Tone Deff
E-Famm
Classified
Quake
Phakt
First Words
Arsonists
Binary Star
Mos Def
Talib Kweli
Common
Gangstarr
Apathy
Non Phixion


Those plus many more are always on my regular rotation.

While I never thought their lyrics were all that great, Balance has hands-down some of the best production of any album.

Another great Canadian* rap album:

<img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41M8FMPEB4L._SS500_.jpg">

This is one of my favorite songs off it:



I'm pretty sure this is not what non-rap fans think of when they think of "rap"...





* Make sure if you reply to this you paste something from Snow. That would be hilarious!

Also great:

<img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6189VHVNE6L._SS400_.jpg" alt="Beatuy and the Beat by Edan">

Immortal Technique, an underground rap artist, has some of the most relevant and powerful lyrics I've arguably ever heard.

He actually has a new cd coming out on June 24th. But find his album "Revolutionary Volume 2" and then come back into this thread.

What happened to rap is that "production" (background music) became more important than rapping. This is apparent from almost any rap CD review written in the last few years.

Aesop Rock
Apathy
Army Of The Pharaohs
Cannibal Ox
Celph Titled
The Demigodz
El-P
Louis Logic
MF DOOM
Mr. Lif
7L & Esoteric

...that's all you need to know.

I didn't read each page but I have a few thoughts...

I grew up in North Jersey and rap is kind of like a way of life for some people. And that is cool...but one has to make a distinction between two very different styles.

Rap, by my definition, is that top 40 crunk bullshit that is plastered all over the radio and MTV.

Hip hop, again by my definition, is not the stuff you find in the mainstream and a lot of the "classics". In fact this from a few posts above is an excellent list:

Tone Deff
E-Famm
Classified
Quake
Phakt
First Words
Arsonists
Binary Star
Mos Def
Talib Kweli
Common
Gangstarr
Apathy
Non Phixion

K-Os is another fantastic artists and Joyful Rebellion is a great place to start.

However there are some rare exceptions to my rules. For instance, Kayne I like...early Dre and Snoop (Doggystyle, what a record!) 36th Chambers Wu Tang, NWA, Rakim (solo material), MF Doom, and a whole slew of others can fall into that category too.

And lastly, there is the instrumental hip-hop (like DJ Shadow, DJ Logic, and a few others) and trip hop (Massive Attack, Portishead, and such) that also deserve some recognition, even though they are technically not rap/hip-hop by definition by use a lot of the same elements to create their sound.