Pop Rap

In hip-hop, respect is like currency, and by the mid-'90s MC Hammer was as bereft of props as he was of cash. But there was a short period in the early '90s when every clock in the… More

Harlem World describes a hedonistic lifestyle infomercialist Tom Vu would envy. Girls, riches, mo' money, mo' problems--it's all part of the game when you're Sean "Puffy" Co… More

Wyclef Jean's third solo offering finds him still trying his darndest to prove to hip-hoppers and pop audiences alike just how eclectic he can be. And no one knows exactly why. A… More

Will Smith is the future of hip-hop--in the sense that Willennium, his follow-up to 1997's multiplatinum Big Willie Style, is sure to dominate pop-rap airwaves and sa… More

When MC Lyte rapped "Beat biter / Dope style taker / Tell you to your face you ain't nothing but a faker," she wasn't referring to Puff Daddy, but those words may have echoed in th… More

Is Will Smith an important rapper? The kind that deserves the awards, the honors, the accolades that the music industry foists upon him? Well, no. The words corny and saf… More

One of the first albums to challenge hip-hop's machocratic sovereignty, Salt-N-Pepa's Hot, Cool & Vicious takes as its musical model Run-D.M.C.'s potent distillation of stre… More