Its a genre i'm kind of rediscovering... really LOVING the new Kanye West, and enjoying Common too...

Any recommendations?

Madvillain: Madvillainy

Very little is good in rap anymore.

I'll agree on that Madvillain and also Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain.
Edan is great too.

Track down some Escape Artists material too. Their EA3 album is mind numbingly sweet.

Liquid Swords- GZA

Only Built 4 Cuban Lynx- Raekwon

Low End Theory- Tribe Called Quest

Enter the 36 Chambers- Wu Tang Clan

Deltron 3030- Del the Funky Homosapien

The Chronic- Dr. Dre

The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological, and Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human- Jedi Mind Tricks

Wu-Tang Forever- Wu Tang Clan

Vaudville Villian- MF Doom

Check out LA Symphony
http://www.lasymphony.com/

i prefer rap without skits. the only exception being outkast and the fugees, for obvious reasosn.

stuff i'm really into: deltron 3030, dr. octagon, a tribe called quest, the roots, snoop (90's), dr. dre (90's), and the beastie boys.

Eazy "muthafukin" E 4 life homie

The new Quasimoto

strong agreement

Well, actually there is plenty of rap that is good, but one simply has to dig deeper than just what is on the radio anymore since all they have is crunk crap.

I've heard good things about Madvillian, but never actually heard him so I'll hit him up.

Some groups and artists I would recommend are:

Jay-Z (all of his stuff is excellent. It's great to see how he progresses from one album to the next.)
Kanye West (all)
Talib Kweli (simply a must. His Quality and Beautiful Strugle CDs are some of the, if not the, best rap I have ever heard)
Mos Def (The New Danger from him is simply phenomenal. I like how tried to emphasize how rock originally came from African-Americans. Very good album).
Eminem (Good stuff, but his last album was kind of mediocre at best)
Common or as I still like to call him Common Sense (excellent artist.)
Black Star (When the worlds of Mos Def and Talib Kweli collide, only good things can happen)
The Roots (great group)
Gorrillaz
Handsom Boy Modelling School (great fun rap with depth to it)
Atmosphere (have only recently been getting into him. Some pretty good stuff with great rhymes)
Jurrasic 5
Jedi Mind Tricks

In addition to everything posted here already:

Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth
Aesop Rock - Labor Day
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow
Blackalicious - NIA
Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
Common - Like Water For Chocolate
Common - One Day It'll All Make Sense
Common - Resurrection
Danger Mouse & Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
Emanon - The Waiting Room
Five Deez - Kinkynasti
Five Deez - Koolmotor
Gang Starr - Daily Operation
Guru's Jazzmatazz series
Hieroglyphics - Third Eye Vision
Jaylib - Champion Sound
K-OS - Exit
K-OS - Joyful Rebellion
Little Brother - The Listening
Lootpack - Soundpieces! Da Antidote
MF Doom - Operation Doomsday (if you can find it anywhere)
MF Doom - Mmm Food
Mr. Lif - I, Phantom
Murs - Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition
Nas - God's Son
Nas - Illmatic
Nas - Stillmatic
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - Mecca and the Soul Brother
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - The Main Ingredient
Quasimoto - The Further Adventures of Lord Quas
Quasimoto - The Unseen
The Foreign Exchange - Connected
The Gift of Gab - 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up

blackalicous has a new album coming out

next tuesday i would go pick up Kanye (if you don't have it already), Blackalicious - the Craft, and Little Brother - The Minstrel Show.

gooood stuff!

anything before 1993

I wasn't aware of a new Little Brother album coming out other than the recent Chitlin Circuit 1.5, which was released a few months ago. I'll definitely be picking it up now that I know about it.

Excellent list
Also check out

Souls of Mischief-93 Till Infinity
Redman - There iz a Darkside
Lords Of The Underground- Here Come the Lords
Camp Lo- Uptown Saturday Night

Oh i didn't know we were going to go as far back as "Fear of a Black Planet". Definitely get that if you don't have it. Along with "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back".

Also:
COMPANY FLOW - Funcrusher Plus
EL-P - Fantastic Damage
DR. OCTAGON - Dr. Octagonecologyst
FUNKDOOBIEST - Which Doobie U B?
CYPRESS HILL - 1st album
GETO BOYS - Til Death Do Us Part
DJ SHADOW - Endroducing
BEASTIE BOYS - Paul's Boutique
JERU THE DAMAJA - The Sun Rises in the East
ICE CUBE - Death Certificate
etc
etc
etc

Glad to see there's almost no threadcrapping going on in this thread!

There's a lot of rap, but there's not a lot of good rap.

I'd recommend:

A Tribe Called Quest (anything)
Basehead - Plays With Toys
Black Moon - Enta da Stage
Cannibal Ox - Cold Vein
Count Bass-D - Pre-Life Crisis
Del tha Funkee Homosapien - I Wish My Brother George Was Here
Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030
Dizee Rascal (any)
DMX - It's Dark and Hell is Hot / Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood
El-P - Fantastic Damage (the inspiration for my business name)
Eirc B. and Rakim - Don't Sweat the Technique
Fugees - The Score
Gang Starr - Full Clip (best of)
Haiku d'Etat - Haiku d'Etat
Jay-Z - Volume II / Volume III / Blueprint Vol. 1 & 2 / Black Album
Jedi Mind Tricks - The Psycho Social...
Jurassic 5 (any)
Kanye West (any)
K-Os - Joyfull Rebellion
MC Paul Barman (any)
Madvillain - Madvillainy
m-flo - Planet Shining (Japanese rap)
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
Mr. Lif - I Phantom
Nas (any except Nastradamus)
Nate Dogg - Music & Me
Notorious B.I.G. (any, especially the bootleg of him & Sinatra mixed)
Outkast (any)
Patrice - How Do You Call It? (more soul/reggae)
Pharaoheh Monch - Internal Affairs
The Beatnuts - A Musical Massacre
The Roots (any)
Ugly Duckling (any)

And then the one that needs it's own section, Wu-Tang. The rule with Wu-Tang is that anything up to 1997 is guaranteed to be good. Here's a short list of my favorites:

Genius/GZA - Liquid Swords
Ghostface Killah - Ironman ("Daytona 500" is an excellent excellent song)
Method Man - Tical
Method Man - Tical 2000
Ol Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers
Ol Dirty Bastard - Ni**a Please
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
RZA - Ghost Dog OST (only the Japan import has his music)
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang
Wu-Tang Clan - Wu Tang Forever
Wu-Tang Clan - The W

Other albums have gotten really good reviews (Ghost's The Pretty Toney Album) but I haven't heard them yet.


There's a lot (obvious and not obvious) that I am missing, but I will leave it at that.

MC Paul Barman. Good call! Although I have to say I liked the It's Very Stimulating Ep better than that full length follow up.

I also rap and have released many cds, so buy my stuff too.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...ight=live+iraq

Don't forget the legends of rap as follow:
Run-Dmc, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick,Eric.b and Rakim,Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions,EPMD,Gang Starr,Doug.E.Fresh and get fresh crew (when slick was there)
Biz markie.
And by the way here is track to look for the rap is: JAZ (hawaiian sophie),with guest jay zee that right the one and the same he was like 17 or 18 at the time (1989).
Yes i'm old-school.

BLACK SHEEP - A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
LEADERS OF THE NEW SCHOOL - Future Without A Past
MAIN SOURCE - Breaking Atoms
3RD BASS - DERELICTS OF DIALECT

I went to a Common/De La Soul concert about a month ago, and Dres from Black Sheep came out during De La's set and did "The Choice is Yours". It blew me away because I had completely forgotten that I listened to this album practically EVERY day for an entire school year back in college.

edit to echo the other nominations cuz they are here in Ann Arbor tonight: Little Brother - the Minstrel Show. in stores on Tuesday. Dope. Pick up their older stuff, too.

Don't think anybody has mentione 2pac...can't get much better than that. And I would agree with the Nas, Gang Starr, A Tribe Called Quest, Snoop (first cd only), and Method Man recommendations. I'll have to take a look at my collection and see what else I have.