aka "rap". having nothing to do with the recent rap battles going down here, i've been on a quest for some great hiphop albums. dealing with the relatively limited selection at Reckless, here's who i picked up in round one...

Cannibal Ox
Common
Mos Def
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
Del the Funky Homosapien
Pete Miser

they never seem to have any Craig Mack, which is something i've been looking for casually for months now. and, rather surprisingly, i couldn't find a single De La Soul disc. at Reckless, i mean. i thought that was pretty odd.

anyway, what's good? so far i'm liking all of these guys. anybody who knows something about hiphop, got any recommendations in a similar vein? thanks!

i don't really listen to hip hop but a friend of mine lives and breathes it so...
if you like mos def try to find the Black Star album he did with Talib Kweli or even Talib Kweli's first album Reflection Eternal

and the Blackalicious album Blazing Arrow which is worth it just to hear how many times they sample different parts from Nilsson's soundtrack.

and the Blackalicious album Blazing Arrow which is worth it just to hear how many times they sample different parts from Nilsson's soundtrack.

Nia is also good.

In order from the more accessible to the very strange and intricate...

Aesop Rock-Labor Days (Ridiculously verbose, yet very intelligent and clever. My Favourite "MC".)

EL-P-Fantastic Damage (EL-P did all the music for/produced the Can Ox album you have. Made a name for himself in 90's group "Company Flow" and now owns Definitive Jux records. There is so much going on on this record. Very dense and layered.)

cLOUDDEAD-S/T Described as "Avant-Garde Hip-Hop". Avoid their subsequent album "ten", this self-titled album was recorded entirely on a cassette tape 8-track and is truly unlike anything I've ever heard before. Lots of tape loops. My favourite "Hip-Hop" album.)




I've seen lots of comments regarding the dire state of hip-hop on this forum. Very strange. Hip Hop is just like any other style of music; you wouldn't go to radio/MTV etc expecting to hear definitive and inspiring tracks of your preferred styles of music-Why would hip-hop be any different?

Emenem, 50 cent, "guns, hoes & money" et al, is to hip hop what Good Charlotte is to Punk Rock.

If you are into those guys then you'll dig
A Tribe Called Quest - Beats, Rhymes and Life or Midnight Marauders

but the following are great

Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Wu Tang Clan - Enter the 36 Chambers
Nas - Illmatic

Boogie Down Productions and Gangstarr are nice too

Toomanyhelicopters,

For some reason you strike me as the kind of guy who might appreciate the work of Kool Keith. I recommend Spankmaster. If that does the trick, perhaps move on to Sex Style, wherein our hero takes hip-hop misogyny to its absurd conclusion.

Enjoy!

Kool Keith is great stuff, I highly recommend the Dr. Octagon album. Particularly if you like that Del record.

I'd also recommend that one and all of you check out Dälek, if you haven't already. It's dark, apocalyptic, and noisier than your average Public Enemy record, and it grooves like a motherfuck. We played with them a couple nights in a row a few months ago, and it was absolutely inspiring.

Superking - Kool Keith was someone i paused on and thought to myself "i've heard the name, but did i hear good or bad?" outside of the misogyny, is the lyrical presentation and/or production exceptional? i can get past weak lyrics or subject matter in the interest of good style. even if somebody is a piece of shit and espouses/promotes shithead politics, if they bring it, style-wise or beats-wise, i'll buy it used, to hear it. the artist won't see a penny of my money, and i can always destroy the album after listening if it's that evil.

Tribe Called Quest, De La, Public Enemy, Run DMC, pretty much anything that was getting good rotation on Yo! back in the day, i'm already familiar with (and i definitely like all of the examples i gave). and i heard enough Dr Dre and Snoop back in college to know what they're generally gonna bring.

Wu Tang, Jurassic 5, and Pharcyde are all things i've been thinking about checking out, since a couple of good friends of mine were huge into them; though i've never heard any, i assume it to be good by proxy.

EL-P is definitely on the list for round 2, as the beats on the Cannibal Ox disc i got are phenomonal. his stuff, along with Pete Rock's, has really stood out so far as being very top-notch.

i just heard a good hiphop song when i was returning a movie at Earwax today... when i asked what it was, the clerk told me it was some radio station out of MPLS, and they had been playing a lot of rap battles between _______, ________, and Aesop, which were awesome. so it may have been him/them. Aesop was the only name i was able to retain. (really i was hoping for a much less complex answer from him, like "it is XYZ" or something).

i'm mostly interested in folks that bring either great vocal stylings or great beats, and not necessarily both, and not necessarily what i consider "smart" politics, though the complete package is obviously ideal. the Del the Funky Homosapien disc i got, for example, the beats are often weak, his lyrics vary between thoughtful and totally retarded, but his presentation is often thoroughly kick-ass. so i can dig it, in spite of all the negatives.

thanks for input, everybody! keep it comin!

PS - gordon, i'm probably one of the more outspoken "anti-hiphop" guys in those conversations when they come up on this forum. but my issue is with the sickness that lots (if not most, if not damn near all) of the mainstream hiphop folks are promoting, wittingly or unwittingly, to kids. i'm old enough to seperate the shit from the gold, subject-wise, as my personal politics are already pretty well formed. but it really saddens me how kids who are very much in the process of developing a worldview are inundated with heroes who advocate, in my opinion, really fucked up views. hopefully this thread will not veer off into that territory at all. for me anyways, this is all about checking out vocal skill and dope beats, politics be damned.

MMMM wrote:Nas - Illmatic

he never made another consistently great (or even good) full-length, but this one is really something. ten songs, all of them excellent, illmatic is as dense a record as you're likely to hear and just relentlessly fierce. some of the rhymes are otherworldly. it's hard to believe he was only 19.

edited to get with the times:

Quasimoto - Further Adventures of Lord Quas (The Unseen is pretty damn brilliant as well)
Madvillain - Madvillainy
Jaylib - Champion Sound
Peanut Butter Wolf - My Vinyl Weighs a Ton
MF Doom - Mm.. Food
Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded
Nas - Illmatic
Wu Tang - 36 Chambers, Liquid Swords, Supreme Clientele, Cuban Linx, etc.
Mobb Deep - The Infamous
Notorious B.I.G. - about half of Life After Death, Ready To Die
Big Daddy Kane - It's a Big Daddy Thing
Kool G Rap - Wanted Dead or Alive
Big L - Lifestyles of the Poor and Dangerous

DITC is supposed to be really good too, but I haven't heard much of them

Pete Rock & CL Smooth was a good choice.

Ghostface Killah's Fishscale is pretty sick too.

Eric B & Rakim's earlier works are nearly flawless, and Public Enemy through and including 91 Apocalypse is as well.

umm what else?