"Electric and acoustic guitar sounds have spread onto more hip-hop records, through an assortment of production techniques, including an increased employment of loops and loop makers, who create short melodies for producers to build beats around" - Vice points out the new trend in hip-hop production. "On the Polo G’s latest album, 'Hall of Fame', nearly half of the 20 songs include a guitar sound in the beat. On H.E.R.'s 'Find a Way' the R&B artist H.E.R. uses a crystalline electric guitar as a canvas for her voice. On J. Cole's 'Pride is the Devil', a simple and somber guitar riff carries the beat"...

Hip-hop playlist RapCaviar made The Mount Rushmore of 2010s hip-hop, picking the first three and leaving it to its Twitter followers to pick out the fourth. RC first chose Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, with the Twittersphere picking out Nicki Minaj. Kanye West was close 2nd, followed by Future and Lil Wayne.

J. Cole debuted at No. 1 on Billboard 200 chart with his newest album 'The Off-Season', with an impressive 282,000 equivalent album units, Billboard reports. Cole’s record is the largest rap album of the year with his new release more than doubling the first week of Rod Wave’s 'SoulFly' album, as well as the second-biggest […]

A fun new song 'Pelota' by the psych-trio Khruangbin; 'Dreams' by Hannas Georgas is a simple, almost cold, albeit full-hearted song produced by The National's Aaron Dessner; Braids 'Snow Angel' is elegiac and threatening, a pearl!; J Cole's 'Snow On Tha Bluff' addresses the issue of Black Lives Matter protests (supposedly he's aiming at activist and rapper NoName); Idles' new song 'Grounds' features a big beat and a big riff.