Hey, young world. Here's a story about one measure of the distance hip-hop has traveled in its 50 years. Once upon a time, not long ago, to paraphrase a great rap storyteller, an 11-year-old in Queens ...

Two new albums from artists floating around in that sphere, Don Toliver and LUCKI, exist along a spectrum preoccupied more with rap as texture than as text. They are operating toward different ends: ...

Every year, we’re told that hip-hop is in crisis. But if you ask us, it feels like there’s too much heat to keep up with. What’s lost on the chart-watchers lamenting rap’s mainstream lull is that the ...