For fans and critics who intellectualize it, gangsta rap, or “reality rap,” is serious business. For them, the defining genre of West Coast hip-hop represents true stories from the ’hood as told by ...

If a rapper were only to be known for one song, it’s hard to beat “Gangsta’s Paradise.” Coolio’s signature No. 1 smash in 1995 was voted the best single of the year in the Village Voice’s “Pazz & Jop” ...

Should 50 Cent be barred from Canada? Well, I don't know Mr. Cent. If I did, I could call him Fiddy. That's what his friends and other rap star/moguls call him. So my view on whether he should or ...

Rapper. Actor. Architect? Most people donNt know Ice Cube earned a certificate in architecture from the Phoenix Institute of Technology. YNknow, just in case the genre-creating music thing didnNt work ...

The pop charts have been a dangerous place for much of the past two decades. When N.W.A’s Efil4zaggin hit number one on the Billboard 200 in 1991, it established gangsta rap as a viable commercial ...

Memphis rap pioneers were celebrated at the RiverBeat Music Festival in Memphis. The concert paid tribute to the late Gangsta Boo, a prominent figure in Memphis rap. Memphis rap is enjoying a ...