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The Best of RVA Magazine 2025

As we close out the year, here’s a look at some of the most impactful stories we published in 2025. Over the past year, we covered Richmond as a living system under pressure, focusing on the people, culture, and policies that shape daily life and determine who gets...

How Locals Mike Shea and Jonathan Facka Made ‘The Light’

Editor's Note: This story that begins, as too many do, with a clown in someone’s DMs and ends with a camera duct-taped to a toy train. The first thing to know is that Mike Shea tried to make a normal introduction. In his mind, it was a filmmaker reaching out to a...

Fly Anakin Lands at No. 3 on Pitchfork’s Best Rap Songs of 2025.

Was giving DJ Harrison’s new album a listen preparing the interview. I’m sitting with the tracks, getting a feel for the album’s pulse, when “Seek God” comes on. Fly Anakin steps into the beat with that effortless Richmond control that comes from years of sharpening...

‘Trashed Panda’ Now Fronts Ads and Supports Local Wildlife

Only in Virginia could a raccoon get day-drunk in an ABC store and wake up a statewide celebrity by Monday. After a masked intruder broke into the Ashland ABC on Nov. 30, tore through shelves, smashed bottles, and ultimately passed out facedown in the bathroom, the...

Noah-O & Cadillac Cat drop collaborative project, ‘FACE/OFF’

Lately, there’s been a surge of new and up and coming hip hop artists and rappers that seem to be pushing the boundaries on what most people think hip hop is or should be. The 2016 XXL Freshman Class comes to mind. You can never quite tell if the reception is negative, ironic, or that the music is on the whole generally well received. But by the...

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Noah-O & Cadillac Cat drop collaborative project, ‘FACE/OFF’

Lately, there’s been a surge of new and up and coming hip hop artists and rappers that seem to be pushing the boundaries on what most people think hip hop is or should be. The 2016 XXL Freshman Class comes to mind. You can never quite tell if the reception is negative, ironic, or that the music is on the whole generally well received. But by the...

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RVA Mag #28: Turning tides to tidal waves: A day With Big Kahuna OG

10:13 AM Vibrant sunrays peer through the blinds, illuminating the meticulously clean, yet homey Museum District apartment. As Roy Ayers’ Virgin Ubiquity 2 plays in the background, there’s a warm, yet comfortable greeting to the place. This article was featured in RVAMag #28: Spring 2017. You can read all of issue #28 here or pick it up at local...

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RVA #28: Turning tides to tidal waves: A day With Big Kahuna OG

10:13 AM Vibrant sunrays peer through the blinds, illuminating the meticulously clean, yet homey Museum District apartment. As Roy Ayers’ Virgin Ubiquity 2 plays in the background, there’s a warm, yet comfortable greeting to the place. This article was featured in RVAMag #28: Spring 2017. You can read all of issue #28 here or pick it up at local...

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Busta Rhymes heads to The National in July

Get ready to bob your head and break ya neck because hip hop star Busta Rhymes will make his way to Richmond this summer. From entertaining us in his early days by screaming "Woo Hah!!" to getting us hype with tracks like "Dangerous" and "Touch It" and "Break Ya Neck" his unique videos and stage presence always kept me bumping his jams from my...

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