Ironic, then, that such a shift seems to have been ushered in by a death — not of R&B proper, mind you, but of one of its greatest modern pacesetters: The Weeknd. Since 2011, the persona inhabited by ...

Algorithmic personalization, undoubtedly, is one of, if not the most important, features driving today’s digital services. It is software that uses data to determine what to present to users next. In ...

With an experimental and maxed-out sound, bold new MCs are emerging from all corners of the UK – and with US rap in the doldrums, the time is ripe for another British Invasion It’s early November and ...

Editor’s note: This story is part of That’s My Word, an ongoing KQED series about Bay Area hip-hop history. “I’ll never lose that spirit, but I don’t miss being on the street from morning to night,” ...

In terms of artistic advancement, many rap fans would probably not consider Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” a genre-shifting single. However, regarding popular appeal, they probably would, as it was the ...

Since the turn of the 21st century, critics have prophesied that R&B, a once-dominating music genre, is dead. Male artists aren’t professing their love in pouring rain, draped in silk shirts anymore.

When Nas said “hip-hop is dead,” this certainly isn’t what he meant. Since 1990, rap music has topped the music charts as arguably the most impactful genre in the world. But for the first time in ...

For the first time in more than three decades, not a single rap song ranks among the 40 most popular tracks in America. Last week’s Billboard Hot 100 marked the end of a remarkable 35-year streak, ...

For the first time since 1990, the Top 40 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart is completely devoid of any hip-hop and/or rap songs. “No rap songs appear in the top 40 on the Hot 100 for the first time since ...

Her university’s vast collection of albums, scholarly essays and other ephemera helped establish rap as a course of serious study on a par with classical music. By Alex Williams When Marcyliena H.

When Marcyliena Morgan was teaching courses on urban speech communities at UCLA in the 1990s, her students started writing essays about rappers like Ice Cube and asking to do projects on hip-hop.

For the first time in more than three decades, not a single rap song ranks among the 40 most popular tracks in America. Last week's Billboard Hot 100 marked the end of a remarkable 35-year streak, ...