rap

There are few people on planet Earth who can rap as fast as J Noa — and even fewer who actually have something to say. On her 2023 debut EP, Autodidactica, the 18-year-old MC from the 5 de Abril barrio in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, showcased one of the most nimble flows in rap of any language, along with a penchant for strings-laden throwback beats and a modern perspective. Beyond merely precocious, her voice carries the weight of one who’s seen some things and lived to tell about them.  The frenetic,…

You could make a case for British rap being more compelling than its American cousin of late; it’s in its rapid expansion phase, not caught in a holding pattern. Partly that’s because there are now so many talented UK artists with non-London accents that it could soon be a disadvantage to spit from England’s capital. Teenage Mancunian Nemzzz is one of our most exciting prospects.Growing up in Gorton in a house with a kitted-out studio, he was destined for the stage. “My mum made beats – all genres, you can’t box her in!…

There’s a video of Tierra Whack filmed when she was 15, dressed in dull pink knitwear on the corner of a Philadelphia street, surrounded by older guys smoking weed. “Rapping is my destiny / Especially for these hysterectomies who be testing me / You deaf to me / You’re not hearing what I’m sharing like an uncaring parent …” Words pour out of her in an a cappella freestyle to camera, more performance poetry than rap, voice morphing from one persona to another – one of those mic-drop, jaw-drop moments where you see a new…

Hailed as her generation’s answer to Missy Elliott, Philadelphia rapper Tierra Whack has been celebrated not just for her lyrical dexterity but for her commitment to goofiness. Her exuberant debut mini-album, Whack World (2018), clocked in at 15 one-minute tracks; a clutch of EPs and some standalone singles consolidated her effervescence across different genres.Last year’s award-winning thriller/spoof documentary about Whack, Cypher, also attested to the weirdness that the creative nonconformist has experienced during her…

 Almost immediately after its founding in 1955, the Village Voice became the most raucous, irreverent and important alternative newspaper in America. At one point the Voice was the most read weekly in the country, serving as Andy Warhol put it “the entire liberal thinking world.” In her excellent new book The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture, Voice veteran Tricia Romano has compiled an oral history of the seminal alt-weekly. Romano’s…

ScHoolboy Q has seemingly confirmed his inclusion on the Grand Theft Auto 6 soundtrack. Rockstar Games gave fans their first look at Grand Theft Auto 6 at the end of 2023, with the trailer quickly becoming the most-viewed game trailer in Twitter history. Grand Theft Auto 6 will see players return to Vice City and follow the Bonnie & Clyde-inspired exploits of Lucia. Not much else is known about the game, with Rockstar giving a vague 2025 release window. However, ScHoolboy Q has seemingly confirmed his music will…

In September 2001, McKinley Phipps Jr, also known as the rapper Mac, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for manslaughter. It had been a year and a half since gunfire erupted outside a club where he was slated to perform in Slidell, Louisiana, resulting in the death of 19-year-old Barron Victor Jr. Phipps, then 22, maintained his innocence, and the case against him was weak – there was no gun linking him to the crime, several witnesses recanted their testimony and another person confessed to pulling the trigger. And yet,…

A journalist is often waiting indeterminately for an interviewee to come on a Zoom call or enter a label office; you’re rarely in their living room waiting for them to come out of their bedroom. But here I am in French Montana’s Manhattan apartment after his assistant Kam invites me in and informs me he’ll be out shortly to talk about his new mixtape, Mac & Cheese 5.   The wait gives me time to ogle the view from his living room window; I won’t blow up his spot, but it’s replete with a beautiful visage of a…

A slow afternoon in the warm wooden enclave that is Madden’s Bar, Belfast. A handful of middle-aged Guinness drinkers chat quietly, nestled like comfy dogs in the corner. The lights are low. The music is comforting.Until, blap! Not quite a cowboy entrance, but the door opens and the energy levels leap. In bowl three young men, familiar to the barman, the drinkers and anyone who’s interested in rap or who watches joe.co.uk or Vice videos. Kneecap, the Irish-language band smashing out of Belfast and into the world, are…

The Rutz is like any great pub in Belfast, or anywhere in Ireland for that matter: Kinda dingy, people stumbling out of the bathrooms, wiping powder off their faces, traditional Irish music playing loud on the speakers.  “It’s one of those places where you never go for one pint — you’re always stuck there for longer,” says Móglaí Bap, one-third of the Belfast rap trio Kneecap. “The pubs here are like lobster pots,” adds Mo Chara. “You can get in them, but you can’t get out.” Well, technically, you can’t…