@Lush Jayy

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

You can hear the soul in a Bobby Womack song—and the singer/songwriter's back catalogue has proved a rich source of emotive samples for hip-hop artists. Here we check out how Kendrick Lamar, Ghostface, Rick Ross and 50 Cent have been inspired to drop some of their most vital raps over choice cuts from Womack's discography.

Bob Marley's yearning voice and scratchy rhythms sounded from Jamaica to the rest of the world, across generations and genres, from reggae to hip-hop. He inspired a young Outkast to “Git Up, Git Out” and empowered Public Enemy's “Party for Your Right to Fight”. Fugees found pathos in “No Woman, No Cry”, while UGK kept coarse on “Cocaine In the Back of the Ride”.

Thanks to the powerful, rhythmic influences of traditional Punjabi music—itself crammed with gritty themes—Punjabi hip-hop’s bold, uncompromising style has become big business. Towering, resolute rappers and producers have emerged in recent years, with the genre ranging from politically charged flows to upbeat party tracks, and with lyrics covering topics such as the stars’ roots, struggles, faith—and coolest car.

Welcome to UK Rap List, where elite MCs represent the essence of UK rap culture. This week, if there was any doubt that Lewisham’s Jim Legxacy belongs in the company of UK rap’s finest, it’s ended by “3x”, his collaboration with fellow South Londoner Dave. With Jim’s unfaltering ear for melody, the song flips the opening lines of “Wanna Know”—from Dave’s 2016 EP <i>Six Paths</i>—into an indelible, Jim-sung hook. As both artists use the track to detail challenges faced on the come-up, including grief, isolation and jealousy, seasoned Dave fans will spot further callbacks to his past in a verse that references lines from 2019’s “Streatham” and 2023’s chart-topping linkup with Central Cee, “Sprinter”. Listen to “3x” on the UK Rap List, and if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

Hip-hop in the ’90s went from the voice of the streets to the sound of the nation, taking over the charts, film, fashion and more. Dr. Dre’s 1992 solo debut <I>The Chronic</I> changed rap’s pulse: blaring drum loops were exchanged for lush low-rider funk; gangsta rap was now indistinguishable from pop. Though the spotlight moved to Los Angeles, New York rappers like Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and Nas made a grimy strain of “boom bap” that was gritty, vividly bleak and lyrically intricate. Regional sounds slowly infiltrated the airwaves, including E-40’s slick “mobb music” (the Bay Area), the rapid-fire “chop” of Bone Thugs (the Midwest), the boom of 8Ball & MJG (Memphis), the crawl of UGK (Houston) and, most notably, the left-field rap of Atlanta’s Outkast. By decade’s end, Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy empire monopolised the charts and New Orleans labels No Limit and Cash Money turned DIY hustle into uncompromising sensations.

A selection of lesser-known gems and crucial album cuts from the glory days of classic hip-hop. Our editors regularly update this playlist—if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

The grit and lyricism that shaped rap in the ’80s and ’90s sounds as exciting now as it did then—arguably even more so when you consider how crossover-friendly rap has become. Here’s a playlist of tracks that capture the essence of rap after it evolved past the simplicity of its early to-the-beat-y’all days while retaining a rawness that still feels revolutionary. Our editors update picks here now and then, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

Here’s one for the heads. From new drops by emerging voices to regional hits on their way up to just-released bangers from the game’s biggest stars, this playlist collects hip-hop that’s just inches from the spotlight: not just what’s good, but what’s next. Our editors update these picks regularly, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.