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Pharoahe Monch's 2014 album, PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, focused on the Queens rapper's struggle with depression and sobriety. In a new interview with Tim Einekel for Red Bull Music Academy, Pharoahe Monch detailed his deeply personal struggles and how it has affected his music.

"I knew that I had to touch on my personal issues," Pharoahe said. "In the past it’s very metaphoric, rhyming from a perspective of a bullet or some inanimate object, but this time I wanted to focus on Troy [Pharoahe Monch's real name] and what’s in his head and who he is personally. That’s what the album became."

The album forced Pharoahe to revisit his own struggle with dep

Chance the Rapper is using the momentum from the success of his recent mixtape Coloring Book to launch a new music festival in his native Chicago.

Chance's fans in Chicago were up in arms when it was originally announced that Chance's upcoming world tour was skipping his hometown, but now we know why Chicago was originally omitted from the tour schedule: Chance will not just perform, but he'll also host an entire music festival in the South Side, called the Magnificent Coloring Day Festival.

Besides Chance, the festival will also feature performances by Alicia Keyes, John Legend, 2 Chainz, Lil' Wayne and more.

“I want this show to sell out COMPLETELY. Bring your Family out, all ages are invited,” Chance told fa

Mixtape Madness is hosted by Southern California's MizBehavin. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Compton, MizBehavin's life has always been all about music: the daughter of a radio station employee, her uncle taught her how to scratch and spin records at a young age, and later in life she worked for KKBT FM-92.3 The Beat, one of LA's top hip hop and R&B stations, where she learned the ins-and-outs of the industry.

"That scene in Straight Outta Compton where Dr. Dre lies on the floor with the records spread about resonated so deeply with me... I cried. I still do that!," MizBehavin says. She grew up surrounded by her family's massive record collection, which included the works of music legends like Al Green, Shalamar, Luther Vandross, Rick James, T

This week's Spotlight Artist is LX BEATS, born Lauri Pihlman, coming to us all the way from Finland. He is seen on the #RAP50 countdown with last week's Spotlight, Akrobatik, on their collaborative track “Migrate” featuring M-Dot. LX Beats took the time to sit down to talk about his experience in producing and working with Akrobatik, and making their album Antihero together. They make one dope collaboration and with his beats, Akrobatik couldn't pass up working someone who is putting in as much work as LX Beats is.

RAPstation (Kianna Woods): How did you get into production?

LX Beats: My childhood friends played me AMG - Bitch Betta Have My Money and Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers al

During the second night of this year's OVO Fest in Toronto, Drake brought out Kanye West as a special guest. The two proceeded to perform “Pop Style” for the cheering crowd, however, Kanye West made an interesting announcement afterwards.

“Toronto, I got one question for you,” Kanye West said after they wrapped up the performance. “Is you all ready for this album? I'm not talking about Pablo. I'm not talking about VIEWS. I want to ask y'all, y'all ready for this album.”

Drake then echoed Kanye's sentiment, saying “What my brother was asking before was, are you ready if we make an album? That's what he was asking.” As of right now, we have no more details about this

Grandmaster Melle Mel is the original hip hop MC, and is rightfully celebrated as one of the pioneers of rap. Rap Mind, a site focused on socially conscious rap, was recently given the rare opportunity to speak with Melle Mel, and the Grandmaster gave his opinions on everything from Donald Trump to what he thinks is the true essence of hip hop.

“Love. That was the true essence of hip-hop and that might have been the sixth element.  None of it started with money.  If you were a b-boy you did it because you loved it.  If you were a graffiti artist, you weren’t going to be famous.  If you deejayed, you did it because you loved it," Melle Mel said.  "When you hit the mic, you did it because you loved what you were d