Joell Ortiz has been garnering critical acclaim for his unparalleled skill on the mic for more than a decade, but even with years of experience and multiple hits under his belt, the Brooklyn rapper is just getting started.

Ortiz grew up in the housing projects of Brooklyn, an experience the rapper often calls back to in his music. Early in his career, he was called out as one of the best unsigned rappers on the scene by The Source magazine, though he didn&#39;t stay unsigned for long -- Ortiz was quickly signed to Dr. Dre&#39;s Aftermath label, though now he&#39;s signed with Penalty Entertainment. He quickly built up some mainstream attention for his appearances on the soundtracks to GTA IV and NBA Live 2005.

Ortiz cemented his place as one of hip hop&#39;s greats with his debut album, 2007&#39;s&nbsp;The Brick: Bodega Chronicles.&nbsp;Featuring guest appearances from hip hop legends like Big Daddy Kane, Akon, and Styles P, the album managed to chart on Billboard&#39;s top 50 Rap and independent album charts.

The four solo albums that Ortiz has released since Bodega Chronicles have similarly been well received both commercially and critically, but nowadays Ortiz is just as well known for his work with supergroup Slaughterhouse, which also features fellow superstars Joe Budden, Kxng Crooked, and Royce Da 5&#39;9&quot;. The group has reportedly finished their third studio album,&nbsp;Glass House, which was originally announced in 2014 but has yet to be released, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts. The album features production from legendary hip hop producer Just Blaze and will be released through Eminem&#39;s Shady Records label.

Most recently, Ortiz was one of the many hip hop superstars who appeared on the star studded and critically acclaimed&nbsp;Hamilton Mixtape&nbsp;album. He performed a song from the Trump angering runaway hit musical on The Jimmy Fallon Show, alongside Busta Rhymes and The Roots&#39; Black Thought.&nbsp;<a href="http://variety.com/2016/music/news/busta-rhymes-hamilton-mixtape-my-shot-jimmy-fallon-watch-1201934765/" target="_blank">Watch that performance here.</a> 
 
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

Joell Ortiz has been garnering critical acclaim for his unparalleled skill on the mic for more than a decade, but even with years of experience and multiple hits under his belt, the Brooklyn rapper is just getting started.

Ortiz grew up in the housing projects of Brooklyn, an experience the rappe...

Spotlight Artist: Joell Ortiz

Coachella isn&#39;t the only music festival being headlined by hip hop artists these days -- Tennessee&#39;s popular Bonnaroo music festival has announced their line-up for this year&#39;s event, and it&#39;s loaded with some of modern rap&#39;s biggest acts.

Chance the Rapper, The Weeknd, and Travis Scott will headline the four day festival alongside rock groups U2 and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Artists such as D.R.A.M. and Torey Lanez will also perform.

<a href="https://www.bonnaroo.com/" target="_blank">You can view the full Bonnaroo line-up here.</a>

Chance is still riding high off of the success of his award winning, critically acclaimed&nbsp;Coloring Book&nbsp;mixtape and its accompanying world tour. The Chicago rapper most recently appeared on the cover of lifestyle magazine GQ.

The Bonnaroo Music Festival began in 2002. Like many music festivals, Bonnaroo began with a focus on a single type of music (in this case, folk,) but later expanded to encompass a wide variety of genres.

Earlier this month, the Coachella Music Festival similarly announced a line-up that was heavy with hip hop acts, most notably Kendrick Lamar. 
 
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

Coachella isn&#39;t the only music festival being headlined by hip hop artists these days -- Tennessee&#39;s popular Bonnaroo music festival has announced their line-up for this year&#39;s event, and it&#39;s loaded with some of modern rap&#39;s biggest acts.

Chance the Rapper, The Weeknd, and Tr...

Chance, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, headline Bonnaroo

&ldquo;I know the arts saved my life,&rdquo;&nbsp;Q-Tip told standing behind his podium at the National Arts and Humanities Youth Awards ceremony held at the White House, a historic moment without a doubt.

But there had been rappers and hip-hop artists within White House walls even before president Barrack Obama&#39;s tenure, Eazy-E had been the first, followed by Sean &ldquo;Diddy Combs&rdquo;, but the latter had only been given a tour, while the other attending due to technical reasons.

The Obamas were the first to fully embrace both hip-hop music and culture, and recognize its significance,&nbsp;seeking out pathways for hip-hop to teach and inspire; Q-Tip simply represents one among the many, proving that the link between hip-hop and president Obama went further beyond his humorously-pleasant playlists reveals.

Rap music fueled the Let&#39;s Move! Initiative, First Lady Michelle Obama&#39;s campaign to end childhood obesity, and along its front lines stood veteran emcee and beat box pioneer,&nbsp;Doug E. Fresh&nbsp;in a memorable &ldquo;Everybody&rdquo; music video.

With such uncanny acceptance towards an arguably-unorthodox form of art, perhaps even president Obama foresaw the inevitable backlash and criticism, which came along through opposition against&nbsp;Common&nbsp;and his heartfelt poetics during a memorable &ldquo;An Evening of Poetry&rdquo; held at the White House.

But did Obama&#39;s hip-hop furtherance cease there? Perhaps the answer lays catalogued along his next four years:&nbsp;Queen Latifah&nbsp;performs at A Tribute to Memphis Soul in 2013;&nbsp;Big Sean&nbsp;participates at the White House Easter Egg Roll the year after;&nbsp;Killer Mike&nbsp;at the capital&#39;s Correspondents&#39; Dinner in 2015;&nbsp;Wale&nbsp;guest speaks at the Beating the Odds Summit that same year, not to mention becoming the first emcee to open the State of The Union Address in 2016.

The list goes on, with&nbsp;Kendrick Lamar&#39;s memorable performance at the Fourth of July barbecue, as&nbsp;Common&nbsp;returns to perform for NPR&#39;s Tiny Desk Concert during the South by South Lawn Festival as well as BET&#39;s Love and Happiness event which showcased a stellar lineup of feature artists, such as&nbsp;De La Soul&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Roots, just to name a few.

April was also a memorable month, as hip-hop artists&nbsp;Chance The Rapper, J. Cole, Wale, Ludacris, Pusha T, DJ Khaled, and Busta Rhymes&nbsp;contribute their voices during the My Brother&#39;s Keeper Initiative which operated as accords on criminal justice reform&mdash;which apparently became a humorous event when&nbsp;Rick Ross&#39;s ankle monitor went off, catching the President&#39;s attention.

The Obamas without a doubt knew how to utilize hip-hop as a way to empower others, and that included the Obamas as well&mdash;remember his playlist? Some of his featured tracks included&nbsp;Jay-Z&#39;s&nbsp;&ldquo;So Ambitious&rdquo;,&nbsp;Kendrick Lamar&#39;s&nbsp;&ldquo;How Much a Dollar Cost&rdquo;, and&nbsp;Nas&#39;&ldquo;As We Enter&rdquo; to name a few, but you can catch his top five in a particular Sway In The Morning interview.

It&#39;s antics like these that garnered accolades such as in&nbsp;Newsone&#39;s &ldquo;For the past eight years, the Obamas gave rap and Black music a place to call home... By embracing a music genre that, at times, serves as a voice for the youth, the Obamas inspired hope for a generation who may have felt detached from mainstream society.&rdquo;

Biggie&nbsp;knew what he was saying when he said, &ldquo;Never thought that hip-hop would take it this far,&rdquo; which it obviously did.

January 20th&nbsp;2017 marks the end of an era, one that marked a home for hip-hop, both for its music and its culture. But the legacy still lives and carries on through the hearts affected by the movement sparked by Hip-hop and fanned by the Obamas.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPstation.com

&nbsp;

&ldquo;I know the arts saved my life,&rdquo;&nbsp;Q-Tip told standing behind his podium at the National Arts and Humanities Youth Awards ceremony held at the White House, a historic moment without a doubt.

But there had been rappers and hip-hop artists within White House walls even before preside...

End Of An Era, Hip Hop In The White House

Anderson .Paak just wrapped a phenomenal year, and currently stands among other notable artists nominated for the Grammy&#39;s Best New Artist.

Kicking off 2017, the Oxnard native joined Pharrell and Scott Vener on Apple Music&#39;s OTHERtone Beats 1 Show, discussing about working with Dr. Dre as well as future collaborations. While Pharrell suggested a collaboration with Q-Tip, Paak countered with an interesting response:

&ldquo;We got records, me and Tip,&rdquo; says Paak, following-up by revealing that he and the A Tribe Called Quest frontman had already been working together. Paak also unveiled that although the content still bears no set release date, one particular tune ended up on ATCQ&#39;s latest album on the track &quot;Moving Backwards&quot;.

He continues, &ldquo;We got some joints man. We be on the wave for sure when we go over there,&rdquo; in regard to working with Q-Tip. &ldquo;I got a couple with [DJ] Quik too,&rdquo; Paak teased.

Anderson .Paak first gained recognition working with West Coast legend, Dr. Dre on his 2015 album,&nbsp;Compton, and later signing under his label, Aftermath Entertainment. In 2016, Paak released two breakout albums,&nbsp;Malibu, as well as&nbsp;Yes Lawd&nbsp;under the NxWorries moniker with Knxwledge.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

Anderson .Paak just wrapped a phenomenal year, and currently stands among other notable artists nominated for the Grammy&#39;s Best New Artist.

Kicking off 2017, the Oxnard native joined Pharrell and Scott Vener on Apple Music&#39;s OTHERtone Beats 1 Show, discussing about working with Dr. Dre as...

Anderson .Paak Teases Collaborative Work With Q-Tip & DJ Quik

Kendrick Lamar is the latest hip hop artist to get top billing at the world renowned Coachella Music Festival.

The Grammy Award winning rapper will take over Coachella&#39;s main stage on the third and sixth days of the annual music festival,&nbsp;January 16th&nbsp;and the 23rd. Radiohead and Beyonce are the show&#39;s other headlining musicians.

The prestigious headlining spot is the most recent accomplishment for the Compton rapper, who has quickly emerged as one of the premiere socially conscious voices in hip hop right now. Last year, Lamar took home five Grammy awards and his compilation album,&nbsp;Untitled Unmastered, was released to near unanimous critical acclaim and debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. Lamar is also preparing to launch a sneaker he designed with Reebok, which will go on sale later this month.

Lamar is the latest hip hop artist to headline the festival, following in the footsteps of artists like Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, OutKast, and Jay Z.

The festival will also host sets from many of hip hop&#39;s biggest acts, including DJ Khaled, Schoolboy Q, Denzel Curry, Gucci Mane, and many more.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coachella.com/lineup/" target="_blank">You can see the festival&#39;s full line-up here.</a>

By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

Kendrick Lamar is the latest hip hop artist to get top billing at the world renowned Coachella Music Festival.

The Grammy Award winning rapper will take over Coachella&#39;s main stage on the third and sixth days of the annual music festival,&nbsp;January 16th&nbsp;and the 23rd. Radiohead and Bey...

Kendrick Lamar headlines hip hop heavy Coachella music festival

Future recently declared that 2017 was going to be this year, and he&#39;s making good on those promises -- yesterday the Atlanta rapper released a brand new song, &quot;Buy Love,&quot; and today he&#39;s teamed up with Rick Ross to deliver a video for their latest collaboration, &quot;That&#39;s A Check.&quot;

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nezwjuAuFV8" target="_blank">Watch the video for &quot;That&#39;s A Check&quot; here.</a>

The video, which features Future and Ross partying in a mansion, was directed by Eif Rivera, who has previously helmed videos for Kanye West, Fat Joe, 50 Cent, and Wyclef.

Yesterday Future released &quot;Buy Love,&quot;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wbz1rB3HMw" target="_blank">&nbsp;alongside an accompanying video for the song.&nbsp;</a>The &quot;Turn On The Lights&quot; rapper recently drew some attention for deleting all of his posts on Instagram and<a href="https://twitter.com/1future/status/816006221165723653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">then cryptically tweeting</a>&nbsp;&quot;Me &amp; [frequent Future collaborator DJ] esco against the world...ion trust none of these people! They all greedy,&quot; before declaring &quot;2017 nobody safe.&quot;

Future was uncommonly prolific last year, releasing four projects over the course of 2016, including the&nbsp;Purple Reign&nbsp;mixtape. It seems like he&#39;s preparing to release even more new material this year, so Future fans should stay alert for what has so far been daily new releases from the artist.

By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

&nbsp;

Future recently declared that 2017 was going to be this year, and he&#39;s making good on those promises -- yesterday the Atlanta rapper released a brand new song, &quot;Buy Love,&quot; and today he&#39;s teamed up with Rick Ross to deliver a video for their latest collaboration, &quot;That&#39;s A...

Spotlight Artist: Joell Ortiz

Chance, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, headline Bonnaroo

End Of An Era, Hip Hop In The White House

Anderson .Paak Teases Collaborative Work With Q-Tip & DJ Quik

Kendrick Lamar headlines hip hop heavy Coachella music festival

Future and Rick Ross drop visuals for "That's A Check"

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