When Salt-N-Pepa detonated the charts with their 1987 beat-box bonanza "Push It," the first all-female rap crew not only smashed down the walls between pop and hip-hop success, they also injected a muc …

When L.A. rapper Nefertiti decides to "Lay Down the Law," she does it up West Coast-style, but if there's one thing that unites all our First Ladies of Hip-Hop it's that they each do their own special  …

It was destined to be an historic year, no matter how you sliced it; either we were going to elect our first African-American President or our first female Vice President, and the word change wa …

In Basics, we heard from the guys; in Next Steps, the bands raised a little ruckus; and in Deep Cuts, we'll hear from the ladies, some of whom you saw on TV before you ever heard them on the radio. For …

While 1999 had its fair share of breakout stars (everyone from Monica to Eve to an absolute madman named Eminem), the millennium's parting shot is also remembered as a major turning point for many hip- …

Maybe it's because they're in the company of so many R&B stars, from such lovesick vets as Silk, Whitney Houston, and Gerald Levert, to such new-school balladeers as Eric BenTt, Ideal, and Babyface's o …

The hiss of a thrift store tape machine, the simple mix available to a four-track, and the sometimes pained/sometimes ecstatic honesty of unfiltered emotion - such is the appeal of lo-fi indie rock, th …

The lo-fi end of the indie spectrum is out at the edge of a scene that's already out at the edge, so you can certainly expect some revelatory "who's that?" moments among these Deep Cuts. In "Chr …

Here's how unpredictable 2009 was on a hip-hop and R&B tip: Jamie Foxx - the actor/comedian/singer best known for nailing the role of Ray Charles and the skits of In Living Color - contin …