“Got it on my own like Oprah’s network / Now I’m just trying to make Oprah’s net worth,” Pizzle raps on his latest mixtape, Insomnia 2, which DJBooth.net debuted last month. Yes, last month, meaning I’m a little bit late to this one, but perhaps that’s just as well, since Insomnia 2 is solidly warm-weather, windows-down music—all expensive cars, popped champagne and upward mobility...

  The most influential contemporary rappers all have one thing in common: a great narrative. Today’s rappers are first and foremost self-mythologizers, and their brands are

For a shouting, gun-toting lunatic, Waka Flocka Flame sure is charismatic. Flocka is rap’s answer to Andrew W.K., an animated life coach with a butter-melting smile who advocates better living thr

Though born and bred in New York City, A$AP Rocky, breakout star of the much-buzzed-about A$AP Mob crew, shares little of Gotham’s rap conventions, gravitating toward sounds more closely associated with the South...

Gerald Walker has a new mixtape out. If that headline sounds familiar, it should: This is the rapper's seventh mixtape in about two years. That prolificacy is working well for him; right now he's the only Milwaukee rapper whose every move is charted by national rap blogs. His mellow new On Your Side Pt. 2 reunites him with his producer of choice, Dallas's Cardo, and it's as good an introduction as...

The last half-decade has been a transitional one for contemporary R&B. One of the dominant...

After an unusual quiet period, R. Kelly returned this week with The Demo Tape, a new DJ Drama mix loaded with interpolations of recent singles like Kanye West's "Love Lockdown," Keri Hilson's "Turning Me on," Soulja Boy's "Turn My Swag On," T. Pain's "Chopped & Screwed" and Jeremih's possible Song of the Summer "Birthday Sex." The mix hits plenty of sweet spots, as R. Kelly releases usually do, bu...