In the midst of a year that was already challenging peoples' definitions of mixtapes, albums, and "free" projects, Chance The Rapper asked, "Am I the only n*gga who still cares about a mixtape?" On the surface, it made sense-- Chance is one of the few top-tier artists who've never sold a single copy of his internet-only projects-- but as his latest, Coloring Book, was released exclusively via a deal with Apple Music, both his independent claim and the definition of "mixtape" were subsequently scrutinized.

A lot of big artists are going on tour this spring and summer. You have mega-stars like Beyonce, Rihanna, and Drake. You have rising stars Anderson .Paak and Bas. You have established vets like Snoop Dogg, Maxwell, and Cam'Ron. And everybody in between. It looks like some legendary tours are going down towards the end of the calendar year. Gucci Mane & Friends tour is scheduled to go down when La Flare gets released from prison in September and Kanye West is also shooting to kick off his The Life of Pablo tour in September as well.

Seattle's Bumbershoot Music Festival has announced its full 2016 lineup. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are headlining. Notable hip hop acts include Fetty Wap, Bryson Tiller, Run the Jewels, G-Eazy, Anderson .Paak, Tyler, the Creator, Logic, Flatbush Zombies; other acts that may be of interest to hip hop fans include Pretty Lights, Kamasi Washington, Cashmere Cat, Tokimonsta. 

The top story of this week's Billboard 200 chart is the reclaiming of the #1 spot by Rihanna. After Spending last week at #3, Rihanna displaces Kendrick Lamar at the top spot with her eighth studio album ANTI. Speaking of Kendrick, he slipped from #1 to #5, presumably after the surprise element settled a bit. That's nothing though, compared to 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne's collaborative album Collegrove, which slipped big time from #4 to #29, one of the biggest second-week slumps we've seen this year.

March 15 & March 16 We're taking on SXSW literally as I type this. As I type this, I'm sitting in a studio in Austin suburbia, where we expect to create some fire emoji collaborations with everyone from Nessly to Audio Push to Skeme to Allan Kingdom and more. However let's rewind a couple of days, and run through everything we've seen and done in our two days since landing in the Lone Star state.

It’s been a long time coming for the boys from Flatbush, NYC, but the time has finally arrived. With the clock striking midnight, Flatbush Zombies’ highly anticipated debut album 3001: A Laced Odyssey was made available for purchase on iTunes.

Goldenvoice, the company that runs Coachella, stirred up some controversy in January when they announced that they were attempting to bring a new festival, Panorama, to NYC. A petition attempting to block the festival circulated but ultimately failed, as the first ever Panorama Music Festival is slated to go down July 22-24 on Randall's Island Park between Manhattan and Queens.

It's about that time. With the weekend imminent, as well as the SuperBowl, you surely need a playlist that will soundtrack your every move. This week's playlist is ultra-modern, occupied almost exclusively by a new generation of artists-- Young Thug, Roy Wood$, Tinashe, Jazz Cartier, Belly and more (we'll just glide over 2 Chainz, he's a strange case in that he's old-but-new). There's a fair amount of trap-influenced records, before moving into more musically-inclined songs. Shout out Angus for exclusively picking Young Thug records.

The inaugural Yams Day got off to an inauspicious start, as a shortage of security guards led to a bottleneck at the entrance to Manhattan's Terminal 5, thus forcing thousands of eager fans to wait outside the venue for an hour or more, in a temperature that can only be described as cold-as-balls.

Big day for the Flatbush Zombies. Along with this morning's release of new single "Glorious Thugs," The meddlesome trio from Brooklyn announced that their debut album will be entitled 3001: A Laced Odyssey and it will arrive on March 11th.

Last night was huge for the Flatbush Zombies, as they took the stage alongside the likes of Jay Z and Lil Wayne at Barclays Center in their native Brooklyn for the TIDAL X 1020 concert.

While New York City is forever the birthplace of hip hop, the past decade or so has been run by other parts of the country. Atlanta is on fire, Chicago is too, and the west coast has been steady dropping jewels for a few years now as well. We can't forget about Houston and Miami as well, who have had a fair share of artists spring up to reach massive heights over the course of the past ten years.

The Underachievers are one of Brooklyn's up-and-coming rap groups. They're most recent album Evermore: The Art of Duality was just released this past Friday, and might just be the duo's best work to date.

Jay Z and Budweiser are teaming up for another edition of their Made In America festival, and today they've revealed the 2015 line-up.

This past Christmas Eve marked two years since Pro Era member Captial Steez's tragic death, and since leaving us, he's been sorely missed, especially by his bro Joey Bada$$. To commemorate his late friend, the Pro Era honcho is launching an annual event called "Steez Day" to benefit the rapper's family. 

After a week where Kanye West, Wale and Ludacris dropped off new tracks, we had fewer top-tier artists releasing material this week. Instead, some fan favorites returned from dry spells to bless us with new material, all of which was pretty dope. In this edition of Samples Of The Week, we look at flips by Freddie Gibbs, Flatbush Zombies and Curren$y. As always, some of these are very unexpected, some are obscure, and all are expertly executed. Read on to get the scoop.

Here it is, the once-a-week look at the tracks toward the top of our charts that you need to know about. Keep in mind that these tracks are culled from the very top of our Top 100 and, by their very nature, lean toward more popular artists. We still think these tracks are worthy of your attention, but if you need a look at artists you may have missed, take a look at Underrated Audio. With no outright superstars to talk about this week, our top tracks consisted of quite a few up-and-comers (and several familiar faces we haven't heard from in a while).

A couple weeks back, "The Rap Monument" -- a project which recruited 30 rappers for one epic track -- was revealed. While we're still not sure when the NOISEY and Hennessey-sanctioned song will arrive, we do know that the record is produced by Hudson Mohawke and S-Type, engineered by Nick Hook, and will feature verses from the likes of Pusha T, Danny Brown, Raekown, Action Bronson, and many more.

Last month, Brooklyn's psychedelic rap factions Flatbush Zombies and The Underachievers came together to release "The Butterfly Effect", the first track from their collaborative project, Clockwork Indigo. Today, the supergroup has released the EP in its entirety. The 5-track project is now available for free stream via SoundCloud. Take a listen below, and make sure to check out the two acts on tour this fall. Find the dates and the EP below.

After sharing their first track under the "Clockwork Indigo" moniker earlier today, Flatbush Zombies and The Underachievers have announced a fall tour called the "Electric Koolaide Experience." All the dates are below, and you can cop tickets here.