I was reading the tread about how rap/hip hop nowadays is no good and many have said that there is good stuff but it's not played on the radio/MTV (this is true for most music genres)


So list the good stuff here.


My choices of good recent hip hop:

Aesop Rock
Jean Grae (great Female rapper)
Cannibal Ox
Dizzee Rascal (Still not sure how I feel about this one yet)
Company Flow (El-p)
Prefuse 73
Anticon (alot of artists on this label are good)
RJD2



That's all I can think of right now but I would be interested to see some other lists to possibly discover some other cool stuff.

J-Live has been on the top of my list for quite some time. Excellent MC.

The whole LA Symphony crew (Pigeon John, Flynn, Sharlock Poems, Joey the Jerk, etc.)

Murs (last album was great)

Skillz (formerly Mad Skillz, "your favorite rapper's favorite rapper")

Apathy

Lex Records is on *fire* right now: Non Prophets, Diverse, Danger Mouse + Jemini.

Blackalicious
Sole
El-P
Cannibal Ox

Mike Ladd is an especially interesting character to me. He has two significant albums under his belt -Infesticons' Gun Hill Road & Majesticons' Beauty Party (the latter is especially great)- that use the same emcee's to wage album long "wars" against each other. The Infesticons are the underground protectors and the Majesticons are the top 40 yuppies, and both try to gain control of hip-hop. That it is the same group of people knocking down themselves in different personas makes for post-modern laughs, but it is also satirically genius.

I am not afraid to say it, I am in love w/ Cameron!

Get Em Girls!

Vontel (not current, but great AZ hip hop - along with Mr. Iroc and Bookie)
Atmosphere
Jayo Felony (real gangsta)
Chino XL (none spits like Chino)
Onyx (their older stuff is better tho)
Slick Rick's last album was great and I'm waiting still for his next one to drop.

And if I want to shake my ass, I'll admit, I gotta have Nate Dogg.

But like I said in an earlier thread, a great move for hip hop would be to incorporate more string quartets and perhaps snippets of opera. Think of it as a mix of papperazzi and Carlo Buti. Now that would be dope.

By the way, I have to also agree with Prefuse 73: someone who is trying to be unique and add extra flava.

Badmeaninggood series

Completely agree he is my second favorite mc, a close, close second to Mos Def. J-live is the ultimate "emcee" IMO, the most impressive vocab of any rapper I have heard with flow, rhyme style, and rap concepts to match. "Them thats not" is the perfect example of this."
Agree with all these as well, I really think Skillz will blow up soon, I can see mainstream appeal in his rhymes.

Other good hip hop
The Roots
Cunninlyguists (best album of 03 IMO, listen to "Seasons")
Jean Grae (great female emcee)
Gza (my favorite Wu Tang member)
Any beat by Premier is hot (the recent Pitch Black "Its all Real" comes to mind)
Masta Ace
Zion I

I was hooked on J-Live ever since I heard "Bragging Writes" on a mix CD. It totally blew me away. And I love his verse on "The Truth" on the Handsome Boy Modeling School CD (guess mainly because it is all law-themed and I'm in law school).

Apathy is now signed to Atlantic, so hopefully he should be getting pushed into the mainstream shortly.

Skillz's MCA/Rawkus CD, I Ain't Mad No More, has been delayed for quite some time. I met him when the Sprite tour rolled into Columbus over the summer and bought a copy directly from him. It's quite good, but I remember HipHopSite.com saying that the officially-released version would be different (the self-release was offered for sale there for a while). Even better CD, though, is Got Skillz???: The Neptunes Collection Vol. 1. It has him rapping over Neptunes beats (some old, some new) and is excellent. Hunt it down if you can.

fender69,

If you kinda dig dizzee rascal, u must check out The Streets' OPM, that cd is awesome, every single cut is hot!

Oh and to everyone mentioning skillz, this the same cat that did rapup 03 ? Saw him live on the Sprite Liquid Mix tour, and he was ripped it up.

May I point you in the direction of Danger Mouse + Jemini's songs "Ghetto Pop Life Intro" and "Ghetto Pop Life?" This is exactly what they do. "Trylogy" by Kurupt has a similar approach -- the song even begins with the sound of a tuning orchestra. Andre Nikatina's "Bakin' Soda in Minnesota" also has a violin part, but I wouldn't call that "orchestral." It sounds like one bar in a Stravinsky piece, or something.

But definitely look for DM + Jemini's 2003 album Ghetto Pop Life.

Thanks. Much appreciated. I will check em out soon. Would these be available from hiphopsite.com? (I think that's what it's called)

Certainly is. Look for it in CDs under Danger Mouse / Jemini the Gifted One. They have it for $15.99, but Amazon has it for $14.99 (or $28.98 if you buy it with Lyrics Born's Later That Day, another monsterous album).

Next time I deserve a treat I'll pick it up. Thanks.

I bought this album a few days ago.
At first I thought is was funny (and not in a good way) but now i can't stop listing to the damn album. I LOVE IT.

ThanKs zerotl

I've been listening to Grits Grammatical Revolution for the past couple of months. Interesting cross between old-school hip-hop and southern scene rap. Think OutKast meets Run DMC with some good melodies.

All of Def Jux .

I highly suggest Kanye West, he just released his debut album, College Dropout. Excellent, excellent album.

I agree, its fabulous.

And Camron, you heard all his new mixtape stuff SnoopDogg? Pure comedy.

You mean the last one w/ Diamonds and Pearls, and Seaseme Street song? Great Mixtape, I think it is Dipset Vol. 5.

Yeah, and Killa Cam:
Ice like Winnipeg/Gemstones, Flintstones/You could say I'm friends with Fred

Swollen members

Non-Prophets

Kool Keith
Deltron 3030
El-P
Cannibal Ox

Couldn't agree more!! Excellent Album.