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You simply can’t get a party started today without a ready dose of New York hip-hop. The pithy candor of Ice Spice promises an intense, caption-rich anthem. Cash Cobain pushes boundaries with his progressive, nocturnal ballads, and Joey Bada$$ keeps a myriad of international die-hards rocking to his witticisms. Game, bravado, and lyricism get the woofers shaking in a New York minute. What’s to thank for this forever bash?

Imagine the coolest birthday party: a summer soiree that supplies a phenomenal gift. When the folks at 1520 Sedgewick Ave,...

Image Source: Everett Collection

Hip-hop has transformed music, and the world at large, since it was conceived 50 years ago. In a relatively short time, it's made a massive impact on every aspect of pop culture - and fortunately, there are a lot of great documentaries that chronicle the unforgettable, twists, turns, and triumphs that made hip-hop what it is today.

Many of these documentaries offer fascinating insights into hip-hop's exponential growth, such as 1995's "The Show" and 2016's "Hip-Hop Evolution," which both examine exactly how the genre became a worldwide, multibillion-dollar industry. Some of them also focus on individual artists, like 2003's "Tupac: Resurrection," a documentary narrated entirely by Tupac Shakur himself. Others focus on specific music scenes, like Ava DuVernay's "This Is the Life," which centers Los Angeles's alternative rap scene in the 1990s, while others delve into the technical aspects of hip-hop and rap, like Ice-t's...

After a long and heart-wrenching break-up last year, my final task in the moving-out process involved lugging box-after-box of back-breakingly heavy, hernia-inducing vinyl records. Woeful, sure, but what really made all those heaves and humps solemn was that I actually find a huge chunk of those records – mainly the hip-hop ones I bought as a young man and never sold – to be absolute trash today. Vile, bigoted, offensive trash. Welcome to the life of grown-up music fans everywhere: concerned about cultural sensitivity and back pain in equal measure.

It wasn’t always like this. I cut my teeth as a DJ playing hip-hop. The first time I ever played a club was bottom-of-the-bill supporting turntable pioneer Grandmaster Flash. In a maverick move, during a misunderstanding about DJ equipment, he went out of his way to tell me I was a disgrace to hip-hop. Maybe he was right, ultimately. The stuff...

After a long and heart-wrenching break-up last year, my final task in the moving-out process involved lugging box-after-box of back-breakingly heavy, hernia-inducing vinyl records. Woeful, sure, but what really made all those heaves and humps solemn was that I actually find a huge chunk of those records – mainly the hip-hop ones I bought as a young man and never sold – to be absolute trash today. Vile, bigoted, offensive trash. Welcome to the life of grown-up music fans everywhere: concerned about cultural sensitivity and back pain in equal measure.

It wasn’t always like this. I cut my teeth as a DJ playing hip-hop. The first time I ever played a club was bottom-of-the-bill supporting turntable pioneer Grandmaster Flash. In a maverick move, during a misunderstanding about DJ equipment, he went out of his way to tell me I was a disgrace to hip-hop. Maybe he was right, ultimately. The stuff...

It may have been the most New York moment in years.

Robert De Niro, onstage Wednesday night at the Beacon Theatre, introduced Time Is Illmatic, the new documentary on Nas' 1994 landmark debut Illmatic, to kick off the Tribeca Film Festival. "Twenty years ago, I would've been 20 years too old for this music," quipped the actor and festival co-founder to a boisterous crowd of fans, media and seemingly every important hip-hop figure in mid-Nineties New York.

Nas: My Life in 20 Songs

Unlike music docs that attempt to deify or elevate the obscure — Anvil,...

Nas and I have something in common: We both miss the 1990s. I miss it because that was the decade when I graduated from high school and went to college. Everything felt so important back then -- especially music. Nas presumably misses it because his music was among the most important of the decade. Illmatic, released in April 1994, was a dispatch from the Queensbridge projects that immediately established Nas as one of the premier rappers of his generation. I'm sure it's because we were biased New Yorkers, but nobody I knew listened to Tupac until he died. Our "Who's No. 1?" debates all centered on Biggie and Nas.

None of which is to suggest that Nas (born Nasir Jones) hasn't enjoyed his share of success in the new millennium. He's released five successful solo albums since 2001; one went double platinum, two went platinum, and the last two hit No. 1. And he's...

From a Run-d.M.C. classic to raps with not-so-merry sentiments, here's MTV News' nontraditional playlist.

By Rob Markman

Kanye West

Photo: Ben Hider/Getty Images

Sure, Michael Bublé and Justin Bieber are the current Christmas crown holders, but what if your yuletide tastes require a harder edge? While rappers aren't exactly known for spreading holiday cheer, hip-hop has given fans plenty of rap carols. Run-d.M.C.'s 1987 classic "Christmas in Hollis" may be the most-popular, but new-schoolers like Ludacris and Kanye West have kept rap's Xmas tradition alive.

If you've grown tired of listening to Nat King Cole's 1946 "The Christmas Song" or even Mariah Carey's more recent 1994 hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You," MTV News has compiled a 12-song playlist of rap's best Christmas-themed hits.

"Christmas in Hollis," Run-d.M.C.

No doubt the greatest rap carol ever recorded, this 1987 classic found Run and partner-in-rhyme D.

Rapper also hints at possible title change for his Life Is Good album.

By Rob Markman

Photo: Getty Images

Throughout his career, Nas has paid homage to 1980s hip-hop pioneers like Rakim and Mc Shan, and on his new single "Nasty," the Queensbridge lyricist once again revisits his wonder years.

"It's like Tom Ford, the designer, who is one of my favorite designers. I read somewhere he's inspired by the '60s and '70s and that's why his line looks like the future now. Because he came from a great time in fashion and he turned it into his interpretation and it gives you the future," said Nas, who chose to paint a picture of his own heyday and rap about the late '80s and early '90s on his new single.

On the Salaam Remi-produced track, which leaked to the Internet on Monday, Nas tosses nods...

'We knew exactly what we were doing when we made this album,' hip-hop pioneer says of Boogie Down Productions' 1987 breakthrough.

By Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Sway Calloway

Krs-One

Photo: MTV News

Making of the Moment: Criminal Minded

Krs-One is both known for dropping jewels to cultivate minds and dropping bombs to blow minds. The Bronx bred hip-hop pioneer has lived up to both his titles — The Teacha and The Blastmaster — over his almost 25-year career. T was considered Hall of Fame/ Greatest of All-Time list over ten years ago. Over the past decade, Krs has been expanding his artistic reach, releasing the gospel-tinged album Spiritual Minded in 2002 and the book "The Gospel of Hip-Hop: First Instrument" in 2009. But as the title of his most recent album, Back to the L.A.B. (Lyrical Ass Beating), shows, he's still down to tear the lining out of the sound booth walls.

By Jayson Rodriguez

"Every Saturday 'Rap Attack,' Mr. Magic, Marley Marl ..." — Notorious B.I.G., "Juicy"

Biggie immortalized him in rhyme, but by the time the Brooklyn Mc name-checked Mr. Magic on 1994's Ready to Die, the DJ was already a living legend. It was confirmed today that Mr. Magic passed away after suffering a heart attack. (At press time it was unknown how old he was.)

Magic, born John Rivas, was a pioneer in hip-hop and made his mark as the first DJ to host a mixshow hour on commercial radio, which was revolutionary in the early 1980s but as common as a rap CD with a "Parental Advisory" sticker on it today. Back in 1982 when Mr. Magic, along with Marley Marl as his DJ and Tyrone "Fly Ty" Williams as co-producer, kick-started "Rap Attack," the program's launch was arguably as significant to music history as when the Moonman planted...

Akeelah + The Bee star Keke Palmer has signed on to play Roxanne Shante in a new biopic about the legendary Juice Crew hip-hop collective.

Palmer joins Diana Ross' son Evan, who plays Mc Shan, and Julito McCullum, who portrays Tragedy Khadafi in the project, titled Vapors.

Rappers Nas and David Banner are also rumoured to be involved in the film, playing Kool G Rap and Biz Markie respectively.

Palmer tells Giant magazine she has been inspired by Shante's career and can't wait for other young African-Americans to see the film.

She says, "She was 14 when she recorded those songs. She had it in her contract that the label would pay for her to finish high school and college - that's inspiring."...