 that they really started to get proper recognition for their music and movement. With all three of the main lyricists dropping critically-acclaimed albums last year, they... Read more

January 2, 2019 Video

A New Documentary Will Show Michael Jordan Raw & Uncut (Video)

Widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan’s life on and off the court is quite well documented. However, an upcoming 10-part "30 For 30" documentary series titled The Last Dance will put a spotlight specifically on Mike’s sixth and final championship with the Chicago Bulls in... Read more

January 2, 2019 TV, TV/Film, Video

Bun B & Gary Clark Jr. Perform A Heartfelt Tribute To Pimp C

To celebrate what would have been Pimp C’s 45th birthday on December 29, Bun B dropped an emotive live rendition of his recent tribute to his close friend and partner in UGK. It has been 11 years since highly influential MC/producer Chad Butler passed away in West Hollywood due to... Read more

January 1, 2019 Video

9th Wonder Closes Out An Incredible Year With More Than 40 Beats & Songs

Grammy Award-winning producer and Jamla Records founder, 9th Wonder returns with his third-annual solo project, Zion III. The esteemed professor has had a productive 2018, having produced (with his Soul Council ensemble) the entirety of Black Thought's Streams of Thought, Vol. 1, as well as quarterbacking the marvelous Jamla Is... Read more

December 22, 2018 Audio

Aesop Rock Has An Album Coming Next Month. His New Video Is Twisted.

Lyrical wunderkind Aesop Rock was a standout sensation during the Underground Hip-Hop boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. His poetic imagery and didactic bars were complex conundrums that many listeners enjoyed unraveling. The MC/producer worked with the likes of MF DOOM, El-P, and the Weathermen during a celebrated... Read more

December 18, 2018 Video