J Cole: The Fall Off review – rap legend’s final album is a self-obsessed hip-hop history lesson

(Interscope)Bowing out after six consecutive US No 1 albums, Cole references rap greats and even conjures a convo between Biggie and 2Pac – but the lens rarely strays from himself

Unmasking US rap iconoclast MF Doom’s final years in West Yorkshire

Podcast by Adam Batty and BBC 6 Music DJ Afrodeutsche follows the leads to Leeds

Rapper Lil Jon confirms son is dead after police find body in pond near Atlanta

Nathan Smith, 27, known professionally as DJ Young Slade, was a music producer, artist, engineer and NYU graduate

The Grammys riled Donald Trump – but the big winners were chosen for their music, not politics

The president called the ceremony ‘garbage’, but in reality it was a celebration of artists whose commercial success was matched by boundary-pushing boldness

‘Kids referenced it as they asked for condoms’: the makers of cult hip-hop film House Party look back

‘I wanted Kid ’n Play but the studio said, “Who are these guys?” I replied, “They’ve got platinum records.” I had no idea if they did’

A Gathering for Gaza: Genesis Owusu, Julia Jacklin and Angie McMahon celebrate art as resistance

Thousands attend Melbourne event to raise money for non-profits dedicated to the plight of Palestinians

Urthboy AKA Tim Levinson: ‘My most chaotic gig? There’s a lot where it’s pretty good knowing we didn’t die’

The Herd emcee on the highs and lows of noughties touring, the perfect protest song, and his cringeworthy encounter with a hero

Eddie Thornton obituary

Trumpeter who contributed to Georgie Fame’s Blue Flames and later became a member of Aswad

Lily Allen’s live return, Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights and Simon Rattle’s Janáček: music to listen out for in 2026

Raye, Deftones and Yungblud do UK tours, Jill Scott returns for more neo-soul, and classical world gears up to celebrate György Kurtág at 100

‘It contains the greatest song ever about an ice cream truck’: readers’ favourite albums of 2025

The beautiful despair of Cameron Winter, the perfectly imperfect life of Lily Allen, the maximalist R&B of Dijon and more: here’s what our readers have had on heavy rotation

‘It’s been called the greatest hip-hop film ever’: how we made cult graffiti classic Wild Style

‘I handed a guy a starting pistol for a stick-up scene. But instead he reached into his car and took out the sawn-off shotgun you see in the movie’

‘Constant stimulation, dopamine overload’: how EsDeeKid and UK underground rap exploded on a global scale

With an experimental and maxed-out sound, bold new MCs are emerging from all corners of the UK – and with US rap in the doldrums, the time is ripe for another British Invasion

Hip-hop godfathers the Last Poets: ‘In times of great chaos, there’s opportunity’

Members of the groundbreaking, politically revolutionary group talk about the state of hip-hop and the US government’s attacks on people of color

Donald Glover reveals he had a stroke on Childish Gambino tour in 2024

Musician and actor tells LA audience that doctors also found a hole in his heart requiring surgery

De La Soul: Cabin in the Sky review – a full-colour celebration of Trugoy the Dove that never feels heavy

The first release since the death of their founding member dwells on the afterlife, yet doesn’t forsake their perpetually sunny sound