Rapper won prestigious award as an unsigned artist before breaking UK Top 10 and nurturing artists including KSI

The British rapper Sway, who proved inspirational to a generation of Black British musicians thanks to his independence and frank, dextrous storytelling, has died aged 44.

The news was announced by the Mobo awards, with whom Sway won best hip-hop act in 2005, the first unsigned act to do so. “Proud to have him as part of our history. Our love goes out to his family, loved ones and fans,” the statement read.

The masterful ​Harrow MC behind the year’s funniest, most inventive UK rap debut explains how his parents sparked his ravenous outlook – and why he’s wrestling his peers

A few Guinnesses into an interview in his local Irish boozer, and 26-year-old Harrow rapper Kibo is cooking. We’re talking football. As a kid, he preferred playing Fifa Street – where ordinary players backflip off walls to score incomprehensible bicycle kicks – to regular realistic Fifa. “If I’m gonna play a video game, I want to do some shit I can’t do in real life,” he says. He’s drawn to similarly miraculous footballers: Balotelli, Drogba in his Chelsea days, Ronaldinho and his dad’s favourite, Eric Cantona: “Oh God, with his collar popped, looking like Kanye West?” Kibo then recites Cantona’s 2019 Uefa president’s award speech – a mash-up of King Lear and philosophical musings on war and science – to near perfection.

Magic is at the heart of Kwengletarianism, “the idea of being in a place that’s very grey, and trying to find a prismatic iridescence in it”, that underpins Kibo’s sensational album Kwengletaria: Ragamyff. (Cantona? “He’s a Kwengletarian to the nth degree.”) During his long rise through London’s rap scene, canonised by co-signs from Skepta, JME and Dave, Kibo has become a rare MC from Harrow, the town that produced Kate Nash and Jai Paul but no rappers of note. “It’s awesome,” he says of its lack of rap tradition, “a complete blank slate” to be as imaginative as he wants. Kwengletaria finds the myth in the mundane: on the track Bakerloo Dragon, a normal tube journey becomes a cruising broken-beat roller aboard a fire-spitting Bakerloo line train. I tell him my train to Harrow was one of these flame-graffitied dragons. “But did you get any sparks?” he asks enthusiastically. “You get sparks after Stonebridge Park!”

Police received information nearly immediately after the killing. It took Las Vegas police 27 years to make an arrest

For years, US law enforcement officials blamed their failure to solve hip-hop star Tupac Shakur’s murder on the lack of cooperation from key witnesses, and on gang members’ “snitches get stitches” culture.

But testimony in a much-delayed murder trial, which concluded this week, almost 30 years after Shakur’s death, highlighted just how much law enforcement officials knew about the shooting, and how early.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
Even though Beyoncé rumours prove unfounded, there are plenty of guests, from Idris Elba to Lauryn Hill – but this show doesn’t need cameos to lift it

Jay-Z’s first solo tour in nine years bills itself as a celebration: it marks the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. But it feels less concerned with nostalgic reverie than a show of strength in the present day. Hip-hop is a genre predicated on constant forward motion, in which careers tend to burn brightly, then dim as the music moves on. Jay-Z may not be the only fiftysomething rapper out on a career retrospective tour in 2026, but he is, unequivocally, the only one who’s capable of doing it at this level: packing out the biggest stadiums in the world nearly a decade after he last released an album, his standing impressively undiminished by a retreat into semi-retirement.

Moreover, he’s doing it in considerable style. The show’s musical approach can clearly trace its origins back to 2001, the year Jay-Z solved the problem of how on earth a rapper was supposed to appear on MTV Unplugged by eschewing hip-hop’s standard DJ-and-backing-tapes approach and employing a live band: the Roots were apparently astonished to be asked, but the end result was pretty jaw-dropping. Back in May, his first solo gig in five years essentially recreated it – he headlined the Roots’ annual Picnic festival with Questlove and co in tow once more – but the Jay-Z 30 tour supersizes it, featuring not just a 10-piece band, but an 18-piece string section. The resulting sound can, very occasionally, feel a little de trop – the squealing metal guitar solo appended to Can I Live definitely seems surplus to requirements – but for the most part, it works extraordinarily well, amping up the cinematic sweep of Empire State of Mind and the lush 70s-soul inflections of Izzo (H.O.V.A), adding a thunderous heft to Public Service Announcement and 99 Problems. It also serves to underline Jay-Z’s technical skill: a lesser rapper would be swallowed up by the density of the sound, but the precision of his delivery consistently cuts through.

Der Mord an Tupac Shakur hat knapp 30 Jahre lang Stoff für Spekulationen geliefert. Nun wurde Gang-Anführer Duane Davis dessen schuldig gesprochen. Fragen bleiben trotzdem.

Las Vegas jury returns verdict against ex-South Side Compton Crips gang leader in killing of US rap legend

• Thirty years of waiting, a memoir and a trial: conviction in Tupac Shakur killing brings closure

A Las Vegas jury has found former South Side Compton Crips gang leader Duane Keith Davis guilty of the murder of Tupac Shakur, bringing the case to a close nearly 30 years after the famous rapper was gunned down.

The jury took about three hours to reach a guilty verdict in a case that relied heavily on multiple confessions from Davis himself, including his description of the killing in the 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend.

Irish noisemongers Gilla Band, shadowy producers Two Shell and lovable band the Big Moon have new records, and there are tours from Bob Dylan and Kelela – plus the best of jazz, global and classical

• ‘It’s easier when nobody’s watching’: inside the secretive and sublime freak-folk of @
• See all of our unmissable autumn arts recommendations here

The controversial rapper now known as Ye was due to play two huge shows at St Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena, which now states it cannot host performances for contractual reasons

The St Petersburg stadium that was set to host two concerts by Ye – making the rapper formerly known as Kanye West the biggest western act to play in Russia since start of the Ukraine war – has now said that the concerts will not take place at the venue, although the promoter has stressed that they have not been cancelled.

Gazprom Arena had previously posted on social media saying that “the most influential musical artist of our time” would perform there on 10 and 11 October. “This is no joke!” the post stated. The event sold out immediately, including tickets priced at £1390 ($1896).

Kurdish New Zealander Baban Hussain has gained global fame with online hit he created with Australian producer

Two months ago, Baban Hussain, a 22-year-old Kurdish New Zealander, was working from a self-run studio in Auckland, putting out music to a few thousand followers as little-known rapper Fat Papi.

Then, as modern fairytales go, he made a viral hit that has amassed over 7.5bn views across YouTube, gained him nearly 10m new monthly listeners on Spotify, and catapulted him on to global charts – including the US Billboard Hot 100.

Während die blaue Welle durch Mecklenburg-Vorpommern schwappt, singt das Rap-Duo Hinterlandgang schonungslos und zärtlich über das Leben in der Provinz. Besuch bei Menschen, die bleiben. Gerade jetzt.

30 Jahre nachdem Tupac Shakur erschossen wurde, steht der mutmaßliche Drahtzieher vor Gericht. Die Anklage beruht auf den Memoiren des Mannes. Aber was davon ist wahr und was nur Fiktion?

Murder trial of Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, 63, former South Side Compton Crips gang leader, opens in Las Vegas

For nearly 30 years, the unsolved murder of 25-year-old rapper Tupac Shakur has sparked lawsuits, theories and conspiracies.

Now, decades after his death in a September 1996 drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, local prosecutors are finally offering a detailed official account of Shakur’s killing, accusing Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a 63-year-old former South Side Compton Crips gang leader, of being the “on-the-ground, on-site commander of the effort to kill Tupac”.

1996 starb der Rapper Tupac Shakur nach Schüssen in Las Vegas. Jetzt steht ein mutmaßlicher Drahtzieher vor Gericht. Die Anklage nennt Rache als Motiv.

Prosecutors accuse Duane Davis of orchestrating 1996 shooting in retaliation for attack by rapper’s entourage

The trial of a former gang leader accused of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap star Tupac Shakur began in a Las Vegas courtroom on Monday, featuring testimony from a witness to the shooting and a former police officer.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis is on trial for murder for his alleged role in the shooting of Shakur, who died after a drive-by shooting. Prosecutors allege Davis was the “on-the-ground, on-site commander of the effort to kill Tupac” and that he planned the shooting in retaliation for Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’s nephew.

There’s a lot to unpack as this proud son of Toronto closes in on 40 – from his gambling to his very public dates. Here goes!

Even if you can only name a handful of rappers, Drake is probably one of them. Not so many years ago, he was among the planet’s biggest celebrities, named in the same breath as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé and breaking chart records set by the Beatles. Many of his dozens of hit singles – Work, One Dance, Hotline Bling and God’s Plan – were ubiquitous, among the last truly crossover radio hits.

Drake is still landing chart spots (if not critical acclaim), but now it’s his foray into the “creator economy” that’s raising eyebrows – shilling for a crypto casino, fraternising with manosphere influencers and, just last weekend, live-streaming dates with OnlyFans models. So what’s this all about? Is Toronto’s once-golden boy having a midlife crisis – or is it a media-savvy pivot? Here’s how Drake got caught up in the “creator economy”.

(Backwoodz)
The rapper-producer duo muster a breakup record with glistening beats and lovelorn lyrics that mull over grievances without resolve

Tough as they may be, breakups make for good material. Doomed! is Open Mike Eagle’s entry into that wide canon – sitting alongside Tyler, the Creator’s Igor and Ye’s 808s & Heartbreak in the alt-rap subcategory – and finds the LA-via-Chicago rapper every bit as wide-eyed, caustic and, at-times, crushing as those who’ve Kübler-Rossed their way out of a relationship before him. Out of lemons, lemonade, and all that.

In fact, without the disintegration of his five-year relationship, he and Kenny Segal – the feted Low End Theory-reared producer who helms the entire project – might have been resigned to merely cropping up as occasional features on each other’s records forever. The breakup gave sessions a focal point, and half a decade’s grievances to mull. Or, as Eagle puts it languidly over lounge glockenspiel on Streets of Rage: Public Arguments Edition: “These is true stories told loosely.”

Duane Davis was charged with murder, and described as the ‘shot caller’ who orchestrated rapper’s killing in 1996

A jury of six men and 10 women was selected Thursday to hear the case against an ex-gang leader accused of orchestrating Tupac Shakur’s killing nearly 30 years ago in one of hip-hop’s most pivotal moments.

Opening statements at the murder trial in Las Vegas are expected to begin on Monday.

Despite outcry from musicians, AI slop is creeping into the charts as record labels scramble to adapt to a new normal where hits can be made at the click of a button

This year, the battle for song of the summer has been eclipsed by a much more complicated – some would even say disturbing – debate. That’s because we find ourselves asking not “What’s the song of the summer?” but rather “Is the song of the summer even real?”

Among the top contenders for the title is Fenix Flexin’s Rubberz, a single released in June that has ascended to No 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 and racked up more than 35m Spotify streams. It’s not the sort of fare Fenix usually cooks up. The artist is known for his trap music as part of the rap duo Shoreline Mafia, but Rubberz is a mildly noirish, 80s-inspired synth-pop track featuring a voice nothing like his. The song has drawn comparisons to Morrissey, but it more closely resembles Men at Work’s Down Under, or a Weird Al Yankovic parody of Men at Work. It’s pretty awful. But more importantly, it has an uncanny quality to it. It sounds off.

Prosecutors allege Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis ordered killing and provided gun in Las Vegas drive-by shooting 30 years ago

Jury selection began on Monday in Las Vegas as the murder trial of a former gang leader finally got under way decades after the shooting of the rapper Tupac Shakur, one of the most high-profile unsolved killings in the US.

It was thought likely to take at least the rest of the week to seat a jury for the trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, in which prosecutors aim to show that Davis, 63, the one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang in California, ordered the killing and provided the gun for the fatal attack on Shakur.