David Drake

No one does weary experience like the legendary rapper Scarface, perhaps the most influential veteran of Southern rap. Along with his new group, The Product, Scarface has released an extremely...

Chicago rapper Vakill has been rapping for well over a decade, but had not dropped a solo record until "The Darkest Cloud" three years ago. Though intriguing, his debut was...

This humble Detroit beatmaker may have been one of the most underrated in rap when he died from complications of lupus last month. His hip-hop beats, which laced everyone from...

Greensleeves Records annually takes to the formidable task of filtering and distributing Jamaica's biggest dancehall anthems. Although only a partially representative record of the year in uptempo Jamaican dance beats,...

Houston gained ground in the rap world in 2005, with a couple of platinum albums and several major label signings. But the Houston scene is broad, and perhaps no underground...

Houston rapper Papa Reu is best known for the Caribbean-inflected sing-song hook on the 504 Boyz' "Tight Whips." Certainly his Trinidadian origins, ragga-influenced style and Houston hip-hop locale lend his...

The Notorious B.I.G. did not leave Earth with overflowing vaults of recorded material. Thus comes only the second posthumous B.I.G. disc, an uneven-if-reverential piece of marketing acumen that manages to...

Juelz Santana's sophomore effort is a marked improvement over his entertaining-yet-uneven debut, "From Me To U." As an MC, Juelz doesn't stray far from his mentor, the eccentric New York...

In 2002, Chamillionaire and his partner Paul Wall released "Get Ya Mind Correct," an underground rap album that combined Houston hip-hop's traditional obsessions (cars, women, money) with upbeat and amusing...

All eyes have been on Houston ever since Mike Jones' distinctive anthem "Still Tiepin'" made its slow, yearlong climb to national prominence. But the city's rap scene runs far deeper...