Crank up the low end and crack open some booze, we’re hitting you with the most familiar Mexican-American hip-hop (AKA Chicano Rap) this side of the border. Sure, they’re technically from East LA, but we’re not real technical here so it’s cool. Formed in 1991 (classic in hip-hop years), they released their self-titled debut a [...]

In the 1887, Dr. Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof published the first work in Esperanto: a language he had constructed himself as an international auxiliary language, one meant to enable communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. The word Esperanto means “one who hopes;” the language itself was created with [...]

According to The RZA—who’s been busying himself winning chess competitions and pushing back Wu albums to please Ghost… I digress– German hip-hop is about 10 years behind U.S. hip-hop. Thus, what many consider the German Golden Age went down during the last few years of the 20th century. Between 1995 and 2000, battle rap emerged [...]

About a year and a half ago, a friend of mine sent the tracklisting for some Japanese group called the Teriyaki Boyz. It looked a little something like this: Track 1: produced by Adrock (of the Beastie Boys) Track 2: produced by Mark Ronson Track 3: produced by Daft Punk Track 4: produced by Dan [...]

To introduce Japan, we decided against showcasing the artists you are probably familiar with (nothing against DJ Krush, but the dude’s been getting his shine for decades) in favor of Hunger, Mu-R, and Mitsu the Beats – the Jazzy hip-hop trio called Gagle. For the beat-oriented out there, they’ll sound very familiar – the classic-styled [...]

Excerpt from Diamond in the Rough– Babaluku of Bataka Squad rapping in Luganda in a canoe on the Nile River: Hip hop struggled to emerge in Uganda in the early to mid 1990s. Local hip hop artists had to overcome the community’s negative stereotypes and low level of appreciation for the genre. Working hard to [...]

Born in 1978 (one year after the civil war began in Somalia), K’Naan (meaning “traveler”) Warsame grew up in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, specifically the violent and war-torn district of Wardhiigleey (aka the “River of Blood”). As a seven year old, he was introduced to American hip hop as his father sent him hip hop [...]

“Hip Hop here [in Senegal] is different than in the US. People here don’t go to the shows to dance, they go to listen. It’s a performance. And when you listen to the lyrics, it hits you, it hits you right between the eyes.” (Abdou Diop of African Bronx City Youngsters B-Boy Crew) Dakar, Senegal [...]

When Keith Cowboy of the Furious Five first used the words “hip” and “hop” in succession, he was mocking a friend who had enlisted in the army. Hip, hop, hip, hop… goes the rhythm of the soldier. However, Cowboy might have been surprised to find out that the sounds “hip” (xippi) and “hop” (xeupp) in [...]