Have at her boys !

I think I need to check this out, as so many people have put it on the end of year lists. And given that I don’t actually follow any hip hop artists, pages, or groups on FB, it’s actually impressive how often this album has turned up. In fact, I think every time I have seen it recommended, it has been by metal bands, artists, pages and groups!

Any suggestions for any particular track to start with?

I often like rap music best when it goes a bit beyond the mainstream of hiphop, for instance with regards to musical and lyrical experimentation, or if it is coloured by other types of music (I often feel the same way about jazz by the way). I have already posted the Malk de Koijn track in another discussion, and I don't know if it is the favourite track of mine, but it is clearly one of them (the lyrics are actually very elaborate and "far out", and they are almost impossible to translate).

Some time ago, someone on Progarchives mentioned the Chilean band Como Assassinar a Felipes who blend rap with many other genres, including progressive rock (!). I have listened to some of their stuff afterwards, and they are definitely worth checking out.

Another rap track I once stumbled across. It is from (North) Macedonia, and since it is in the local language, I don't understand a word of it (well, except words like 'grammofon', 'mikrofon', 'rap', 'funk' or 'jazz'). But I like the musical flow of it a lot, so this time it is not really about the lyrics, at least not for me:

I think my favourite hip hop album of 2020 is from Moses Boyd, who I came to via the wonderful Nubya Garcia - one of the stars of London nu-jazz.

https://mosesboyd.bandcamp.com/album/dark-matter-2" rel="nofollow - https://mosesboyd.bandcamp.com/album/dark-matter-2

I seem to be one of few who favour this to Nubya’s own 2020 release, which has graced an incredible number of end-of-year lists, and rightfully so. I love it myself, too. But somehow Moses Boyd spoke more to me.

https://nubyagarcia.bandcamp.com/album/source" rel="nofollow - https://nubyagarcia.bandcamp.com/album/source

And my favourite live album of 2020 also has a wonderful hip hop jazz flavour.

https://avantdalebowlingclub.bandcamp.com/album/avantdale-bowling-club-live" rel="nofollow - https://avantdalebowlingclub.bandcamp.com/album/avantdale-bowling-club-live

I don’t always like my hip hop with jazz, but 2020 seems to have been a great year for it. Another two that fit this bill would be Leron Thomas’s two albums (one under his own name, and the other under his Pan Amsterdam alias).

I admit that I was completely ignorant of Leron Thomas before he became Iggy Pop’s bandleader, but he made Free into almost the equivalent of Bowie’s Blackstar, and just as Bowie introduced me to Donny McCaslin, so Pop has now introduced me to Thomas.

I'm not nearly as deeply knowledgeable on hip hop like I am with other genres, so my favorites tend to be some of the more standard stuff like Kendrick, Kanye, Tyler the Creator, Outkast, MF DOOM. However, it's an easy pick but nothing gets me more amped up then:

Honorable mention:

Yeah, the two are pretty close in quality and enjoyment for me, but where Nubya Garcia seems to edge out Moses Boyd for most people (including you), there’s just something about the latter that puts it just above the former for me. There’s really not much in it, though.

As for The Comet Is Coming or Sons of Kemet, anything that includes Shabaka Hutchings is likely to float my boat. It stands to reason, then, that this year’s Shabaka & The Ancestors album was another favourite of mine.

My favourite jazz albums from 2020, though, have been in near constant flux. On 20 December, according to what I posted on Facebook, my fifteen favourites were (in alphabetical order only):

Nubya Garcia is notable for her absence, and as of today, she would be in and Aadal would be out. But like any list, it is kind of arbitrary, and depends on my mood at any one moment. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Your honourable mention is not playable for me, so I am unable to see who it is. Can you please tell me, so I can find another way of listening to the track?

I doubt any of us are as deeply knowledgeable on hip hop as we are with other genres. (Hence why I would never try to school anyone, but that’s for another post.... 😜) But you don’t need to be knowledgeable to appreciate it. It stands to reason, also, that because we’re not so knowledgeable we probably tend towards stuff like Kendrick, etc. I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.

https://thefolsomproject.bandcamp.com/album/the-wolf-and-the-skull" rel="nofollow - https://thefolsomproject.bandcamp.com/album/the-wolf-and-the-skull

If you like jazz, it’s worth checking them out. If you don’t, then I wouldn’t bother.

You might enjoy The Folsom Project, though. Vocals are not solely rap, and the rapped vocals are relatively pleasant sounding - at least as pleasant as it is possible to sound within a dystopian soundscape a la Ulver’s Perdition City.... 🤪

Money Trees by Kendrick Lamar is the other one. That's what I say, if people just like whatever is popular or whats deemed as the classics of a genre, that's ay-ok with me. Because these albums got that status for a reason. I also love classic east coast hip hop, Nas, Wu Tang Clan, Big L

This is my all time favourite hip hop song, which just happens to be from all my all time favourite hip hop artist, King Kapisi. I’ve seen him live, and he puts on a fantastic show.

This was actually the song that got me into hip hop. Before this. I was one of the closed-minded people who would make arrogant statements about liking all styles of music, so long as it isn’t that rap crap. It was King Kapisi who changed my mind, and opened my ears to Aotearoa hip hop. I still wasn’t a great fan of much hip hop outside New Zealand, but I guess this song was a sort of gateway drug for me in the same way Opeth’s Ghost Reveries opened my ears to the extreme metal I’d always avoided because I hated Cookie Monster vocals.

Sometimes it take only one song, to completely change one’s mindset. Such is the power of music. 🥰

"Don't be no fool

Stay in school..."

I wonder if anyone actually stayed en school and stopped taking drugs because of this song?

I'll check out your reco's, don't want to take over the Rap thread with Jazz discussion so started another thread here

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=125012&PID=5842216#5842216" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=125012&PID=5842216#5842216

Not offensive at all....!! . But then again at the time what was??

Featured in the movie Krush Groove.

Upper Hutt Posse were incredibly important in New Zealand’s hip history - quite possibly the most important Aotearoa hip hop band! Since their inception, UHP made a point fighting racial injustice through their music. That first rap song I ever heard in 1988 was also New Zealand's first ever rap record, which is probably why it was accorded at screen time at all - as a novelty more than anything else. Of course, UHP were no novelty, and left a lasting legacy in Aotearoa.