He was a magazine ad salesman when he and a colleague, Robert Ford, teamed with Kurtis Blow and helped break rap music into the mainstream.
Category: Rap and Hip-Hop
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Jensen McRae and 10 More Artists to Watch
Meet the buzzy folk-pop songwriter, plus a dancey noise band, a dexterous Dominican M.C., a new generation of SoundCloud rappers and more.
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11 Songs to Keep St. Patrick’s Day Going
Extend the holiday with tracks from Sinead O’Connor, the Pogues, Kneecap and more.
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Universal Music Calls Drake’s ‘Not Like Us’ Lawsuit ‘Misguided’
The label behind Drake and Kendrick Lamar filed a motion on Monday to dismiss Drake’s lawsuit, which accused it of defamation and harassment over the diss song.
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Chappell Roan’s Bro-Country Tweak and 9 More New Songs
Hear tracks by Playboi Carti, Haim, Bon Iver, Willie Nelson and others.
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Party Like It’s 2009: The Playlist
Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem” inspired a look back at a time when indie-rock and Auto-Tuned pop mingled, and the lines between the underground and mainstream blurred
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Party Like It’s 2009: The Playlist
Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem” inspired a look back at a time when indie-rock and Auto-Tuned pop mingled, and the lines between the underground and mainstream blurred
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Roy Ayers, Vibraphonist Who Injected Soul Into Jazz, Dies at 84
He helped introduce a funkier strain of the music in the 1970s. He also had an impact on hip-hop: His “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” has been sampled nearly 200 times.
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How Do You Preserve a Vanishing Music Scene?
Five recent books collect photographs, memories and ephemera from the hardcore band Agnostic Front, the mysterious dance artist Aphex Twin, the rap collective Odd Future and more.
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Jay-Z Sues Rape Accuser and Lawyers, Saying They Knew Claim Was False
The anonymous woman withdrew her sex abuse suit last month, but the entertainer says in court papers she has since admitted her account was fabricated. She and her lawyer deny that.
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Angie Stone, Hip-Hop Pioneer Turned Neo-Soul Singer, Dies at 63
After having success as a member of the Sequence, an early female rap group, she re-emerged in the 1990s as a practitioner of sultry, laid-back R&B.