Recent Music Articles
“99 Problems” Delivered Truth at Full Volume
Cam’ron’s Trilogy: Hustle, Humor, Haze
Why “B.O.B.” by OutKast Feels Futuristic
Doja Cat: Art of Sexy – Bold Outfits, Looks
Doja Cat excels at playing with sensuality and humor better than anyone. Doja Cat’s sex appeal, storytelling, fashion, and performance merge into armor. Whether she’s headlining Coachella or trolling Instagram in a see-through bodysuit, Doja makes “sexy” look like hot satire and naked power at the same time.
For a closer look at how she builds her sound as boldly as her style, check out What Influences Doja Cat: A Sample Breakdown, a deep dive into her creative process that mirrors the same play...
For a closer look at how she builds her sound as boldly as her style, check out What Influences Doja Cat: A Sample Breakdown, a deep dive into her creative process that mirrors the same play...
Doja Cat’s Top 15 Tracks: Timeline & Backstory
Few artists shapeshift as fearlessly as Doja Cat. One minute, she is rapping over a trap beat in horns and latex; the next, she is crooning disco nostalgia in pastel bell-bottoms. Her songs are not just hits, they are experiments in persona. From Mooo! to Paint the Town Red, her discography doubles as a timeline of transformation, from internet curiosity to pop culture architect.
Before the world knew her as Doja Cat, she was Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, born October 21, 1995. That makes Doja C...
Before the world knew her as Doja Cat, she was Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, born October 21, 1995. That makes Doja C...
How Doja Cat Redefines the Trickster in Pop
Doja Cat isn’t just a hitmaker, she’s a shapeshifter. One week she’s an R&B siren, the next a snarling rapper, and then—why not—a feline at the Met Gala, meowing through interviews with theatrical commitment. That unpredictability isn’t chaos; it’s the modern face of an ancient archetype —the trickster.
This essay examines how Doja channels that archetype through humor, irony, and constant reinvention, placing her alongside pop’s other masters of mischief: Nicki Minaj, Missy Elliott, Janelle Mon...
This essay examines how Doja channels that archetype through humor, irony, and constant reinvention, placing her alongside pop’s other masters of mischief: Nicki Minaj, Missy Elliott, Janelle Mon...
What Influences Doja Cat? A Sample Breakdown
Doja Cat doesn’t just make hits, she makes collisions. Every track feels like she’s DJing through a wormhole, blending disco shimmer, 2000s R&B grooves, and trap percussion until time itself gets confused. Doja’s sound isn’t nostalgia, it’s time travel with attitude.
Underneath the viral antics and “Is she trolling again?” headlines lives a producer-brain with serious chops. Doja builds music like collage art. She splices a sliver of Dionne Warwick soul here, a Busta Rhymes syllable pattern ther...
Underneath the viral antics and “Is she trolling again?” headlines lives a producer-brain with serious chops. Doja builds music like collage art. She splices a sliver of Dionne Warwick soul here, a Busta Rhymes syllable pattern ther...
How Doja Cat’s “Mooo!” Went Viral and Built a Career
In 2018, Doja Cat dropped among the strangest audition tapes in pop history. In her bedroom, rocking a cow-print top, eating fries out of a bag, rapping, “Bitch, I’m a Cow,” into a webcam in front of a green screen. The beat? Somewhere between a ’90s slow jam, a bunch of samples, and a generic but sweet 808 drum pattern to match all the hip-hop references.
It wasn’t slick or serious, but it was alive, a song made out of boredom that hit like lightning. “Mooo!” spread because it felt like the int...
It wasn’t slick or serious, but it was alive, a song made out of boredom that hit like lightning. “Mooo!” spread because it felt like the int...
How ‘In Utero’ Challenged & Still Went Platinum - X96
On September 21, 1993, In Utero arrived in U.S. stores. It was Nirvana’s third and final studio album, and a pointed rebuke to the very stardom their 1991 album Nevermind had delivered. If Nevermind was the band’s gateway to global recognition, In Utero was an attempt to slam that gate shut behind them.
Nirvana recorded In Utero in just two weeks at Pachyderm Studio in rural Minnesota. The sessions were engineered by Steve Albini, known for his raw, hands-off production style. Albini used analog...
Nirvana recorded In Utero in just two weeks at Pachyderm Studio in rural Minnesota. The sessions were engineered by Steve Albini, known for his raw, hands-off production style. Albini used analog...
What Really Happened to Jimi Hendrix on September 18?
Jimi Hendrix spent his final night, September 17–18, 1970, at the Samarkand Hotel in Notting Hill with Monika Dannemann. She later told investigators that Hendrix had taken nine Vesparax sleeping tablets, a dose designed for half a pill. She found him unresponsive around 11:18 a.m. Paramedics transported him to St Mary Abbot’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m.
A post-mortem confirmed that Hendrix had asphyxiated on his own vomit while intoxicated with barbiturates. He was 27 y...
A post-mortem confirmed that Hendrix had asphyxiated on his own vomit while intoxicated with barbiturates. He was 27 y...
The Secret Samples Behind Alt-Rock Classics - X96
Sampling is the art of taking fragments of existing recordings and reworking them into something new. It became one of the driving forces of hip hop in the early 1980s, but it didn’t stay there for long. Soon, the same approach started showing up in alternative rock, changing the way bands wrote songs and built their sound.
In this post, we’ll explore how that happened, starting with New Order’s experiments in the early eighties and ending with Radiohead’s bold reinvention of the idea around the...
In this post, we’ll explore how that happened, starting with New Order’s experiments in the early eighties and ending with Radiohead’s bold reinvention of the idea around the...
Why the LP Killed the 78—and Made Albums Matter
On June 21, 1948, Columbia Records unveiled a revolution in audio: the Long-Playing (LP) microgroove record at a press conference held in a suite of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Columbia’s president, Edward “Ted” Wallerstein, accompanied by CBS Labs engineer Dr. Peter Goldmark, introduced a 12-inch vinyl disc spinning at 33⅓ RPM that could play for over 20 minutes per side. This was a dramatic leap from the roughly 4-minute limit of the old 78 RPM shellac records.
In a demonstration, report...
In a demonstration, report...
Cam’ron’s Career: From Dipset to Desk Sets
It’s been a minute since Cam’ron truly mattered on the charts, but in the early 2000s, he mattered a lot to a lot of hip hop heads. The Harlem-raised rapper earned respect, record sales, and even a Bill O’Reilly face‑off by casually delivering internal, nursery‑rhyme cadences that mixed absurdism with the directness of a death certificate, and a charisma entirely his own. It’s like Cam took David Byrne’s “Stop Making Sense,” applied it, flipped the nonsense back into sense, loaded a magazine of...
Odd Future Lyrics That Made Our Moms Nervous
Odd Future shocked the world with bars that blurred the line between satire, horrorcore, and unfiltered teenage rage. From Tyler’s confessions to Earl’s twisted storytelling, their lyrics have built a legacy that is equal parts controversy and innovation. Below, we unpack some of their most outrageous lines and the context behind them.
Album: Earl (mixtape)
Release Date: March 31, 2010
Achievements/Award: Established Earl Sweatshirt as Odd Future’s prodigy
At just 15, Earl Sweatshirt delivered s...
Album: Earl (mixtape)
Release Date: March 31, 2010
Achievements/Award: Established Earl Sweatshirt as Odd Future’s prodigy
At just 15, Earl Sweatshirt delivered s...
How Raekwon Turned Hip-Hop Into a Crime Epic
A .38 cracks in a darkened room. Someone’s breathing hard. Strings swirl like cigarette smoke—the bassline prowls. You don’t realize it’s not a movie until the voices arrive, trading coded lines about loyalty, betrayal, and getting out alive. By the time the beat settles, you’re inside Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
When Raekwon’s debut hit the streets on August 1, 1995, it didn’t just launch another Wu-Tang Clan member’s solo career. It opened a trapdoor into a fully formed criminal underworld. The...
When Raekwon’s debut hit the streets on August 1, 1995, it didn’t just launch another Wu-Tang Clan member’s solo career. It opened a trapdoor into a fully formed criminal underworld. The...
Clipse Return, But This Ain’t No Re-Up
Seventeen years since their last album together, Clipse didn’t come back for the nostalgia. They came to settle something bigger between each other, and with something higher. Let God Sort Em Out isn’t a reunion in the traditional sense. It’s a reckoning between past and present, brother and brother, belief and bravado.
Pusha T and No Malice may share DNA, but across this album, they rarely share perspective. While Pusha continues to double down on his immaculate coke rap legend, No Malice moves...
Pusha T and No Malice may share DNA, but across this album, they rarely share perspective. While Pusha continues to double down on his immaculate coke rap legend, No Malice moves...
No Malice, No Problem: Clipse Is Back
Hip-hop has always contended with the tension between street realities and spiritual consciousness. Still, few artists have embodied this struggle as visibly as Gene Thornton, formerly known as Malice, now as No Malice. After over a decade of laying low, No Malice is back, joining his brother, Pusha T, as the legendary duo Clipse. But what sparked his departure, and why has he chosen to return now?
Formed by brothers Gene “Malice” Thornton and Terrence “Pusha T” Thornton in Virginia Beach, Clips...
Formed by brothers Gene “Malice” Thornton and Terrence “Pusha T” Thornton in Virginia Beach, Clips...
Needle Me This: Vinyl’s Spinning Story
In the 1960s and 1970s, vinyl records were virtually synonymous with recorded music in the United States. Vinyl was the dominant format—consumers bought 45 RPM singles for hit songs and 33⅓ RPM LPs for full albums, with turntables serving as the centerpiece of home entertainment. During this golden era, vinyl sales hit all-time highs. In the late 1970s, U.S. vinyl record sales exceeded 500 million units per year. For example, 1978 marked a peak: sales of vinyl albums and EPs generated about $2.5...
Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury: A Cold Classic
After a four-year delay marked by industry limbo, including the dissolution of Arista into Jive and ensuing lawsuits, Clipse finally broke free in late 2006. The duo had been stuck in label purgatory as Jive repeatedly shelved their work, a “situation that the Clipse didn’t put themselves in,” as Pusha T stressed. By the time Hell Hath No Fury dropped on November 28, 2006, it wasn’t just an album; it was a vindictive manifesto born of frustration. “We couldn’t dare come out in the same mind fram...
Waiting Room… No More: Fugazi Streams at Last
Fugazi has announced that, starting this month, they will be releasing a selection of their archival concert recordings on Bandcamp and various streaming services. The post-hardcore luminaries are releasing the first two installments, recordings of their first-ever show on September 3, 1987, and their final performance to date on November 4, 2002, this Friday (May 2). More live concert tapes will be uploaded each month through the end of 2025.
So, what set Fugazi apart? It wasn’t just blistering...
So, what set Fugazi apart? It wasn’t just blistering...
X96 on Weezer’s ‘Blue Album’ Legacy and Memories
Weezer is dusting off the cardigans and bringing their 1994 self-titled debut—aka The Blue Album—to life at Kilby Block Party 2025. It’s the kind of news that sends a ripple of nostalgia through anyone who grew up yelling “Say it Ain’t So” and other great Weezer songs into a hairbrush.
To celebrate, we asked the X96 crew what they remember about The Blue Album. Although, some memories are sharper than others.
Meanwhile, Todd Nuke’Em still remembers the first spin like it was yesterday:
“I remem...
To celebrate, we asked the X96 crew what they remember about The Blue Album. Although, some memories are sharper than others.
Meanwhile, Todd Nuke’Em still remembers the first spin like it was yesterday:
“I remem...
J Dilla’s Offbeat Legacy | The Future
J Dilla was more than just a producer. He was a time-bender, a rhythmic scientist who broke the machine’s grip on music and gave drum loops a human soul. His beats, famously known as “Dilla Time”, defied traditional musical structures by existing somewhere between straight and swing time—an innovative rhythmic concept that has influenced generations of musicians, from Kendrick Lamar to Flying Lotus.
His influence can be heard in D’Angelo’s ‘Voodoo’, where drummer Questlove intentionally mimicked...
His influence can be heard in D’Angelo’s ‘Voodoo’, where drummer Questlove intentionally mimicked...
Sampling Gucci Mane: Songs Sippin “Lemonade”
Gucci Mane’s “Lemonade,” produced by Bangladesh, hit the streets in 2009 and quickly became a hip-hop staple. Fresh off producing Lil Wayne’s smash “A Milli,” Bangladesh delivered the “crazy beat” Gucci had requested—one that other artists had passed on, feeling it was too offbeat. Gucci, running out of Sprite for his lean that night, grabbed lemonade instead, and the yellow-colored theme for the track was born.
In his autobiography, the 1017 rapper recalled being “high as hell” in Las Vegas dur...
In his autobiography, the 1017 rapper recalled being “high as hell” in Las Vegas dur...
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