A bold and bittersweet closing chapter for one of the greatest rappers of all time, the long-awaited album from DMX, Exodus, comes a little over a month and a half after his death. His first release in nine years (following 2012’s Undisputed) and his first on Def Jam since Grand Champ, Exodus is…

A mugshot of civil rights activist and politician John Lewis, following his arrest in Jackson, Mississippi for using a restroom reserved for white people during the Freedom Ride demonstration against racial segregation on May 24, 1961. Courtesy: Kypros/Getty Images. As I was writing this column it was announced that…

The Weeknd performs at Golden Gate Park during Outside Lands on Aug. 10, 2018. Joaquin Cabello/STAFF. Welcome to the second month of RIFF Rewind’s ongoing Black History Month! As an aside, I found out last week that June was Black Music Month, which is something I legitimately did not…

I’m gonna be honest: In a vacuum, the songs I picked aren’t my top five. Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” Led Zeppelin’s “Dancing Days” and Alice Cooper’s “No More Mr. Nice Guy” would be on the list if I wasn’t doing every year. But I had Alice Cooper in the top five in 1971,…

Chance the Rapper. Matt De Mello/STAFF. The other day I wrote an column on where we, not just as a country, but as a world, go from here. That piece was unique for RIFF. Ours is not a political publication. However, some events transcend politics. Many of us are nervous, some…