@Gavin Rodriguez

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Discover new music from artists we think you'll like. Refreshed every Friday.

The tracks you can’t get enough of lately, all in one place. Updated as you listen.

In honor of Apple Music’s first decade, take a look back. Relive your all-time favorite tracks, all in one playlist.

The tracks you can’t get enough of lately, all in one place. Updated as you listen.

Rap Life is home to hip-hop’s heavy hitters and its vanguard—the songs that speak to the moment and define the culture today. This week, we’re kneeling at the altar of A$AP Rocky and “pray4dagang,” the rapper’s latest single, featuring KayCyy. “Right now is a hypersensitive time especially for my culture, my country,” Rocky tells Apple Music. “Like gangsters, they don't pray for each other. You know? I pray for the gang. I think that the world could use prayer right now. Regardless of your religious views or beliefs—we could all use a prayer.” Rap Life is updated often, so check back regularly, and if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

The 2000s began with New York’s lyrical titans—JAY-Z, Nas, Cam’ron, Jadakiss, newcomer 50 Cent—battling for supremacy, commercial and otherwise. However, New York’s grip on the hip-hop narrative would loosen. Atlanta rappers like Outkast, Ludacris, T.I., Lil Jon, and Young Jeezy would spin hip-hop into crunk and trap; a young, ambitious Chicago producer named Kanye West would open up new vistas of personal and emotional hitmaking; and New Orleans spitter Lil Wayne’s constant flood of mixtapes would change the economics of rapping forever. The internet would help spread regional sounds like the UK’s minimalist grime, Houston’s slow-moving chopped-and-screwed music, the Bay Area’s hyperactive hyphy, and Atlanta’s short-lived snap. By decade’s end, the gurgle of Auto-Tune and the freewheeling phrasing of Drake had begun to scramble the circuits, setting up hip-hop for its most melodic decade yet.

With more than five decades of history behind it, rap isn’t easy to sum up. Still, we gave it a try. Focusing on crucial tracks from all eras and styles, this playlist offers a wide-angle look at the most important subgenre of American music since rock—and the lodestar of modern pop. From underground to the mainstream, the breaks to golden age, and gangsta to now, here’s a survey of all hip-hop has to offer. We regularly rotate these selections to keep things fresh, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.