Reckoning with the American flag.

A religious order funded largely by the founder of the Cheesecake Factory announced plans to build a temple in a small California town. The town wasn’t thrilled.

A profile of Lil Yachty.

"The honesty in Perfume Genius’s music has attracted him a devoted audience, and he receives a lot of messages on Twitter from young kids going through the process of coming out, or dealing with their own addictions. “I think people come to my music just to feel less lonely,” he says. “When I write, sometimes I think, What would I have liked to have heard when I was younger?” But on his new record, out this May, he aimed for something a little more developed: essentially, he wanted to make a grown-up album about life after you’ve trudged through the trauma."

Twenty-two years in, E-40 has extended his reign over the Bay Area rap landscape by returning to “making music the way he did back in the late ’80s: completely independently, selling his raps more or less directly to his fans.”

Rae Sremmurd, who held the #1 spot for the last 3 weeks for their song Black Beatles, on the precipice of fame.

How Atlanta-born Davido, the son of a wealthy Nigerian businessman, hopes to break the international market with his brand of Nigerian pop.

Joanne the Scammer has celebrity fans and a massive YouTube following. Branden Miller barely leaves his Daytona Beach apartment.

The story of Deso Dogg, a German rapper-turned-ISIS propagandist who may or may not have been killed in an airstrike.

The 22-year-old rapper on escaping North Long Beach and his desire to be a “regular” guy.

In the city of Rosario, some fans have evolved into a mafia with an illicit cash flow and a stable of hit men. A look inside their homicidal turf war.

An oral history of Aaliyah.

How 23-year-old Metro Boomin became every rapper’s favorite producer.

On the road with Quarterbacks, a young band at the bottom of the music industry.

An oral history of Gucci Mane’s many rises and falls.

A portrait of a comedian in the moment just before he becomes huge.

Migos, a young Atlanta rap trio, has decamped to a mansion outside of town to avoid trouble, ride Go-Karts, shop for $2300 backpacks, and continue their streak of red-hot singles.

On the sudden death of an up-and-coming rapper.