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Track Town USA, once again, became center stage for track and field in early June during the 2021 Olympic Trials. Sha'Carri Richardson, favored runner for the USA Olympic 100 meter dash, stole the hearts of Eugene locals with her face gracing the downtown Nike storefront. The excitement for Richardson's accomplishments was quickly overshadowed following a suspension - a suspension that should make us all consider the human experience and the importance of mental health.

Richardson crossed the finish line in the 100 meter dash at the Olympic trials in 10.6 seconds, securing her spot on the Olympic team. Richardson demonstrated her poise when she revealed in her post-event interviews that she had lost her mother a week before her historic win. Grieving during one of the most important and joyful times of your life is bittersweet. On top of grieving, the pressure of being one of the top athletes in the country is unimaginable.

Following the national celebration of Richardson, an announcement of her suspension rocked media outlets and shocked the world. On June 25, 2021, The United States Anti-Doping Agency declared the 21-year-old sprinter was put on a 30-day suspension for a positive THC test. Richardson's case demonstrates the outdatedness of cannabis laws and policies. Policies that were originally created when weed was illegal are no longer societally relevant when it's now being taxed in 18 states and is decriminalized in 27. Richardson was suspended because THC is classified by the 2021 Anti-Doping Code as a substance of abuse. Usually, athletes are disqualified because of performance enhancing drugs. THC does not fall under the performance enhancing drug category, yet it is still seen as an abusive substance.

Cannabis is used medicinally and recreationally, and it has mental health benefits. As a 21-year-old in the state of Oregon, Richardson's use of cannabis was legal. The Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery found that patients who used cannabis to treat problems like anxiety had reduced symptoms and improved cognitive performance.

Richardson's positive test follows the death of her mother. At 21 years old, competing in the biggest event in her life thus far, the pressure and earth-shattering grievance is something all athletes and people can empathize with. Considering the unbelievable mental toll the two week period before the trials Richardson had, I am not shocked that a young adult would cope by using a substance such as cannabis. A young Black woman - one of the fastest women in America - should be able to represent this country with her talent. However, Richardson's situation unfortunately represents our country accurately in the general attitude towards mental health. Big names such as the NCAA and USA national teams preach of the importance of athlete mental health. However, the rules and regulations written and enforced by the corporations do not reflect the importance of mental health amongst athletes.

Richardson was aware of drug testing rules, and every Olympian must play by the rules to compete. In an interview with Sanya Richards-Ross and Van Lathan on their podcast, "Higher Learning," Richardson said, "The minute you cross the finish line first you are getting tested (drug tested)."

Richardson's disregard for the rules can be attributed to her 21-year-old ego and a significant traumatic loss. Any other weekend Richardson would have coped with cannabis, she would have not been penalized.

Richardson's case demonstrates the ongoing evolution of women's mental health in society. This suspension should be a turning point in athletics. Athletes train to be superhuman, but being superhuman does not mean that you are exempt from human emotion. Taking a moment to reflect on being human is one of the greatest outcomes of the Richardson events. Grieving is inevitable, mistakes are inevitable and sadness is a plague. In the Van Lathan interview, Richards-Ross went on to say, "the best part of the conversation will be following mental health." Other athletics such as football and basketball have loosened restrictions from marijuana for these reasons. Grieving is human. Richardson may be superhuman on the track, but she's human nonetheless.

The USA Olympic track and field team cannot compete without an essential part of their team and will most likely suffer, or have already significantly suffered, because of this. So, when are we going to realize that winning is more important than giving consequences for actions that are human?

Underneath superhuman talent and insane quads, track stars are people just like you and me. Richardson should be able to run to show the world that grief does not have to take away from your success. Richardson should be able to run because running should be more than following rules. More than anything, Richardson should be able to run because athletes should be able to take care of their mental health - safely and legally.

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Opinion: We are all human. Sha'Carri Richardson is too.

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Track Town USA, once again, became center stage for track and field in early June during the 2021 Olympic Trials. Sha'Carri Richardson, favored runner for the USA Olympic 100 meter dash, stole the hearts of Eugene locals with her face gracing the downtown Nike storefront.

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The new reality of UFOs: An interview with journalist Leslie Kean

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The past few years have seen a big change in how UFOs are perceived, both by the public and by government officials.

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Instability in Afghanistan | Global Conflict Tracker

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Learn about the world's top hotspots with this interactive Global Conflict Tracker from the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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UFO News: latest news, photos, videos, and more

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UFO news, latest news, spy balloon, photos and video

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Cliff Hawkins, Staff / Getty Images

Let me be the first to say: Sha'Carri Richardson's decision to smoke marijuana while training for the Tokyo Olympics was not a good one.

No one is saying her actions, which proved to be her downfall as she was ultimately banned from the Olympics due to a failed drug test, were right. I'm also not saying she shouldn't have faced some sort of discipline, but I think we can all agree that she did (and still does) deserve to run in a race she trained so hard for.
STAND BESIDE HER: Texas sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson receives outpouring of support after failed drug test
Studies show that marijuana is not used as a performance-enhancing drug, and has few to no exercise benefits. In my opinion, this makes Richardson's achievements that much more amazing.

As unfortunate as it may be, though, Richardson's reality is happening exactly how the justice system intended. Once praised for her impressive track record, the star athlete had a target on her back the moment she began receiving an outpouring of support and getting "cocky."

Because the world is so hellbent on humbling Black women.

Lately, well all the time there has been this obsession to humble black women whenever they get an once of success. Please remove yourself.
- Ella 🇳🇬 (@alaladeland) July 4, 2021

When it comes to being Black, and a woman in particular, you have to be twice as good to receive half the recognition - good recognition that is.

When Richardson failed her drug test, the world knew instantly. She began trending all across social media, and even though she took accountability for her actions, she was heavily criticized.

Meanwhile, American middle distance runner Shelby Houlihan continues to fail to prove that tainted pork caused her positive test for an anabolic steroid - and she has yet to receive an equal amount of coverage or calls of accountability for any potential wrongdoing she may have done.
OPINION: Stop policing people of color's hair and pass the CROWN Act
On top of that, Black women have to deal with other unnecessary rules and restrictions in sports, such as the banning of afro caps from the Olympics because they don't follow "the natural form of the head."

If you're not a Black woman, you don't understand just how heartbreaking, disappointing and downright sad this is. And it's really time for a change.

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Opinion: Sha'Carri Richardson's ban goes beyond a failed drug test

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Let me be the first to say: Sha'Carri Richardson's decision to smoke marijuana while training for the Tokyo Olympics was not a good one. No one is saying her actions, which proved to be her downfall as she was ultimately banned from the Olympics due to a failed drug test, were right.

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Jamaica's Elaine Thompson-Herah, left, wins the 100 meters, as her countrywomen Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price, right finishes second. American Sha'Carri Richardson, center, finished last. (AP Photo/Thomas Boyd)

As she settled her spikes into the starting blocks in Lane 5 before the women's 100 meters Saturday afternoon at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., Sha'Carri Richardson pulled her brightly colored hair back behind her shoulders, pressed her finger to her lips and pointed to the sky.

Get the latest news and results from the Tokyo Olympics

The crowd at Hayward Field, the place where she had become a sensation two months earlier by winning the event at the U.S. Olympic trials - only to lose her chance to run in Tokyo after a positive marijuana test the following day - hushed in silence.

The 21-year-old was flanked by the entire podium of medalists from the Tokyo Olympics in this event, including the two best Jamaican sprinters ever, yet for those few seconds as she lined up, all of the pressure and noise that had accompanied Richardson's return to the sport this week appeared to subside.

As the gun went off, Richardson intended to silence anyone else who may have doubted her place among the sport's elite - but that would not come Saturday. Richardson faded early and finished last in the nine-woman field, watching as Jamaica's Elaine Thompson-Herah won with a time of 10.54 seconds, the second-fastest mark ever recorded in the event. Thompson-Herah's countrywomen, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, finished second and third respectively, as they did in Tokyo, while American Teahna Daniels finished fourth with a personal-best time of 10.83.

The political history of the marijuana rules that ensnared Sha'Carri Richardson

It was a stunning letdown for Richardson, who was also scheduled to run in the 200 meters but withdrew from that event. She had entered the meet with the sixth-fastest time ever in the 100, only to clock an 11.14 on an afternoon when she had an opportunity to open a new rivalry with her Jamaican counterparts. Even as they swept the podium in Tokyo, there was still the question that hovered over that event: What if Richardson would have been in the field in Tokyo?

On Saturday, that question was at least temporarily put to rest, and Richardson was left to defend her belief that she is among the best in her sport.

"Coming out today, it was a great return back to the sport. I wanted to be able to come and perform, having a month off, dealing with all I was dealing with," she told the NBC broadcast after the race. "I'm not upset at myself at all. This is one race. I'm not done. You know what I'm capable of. Count me out if you want to, talk all the [stuff] you want because I'm here to stay. I'm not done."

Saturday's blockbuster was further proof that Thompson-Herah is the fastest in her sport. The 29-year-old had made history in the event in Tokyo, running a 10.61 to break the 33-year-old Olympic record of Florence Griffith Joyner. A few nights later, she won gold in the 200 meters - and was just 0.19 seconds off Griffith Joyner's world record - to become the first woman to sweep the 100 and 200 in back-to-back Olympics.

She added a third gold medal when Jamaica won the 4x100-meter relay. She had not returned to her home country after the event, she said, choosing to set her sights on more opportunities to improve her times in 2021 - and she did just that with a personal best Saturday, blowing past Fraser-Pryce (10.73) and Jackson (10.76) to leave no doubt.

"To come back with a PB after the championships, that is amazing. I haven't run that fast in five years," Thompson-Herah said. "It means a lot to me ... because my job is to inspire a generation. I have more races, so I don't get too excited, too carried away. I have to continue doing the job."

Both Thompson-Herah and Fraser-Pryce had been peppered with questions about Richardson's absence in Tokyo, and they shared a stage with the American star during a news conference Friday in Eugene. Richardson looked confident as she arrived in sunglasses and listened to Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce and Jackson talk about their Olympic glory before she addressed questions about her return.

She had told the "Today" show in an interview this week that she had felt some "bitterness" watching the Olympics as she was sidelined because of her suspension, but she had thrown herself into her training for the Prefontaine Classic over the past six weeks to provide a reminder of her status in the sport after a captivating performance at the U.S. trials in June.

"Lining up against these women," she said Friday, nodding toward the trio from Jamaica, "two of the women sitting here are two of the fastest women to ever do this sport. So I'm honored just to be on this stage with them. But I'm not star-struck. When it's time to get on the line, we all do the same thing."

But she couldn't do the same thing Saturday, even as her event garnered buzz from around the world. There was a star-studded lineup performing in Eugene - and there were a slew of memorable performances, including by Athing Mu, who followed her gold medal in Tokyo in the 800 with an American record of 1 minute 55.04 seconds to win the event Saturday. And there was Noah Lyles of Alexandria, who blew past the field with a meet record time of 19.52 to win the men's 200, which was just a sliver shy of his personal best. But neither of those events had captured the hype of Richardson's return. Nike aired a commercial featuring Richardson on NBC before she ran, and she winked at the camera before she lined up.

After she had finished and was forced to watch as Thompson-Herah and her teammates celebrated, Richardson was the first to give an interview. She still forced a smile and pointed at the camera, reminding everyone of the 10.72 time she recorded earlier this year, and she promised that she would be back.

"I'm the sixth-fastest woman in this game, ever. Can't nobody ever take that away," Richardson told NBC. "Congratulations to the winners. Congratulations to the people who won, but they're not done seeing me yet. Period."

Updated August 9, 2021

More about the Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics have come to a close.

The Closing Ceremonies brought the Olympics to an official end much the same way the international spectacle began: in a near-empty stadium. It was a fitting end to a complicated Games.

Up next: The Beijing Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 4, 2022. Here's an early look at the next Games.

Fewer and fewer cities want to host the Olympics, columnist Barry Svrluga writes. That should tell the IOC something.

The United States finished the Tokyo Olympics with 113 total medals, including 39 gold. China was next best with 88 total and 38 gold. Here's the complete medal count.

Today's Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.

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Sha'Carri Richardson finally gets in blocks, finishes last in 100 at Prefontaine Classic

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As she settled her spikes into the starting blocks in Lane 5 before the women's 100 meters Saturday afternoon at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., Sha'Carri Richardson pulled her brightly colored hair back behind her shoulders, pressed her finger to her lips and pointed to the sky.

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A decadeslong search for aliens

While the scientific community has almost entirely avoided engaging with UFOs, a much more mainstream search for intelligent aliens and their technology has been going on for decades.

The search is motivated by the fact that astronomers have, to date, discovered over 4,400 planets orbiting other stars. Called exoplanets, some are close to the Earth's mass and at just the right distance from their stars to potentially have water on their surfaces - meaning they might be habitable.

Astronomers estimate that there are 300 million habitable worlds in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and each one is a potential opportunity for life to develop and for intelligence and technology to emerge. Indeed, most astronomers think it very unlikely that humans are the only or the first advanced civilization.

This confidence has fueled an active search for extraterrestrial intelligence, known as SETI. It has been unsuccessful so far. As a result, researchers have recast the question "Are we alone?" to "Where are the aliens?" The absence of evidence for intelligent aliens is called the Fermi paradox. First articulated by the physicist Enrico Fermi, it's a paradox because advanced civilizations should be spread throughout the galaxy, yet we see no sign of their existence.

The SETI activity has not been immune from scientists' criticism. It was starved of federal funding for decades and recently has gotten most of its support from private sources. However, in 2020, NASA resumed funding for SETI, and the new NASA administrator wants researchers to pursue the topic of UFOs.

In this context, the Pentagon report is welcome. The report draws few concrete conclusions about UFOs and avoids any reference to aliens or extraterrestrial spacecraft. However, it notes the importance of destigmatizing UFOs so that more pilots report what they see. It also sets a goal of moving from anecdotal observations to standardized and scientific data collection. Time will tell if this is enough to draw scientists into the effort, but the transparency to publish the report at all reverses a long history of secrecy surrounding U.S. government reports on UFOs.

I don't see any convincing evidence of alien spacecraft, but as a curious scientist, I hope the subset of UFO sightings that are truly unexplained gets closer study. Scientists are unlikely to weigh in if their skepticism generates attacks from "true believers" or they get ostracized by their colleagues. Meanwhile, the truth is still out there.

This story was originally published with The Conversation. Read the original story here.

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Pentagon UFO report: No confirmed aliens, but the government wants to

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While the scientific community has almost entirely avoided engaging with UFOs, a much more mainstream search for intelligent aliens and their technology has been going on for decades. The search is motivated by the fact that astronomers have, to date, discovered over 4,400 planets orbiting other stars.

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When 21-year-old American star sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson was disqualified from the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo after a positive marijuana test, it left many asking, "Should cannabis use by athletes be prohibited?"

Richardson said she used marijuana to deal with the news about the death of a parent and not to boost performance. Her exclusion has become a matter of heated debate. In making this decision, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has stated that it was following the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which classifies marijuana and other cannabinoids, including synthetic versions of these compounds, as banned substances in competition. WADA prohibits substances that meet two of three criteria: posing a health risk to athletes, potentially enhancing performance or violating "the spirit of sport."

Scientists say, however, that data supporting marijuana's performance-enhancing effects are scant-and, if anything, that the evidence seems to point to the drug actually reducing athletic ability. And while some experts agree that it has potential harmful effects to health, others say that the research to date suggests that cannabis is not more harmful than alcohol, a substance for which WADA has much laxer rules.

"[Richardson] was doing something legal in the state that she was in for reasons that, frankly, seemed perfectly understandable-to deny her the chance to compete at the highest level just seem to me absolutely ridiculous," says Angela Bryan, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. "I definitely think that [WADA] should take a look at more current evidence and reevaluate their position."

Does Pot Improve Athletic Performance?

A key paper cited to explain WADA's decision to place marijuana on the prohibited list is a 2011 review article by two members of the agency and a toxicologist at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. In it, the authors state that, based on the animal and human studies that were available at the time, "cannabis can be performance enhancing for some athletes and sports disciplines."

Margaret Haney, a professor of neurobiology who studies the effects of cannabis at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, says the data the authors used to support that stance in the paper are "really not impressive at all and almost contradict what they claim." For instance, she notes, the article cites a study of cyclists that reported that endurance was slightly reduced after consuming weed.

Since 2011 there have been several published review papers in which researchers evaluated the available research on this issue. Many of them-including one co-authored by the current medical director of WADA-have come to the same conclusion: no convincing evidence exists that cannabis can make athletes better at their sports.

"I think the consensus, in the absence of clear-cut information, is that cannabis is more likely to be viewed as performance-detracting rather than performance-enhancing," says David McDuff, a sports psychiatrist and professor at the University of Maryland, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee's Mental Health Workgroup. "Some studies suggest that consuming marijuana has negative effects on skills such as motor coordination and mental alertness that are required in many sports-but even there, little direct evidence exists of such effects in athletes," McDuff adds.

In addition to the lack of robust evidence for cannabis's performance-enhancing effects, Whitney Ogle, an assistant professor of kinesiology at Humboldt State University, says that some effects of marijuana that the 2011 paper point to as beneficial during sports, such as reduced anxiety and better sleep, are associated with cannabidiol, a substance found in marijuana that WADA removed from its prohibited list in 2018.

There is some anecdotal evidence suggesting that cannabis use before a workout is fairly common-although what that means for performance is unclear. A few years ago, Bryan and her colleagues carried out an online survey of approximately 600 people living in U.S. states where marijuana is legal, and around 70 percent of them reported using the drug shortly before exercise. Ogle's research, also based on online surveys, suggests that smoking weed before exercise helps athletes stay motivated and makes the experience more enjoyable. Some even claim it helps their performance. But whether any beneficial effect exists-or if people are simply perceiving themselves as performing better under the influence of marijuana-is unknown, Ogle adds.

One big caveat of many of the studies on cannabis and athletic performance that have been done to date, Ogle says, is that the THC levels in the products investigated are much lower than what's found in products that have become available in recent years. Researchers have conducted this research primarily with cannabis containing less than 5 percent THC, while the commercially available strains today can contain around 30 percent THC or more. Since most of the available evidence is based on products with a very low percent of THC, it's hard to extrapolate those findings to the products on the shelf today, Ogle says.

Should Weed Be Banned?

Even if marijuana is not performance-enhancing, WADA can justify the ban on the ground that it poses a danger to athletes' health and safety and that it violates the spirit of sport, which includes a long list of values that should be maintained by a competitor, such as honesty, dedication and respect for rules and laws. "You don't actually need to focus on performance to meet two of the three criteria," McDuff says, explaining that the case for the latter can be made because cannabis use is still illegal in most countries that participate in international sporting events such as the Olympics. When it comes to health, "the evidence is pretty clear that there are adverse health risks from the use of cannabis, especially regular daily use," he adds. "I do think we should err on the side of [marijuana] being on a list until the evidence is crystal clear that it should be off the list."

The potential harms of cannabis can come in many forms, McDuff says. They include a greater risk of accidents-as suggested by reports of the drug impairing driving abilities-and psychosis in a subset of individuals predisposed to the disorder and cannabis addiction. Some studies suggest addiction occurs in around 9 percent of users, with people who start using the drug at an early age facing the greatest risk.

Other experts, however, say that while such risks are real, it is unfair to apply a double standard to marijuana when alcohol-a substance that is not included in WADA's prohibited list-has similar, if not worse, adverse effects. "Alcohol is something that's far riskier in cannabis use for health, in terms of morbidity and mortality," Bryan says. "I think [cannabis] should be treated like other drugs that people use for various reasons-alcohol, caffeine, nicotine. It should be regulated, but I don't think it should be banned."

Debate around this issue comes at a somewhat unique time in recent history. Attitudes toward marijuana have drastically shifted in the past few years, as has been illustrated by the legalization of recreational cannabis in several states and the entire country of Canada. And many other nations around the world are considering permitting use of the drug for medical and leisure purposes.

This has resulted in changes within professional sports as well. For example, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which follows USADA's rules but not WADA's, permits the use of cannabis except when an athlete intends to use it for performance enhancement. Under those rules, a case such as that of Richardson, in which the substance was used to deal with grief, would not have led to a ban, says Matthew Fedoruk, chief science officer of USADA.

Rather than relying on the results of a urinetest alone-which is what was used to disqualify Richardson-the UFC requires additional evidence, such as behavioral signs of being under the influence, on the day of the fight. Fedoruk notes that because of the chemical properties of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), it may appear in urine above threshold levels on the day of a test, making it an unreliable marker of in-competition use.

"We have advocated, and will continue to advocate, for changes in how marijuana is treated by the WADA rules to ensure they are fit for purpose in that they do not unnecessarily punish legal, out-of-competition use," he says.

James Fitzgerald, a senior media relations and communications manager at WADA, notes that the organization's list of prohibited substances is reviewed annually with input from scientific, medical and antidoping experts and stakeholders around the world "to ensure it reflects current medical and scientific evidence and doping practice." The decision to remove a substance "is not based on one single piece of research or study," he says.

But Ogle says that the research to date on issues such as cannabis's effect on athletic performance is limited-leaving little evidence that authorities such as WADA can use to make these decisions. Although more studies are necessary, the legal status of marijuana makes this work a challenge. Even in the U.S., where many states have legalized marijuana, it is still a Schedule I drug -a category designated for substances with no accepted medical use and high abuse potential. "More research is needed," Ogle says. "And in order to do that research, we need cannabis to not be Schedule I."

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Weed Shouldn’t Be Banned for Elite Athletes, Some Experts Say

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When 21-year-old American star sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson was disqualified from the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo after a positive marijuana test, it left many asking, "Should cannabis use by athletes be prohibited?" Richardson said she used marijuana to deal with the news about the death of a parent and not to boost performance.

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Pop Smoke & Fivio Foreign are leading names in the Brooklyn Drill scene. Picture: Getty

What is Brooklyn Drill? Pop Smoke, Fivio Foreign, 22Gz and more are taking over Hip Hop in 2020.

If you're a Hip Hop fan you'll know about the growing sound of Brooklyn Drill. Borrowing sounds from the UK Drill scene, with many of the songs created by British producers, Brooklyn Drill has fast become the sound right at the forefront of Hip Hop.

After the tragic death of rising Brooklyn Drill rapper Pop Smoke, the sound gained even more fans and now boasts a number of huge names repping the Drill wave.

So check out 8 of the Brooklyn Drill rappers you need to know about in 2020...

1. Pop Smoke

Pop Smoke was tragically shot and killed during a home invasion in February 2020 and the rapper was the biggest name in the Brooklyn Drill scene.

A posthumous Pop Smoke album is being released on 12th June 2020 and will be executively produced by fellow New York rap heavyweight 50 Cent.

Pop Smoke's deep voice and energetic flow saw him cement his status as the leading figure in Brooklyn Drill, with songs such as 'Dior', 'Welcome To The Party' and 'Shake The Room' becoming the sound of the scene.
Essential song: Pop Smoke - 'Dior'

Pop Smoke was tragically shot and killed during a home invasion. Picture: Getty

2. Fivio Foreign

When you hear the "Ay, Ay, Ay" adlib, you instantly know it's a Fivio Foreign track, with the 24-year-old quickly becoming one of the biggest names in the Brooklyn Drill scene in recent times.

His popularity has grown thanks to huge songs like 'Big Drip' and 'Wetty', as well as a feature on Drake's recent song 'Demons'.

With the release of his '800 BC' mixtape in April 2020, Fivio Forign has already cemented his status as one of the most respected rappers in Brooklyn.

Fivio Foreign (L) has already collaborated with huge artists like Drake. Picture: Getty

3. 22Gz

Hailing from the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, rapper 22Gz is part of Sniper Gang, which also boasts jailed rapper Kodak Black as a member.

Several collaborations with UK producer Ghosty have seen 22Gz drop a number of big songs recently including 'Suburban, Pt. 2' and 'No Questions'.

22Gz's unrelenting energy on tracks has earned him a reputation as one of the fiercest Brooklyn Drill rappers on the mic and he backed that reputation up with his brilliant mixtape 'Growth & Development' in April 2020.
Essential song: 22Gz - 'No Questions'

22Gz has become one of the leading names in Brooklyn Drill. Picture: Getty

4. Sleepy Hallow

Unlike many of the rappers on this list, Sleepy Hallow's sound doesn't borrow too much from the UK scene but rather fuses Brooklyn Drill with more traditional Hip Hop sounds.

Sleepy Hallow made an appearance on Lil TJay's song 'Wet Em Up Pt.2' from his Drill-based 2020 mixtape 'State Of Emergency, which also featured Fivio Foreign and Pop Smoke, but it's his own releases which have helped to build his foundations in the scene.

2018 drops 'Better Than Us' and 'Panic, Pt.3' showcased the fast-paced Brooklyn Drill sound which has become synonymous with the genre, but his 2020 track 'Deep End Freestyle' is the song which opened Sleepy Hallow up to a more mainstream audience.

Essential song: Sleepy Hallow - 'Deep End Freestyle'

5. Smoove L

Smoove L has been rapping for several years now, but the increased attention paid to the Brooklyn Drill scene in recent years has allowed him to ensure eyes are firmly on him.

After signing to Interscope Records at the end of 2019, Smoove L has put himself into a position to take over the game and he got 2020 off to a huge start as he dropped his 'Boy From Brooklyn' mixtape.

Featuring songs like '2020' and 'Undefeated', Smoove L's melodic Drill style has pushed him to the forefront of the Brooklyn Drill sound and helped build a lane he is firmly owning right now.
Essential song: Smoove L - 'Outstanding'

6. Sheff G

After releasing one of the earliest Brooklyn Drill hits with 'No Suburban' back in 2017, which was produced by UK producer AXL Beats, Sheff G ensured he would be respected as one of the pioneers of the wave.

Continuing his strong release of hits, 'Disrespect' and 'Panic' swiftly followed before Sheff G's 2020 project 'One and Only' showcased a more laid back style.
Essential song: Sheff G - 'All My Life'

Sheff G (L) and Sleepy Hallow are leading names in the Brooklyn Drill scene. Picture: Getty

7. Rah Swish

Rah Swish is one of the freshest rappers on this list and his style regularly fuses the UK sound with that of Brooklyn Drill.

Another rapper who was dropping Drill bangers back in 2017, Rah Swish has honed his sound over the years and become one of the leading names in the scene.

Songs like 'Treeshin' and 'Wooo Walk' quickly became fan favourites before the rapper dropped his eagerly anticipated 'Look What They Started' mixtape in 2019.
Essential song: Rah Swish - 'War Time'

8. Curly Savv

Hailing from Canarsie, Brooklyn, Curly Savv's unique sound makes him stand out from many of the other Brooklyn Drill rappers in the game.

Another of the scene's stars who has collaborated with UK producers, including Trap House Mob, Curly Savv is fast becoming one of the most popular rappers out of Brooklyn.

His 2020 release 'Glocky SZN' featured fellow Brooklyn Drill stars Fivio Foreign and Rah Swish and firmly put Curly Savv on the Drill map.
Essential song: Curly Savv - 'Runtz' featuring Fivio Foreign

> Download Our Free App For All The Latest Music News!

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Brooklyn Drill rappers 2020: 8 Hip Hop artists you need to know

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What is Brooklyn Drill? Pop Smoke, Fivio Foreign, 22Gz and more are taking over Hip Hop in 2020. If you're a Hip Hop fan you'll know about the growing sound of Brooklyn Drill. Borrowing sounds from the UK Drill scene, with many of the songs created by British producers, Brooklyn Drill has fast become the sound right at the forefront of Hip Hop.

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The 21-year-old track star reflected on her ability to stay strong through a tough year

The 21-year track star did some reflecting on social media Sunday, letting her followers know she's proud of how far she's come. Richardson began her sentiments with a lengthy Instagram Story post by sharing a quote: "There is a past version of you that is so proud of how far you've come."

She then shared a photo of herself and wrote, "Learned so much this year, lose so much this year but not one time did I break babyyy. 21 and coming hard till I'm done."

The sprinter continued by sharing a series of photos of herself with those close to her, writing tributes to each loved one and further recounting her many milestones.

"I thank y'all for teaching me the strength I never knew I had. I thank you for teaching me my value before I even knew it existed. I thank y'all for teaching me to live my truth yet understand my future. I thank you for teaching me not to want for anything and to work for everything," she said alongside each photo. "To my babies I WILL NEVER STOP SO YALL CAN KEEP GOING. 2022 I don't feel sorry for any of you."
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Richardson has continued to keep a positive attitude over the past few months while in the spotlight. Last month, the athlete made her first appearance on the track - at the 2021 Prefontaine Classic - after being suspended from Team USA over a positive marijuana test earlier this summer.

Though she came in 9th, she held her head high afterward. "Coming out today, it was a great return back to the sport. I wanted to be able to come and perform, having a month off, dealing with all that I was dealing with," she told reporters. "I'm not upset at myself at all, this is one race, I'm not done."

The 21-year-old was also defeated by Christine Mboma of Namibia at the 200m race at the Wanda Diamond League on Friday.

Richardson first captivated the hearts of many Americans in June, winning the women's 100m race at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. However, she lost her spot on Team USA after she tested positive for THC, a chemical in marijuana, following the trials.

When news of her positive test broke, Richardson opened up about using marijuana to cope with the loss of her biological mother, who died the week before the track trials, but expressed that she wasn't looking for "any empathy" and understood what she had done during an interview with Today.

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Sha'Carri Richardson Says She's 'Learned So Much' This Year After Team USA Suspension

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The 21-year-old track star reflected on her ability to stay strong through a tough year The 21-year track star did some reflecting on social media Sunday, letting her followers know she's proud of how far she's come.

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D'arah

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Since its emergence in the 1970s, rap music and Hip Hop have conquered the world. Originating in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City, Hip Hop is now being listened in almost all corners of the world. And even though it has been around since the 70s, the 1990s proved to be decade when Hip Hop really began to shine.

Today, rappers belong to the most successful music artists in the world. But there are a few rappers who managed to become especially commercially successful, selling hundreds of millions records all around the world. The following list ranks the 10 best-selling rappers of all time worldwide. The ranking is based on certified record sales of singles and albums in markets that release these official certification numbers.
Note: For the overall Top 10 of best-selling solo music artists of all time, click here.
The 10 Best-selling Rappers / Hip Hop Artists of all Time

1. Eminem

Eminem is the best-selling rapper in history. With over 200 million records sold, he is also the 6th best-selling solo music artist of all time. Growing up in Detroit, Marshall Mathers aka Eminem started his rap career at the age of 16. But it took almost a decade until rap mogul Dr. Dre finally discovered Eminem and gave him his first recording contract. It was the starting point for a legendary and unprecedented hip hop career. Despite his many controversial lyrics, Eminem managed to establish hip hop in the mainstream.

For his song 'Lose Yourself', which was the main song for the soundtrack to his 2002 movie '8 Mile', Eminem in 2003 also became the first ever hip hop artist to win an Oscar. He was also the first white rapper who managed to really succeed in the rap genre.

2. Drake

Drake is the most commercially successful non-American rapper. Drake Graham (his surname) was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and was first known as a child actor in the Canadian teen drama series ' Degrassi: The Next Generation '. Ultimately Drake decided to switch the acting world for the world of music. And he took it by storm. Drake has been one of the overall worldwide best-selling musicians of the 2010s and is now also the second best-selling hip hop artist of all time.

3. Kanye West

Kanye West first started out in the music business as a songwriter and record producer. But in 2002 the Atlanta-born and Chicago-raised multi-talent turned into a hip hop artist himself. Since then, West became both one of the most critically acclaimed as well as commercially successful rappers in the entire world.

4. Jay-Z

Born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, Shawn Carter aka Jay-Z started his rap career as a teenager in rap battles. Since none of the major record labels were willing to sign him, he then simply went on to found his own record label, Roc-A-Fella Records. Today, Jay-Z has become a successful billionaire businessman owning several brands in different branches, but he is still also the 4th best-selling rapper of all-time.

5. Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter (not related to Jay-Z), wrote his first rap song at the age of 8. His rap career then started in 1995 when he recorded his first commercial songs at 12 years old. Perviously an A+ honors student, Lil Wayne decided to drop out of high school in his hometown of New Orleans and focus entirely on his hip hop career instead. And it this case, it paid off. Today, Lil Wayne is 5th most commercially successful rapper of all time, worldwide.

6. Nicki Minaj

7. Flo Rida

8. 2Pac

9. Snoop Dogg

10. DMX

The 10 Best-selling Rappers / Hip Hop Artists of All Time (at a glance)
(as of October 2019) Top 10 Best-Selling Rappers & Hip Hop Artists by total units (albums & singles) sold worldwide.

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Top 10 Best-Selling Rappers of All Time - All Top Everything

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Since its emergence in the 1970s, rap music and Hip Hop have conquered the world. Originating in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City, Hip Hop is now being listened in almost all corners of the world. And even though it has been around since the 70s, the 1990s proved to be decade when Hip Hop really began to shine.

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These days Kendrick's name is on every hip hop lover's lips. The candid presentation of Southern California in his songs has won him many awards, as well as hearts.

He holds 13 Grammy Awards, and is the only non-classical artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. With his tracks Hair Down and Momma I Hit a Lick, Lamar is rightly branded as the New King of Hip Hop.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Kendrick Lamar.

J. Cole is known as a realist rapper in the hip hop circle. This talented artist is a self-taught piano artist, and record producer.

His chart-topping albums include 2014 Forest Hills Drive, 4 Your Eyez Only, and .

KOD is his fifth number one album. He also runs a charitable organization Dreamville Foundation.

Juice Wrld passed away in December 2019, leaving behind a vacuum in the hip hop world. His freestyle rap songs had inspired many young contemporary artists.

His second album, Death Race for Love will be his only number-one album on the BillBoard 200.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Juice WRLD.

Since then, he has released highly acclaimed mix-tapes and albums. He has been nominated for the Grammy Awards four times in a row.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Travis Scott.

Earlier known as Baby Jesus, DaBaby surged to fame with his singles Suge and Bop. DaBaby's solo albums Baby on Baby and Kirk both hit among the top albums on Billboard.

Here are some of the most popular songs by DaBaby.

After an acting stint in the TV show Degrassi, Aubrey Drake Graham took a detour to the music industry for good.

His debut solo album Thank Me Later burst the chart at the top slot. His very next release was awarded Best Rap Album at Grammy Award.

He is now recognized as one of the world's top-selling music artists.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Drake.

Pusha surfaced the rap world as a part of the duo Clise along with his brother. He made appearances with Kanye and Linkin Park.

He is an international sensation, well regarded for intelligent lyrics. His album Daytona was a huge success and was nominated for the Grammy Award.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Pusha T.

Logic has a long list of hit tracks and albums, including the number-one album Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

The album also contains the hit track Homicide featuring Eminem. Logic has also released a novel titled Supermarket, which became a New York Times Best Seller.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Logic.

His music video I'm Not Racist was a phenomenal hit on YouTube. It also got nominated in the 2019 Grammy Award.

Devil's Work and are his freshest singles.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Joyner Lucas.

The Canadian rapper got famous with his debut mixtape Conflicts of My Soul. His hit singles Say It and Luv, from the album I Told You, were on the Billboard 100.

He recently released a studio album Love Me Now?. Although being surrounded with controversies over feuds with other rappers, Lanez has amassed a huge fan following.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Tory Lanez.

Post Malone's lyrics strike as direct but profound. He has emerged with first-hand versions of hip hop, country and rock.

His debut album was on the charts for 77 weeks! His latest hits include and Take What You Want.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Post Malone.

Boogie released his first single Temporary on Soundcloud, which was criticized for the lack of flow.

Now, with systemic professional training and studio recordings, Boogie has been recognized as one of the up-and-coming rappers.

Here are some of the most popular songs by A Boogie Wit da Hoodie.

This Florida-based hip hop artist is known for his edgy and spontaneous style. His top hits include and

He is regarded as one of the best new-school rappers in the industry. His mix-tape Beware the Book of Eli has also received a huge fan following.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Ski Mask The Slump God.

Named among the Guardian's 'The Best of 21st Century', Eminem is one of the best-selling music artists worldwide.

He has won 15 Grammy Awards, 8 American Music Awards, and 17 Billboard Music Awards. He scored ten consecutive number-one albums on the Billboard 200.

His latest single is Remember the Name with Ed Sheeran and 50 Cent.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Eminem.

At the age of 16, Cordae entered the rap scene with the stage name Entendre. Later, he became a part of the YBN Collective and gained fame for the remixes like My Name Is and Eminem.

His latest album The Lost Boy was nominated in the category of Best Rap Album at the 2020 Grammy Award.

Here are some of the most popular songs by YBN Cordae.

One of the most celebrated rap artists of our time, Lil Wayne joined a record label at the tender age of only 13.

Over the fifteen years of his career, he has amassed many platinum certifications, released plenty of hit albums, and won five Grammy Awards.

His latest tracks are and I Don't Even Like You Anymore.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Lil Wayne.

J.I.D has distinguished his rap music with an original lyrical style. His independent projects include the critically acclaimed titles, The Never Story, Route of Evil, and Para Tu.

He is also a part of the popular music collective Spillage Village.

His newest album is titled Di Caprio 2.

Here are some of the most popular songs by J.I.D.

Since then, Snoop Dogg has emerged as a media personality, record producer, and also a youth football coach.

He has recently launched his seventeenth solo album titled I Wanna Thank Me.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Snoop Dogg.

Nathan Feuerstein is better known by his initials NF. Two of his studio albums Perception and The Search have debuted at number one positions.

Here are some of the most popular songs by NF.

Mentored by Young Thug, Lil Baby is another highly acclaimed rapper from Atlanta. His early mix-tapes left much impact in the underground rap world.

He rose to fame with the singles and . Baby is his latest single.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Lil Baby.

The Billboard 200 received Meek Mill's debut album at number two position.

Throughout his career, Mill has collaborated with leading hip hop artists and record labels.

He is recognized for battle rap and freestyle music. Recently, Amazon Prime Video released a documentary on his life, titled Free Meek.

Ruling the hip hop mainstream with his catchy single The Box, Roddy Rich is the winner of the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance.

His album Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial is also among the leading albums on the Billboard 200.

At the age of 21, he is a star!

NLE Choppa's hit single Shotta Flow received a huge following soon after the launch.

Just at the beginning of his career, Choppa's act seems highly promising.

YoungBoy is an internet phenomenon at just the age of 20.

He has already released eight solo mix-tapes. His songs reverberate with emotions and depth.

Valuable Pain and Slime Belief are among his most popular tracks.

At the age of 16 in 2011, Denzel released his first mix-tape while he was a part of the Florida-based underground rap group SpaceGhostPurrp.

His recent studio album Zuu has received much praise.

You may have noticed his appearance in The Martian and Spider-Man: Homecoming, or his voiceover for Simba in The Lion King.

His song This is America fetched him the top slot on the Billboard Hot 100. The song won 4 titles at the 2019 Grammy Awards.

Gunna has made fans not only with his musical poise but also with his classy dressing sense. The industry is already claiming that he is the fastest emerging rapper.

He has collaborated with top shot rappers like Young Thug, Chris Brown, Playboi Carti and Lil Baby.

Hailing from Morocco, French Montana made his mark in the hip hop music industry with the breakthrough single Choppa Choppa Down.

He owns the company Coke Boys Records and is well known for the song Unforgettable featuring Swae Lee.

Montana is his latest solo album with the hit single No Stylist featuring Drake.

Jeffery Lamar Williams, a.k.a Young Thug is regarded as the most influential rapper of the 21st century.

There was a period when he held 11 slots on the Billboard Hot 100. He is noted for sculpting an unconventional class in rap music. He won the 2019 Grammy Award for This is America.

With approximately 100 million records sold, Kanye West has built his career experimenting with genres and electronic music.

He was twice noted among the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine.

Kanye has also designed merchandise for Nike and LV. His recent album is titled Jesus is King.

Lil Skies supposedly got hip hop running in his blood.

His father Michael Burton Jr. and mother Shelby are both hip hop artists. He is known for the mix-tape Life of a Dark Rose.

Rumor has it that Lil Skies started writing songs when he was only 4! His latest tracks are and .

Founder-member of the music trio Migos ̧ Offset is well known for his performance in the hit album Culture.

He also has many solo releases and collaborations to his name, No Complaints and Willy Wonka being the most notable ones.

Father of 4 is his latest solo album.

YNW Melly is most known for his single Murder on My Mind.

Ironically, in real life, he is also charged for the double murder of fellow rappers, and the trial is still pending. There are millions of views on his popular music videos on YouTube.

The latest Billboard 200, features his numbers Melly vs. Melvin and I am You.

Playboi Carti hails from Atlanta's underground rap background.

When he debuted in 2017, his album was among the top ranks on the Billboard 200. Currently, he is in contract with Interscope Records.

Tyler gained much fame as a part of the former hip hop collective .

His surreal composition in Igor has won him the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album this year.

Earlier, he had won the Music Innovator of the Year award at the 2019 Wall Street Journal Innovator Awards.

Jay-Z has made his mark not only as a rapper but also as a producer and entrepreneur.

Since his debut with Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z has become the first billionaire hip hop artist. Rolling Stone magazine has recognized him as the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

This seasoned rapper has five releases that debuted at the top slot on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Many have criticized, and few have praised his rap-style and extensive use of auto-tune.

Nonetheless, he is a crowd-pleaser. King's Dead earned him the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance.

Kodak Black started his rap career in his early teens. His rebellious lyrics and youthful music style have gained much attention worldwide in a matter of a few years.

At the age of only 22, his career is right on track with the latest song Zombie.

Besides being the Queen of Rap, Nicki Minaj is also an actor, a model, and a former American Idol judge.

Among the female artists, Nicki has set records by most frequently topping the Billboard charts. Her latest hits are and .

Blueface became an internet sensation with his viral YouTube music video Respect My Crippin' and Franklin-tattooed face.

He has also garnered universal praise for the latest chart-topping remix, Thotiana ft. Cardi B and YG.

and Find the Beat are his latest song tracks.

Quavo has garnered attention from the hip hop community not only as a member of the music trio Migos but also as an independent songwriter and rapper.

His super hit singles include I'm the One (2018) with D.J. Khalid. Quavo's debut solo album Quavo Huncho hit number two position on the Billboard.

Tyga has been nominated for the Grammy Awards, BET, MTV and World Music award.

After witnessing his career's worst in 2015, Tyga made an astonishing come-back with his hit track Taste ft. Offset.

Lately, Tyga has been busy shooting for the TV series Scream.

Dimitri Roger a.k.a. Rich the Kid owns a record label that has signed top-rated artists like Jay Critch and Airi.

He has released two albums The World is Yours 1 (2018), and The Word is Yours 2 (2019).

One of the best rappers and lyricists, Nas has consecutively released eight platinum albums. His debut album Illmatic still hits the rank among the greatest hip hop albums.

Nas has been nominated thirteen times for the Grammy Awards.

His newest release is The Lost Tapes 2.

This famed 20-year-old rapper is also the founder of the Young Boss Nigga (YBN) Collective. Rubbin' Off the Paint and Bounce Out with That are Nahmir's most successful singles.

The California born rapper was named in the Billboard Hot 100 with his debut single Toot It and Boot It in 2009. In a decade, YG released many albums, including the chart-topping single Big Bank. In 2014, YG produced and starred in the short film and soundtrack album Blame It On the Streets. His newest release is 4Real 4Real.

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50 Best Rappers of Hip Hop - Top Rappers 2021

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These days Kendrick's name is on every hip hop lover's lips. The candid presentation of Southern California in his songs has won him many awards, as well as hearts. He holds 13 Grammy Awards, and is the only non-classical artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

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From its late-1970s birth in the Bronx to becoming the number-one selling genre in the world, hip-hop has come a long way throughout its 40-year history.

Whether you are a fan of the genre or not, you've more than likely heard an argument based around the question, "Who are the top five rappers of all time, dead or alive?" With thousands of rappers to choose from, how does one narrow a list down to just five rappers?

The most important aspects of rap music include rhyme, delivery, flow and lyrical content. For this reason alone, all-time great artists like Kanye West and Dr. Dre will not be included, as they are good at rapping but their skills mostly fall under production.

Because we're limited to only five rappers for this list, many of the most popular and talented rappers will not be included. Some honorable mentions include the California legends Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg; the rhyming genius MF DOOM; the megastar Drake; the storytellers Scarface and Slick Rick; the incredibly talented Lauryn Hill; OutKast duo Andre 3000 and Big Boi; street kings like Kool G Rap, Ice Cube and KRS-One; and members of the greatest rap group the world has ever known, the Wu-Tang Clan, which includes Raekwon the Chief, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, GZA and ODB.

The most controversial snub from the list is "the real slim shady," Eminem. While Eminem is the highest-selling rap artist of all time, he has yet to release a good album since "Encore" in 2004. Every album since has been mediocre at best, and his stuff as of late is just plain bad. However, one cannot deny that "The Slim Shady LP," "The Marshall Mathers LP," and "The Eminem Show" are all masterpieces, with songs like "Without Me" and "Till I Collapse" racking up billions of streams across platforms.

Now, without further ado, here are the top five rappers of all time:

Number Five - Jay-Z

If longevity is what you crave in an artist, look no further than the business mogul Sean Carter aka Jay-Z himself. With 13 studio albums spanning across 25 years, Jay has cemented his position as one of the best rappers to ever live. Starting in 1996 with one of the best rap albums of all time, "Reasonable Doubt," Jay-Z ushered in a new era of rap: mafioso. Because of his history as being a drug dealer, Jay-Z would sing about a life similar to that of a mafia member, describing drug-dealing, killing and other mafia-like actions. "Reasonable Doubt" is also home to arguably Jay's four-best songs, and they just so happen to be tracks two through six ("Brooklyn's Finest," "Dead Presidents II," "Feelin' It," "D'evils"). Jay-Z has enjoyed success in three different decades, with over 80 Grammy nominations and 22 wins. Thanks to the most easily recognizable and unique voice in rap history, Jay-Z set himself apart from the competition and made one of the most successful careers of all time.

Notable Songs: "The Watcher 2" (2002), "Empire State Of Mind" (2009), "D'evils" (1996)

Notable Albums: "Reasonable Doubt" (1996), "The Blueprint" (2001), "Kingdom Come" (2006)

Number Four - Rakim

Often called the "God MC," Rakim is perhaps the most influential rapper of all time, as he transitioned rap into the "golden age." With his debut album "Paid in Full" featuring producer Eric. B, Rakim didn't just raise the bar; he was the bar. Despite coming into the rap scene at a time when artists like KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane and Run-D.M.C. ran the industry, Rakim would quickly set himself apart from the pack. "Paid in Full" ushered in a new generation of rap, featuring profound lyrics, crazy rhyme schemes, and a laid-back flow, unlike the loose technicality and weird production that existed before Rakim's reinvention of hip-hop. Without Rakim, some of today's most popular rappers would not have had the foundation to propel them to success

Notable Songs: "When I B On Tha Mic" (1999), "Paid In Full" (1987), "Guess Who's Back" (1996)

Notable Albums: "Paid In Full" (1987), "The 18th Letter/The Book Of Life" (1996)

Number Three - 2Pac

At a time when mafioso rap was at its peak, 2Pac was rapping about politics, and he did it really well. 2Pac's songs were similar to those of the legendary rap group Public Enemy, discussing racism, poverty, segregation, police brutality, broken families and other important matters in African-American communities. His feud with former friend The Notorious B.I.G. was perhaps the biggest feud in rap history and was only fueled more when Tupac signed with Death Row Records in 1995. This started the historic East vs. West Coast rivalry between the Los Angeles-based Death Row Records and the New York-based Bad Boy Records. The feud would end with 2Pac's murder by drive-by shooting in 1996, with Biggie being killed in the same fashion almost a year later. Despite dying at 25, 2Pac leaves behind a historic legacy, capped off with his 1996 album "All Eyez On Me," a 27-song masterpiece that is often regarded by critics as one of the best rap albums of all time.

Notable Songs: "Ambitionz Az A Ridah" (1996), "Dear Mama" (1995), "Do For Love" (1997)

Notable Albums: "All Eyez On Me" (1996), "Me Against The World" (1995)

Number Two - Nas

New York City rapper Nas received a Grammy nomination for Rap Album of the Year with his 2020 album "King's Disease." Had this award existed 26 years ago, his 1994 album "Illmatic" would have won by a landslide. "Illmatic" doesn't need a Grammy award to certify its greatness, however, as Nas's debut album is often regarded as the greatest rap album of all time by fans and critics alike. With nine 5-star tracks, Nas single-handedly revived the East Coast hip-hop scene, paving the way for the Wu-Tang Clan and The Notorious B.I.G. So, how does one follow up the greatest rap album of all time? Nas's sophomore album, "It was Written," did a pretty good job, making appearances in the top 20 of "best rap albums of all time" lists. Although Nas is often criticized for releasing some mediocre albums throughout the 2000s, his first three albums will go down in history as some of the greatest projects the music industry has ever seen, regardless of genre.

Notable Songs: "N.Y. State of Mind" (1994), "Ether" (2001), "The Message" (1996)

Notable Albums: "Illmatic" (1994), "It Was Written" (1996), "I Am..." (1999)

Number One - The Notorious B.I.G.

When a musician tragically passes away, they are often elevated to superstar status following their death. Biggie was an exception. At the time of his murder in 1997, New York City rapper The Notorious B.I.G. was already a legend. Some may ask, how can one be called the greatest rapper of all time if they only released two albums? Well, one listen to Biggie's debut album "Ready To Die" will show you why. Few have ever come close to Biggie's storytelling skills, with hip-hop legends Scarface, Ghostface Killah, Slick Rick, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem being the closest to rival Biggie's skill. From telling a rags-to-riches story while it was happening in real life in "Juicy," to playing two different characters (young Biggie and current-day Biggie) with two different voices scheming to commit various robberies on "Gimme The Loot," The Notorious B.I.G.'s storytelling on his debut album is scarily good. Somehow, it progressed to be even better with the release of his sophomore album "Life After Death," just two weeks after his death. A bit ominous, no? Biggie's songs always play out like movies for the ears, and "Life After Death" is no different. "I Got A Story To Tell" and "N****s Bleed" are both five-minute roller coasters that everyone needs to listen to at least once, while "Hypnotize" and "Mo Money Mo Problems" are two of Biggie's most popular songs to date. One can only assume that Biggie Smalls was on his way to becoming perhaps the greatest musician the world has ever known had his life not been cut short.

Notable Songs: "Juicy" (1994), "Big Poppa" (1997),"1970 Something" (2005)

Notable Albums: "Ready To Die" (1994), "Life After Death" (1997), "Duets: The Final Chapter" (2005)

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From its late-1970s birth in the Bronx to becoming the number-one selling genre in the world, hip-hop has come a long way throughout its 40-year history. Whether you are a fan of the genre or not, you've more than likely heard an argument based around the question, "Who are the top five rappers of all...

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Taliban take over Afghanistan: What we know and what’s next

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The Taliban have seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the U.S. is set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly two-decade war.

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https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-07-06/shacarri-richardson-olympics-marijuana-let-her-run

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Last month, Sha'Carri Richardson's name was splashed across the sports pages as she became the sixth-fastest woman to run 100 meters, finishing in 10.72 seconds. Her bold hair, tattoos and unabashed love for her girlfriend made her a symbol for other 21-year-old queer women of color like myself, seeing her break social conventions and become a contender for a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

As swiftly as the praise came, so followed the backlash after Richardson tested positive for marijuana, putting her Tokyo Olympic dreams in doubt. Richardson apologized in an interview with NBC's "Today" show and later tweeted, "I am human."

Richardson was ineligible to compete in the individual 100-meter race in Tokyo, but there was a chance after her 30-day suspension she could compete for the United States in the 4x100-meter relay. These hopes were dashed Tuesday, when the U.S. track and field team announced its relay team list, which did not include Richardson.

I understand that coaches and officials want to preserve fairness by keeping the original relay members, but what happened to Richardson was anything but just.

What's heartbreaking is seeing Richardson explain to the public how marijuana was a way to cope with her emotional distress in the wake of her mother's death. What's enraging is the fact that marijuana is legal in Oregon, where the Olympic trials were held, and there's been no indication that marijuana is a sports-enhancing drug. If anything, marijuana would decrease one's athletic performance, because it impairs judgment and movement. The World Anti-Doping Agency has listed the substance as a danger to athletes for this reason, but penalizing athletes who need mental health support only exacerbates the problem.

A lot has changed since 2009, when photos leaked of Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps taking a hit on a bong; the laws on marijuana use are simply outdated. Thirty-six states have legalized medical marijuana, and in certain social contexts, consuming or smoking marijuana is as commonplace as taking a sip of wine.

The issue to focus on is more than just antiquated approaches to cannabis but also the way Black women athletes face intense scrutiny in the media. These women are put on a pedestal because of their athleticism and what they represent as symbols enduring sexism and racism, but we forget that they too are like us, experiencing moments of intense grief, private pain and occasional lapses in judgment.

Recently, Brianna McNeal, who had qualified for the 100-meter hurdles in Tokyo, was forced to come out publicly about having an abortion in order to challenge a five-year suspension by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a drug test violation. In March, Naomi Osaka, ranked as one of the top players by the Woman's Tennis Assn., refused to take part in news conferences at the French Open for mental health reasons and was fined $15,000, leading her to withdraw from the tournament to rest.

Richardson has apologized and taken responsibility for her actions, vowing to never again fail a drug test, but she shouldn't have to be sorry for anything.

In the world of high-level sports, where bodies are fine-tuned like machines cranked to their optimum levels, athletes are under immense stress. Officials apply the rules in a legalistic manner under the banner of equality, but it seems at times more like a witch hunt to prove fault and error. We hold athletes to impossible standards of perfection because they represent to us the best of the human spirit and work ethic. It can be easy to forget that life is messy and people aren't always performing at their best.

Richardson's gracious acceptance of the consequences and willingness to learn show the depth of her maturity and strengthen the example she sets for young people. She is human just like us, struggling through the loss of a loved one and trying to find ways to heal.

The good news is that, as the fastest woman in the U.S. today, Richardson should have more chances for gold at future Olympics.

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Opinion: Sha'Carri Richardson shouldn't have to apologize for being human

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Last month, Sha'Carri Richardson's name was splashed across the sports pages as she became the sixth-fastest woman to run 100 meters, finishing in 10.72 seconds. Her bold hair, tattoos and unabashed love for her girlfriend made her a symbol for other 21-year-old queer women of color like myself, seeing her break social conventions and become a contender for a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

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KABUL-Trying to forestall a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, the United Nations and aid organizations are looking for ways to help the Afghan people without bolstering the country's new Taliban administration, many of whose leaders remain under international sanctions.

Even before the Taliban seized power on Aug. 15 and deposed the Western-backed Afghan government, half of the country's roughly 40 million people already needed humanitarian aid, according to the U.N.

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Aid Agencies in Afghanistan Ponder How to Help Without Abetting the Taliban

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KABUL-Trying to forestall a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, the United Nations and aid organizations are looking for ways to help the Afghan people without bolstering the country's new Taliban administration, many of whose leaders remain under international sanctions. Even before the Taliban seized power on Aug.

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Sha'Carri Richardson broke a rule. She tested positive for marijuana, and under USADA rules, that's not allowed. If you're someone who lives and dies by the letter of the law, and doesn't care about context or whether the rule makes any sense, you can sit smugly back and say she's getting what she deserves.

If, on the other hand, you are a caring human being, you may be interested in the details...and be warned that the details are enraging. Richardson is a 21-year-old sprinter who won the NCAA championship in the 100m as a freshman by setting a new college record, then burst onto the international scene with scorching times peaking at 10.72, which made her the sixth-fastest woman in world history. At the Olympic trials in June, she ran a wind-aided 10.64 in the semifinals, which was the eight-fastest time ever run and, without the breeze, would have made her the second-fastest woman ever after Florence Griffith-Joyner. In the finals, she booked her ticket to Tokyo:

It was the best story of the trials, and with her Flo-Jo style nails and bright hair and her unapologetically brash style, she instantly became an internet sensation. Personally, I flagged the 100m women's racing in Tokyo as the most exciting event of the Olympics, and all because of her.

There's another part of this story, too, and it's a part that made Richardson's achievements even more profound: A week before racing, she found out from a reporter that her biological mother had died. Details are still emerging about her family dynamic, but it appears from stories like this that Richardson was raised in Dallas by her grandmother:

During Richardson's youth in South Dallas, her grandmother showed her an old plaque full of track and field medals that Richardson's mother had won. "Dang," Richardson remembers thinking. "I want one of those." She won plenty of them, and the sport carried her to college.

When she received the news about her mom, it sent her into an "emotional panic," and she coped with marijuana. (It's also worth noting that she did so in Oregon, where it's legal.) Even burdened by that news, and, in her words, "blinded by sadness," she succeeded brilliantly at the trials. But then, of course, she tested positive, accepted a one-month suspension, and now all her results from the trials are thrown out and she can't compete in the 100m in Tokyo.

It's hard to write the rest of this story without succumbing to total anger at how she's been screwed over by a ridiculous, unnecessary rule. Marijuana, it's almost needless to say, is not a performance-enhancing drug. However you feel about it, it is now legal in many states, and we are approaching the day-a day that will come sooner than you think-when it's blanket legal for recreational use across America. The fact that it's banned by the USADA is already a throwback to the social mores of a time that has passed. Here's the explanation on their site:

For something to be added to the WADA Prohibited List, it must meet two of the three inclusion criteria: a) it poses a health risk to athletes b) it has the potential to enhance performance and c) it violates the spirit of sport....

1. "Athletes who smoke cannabis or Spice in-competition potentially endanger themselves and others because of increased risk taking, slower reaction times and poor executive function or decision making."

2. "Based on current animal and human studies as well as on interviews with athletes and information from the field, cannabis can be performance enhancing for some athletes and sports disciplines."

3. "Use of illicit drugs that are harmful to health and that may have performance-enhancing properties is not consistent with the athlete as a role model for young people around the world".

For nos. 1 and 3, the hypocrisy is wild, and it is obvious. Do they ban alcohol? Do they ban cigarettes? Of course not! Which means they're grouping marijuana with harder drugs in a way that much of the country has already moved past, and which the rest will move past before long. As for no. 2, it is absolutely not performance enhancing in sprinting-there's a reason players are no longer suspended for it in the MLB, NHL, NFL, or NBA-and the great irony of the whole thing is that the most beneficial version of cannabis in other sports, CBD, is off the banned list as of 2019!

All of this sucks so much, and Sha'Carri Richardson is a victim of a pointless rule that should not be in place, and probably won't be in another four years. For the crime of using marijuana at a time of almost unbelievable emotional stress, one of the best athletes in American history is being denied a chance to compete on the world's biggest stage.

For her part, Richardson is saying all the right things, blaming herself, and etc. There will not be an appeal. But it's a shame that she feels she has to apologize, or that her agents are guiding her to show contrition. She deserves to feel righteous anger instead.

There are also sad parallels here to the NCAA; like that organization, the IOC and USOC makes money off the backs of their athletes, and then punishes them for petty crimes that don't even jibe with the moral code of American society.

Sha'Carri Richardson was screwed over, and then forced to apologize to the people trying to ruin her career. The only thing she should be-the only thing we should be-is purely, bitterly mad.

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the shacarri richardson olympics ban is an infuriating outrage

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The Sha'Carri Richardson Olympics ban is today's infuriating outrage

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Sha'Carri Richardson broke a rule. She tested positive for marijuana, and under USADA rules, that's not allowed. If you're someone who lives and dies by the letter of the law, and doesn't care about context or whether the rule makes any sense, you can sit smugly back and say she's getting what she deserves.

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Website has extra links to more info, of the truth

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Are UFOs Real? Government Continues to Investigate

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Although the task force studied UFO sightings that occurred between 2004 and 2021, most happened over the past two years.

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Streaming is the way of music in the 21st century, particularly in recent years, and a number of rappers have made the list for the most streamed artists of 2021, so far.

On Thursday (July 22), Hits Daily Double released their mid-year roundup of the top 50 streamed artists. At the top of the list is Drake with 3,642,943,000 streams this year. While the site doesn't specify the particular tracks or albums that attributed to these numbers, earlier this year, Drizzy dropped a three-song pack called Scary Hours 2. His joint "Wants and Needs" featuring Lil Baby has 202,007,861 streams on Spotify while "What's Next" has been listened to 165,464,417 times on the platform.

The next rapper on the chart is the late Juice Wrld, who has received 2,772,206,000 streams so far this year. Juice's posthumous effort, Legends Never Die, arrived in 2020 and of the 22 songs on the album, four of the tracks are on his Spotify artist profile as his most listened to songs: "Wishing Well" (485,312,757), "Come and Go" With Marshmello (509,643,890), "Righteous" (348,988,797) and "Hate the Other Side" With Marshmello and The Kid Laroi (231,173,964).

Right below Juice Wrld is YoungBoy Never Broke Again with 2,550,793,000. NBA YoungBoy's highest streamed track is his effort with Juice Wrld, "Bandit."

The Weeknd made the cut as well with 2,226,148,000 streams. Other rappers on the list include Rod Wave (2,014,855,000), Pop Smoke (1,958,408,000), Polo G (1,934,829,000), Lil Baby (1,912,809,000), Eminem (1,900,239,000), Lil Durk (1,870,525,000), J. Cole (1,768,563,000), Post Malone (1,608,321,000) and Moneybagg Yo (1,556,796,000).

See the full list of the 50 top streaming artists below.

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youngboy never broke again most streamed rapper

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Here Are the Most-Streamed Rappers of 2021 So Far

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Streaming is the way of music in the 21st century, particularly in recent years, and a number of rappers have made the list for the most streamed artists of 2021, so far. On Thursday (July 22), Hits Daily Double released their mid-year roundup of the top 50 streamed artists.

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Mitch

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These days Kendrick's name is on every hip hop lover's lips. The candid presentation of Southern California in his songs has won him many awards, as well as hearts.

He holds 13 Grammy Awards, and is the only non-classical artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. With his tracks Hair Down and Momma I Hit a Lick, Lamar is rightly branded as the New King of Hip Hop.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Kendrick Lamar.

J. Cole is known as a realist rapper in the hip hop circle. This talented artist is a self-taught piano artist, and record producer.

His chart-topping albums include 2014 Forest Hills Drive, 4 Your Eyez Only, and .

KOD is his fifth number one album. He also runs a charitable organization Dreamville Foundation.

Juice Wrld passed away in December 2019, leaving behind a vacuum in the hip hop world. His freestyle rap songs had inspired many young contemporary artists.

His second album, Death Race for Love will be his only number-one album on the BillBoard 200.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Juice WRLD.

Since then, he has released highly acclaimed mix-tapes and albums. He has been nominated for the Grammy Awards four times in a row.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Travis Scott.

Earlier known as Baby Jesus, DaBaby surged to fame with his singles Suge and Bop. DaBaby's solo albums Baby on Baby and Kirk both hit among the top albums on Billboard.

Here are some of the most popular songs by DaBaby.

After an acting stint in the TV show Degrassi, Aubrey Drake Graham took a detour to the music industry for good.

His debut solo album Thank Me Later burst the chart at the top slot. His very next release was awarded Best Rap Album at Grammy Award.

He is now recognized as one of the world's top-selling music artists.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Drake.

Pusha surfaced the rap world as a part of the duo Clise along with his brother. He made appearances with Kanye and Linkin Park.

He is an international sensation, well regarded for intelligent lyrics. His album Daytona was a huge success and was nominated for the Grammy Award.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Pusha T.

Logic has a long list of hit tracks and albums, including the number-one album Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

The album also contains the hit track Homicide featuring Eminem. Logic has also released a novel titled Supermarket, which became a New York Times Best Seller.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Logic.

His music video I'm Not Racist was a phenomenal hit on YouTube. It also got nominated in the 2019 Grammy Award.

Devil's Work and are his freshest singles.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Joyner Lucas.

The Canadian rapper got famous with his debut mixtape Conflicts of My Soul. His hit singles Say It and Luv, from the album I Told You, were on the Billboard 100.

He recently released a studio album Love Me Now?. Although being surrounded with controversies over feuds with other rappers, Lanez has amassed a huge fan following.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Tory Lanez.

Post Malone's lyrics strike as direct but profound. He has emerged with first-hand versions of hip hop, country and rock.

His debut album was on the charts for 77 weeks! His latest hits include and Take What You Want.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Post Malone.

Boogie released his first single Temporary on Soundcloud, which was criticized for the lack of flow.

Now, with systemic professional training and studio recordings, Boogie has been recognized as one of the up-and-coming rappers.

Here are some of the most popular songs by A Boogie Wit da Hoodie.

This Florida-based hip hop artist is known for his edgy and spontaneous style. His top hits include and

He is regarded as one of the best new-school rappers in the industry. His mix-tape Beware the Book of Eli has also received a huge fan following.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Ski Mask The Slump God.

Named among the Guardian's 'The Best of 21st Century', Eminem is one of the best-selling music artists worldwide.

He has won 15 Grammy Awards, 8 American Music Awards, and 17 Billboard Music Awards. He scored ten consecutive number-one albums on the Billboard 200.

His latest single is Remember the Name with Ed Sheeran and 50 Cent.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Eminem.

At the age of 16, Cordae entered the rap scene with the stage name Entendre. Later, he became a part of the YBN Collective and gained fame for the remixes like My Name Is and Eminem.

His latest album The Lost Boy was nominated in the category of Best Rap Album at the 2020 Grammy Award.

Here are some of the most popular songs by YBN Cordae.

One of the most celebrated rap artists of our time, Lil Wayne joined a record label at the tender age of only 13.

Over the fifteen years of his career, he has amassed many platinum certifications, released plenty of hit albums, and won five Grammy Awards.

His latest tracks are and I Don't Even Like You Anymore.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Lil Wayne.

J.I.D has distinguished his rap music with an original lyrical style. His independent projects include the critically acclaimed titles, The Never Story, Route of Evil, and Para Tu.

He is also a part of the popular music collective Spillage Village.

His newest album is titled Di Caprio 2.

Here are some of the most popular songs by J.I.D.

Since then, Snoop Dogg has emerged as a media personality, record producer, and also a youth football coach.

He has recently launched his seventeenth solo album titled I Wanna Thank Me.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Snoop Dogg.

Nathan Feuerstein is better known by his initials NF. Two of his studio albums Perception and The Search have debuted at number one positions.

Here are some of the most popular songs by NF.

Mentored by Young Thug, Lil Baby is another highly acclaimed rapper from Atlanta. His early mix-tapes left much impact in the underground rap world.

He rose to fame with the singles and . Baby is his latest single.

Here are some of the most popular songs by Lil Baby.

The Billboard 200 received Meek Mill's debut album at number two position.

Throughout his career, Mill has collaborated with leading hip hop artists and record labels.

He is recognized for battle rap and freestyle music. Recently, Amazon Prime Video released a documentary on his life, titled Free Meek.

Ruling the hip hop mainstream with his catchy single The Box, Roddy Rich is the winner of the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance.

His album Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial is also among the leading albums on the Billboard 200.

At the age of 21, he is a star!

NLE Choppa's hit single Shotta Flow received a huge following soon after the launch.

Just at the beginning of his career, Choppa's act seems highly promising.

YoungBoy is an internet phenomenon at just the age of 20.

He has already released eight solo mix-tapes. His songs reverberate with emotions and depth.

Valuable Pain and Slime Belief are among his most popular tracks.

At the age of 16 in 2011, Denzel released his first mix-tape while he was a part of the Florida-based underground rap group SpaceGhostPurrp.

His recent studio album Zuu has received much praise.

You may have noticed his appearance in The Martian and Spider-Man: Homecoming, or his voiceover for Simba in The Lion King.

His song This is America fetched him the top slot on the Billboard Hot 100. The song won 4 titles at the 2019 Grammy Awards.

Gunna has made fans not only with his musical poise but also with his classy dressing sense. The industry is already claiming that he is the fastest emerging rapper.

He has collaborated with top shot rappers like Young Thug, Chris Brown, Playboi Carti and Lil Baby.

Hailing from Morocco, French Montana made his mark in the hip hop music industry with the breakthrough single Choppa Choppa Down.

He owns the company Coke Boys Records and is well known for the song Unforgettable featuring Swae Lee.

Montana is his latest solo album with the hit single No Stylist featuring Drake.

Jeffery Lamar Williams, a.k.a Young Thug is regarded as the most influential rapper of the 21st century.

There was a period when he held 11 slots on the Billboard Hot 100. He is noted for sculpting an unconventional class in rap music. He won the 2019 Grammy Award for This is America.

With approximately 100 million records sold, Kanye West has built his career experimenting with genres and electronic music.

He was twice noted among the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine.

Kanye has also designed merchandise for Nike and LV. His recent album is titled Jesus is King.

Lil Skies supposedly got hip hop running in his blood.

His father Michael Burton Jr. and mother Shelby are both hip hop artists. He is known for the mix-tape Life of a Dark Rose.

Rumor has it that Lil Skies started writing songs when he was only 4! His latest tracks are and .

Founder-member of the music trio Migos ̧ Offset is well known for his performance in the hit album Culture.

He also has many solo releases and collaborations to his name, No Complaints and Willy Wonka being the most notable ones.

Father of 4 is his latest solo album.

YNW Melly is most known for his single Murder on My Mind.

Ironically, in real life, he is also charged for the double murder of fellow rappers, and the trial is still pending. There are millions of views on his popular music videos on YouTube.

The latest Billboard 200, features his numbers Melly vs. Melvin and I am You.

Playboi Carti hails from Atlanta's underground rap background.

When he debuted in 2017, his album was among the top ranks on the Billboard 200. Currently, he is in contract with Interscope Records.

Tyler gained much fame as a part of the former hip hop collective .

His surreal composition in Igor has won him the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album this year.

Earlier, he had won the Music Innovator of the Year award at the 2019 Wall Street Journal Innovator Awards.

Jay-Z has made his mark not only as a rapper but also as a producer and entrepreneur.

Since his debut with Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z has become the first billionaire hip hop artist. Rolling Stone magazine has recognized him as the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

This seasoned rapper has five releases that debuted at the top slot on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Many have criticized, and few have praised his rap-style and extensive use of auto-tune.

Nonetheless, he is a crowd-pleaser. King's Dead earned him the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance.

Kodak Black started his rap career in his early teens. His rebellious lyrics and youthful music style have gained much attention worldwide in a matter of a few years.

At the age of only 22, his career is right on track with the latest song Zombie.

Besides being the Queen of Rap, Nicki Minaj is also an actor, a model, and a former American Idol judge.

Among the female artists, Nicki has set records by most frequently topping the Billboard charts. Her latest hits are and .

Blueface became an internet sensation with his viral YouTube music video Respect My Crippin' and Franklin-tattooed face.

He has also garnered universal praise for the latest chart-topping remix, Thotiana ft. Cardi B and YG.

and Find the Beat are his latest song tracks.

Quavo has garnered attention from the hip hop community not only as a member of the music trio Migos but also as an independent songwriter and rapper.

His super hit singles include I'm the One (2018) with D.J. Khalid. Quavo's debut solo album Quavo Huncho hit number two position on the Billboard.

Tyga has been nominated for the Grammy Awards, BET, MTV and World Music award.

After witnessing his career's worst in 2015, Tyga made an astonishing come-back with his hit track Taste ft. Offset.

Lately, Tyga has been busy shooting for the TV series Scream.

Dimitri Roger a.k.a. Rich the Kid owns a record label that has signed top-rated artists like Jay Critch and Airi.

He has released two albums The World is Yours 1 (2018), and The Word is Yours 2 (2019).

One of the best rappers and lyricists, Nas has consecutively released eight platinum albums. His debut album Illmatic still hits the rank among the greatest hip hop albums.

Nas has been nominated thirteen times for the Grammy Awards.

His newest release is The Lost Tapes 2.

This famed 20-year-old rapper is also the founder of the Young Boss Nigga (YBN) Collective. Rubbin' Off the Paint and Bounce Out with That are Nahmir's most successful singles.

The California born rapper was named in the Billboard Hot 100 with his debut single Toot It and Boot It in 2009. In a decade, YG released many albums, including the chart-topping single Big Bank. In 2014, YG produced and starred in the short film and soundtrack album Blame It On the Streets. His newest release is 4Real 4Real.

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50 Best Rappers of Hip Hop - Top Rappers 2021

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These days Kendrick's name is on every hip hop lover's lips. The candid presentation of Southern California in his songs has won him many awards, as well as hearts. He holds 13 Grammy Awards, and is the only non-classical artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

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The Taliban effectively sealed their control of Afghanistan on Sunday, pouring into the capital, Kabul, and meeting little resistance as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the government collapsed, and chaos and fear gripped the city, with tens of thousands of people trying to escape.

The insurgents' return to power, two decades after they were ousted, came despite years and hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the United States to build up the Afghan government and its defense forces. In a lightning offensive, the Taliban swallowed dozens of cities in a matter of days, leaving Kabul as the last major redoubt of government control.

On Sunday evening, former President Hamid Karzai announced on Twitter that he was forming a coordinating council together with Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the Afghan delegation to peace talks, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hesb-i-Islami party, to manage a peaceful transfer of power. Mr. Karzai called on both government and Taliban forces to act with restraint.

But the Taliban appeared to ignore his appeal and advanced into the city on its own terms.

The Taliban's lead negotiator in talks with the government, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, congratulated all of Afghanistan for the victory. "Now it will be shown how we can serve our nation," he said. "We can assure that our nation has a peaceful life and a better future."

Mr. Baradar made the comments in a video posted on social media, surrounded by other members of the Taliban delegation to the talks in Doha, Qatar.

"There was no expectation that we would achieve victory in this war," he said. "But this came with the help of Allah, therefore we should be thankful to Him, be humble in front of Him, so that we do not act arrogantly."

Al Jazeera reported that it had interviewed Taliban fighters who were holding a news conference in the presidential palace in Kabul. The fighters said they were working to secure Kabul so that leaders in Qatar and outside the capital could return safely. Al Jazeera reported that the fighters had taken down the flag of Afghanistan.

As it became clear that Taliban fighters were entering Kabul, thousands of Afghans who had sought refuge there after fleeing the insurgents' brutal military offensive watched with growing alarm as the local police seemed to fade from their usual checkpoints.

The U.S. Embassy warned Americans to not head to the airport in Kabul after reports that the facility was taking fire, and said that the situation was "changing quickly." Late Sunday, the U.S. State Department said that all embassy personnel had been evacuated.

President Ghani released a written statement on Facebook saying he had departed the country to save the capital from further bloodshed.

"If I had stayed, countless countrymen would have been martyred and Kabul city would have been ruined," he wrote, "in which case a disaster would have been brought upon this city of five million."

At 6:30 p.m. local time, the Taliban issued a statement that its forces were moving into police districts in order to maintain security in areas that had been abandoned by the government security forces. Taliban fighters, meeting no resistance, took up positions in the city, after Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, posted the statement on Twitter.

"The Islamic Emirates ordered its forces to enter the areas of Kabul city from which the enemy has left because there is risk of theft and robbery," the statement said. The Taliban had been ordered not to harm civilians and not to enter individual homes, it added. "Our forces are entering Kabul city with all caution."

As the sun set behind the mountains, the traffic was clogged as crowds grew bigger, with more and more Taliban fighters appearing on motorbikes, police pickups and even a Humvee that once belonged to the American-sponsored Afghan security forces.

Earlier in the afternoon, Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal announced that an agreement had been made for a peaceful transfer of power for greater Kabul, and that his forces were maintaining security.

Mr. Mirzakwal later announced a 9 p.m. curfew in the capital, and called on its residents to go home.

Mr. Ghani left Kabul in a plane with his wife, Rula Ghani, and two close aides, and arrived in Uzbekistan, according to a member of the Afghan delegation in Doha, Qatar, that has been in peace negotiations with the Taliban since last year. The official asked not to be named because he did not want to be identified speaking about the president's movements.

It could not be confirmed that Mr. Ghani was in Uzbekistan, and there were reports that he had gone to other countries. Muslem Hyatt, a former Afghan military attaché, said Mr. Ghani had traveled through Uzbekistan and landed in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.

In negotiations being managed by Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Ghani had been set to travel to Doha on Sunday with a larger group to negotiate the transfer of power, but flew instead to Uzbekistan, the peace delegation member said.

With rumors rife and reliable information hard to come by, the streets were filled during the day with scenes of panic and desperation.

"Greetings, the Taliban have reached the city. We are escaping," said Sahraa Karimi, the head of Afghan Film, in a post shared widely on Facebook. Filming herself as she fled on foot, out of breath and clutching at her head scarf, she shouted at others to escape while they could.

"Hey woman, girl, don't go that way!" she called out. "Some people don't know what is going on," she went on. "Where are you going? Go quickly."

Christina Goldbaum, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Carlotta Gall, Ruhullah Khapalwak, Sharif Hassan, Jim Huylebroek, Najim Rahim, and Lara Jakes contributed reporting.

Panic gripped the Afghan capital, Kabul, Sunday as Taliban fighters started arriving in the city, inmates broke out of the main prison on the east side of the city, and the American-backed government appeared to crumble.

By the afternoon, President Ashraf Ghani was reported to have fled. And as American forces focused their energies on evacuation flights for embassy staff and other personnel, Afghan government officials were shown in video footage accepting a handover of power to their Taliban counterparts in several cities.

Early in the day, senior Afghan politicians were seen boarding planes at Kabul airport. Bagram Air Base was taken by Taliban forces midday Sunday as was the provincial town of Khost in eastern Afghanistan, according to Afghan media reports. The fall of Khost was part of a domino-like collapse of power of astonishing speed that saw city after city fall in just the last week, leaving Kabul as the last major city in government hands.

Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal announced in a video statement in the early afternoon that an agreement had been made for a peaceful transfer of power for greater Kabul and sought to reassure residents, saying that the security forces would remain in their posts to ensure security in the city.

"As the minister of interior, we have ordered all Afghan National Security Forces divisions and members to stabilize Kabul," he said in a video statement released on the Facebook page of the ministry at 2 p.m. local time. "There will be no attack on the city. The agreement for greater Kabul city is that under an interim administration, God Willing, power will be transferred."

But residents seemed unconvinced by their leaders' assurances. In the center of the city people were pictured painting over advertisements and posters of women at beauty salons, apparently preparing for a takeover by the fundamentalist Taliban who do not allow images of humans or animal life, and have traditionally have banned music and the mixing of the sexes.

Residents confirmed that police had abandoned many of their posts or changed into civilian clothes. The Taliban denied rumors that their chief negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was already in the capital and preparing to take over control at the Interior Ministry.

Throughout the day, surreal scenes played out as it appeared ever more clear the Taliban were taking over.

The insurgency has long had its own power structure of shadow governors appointed for every province, and Sunday it was clear who was in control in strategic areas. The governors and tribal and political leaders who had been in power were shown in videos formally handing control to their Taliban counterparts in the strategic cities of Kandahar, the main stronghold of the south, and in Jalalabad, the main city of the east.

But in Kabul fears of the city being overrun were running high after a breakout of prisoners, many of them members of the Taliban, from the main prison at Pul-i-Charkhi.

"Look at this, the whole people are let free," a man said as he filmed a video footage of people carrying bundles walking away from the prison, posted on Facebook. "This is the Day of Judgment."

The breakout seems to have been by the prisoners from the inside, rather than an attack by Taliban forces from the outside.

Some Afghans still found room for humor amid the chaos: "Taliban have reached Kabul airport ... their speed is faster than 5G," one resident of Kabul posted on Facebook.

But others fled, though it is unclear where they could go with the Taliban in control of so much of the country.

"Greetings, the Taliban have reached the city. We are escaping," said Sahraa Karimi, the head of Afghan Film, in a post shared widely on Facebook. Filming herself as she fled on foot, out of breath and clutching at her head scarf, she called on passers-by to get away.

The former president Hamid Karzai and other leaders tried to step into the vacuum, and announced they were not leaving. Mr. Karzai, who has been involved in discussions with the Taliban for an interim government, posted a video on his Facebook page of himself with his daughters in his garden as helicopters sounded overhead.

"My dear residents of Kabul, I want to say that I and my daughters and family are here with you," he said. "We are working with the leader of the Taliban to resolve the difficulties of Afghanistan in a peaceful way."

Abdullah Abdullah, who has led recent talks with the Taliban also made a video statement from his garden.

"The last few days have been very hard for our countrymen all over the country," he said. He called on the Taliban to negotiate "so that the security situation does not deteriorate and our people do not suffer further."

As news broke that the president had left the country, Vice President Amrullah Saleh, a former head of intelligence who has been fighting against the Taliban from the 1990s, tweeted that he would not surrender.

Yet the Afghan security forces seemed to be melting away. Abdul Jabar Safi, head of the Kabul Industrial Park, an area of hundreds of factories and businesses, said business owners were trying to fend off looters with a few pistols and rifles left them by the government guards.

"We want the Taliban to reach us as soon as possible so they can secure the area," he said when reached by telephone. "We are in touch with the Taliban and they have assured us that until they reach the industrial park we must keep the security of the park by ourselves."

Officials at the National Museum of Kabul on the western side of Kabul also appealed through a western official for help, saying that police guards had abandoned their post outside the museum and that they feared the museum, which was badly looted in the 1990s, would fall prey again to thieves.

Correction:

KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. embassy warned Americans not to head to the airport in Kabul because of a situation that was "changing quickly" after the Taliban entered the city on Sunday.

Witnesses at the civilian domestic terminal said they had heard occasional gunshots and said thousands of people had crammed into the terminal and filled the parking lots, desperately seeking flights out.

"The security situation in Kabul is changing quickly including at the airport," the embassy said in a statement. "There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing U.S. citizens to shelter in place."

Late Sunday, the State and Defense Departments issued a statement saying the U.S. was working to secure control of the airport and to speed up the evacuation using civilian and military flights.

"Tomorrow and over the coming days," the statement said, "we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals."

The Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday, completing the near total takeover of Afghanistan two decades after the American military drove them from power. A frenzied evacuation of U.S. diplomats and civilians kicked into high gear last week, while Afghans made a mad dash to banks, their homes and the airport. Crowds of people ran down the streets as the sound of gunfire echoed in downtown Kabul.

Helicopter after helicopter - including massive Chinooks with their twin engines, and speedy Black Hawks that had been the workhorse of the grinding war - touched down and then took off loaded with passengers. Some shot flares overhead.

On Saturday, President Biden accelerated the deployment of 1,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to aid in the evacuation. On Sunday, orders went out to deploy another 1,000, temporarily bringing the U.S. presence there to 6,000, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and was granted anonymity.

Those being evacuated over the weekend included a core group of American diplomats who had planned to remain at the embassy in Kabul, according to a senior administration official. They were being moved to a compound at the international airport, where they would stay for an unspecified amount of time, the official said.

The runway of the airport was filled with a constellation of uniforms from different nations. They joined contractors, diplomats and civilians all trying to catch a flight out of the city. Those who were eligible to fly were given special bracelets, denoting their status as noncombatants.

For millions of Afghans, including tens of thousands who assisted the U.S. efforts in the country for years, there were no bracelets. They were stuck in the city.

Hundreds of people swarmed to the civilian side of the airport in the hopes of boarding planes out, but by evening scores were still waiting inside the terminal and milling around on the apron amid the constant roar of planes taking off from the adjacent military air base. A long line of people waited outside the check-in gate, unsure if the flights they had booked out of the country would arrive.

While President Biden has defended his decision to hold firm and pull the last U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by Sept. 11, his administration has become increasingly worried about images that could evoke a foreign policy disaster of the past: the fall of Saigon at the end of the conflict in Vietnam in 1975.

Fahim Abed, Fatima Faizi, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Christina Goldbaum, Sharif Hassan, Jim Huylebroek, Najim Rahimand Lara Jakes contributed reporting.

As their homeland fell once again into the hands of the Taliban, more than 300 Afghan Americans went to the White House on Sunday to make their frustrations known.

Demonstrators, some with young children and babies in strollers, spilled into Lafayette Square, wielding signs that read "Help Afghan kids" and "America betrayed us."

Some held up the flag of Afghanistan. Others draped it over their shoulders. They stood in a circle around organizers who used bullhorns to get their message out.

"We want justice," they declared.

Among those attending the three-hour protest was Sohaila Samadyar, a 43-year-old banker in Washington, who was there with her 10-year-old son. Ms. Samadyar, who immigrated to America in 2000, said she wanted to raise awareness about Afghans still stuck in the country, like her brother and sister in Kabul.

Ms. Samadyar said that she had voted for President Biden in November, but that she now regretted that decision, "disappointed" in his handling of the war.

"He has basically disregarded the Afghan community," she said. "It's unbelievable how fast everything has changed."

Yasameen Anwar, a 19-year-old sophomore in college, drove about three hours from Richmond, Va., with her friends and sister to attend the protest. Ms. Anwar said she was concerned about the future of women and children in Afghanistan.

"Before, when America was in Afghanistan, there was hope in that we were fighting the Taliban and that they could finally be defeated after 20 years," Ms. Anwar said. "But by the Biden administration completely stepping out, it's giving them no hope anymore."

A first-generation Afghan American, Ms. Anwar said she had always dreamed of visiting her family's home country. She now doubts that she will be able to go.

"It just seems like we're never going to get peace," Ms. Anwar said.

As the U.S. raced to evacuate personnel from its embassy in Kabul, human and refugee rights groups sharply criticized the Biden administration for not moving faster to relocate America's Afghan allies from a country where they are at risk of lethal Taliban reprisals.

"The Biden administration has taken too long to create a process that ensures safety for Afghans who served with American military and civil society actors," Jennifer Quigley, senior director for government affairs at Human Rights First, said in a statement. "As Afghanistan's military and political leaders abandon their posts, the United States risks abandoning allies who stood with us, who translated for and protected our troops."

"Unless there is a swift and meaningful effort to evacuate the thousands of allies and their families to the United States or a U.S. territory, we will have broken our promise to leave no one behind," she added.

Congress created the Special Immigrant Visa program to allow Afghans who worked with the Americans over the past 20 years to relocate to the United States. The State Department has given eligibility to tens of thousands of people and their families, and some have been flown out of Afghanistan.

But the rate of evacuation has not matched the speed of the Afghan government collapse. "If evacuation flights continue at their current pace, it would take until March 2023 to evacuate all the eligible Afghans out of the country," Ms. Quigley said.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced that Afghans who are not eligible for the program - including ones who worked for U.S.-based media organizations and nongovernmental organizations - could apply for high-priority refugee status.

But U.S. officials said those Afghans, who may number in the tens of thousands, must first leave the country under their own auspices merely to begin an application process that can take more than a year. With the Taliban in control of cities, highways and border crossings, it may now be too late for many of them to leave.

Correction:

The fall of Kabul follows days in which one urban center after another fell to the insurgents with astonishing speed, often with little or no resistance, leaving the government in control of nothing but fast-shrinking pockets of the country.

The insurgents took Mazar-i-Sharif, in the north, late on Saturday, only an hour after breaking through the front lines at the city's edge. Soon after, government security forces and militias - including those led by the warlords Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Muhammad Noor - fled, effectively handing control to the insurgents.

On Sunday morning, the Taliban seized the eastern city of Jalalabad. In taking that provincial capital and surrounding areas, the insurgents gained control of the Torkham border crossing, a major trade and transit route between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They took over Bagram Air Base, which had been the hub of U.S. military power in the country until the Americans handed control of it back to Afghan forces six weeks earlier.

Later on Sunday, Taliban fighters began taking up positions in Kabul, the capital - the last major city that had been under government control - as government forces melted away and the president fled the country.

The Taliban offensive, which started in May when the United States began withdrawing troops, gathered speed over the past week. In city after city, the militants took down Afghan government flags and hoisted their own white banners.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken acknowledged on Sunday that the offensive had moved faster than U.S. officials had expected.

Despite two decades of war with American-led forces, the Taliban have survived and thrived, without giving up their vision of creating a state governed by a stringent Islamic code.

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the 1990s, movie theaters were closed, the Kabul television station was shut down and the playing of all music was banned. Schools were closed to girls.

Despite many Afghans' memories of years under Taliban rule before the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, the insurgents have taken control of much of the country in recent days with only minimal resistance.

Their rapid successes have exposed the weakness of an Afghan military that the United States spent more than $83 billion to support over the past two decades. As the insurgents' campaign has accelerated, soldiers and police officers have abandoned the security forces in ever greater numbers, with the cause for which they risked their lives appearing increasingly to be lost.

The speed of the Taliban's advance has thrown exit planning into disarray. While many analysts had believed that the Afghan military could be overrun after international forces withdrew, they thought it would happen over months and years.

President Biden has accelerated the deployment of an additional 1,000 troops to Afghanistan to help get American citizens out. He made it clear that he would not reverse his decision to withdraw all combat forces.

"I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan - two Republicans, two Democrats," Mr. Biden said on Saturday afternoon. "I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth."

With their seizure of Jalalabad on Sunday, followed hours later by their entry into Kabul, the capital, the Taliban effectively took control of Afghanistan. Planes departing the airport in Kabul were filled with people fleeing the country.

The United Nations' leader and the Security Council appealed on Monday for an end to hostilities in Afghanistan, humanitarian aid to the country and the creation of a representative government that will protect the rights of women, prevent human rights abuses and keep the country from once again becoming a haven for global terrorist plots.

The 15-member Security Council held an emergency meeting on the rapidly escalating chaos a day after Kabul and the government fell to Taliban forces. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and diplomats conveyed alarm but also tacitly acknowledged that the Taliban effectively controlled Afghanistan and the era of foreign military intervention was over.

The Council statement, agreed by consensus, called for "an immediate end to the violence in Afghanistan, the restoration of security, civil and constitutional order, and urgent talks to resolve the current crisis of authority in the country and to arrive at a peaceful settlement through an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process of national reconciliation."

As terrified Afghans flocked to the airport in Kabul, rushing the runway and clinging to U.S. military airplanes scrambling to airlift Americans and Afghan allies, Mr. Guterres said the U.N. remained committed to providing aid and other services in Afghanistan. About 18 million people in the country, half of its population, currently need humanitarian assistance.

"At this grave hour, I urge all parties, especially the Taliban, to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian needs are met," Mr. Guterres said in his prepared remarks.

He urged all other countries "to be willing to receive Afghan refugees and refrain from any deportations."

Ghulam Isaczai, Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.N., said Kabul residents reported the Taliban had already started searching houses, registering names. He said people were living "in absolute fear right now."

While Council members spoke of their concerns that the rights gained for women and girls, journalists and activists would be lost and terrorist groups would shelter in the country, there was little sign of a plan for preventing those fears from becoming reality.

Afghan leaders who have remained in the country, including Hamid Karzai, the former longtime president, say they want to negotiate formation of a government with the Taliban, but it is not clear that the victorious insurgents have any interest in compromise.

Afghanistan surged toward the top of U.N. humanitarian priorities over the past few weeks as it became increasingly clear that the Afghan government was collapsing. On Friday, Mr. Guterres said the country was "spinning out of control."

It remains unclear how the United Nations will regard the Taliban should the militant movement declare itself the legitimate power in Afghanistan and demand a seat in the 193-member organization. Many countries have condemned the Taliban's brutality and would probably not recognize such a declaration.

The United Nations employs roughly 3,000 employees who are Afghan and about 720 international staff members in Afghanistan, although roughly half of the international employees have been working outside the country since the coronavirus pandemic started. U.N. officials have said that there are no plans to evacuate any staff members from the country.

The Taliban have pledged not to interfere in U.N. aid operations, but they attacked a U.N. office in the western city of Herat on July 30, and a local security official guarding the office was killed.

A group of 26 U.N. human rights experts issued a joint statement on Monday saying it was unacceptable for countries to sit on the sidelines as a group labeled terrorists by the Security Council takes over Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan is a test case for the value of the U.N. Charter, and the commitment of States to prevent the scourge of terrorism from destroying rights-bearing societies and values," the statement said.

It was his first day as the Taliban-appointed mayor of Kunduz, and Gul Mohammad Elias was on a charm offensive.

Last Sunday, the insurgents seized control of the city in northern Afghanistan, which was in shambles after weeks of fighting. Power lines were down. The water supply, powered by generators, did not reach most residents. Trash and rubble littered the streets.

The civil servants who could fix those problems were hiding at home, terrified of the Taliban. So the insurgent-commander-turned-mayor summoned some to his new office, to persuade them to return to work.

But day by day, as municipal offices stayed mostly empty,Mr. Elias grew more frustrated - and his rhetoric grew harsher.

Taliban fighters began going door to door, searching for absentee city workers. Hundreds of armed men set up checkpoints across the city. At the entrance to the regional hospital, a new notice appeared on the wall: Employees must return to work or face punishment from the Taliban.

The experience of those in Kunduz offers a glimpse of how the Taliban may govern, and what may be in store for the rest of the country.

In just days, the insurgents, frustrated by their failed efforts to cajole civil servants back to work, began instilling terror, according to residents reached by telephone.

"I am afraid, because I do not know what will happen and what they will do," said one, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. "We have to smile at them because we are scared, but deeply we are unhappy."

Nearly every shop in Kunduz was closed. Shopkeepers, fearing that their stores would be looted by Taliban fighters, had taken their goods home. Each afternoon, the streets emptied of residents, who feared airstrikes as government planes buzzed in the sky. And about 500 Taliban fighters were stationed around the city, staffing checkpoints on nearly every street corner.

At the regional hospital, armed Taliban members were keeping track of attendance. Out of fear, one health worker said, female staff members wore sky-blue burqas as they assisted in surgeries and tended to wounds from airstrikes, which still splintered the city each afternoon.

A high school student in Kabul, Afghanistan's war-scarred capital, worries that she now will not be allowed to graduate.

The girl, Wahida Sadeqi, 17, like many Afghan civilians in the wake of the U.S. troop withdrawal and ahead of a Taliban victory, keeps asking the same question: What will happen to me?

The American withdrawal, which effectively ends the longest war on foreign soil in United States history, is also likely to be the start of another difficult chapter for Afghanistan's people.

"I am so worried about my future. It seems so murky. If the Taliban take over, I lose my identity," said Ms. Sadeqi, an 11th grader at Pardis High School in Kabul. "It is about my existence. It is not about their withdrawal. I was born in 2004, and I have no idea what the Taliban did to women, but I know women were banned from everything."

Uncertainty hangs over virtually every facet of life in Afghanistan. It is unclear what the future holds and whether the fighting will ever stop. For two decades, American leaders have pledged peace, prosperity, democracy, the end of terrorism and rights for women.

Few of those promises have materialized in vast areas of Afghanistan, but now even in the cities where real progress occurred, there is fear that everything will be lost when the Americans leave.

The Taliban, the extremist group that once controlled most of the country and continues to fight the government, insist that the elected president step down. Militias are increasing in prominence and power, and there is talk of a lengthy civil war.

Over two decades, the American mission evolved from hunting terrorists to helping the government build the institutions of a functioning government, dismantle the Taliban and empower women. But the U.S. and Afghan militaries were never able to effectively destroy the Taliban, who sought refuge in Pakistan, allowing the insurgents to stage a comeback.

The Taliban never recognized Afghanistan's democratic government. And they appear closer than ever to achieving the goal of their insurgency: to return to power and establish a government based on their extremist view of Islam.

Women would be most at risk under Taliban rule. When the group controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it barred women from taking most jobs or receiving educations and practically made them prisoners in their own homes - though this was already custom for many women in rural parts of the country.

"It is too early to comment on the subject. We need to know much more," Fatima Gailani, an Afghan government negotiator who is involved in the continuing peace talks with the Taliban, said in April. "One thing is certain: It is about time that we learn how to rely on ourselves. Women of Afghanistan are totally different now. They are a force in our country - no one can deny them their rights or status."

More than a hundred journalists employed by the American government's own radio stations remain in Afghanistan as the Taliban take power, U.S. officials and Afghan journalists said Sunday.

"Journalists are being left behind," said Rateb Noori, the Kabul bureau news manager of Radio Azadi, in a telephone interview from Kabul on Sunday.

The station, a branch of the U.S. government's Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty services, formerly called Radio Free Afghanistan, broadcast through the day Sunday, including airing an interview with a Taliban spokesman. Its sister station, Voice of America, reported on Sunday that one of its reporters "was in the passport office when everyone was told to leave immediately and go home."

The Afghans working for the U.S. government broadcasters in Kabul and around the country have long been targets of the insurgents, who killed a journalist with Radio Free Afghanistan in a targeted bombing in November. They are among the most exposed of hundreds of Afghans who have worked with American news organizations since the arrival of U.S. troops in 2001, and media organizations have been scrambling to help local employees evacuate. The U.S. government made journalists eligible for a visa program that could allow them to leave the country. They have yet to be evacuated and the window to do so is closing quickly.

The acting interim chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the broadcasters, said in an email to staff Sunday that the agency is "doing everything in our power to protect" journalists and "will not back down in our mission to inform, engage, and connect Afghans in support of freedom and democracy."

The president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Jamie Fly, said in a text message that the service is "doing everything possible to make sure they can safely continue their work."

Mr. Noori, who was awake late on Sunday because he was worried about looters at his home, said there was no protection and little certainty - including whether the stations will continue to broadcast Monday.

"Everybody is locked down in their homes, and no one knows what happens tomorrow," he said.

Afghan journalists have little to do but rely on early Taliban promises that they will not attack members of the news media.

"Having experience last time of their role in Afghanistan, I think they cannot keep their promises - they cannot control their people," he said. "I'm just hoping that we can survive for a while, and then let's see if we have a way out to any neighboring country," Mr. Noori said.

Mujeeb Angaar, who worked for Radio Free Afghanistan from 2010 to 2013 before fleeing the country, said in a telephone interview from his home in Canada that he was told by the Taliban at the time that he "should be killed, because you work for Jews, you work for the CIA."

The American-backed services "will be the first target," he said.

Having sent thousands of troops to Afghanistan during two decades of conflict, Britain is one of the biggest losers from a Taliban takeover that has humiliated the United States and its allies and left thousands stranded.

Estimates vary, but about 3,000 Britons are thought to be in Afghanistan. Officials say they are confident that the citizens can be evacuated as part of an airlift expected to involve hundreds each day. They are less sure about being able to provide a safe exit to all of the Afghans who aided the British and whose lives could now be at risk.

Time is critical, because once the U.S. withdraws the remainder of its forces, there will be no way of safely having planes land and take off.

One option to speed up the process is to initially fly people leaving Kabul to a safe Middle Eastern country rather than repatriating them directly to Britain.

On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson chaired a meeting of an emergency committee in Downing Street after cutting short his vacation. Britain's Parliament is also being recalled from its summer recess to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan on Wednesday amid growing alarm about the humanitarian and strategic consequences of the Taliban's advances.

The last time Parliament was recalled for an emergency session to discuss a similar foreign policy question was in 2014, during a crisis in Iraq.

In the past two decades, 150,000 British military personnel have served in Afghanistan, mainly in Helmand Province, though combat missions ended in 2014, leaving behind a small contingent for support work.

In all, 457 British personnel died in Afghanistan, and on Monday, amid the chaotic scenes in Afghanistan, the front-page headline of one tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mail, read: "What the hell did they all die for?"

Last month, Britain announced the withdrawal of its remaining forces from Afghanistan to coincide with the American military's pullout, though it said last week that it was sending an additional 600 military personnel to help with the evacuation.

This weekend, about 370 embassy employees and British citizens were flown out of the country, the British defense ministry said.

Britain's defense secretary, Ben Wallace, acknowledged on Monday that some of those who aided the United States and its allies in the last two decades in Afghanistan risked being abandoned to their fate under the Taliban.

"It's a really deep part of the regret for me that some people won't get back," he told LBC Radio, his voice breaking with emotion. "Some people won't get back, and we will have to do our best in third countries to process those people."

Asked why he felt it so personally, Mr. Wallace started his reply by saying that it was because of his experience as a soldier. But he then added: "Because it's sad, and because the West has done what it has done and we have to do our best to get people and stand by our obligations and 20 years of sacrifice is what it is."

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20-Year U.S. War Ending as It Began, With Taliban Ruling Afghanistan

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The Taliban effectively sealed their control of Afghanistan on Sunday, pouring into the capital, Kabul, and meeting little resistance as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the government collapsed, and chaos and fear gripped the city, with tens of thousands of people trying to escape.