Larry Bird retired after playing with the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics, leaving the Celtics captaincy to Reggie Lewis. …

55 years ago today, the city of Boston was likely about to go up in flames following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. who was seen by many as an honorary Bostonian. …

35 years ago, a teenager from Farmers Blvd. in Queens pulled Excalibur from The Rock and earned the title of The Prince Of Rap. Young James Todd Smith — yes, the future LL Cool J — was so enamored with Rap music growing up that he’d play his favorite songs…

Decomposing an undisputed classic Rap LP that also happens to be the perfect Winter album… When the Wu Tang Clan was formed in 1992, it was a direct result of the bad experiences both RZA (formerly Prince Rakeem) and GZA (formerly The Genius) accumulated while being signed to record label…

Erick Sermon, Parrish Smith and DJ Scratch get called up to the majors and release their first LP on Def Jam with their new protegé Redman in tow. The end result was one of the first classic Rap albums of 1991, the first being Main Source’s Breaking Atoms. EPMD, the…

Rap’s self proclaimed “Teacher” was at a career crossroads after the release of “Self Destruction” and his successful album “Ghetto Music: The Blueprint Of Hip Hop”. Where could he possibly go from here? How about the world of academia? In February 1989, Jive/RCA released the Stop The Violence Movement’s “Self…

Hot lines < hot songs < hot albums. Here are the best of the best. — Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com. Summer 1977: The art of emceeing begins. …

N.W.A.’s former front man left one of Rap’s most controversial groups at their peak to go solo without any production from Dr. Dre. He then headed to New York to find a new producer, resulting in one of the greatest debut albums in Rap history. N.W.A. was formed back between…

Mobb Deep’s sophomore LP serves as the breakthrough album for one of Rap’s all time great duos in the midst of a Golden Era The now legendary duo Mobb Deep were originally known as the Poetical Prophets. They were both 16 year old Rap wunderkinds discovered by Matty C of…