Chris Molanphy

The Bronx-native is the first female rapper to reach number one with a solo since Lauryn Hill released "Doo Wop" 19 years ago. 

Every October, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces the nominees for next year's inductions, there's a phrase that seems to come up organically in discussions of the shortlist. Indeed, I've used it several times myself. The phrase is "out of committee." ...

For roughly half a century, the Billboard Hot 100 — America's hit barometer — underwent constant change as it accommodated all the new ways Americans consumed popular music.

And yet, in a larger sense, for the first 50 years or so, it didn't change much at ...

Pay a visit to New York City's Museum of the Moving Image to see its blockbuster show Matthew Weiner's Mad Men, and toward the end of the exhibit you will find a lonely kiosk. It's easy to overlook — by the time you've waded through the throngs of museumgoers, and ...

One thing you can say for the improbable return of Olympia punk deities Sleater-Kinney: By the standards of a Greatest Indie Rock Band of Their Generation, it's off to a rousing start. Not just with critics and fans, but possibly also with people who've never bought a Sleater-Kinney ...

Imagine you're in a Tower Records in the late '90s. You head for the cash register with a credit card and two compact discs in your hand. Let's say one CD is by OutKast, the other by Smash Mouth (remember, it's the late '90s). The following week on ...

As part of the ongoing series, That Was A Hit?!?, Soundcheck looks the unlikely success of two Fergie singles that laid the groundwork for her solo career.

As part of the ongoing series, That Was A Hit?!?, Soundcheck looks at how Stevie Wonder's early hit "Fintertips" set him on the trajectory to become the influential artist he is today.

As a music geek, I often find myself in conversations, either online or over cocktails, about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Indeed, I've been nerding out about the Hall since last Thursday, when the institution announced its shortlist for induction into the Hall Class of 2015. And when ...

Chris Molanphy charts the unexpected and long-lasting popularity of Enigma's 1990 release, which stayed on the Billboard charts for five years and sparked a revival of Gregorian chants.

Chris Molanphy, pop chart columnist, contributor to Pitchfork looks back at Portishead's trip-hop debut, Dummy, as part of Soundcheck's Summer '94 series. 

In our occasional series That Was A Hit?!? pop chart analyst and contributor to NPR Music and Slate Chris Molanphy returns to our studio to tell the story of 1994's summer smash "Regu...

Pop chart analyst Chris Molanphy talks about the rise of modern rock and how it became an alternative radio format; how musicians like Trent Reznor and Eddie Vedder were forced into t...