Features » Columns » Hall of Game

• Super Ugly

  Andrew Nosnitsky; March 29, 2013

  Andrew Nosnitsky on how hip-hop-- a genre built upon beautiful mistakes and sonic rule-breaking-- is increasingly adhering to a uniform, hi-fi sound, and how this trend is hurting young artists like Tyler, the Creator and Spaceghostpurrp.

• Gray Matters

  Andrew Nosnitsky; March 4, 2013

  DJ Screw's slowed, hissed-out sound has been repurposed by all sorts-- rappers, pop stars, Tumblr goths-- since his 2000 death. Here, Andrew Nosnitsky reconnects the artist and his work with the mythology that has built up around him.

• The Year Rap Broke

  Andrew Nosnitsky; December 27, 2012

  The world of rap felt especially fragmented this year, as if everything that was once cracked had finally shattered. Andrew Nosnitsky looks back and zooms in on the good and bad from 2012. 

• Classic Material

  Andrew Nosnitsky; November 19, 2012

  In light of Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city being anointed as an instant classic, columnist Andrew Nosnitsky dissects the idea of "classic" rap albums and explains how they can promote a limiting and regressive view of hip-hop.

• Record Sales and Digital Scales

  Andrew Nosnitsky; October 17, 2012

  In his latest rap column, Andrew Nosnitsky discusses why album sales and YouTube views aren't necessarily reliable barometers of hip-hop fandom in this era of gentrified taste and consolidated gatekeepers.

• Revival Tactics

  Andrew Nosnitsky; September 19, 2012

  Introducing our monthly hip-hop column by Andrew Nosnitsky. Here, he explores the genre's relationship with its own past, using the revivalism of Joey Bada$$ and Spaceghostpurrp to explore rap's increasingly nostalgic tendencies.