DVD Josh

Please post your favorite rap songs of the past five years (I'll take anything up to 2000). Want to make me a little collection. Outside of my favs Luda and Jayz, I know very little about rap.

So far I have very little:

Kayne West - Gold Digger
Nas - Hip Hop is Dead
Lil Scrappy - Gansta, Gansta

DaveWadding

T.I. - Goodlife, Rubber Band Man, 24s, What You Know
Nelly - Country Grammar
Slim Thug - I Ain't Heard of That (feat. Jay-Z)
Kanye West - Touch the Sky
Talib Kweli - Get By, Listen
Nas - One Mic


just off the top of my head.

The Bus

The Roots, "The Seed 2.0"

mkdevo

Jurassic 5 - A Day At The Races

dadaluholla

Wamp Wamp (What It Do) by Clipse

Gigantopithecus

Cannibal Ox - Iron Galaxy

Randy Miller III

Ben Folds - "Bitches Ain't Shit"

auto

Damn Bus...you reading my mind here?!?

That's an instant mixtape song. The last Roots album was really good as well IMO.

tofu

Talib Kweli - Expansion Outro
Kanye West - Spaceship
Nas - One Mic
DangerDoom - El Chupa Nibre

Gigantopithecus

heres the Cannibal ox song if youre into weirdness. you get a Ghost in the Shell reference right off the bat.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/etc1ft

Iron Galaxy

RyoHazuki

R.a.g.u

nodeerforamonth

Does "Hey Ya" count?

Quake1028

Eminem/D12 - How Come
Aesop Rock - Daylight
Aesop Rock - No Regrets
Aesop Rock - Shovel
Aesop Rock - Flashflood
Beastie Boys - Oh Word?
Bubba Sparxxx - Ms. New Booty
Clipse - Ain't Cha
Eminem - Square Dance
Eminem - Soldier
Eminem - When the Music Stops
Eminem - 'Till I Collapse
Eminem - The Way I Am
Eminem - My 1st Single
Ghostface Killah - Ghost is Back
NaS - Mastermind
NaS - Dance

thismeansyou

awesome sauce. I also enjoy the more mainstream 'Back Like That' off that album.

The single best answer to the question, though, is of course Jaylib - The Red.

The Bus

Sure.

Damn, it's been four years since that album.

Got another one to add:

Fabolous, "Breathe"

TheGodfather

Honestly, I don't think there are any. IMO, hip hop has been so forgettable these last few years. A few of the songs mentioned were from 6 years ago as well. Not to nitpick, but I'm just sayin' I personally think 2001 was the last overall good year for the genre.

Hip hop needs a hero.

jigga6286

Lil Wayne - Shooter, Hustla Muzik, I'm a Dboy
TI - Ride With Me, Front Back, ASAP
The Game - Let's Ride, One Blood, California Vacation

I think these guys' last efforts have been 3 of the better albums of the past couple years

boredsilly

Lupe Fiasco - Kick Push.
K-Os - B Boy Stance
Ghostface - Run
Will Smith - Holy Roller (go ahead, clown me)
Busta - NY Shit
De La Soul - Church
Slum Village - 1,2

Arpeggi

Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell- Drop It Like It's Hot
Kanye West featuring Mos Def and Freeway- Two Words

The Bus

The Bus

Not a fan of any Doom?

Quake1028

Any person who says that just isn't looking hard enough, IMO. There has been plenty of worthy hip hop to come out this decade. Start with Aesop Rock, Sage Francis, MF DOOM/Viktor Vaught/DANGERDOOM, etc., NaS, Ghostface and go from there.

TheGodfather

Not a "Smooth Operator" among them. Or a "Passin' Me By", or a "I Get Around", or a "Protect Ya Neck", etc... I don't think 1 song on this list will be known 5 years from now. Except for "Goldigger" and "Drop It Like It's Hot" I'd apply that to this entire thread's songs. IMO this list and others' choices are good club bangers, or radio joints, but I don't see the staying power of yesterday's hip hop anywhere in the past 5 years.

This is coming from a DJ and hip hop fan from day 1 born, bred, and still living in the Bronx - I spin this shit all the time so believe me I'm paying attention. I love Nas, Ghost, Em, and Beasties as artists but those joints don't do it to me like some of their earllier stuff.

I'm not trying to change anyone's opinions, I'm just giving mine.

boredsilly

I do see what you mean, but that is kind of true for any music genre. Newness is kind of gone and the mountain has already been built, so it's almost impossible for new stuff to get added to the mount rushmore of its genre. Does that make a lick of sense?

So I'm not surprised that there aren't many new "classic" songs being made now, but that happens in every genre. So 70's rock rings bells in ways that the shit of today does not, 90's grunge, 80's pop, 60's r&b/pop, 70's soul...etc. Genre's get built and then everything that comes after can't help but seem lesser.

The songs that I fall in love with now are personal classics, but I do agree that none of the hip-hop today makes me feel like the stuff did from 89-95 did and continues to do. But that has as much to do with the time I heard them as it does with the actual music. I doubt if you heard "I get around" today for the first time you would hold it in such high esteem as you or I do. It would be a catchy song, but it wouldn't make you remember the summer of 93'.

Hip-hop has been the soundtrack of my youth, so I can hear certain songs and be taken back to certain events in my life like they're actually happening, y'know? Nothing today can compete with that. In fact "I get around" makes me think of summer camp and this girl I was seriously crushing on and how she and I finally got together on the last day.

About quality though, I will agree that that certain sound I really love is gone. There is definitely good stuff coming out now, but there was a time where the sound seemed tailor made for me. A lot of the "grainy" and "grimmy" is extinct and has been replaced by a very polished sound. And the people that do try and use that early sound, you can tell it's a nostalgia trip and not really...I guess I want to say genuine. Like you can tell MF Doom, as well as creating his own style, is trying to recapture something from an earlier time.

I really don't get Aesop Rock. I think he's a clever lyricist, but his sound really grates on my ears. Maybe I've just listened to the wrong albums, but his stuff doesn't make me want to nod my head and that is essential for hip-hop to me. I do like some of the other Jux artists though.

acubfaninmd

Sage Francis- Makeshift Patriot