Photo: Mark Metcalfe, Getty Images

Ever since his initial brush with fame, Drake has been a lightning rod. His impact on hip-hop culture overall cannot be understated, but within the guise of the art-form that is rap, he stands as the fissure between old-school “hip-hop head” values and new-age pop-culture modernism. [Read more…]

Photo: Dan Halman, Ap and Mirrorpix/Splash, News/Corbis

Like many other human interests in popular culture, the way hip-hop is viewed and analyzed is far different today than it was when I was coming of age during the 90s. The immediacy of information and the somewhat close access to famous people and public figures via social media has cultivated a landscape in which an artist’s talent has been tied to the hitch of their perceived character qualities. [Read more…]

Photo: Alex Welsh, Wired

For some time now, I have believed that a paradigm shift in rap has occurred in which the pendulum of talent has swung from the artist in front of the mic to the maestro behind the board. If you’ve read my piece on the relationship between hip-hop and the mainstream music industry, I intimated that in hip-hop the emphasis for music making has transitioned from conceptualizing complete bodies of work to cashing in on cultural trends that do not amount to timeless pieces of art. [Read more…]