Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Hugh McIntyre covers music, with a focus on the global charts. Hip-hop is bigger than ever, as it’s the most-consumed genre of ...

Mural by Kenya D. Lawton of Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell) Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives) Two men were convicted in federal court on Tuesday in Brooklyn of murdering Jason “Jam ...

Young Thug performs onstage at the 2022 SXSW Conference on March 17, 2022, in Austin, Tex. (Amy E. Price / Getty Images for SXSW) By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree ...

Prosecutors love to cite rap as criminal evidence, but artists and advocates are waging an increasingly successful effort to restrict the controversial practice. By Bill Donahue When Maryland ...

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In the history of hip-hop, some rappers have set out to murder the competition with lyrics that have ranged from vicious to downright violent. But a group of music stars — led by Brooklyn’s own Rock & ...

"The portrayal of rap lyrics as literal expressions of criminal intent ignores the longstanding tradition of adopting personas, exaggeration, and hyperbole for artistic effect," writes the NJLJ Young ...

Kemba, a rapper featured in the documentary ‘As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial’ (© 2024 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved.) From reproductive rights to ...

No one believes that country music legend Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. When Cash in 1968 released “Folsom Prison Blues,” a ballad about shooting and killing a man for no ...

I heard a rapper’s verse a while ago that stopped me in my tracks. The artist was Kemba and the song, Daemons, featured on the posthumous album Bad Vibes Forever (2019), by the conflicted and gifted ...