Where R&B Meets Cinéma Vérité: Rising Artist Trav Torch Crafts a Steamy Director's Cut of Modern Romance In "Sex Scene" There's something deliciously meta about recording a song about recording a scene about sex. It's the kind of recursive romance that could easily spiral into self-parody, like pointing two mirrors at each other and watching infinity fragment into meaninglessness. But Trav Torch, with his latest single...

The fiercely independent, Idaho-raised rapper nick! channels a deeply overstimulated, restless frequency on his new EP, "GEEKED!". Born in 2006 and building a fervent following entirely without industry co-signs, he occupies an interesting lane in new-wave underground hip-hop. His music sounds precisely like the brain chemistry of an internet-raised creative processing the blinding speed of newfound success. He writes and produces melodic, hard-hitting rap...