I absolutely demand that you read Samantha Shapiro's Hip-Hop Outlaw from NYT Magazine. It is such a great read with asides like "(The Fox report on the DJ Drama raid included a shot of a grave-looking police officer saying, “In this case we didn't find drugs or weapons, but it's not uncommon for us to find other contraband.”). Furthermore, I absolutely recommend Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury.
While we are on the subject, anyone catch SFJ's riff on Arcade Fire in the NYer? He gets their live insanity right - their show we watched in Chicago kicked ass - and he points out that they own their distribution channels.
ps. I really wish NYer would use permalinks.
The NYer also had a fascinating piece 'Hip Hop Machiavelli' on the influence of 'The 48 Laws of Power' a while ago--not online sadly but written about here: http://www.gawker.com/news/new-yorker/hip-hop-machiavelli-considerably-more-douchey-than-actual-machiavelli-211330.php