BEN PEDROCHE – Independent As F***
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BEN PEDROCHE – Independent As F***

Another book on independent rap? The first one in English? And rather complete, informative, and efficiently put together, no less? There is every reason to welcome the existence of Ben Pedroche’s work. Even if at times it has the dryness of an encyclopedia and relies a bit too much on synthesizing what was already being said back then, without always taking advantage of the hindsight that time affords us.
MAC CRITTER – Back Door Music
Posted inRap albums

MAC CRITTER – Back Door Music

Mac Critter, the Memphis rapper, has been signed to the New 1017. However, he has since left the label, and he doesn’t really resemble a disciple of Gucci Mane. His trap music is more serious and more haunted than the master’s. His dragging, pained rap is more threatening than humorous. He is modern, and very much in tune with the times. And sometimes, too, he is striking.
LEFTY GUNPLAY & JASONMARTIN – Can’t Get Right
Posted inRap albums

LEFTY GUNPLAY & JASONMARTIN – Can’t Get Right

2025 is Lefty Gunplay’s moment. Recently released from prison and benefiting from the huge exposure brought by his appearance on Kendrick’s "GNX" album, he releases his highest-profile project yet, in collaboration with JasonMartin. In the end, though, it amounts mostly to routine West Coast rap — but a few gems suggest that the Baldwin Park rapper could do much better.
ABGR LIL CORY – Act Broke Get Rich
Posted inRap albums

ABGR LIL CORY – Act Broke Get Rich

Still unknown a year earlier, ABGR Lil Cory - the rapper from Hattiesburg, Mississippi - releases his debut album, following the success of the single “Old School.” And with this exhilarating release, with its naïve and infectious melodies about money, jewelry, and his hard grind in the kitchen, it brings an entire era rushing back to us: the blessed days of Gucci Mane’s late-2000s run.
G PERICO & DJ DRAMA – L.A. Gangster
Posted inRap mixtape

G PERICO & DJ DRAMA – L.A. Gangster

DJ Drama is a fantastic curator. On his "Gangsta Grillz" mixtapes, he invites rappers to be fully themselves, right down to cliché and formula, in order to better extract the very essence of their art. And he succeeds once again, even at this late stage in his career, when he teams up for a second time with G Perico and elevates the South Central rapper’s highly referential West Coast style.
FLAGBOY GIZ – I Got Indian In My Family
Posted inRap albums

FLAGBOY GIZ – I Got Indian In My Family

Flagboy Giz is a member of the Wild Tchoupitoulas, a group that has been enlivening New Orleans carnivals for decades while dressed in Native American regalia. Fifty years after his band worked with The Meters and the Neville Brothers, he delivers this Mardi Gras-flavored rap album. In doing so, he highlights the continuity of Louisiana music across genres and generations.
GHAIS GUEVARA – Goyard Ibn Said
Posted inRap albums

GHAIS GUEVARA – Goyard Ibn Said

Signed to Fat Possum and heard during Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance, Ghais Guevara is enjoying a major moment in 2025. But the Philadelphia native remains what he's been since "BlackBolshevik", his breakout release : a committed, politically engaged rapper. His latest album is a critique of rap-as-spectacle, even if, and thankfully so, Ghais Guevara also takes part in it.
SYLVAIN BERTOT – Independent Rap (new edition)
Posted inOur books

SYLVAIN BERTOT – Independent Rap (new edition)

Of the four books we have published, "Independent Rap" is the most personal and the most substantial. Originally published in 2014, this work is the culmination of fifteen years spent exploring in minute detail the underground movement that, on the fringes of mainstream hip-hop, made a name for itself in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2025, it is reissued in a revised and expanded edition.
50 CENT – Get Rich Or Die Tryin’
Posted inRap albums

50 CENT – Get Rich Or Die Tryin’

"Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" is one of the greatest successes in the history of rap, and of course, a milestone in the evolution of this music. With 50 Cent’s triumph, the gangsta register asserts itself ever more firmly as the heart of hip-hop, and blockbusters break free from regional formulas, drawing on whatever works best. Here, we truly enter the rap of the new century.
50 CENT & G-UNIT – 50 Cent Is The Future
Posted inRap mixtape

50 CENT & G-UNIT – 50 Cent Is The Future

The phenomenal success of 50 Cent and G-Unit starts here. It begins with this mixtape, on which the rapper and his crew hijack other artists' beats and make them their own. It begins with this masterfully executed release, that will become the soundtrack of the summer of 2002. It is here, also, that 50 Cent cements the image of the untouchable gangster that will define his career.
ABN – It Is What It Is
Posted inRap albums

ABN – It Is What It Is

Long before they came to blows, the so-called cousins Trae and Z-Ro worked together as a duo. This second Assholes By Nature album, in particular, is a real gem. The two Houston rappers unleash their tales of everyday crime at full throttle, with insolence, pride, and flash. Yet beneath the bravado, their warm voices and melodic, carefully crafted sounds also carry a hint of melancholy.
ADLIB – International Beats
Posted inRap albums

ADLIB – International Beats

After performing with Global Phlowtations - a collective within the extended Project Blowed family - Thavius Beck established himself first as one half of Labwaste, before earning further recognition through his solo work. His finest album, however, may well be this understated compilation of instrumental tracks, released only on CD-R and in digital format under his original alias, Adlib.