• Jay Z/Nas, Tupac / Notorious B.I.G.: The Best Hip-Hop Diss Tracks Ever

    The hottest story in hip-hop for the last week has been Meek Mill's allegations that Drake uses a ghostwriter, and the Toronto rapper turned up the heat by releasing "Charged Up," a perceived diss track aimed at his accuser. Responses to Drake's release have been fairly positive, at least from fans (Mill himself hasn't responded to the track yet) but Drizzy has a while to go in terms of both attitude and wordplay if he wants to land on the list of the greatest diss tracks ever. Here are five examples, from the Nas/Jay Z beef to the Tupac Shakur/Notorious B.I.G. beef that set a high bar for vitriol.

  • Eminem, Jay Z Have Larger Vocabulary Than Bob Dylan According to Study

    Rappers are known to be wordy individuals. In the past, studies have been done on rap lyrics, but now a new study has been released by lyric site Musixmatch about which artists, across all genres, have the largest vocabularies. The study concluded four rappers lead that list -- Eminem, Jay Z, Tupac and Kanye West -- taking the title away from Bob Dylan.

  • 6 Hip-Hop Song Sans Verses for AC: Tupac, Eminem, Kanye West and More

    Has your mother ever commented how much she enjoys the chorus to "See You Again" or "Monster," but that she really wishes Wiz Khalifa and Eminem (respectively) hadn't "ruined" the song with their raps? She's not the first. This week we found out that a revised version of the former song, featuring only Charlie Puth's hook, as well as new melodic verses in place of Khalifa's bars, has been on the rise at Adult Contemporary radio...occasionally known as "Adult Conservative." The only thing less likely to end up on AC than hip-hop is heavy metal, but as rappers frequently find themselves invited to guest on pop singles (such as Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" featuring Kendrick Lamar), labels sometimes edit the "offending" portion out, resulting in a safer, frequently less exciting product.

  • 7 Hip-Hop Guest Spots for George Clinton's 75th Birthday: Snoop, Tupac, More

    Music Times wants to wish George Clinton, the iconic bandleader behind Parliament and Funkadelic, as well as the greatest figures in funk music history. We could spend thousands and thousands of words describing how great his bands were in the studio and live onstage...but that's a theme that's been reworked thousands and thousands of times. One subject that doesn't get as much respect is Clinton's influence on the world of hip-hop. If you don't believe us, just check out how many guest spots he's done for hip-hop tracks over the years, from Snoop Dogg to Tupac to Kendrick Lamar. We chose the biggest names that Clinton has worked with just to demonstrate how far and wide his appreciation in the genre stretches.

  • Tupac Shakur Center Displays Fan Letter from Young Eminem to Rapper's Mother

    If you enjoyed the fan letter that a young Dave Grohl sent to Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye, then have we got one for you: a note sent from a young Eminem to the mother of Tupac Shakur. Granted, the emcee wasn't a child anymore (as was the case with Grohl), but it reportedly comes from a very early point in Eminem's career.

  • Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Drake and More: 7 Stars Attend Prom with Very Lucky High Schoolers

    Justin Bieber and his crew made a stir over the weekend when they appeared at a high school prom in California to surprise the students in attendance. The result was a student body gone mad, resulting in one of the more memorable proms of all time without the pop star actually delivering a single song, reportedly. At least one attendee can tell her future (and possibly current) boyfriend about how she danced with Bieber at prom. Some musical acts have gone far beyond just crashing a prom however, actually attending a dance as someone's date. Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Drake: All have made appearances at high school way after attending high school.

  • The Brutality of The Bard: 2Pac, Dethklok and More Celebrate 'Talk Like Shakespeare Day'

    Happy "Talk Like Shakespeare Day" to all of our favorite readers and theatre geeks. We at Music Times tend to write more about Broadway musicals, or the occasional opera based on one of William Shakespeare's works, versus the stage plays themselves (you know...we write about music). There's no denying that the legendary playwright has had an impact on music with his words...in the most brutal way possible. For all of his poetry, the Bard turned out enough gritty one-liners that would have made Robocop a Best Picture nominee without removing any of the bloodshed. Take heed as 2Pac, Iced Earth and more demonstrate how "talk like Shakespeare" means "talk like a badass."

  • Tupac Shakur Biopic: John Singleton Leaves Project to Make Own Film About Rapper

    Director John Singleton announced yesterday, April 8, that he would not be working on Morgan Creek's biopic of Tupac Shakur. Instead, the filmmaker has decided to go off on his own and create a project about the life of one of the world's greatest rappers. Carl Franklin will replace Singleton for the Morgan Creek biopic, 'Billboard' noted.

  • Murder Leading Cause of Death Among Rappers: New Study Examines Genres and Fatalities

    A new study conducted by a professor at the University of Sydney has found that murder is the leading cause of death among rap artists. Dianna Theadora Kenny looked at the deaths of 13,000 artists from all genres, finding that murder accounted for about 50 percent of the deaths among hip-hop performers. The study was released yesterday, March 25, on the 18th anniversary of The Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Life After Death,' Vibe noted.
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