Ask Brooklyn-based rapper rivan where his name comes from and you get a family tree with a folk tale tangled in the roots. It is his father's middle name, borrowed from Rip Van Winkle, the old story about a man who would rather do anything than his chores, drinks himself into a decades-long sleep, and wakes up to find the world has carried on wthout him. Where Rip Van Winkle slept through his own life, rivan has spent the past few years determined to stay very much awake for

For the last couple of years, Hivemind has grown to become one of the most influential music pages on YouTube. Through their bracket games and artist guest appearances, Riley Savage and Graydon Weaver have built a community that highlights loving music above everything else. Spending time with them off camera has made it abundantly clear that their videos are not a performance; Hivemind is who they are inside and out. Earlier this summer, I got to discuss with the duo what th

When I was in 8th grade back at the beginning of 2017, my most anticipated project was easily Playboi Carti’s first mixtape. It wasn’t just the music that was alluring to me – it was also all the cosigns stacked around his image before a single song from the project had even dropped: A$AP Rocky signing him to be a part of the A$AP Mob, his ties to Ian Connor, his close friendships with Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yachty, an unreleased collaboration with Frank Ocean, modeling for Yee