The self-professed &ldquo;Lonely Stoner&rdquo;, Kid Cudi, broadcasted an alerting reveal last Tuesday. Confessing to feeling constantly haunted by depressing and suicidal thoughts, Cudi announced both a regress from music and a recent rehab check-in.

&ldquo;I am not at peace. I haven&#39;t been since you&#39;ve known me. If I didn&#39;t come here, I would&#39;ve done something else,&rdquo; Cudi admitted via Facebook post, &ldquo;I simply am a damaged human swinging in a pool of emotions everyday of my life. There&#39;s a raging violent storm inside of my heart at all times. [I don&#39;t know] what peace feels like. [I don&#39;t know] how to relax. My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember and I never leave the house because of it.&rdquo;

The post sparked an online upheaval as thousands of fans and numerous artists took to comfort the melancholy rapper. Since the date of Cudi&#39;s initial reveal, the post currently accounts over 44,000 comments, as well as more than 111,000 shares.

The backlash has also awakened the hashtag #YouGoodMan, which is currently trending on social media, and constantly gathering participants. Conceived by @DaynaLNuckolls and @TheCosby, the trend has birthed into an online community, providing an &ldquo;open space&rdquo; where individuals are free to share their distresses.

#YouGoodMan envisions a virtual solace for such individuals and encourages active participation from those willing to provide aid in whatever method found necessary.

What began as a somber confession, however, may have in fact surfaced with positive results. Aside from the thousands rallying around to encourage the distressed Cudi, as well as the birth of #YouGoodMan, the rapper unconsciously illustrated a tremendously-revolutionary image: Artists are often seen as role models, both strong and optimistic; Such confession from an artist greatly reduces the shame felt by those sharing similar afflictions, and encourages them to express themselves.

Wounds, scars, no matter what form they take, should never be concealed.

For those going through such afflicting thoughts, we&nbsp;vehemently&nbsp;encourage you to contact the&nbsp;National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:&nbsp;<a href="tel:1-800-273-8255" target="_blank" value="+18002738255">1-800-273-8255</a>.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

The self-professed &ldquo;Lonely Stoner&rdquo;, Kid Cudi, broadcasted an alerting reveal last Tuesday. Confessing to feeling constantly haunted by depressing and suicidal thoughts, Cudi announced both a regress from music and a recent rehab check-in.

&ldquo;I am not at peace. I haven&#39;t been s...

Cudi's “Suicidal” Post Sparks Ongoing Media Movement

We&#39;re well into the first week of October, and Halloween can already be felt along city streets and social media. I myself, consider to be one among many, enamored by this season of mystery and unpredictability&mdash;but this year, I encountered a&nbsp;specific&nbsp;mysterious case, and it came in the form of sOuL from the O&#39;s&nbsp;Contraband Mixtape.

Beginning in 2000, sOuL from the O&#39;s built up a reputation for his erratic musical styles, &ldquo;sometimes eclectic, sometimes fierce,&rdquo; but nevertheless powerful in the sense of its immensely-imaginative ambience. Simply put, I was thinking along the lines of &ldquo;His stuff&nbsp;is really&nbsp;unheard of, but&nbsp;should be&nbsp;heard of&rdquo;.

Contraband Mixtape&nbsp;features 12 new songs that initially come off as from numerous artists, but that&#39;s where I found the brilliance inherent with this obscure, Oakland-based artist: Despite being all over the place with musical styles, he somehow manages to tie them all in and make it appear like one dark, epic saga:

&ldquo;With its unifying themes of raw emotion, plagued by social ills, haunted by love gone, and two timely interludes, it is able to cover a range of topics without losing continuity or the listener&#39;s ear,&rdquo; reads the description on its webpage, and quite frankly, I simply couldn&#39;t agree to disagree. From the tape&#39;s ear-rattling first track, to the reggae-vibe I got from the song &ldquo;DREAMS,&rdquo; there was no instance wherein I found myself unglued nor disconnected.

That being said, the songs showcase highly-introspective lyricism over various topics, while not brushing off the need to address external matters as well, dishing out hard-hitting hooks pertaining to issues such as police brutality and social inequities. While not much can be searched upon from the artist, I can only resonate to their &ldquo;ability to be relevant to current events, and remain entertaining all at once.&rdquo;

Contraband Mixtape&nbsp;also features guest appearances from Stic.man (DeadPrez), Bicasso (Living Legends), and Do D.A.T., as well as showcasing production from DJ D Sharp. SouL from the O&#39;s latest project is currently available for streaming and temporarily free for download&mdash;make sure you check it out through the link below:

<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://s-o-u-l.bandcamp.com/album/contraband-mixtape&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1475879420937000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE2tdfc5NL7yuR8YZK0hf0kUaULQg" href="http://s-o-u-l.bandcamp.com/album/contraband-mixtape" target="_blank">http://s-o-u-l.bandcamp.com/album/contraband-mixtape</a>

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

We&#39;re well into the first week of October, and Halloween can already be felt along city streets and social media. I myself, consider to be one among many, enamored by this season of mystery and unpredictability&mdash;but this year, I encountered a&nbsp;specific&nbsp;mysterious case, and it came...

sOuL from the O Drops "Contraband Mixtape"

Doesn&#39;t mainstream radio these days feel,&nbsp;whats the word, redundant? A hit song comes, you get glued, it gets overplayed, next thing you know it starts sounding mundane. Luckily, throwback playlists are always an option, and today we recommend three anniversary records from 90s Hip hop.

Can I Borrow a Dollar&nbsp;back in 92 was the debut album from now-prominent Chicago rapper, Common. The album&#39;s entirety was produced by the notable No I.D. (formerly known as Immenslope) and Twilite Tone, as well as additional contributions from The Beatnuts.

Being his debut, Common introduced a distinct brand of melodic rapping, containing both clever wordplay pop-culture allusions&mdash;all of which floating atop jazzy samples and laid back beats. Though the album didn&#39;t attain as much recognition as other rap giants of the time,AllMusic&nbsp;favored it as &ldquo;underrated&rdquo;, but nevertheless, a strong introduction from a new artist

Speaking of hip-hop giants, Cypress Hill also released their fourth studio record,&nbsp;Cypress Hill IV,&nbsp;in 1998. The album attained RIAA Gold, and although DJ Muggs upheld it as his own favorite, the album was considered to be the rap group&#39;s most &ldquo;varied&rdquo; release.

Much of its mixed reception connects to the group&#39;s creative leap into rap-metal. The album did introduce a newer,&nbsp;vehemently&nbsp;aggressive sound, and despite varying criticism,&nbsp;Rap Pages&nbsp;applauded their latest release as &ldquo;a fabulous formula of speakerphone tones&rdquo;, not to mention&nbsp;The Wire&#39;s vivid description: &ldquo;They come out fighting. Red-eyed, rabid and slobbering with skunk-fueled menace... Gangsta rap&#39;s future as a musical force is secure.&rdquo;

The Recipe&nbsp;was also released that same day, presenting West Coast rapper Mack 10&#39;s third studio album, which was also considered a &ldquo;launching pad&rdquo; for the rapper&#39;s newly-formed label, Hoo Bangin&#39; Records. The album topped at #6 off the&nbsp;Billboard&nbsp;Top R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Albums, #15 on&nbsp;Billboard&nbsp;200, and inevitably fashioned certified Gold, two months following its debut.

The album contained a myriad of guest appearances from prominent artists, rostering Eazy-E, MC Eiht, Master P, WC, Tray Dee, Jermaine Dupri, Ol&#39; Dirty Bastard, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and Korn&mdash;and with all those artists, that&nbsp;makes the perfect wrap-up for a throwback playlist; locked on shuffle and stereos on blast, you&#39;ll be cruising back through the 90s in no time.

By Jods Arboleda for RAPStation.com

Doesn&#39;t mainstream radio these days feel,&nbsp;whats the word, redundant? A hit song comes, you get glued, it gets overplayed, next thing you know it starts sounding mundane. Luckily, throwback playlists are always an option, and today we recommend three anniversary records from 90s Hip hop....

Throwback to 90s Hip Hop with Common, Mack 10, and Cypress Hill

Virginia rapper D.R.A.M. will be following up the slow burn success of his single &quot;Broccoli&quot; with the release of his first studio album sometime this month.

Entitled &quot;Big Baby D.R.A.M.,&quot; the highly anticipated new album will be released on&nbsp;October 21st&nbsp;through Atlantic Records. D.R.A.M. revealed the album&#39;s release date and album cover, which features a picture of him with his dog, through Twitter.

D.R.A.M.&#39;s biggest hit so far, &quot;Broccoli,&quot; which also features Georgia rapper Lil Yachty, was released a few months ago and gradually grew in popularity through word of mouth. In early September, &quot;Broccoli&quot; dethroned Drake and Rihanna&#39;s &quot;Too Good&quot; from the top spot on the Billboard charts, and the single has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.

D.R.A.M. also r<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D0j8frgmdvgc&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1475865049305000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEzozChFHCNTUHQiILpRmk3ceqIHw" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j8frgmdvgc" target="_blank">ecently appeared on The Tonight Show to perform with Ty Dolla $ign and Chance the Rapper on a special performance of &quot;Blessings,&quot;</a>&nbsp;a track off of Chance&#39;s Coloring Book mixtape. 
 
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation

<center><iframe src="http://www.rapstation.com/videos/embed/284" width="670" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" ></iframe></center>

Virginia rapper D.R.A.M. will be following up the slow burn success of his single &quot;Broccoli&quot; with the release of his first studio album sometime this month.

Entitled &quot;Big Baby D.R.A.M.,&quot; the highly anticipated new album will be released on&nbsp;October 21st&nbsp;through Atlant...

D.R.A.M. debut album to drop this month

Common made a surprise appearance at President Obama&#39;s South By Southlawn festival earlier this week, and he performed three brand new songs inside the White House for NPR&#39;s Tiny Desk concert series.

<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://www.npr.org/2016/10/03/496433228/common-tiny-desk-concert-at-the-white-house&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1475793548407000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFPGD28v7F9OIogGNdQh1Dmj7M5nA" href="http://www.npr.org/2016/10/03/496433228/common-tiny-desk-concert-at-the-white-house" target="_blank">Watch Common&#39;s &quot;Tiny Desk&quot; concert here.</a>

Common debuted three new songs, presumably off of his upcoming new album, during an intimate acoustic set performed inside the White House library. The first of Common&#39;s new tracks is &quot;Letter to the Free,&quot; which will also appear on the soundtrack for&nbsp;Selmadirector Ava Duvernay&#39;s upcoming new film&nbsp;The 13th, which compares slavery to the institutionalized racism and mass incarceration the black community is faced with in modern times. Common also performed the optimistic, pro-feminist &quot;The Day The Women Took Over,&quot; and &quot;Little Chicago Boy,&quot; a nostalgic track dedicated to Common&#39;s late father, Lonnie Lynn, who performed several spoken word tracks on some of Common&#39;s earlier records and who Common attributes his own social awareness and political activism to.

The Chicago rapper also revisited one of his classic hits &quot;I Used to Love H.E.R,&quot; a track that originally appeared on his 1994 album&nbsp;Resurrection.

The South By Southlawn event was a project created by President Obama and the organizers of the famed music, movie, tech and art festival South By Southwest, which is held in Austin, Texas every year. The South By Southlawn event was held specifically to give a stage to artists with a positive political message.

Common made a surprise appearance at President Obama&#39;s South By Southlawn festival earlier this week, and he performed three brand new songs inside the White House for NPR&#39;s Tiny Desk concert series.

Watch Common&#39;s &quot;Tiny Desk&quot; concert here.

Common debuted three new songs,...

Watch Common perform 3 new songs at the White House

On this day seventeen years ago, Inspectah Deck of the Wu-Tang Clan released his solo debut album,&nbsp;Uncontrolled Substance.

Already a legend for his intricate, complex bars on Wu-Tang Clan tracks, Inspectah Deck cemented his place as one of hip hop&#39;s top lyricists with&nbsp;Uncontrolled Substance, his first solo album. Like the GZA&#39;s&nbsp;Liquid Swords, Inspectah Deck&#39;s debut began production in 1995 in fellow Wu-Tang Clan member RZA&#39;s basement studio. Unlike&nbsp;Liquid Swords&nbsp;however,&nbsp;Uncontrolled Substance&nbsp;wasn&#39;t released in &#39;95, as the album was unfortunately delayed for a whopping four years following a devastating flood that ruined the RZA&#39;s studio and destroyed many of the original productions and recordings for the album.&nbsp;

Thankfully, Inspectah Deck and his team of producers (which included RZA and veteran Wu collaborator True Master,) managed to remake and finish the album, which is now considered one of the Inspectah&#39;s strongest works.

The album spawned two music videos, &quot;Word on the Street&quot; and &quot;Show N Prove,&quot; the latter of which was directed by acclaimed music video director Joseph Kahn, who also directed music videos for Public Enemy, Mobb Deep, Usher, Eminem, and more.

By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com

On this day seventeen years ago, Inspectah Deck of the Wu-Tang Clan released his solo debut album,&nbsp;Uncontrolled Substance.

Already a legend for his intricate, complex bars on Wu-Tang Clan tracks, Inspectah Deck cemented his place as one of hip hop&#39;s top lyricists with&nbsp;Uncontrolled S...

Cudi's “Suicidal” Post Sparks Ongoing Media Movement

sOuL from the O Drops "Contraband Mixtape"

Throwback to 90s Hip Hop with Common, Mack 10, and Cypress Hill

D.R.A.M. debut album to drop this month

Watch Common perform 3 new songs at the White House

This Day In Hip Hop: Inspectah Deck traffics Uncontrolled Substance

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