Thomas Hobbs

"Much like the conveyor belt line of remasters, books, special edition boxsets, biopics, and documentaries commissioned around formative rock music released between 1965 and 1975, record label execs are hip to the fact that for anyone between the ages of 20-40 right now, 1990s rappers are seen as the new Beatles, Doors, Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin, and that the subsequent demand for product around those kind of legacy artists rarely recedes."

Learning how to relax when you live inside a tiny box room with extortionate rent (and a likely mould problem) in a sprawling urban metropolis can be difficult, but Dublin rapper Kojaque’s hazy, nocturnal confessionals succeed in helping the city’s lost feel found. Thomas Hobbs met him.

Billy Wilder’s 1951 noir has obvious parallels with our current era of fake news and alternative facts.

The wide-ranging and often prophetic writings of The Doors’ frontman are celebrated in a new anthology. Thomas Hobbs spoke to those that knew Jim Morrison best about why he was really a poet, not a rock star.

His portraits of his Paris neighbourhood summed up its residents’ anger. Now his subversive installations straddle borders, float on boats and envelop favelas. We speak to the elusive artist.

As video games become ever more hyper-realistic, a new breed of "virtual photographers" is capturing special moments of beauty and emotion within them. Thomas Hobbs reports.

In the latest installment of Behind The Beat, Thomas Hobbs spoke with Cool and Dre about the enduring legacy of 50 Cent and The Game's nostalgic classic 'Hate It or Love It'.

After being released from prison last November, the LA-based artist has been busy working on multiple projects and is now gearing up to take his pioneering brand of West Coast rap to even bigger audiences.

"A TiaCorine song is an immersive experience: a kaleidoscope of luminous colors, larger-than-life anime characters, weed smog, hilarious sex metaphors (“Italian n****, eat my pussy like cannoli”), and psychedelic trap drums that make you feel like your pupils are dilating."

For this month’s First Look Friday, we talk with regal stoner rapper Lord Apex about being a student of American hip-hop, staying independent, and how rapping is similar to having sex.

"Zoom interviews usually involve a bored subject sitting in front of a MacBook Pro like they’re about to give deposition, with Wi-Fi delays only adding to the general awkwardness. Yet, on our call, the two core members of Bay-area hip-hop collective AG Club possess the energy of a couple of giddy teenagers queuing for a rollercoaster ride."

I wrote this tribute to Frank Ocean's Endless album for the Cocoon zine.

In the latest installment of Behind The Beat, Thomas Hobbs spoke with Jahlil Beats about how he and Bobby Shmurda made the immortal hood anthem “Hot N*gga.”

"Listening to a DMX song from the late 1990s is like riding a wrecking ball through a gated community. The music video for Stop Being Greedy – one of many confrontational highlights from the rapper’s 1998 Def Jam debut, It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot – shows DMX hunting a wealthy white man across a mansion, before eventually feeding the poor soul like a T-bone steak to his pet pitbull; the rapper’s exhilarating, half-barked vocals gave the sense that he wanted to eat the rich."

Across the UK, more and more weed dealers are selling cannabis in alluring premium branded bags that mirror the pizzazz of packaging from a dispensary in California. Cali weed can command a much higher price than standard cannabis, thanks in part to its association with an aspirational legal market and celebrity brand names. We investigate whether British smokers could actually be getting ripped off by buying into the Cali weed dream.