From MPCs to FL Studio sessions, one thing remains consistent across generations of Hip Hop and R&B: The power of the sample. With that said, few eras have been mined more heavily than the 1980s. With ...

In the '80s, hip-hop hit the mainstream, and it's stayed there in the decades since. When hip-hop emerged, it had an urgency and power that set it apart from the pop that dominated the charts, but ...

Wane One, Fab Five Freddy and Lee Quiñones recall evolution of graffiti In 1980s New York, hip-hop was the soundtrack of the city, blaring through the neighborhoods on boom boxes and blasting groups ...

For rapper Killer Mike, the ’80s was the most impactful decade of sound. Sitting down with SPIN and Bose as part of our Decades of Sound collaboration, Killer Mike shares his thoughts on the eclectic ...

An elegiac retelling of rap’s origins, Hip-Hop Is History also ends with a sense of hope. Buffy (Darren Robinson) of the Fat Boys in Chicago, 1985. This Juneteenth featured, among other festivities, a ...

While hip-hop is continuously in a state of innovation, early on its ear for music was attached to the sounds its earliest listeners enjoyed partying to.

Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur talks about Angie Stone’s profound impact on music talking to legends of Hip-Hop Culture. In 1981, after she had a hit song, Angie B was backstage at Disco Fever in the Bronx ...

There is no debate that Queens’ own Nicki Minaj completely modernized rap with her versatility and bold lyricism. Born in ...

As one of the biggest rappers from The Big 3 generation to impact hip-hop, Kendrick Lamar's debut album, Section.80, served as a warning for what was to come. K-Dot's breakout project established him ...

When Jabari “Dr. Naledge” Evans was a kid, hip-hop felt like a privilege. If he got straight A’s, his mother would let him go to the legendary music venue in the city’s South Side, Chicago’s ...