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Kendrick Lamar is getting ready to release his new album “To Pimp A Butterfly,” on March 23, 2015. As part of the promotional media tour, he graces Rolling Stone’s cover for their new issue, which will be on stands March 13th.

On the cover, the TDE lyricist is dressed in a Chicago White Sox Starter jacket and is getting his hair twisted by a woman – her face is not shown – next to the headline: “The Trials Of Kendrick Lamar.”

Rolling Stone’s March issue will be the first time Kendrick has appeared on the renowned music publication’s cover, which was shot in Hollywood, California. K. Dot describes his new album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” as “honest, fearful and unapologetic.” The magazine caught up with Kendrick in his hometown of Compton, California to discuss his rough upbringing, battles with depression, and navigating his newfound success. When asked to give an explanation of the album’s title, Lamar says, “it will be taught in college courses someday.”

While the full interview won’t be available until it hits stands just yet, Rolling Stone has teased a portion of it, and provided some visuals.

“You take a black kid out of Compton and put him in the limelight, and you find answers about yourself you never knew you were searching for,” he says. “There’s some stuff in there, man. It’s a roller coaster. It builds.” – Kendrick Lamar

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In some ways, what Drake is saying makes sense. After all, the backlash towards Macklemore‘s win was almost entirely geared towards the universal agreement that Kendrick should have won. However, one can see how the other three nominees, despite being arguably the three biggest names in hip-hop for quite some time now, would feel slighted by not receiving the same apology from the Seattle newcomer.

On the other hand, it would seem that the core of Drake‘s statement is his belief that gkmc was not the only nominated album superior to The Heist. In fact, by claiming that “we all need text messages,” Drake is essentially saying Macklemore‘s album was the worst of the entries and that he should be apologizing to all four of them for snatching the award from more deserved hands.

While many dedicated hip-hop enthusiasts, myself included, would tend to agree with the notion that The Heist, while a good album in its own right, was not the “Best Rap Album” of the bunch, it’s ironic that Drake is the first one to speak up about the texted apology. After all, the media’s most notorious loose cannon was amongst those who went home empty-handed on Grammy night. In addition, one could make the claim that Nothing Was the Same isn’t necessarily a pure rap album, or even Yeezus for that matter.

In the end, the controversy surrounding The Heist‘s Grammy success is emblematic of the mainstream’s approval of “socially conscious rap” and a crossroads for the genre as a whole. Macklemore and scores of other fans believed Kendrick put out the superior album, and whether or not Drake gets the apology he thinks he deserves is no longer relevant.

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Abel recently took to his Tumblr to speak to his fans. In the letter, The Weeknd speaks on where he’s at in life right now, the meaning behind the “Rolling Stone” video and his creative control with Universal. It’s safe to say that this is the most forthcoming and open The Weeknd has ever been with the public. You can read the whole thing below.

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SpaceGhostPurrp prefers to think of Mysterious Phonk: Chronicles of SpaceGhostPurrp – out on June 12th, but availalbe to stream exclusively on RollingStone.com below – as more of a thank you to his fans than a full-fledged debut LP. It’s a sort of touched-up scrapbook of the Miami producer-rapper’s whirlwind past two years, marked by the release of his 2011 BlackLand 66.6 mixtape, his latest God of Black EP and hisproduction work for breakout MCs like A$AP Rocky and Wiz Khalifa. On the strength of those projects, the 21-year-old inked a deal with indie label 4AD to re-record some of his previously-released songs and package them with new material.

The Black God and Rolling Stone have teamed up to allow his fans to stream his upcoming project prior to its official release on June 12th. Check it out below.

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So first off, don’t pay this list any more heed than college rankings, which Malcolm Gladwell has thoroughly discredited.  Nonetheless, it’s interesting to see Rolling Stone‘s process in quantifiably determining the current king of hip-hop.  To conclude with the list above, they tallied album sales (Eminem, who wins by a landslide), radio hits (Drake, who beat Wayne!), YouTube views (Eminem, who surpassed a billion), tour money (Wayne), social networking (Eminem, again), album reviews (Kanye and Big Boi lead), and awards (there he is — Jay-Z), from 2009 to today.  After crunching the numbers through whatever arbitrary algorithm, Eminem wins.  Go figure.

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The Weeknd‘s recent show at The Mod Club in downtown Toronto could be the most talked about, and sincere R&B performance in a long, long while. And if you don’t believe us, take a look at this new footage that surfaced on Youtube. The Weeknd performs “Rolling Stone” before a full crowd.

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