March 22, 2013 – Rap things worth caring about. Ranked!1. Lil Wayne Isn't Dead: So, that didn't happen. Great, right? Of course it's great. Next week, we've got I Am Not a Human Being 2 coming out. It will inevitably be painted as another dip in quality and Wayne skateboards a lot now and blah blah blah. Listen, it ain't 2008 for any of us. But step back and reacquaint yourself with just how outsider artist bizarre Lil Wayne remains even when he's lost the map in a bad way. A cursory listen through IANAHB2 reveals at least two highlights: The title track, a "November Rain" piano pounder opener that may top Meek Mill's similarly unhinged and freestyle-like "Dreams & Nightmares"; and a histrionic dubstep rap featuring Gunplay. Even the album-ending, album-ruining butt rock banger "Hello," should just make sense at this point. What do y'all expect?2.

March 21, 2013 – This week's picks are all rappers doing what they do very well. Nothing ambitious or out-of-the-box really, just a varied group of rappers occupying their respective lanes, expertly.Durty Kash feat. Z-Ro & Yo Gotti - "Just a Playa"Smoothed-out Mannie Fresh disciples Beanz & Kornbread have worked closely with raps' number one depressive sing-rapper (Drake, who?) Z-Ro, but they really outdid themselves with "Just a Playa," a rolling loop of Zapp-ian synth-fart bass and Atlantic Starr sexy slow-jam keyboards. It's technically fellow Houstonian Durty Kash's track, and Yo Gotti grunts pretty well on the thing (also, some guy named Young Lace appears), but it's Z-Ro's song, all the way. The space for rapping between this luxurious, long-form hook is pretty negligible.

March 19, 2013 – What happened to the black boy band? New Edition, Dru Hill, B2K, Pretty Ricky, and then, what? There's also a notable dearth of black pop right now. Consider, too, that the boy band was the last place where the slowed-down, all-out R&B ballad got to breathe. The Backstreet Boys' catalog is dominated by slow jams; 'N Sync worked closely with Babyface. Justin Timberlake began his solo career chasing Michael Jackson and just released a new album that aims for Maxwell's soulful sprawl. Well, enter Mindless Behavior, a foursome from Los Angeles, mining the same boy-band novelty and unabashedly melodramatic, lovey-dovey intensity as One Direction.

March 19, 2013 – Producer Bangladesh is best known for Lil Wayne's "A Milli" and Ludacris' "What's Your Fantasy," two avant-Southern hip-hop classics. He's also responsible for Kelis' "Bossy," Dem Franchize Boyz's "Talking Out Da Side of Ya Neck," Beyonce's "Diva," Gucci Mane's "Lemonade," Nicki Minaj's "Did It on 'Em," and E-40's "They Point," and plenty of others. He's important. To many, though, he's categorized as a one-rap-banger-wonder: The dude who made “A Milli.” Bangladesh doesn't have a sound exactly, though there is a kind of Timbaland weirdness-gone-weirder (maybe too weird, even) approach to beatmaking that's very much his own.So, his mixtape Ponzi Scheme exists to smack you in the head with the recent work that you probably slept on or, at least, didn't peep the credits (for 2 Chainz, Brandy, and Rihanna), and to show off his latest eccentric productions.

March 19, 2013 – Who: Recent Motown signee Bryan Sledge, an A-student of '70s soul with a defiantly confessional hip-hop streak, as heard loud and clear on last year's ambitious Pineapple Now & Laters. "My aggression comes from hip-hop," he explains, "even the way I pronounce my words." And he's learning from the best, most emotive MCs, too, frequently collaborating with Kendrick Lamar, and stealing Freddie Gibbs and Madlib's 2012 single, "Shame." His stage name, BJ the Chicago Kid, shows his dedication to a talking point—a hometown that shoves him into city savior role. "What's being displayed [in the media] is only the negative," he says. "There's so much good going on in [Chicago] that's not being portrayed." Example?

March 15, 2013 – This the first installment of the new Friday Five, a weekly rundown of five things that made rap music really interesting this week. Bentley's Verse on ST 2 Lettaz's "Wasted Youth": Ex-G-Sider ST 2 Lettaz's solo album G: Growth & Development certainly delivers on the promise of both growth and development. It finds the Huntsville rapper branching out a bit, mining an interest in early '90s boom-bap — though it is thankfully cut with the Block Beattaz' dirty South molly stomp — penning a honest-to-God relationship rap, and continuing to wrestle with the reality that an Internet rap career can crumble any minute. He sounds comfortable and hey, good for him. However, G lacks the post-rock sprawl of G-Side (and ST's excellent 2012 EP, R.E.B.E.L.); that song-to-song lots-of-feelings build-up that defined the group.

March 13, 2013 – We're changing things up. From here on out, look for our weekly round-up of the best rap songs on Wednesday. The "Friday Five" will focus on the five most exciting rap things of the week — be it a mixtape, a guest verse, a music video, or some World Star Hip-Hop debacle too incredible to not acknowledge. Stay tuned.Fat Tony feat. Kool A.D.

March 5, 2013 – Released by Rad Reef, the Bay Area collective fronted by producer/rapper/video director/pot advocate Zachg, New No Wave culls together Internet rappers and beatmakers like Little Rock's Pepperboy, Lil B favorite Keyboard Kid, fast-rapping Main Attrakionz pal Shady Blaze, Austin weirdo Western Tink, and many, many more. And despite the multitude of rap personalities bouncing all around on this compilation, it legitimately feels of one piece. It's a survey of hip-hop's oddballs with one thing in common: They don't fit anywhere else and they're pretty cool with that. There are plenty of bloggy rappers gaming the system and organically (but totally not organically) breaking through on one level or another, but what could anyone really do commercially with a Tom Waits-voiced screamer like Tree or the Odd-Futuristic Miami Tumblr maniacs Metro Zu, anyway?

March 4, 2013 – This season of Saturday Night Live has brought a couple of genuinely compelling performances. There was the usually bugged-out Kendrick Lamar slowing things down for “Swimming Pools (Drank)” and then smooth-jazzing “Poetic Justice;” and Justin Bieber, who is gunning for Justin Timberlake's spot, doing an acoustic version of “As Long as You Love Me,” and “Nothing Like Us” with a futuristic old-timey microphone.

February 25, 2013 – The Foreign Exchange began as an online collaboration between rapper Phonte Coleman and producer Nicolay Rook, then a budding producer in the Netherlands. 2004's Connected was ambitious (check out the Bing Crosby sample on “Let's Move”), though in-the-pocket underground hip-hop project. Since then, though, Nicolay moved to the States and the Foreign Exchange evolved into a brooding art-soul project; alt-R&B before such a thing really was getting any attention. Meanwhile +FE Music, the Foreign Exchange's label has expanded beyond the group, putting out projects from future R&B-er Yahzarah, wizened rapper Median, soul eccentric Zo!, singer-songwriter Jeanne Jolly, and others.