Blurring lines between rap and song

Hip-hop’s embrace of Auto-Tune in the 2000s didn’t just lead to some fascinatingly alien-sounding music, it helped break down shared concepts of rapping and singing in ways that turned the culture inside out. In a way, the tracks here represent the vanguard of modern rap. But they’re also about as close as rap gets to the loose emotionality of the blues—a balance of progress and tradition that has kept hip-hop changing since the beginning. Our editors mix things up here regularly, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.