Anatomy of a Verse

The Independent Hip-Hop movement exploded in the early 2000's. While MF DOOM was on the forefront in New York, a triple threat who called himself Madlib was turning heads in Los Angeles.

MF DOOM's beats deserve their own category. With unconventional breakbeats, sloppy drum programming, and sample choices that could be adventurously unadventurous, DOOM made everyone rethink the rules of Hip-Hop production.

Earth, Wind & Fire's keyboardist – Larry Dunn – created one of the coolest and most underappreciated instrumental interludes of all time by playing along to a different song... backwards. This is just one of many ways in which EWF helped usher in the Hip-Hop revolution without actually making hip-hop music.

Kendrick Lamar's 'Control' verse is a brilliantly written love letter to the era of competitive Hip-Hop. In this episode, we examine all the clever references and homages, as well as the misleading media feeding frenzy that followed its release.

Andre 3000 lays it all on the table here: his life, his career, and his relationship with women, drugs, food, fashion, and the music industry. And underneath it all, a message about mental health and defining success from Hip-Hop's greatest mystic.

Dr. Dre's 1992 album The Chronic ushered in a new era of mainstream Rap Music based in Los Angeles, but not without some challenges from Hip-Hop's original birthplace of New York City. His secret weapon was a Long Beach rapper named Snoop Doggy Dogg, who reminds us that Hip-Hop's DNA began way before 1973.

Happy Halloween to all the listeners, and a Happy 10-year Anniversary to the subject of today's episode! In 2010, Nicki Minaj did the impossible, successfully navigating industry hurdles that had shut women out of lead roles in Hip-Hop for almost a decade. But it wouldn't happen without sacrifices.

The first rapper to have a number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 was not Vanilla Ice, or MC Hammer, but Debbie Harry from the band Blondie. On this episode, we examine how the song Rapture helped fuse two parallel music scenes in New York City, and how Fab Five Freddy played a key role in that merger.