Favorite Hip Hop Acts?

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[quote]TONEdef wrote:
PGA200X wrote:
Shit, I forgot Will Smith! Forget about some of his newer poppy crap. Summertime is an epic summer song. Of his later stuff So Fresh, although its a collabo, is BANANAS!

I hate “Summertime”. I DJ quite a lot and I always used to play “Summer Madness” by Kool and the Gang at the beginning of my set. I had to stop playing it when people kept asking “When’s Will Smith going to start singing?” Fucking idiots![/quote]

Shit, Summer Madness blended back and forth with Summertime is smooth as all hell. In the beginning of the night I would sometimes just bounce back and forth between 2 Summer Madness’. That or play the Martin Luther King 'I have a Dream Speach" with Biggie instrumentals in the background. That would always make the early crowd go “WHAT THE FUCK!”

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Heiroglyphics
Freestyle Fellowship
De La
Lyrics Born
Common
The Blast Master KRS
Black Moon
Smif n Wessun
Das EFX
People Under The Stairs
J5
Naughty
Kool Keith
Nas
DPG

HIP HOP IS NOT ON THE RADIO!

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Somehow in coming up with who I said earlier, I forgot to mention Big L and A tribe called quest. To me the five greatest rap artist of all time are [in no order]:Biggie, Nas, Big L, Tribe and Eric B and Rakim.

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Oh yeah, also Arrested Development. I think they’re truly slept on in terms of their place in hip-hop history. Also, if anyone gets a chance to hear the remix the pharcyde did of “passing me by” don’t pass it up.

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Of all hip-hop-esque music that I listen to, I like Ozomatli the most.

Any of you guys ever listened to them?

Imagine a crazy latin/salsa band, about 12 of them, with MCs over the top. Chali 2na from jurrasic 5 did vocals on the first couple of albums i think, so if you like j5 or have an ear for good music in general, you’d almost certainly like them.

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A few artists that I don’t think have been mentioned yet:

Zion I
Abstract Rude
Time Machine
Cunning Lynguists
Little Brother
Dead Prez
Haiku D’Etat
k-os

These and a few of the previous mentioned artists are the only things that have kept me from killing myself while the Bay Area’s hyphy movement is going on.

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I’m all about old school rap… listening to LUNIZ right now

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[quote]belligerent wrote:
I’m all about old school rap… listening to LUNIZ right now[/quote]

Did’t they do “I got 5 on it”?

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Jedi Mind Tricks
IAM
Non Phixion
Ill Bill
Necro
Son Of Skam

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Atmosphere
Biggie
Black Star
Busta
Dr. Dre
Immortal Technique
Outkast
Pharcyde
Tribe Called Quest
Zion I

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I really don’t like a lot of the recent underground stuff. It tends to be waaaay too pretentious (a la Anticon) or preachy (a la Blackalicious). There definitely are some good acts… rootsy, block party Sage Francis is great (Different), Atmosphere has always been a favorite band, and I love Blackalicious when they stop getting simply preachy and start getting smart (Shallow Days, Make You Feel That Way).

I’m more of an old-school rap fan, though. My all-time favorite is Illmatic by Nas, followed by a slew of the political rap groups, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Gangstarr, and some more golden-era gangsta rap, Jay-Z’s first, NWA, Biggie.

And I LOOOVE the feel-good, beatboxing, block party attitude of Erik B. & Rakim, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, and Slick Rick.

I suppose the only recent hip-hop artist I truly enjoy is Atmosphere, but their CDs have declined. Overcast! and the Lucy Ford EP were great though.

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you guys should check out murs

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Almost forgot!

NWH (Niggaz With Hats)

from “Fear of a Black Hat”:

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[quote]mastodon wrote:
you guys should check out murs[/quote]

Yup I really like what murs is doing now too.

I love hip hop, but I’m all about the mixtape scene now. Smoothest DJ ever is Neil Armstrong, check him out. For those of you who dowload torrents, go to www.mixfiend.com for all the mixtapes you can handle. Thank me later.

75

[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
BradTGIF wrote:
For me, Public Enemy represents hip hop to it’s fullest. Chuck had something to say, Flava (before he got all VH1) was indeed the ultimate hype man. I love Public Enemy, they’re right up there with the rest of my favorite acts which includes Rage Against the Machine, Tool, and the like. They’re shit is timeless. “Welcome to the Terrordome” gave me my first glimpse of focused and expressed anger and I was hooked from then on.

As for other acts I like

DMX
Busta Rhymes
Eminem

The rest, in my opinion, is weak in comparison.

B.

Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine encompass EVERYTHING that hip hop should be. Or at least, what it COULD be.

Can’t believe I left out Rage. As a guitar player though, I think of them as guitar music as Tom Morello is a God.

But yeah… Public Enemy IS hip hop as far as I’m concerned.

50 cent is to real hip hop is what Usher is to real R’n’B when you figure people like Marvin Gaye or Aretha Franklin are in that same genre. [/quote]

Gotta agree on that one. Got Rage and Public Enemy on my play list as we speak. We need to go back to when people had a passion for hiphop and had a message to say and could actually rhyme. Rage and PE got that shit down.

Then we gotta include Guru, KRS-1, Eric Sermon, Rakim, Eric B, Slick Rick … ah man the 80s was illin!

As for the rest, I got the early albums from busta and flipmode. Not really feeling the new stuff.

Hey, no one mentioned Mos Def or Pharoemonch!!!

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My favorites:

Rappers:
The Greatest Notorious B.I.G.
Snoop Dogg
Dr. Dre
Eminem
Tupac

Rap groups:
A Tribe Called Quest
Wu-Tang Clan

Albums:
Ready to die (Biggie Smalls)
2001 (Dr. Dre)
Doggystyle (Snoop Dogg)
Anthology (A Tribe Called Quest)
The W, Iron Flag, and 36 Chambers by the Wu-Tang clan

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How about Cannibal Ox, El-P and Company Flow?
I think you all will love this site:

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Hey, I just wanted to thank a you guys for mentioning some artists that I’ve never checked out before.

Roots Menuva - awesome
Gnarls Barkley - awesome
Buck 65 - great stuff

Thanks again and let’s keep this focused on hip hop, not rap.

I’m sorry but Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Eminem do not belong in this thread.

80

[quote]mastodon wrote:
you guys should check out murs[/quote]

If you like Murs, check out some of the other Living Legends crew. The only one that comes close to Murs is The Grouch, although his lyrics aren’t that great, but his beats are otherwordly.

[quote]arnoud verschoor wrote:
How about Cannibal Ox, El-P and Company Flow?
I think you all will love this site:
www.hiphopsite.com[/quote]

Check out Anticon. They’re way too daft for me, but I don’t deny their originality. El-P is a good producer, Cannibal Ox has a couple of good songs off the Cold Vein, and Company Flow does what the rest of the Anticon crew wishes it could.

[quote]dre wrote:
Hey, I just wanted to thank a you guys for mentioning some artists that I’ve never checked out before.

Roots Menuva - awesome
Gnarls Barkley - awesome
Buck 65 - great stuff

Thanks again and let’s keep this focused on hip hop, not rap.

I’m sorry but Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Eminem do not belong in this thread. [/quote]

Check out Buck 65’s felllow Canadian Josh Martinez. They do a song together called Leopold the Apostle which is interesting, and check out I’ve Got Devils by Martinez.

And what’s wrong with Snoop, Dre, and Eminem? Eminem has perhaps the best flow since Rakim and Nas, period. Very few come close to him. Dre, along with NWA, practically invented gangsta rap, and he himself invented g-funk. As a producer, he is absolutely stellar. Snoop, you either love him or hate him, but he did play a big part in popularizing g-funk, and his voice IS very unique.

[quote]Neebone wrote:

Hey, no one mentioned Mos Def or Pharoemonch!!![/quote]

Blackstar is perhaps the only great political rap group of today. Talib Kweli hasn’t quite grown on me yet, but Mos Def is amazing. He is quite multi-talented, being one of the few rappers to actually be able to act decently, and he has a way about him that says that he’s the shit. He’s cocky, but not arrogant, he’s smart, and he loves hip-hop with a passion. Everyone should own Blackstar, and at least check out Black on Both Sides by Mos Def, and Reflection Eternal or Quality by Kweli.

Pharoah Monch is cool, he reminds me of Kweli. The Light and Simon Says are nice tracks.