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Royce 5’9, Jadakiss, Fabolous & Pusha-T’s Sizzling Bars Send Summer Off In Style (Video)

In two weeks, summer 2018 will come to a close. As he promised since springtime, Royce 5'9's Book Of Ryan has had "Summer On Lock" in the ears of Hip-Hop fans. The independent LP featuring Eminem, J. Cole, Logic, and others was also a centerpiece in Ambrosia For Heads' best... Read more

Killer Mike’s Hardest Verse Of 2018 Is A Powder Keg Of Bars (Video)

Killer Mike had hit songs early in his career. But as an independent artist, saying what other MCs wouldn't on beats is what made sustained his nearly 20-year-career. That is the energy that lived on Grind Time Rap Gang releases, R.A.P., and three celebrated volumes of Run The Jewels. It... Read more

Queens, NY Has Named August 19 “Ralph McDaniels Day” (Videos)

Today (August 19) will forever be Ralph McDaniels Day in the borough of Queens, New York. The confirmation was made this evening, during Uncle Ralph's second 35th-anniversary celebration for Video Music Box. A free event took place at Jamaica, Queens' Roy Wilkins Park, and Ambrosia For Heads was on hand... Read more

Logic Shows The Horrors Taking Place At Our Borders In His Latest Video

As Logic has risen from Ratt Pack leader to Pop star, he has also become increasingly political. The Gaithersburg, Maryland MC/producer has accepted the responsibility of using his voice and position to effect change. While "Young Sinatra" dropped his Bobby Tarantino II mixtape in March, his latest single “One Day”... Read more

Keith Murray Takes The Beat He Lost To JAY-Z And Makes It His Own Def Jam (Audio)

Long Island, New York’s DJ Gumba has been bringing the best out of the Keith Murray lately. While the whole Def Squad seems reinvigorated in 2018, Murray has been consistently smashing classic beats nearly every month since January. It seems that Gumba picks crucial tracks he thinks Murray would kill,... Read more

A Video Shows Mobb Deep’s Lethal Sampling For “Murda Muzik,” On Its 19th Birthday

Mobb Deep's fourth album, Murda Muzik, remains their best-selling album to date. It began the duo's transition from New York street poets into a pair capable of making records that played on the radio, video shows, and the clubs at once. Havoc didn't forfeit his gift for sampling in the... Read more

KRS-One Is Working On New Music & He’s In The Studio With Dr. Dre

Last year, KRS-One self-released an exceptional album. Thirty years after Boogie Down Productions' Criminal Minded, Tha Teacha' dropped The World Is MIND, a 15-track LP on his R.A.M.P. Entertainment. In recent years the Bronx, New York representative worked with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on the DJ-Premier-produced "Buckshot," and reunited with... Read more

Bun B Returns For His 1st Album In 5 Years With Big K.R.I.T. & T.I. (Audio)

In 2017, Bun B was hard at work on Bernard, his fifth solo album and the first since 2013's Trill OG: The Epilogue. That album never materialized, but the 25-year-veteran and one of the undisputed underground kings is indeed back with a new LP, though with a different title. On August 31,... Read more

Ab-Soul Exhales A Dope Verse In A Hot Box Collaboration With B-Real (Video)

B-Real has kept himself current over the years with his Smokebox web series and by keeping his finger on the pulse. He continues to work with young and up-and-coming artists year and year out. And as of 2017, he is in three super-groups, which include Cypress Hill, Serial Killers, and... Read more

Canibus & Wyclef Detail Their Beef & How They Squashed It In A New Song (Audio)

When Canibus came on the scene in the late 1990s, he made a name for himself by out-shining MCs on their own tracks. Common, The Lost Boyz, and Heltah Skeltah can all testify to those early, devastating appearances. Then, when the already platinum Wyclef Jean got behind the hungry New... Read more

The Queen Of Soul Aretha Franklin Has Passed Away At The Age Of 76

The Queen Of Soul has died this morning (August 16) at her Detroit, Michigan home. Aretha Franklin's powerful voice, timeless songwriting, and ability to carry Rhythm & Blues music from its sound in the 1960s into the decades that followed made her a legend. The 76-year-old had been battling undisclosed... Read more

Saba Explains The Real LIFE Behind 1 Of 2018’s Realest Songs (Video)

Back in early April of this year, Midwest rapper and producer Saba unveiled, arguably, his most personally revealing project to date with, CARE FOR ME, an album which was included on Ambrosia For Heads' 14 Best Hip-Hop Releases of 2018, so far. The 10-track record annotates many of the grittiest... Read more

Ace Clark Shows Signs Of Greatness On A Jazzy Collabo With Talib Kweli & Joell Ortiz (Audio)

Gang Starr's Guru once professed on "Moment of Truth", “Cultivate, multiply, motivate or else we’ll die.” Twenty years later in a progressively demanding and often times burdensome social climate, these lyrics ring truer than ever. To remain positive, inspired, and purposeful in an atmosphere that can easily wear you down... Read more

Erykah Badu Reminds That Live Music Is Supposed To Sound BETTER Than The Record (Video)

Erykah Badu is the latest guest at the Tiny Desk. With some gold-accented fronts in, the veteran singer brought her grace, style, and showmanship right along with her singing gifts to the Washington, D.C. bureau. The Dallas, Texas native also brought her incredible band. The ensemble includes a flutist (Dwayne... Read more

TDE Has Another Reason Why It’s The Most Dominant Hip-Hop Label Of The 2010s (Video)

Last week, Top Dawg Entertainment added another MC to its star-studded label. Reason comes from the same city of Carson, California that Ab-Soul reps. He quietly slid onto TDE's first #1 release of 2018, the Black Panther soundtrack ahead of his public welcome. However, if "Seasons" remained off your radar,... Read more

Erick Sermon & Parrish Smith Are Still In Business. They Have An EPMD Sneaker (Video)

More than 30 years ago, Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith formed EPMD. From dropping some of the most influential tracks in Hip-Hop history to surviving periods of breakup, the E and P are still together, still in business, and currently celebrating their 30-year anniversary in style. The Brentwood, Long Island... Read more

Ski Beatz Admits To Throwing Away An Entire Pre-Reasonable Doubt JAY-Z Album & Big L Music

Hip-Hop lore often provides Heads with stories of triumph, classic moments, and past situations that, at the time, those involved didn't know how legendary they'd be. Sometimes though, disheartening news will emerge when the greats do recall their musical past. RZA's studio was flooded multiple times, which caused the creation... Read more

Robert Glasper Claims Lauryn Hill Stole Credit From Other Writers On Her Miseducation Album (Video)

Every Hip-Hop artist uses some sort of musical inspiration in their music. However, Robert Glasper believes Lauryn Hill stepped over the line into biting. What's worse, is it pertains to her classic debut LP. Appearing on 97.9 The BOX's Madd Hatta Morning Show in Houston, the veteran pianist and Grammy-award-winning... Read more

A Ghostface Killah Lost Tapes Album Filled With All-Stars Is Coming. Here Is The 1st Song & Tracklist

In 2002, Nas famously released The Lost Tapes. The album reportedly pulled from records not used during the sessions for I Am..., Nastradamus, and Stillmatic. Boasting production from Alchemist, Kanye West, and Illmatic alum L.E.S., the Ill Will/Columbia Records release with the catchy artwork snuck into the Top 10, despite... Read more

Uncle Ralph McDaniels Details 35 Years Of Making The Original Rap Video Show (Video)

"Uncle" Ralph McDaniels is a pioneer in bringing video to Hip-Hop culture. The New York City native co-created and co-hosted Video Music Box, a show that would help bring some of the top names in Hip-Hop, and their music, to TV screens across the world. Subsequently, McDaniels would use his... Read more

Nas Names 5 Of His Favorite Rap Songs In Celebration Of Hip-Hop’s 45th Birthday (Video)

This past Saturday, Hip-Hop celebrated a significant milestone. August 11, 1973, marks the day that DJ Kool Herc (aka Clive Campbell) rocked a benchmark party in the rec room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. As a result, many Hip-Hop Heads, scholars, and even tech giants honor that day as the culture's... Read more

Smif-N-Wessun Join Termanology On A Song That’s Rugged & Raw (Video)

It has been a busy season for Smif-n-Wessun. Last week, Tek joined Pharoahe Monch on Wu-Tang Clan and Sean Price's remix to "Pearl Harbor." Meanwhile, General Steele joined Buckshot for a Sean P tribute video, "Apartheid." Both solo appearances came after 9th Wonder confirmed producing Smif-n-Wessun's next album with his... Read more

Nicki Minaj Updates Biggie’s “Dreams” With Her Fantasies About Today’s Artists (Audio)

The Notorious B.I.G. made an audacious move with 1993's "Just Playing (Dreams)," a promotional single in which he lasciviously name-dropped female artists. Contemporaries like SWV and TLC got attention, as did treasured icons Patti LaBelle and Chaka Khan. It was raunchy, pompous and potentially risky for an MC whose debut... Read more

Lakeith Stanfield Returns To His Hip-Hop Roots Alongside Tune-Yards (Video)

Before Lakeith Stanfield was an actor best known for his roles as "Darius Epps" in Donald Glover's FX comedy Atlanta, "Cassius 'Cash' Green in the sci-fi comedy Sorry to Bother You, Civil Rights activist "Jimmie Lee Jackson" in Selma, and a young "Snoop Dogg" in Straight Outta Compton, Stanfield rapped as... Read more

Killer Mike Is Running Fine Art Now Too

In the world of visual and fine art, some if not all topics of discussion revolve around the grey area between traditional and nontraditional forms of art. Museum culture is often depicted as intensely exclusive with a missing link to the world of music, specifically in Hip-Hop. In recent years,... Read more

DOOM & DJ Muggs Assassinate Kanye West In Their Latest Video

Artistically, DJ Muggs pulls no punches. The Cypress Hill co-founder is known for a raw and uncompromising style. His brand is Soul Assassins, and from GZA to Sick Jacken, Ill Bill to Planet Asia, he historically aligns with MCs that are not afraid to speak their mind on the microphone.... Read more

Pharoahe Monch Bodies An Official Wu-Tang Clan Remix With Sean Price & Tek (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

30 Years Ago, The Source Set A New Standard For Hip-Hop Journalism

This week, Hip-Hop culture is celebrating its 45th anniversary. The first documented South Bronx rec room party with DJ Kool Herc behind the wheels of steel was on August 11, 1973. Like the origins of the culture, that event's significance would live by word of mouth if Hip-Hop had no... Read more

Method Man Is Back In The Lab & His New Song Goes At Full Speed (Audio)

Method Man has been working on music lately and announced that he's dropping his next project Meth Lab II: The Lithium soon. During an interview with Billboard's Kathy Iandoli, the Wu-Tang Clan MC recalled some of the backlash that he received on the first edition of the release series, which mostly... Read more

Ludacris Has Been Randomly Buying Strangers’ Groceries For Years

Ludacris is a 2000s superstar of music, film, and more. The Atlanta, Georgia-based rapper has delivered numerous hits over the years with the albums to match. But his prowess as an MC is matched by who he is outside of the studio. The New York Times recently ran a story... Read more

B-Real’s Next Solo Album Will Be Produced By Scott Storch

Things are ramping up in the Cypress Hill camp. Tomorrow, DJ Muggs is releasing Dia Del Asesinato, his latest Soul Assassins creation. Meanwhile, last week, C.H. gave fans the first real taste of next month's Elephants On Acid album. The psychedelic video single "Band Of Gypsies" shows the crew with... Read more

Tyler, The Creator’s Album Is Still Taking Off. His New Video Is On An Aircraft Carrier

Tyler, The Creator has been releasing some very good quality content as of late and he's continuing with his latest video from 2017's Flower Boy. The Odd Future MC/producer dropped the visual for "See You Again" from his Grammy-nominated fourth solo studio album and it features him dancing and rapping... Read more

The Producer Of Ether Attempted To Offer The Beat To JAY-Z Before Nas (Video)

The term "ether" is forever implanted in the Hip-Hop lexicon and beyond. Heads can thank Nas for that one. The song is the title from Nasir's 2001 campaign against JAY-Z, in response to JAY-Z's "The Takeover." Two of the most respected MCs in Hip-Hop became entrenched in one of Rap's... Read more

John Singleton Reveals He Wanted N.W.A. To Star In Boyz N The Hood

Thirty years ago today, on August 8, 1988, the N.W.A. released its proper debut album, Straight Outta Compton. Bursting onto the scene with rawness and aggression fueled by the Reagan-era Compton climate and lifestyle, Ni**az Wit' Attitudes presented an LP that would shape the sound and narrative in Rap for... Read more

TDE Adds A New MC To Its Championship Roster. Meet Reason. (Audio)

Much like the Golden State Warriors, Top Dawg Entertainment continues to add more pieces to its roster after coming off of The Championship Tour. The newest addition to one of Hip-Hop's most winningest teams comes in the form of Reason, the Carson, California MC whose signing to the label was... Read more

Pete Rock Says Biggie Wanted The Main Ingredient Interlude Beats For His Album (Audio)

UPDATE: Pete Rock clarified today's earlier report regarding his Touré Show interview. The legendary producer, MC, and DJ points out that it is 1994's Main Ingredient, and not Mecca & Soul Brother, whose interlude beats Biggie Smalls wanted: it was main ingredient not mecca ????????‍♂️ — PETEROCK.COM (@PeteRock) August 9,... Read more

Salute To Hip-Hop Couples. Jean Grae & Quelle Chris Are Now Married

Remy Ma and Papoose. Offset and Cardi B. Solé and Professor Griff. There are multiple marriages of two rappers throughout history and currently. Hip-Hop can add a new couple to that list after last weekend. Jean Grae and Quelle Chris have married. The couple and friends, including Tanya Morgan's Donwill... Read more

The Last XXXTentacion Suspect Surrenders. It’s A New Era For Solving Rap Star Murders.

Just over six weeks after 20-year-old rapper XXXTentacion was fatally shot during a robbery in Deerfield Beach, Florida, all four of his suspects have been arrested and indicted for murder. The incident took place on June 18 just outside of a motorcycle dealership while the #1 charting artist Jahsey Onfroy... Read more

3 Years After Sean Price’s Passing The Boot Camp Clik Is Still Saluting Him (Video)

Three years ago today (August 8, 2015), the world lost a true original with the passing of Sean Price. The Brownsville, Brooklyn MC was a deft lyricist as a vocation, and also renowned for his role as a father, a husband, and a mentor and ally to so many peers.... Read more

J. Cole Says He Has The Best Flow Since Biggie On A Devastating New Freestyle (Video)

J. Cole is about to embark on his KOD Tour, hitting 36 cities across North America, and has been strategically building anticipation as the days get closer to the kickoff in Miami (August 9, 2018). Having previously tweeted out "Feed me beats. Everything gettin murdered.," Cole has now dropped a... Read more

Atmosphere’s Song About Depression & Heartache Addresses More Than Relationships (Audio)

The past few years have been rough for so many people across the globe, and that may be putting it far too gently. Many are facing depression, addictions of all kinds, and just an overall sense of helplessness. Watching the news or scrolling social media often intensifies these feelings of... Read more

LeBron James Is Now Using His Talents To Make Social Change (Video)

Even in the NBA off-season, LeBron James drives to the lane. Above and beyond his aspirations on the court, the four-time NBA MVP is out to effect lasting change through his charitable work. The recent opening of the I Promise public elementary school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio has... Read more

A Report Suggests Beyoncé & Kanye’s TIDAL Streaming Numbers Were Inflated (Video)

In recent weeks, several of the major streaming platforms have been under public fire for some of their hate speech policies and excessive marketing. While JAY-Z's Tidal service has avoided those headlines, an ongoing investigation into the platform raises some other questions entirely. VICE News has published a video that... Read more

Black Thought Explains Why Kool G Rap’s “Road To The Riches” Is His Favorite Verse (Video)

In 2004, The Roots released their sixth album, The Tipping Point. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania group's final album for Geffen Records contained an Easter egg of sorts for Hip-Hop Heads. The Dice Raw-assisted "Boom!" featured band front-man Black Thought paying homage to two of his MC inspirations: Big Daddy Kane and... Read more

Mac Miller Makes His Great New Album Larger With A Tiny Performance (Video)

NPR's Tiny Desk concerts have been remarkable in recent months. While the cramped performances have historically been something that Hip-Hop Heads keep an eye on, June, July, and August's shows have been especially impressive. Heads will surely want to check out the summer installments from Rakim, The Midnight Hour (Ali Shaheed... Read more

Taylor Bennett Speaks Candidly About Coming Out & Creating His Own Lane (Video)

In the last month, Taylor Bennett released a six-song project called BE YOURSELF. The DIY project is the latest from the Chicago, Illinois MC. For many Hip-Hop Heads, two things come to mind surrounding the 22-year-old. He is the younger brother of Grammy Award-winning Rap star Chance The Rapper. Additionally,... Read more

Prodigy Discusses Living A Lifetime Filled With Excruciating Pain (Video)

June marked the first anniversary of Prodigy's passing. His death blindsided the Hip-Hop community, despite his frequent, frank discussions about living with sickle-cell anemia. He even used his 2000 debut solo album, H.N.I.C, as an opportunity to share his struggles with the illness on "You Can Never Feel My Pain." Though... Read more

The Lady Of Rage Details The Serious Health Issues She’s Been Facing

Veteran MC and actress, The Lady Of Rage, has been battling some serious health issues this year. Over the weekend (August 4), the onetime Dr. Dre protege told the public just what has led to some concert cancellations in addition to pain and uncertainty in the Farmville, Virginia native's life.... Read more

Token Blacks Out On One Of His Most Lyrical Songs Yet (Video)

Since his emergence in 2016, the profile of Token continues to rise with his immense vocal talent as one of the fastest spitters in Rap. The Salem, Massachusetts-born MC seamlessly delivers a technical, multi-layered fusillade of bars with a great storytelling ability has organically grown his fan base, not solely based on... Read more

Freddie Gibbs Plays One Crazy & Playalistic Uncle In His Latest Video

In recent months, Freddie Gibbs has gone from Gangsta Gibbs to well... just "Freddie." The Gary, Indiana MC, whose last few albums have brandished street life and many a thug tale, has softened his approach up a bit. His recently self-released Freddie album plays on Teddy Pendergrass' eponymous 1979 LP,... Read more