Even when he was too young to have one, Nas was fixated on the past. His breakout moment, the starmaking first verse from Main Source’s 1991 posse cut, “Live at the Barbeque,” cast him as the ...

We talked about what two decades years of BMP means: It’s a notable achievement in a rarefied field--the serious music business--in no small part due to Morrison’s fierce dedication to leading the ...

There was no way to know it at the time, but mainstream hip-hop reached its creative peak in the ’90s. Lyrical dexterity and thematic ambition were still widely valued. Complex beats could still be ...