Hip-Hop/Rap

Jolicoeur, who died Feb. 12, co-founded the hip-hop group De La Soul in the 1980s, while still in high school. The group brought a sense of fun and wit to the genre. Originally broadcast in 2000.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin (yah-NEEK nay-ZAY say-GHEN), conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera, shares the music he listens to when he is not on the podium that inspires him. The playlist he made for us includes pop, hip hop, and classical music.

White noise streams are a kind of sonic wallpaper. For many, they help keep some parts of the brain distracted so that other parts may better focus on things, like writing, studying or sleeping.

In 2010, Jay-Z reflected on growing up in Brooklyn surrounded by drugs and violence. "One day, your best friend could be killed. The day before, you could be celebrating him getting a brand-new bike."

This year, Radha Blank became the second Black woman to earn that prize for her first feature, The Forty-Year-Old Version. It was a worthy winner, not just because it's a terrific movie, but also because it's specifically about the challenges of making meaningful, personal art from an underrepresented perspective.

Henry plays Alfred, aka the rapper "Paper Boi," on the FX series Atlanta. As his character becomes more successful, Henry says, he's getting "a little further away from the essence of who [he] is."

Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”(Interscope Records), the new CD from rapper 50 Cent.

Glover created, co-writes and stars in the FX series Atlanta, a hybrid of comedy and drama set on the fringes of the city's hip-hop scene. He has also recorded music under the name Childish Gambino.

A new drama series on Netflix chronicles the rise of early hip-hop music in the late '70s. Rock critic Ken Tucker says the show's soundtrack is dense, complex and delightful.

Rock critic Ken Tucker offers up his top 10 lists of the best albums and singles of 2008.music. Here's his look at some of his own favorites.

In an interview recorded onstage, Amir Questlove Thompson the cofounder and drummer of the Roots, the houseband for The Tonight Show talks with Terry Gross about music, his father doo wop singer Lee Andrews who died last month, and about Prince.

The vivacious alt-rapper Lizzo mixes rap, gospel and neo-soul on her new album. Critic Milo Miles says Big Grrrl Small World will win listeners over with its energy and hooks.

Fresh Air music critic Ken Tucker says the rapper's second album has an excitingly adventurous sound.

Jason Isbell's Southeastern, Kanye West's Yeeezus and an assortment of remarkable women dominated the Fresh Air critic's year in listening.

The rapper's new album is his first collection since becoming a father with singer Beyonce. Rock critic Ken Tucker says the album is an uneven but intriguing collection of songs that tries to navigate a path between parenthood and an obsession with commercial success.

West has been busy in both the music and gossip worlds: He's just released a new album, titled Yeezus, and fathered a child. Rock critic Ken Tucker says West's constant blending of his public life and his music makes his new record all the more striking -- and a t times problematic.

As the brains behind the hip-hop parody group responsible for digital shorts like "D--- in a Box," Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer have produced some of the funniest Saturday Night Live material in recent memory. Here, they talk about comedy, Yo! MTV Raps and adolescence.

Spaghetti Westerns, Philadelphia soul, opera and the Wu-Tang Clan all come together in the music of Adrian Younge. He has produced and composed two new albums — one with William Hart, the lead singer of The Delfonics, and another with rapper Ghostface Killah.