It seems almost quaint to think there was a time not that long ago where most Americans thought about rap and hip-hop in terms of an East Coast/West Coast binary. To be sure, even then it wasn't representative of the whole picture, but in the ye...

Hip-hop collectives don't get much more diverse than Minneapolis' Doomtree, a seven-member crew (five rappers, two producers) whose members come from all different backgrounds. It's a sign of how eclectic the crew is, then, that its...

Aspiring rappers could learn a few things from Dessa, and not just in the abstract sense. The Twin Cities emcee teaches hip-hop studies for a diploma program at a St. Paul school called the McNally Smith College of Music. “I teach a course on music composition that focuses on lyrics,” says the 28-year-old rapper, born Maggie Wander. “It focuses on a lot of the same principles you might find in...