Who is your favorite Rap / Hip Hop Artist?

[813virgo]

Shawn Carter, Oshay Jackson, and Cordozar Brodaus. Leshane Crooks and Christopher Wallace are also favorites. Also Earl Stevens, Brandt Jones and Todd Shaw from the Bay Area.

Too Short will always be on top.

[stevenb43]

Who cares, I don't understand music that suggest to rape and kill and degrade women......Just what I want to be a drug peddler with a lot of ho's....

[jayevil]

Who cares, I don't understand music that suggest to rape and kill and degrade women......Just what I want to be a drug peddler with a lot of ho's....

sorry but the music isn't all what you hear on the radio and what MTV and BET tells you.

The essence of hip-hop is the artists mentioned in previous posts(and many more, don't wish to bore you with the specifics, so I'll just leave it at them) Most if not all rarely touch those topics you mentioned.

Now if you talk about rap (ie that mainstream bullshit) then maybe you are right.

[Quiet Reflections]

Who cares, I don't understand music that suggest to rape and kill and degrade women......Just what I want to be a drug peddler with a lot of ho's....

Im not generally a fan of Rap music but in any type of music you can find artists that talk about stuff like that, but if you think all music of any genere is like that you are either an idiot or a closed minded idiot. What a terrible generalization! i guess all whites are the devil, blacks are all criminals,and every person that likes TS is Gay.
Doss Cunt!

[mattmattmatt]

Kool Keith? Public Enemy? Brother Ali? Tons of good shit, duders.

[wombat33]

I hate most of all of that kind of "music"

But if I had to pick two that actually made a few good songs.........

LL Cool J
and
The Sugar Hill Gang.


Most pf today's rap/hiphop is really pretty pathetic.

The whole idea of american idol makes me sick.

WHen they have one where the contestants write the music, lyrics, sing the song and play the instruments (like springsteen and dylan).......then I would watch it.

Old Man WOmbat speaks

[Fox]

My favorite changes up from time to time. At the moment I'm really feelin' Wordworth, Mos Def and Gang Starr. Wordsworth needs some new material though. I can't pick just one favorite though, that's like having one girlfriend.

(kidding)

Hm, faves...

Lupe Fiasco
Nas
Talib Kweli
Mos Def
Jay-Z
OutKast
etc...

[hippifried]

Does Cowboy Troy count? What's up with all this niche radio & trying to separate people by "genre" anyway?

Wasn't Bob Dylan's "Subterranian Homesick Blues" a rap song? That was just a takeoff on the beatnik schtick of the '50s. Run DMC's first MTV hit was a remake of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way". It was originally a rap song. Lorne Greene & Walter Brennan both rapped western ballads back in the '60s. Spontaneous poetry has been a big hit all over since Cassius Clay blew onto the scene, & he wasn't even in the music biz. There was an underground rap scene all through the '60s & '70s. Underground rock managed to break out with the advent of FM, but rap was stuck on short wave for another decade. Scared the hell out of the radio station owners.

In the modern era, I've always considered B.I.G., Snoop, & even MnM to a degree to be the most natural in flow. It's kinda like they're talkin' to you across the table. I like Cypress Hill too, & Lighter Shade of Brown. Hiphop is like any other genre. There's a few standouts & a plethora of garbage. Nobody on the radio plays the music I like best, fusion jazz. Maybe if we got rid of all this niche crap, we could get some real mix in our listening.

[EyeCumInPiece]

Tupac, Nas, & Immortal Technique

[ShadowMaster]

UGK
Outkast
Chino XL
Ras Kass
Canibus
8Ball & MJG
Scarface
Project Pat
Three 6 Mafia
Lupe Fiasco
Common
Big Pun
Biggie
2Pac
Little Brother
Nas
GZA
(just too name a few)

A rhyme is only limited by the mind who wrote it. You can rap about anything if you're creative.
Money is ruining the radio in general. If a label believes you can't go multi-platinum then you get no airplay. They've settled for the ringtone slangers with little to no replay value.