It was the best of hip-hop times. It was the worst of hip-hop times. Ha! 2025 was a rollercoaster of rap music’s highs and lows. The duality was so real. I can’t recall a year with such a wide array ...

Here are 15 predictions for rap music in 2026. No, there won’t be a breakout AI star in rap. That said, having lived through ...

The best songs of 2025 delivered viral moments, genre shifts, and cultural heat. See which Hip Hop and R&B tracks defined ...

That’s the case with albums from Lamar and Clipse, as well as J.I.D’s God Does Like Ugly. (J.I.D has long been a respected lyricist too.) Markman is also impressed with the growth that Tyler, the ...

Explore 13 iconic female rap and R&B collaborations that topped charts and shaped culture. From Brandy to Beyoncé, these ...

As the year comes to an end, we are wading deep into list season. Now that we’ve talked about the best albums, songs, debuts, and EPs of 2025, it’s time to get even more granular and pay tribute to a ...

Was February unseasonably warm where you live too? I think that's why the past month felt especially turnt up — not only are the days longer, but it's 66 and sunny out. I didn't take a week off work, ...

Week in and week out, there are plenty of brand-new rap songs, no matter the time of year. It can be really difficult to stay aware of what's out and also what's hot, so XXL decided to make things ...

Good music and a good drink often go hand in hand, but do we ever really stop to appreciate the pairing? We do now, because 2025 has been a banner year for rap music, but it’s also quietly been an ...

You know how the cliché goes: rappers want to be basketball players, and basketball players want to be rappers. This has been a truism since the '90s, when rap really started taking off as a ...

In 1894, “The Little Lost Child” went “platinum” off sheet music sales in what might be considered the first successful music video marketing campaign. Innovations in aurafarming have taken things to ...