Check out 'NO SKIPS with Jinx and Shea', a new Spotify and Ringer show dedicated to hip-hop's most iconic and unskippable albums, hosted by Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins and best-selling author, Shea Serrano. Each episode focuses on a single album and discusses its cultural significance, best songs, hardest lyrics, unknown facts, and lasting legacy in hip-hop. In this special preview, Jinx and Shea discuss Lil Wayne’s ‘Tha Carter III’.

Listen and follow 'NO SKIPS with Jinx and Shea' only on Spotify. New episodes drop Thursdays.

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Sidney Madden and Rodney Carmichael are journalists at NPR, but they could be rap history professors. And they have a thesis: emo rap is not a new phenomenon. They say it’s always been a part of the culture. In fact, they think that a lot of the all-time greats, like Jay Z and Biggie and Scarface, were writing emo raps long before the genre went mainstream. On this episode, we go back to the roots of emo and really get in our feelings.

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In the late 90s, there was plenty of awesome tv to watch after school; but for Eric Eddings one program ruled them all: Rap City Tha Basement on BET. Every day, Rap City picked Eric up off of his couch and dropped him right into the world of hip hop, where he could rub elbows with huge names--we’re talking about Ludacris, Cam’Ron, Nas, and more. On this episode of The Mogul Mixtapes we’re bringing you back to Tha Basement.

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JPEGMAFIA is an experimental rapper with a knack for creating genre-bending beats out of the internet’s weirdest sounds. He’s sampled everything from Nicki Minaj’s rants on Queen Radio to the sound effects of Mortal Kombat; and on this episode of the Mogul Mixtapes he’s taking us back through it all--from the sample that sparked his interest in production, all the way up to his newest track. 

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Kelly Rowland was just a teenager when she and the rest of Destiny’s Child came to New York to audition for record labels. Over 20 years later, she’s been all over the world, met her idols (including Whitney Houston), lived out so many of her musical dreams—but the stuff she heard in those early years still makes her weak in the knees. In this episode, Kelly talks us through her ultimate playlist and the music that made her, from A Tribe Called Quest to Sade to Pebbles to Salt-N-Pepa.

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Before Tupac topped the charts, he was just a roadie in baggy jeans. Pioneering fashion designer April Walker takes us back to the 90s, when she caught Tupac on the come-up—and made him two gigantic, hand-crafted, velour-lined denim suits.

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On September 29th 1998 the stars aligned, Jay-Z, Outkast, A Tribe Called Quest, Mos Def & Talib Kweli (Black Star), and Brand Nubian all released classic albums. On that day Hip Hop heads around the country lined up to get their copies. Sports Journalist Bomani Jones was one them. On this episode of the Mogul Mixtapes, Bomani tells Jinx about how this day marked the beginning of an era in Hip Hop, how Jay-Z helped mainstream southern rap, and why Bomani couldn't stand New York cats in the late 90s.

Hear more from Bomani Jones here: http://www.theeveningjones.com/ 

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Timbaland has sampled almost everything. Baby laughing? Check. Crickets chirping? Check. Thunder, um, thundering? Check. On this episode of The Mogul Mixtapes, Jinx is joined by Jeff and Eric Rosenthal from ItsTheReal and the trio disappear down a rabbit hole of crazy Timbaland beats, insane samples, and the story behind hip hop’s ultimate meme.

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Sweet potato pie, the really big box of crayons with the sharpener on the back, why André 3000 is the Basquiat of rap, and how to DJ like you’re playing a game of spades—we talk about all this (and a lot more) with renowned producer and songwriter The Dream.

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