Maria Somerville’s Luster is a love letter to people and place

Inspired by her return to Connemara, a region rich in Irish history and myth, Maria Somerville’s second album is shaped its spirit, spacious landscape and seasonal pace.

A$AP Rocky’s stylish debut Long. Live. A$AP backed up the hype

Off the back of rapturous posse cut  ‘Fuckin’ Problems’ – a star vehicle of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ proportions – ‘Long. Live. A$AP’ dropped in early 2013 and shot to the top of the Billboard charts

Jim Legxacy is going places

Not content with releasing one of the year’s most exciting tapes, rapper-producer Jim Legxacy has co-produced the UK’s song of the summer. This is the story of an artist from Lewisham, and how he came to create a sound that’s as vibrant and complex as his home

They Hate Change sound like nobody else

For Issue 140, Dean Van Nguyen catches up with They Hate Change, the Tampa hip-hop duo who namecheck jungle classics, rap about X-Ray Spex and are steeped in the homegrown sounds of Florida

With Kamikaze, Twista proved that he was more than just the “fastest rapper in the world”

The Chicago rapper’s fourth album, released 19 years ago this week, demonstrated his range and yielded hits

Key Glock: Moving Places

Key Glock was celebrating the release of his hit album, Yellow Tape 2, when he lost his cousin and mentor, Young Dolph. Now, he’s carrying the torch for Memphis rap

Quelle Chris

For Lord Apex, the sky’s the limit

For Issue 130 the rapper talks his latest album, which orbits a galaxy of influences. From the world of sci-fi, cartoons and his hero, MF DOOM

MIKE is striving for sincerity

We meet the Brooklyn rapper for Issue 128’s Aesthetic feature

With Flockaveli, Waka Flocka Flame captured a divisive moment in rap

On its 11th anniversary, Dean Van Nguyen looks back on Waka Flocka Flame’s explosive debut album

Wifisfuneral

Mulatu Astatke & Black Jesus Experience – To Know Without Knowing

Mulatu Astatke compounds his legacy on this collaborative album with Melbourne’s Black Jesus Experience

With Brown Sugar, D’Angelo ushered in a new era of neo soul

25 years later, we look back at ‘Brown Sugar’, a raw, erotic classic that sparked a new ethos

Jessie Ware

Thundercat

King Krule

The genius of Ghostface Killah in 20 tracks

In honour of Supreme Clientele‘s 20th anniversary, we break down the career of the legendary Ghostface Killah

All hail Earl, the unlikely exile who defined the decade in rap

From Drake to Kendrick, the 2010s haven’t been short on rap icons. But it took a parent-baiting collective from LA to incubate the most intriguing of them all

A$AP Ferg: Harlem when it sizzles

For A$AP Ferg, his hometown is his biggest muse

DJ Screw’s 3 ‘N the Mornin’ (Part Two) burnt itself into rap mythology, manipulating time itself

DJ Screw’s magnum opus distorted time and changed the future of Southern rap forever

Headie One

Little Simz

Ghostface Killah and Czarface

Juvenile’s 400 Degreez encapsulated Cash Money’s first wave of inventiveness

Dean Van Nguyen delves into the legacy of the rapper’s third album, and how it crystallised the influential label’s sound