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Every Marianne Faithfull Album, Ranked

Every Marianne Faithfull Album, Ranked

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull was born in Hampstead in 1946, and by the mid-’60s, the singer and actress had become the teen queen of hip, swinging London, rubbing elbows with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote “As Tears Go By,” the song that established her as a pop star…

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2025 XXL Freshman Revealed

2025 XXL Freshman Revealed

Hip-hop’s most-talked-about time of year for new artists is here. For 18 years, the XXL Freshman list has established itself as the go-to platform for discovering emerging rap talent. The streaming era has significantly broadened the landscape for artists, transforming a smaller pool of talent into a vast ocean of skill. Despite the influx of new rappers…

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Inside the Volcano

Inside the Volcano

Back in 2003, when people still bought CDs in the waning days of the analog era, Meat Puppets singer-guitarist Curt Kirkwood, Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh, and Ziggens bassist Jon Poutney recorded 13 new songs in a southern California studio. They called themselves Volcano. The band was a casual extension of Kirkwood and Gaugh’s previous trio,…

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Every XXL Freshman Cover Since 2007

Every XXL Freshman Cover Since 2007

When the rising rap talent of the mid-2000s—from Lupe Fiasco to Plies to Papoose—graced the 2007 cover of XXL magazine, no one foresaw the “Leaders of the New School” tagline evolving into one of hip-hop’s most important institutions. Yet, that was the foundation from which XXL‘s annual tradition, the Freshman Class, was built. Eighteen years and 18…

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