Hip Hop/Rap, it can be great!

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   So I know prog might be the exact opposite of Hip Hop, but being a broad music fan, I love it all! I wan't to make this thread to and talk and share some Hip Hop tracks/albums some of you may really be in to and maybe... just possibly change some folks views on the genre. Now, I know for some of you even the utterance of the words "Hip Hop" make your skin crawl, and if that's the case, this thread isn't for you, goodbye! I don't want to hear your Ben Shapiro "Rap isnt music" talking points either. There's gonna be vulgar language, but keep an open mind, it's part of the art.
 Anyways, for some of the open minded folk here, here's a couple songs I love. This first one i'd consider Hip Hop adjacent as its more in the Neo-Soul/Funk, Psychedelic Soul genre while boasting many elements of modern music and hip hop. Gives me Pink Floyd and King Crimson vibes, give it a shot:
Childish Gambino - Me and Your Mama

If you like that, the rest of the album is fantastic as well!

Now this next one is by an artist named Kendrick Lamar, this is the opening track to his 2015 release To Pimp a Butterfly which Rateyourmusic rates as the 8th best album of all time and I cant argue. He has a very unique voice and all around, his ability is just unparalleled to me. It's a very unique and compelling concept album covering a wide variety of different social topics.  He talks about him going back to his old city where he grew up (Compton) after breaking through and experiencing fame with his previous album (which I also love). He relays his experience of feeling out of place and shunned upon his return. However, he also covers a multitude of topics such as racial violence (Police violence, racism, black on black violence, etc). So here is the opening track, I recommend any music fan gives this album a few spins and perhaps even read into it as it's a great piece of music and a sonic treat (with lots of jazz influence as well!)

Kendrick Lamar - Wesley's Theory

This next one is called A BOY IS A GUN - By Tyler the Creator. This is from his 2019 release IGOR and it's one of my favorite albums of the year. The whole thing is covered with beautiful instrumental textures and infectious hooks. I feel bad picking a song from the album, cause it's a great cohesive piece of music that fits comfortably on a single LP (it's usually pretty cheap on amazon too!) A lot of this actually isn't really hip hop as some tracks don't even have rapping as it seamlessly blends that style with neo-soul and R&B etc. This is one of the more Hip Hop-centric tracks

Tyler The Creator - A BOY IS A GUN

Since i've covered exclusively albums from the last decade, here's one from the 2000s. I think Kanye is a pretty annoying and generally bad person now, but he made some genre defining albums in his heyday. This is the opening track to his debut album "the college dropout" and it was one of the first hip hop tracks I really got hooked on. Love this cut:

Kanye West - We Don't Care

Give these songs a shot and let me know what you think!

Edited by dougmcauliffe - October 21 2020 at 18:03