NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series is one of the most charming of live show series you can find online. With the goal of bringing some of the most talented artists from around the world and giving them only a few instruments to perform with, in a rather cramped office setting, how could NPR go wrong? After the series began over six years ago, they’ve held hundreds of their tiny concerts. However, with so many different types of artists to showcase, the hip-hop genre has only graced their offices a couple of times. But when NPR does happen to bring in the occasional rapper or R&B singer, the results are always magical.
From Rapsody to Sampha to Gucci Mane and everything in between, we’ve compiled some of the best hip-hop and R&B concerts that NPR has put on in the last few years. Some artists are playful, some shows are extremely intimate, and some of the stages are tinier than the others, but these are the ones that are all impossible to turn off.