Hip-Hop
This section covers album stories, birthdays, and anniversaries tied to hip-hop artists, producers, and labels, along with vinyl reissue news as titles come back into print. The 12-inch single has always had an outsized role in hip-hop: it's the format DJs built sets around, the one that carried instrumental and a cappella versions for mixing, and the source material for the sampling that shaped the genre's early sound. Expect stories here about how specific records were made, the samples, the studios, the crews behind them, along with notes on why certain pressings still matter to DJs and collectors alike.
93 STORIES
Snoop Dogg Turned a Local Tape Into a Hip-Hop Empire
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. cut a four-song demo at VIP Records in Long Beach that reached Dr. Dre and led to Death Row, Doggystyle and a career of more than 35 million records sold.
· 4 min read
Tupac Shakur's Debut Single Told a 12-Year-Old's Tragedy
Tupac Shakur's debut single 'Brenda's Got a Baby' arrived on October 20, 1991. It turned a newspaper story about a twelve-year-old mother into a conscious hip-hop record.
· 3 min read
Why Did Scarface Call His Third Album The Diary?
Scarface released his third studio album The Diary on October 18, 1994, through Rap-A-Lot and Noo Trybe. The title framed the record as a private confession rather than a celebration.
· 4 min read
Ludacris Back for the First Time at 26
Ludacris released Back for the First Time on 17 October 2000. The album sold 133,000 copies in its first week, landing at number 4 on the Billboard 200.
· 4 min read
How The Game Turned One Album Into a Two-Week Event
The Game released The Documentary 2.5 on October 16, 2015, the second half of a split project that followed The Documentary 2 by one week.
· 4 min read
How Beck Turned a Four-Year Delay Into Colors
Beck's thirteenth studio album Colors arrived on October 13, 2017, four years after recording began with producer Greg Kurstin in a Los Angeles studio.
· 4 min read
Why Did Mos Def Risk Everything on Black on Both Sides?
Mos Def released Black on Both Sides on October 12, 1999, a 71-minute debut on which he played six instruments and handed production to a dozen beatmakers.
· 4 min read
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince End with Code Red
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince released Code Red on 12 October 1993. The fifth and final album reached number 64 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the RIAA.
· 5 min read
Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa and the Hit That Almost Never Got Finished
Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa released "Young, Wild & Free" on October 11, 2011, with Bruno Mars on the hook, and the track became a six-times-platinum hit.
· 3 min read
Thug Life, Volume I: The Album That Wasn't Supposed to Be
Thug Life, Volume I arrived on 26 September 1994 as a ten-track record. It was trimmed down from a much larger project that 2Pac had planned with Interscope Records.
· 4 min read
G Herbo: From Fazoland to the Billboard Top Ten
G Herbo went from a sixteen-year-old Chicago cypher rapper to a Billboard top-ten artist. His record now carries PTSD, a federal fraud conviction and a community wellness program.
· 4 min read
How Did Lay Zhang Go from Changsha to the Grammys?
Lay Zhang grew up in Changsha imitating Michael Jackson, then trained in Seoul and became the only Chinese artist invited to the Grammy Awards.
· 4 min read
How Flying Lotus Turned a Cartoon Network Ad Into a Universe
Steven Ellison sent beats to an Adult Swim promo as Flying Lotus in 2006, and the reply launched a career spanning Warp Records, Brainfeeder and film.
· 3 min read
Nu-Mixx Klazzics: Tupac Shakur Remixed by Death Row
Nu-Mixx Klazzics arrived in 2003 on Death Row Records and Koch Records. It was Tupac Shakur's first official remix album, rebuilding tracks from All Eyez on Me and The Don Killuminati.
· 4 min read
How Twenty One Pilots Escaped Their Own Insecurities
Twenty One Pilots released Trench on October 5, 2018, after a year of silence that followed the Blurryface tour. Tyler Joseph built the album's fictional world of Dema before writing a single song.
· 4 min read
Mikolas Josef: From Street Corners to Eurovision
Czech pop singer Mikolas Josef went from busking in Prague, Oslo and Vienna to finishing sixth at Eurovision with 'Lie to Me'. It remains the best result any Czech entry has achieved.
· 3 min read
How Lil Mama Turned a Viral Hit Into Staying Power
Lil Mama, born Niatia Jessica Kirkland in Harlem, turned a viral hit into a career spanning music, television and acting. Her debut album VYP reached number 25 on the Billboard 200.
· 3 min read
Proof: The Detroit Rapper Who Refused the Easy Route
DeShaun Dupree Holton, known as Proof, spent years as Eminem's hype man. He then founded Iron Fist Records and released Searching for Jerry Garcia on his own terms.
· 3 min read
Tom Tom Club's 'Genius of Love': Why Hip-Hop Kept Sampling It
A bassline played by a man asleep under the mixing desk became the backbone of one of the most sampled hooks of the 1980s. Tom Tom Club released 'Genius of Love…
· 5 min read
Coolio: From Compton Libraries to Gangsta's Paradise
Artis Leon Ivey Jr., known as Coolio, died in Los Angeles on September 28, 2022, leaving behind a legacy that spans from Compton libraries to a Grammy-winning hit.
· 4 min read
Why does OutKast's Aquemini still sound like 2026?
OutKast's 1998 album Aquemini fused live funk, southern soul and cosmic lyricism. Twenty-eight years later, it still refuses to be categorized.
· 4 min read
A Judge Gave Him Two Options and Berlin Got Bushido
A Berlin judge's ultimatum sent a teenage Anis Ferchichi into a painter's course, where he met Fler and became Bushido, reshaping German hip-hop.
· 4 min read
Lil Wayne: the nine-year-old who signed to Cash Money
In 1993, an eleven-year-old from Hollygrove named Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. signed to Cash Money Records after Birdman spotted him rapping on a New Orleans street corner.
· 4 min read
Jovanotti: The Typo That Named a Chameleon
Lorenzo Cherubini, born in Rome in 1966, built his career as Jovanotti after a nightclub marquee misspelled his stage name. The typo turned into a chameleon identity.
· 4 min read