In the past two years, I have recently been introduced to Cleveland’s hip hop scene, mostly because of Kid Cudi and Chip The Ripper.  Though my mother was born is Cleveland, Ohio, she nor I knows much about it at all.  I came across an artist who could help all of us learn a little bit more about what Cleveland hip hop is about. Continue Reading

Hip Hop has changed over the course of it’s 30 some-odd years as a genre and a culture.  Over the years, we moved from b-boy battles to “jerking”, simple party music with basic rhyme schemes to complex lyrical metaphors and rapid-fire delivery.  Continue Reading

Coming from a city like Minneapolis, I can’t stress to you enough how much we don’t get the recognition we rightly deserve in this city.  Since the birth of hip hop music, there is no denying that regardless of the expansion of the genre’s widespread appeal, New York and California are still the front runners for most of hip hop’s recognition.  Another city that has been floating under the radar is Wichita, Kansas.  Though this wasn’t the birthplace or a second home for hip hop, it was the birthplace for Donovan Johnson, better known to the digital era of music as “X.V” Continue Reading

In this ever-evolving age of technology, you have to commend an artist who takes full advantage of the extended outlets that have emerged in music marketing.  Some of these outlets have completely replaced some of the more traditional methods that artists use to get their music out to the public and into the ears of the people who could possibly take them to the next level.  One of the newest examples of an artist using these outlets to their fullest potential is Miami-based hip hop artist QuESt.  Continue Reading