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Indie rap powerhouse Ceschi Ramos, NOFX's Fat Mike and The Get Dead's Sam King—collectively known as the Codefendants—released their debut album, This Is Crime Wave, earlier this month. The eclectic set comes with an unexpected verse from a West Coast legend—The D.O.C., who contributes to the infectious single, "Fast Ones" and its accompanying video. 

The video, which arrived on March 9, boasted appearances from a roster of underground Hip Hop staples, including 2Mex, Freestyle Fellowship’s Myka 9, Awol One and producer Factor Chandelier. But it's The D.O.C.'s appearance that nobody really saw coming. After getting in a near-fatal car accident in 1989, his career was brought to an abrupt halt. Suddenly unable to speak or rap, he continued writing for N.W.A, Dr. D

DJ Quik is on the hunt for good charcuterie, which he says is “hard to find” in L.A. these days. “Not to sound boujee,” he adds.”But charcuterie is everything [laughs].” It’s Thursday (March 30) and within hours, his first solo single in nearly a decade, “Class,” will hit all digital streaming platforms. But that was never supposed to happen. He was done making albums. Finished. Finito. 2014’s The Midnight Life was it. Then the pandemic happened. Now, DJ Quik fans are mere months away from his tenth and final album. 

“After The Midnight Life, I was pretty much whatever, you know, just tripping off the way the industry was changing so fast,” he says with a chuckle. “I'm by myself, so it was just tough to navigate that shit. So I was like, ‘Alri

Chuck D was the most recent guest on REVOLT TV's Drink Champs. The full episode airs on Friday (March 31) via YouTube and on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. During the conversation, the Public Enemy legend chopped it up with co-hosts DJ EFN and N.O.R.E. about a flurry of topics, including Flavor Flav, the Hip Hop Alliance and what led him to finally sign a deal with Def Jam Recordings (he infamously shot Rick Rubin down multiple times). 

Chuck will receive NAMM’s inaugural Impact Music & Culture Award later this year. It's just a small sliver of the accolades he's earned over the course of his influential career. 

Public Enemy was among the first Hip Hop artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Grandmaster Flash & the Furi

LL COOL J has announced the return of the Rock The Bells Festival. The Hip Hop juggernaut made the announcement on Tuesday (March 28) via Instagram. The event takes place on August 5 at Forest Hills Stadium in the Queens borough of New York City. 

"Don’t call it a comeback," he wrote in the caption. "Rock The Bells Festival is returning on 8/5/23 to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, NY & it’s about to be bigger than ever as we Celebrate 50 Years of Hip-Hop! Last year we sold out, so we’re giving you presale access at rockthebellsfestival.com today #RTB50." 

In an interview with RAPstation's Kyle Eustice last year, Roxanne Shanté—who hosted the inaugural iteration— confirmed the festival would be returning. 

“When the Rock The Bells family

Sly Stone will release his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), on October 17 as the first book to emerge from Questlove‘s new imprint, AUWA Books. The Roots drummer will also write the foreword for the volume along with Stone’s manager Arlene Hirschkowitz.

“For as long as I can remember folks have been asking me to tell my story,” Stone, who turned 80 last week, said. “I wasn’t ready. I had to be in a new frame of mind to become Sylvester Stewart again to tell the true story of Sly Stone. It’s been a wild ride and hopefully my fans enjoy it too.”

Questlove is in the middle of directing an upcoming documentary on Stone, who appeared in his Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Stone v

Bay Area-based artist Karega Bailey has resurfaced with a new collaborative album called Legacy Talk Only featuring producer/longtime friend Jonny Gold. Boasting 10 tracks, the project finds Bailey celebrating his life as a family man and imparting the hard-won wisdom he's earned along the way. The accompanying video for "Proverbs 31" shines a light on not only Bailey's faith but also his unwavering love for his wife Dr. Felicia Gangloff-Bailey, daughter Kamali and their "daughter in heaven," who they lost in 2020. 

"Legacy Talk Only is what it sounds like when Hip Hop gets to grow up, when Hip Hop gets to become fathers and husbands and thinking about legacy, right?" Bailey tells RAPstation. "That's what we mean when we say wellness is the new genre. In al