Every city has its trove of rappers that dually highlight and embody the ethos, struggles, and culture of his or her respective metropolis. A few weeks ago, I chronicled Danny Brown, a Detroit artist, whose scraggly appearance, troubled past, and current rebirth in many ways parallels his home. For this post, I’ll feature Chicago’s Chance, […]

Like any umbrella art, rap is divided into numerous sub-genres. There’s cloud rap, psychedelic rap, hip-hop, rap rock, gangster rap, you name it. For this post, I’ll explore a vastly unexplored sub-genre: horrorcore. Horrorcore, according to its reputable Wikipedia page, is “a sub-genre of hip hop music based on horror-themed lyrical content and imagery.” Within the horrocore cannon are some […]

Arguably the greatest white, jewish rapper out there is Aesop Rock, an underground hip-hop musician from New York by way of San Francisco. Not to be confused with ASAP Rocky, Rock — or Aes as he’s colloquially referred to — is one the most lyrical, perceptive, and, above all abstract rappers in “the game”. Ian Bavitz’ […]