Music Features

In the early 2000s, DJ Drama's mixtapes launched artists' careers and defined a new sound. But when mixtapes became a scapegoat for the music industry's collapse, Drama took the fall. Richard Ecclestone / Redferns hide caption

Before he was a teenager, Mac Phipps already had a record deal. By the time he was 20 he was signed to No Limit Records, the biggest independent label in the country. At 24, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 30 years in prison following the shooting death of a man at one of his concerts, a crime of which he maintains he did not commit. Sheila Phipps hide caption

Over the past week, users of TikTok began absorbing, in a "challenge," one artist's musical investigation into the realities of living through a degenerative neurological disorder. @kadanharne and @quinfinity/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

The artists of Boston's queer scene. Jesse Haley hide caption

Esteemed jazz musician Toshinori Kondo playing the trumpet. Peter Gannushkin hide caption

"I see samples more than just sounds," Backxwash rapper and producer Ashanti Mutinta says, "they represent a slice of time." Merchant Vaporwave/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

A portrait of Eddie Van Halen, from a photo shoot in Tokyo, Sep. 1979. Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images hide caption

Boston's emerging do-it-yourself hip-hop community gives artists tremendous freedom. Jesse Haley hide caption