Asked by the producer what he wanted to make, DeMarco replied: “We’re smoking cigars. I am 25 per cent Italian. People talk a lot about ‘gangster rap.’ A lot of Italian-Americans in the movies are ...

Knowledge the Pirate counts himself as a member of the rapper Roc Marciano’s inner circle. Alongside KA, who we recently nominated as recording the best New York City rap album of the year, Knowledge ...

For fans and critics who intellectualize it, gangsta rap, or “reality rap,” is serious business. For them, the defining genre of West Coast hip-hop represents true stories from the ’hood as told by ...