‘N Sync was so popular around the turn of the millennium that even I — jaded, posturing music critic — bought the band’s second album, No Strings Attached. It sold over a million copies the day it was released in March 2000, and I was swallowing a lot of LSD…

In case you just emerged from a coma, Soulja Boy’s entry in the minstrel-rap sweepstakes is called Souljaboytellem.com, and it’s been virally marketed in a savvy way. Nonetheless, it’s about as stripped down as a record can be. This is what rap would have sounded like if it had been…

It’s been a tumultuous year for Phonte and Big Pooh of Little Brother, the Durham, North Carolina, group that became one of underground hip-hop’s brightest stars at the beginning of the decade. 2007 saw them part ways with producer 9th Wonder, who seemed to have his hands full producing for…

The genesis of Mac Lethal’s new album reads like a classic struggle between art and commerce. After years of annihilating the competition at Scribble Jam, the Kansas City MC signed to Rhymesayers in 2005. His mother had died the previous year, and he turned in an album full of poignant,…

Songs About Girls is derivative, repetitive, insipid, insincere and pandering. Oh, and if that weren’t enough, it also has the worst insert booklet in recent memory: seven pages of will.i.am mugging in a checkered suit. Actually, the first song, “Over,” a lover’s lament featuring a sample from Electric Light Orchestra…

Kanye is the most exciting man in rap because he puts out quality, popular albums. Forget the artless 50 Cent and Akon — Kanye tries harder, and Graduation, which has thirteen bangers and zero skits, reflects the man’s tireless work ethic. Having united backpackers and clubbers with his first two…

The term “conscious rap” needs to be excised from hip-hop’s vernacular. Nobody’s quite sure what it means: Music that doesn’t focus on rims and butts? Songs wherein the listener’s life isn’t explicitly threatened? Kweli has said he doesn’t like being pigeonholed by the designation, and the release of his sixth…