This is a weird week for mixtapes. The big news is obviously Black Bar Mitzvah, the new Rick Ross tape, and he'd had a spot reserved in this space ever since I first saw the ridiculous image of…   Read Story »

With all the furor about its sudden online leak, it's easy to forget that with NO LOVE DEEP WEB, Death Grips have done something that about a million other rap crews have done: Released an album's…   Read Story »

When Freddie Gibbs first arrived on the mixtape and blog scene a few years ago, he had a couple of big selling points. There was the staggering technical mastery, of course, the fluidity and speed…   Read Story »

There aren't too many sure things in this world, but here's one of them: If Waka Flocka Flame records a song called "Randy Savage," in which he and various other rappers scream professional…   Read Story »

Five or so years ago, most rap mixtapes consisted of rappers grabbing each other's beats by the handful, competing to see who could do the most damage to "A Milli" or whatever. (But no, seriously, it…   Read Story »

When A$AP Rocky first went viral last year, with the "Purple Swag" and "Peso" videos, he came off like a mesmerizing alien hybrid, an extraterrestrial visiter who'd somehow learned about Earth…   Read Story »

Here's how the Chicago rapper Mikkey Halsted describes himself on the second track of Castro, his new mixtape: "The common denominator 'tween Chief Keef and Common." Thanks for doing my job for me,…   Read Story »

There's a very good chance you'll hate Riff Raff. In fact, if you're reading this, there's a decent chance you already do. For a certain breed of rap fan, Riff Raff is a kind of exaggerated boogeyman…   Read Story »

Kitty Pryde is a 19-year-old apple-cheeked Claire's employee and giggly quasi-novelty rapper. Fred Da Godson is a classical New York hip-hop miserablist with a thousand-yard stare. Himanshu is a…   Read Story »

I grew up in Baltimore, practically the duo's back yard, but I never had a very difficult time ignoring Thievery Corporation, the bourgie downtempo electronic duo from DC. From what little attention…   Read Story »