At least 11 black women were raped and killed on Cleveland's East side between 2007 and 2009 by a man named Anthony Sowell. It's one of the worst cases of serial murder in recent history and has been largely left untold. 

For Wilbert L. Cooper, who was born and raised in Cleveland, the real story lies in how Sowell was able to get away with these heinous acts for two years. These crimes say as much about the depraved killer as they do about race, class, and law enforcement in the City of Cleveland.

Wilbert goes home to dive back into the case that's haunted the city, meeting with some of Sowell's surviving victims, family members of the deceased, and the police officers who put Sowell on death row.

In the United States, more people between the ages of 25 and 64 die of complications from drugs than car crashes. According to a 2009 study published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 23.5 million people in this country over the age of 12 need treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, and only 2.6 million of these afflicted individuals actually receive it.

VICE editor Wilbert L. Cooper traveled to Southern California, the region with the highest concentration of these high-end rehab clinics, to explore the peculiar and troubling side of the for-profit addiction treatment industry.

The horror that befell Oscarina Busse's backside began in July 2009. The 35-year-old Floridian felt a dull but persistent itch deep in the meat of her buttocks, one that was impossible to scratch.

It wasn't long before Oscarina noticed that her butt was changing colors—first turning purple, like a throbbing finger that had been wrapped too tightly with string, and then a cadaverous gray. From there, things got much worse. Her flesh started to crust and painfully peel off until, a few months later, the whole mess collapsed like a badly baked cake. The cheeks of her ass drooped down, loaded with a stew of poisonous goop that collected around her lower buttocks. What had once stood high and felt supple to the touch had become hot and hard and stinging. Oscarina's derrière had transformed so much that it no longer looked like it was part of a human's body; her five-year-old daughter mistook her fluid-filled cheeks for a poopy diaper, calling it a "full Pamper."

Like thousands of women across the globe and increasingly in the US, Oscarina was suffering from the side effects of a black-market butt injection. Because of its clandestine nature, it's impossible to quantify exactly how many people in the US are illegally getting their butts pumped up like a pair of Reeboks. But the number is definitely growing; due to the proliferation of reported disfiguring cases like Oscarina's and even deaths, law-enforcement officials and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons view black-market butt injections as a burgeoning epidemic in the US.

Wilbert sat down with Barry Jenkins to talk about his lyrical new film "Moonlight." The coming-of-age drama follows a boy named Chiron as he grapples with his identity and sexuality, and navigates life in a rough neighborhood in Miami.

For the first episode of Noisey Raps, Noisey host Wilbert L. Cooper got unreal access to the LONGLIVEA$AP Tour, featuring performances by A$AP Rocky, Schoolboy Q, and Danny Brown and interviews with DJ A-Trak, Action Bronson, the Flatbush Zombies, and the Underachievers.

If you party with the Brick Squad, you might end up drinking a bottle of cognac and almost dying. That's what our valiant Noisey Raps host Wilbert learned backstage with Waka Flocka and Gucci Mane.