Diggin' In The Digits

The murder of George Floyd is not the first of its kind and if we're being realistic, it won't be the last. The events that have transpired this past week have been, to some, shocking. But to some others, unsurprising. Hip-Hop artists and people in the music industry have responded in different ways. We give our thoughts on the events of the past, what we feel the duty of people of note in the mus...

For this episode of DITD, we're doing something a little different. We think about a lot of ideas as you can imagine but some of those ideas we think about aren't really worth the full episode. But that shouldn't stop us from talking about them, right? That's why we're doing what we like to call "DITD Bites". A large topic, condensed into little chunks. Hope you enjoy and as always, if you have so...

This is one of those episodes where we knew that we'd have plenty of things to talk about but once we both started listening to Cube's discography and just the solo discography, not even getting into Da Lench Mob or Westside Connection... Ice Cube should be talked about more. Four classics in four years and several more solid projects in the remainder. Ice Cube has consistently been top tier for o...

The Notorious B.I.G. Is there a more ubiquitous name to come out of Hip-Hop? Whilst you can throw out a few names for the sake of it, we can all agree any self-respecting Hip-Hop fan knows Biggie and what he was all about. One of the most naturally gifted rappers we've ever seen with an unmatched charisma & presence on the mic. The DITD duo gets into Biggie, from his beginnings, his glorious t...

On Ep.57 of DITD: Big Pun is never talked about unless Fat Joe is in the room and that's a travesty because Big Pun deserves a conversation. In more ways than one... TIMESTAMPS: Weekly Music Roundup - (1:31) Topic Intro - (17:36) Capital Punishment - (31:22) Yeeeah Baby - (41:23) Other albums involving Big Pun - (51:26) Pun & domestic violence - (54:00) Lighter Note - (1:04:45) Thanks for list...

Andre 3000 is objectively one of the greatest lyricists of all-time. For some people, he's Top 5 forever. Whilst all that superficial stuff goes on in Hip-Hop circles every day, Andre seemingly goes through a mental quest. One where it's very easy to speculate. We do that in some fashion for this episode, because when you have a nearly 15-year stretch and only a few features sprinkled throughout,...

In Part 2 of our OutKast retrospective, we get into the solo career of Big Boi. If you're one of those people that don't see Big Boi as a top tier rapper, this isn't the episode for you. We're not going to waste time on this one making a case for Big Boi, his work speaks for itself. Instead, we take a look at his solo work. While they don't quite stack up to "Speakerboxxx", they're interesting wor...

OutKast is one of the most revered duos in Hip-Hop. Their music is timeless, effortlessly dips into other genre elements and lyrically stands the test of time. In Part 1 of a 3-part miniseries, the DITD duo discusses every OutKast album and rank them from best to... Not the best. TIMESTAMPS: Weekly Music Roundup - (1:40) Topic Intro - (17:59) A shoutout for Organized Noize -(20:40) "The South Got...

Around this time last year, I DM'd Ben on a whim to pitch the idea of a Hip-Hop Podcast. He was up for it and gave it a year to see if it goes well. We planned to record a few Beta episodes to get our feet on solid ground, but the 2nd one we recorded was solid, so we thought "F*** it! Let's pull the trigger." And now we're here, 53 episodes later, no off week, always coming through on Tuesday with...

Ms Lauryn Hill has been an enigma once the turn of the century came around. A superstar talent discovered so early and lauded with praise and recognition in an even shorter amount of time. And then after 2002, she fell back. Since then we've seen her now and again with a feature or single & touring again but nothing suggests that she is going to fully get back into creating a full body of work...

Continuing our celebration of Women's History Month, the DITD duo turn their attention to another pioneer. Or should we say, pioneers? We take a look into the background, music and legacy of the legendary Salt-N-Pepa. The trio of Hip-Hop women that dominated the mid-late 80s with their music and culturally still hold relevance as the rare all-female Hip-Hop group that genuinely made waves. TIMESTA...

Our Women's History Month celebration continues with another certifiable legend of Hip-Hop. The one & only Queen Latifah. Queen Latifah came into Hip-Hop as one not to be messed with. Lyrically she was (and still is) top tier, her first three albums are all classics in their own unique ways and outside of Hip-Hop, has carved a career in entertainment the average person would kill for. She's si...

Missy Elliott has rightly been celebrated in the past few years. It's been wonderful to see such a modern legend get her flowers. But after this episode, we hope you realise that we're still not celebrating her enough. Not from a standpoint of influence but one of reverence. The term "one of one" is rarely the perfect phrase to describe someone but for Missy, it fits like a glove. The DITD duo att...

Rejoice! We have finally come to the final part of our 2.4k Series! For the last instalment, we get into groups, (& duos...) Producers, Artists & Rappers. For some reason, recency bias is nearly thrown out of the window with these! (It still rears its head enough though...) We also spend a few minutes in the end with general reflections over the series and a sigh of relief as we can all mo...

The bloodbath goes on! Our 2.4k Series continues with four more categories: Overrated, Underrated, Most Consistent & Best Year. The overriding conversations for these? How we define these categories and the ABSURD level of recency bias. Some would say a criminal level of recency bias. The DITD duo gets into it all. TIMESTAMPS: Weekly Music Roundup - (1:14) Topic Intro - (20:08) Underrated - (2...

For those that follow Hip-Hop Numbers, you know that Ben took advantage of the viral sensation that 2.4k of you participated in. Listing off your All-Time favourites in several categories. After weeks of collecting and organising the data, Ben has blessed us with an all statistics-based mini-series. We're calling it the "2.4k Series". For Part 1, we go through the Top 15 Mixtapes, Songs & Albu...

Some time has passed since Billie Eilish made her comments on Rap. Hip-Hop has constantly had to defend itself from comments like these decades before Eilish was even born. It's a dead conversation on the surface. But below the surface, there is a deeper conversation to be had. One of fighting for authenticity, why is it always Hip-Hop? One of confusion, why are artists like Eilish, Miley Cyrus &a...

The Grammys have been & gone and it's yet another year of disappointment. But this year feels different. Not only can the Recording Academy not recognise Hip-Hop like it's successfully done for decades, but now it's not even recognising Hip-Hop artists that explicitly say their work isn't Hip-Hop. But hey, black= Hip-Hop/R&B/Jazz, right? And let's not even start with "URBAN"... So what is...

A retrospective we didn't want to do at a crucial point in the subject's life & career. But due to his death and the recent posthumous release "Circles", this was the best time to dive into the music career of Mac Miller. For context: Ben has been a fan of Mac for years and parallels his life to Mac's. Charlie, however, only spun "The Divine Feminine" when it initially dropped and spent the we...

The third verse. What used to be something that made Hip-Hop special is now on life support. In recent years, entire albums have been dropping that have no third verse to be seen. One could say that this is a concerted effort to make music shorter for the short attention masses. So what is going on? Why are artists omitting third verses? And what are the implications for mainstream Hip-Hop caterin...

DMX. Everybody knows DMX off the name alone. Even if you haven't heard a DMX album, you know what DMX sounds like. You may even know his motifs. "Rrrrr" "AR, AR" "WHAT!" "UH HUUUUUH!" "WHERE MY DOGS!". I guarantee you read those and heard him in your head. He's an iconic artist for more reasons than one. The DITD duo explores DMX. From his music, to his lyrical content, to his influence. TIMESTAMP...

Think for a moment about where you get Hip-Hop news. Now think about where you get quotes from people of note. Unlike the regular News Journalism we all know of, Music Journalism isn't so easy to define. Because a majority of the news we get is either bare-bones information such as 1st Week sales or release dates. Or they simply come from the source and leads outlets to just regurgitate the inform...

Depending on who you are, 2019 was either a good year for Hip-Hop or a bad one. Factually, 2019 was a commercial dud. But look past the numbers and you will find plenty of artists taking centre stage with their work. The DITD duo recaps some of the year and looks forward to potential 2020 releases. TIMESTAMPS: Weekly Music Roundup - (3:36) Topic Intro & General Thoughts - (16:12) How we treat...

The 2010s... It's been an interesting one for sure. The music landscape has shifted dramatically in the past 9-10 years. Hip-Hop is now a dominant force in the music world, it's become easier to get into music and to get big, but even harder to stay on top. The world has sped up so fast, but we attempt to slow it all down for an hour and look forward to the new decade as well as take a look back....

The posthumous album is something that we want and don't want in equal measure. When somebody says "Do you want never-heard-before music from an artist you like?", of course, you're going to say yes! But when that artist isn't alive to have a say, some take pause and ask themselves do they want it? There are many places to look at posthumous albums, there are many examples, good and bad. The DITD...