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Madlib Meets 1 Of His Biggest Influences & You’ve Never Heard Of Him

"Madlib The Bad Kid," as he introduces himself in the video below, is one of only a handful of producers from this generation who can be credited with shaping modern Hip-Hop music. Noisey recently released a special titled Madlib’s Medicine Show in which the Oxnard, California beat chief meets a... Read more

Smif-n-Wessun Show Bucktown Is Standing Strong In 2018 (Video)

Tek and General Steele make quintessential New York City Hip-Hop. The Smif-n-Wessun pair has been doing it for 25 years, since they made powerful impact on Black Moon's debut. Together, Tek and Steele are the genuine article, and they helped define an era that many MCs and groups wish to... Read more

Who Are The Top 5 MCs Of All-Time? Allen Iverson Has The Answer.

Allen Iverson wrote a lengthy article in the latest edition of The Player’s Tribune (December 6) titled, "Allen." In the piece, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee covers everything from his connection to Meek Mill, to an anecdote about giving a Bentley to former teammate Larry Hughes, to... Read more

Alchemist Drops An EP Featuring Black Thought & The Griselda Team. Listen Here.

While Alchemist tends to be prolific year in and year out, 2018 has been especially fruitful for one of Hip-Hop's most respected sound creators. He dropped the instrumentals for his highly sought-after Paris x LA x Bruxelles project on vinyl at the top of the year, followed by the short... Read more

Do Remember When Ice Cube Wanted This Crew To Take West Coast Rap To Anotha Level

In early 1994 the world was introduced to Anotha Level, a five-person Rap group from Los Angeles had something alluring. Veteran N.W.A. affiliate/producer Laylaw and Gangsta Rap icon Ice Cube discovered this quintet, and they recognized that the young squad strafed the line between that classic West Coast sound and... Read more

Arsonal Says He Has The Best Funk Flex Freestyle…And That Includes Black Thought

Newark, New Jersey Battle Rap star, Arsonal Da Rebel, is the latest MC to flame the mic on Funkmaster Flex’s freestyle segment. However, while most MCs come to prove their worth on the mic, this lyricist—seen in the 2014 BET Hip Hop Awards cyphers, is out for symbolic blood. He... Read more

Benny The Butcher Sharpens His Flow On A Steely Alchemist Production

Benny The Butcher has strong momentum right now. He already had two fan-favorite releases (Stabbed & Shot with 38 Spesh, and A Friend of Ours) this year before dropping his proper debut Tana Talk 3 last Friday (November 24). The Griselda Records family has been heating up the underground for... Read more

Tierra Whack Claims She’s Andre-Meets-The Beatles In An Incredible Freestyle

The term “eccentric” may often be overused, but Tierra Whack fits that description well, with no hyperbole. Earlier this year the young Philadelphia, Pennsylvania MC made waves with her innovative and truly original effort Whack World, which has racked up seven figures in streams with its 15 one-minute songs in... Read more

Questlove Curates Massive Soundtrack For Michelle Obama’s Book Tour. Listen Along.

Michelle Obama released her memoirs titled Becoming last week and now she's embarked on a 10-city tour to support the book. In a style befitting of a former First Lady of the United States, her string of speaking engagements has its own soundtrack titled The Michelle Obama Musiaqualogy. Not only that, but... Read more

This Mix Of 13 De La Soul Videos Is The Plug For 1 Of Hip-Hop’s Greatest Groups

2018 marks the 30th-anniversary of De La Soul dropping their debut single “Plug Tunin,” as well as the 25 year anniversary of their third album Buhloone Mindstate. Before the year ends, the celebration of one of Hip-Hop's most groundbreaking groups is not quite over. Tommy Boy Records (De La's record... Read more

Big K.R.I.T. Says He Is Still A King In His 1st Music Of 2018 (Audio)

In 2018, Big K.R.I.T. has been playing it more low key than usual. He had a musical supervisor's role on Bun B's Return Of The Trill album, while also providing some heavy vocals in spots. Earlier in the year, the MC/producer also teamed with DJ Premier and Royce 5'9, care... Read more

Last Week Jae Millz Took An L, But This Freestyle Shows He Bounced Back (Video)

Jae Millz was once considered one of the sharpest MCs on the streets of New York. That's why, approximately 15 years ago, Puff Daddy took his Making The Band hopeful E Ness to see Millz for a battle. In the years since Jae was signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money at... Read more

Jay Rock Shows The Serious Consequences Of Impulsive Decision Making (Video)

Top Dawg Entertainment’s stable of star rappers has been ruling airwaves and charts for the last couple of years. But 2018 saw one of the label’s earliest signings, Jay Rock, step much closer to getting the recognition that he deserves. Although he already had two rock-solid albums under his belt,... Read more

Alchemist & Daringer Are Producing Benny’s Full Album. Here’s The First Video (Premiere)

While Griselda Records' Conway The Machine and Westside Gunn are on most Heads’ radars by now, some of Hip-Hop is still getting to know Benny The Butcher. He is making lasting introductions with every bar. He spit a standout verse as part of 2017's Shady Records and Griselda cypher for... Read more

MC Serch Says He Was Once Asked To Write Lyrics For Rakim (Video)

3rd Bass released two gold albums between 1989 and 1991. Twenty-nine years ago this month, Def Jam Records released The Cactus Album, a full-length debut from the New York City collective of MC Serch, Prime Minister Pete Nice, and DJ Richie Rich (aka DJ Daddy Rich). The first single from that... Read more

The Perfect Day In Hip-Hop: When Wu-Tang & A Tribe Called Quest Dropped Classic Albums

November 9 may as well be a day of observance for Hip-Hop Heads. With A Tribe Called Quest’s third album Midnight Marauders and Wu-Tang Clan’s debut Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) both dropping on that day 25 years ago, it's a date that seems hard to imagine. While many release dates... Read more

Ras Kass Reworks “Soul On Ice” With Some New Lyrics That Burn (Video Premiere)

Ras Kass is recognized as one of the most talented lyricists to ever come out of southern California. Between the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. and Ab-Soul, Razzy kept Carson, California on the Rap map. And while commercial success has never been an adequate reflection of his talents (partially prompting a self-comparison to... Read more

KRS-One Recalls How Battling On Scott La Rock’s Behalf Led To The Formation Of BDP

Boogie Down Productions is a Hip-Hop outfit that is revered for its combative nature. The collective launched by KRS-One and DJ Scott La Rock would challenge Rap peers including MC Shan, Marley Marl, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Roxanne Shanté, and others throughout its late 1980s run. However, according to Blastmaster KRS-One,... Read more

Rapper Big Pooh Makes Up For Lost Time With His New LP. Listen In. (Audio)

While Rapper Big Pooh has consistently dropped at least one album, EP, or mixtape every year since 2008, he seemingly sat last year out. The MC known for his role in the Little Brother trio dropped full albums with Nottz (Home Sweet Home) and Apollo Brown (Words Paint Pictures) in... Read more

Curren$y, Freddie Gibbs & Alchemist Are Money. Stream The Fetti Project (Audio)

In the Spring of 2015, Grand Theft Auto V was released for Microsoft Windows. It was a couple of years after the video game had initially hit consoles. So, to hype the release, Rockstar introduced new in-game features and commissioned Alchemist and Oh No (who had already formed Gangrene at... Read more

Apollo Brown & Joell Ortiz Discuss Their Album, Slaughterhouse & More (Video)

Apollo Brown and Joell Ortiz released their Mona Lisa album on Friday, October 26 (embedded below). These two stalwarts of the culture have put together 11 tracks of soulful, insightful, and competitive-spirited Hip-Hop. Having had a chance to digest this nuanced body of work, Ambrosia For Heads' Editor-in-Chief Jake Paine... Read more

Busta Rhymes Leads A Cypher Between His 2 Crews. He’s Still The Top Dragon (Video)

Since his Leaders Of The New School days in the early 1990s, Busta Rhymes has always had a posse surrounding him on stage and in the studio. For most of the last 25 years, it was the Flipmode Squad, which included DJ Scratch, Rampage The, Rah Digga, Baby Sham, Spliff... Read more

J. Cole Saves His Best Verse Of The Year For A Collabo With Rapsody (Audio)

J. Cole is on an incredible run in 2018. April's KOD album is a top-tier contender for this year's best albums. In an era marred by overdose and self-medication, the LP offers powerful commentary to millions of listeners that could benefit. Furthermore, infidelity, vanity, greed, and a generational chasm in... Read more

Jeru The Damaja & Afu-Ra’s Lyrics Still Kick Like Kung-Fu 20 Years Later (Audio)

The Wu-Tang Clan weren’t the only Hip-Hop crew flexing a Kung-Fu style in the early 1990s. On Jeru The Damaja’s celebrated 1994 debut, The Sun Rises In The East, he introduced the Perverted Monks squad. The head of that group, Afu Ra, impressed with an ill appearance on the joint... Read more

Jay Rock & Kendrick Lamar Go Back To Basics In Their “Wow Freestyle” Video

Jay Rock may have dropped his highly praised Redemption album at the top of the summer, but he is still working on the TDE project. The “Wow Freestyle” is the eighth video he has dropped off his third full-length project, which is 13 tracks long. Artists have been saying that... Read more

Edan & Homeboy Sandman Take Hip-Hop Underwater. Literally. (Video)

Queens, New York's Homeboy Sandman has become a Stones Throw Records mainstay, and even though he has been dropping fly solo albums every one to two years faithfully since his debut the Nourishment (Second Helping) in 2007, he may be even better when paired up with other dope lyricists. His three... Read more

Q-Unique Has Seen So Much Happen In Hip-Hop. He Explains In A Rap (Video)

The Arsonists are a five-member Hip-Hop group that made strong waves during the 1990s. The squad included Q-Unique, D-Stroy, Freestyle, Swel Boogie, and Jise One. They began as a Brooklyn-based Hip-Hop crew known as Bushwick Bomb Squad, but they took on their fire-starter moniker when their first 12” was released... Read more

Lupe Fiasco Paints A Colorful Mural With Words In An A Capella Verse (Video)

Lupe Fiasco is the kind of lyricist that many Hip-Hop Heads hold in high regard. Perhaps the Chicago, Illinois MC earned that trust and respect, given the creativity he injected into Rap music during the mid-2000s. Although Lu' achieved commercial pinnacles while experimenting with Pop, Rock, and other fusions in... Read more

Travis Scott’s Sick New Visual Shows How Great Music Videos Can Still Be (Video)

When Travis Scott finally gave fans his long-promised third album ASTROWORLD this summer, it became a mainstream success, almost immediately. With 2018 first week sales only second to Drake’s Scorpion, the Houston-native rapper/singer’s latest offering has been buoyed by the singles “Butterfly Effect” and “Sicko Mode.” Now, although it’s been... Read more

Action Bronson Shows He Can Body A Beat With Soul (Audio)

Wasting no time, Hip-Hop heavyweight and TV personality Action Bronson has dropped the second single from his upcoming album White Bronco (November 1). It’s only been a couple of weeks since Bam Bam gave fans the psychedelic visuals for the album’s title track, so the Queens native is clearly trying... Read more

Posdnuos Delivers A Vintage Guest Verse On A Song That’s From The Soul (Video)

The eclectic Hip-Hop vets known as De La Soul have done some unexpected, yet outstanding collaborations in the last two decades. From their various cuts with the Gorillaz, to lesser-known ditties with Yo La Tengo, Propellerheads, and Oliver, to their own tracks with amazing vocalists like Chaka Khan, Little Dragon,... Read more

Ultramagnetic MCs’ Ced-Gee Reveals He Produced Most Of BDP’s Criminal Minded (Video)

There is a bevy of pivotal and highly influential Hip-Hop albums celebrating landmark anniversaries this year. Ambrosia For Heads has recently published articles about the 20 year anniversaries of both Black Star’s self-titled debut and OutKast’s Aquemini. The 25th anniversary of Wu-Tang Clan’s initial offering, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)... Read more

Joell Ortiz Reflects On Slaughterhouse & More On His Collabo With Apollo Brown (Audio)

It seems like Detroit, Michigan’s Apollo Brown has taken it upon himself to pair some of the most lyrical MCs in the game with the tailor-made production they deserve. Since 2012 he has dropped heralded projects with Guilty Simpson, O.C., Ras Kass, Skyzoo, Planet Asia, and earlier this year, Locksmith.... Read more

DJ Premier Re-Creates The “Ten Crack Commandments” Beat Using Turntables (Video)

The 14th Annual A3C Festival has been taking place since Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia. As usual, this premiere Hip-Hop gathering had an amazing line-up of the genre’s best and brightest performing. Names like Wu-Tang Clan, The Diplomats, Talib Kweli, Lil Wayne, Mannie Fresh, and PRhyme have been headlining the event... Read more

Redman Tears It Up With Another Headbanger (Video)

Redman is on a hot streak right now. The Newark, New Jersey-born MC may not have major label backing anymore, but he does not need it. Funk Doc is proceeding with the release of Muddy Waters Too as a flagship artist should. He has been dropping new tracks for the... Read more

Roc Marciano Unleashes The 1st Video From His DJ Muggs-Produced Album

Although from different decades, both DJ Muggs and Roc Marciano are already legends in the game. Regardless, neither is one to rest on their laurels. The Los Angeles, California-based producer and Long Island, New Yorker are doing some of the best work of their careers in 2018. In fact, both... Read more

Despite Their Name, Brothas Unda Madness Were No Hip-Hop B.U.M.S. (Video)

Although G-Funk was ruling the West Coast in the mid-1990s, there was still a small but strong contingent of Heads that were practice more traditional Rap. These artists tended to show love to all four elements of Hip-Hop culture, rather than just MCing. Collectives like Hieroglyphics and The Likwit Crew,... Read more

20 Years Ago Black Star Released A Gold Standard For Hip-Hop (Audio)

Twenty years ago today (September 29, 1998), Mos Def and Talib Kweli joined forces and waved the Black Star flag courtesy of an incredible album. Time-tested, that same flag is forever planted in ears, hearts, and consciousness of so many Hip-Hop Heads. After two decades, Mos Def & Talib Kweli... Read more

OutKast’s Aquemini Turns 20. This 1998 Interview Shows They Saw The Future (Video)

OutKast has one of the most consistent catalogs in all of music. Their first four albums, in particular, are revered as some of the best Rap music released between 1994 and Y2K. However, during that legendary run, André 3000 and Big Boi turned on the turbo jets 20 years ago... Read more

Wu-Tang Clan Empties All 36 Chambers For Logic. This Collabo Is Nuthin’ To F Wit (Audio)

Life is too short to listen to bad music. So…let AFH fight through it for you and only supply you with that great stuff. Despite the reports, Hip-Hop is alive and well and, in many ways, is better than it’s ever been. Not only are we able to go back... Read more

Action Bronson’s White Bronco Is A Different Kind Of Road Trip (Video)

Last Friday (September 21), Action Bronson dropped the lead single to his quickly approaching album White Bronco. The cut bares the same name as the LP, and this ultra jazzy joint was put together by Daringer and Special Victims Unit, Bronson’s house band from his late night show. It’s exactly... Read more

Redman’s New Song Is His Best Yet From Muddy Waters Too. He Tears It Up (Audio)

Since his Whut? Thee Album debut (released 26 years ago this week), Redman has dropped two handfuls of LPs, often every two or three years. Even before offering up 2015's Mudface, Reggie Noble kept fans on the edge of their seat with one of his most anticipated releases ever, Muddy Waters... Read more

Action Bronson Is In Control Of His Music Again & He’s Back To Being Grimy (Audio)

Life is too short to listen to bad music. So…let AFH fight through it for you and only supply you with that great stuff. Despite the reports, Hip-Hop is alive and well and, in many ways, is better than it’s ever been. Not only are we able to go back... Read more

LeBron James Nabs Ryan Coogler To Produce Space Jam Sequel

LeBron James and his production company SpringHill Entertainment are on a roll in Hollywood right now. After recently announcing TV projects with Showtime, NBC and The CW, news broke today that James and company have tapped buzzing director Ryan Coogler to produce their upcoming Space Jam sequel. Coogler is still... Read more

WateRR’s Rhymes Are Most Refreshing When Served Over Ice Cold DirtyDiggs Beats (Video)

Chicago has been getting plenty of attention in the last couple years due to a new generation of artists like the Save Money crew (Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, Joey Purp, etc.), Mick Jenkins, NoName, Saba, and more. However, the Windy City also has a rich vein of new wave... Read more

Rakim Reveals What He Hates About How He Recorded His Verses (Audio)

For their third episode of Season 2 of What’s Good With Stretch & Bobbito, the hosts welcome Rakim. The highly-venerated rapper is widely considered one of the greatest lyricists of all time. His four albums with his partner Eric B. are considered part of the gold standard of Hip-Hop, while... Read more

Rasheed Chappell’s Latest Kenny Dope-Produced LP Finds Him At Work With The Masters (Audio)

While New Jersey's Rasheed Chappell hasn’t dropped a proper album since his Kenny Dope-produced debut Future Before Nostalgia in 2011, he seems to pop up on dope albums regularly. Check his molten lava stanzas on recent projects by Recognize Ali (The Shining) and Napoleon Da Legend (Steal This Mixtape 4).... Read more

K-Solo Discusses The Day He Says Redman Shot At Him Multiple Times (Video)

K-Solo was one of the first Hit-Squad MCs that Parrish Smith put down with EPMD. The Long Island, New York rapper has been quite forthcoming in recent years about the early days of Erick and Parrish's pioneering Hip-Hop crew. While he has not enjoyed nearly as fruitful a career as... Read more

Kool G. Rap, Nine & Smoothe Da Hustler Breathe Fire & Melt A Snowgoons Track (Audio)

Veteran Bronx, New York rapper Nine has long possessed one of Hip-Hop's illest voices. When his debut album Nine Livez dropped on Profile Records in 1995, it seemed like he was at the beginning of a successful career, bringing "redrum" to the game. Instead, he quickly slipped into obscurity after... Read more

Snoop, Chris Rivers & More Join A Compilation Celebrating Canadian Hip-Hop (Audio)

Canadian music site Different Kitchen has been shining a spotlight on up and coming talent for 15 years as of 2018. So, to celebrate this milestone, they put together Quinceañera: MARVELOUS 15H, a compilation featuring exclusive tracks from some of the site's favorite acts. Now, if this sounds familiar, that’s... Read more