The album cover made rappers rethink what they wanted fans to see before they even heard a bar. Instead of working with one producer like most MCs of the time, Nas and Large Professor decided to build an all-star team that included New York luminaries DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Q-Tip. ...
The band never released an album, but the notoriety of their talent went viral, boosting Lamar's 2010 mixtape Overly Dedicated. After that, Lamar released his first full-length album Section.80 in 2011. The record was well received but wasn't the breakthrough success some expected. However,...
Recruited by rapper-producer J-Sumbi to make an album together, Myka Nine, Aceyalone, P.E.A.C.E, and Self Jupiter were less a longstanding group than four rap talents burning down appearances at the Good Life Café in Los Angeles.To Whom It May Concern…captures the four men in several...
With the album’s cover art, Staples deliberately borrows the gleeful, cartoonish vibe of Green Day’sDookie, playing up the contrast between those anthems of teenage angst and his own. He may sing “We just wanna have fun,” but references to “dead homies” resurface in song after song...
But on the third, or fourth, or fifth time I ran through the album, the comparison stuck in my head and I couldn’t shake it. It isn’t so much the songs as what they mean in the context of the album, the way both singular talents are employed by their master arrangers. Both ...
Presumably, their parents also instilled a sense of hometown pride. While Houston served as catalyst for national stardom (its skyline figures on the album cover), it's Memphis' soul that informs the tone of the MCs' verses. They rap in ode to the town, celebrating the struggle that gave...
” On “Kriminel,” the heart of his 2021 albumPray for Haiti,he raps a haunting verse about the toll of everything sent home—and what home sends back. The beat loops a spectral vocal as a parade of family members visit him in his sleep. While he’s awake, another cousin reminds ...
almost immediately. First, they teamed up for Dre’s first-ever single, the theme song for the 1992 filmDeep Cover. The track was a fruitful experiment for the duo, which led to Dre inviting Snoop to collaborate with him on the solo album he was working on, set to be titledThe ...
"Officially announcing my retirement with the release ofNo Pressure,executive produced by No I.D. July 24,"tweeted Bobbyin a post accompanied by the album's cover art. "It's been a great decade. Now it's time to be a great father." ...
That record contains the first features from celebrated Memphis rappers 8Ball and Al Kapone, as well as an early appearance from the highly influential and frequently sampled Orange Mound pioneer DJ Zirk on turntables and the album cover.