Abraham Conlon of Fat Rice shows the "right way" and "wrong way" to cook a porcine reproductive organ

Braised, deep-fried, stir-fried—pig uterus has its merits.

The Chicago Reader's Key Ingredient Cook-Off

Chicago rapper Lucki Ecks and the new trap tag

Local rapper Lucki Ecks is prepping a mixtape called Alternative Trap, but he's not the only one who has been toying with the southern-raised rap genre.

The DMX Christmas conspiracy theory

Is DMX's version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" a sly bit of viral marketing for his most recent album?

Reflecting on a year of Jewish-related hip-hop on Yom Kippur

A Yom Kippur reflection on Matisyahu's "Tel Aviv'n," Drake's re-bar mitzvah, Mac Miller, MCA, and more

Tyler, the Creator's safe Mountain Dew ad

What a new commercial for a soft-drink company says about Odd Future

Saying good-bye to great activist local hip-hop group BBU

Politically conscious local rap group BBU breaks up

12 O'Clock Track: That welcome 90s alt sound shines through on Bed Wettin' Bad Boys' "Any Day Now"

Today's 12 O'Clock Track is the Bed Wettin' Bad Boys' "Any Day Now," from their debut full-length, Ready for Boredom.

12 O'Clock Track: Schwarz's jubilant club anthem, "U R Beautiful"

Baltimore's Schwarz spins his hometown sound into an ebullient self-esteem booster with "U R Beautiful."

Fake Asian Rolex eludes the spam filter and steals my heart

Hilarious new powerviolence from France

How Ghostface Killah helped break my puzzling relationship with reissues

Get On Down's reissue of Ghostface Killah's Ironman comes with a puzzle that should get plenty of play.

Chief Keef's Finally Rich is good, bad, and mostly OK

Some decided to love or hate Chief Keef's Interscope debut prior to its release, but the album shouldn't inspire such strong feelings

Rap wrap-up: New songs from Tree, Vic Spencer, Sasha Go Hard, and more

New songs from local hip-hop artists Tree, Vic Spencer, Kembe X, Sasha Go Hard, and M.I.C

An old-school Reader blowout, and the rest of this week's screenings

New reviews and notable screenings in this week's issue

The scenario at Saturday's Holiday Rap Karaoke Party

Hip-hop heads will be "Causin' rambunction, throughout the sphere" at Saturday's rap karaoke party

Q&A: Local jazz vocalist Lili K. on her odd relationship with Chicago's rap scene

The jazz vocalist/rap collaborator on her partnership with producer Petter Cottontale, her work with Chance the Rapper, and more

Tonight: Local rap crew the Brkf$t Club headline Reggie's

Prepare for the Brkf$t Club's first headlining show with one of the year's best local rap videos

Chicago flavor in new music from Rick Ross and Kendrick Lamar

The Black Bar Mitzvah and Good Kid, Maad City have at least one thing in common—Chicago

The time Kriss Kross dropped the N-word

Beloved for their squeaky-clean rap, Kriss Kross shook things up on 1993's Da Bomb in part by throwing around the N-word.

Chance the Rapper on Obama, LSD, and being pigeonholed as a high school MC

An interview with the local MC, who headlines at the Metro on Friday, November 23rd

Straight outta the Middle East: Reflecting on personal experiences with Israeli and Palestinian hip-hop

Thoughts surrounding DAM, the first Palestinian rap group, who performs in Chicago on Friday.

DJ and editor Alex Fruchter on leaving Ruby Hornet to focus on Closed Sessions

The man known as DJ RTC: "Curren$y, he sent me an e-mail, just three words: 'I'm with you.'"

Kanye West and the perils of cool-dad syndrome

Examining the rapper-producer as he prepares for fatherhood

Deerhoof, unlikely partners of Chicago's Ensemble Dal Niente, bring it solo to Lincoln Hall tonight

The Bay Area rock quartet have been fruitfully collaborating with the Chicago new music group Ensemble Dal Niente, but tonight they're on their own at Lincoln Hall.

Hadouken! brings cheeseball rock into the 21st century

How dubstep's helping to save rock 'n' roll.

Fall Out Boy's new single has rap in its DNA and 2 Chainz in its video

Local pop-punk powerhouse takes a page from rap's book with its new single, "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)."

The untimely demise of cartoon rapper Captain Murphy

How LA producer Flying Lotus single-handedly created and destroyed one of the more interesting rappers to gain national attention this year

Taste the Waste: Three Floyds and Municipal Waste's Toxic Revolution Stout

Thrash metal may go hand-in-hand with shit beer, but the stout that Municipal Waste brewed with Three Floyds is world class.

Jason Vincent is a Food & Wine best new chef and other food news bites

Russian sausage, hummus law, the return of Logan Square Kitchen, and more

Madeleine Peyroux tiptoes around the legacy of Ray Charles

On her latest album, The Blue Room, Madeleine Peyroux pays homage to the country recordings of Ray Charles—sort of.

Are the graphics in the new Danny Brown and Purist video seapunk or vaporwave?

A new video for "Jealousy" includes some noxious and outdated 3-D graphics that have some similarities with seapunk and vaporwave.

Kitty Pryde and the benefits of cultural short-term memory loss

It's been less than a year since Kitty Pryde first captured the Internet's attention, which has been enough time for people to forget their most polarizing opinions of the teenaged rapper

Interview: Sasha Go Hard (and a download of her new mixtape)

Rising local rapper Sasha Go Hard on staying away from violence, the roots in rap, and her new mixtape, Hip-Hop vs. Love

I can't stop obsessing over Kevin Gates's new Luca Brasi Story mixtape

Some mixtapes are so great they demand to be replayed before you finish listening to the entire thing; Kevin Gates's new The Luca Brasi Story is one of those mixtapes.