Rap

2021’s Brit awards showed pop can have it all: success, quality and diversity

The industry acknowledged megastars but didn’t solely reward commercial success, and is finally nurturing more than a small handful of female artists

Alexis Petridis

12, May, 2021 @5:00 AM

Women dominate 2021 Brit awards as Dua Lipa tops winners

2020’s heavily male ceremony reversed with wins for Arlo Parks, Haim and Billie Eilish, as Little Mix become first all-female winner of British group

Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Tobi Thomas

11, May, 2021 @9:31 PM

DMX posthumous album Exodus due for release in May

Producer friend Swizz Beatz completed the final work by the record-breaking rapper, who died in April

Laura Snapes

11, May, 2021 @8:59 AM

Tion Wayne and Russ Millions’ Body is first drill song to go to UK No 1

Catchy song has inspired viral social media trends and racked up 71,000 chart sales and 10.7m streams to date

Aamna Mohdin

07, May, 2021 @5:00 PM

Listen Up review – a standup, a rapper and a playwright in a lonely theatre

Lauren Pattison, Kay Greyson and Richard Boggie deliver audio plays about stage disasters, a sobering drinks interval and playing to an audience of none

Brian Logan

06, May, 2021 @6:30 PM

Shock G, co-founder of hip-hop group Digital Underground, dies aged 57

Rapper scored a US hit with raunchy single The Humpty Dance, and produced some of 2Pac’s early work

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

23, Apr, 2021 @8:02 AM

How Missy Elliott’s Black iconoclasm gave me a sense of identity

For a racially isolated girl in north-west England, the rapper’s weird fantasy worlds on MTV were a surrealist confidence boost

Christine Ochefu

21, Apr, 2021 @10:48 AM

AJ Tracey: Flu Game review – a confident slam dunk

Ladbroke Grove meets the NFL as the London rap star eyes the US market on a basketball-inspired album of nonstop bangers

Kitty Empire

18, Apr, 2021 @8:00 AM

Rapper Little Simz: ‘I don’t hold back – I feel super free’

She is as well known for her dizzying talent (Stormzy hailed her as a ‘legend’) as she is for her privacy. So, as Little Simz releases her fourth album, why is she finally opening up?

Simran Hans

18, Apr, 2021 @8:00 AM

UK rap star AJ Tracey: ‘I’m not all the way out of the streets’

The west Londoner is up for two Brit awards and is hoping for a No 1 album – but fame and success haven’t eclipsed his insecurities or impoverished past

Tara Joshi

16, Apr, 2021 @5:00 AM

DMX's powerful work confronted an American hell of trauma and poverty

The rapper, who has died aged 50, parlayed his life’s difficulties into thrilling, combative, witheringly witty music

Thomas Hobbs

10, Apr, 2021 @11:25 AM

US rapper DMX dies aged 50 following heart attack

Multi-platinum rapper, celebrated for raw storytelling, was first artist to top US charts with first five albums