Rap Suggestions to Complete Newb?

 

Kurtis Blow

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

 

 

Biggie, 2Pac. Big Pun, Big L, Easy E, Jam-Master Jay (of RUN DMC)

Liquid Swords (GZA) and Only Built For Cuban Links (Raekwon) are particularly regarded as classics but there's lots of other good ones.

 

Ghostface Killah is probably my favourite. He's actually not the best MC in the group but he has the best ear for beats out of all of them, not having any records like Immobilarity (Raekwon album where his rapping was fine but the album was sunk by rubbish beats) and GK knows a well deployed sample when he sees one:

 

 

This post adds so much to the conversation. I wept. 

 

We been bumping a whole lot of old stuff which I know is easy to do but listening to myself on the hip-hop boards I come off like a grumpy old grandad a lot of the time. But while I honestly maintain that modern mainstream rap is almost all rubbish (Nicki Minaj and Drake? Please, I can out-rhyme them, they're nothing but image) there's still good stuff on the underground and probably always will be so let's try not completely overlook the quality new hip-hop that's still being produced, particularly the music that's not from Chicago, the East Coast, Detroit, Atlanta or the West Coast (or Minnesota, which, perhaps surprisingly, is a huge centre for alternative rap). Here's some tracks from a brand new album I have a good feeling about from North Carolina group Mindsone called Self Reliance:

 

 

 

 

And while I'm here I'll give a shout out to Minnesota's Eyedea a key independent rapper who has just died aged only 28. The reason for his death has not been made public but the guy was a great freestyler and  battler and deserved props so it's a sad loss. Though he was best known for his work with producer Abilities, his best album is the self-produced The Many Faces Of Oliver Hart. Here's some of his cuts. Here For You getting a little proggy...