Pharrell Williams (pictured) has already featured on the two big hits of the summer, Daft Punk's “Get Lucky” (you may have heard it once or twice) and Robin Thicke's “Blurred Lines”, but he is certainly not stopping there. Next up, he's offered production duties (and occasional vocals) on the new single from southern rapper 2 Chainz. “Fedz Watching” is the particularly catchy and infectious turn from the pair; find it at 2chainz.com. Pharrell is also on a new track from Azealia Banks. A radio rip of “ATM Jam” is streaming – for now – on Soundcloud at azealiainfo/azealia- banks-atm-jam-feat.

It seems the guys over at Vice's music channel Noisey enjoy a Hip Hop Christmas as much as the next man, and certainly as much as some lady from a radio station.

OutKast star Big Boi has been charged with drug possession.

A more-than-defensible collection of Jones's collaborations over the past decade: 18 songs in the company of luminaries as diverse as Ray Charles and Belle & Sebastian, Willie Nelson and OutKast, Dolly Parton and Herbie Hancock.

Young MC DELS has been hard at work in the studio collaborating with Joe Goddard from Hot Chip for his second single. He took time out to answer a few teasers for Music Magazine

Bradford Cox and his art-rocking cohorts in Deerhunter are returning in September with their fourth album, Halcyon Digest.

Janelle Monáe, the R&B singer who first came to public attention on OutKast's Idlewild, is a giant talent, comparable to Prince in both her ambition and her reach.

Madvillain, the collaboration between the producer Madlib and the rapper Doom, turned out one of the great rap albums of the last decade in 2004's Madvillainy. A follow up is finally due this year; their label Stones Throw calls it a work in progress, but the first new material has arrived. "Papermill" sees the pair in sprightly mode, with Madlib layering uptempo samples and beats over Doom's swiftly delivered rhymes. It's an enticing taste of what might be to come.

B.O.B, aka Bobby Ray Simmons, is the latest breakout star from the prolific Atlanta hip-hop scene, so it's unsurprising that this excellent debut shares similarities of inflection and melodic appeal with OutKast, Cee-Lo Green and Dungeon family.