Music

Vince Staples' latest album, Dark Times, represents a new direction in an already singular major-label rap career.Shaniqwa Jarvis/Courtesy of the artist There is an early episode of The Vince Staples Show, the titular rapper’s Netflix tragicomedy about a fictional version of himself, that puts the dual nature of his fame in stark terms. The onscreen Vince applies for a small business loan at a high-class bank, and is effectively laughed out […]

From left, Wu-Tang Clan members RZA, Ghostface Killah, director Sacha Jenkins and Wu-Tang Clan members U-God, Cappadonna and Masta Killa pose at the premiere of "Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men" during the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 28, 2019, in Park City, Utah. Arthur Mola/Invision/AP After years of exchanging hands between owners, Wu-Tang Clan’s elusive seventh album will finally be available for some fans to listen to. The […]

Updated May 14, 2024 at 12:10 PM ET Rapper Tupac Shakur performs at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois in March 1994. Raymond Boyd/Getty Images In late April, Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) began his testimony before a Senate subcommittee hearing by doing something unusual for a stuffy institution like Congress: He played a new song from the rapper Drake. But it wasn't Drake's rap verse that Tillis felt was […]

Diverse styles of music by Black artists entering the mainstream have brought both great hits and important visibility to the Black diaspora and its equally diverse cultures. Since the early 2010s, Black genres outside of hip-hop & rap have been moving into the mainstream in a big way. 2014 had people chanting Youroba in clubs thanks to Nigerian artist WizKid’s hit song ‘Ojuelegba.’ North American artists like Drake dipped their […]

Ghostface Killah wearing his iconic gold eagle cuff. Atsuko Tanaka/American Museum of Natural History Flavor Flav's clock. Nicki Minaj's Barbie pendant. Slick Rick's crown and eyepatch. These are famous symbols of hip-hop. But perhaps the most iconic piece of them all is Ghostface Killah's eagle cuff. The gold bracelet weighs 5 pounds and features an eagle, wings outstretched, landing on the cuff. And it's on view right now at the […]