By: Matthew Battles

A legacy too big for prose.

By: Tim Carmody

He blends virtuoso musicianship with generational esoterica.

By: Joshua Glenn

Spaced out, but with the wink of awareness.

By: Joshua Glenn

“Everybody rappin’ but they don’t know how./You shoulda seen the boy rappin’ to the cow.”

By: Tom Nealon

The parataxic pyrotechnics of hip-hop’s Ishmael Reed.

By: David Smay

His elegant electronics gave us the soundtrack of a fractured and funky tomorrow.

By: Matthew De Abaitua

Traveling the spaceways, a massive starship with one passenger.

By: Alexis Madrigal

The game we played was the life he lived.

By: Patrick Cates

Brilliance, alienation, and control-freakery breeds enchantment.

By: Brian Berger

Hip-hop lyrics bust through to literature.

By: James Parker

Let us now celebrate all those who are finished before they start.

By: Patrick Cates

He took the prog rock that punk hated so… and wrapped it up in punk.

By: Brian Berger

The musical redemption of a prodigal son.

By: Lynn Peril

Rock‘n’roll, horror movies, and Orange Sun­shine acid

By: Douglas Wolk

The greatest rapper of all time? That’s a contentious one. But if we rephrase it as “most quotable rapper,” then there’s a shoo-in: William Michael Griffin Jr., the god-on-the-mic better known as RAKIM (born 1968). […]