Hard to over-state how good this album is.
Need to give his latest release a few more spins too.
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The Best Underground Rappers You Aren't Listening To
- Thread starter rousseau
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Hard to over-state how good this album is.
Need to give his latest release a few more spins too.
Heh.
I was thinking of linking his version of "Halftime". Here it is...
And in any case, if you don't have "Illmatic" by Nas, then...well, go get it!
I don't know if this is a universal thing but Illmatic is one of the few Nas albums I jive with, as well as a couple poppy songs from his late career.
I tried to go through his discography once but got bored pretty quickly.
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Really like this track from Elmatic:
Yeah, Nas fell off pretty fast. I don't go past Illmatic, to be honest. That album was amazing, but after that...well...
Whenever I need a good laugh I throw on Ether. And that last line on Takeover is too good.
As far as the big names go once I realised how good Ready to Die and Life After Death were, I played them to death. I also had to put Reasonable Doubt directly on my phone since Jay-Z didn't put it on Spotify.
In the past couple weeks I seriously checked out Busta Rhymes and was surprised how much I liked the few albums I listened to. For some reason I always just thought of him as a goofy guy.
Ether is one of the best diss tracks of all time. That's the beat that comes to mind when I really go after someone.
s for Busta Rhymes...Well, his first solo album was good. And he was great back with Leaders Of a New School...
But that was decades ago...
Well, Guru used to go to my church, before he moved to Brooklyn. But even I have to say that Preemo was by far the more talented of the two.
Also, get every Gang Starr album. And then watch Luke Cage on Netflix.
PyramidHead
Contributor
I gotta say, I tried them and I can't... stand... Guru. Sanctimonious to the point of absurdity; 90% of his lyrics were literally about how great he is at rapping, but he never gets around to actually rapping about anything other than that. I keep waiting for him to drop this amazing insight and wisdom but instead it's just track after track of self-congratulatory bullshit. I realize that's the modus operandi of a lot of hip-hop MCs, but Guru combined it with the impression that he was some kind of enlightened prophet.
PyramidHead
Contributor
I really like both of Earl Sweatshirt's albums. I gather that his Eminem-ish depressive style of rapping in a way that shows vulnerability and honesty is ridiculously labeled "horrorcore" and lumped together with people rapping about meeting Dracula. Guess I'll have to check out some horrorcore.
ronburgundy
Contributor
They were short lived and 25 years ago, but the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy were a fav of mine at age 20 and IMO are better than the vast majority of hip-hop or rap artists currently out there.
They had little commercial success and mostly only airplay on college radio but had a lot of artistic talent combining hip-hop, sampling, and scratching with jazz and rock. Their lyrics were clever, insightful, and very political, with not one song about "bitches", cop killing, or how rich and awesome they thought they were. While many others in the genre were writing homophobic lyrics, they were writing about homophobic violence.
Famous and Dandy is a great song about both the dehumanizing situation many blacks grow up in, and the often self-destructive reactions many have to cope with it. It seems particularly pointed at many of their fellow rappers (NWA had just hit it big) with a style of bragging about violence, rape, and how well they fit racist stereotypes.
Here's the first and last versus:
What will we do to become famous and dandy?
Just like Amos 'n' Andy
It's quite a spectacle
To see us land in
Waste receptacles
As if we've planned it
We're never skeptical
When we get branded
Then disrespectful
Cause we feel abandoned
The height of mediocrity
Is the challenge
Crawling through the entrails
Of imbalance
We learn to like to be the heroes
We learn to lie to the brand name negroes
We learn to laugh to avoid being angry
We learn to kill and learn to go hungry
We learn not to feel, for protection
And we learn to flaunt when we get an erection
.....[snipped verses]
We never ask ourselves
Too many questions
Too much truth in introspection
Maintain the regimentation
And avoid self-degradation
We act out all the stereotypes
Try to use them as decoy
And we become shining examples
Of the system we set out to destroy
Cause even in the most radical groups
You will find
That when you stray from the doctrine
You'll see hard times
They had little commercial success and mostly only airplay on college radio but had a lot of artistic talent combining hip-hop, sampling, and scratching with jazz and rock. Their lyrics were clever, insightful, and very political, with not one song about "bitches", cop killing, or how rich and awesome they thought they were. While many others in the genre were writing homophobic lyrics, they were writing about homophobic violence.
Famous and Dandy is a great song about both the dehumanizing situation many blacks grow up in, and the often self-destructive reactions many have to cope with it. It seems particularly pointed at many of their fellow rappers (NWA had just hit it big) with a style of bragging about violence, rape, and how well they fit racist stereotypes.
Here's the first and last versus:
What will we do to become famous and dandy?
Just like Amos 'n' Andy
It's quite a spectacle
To see us land in
Waste receptacles
As if we've planned it
We're never skeptical
When we get branded
Then disrespectful
Cause we feel abandoned
The height of mediocrity
Is the challenge
Crawling through the entrails
Of imbalance
We learn to like to be the heroes
We learn to lie to the brand name negroes
We learn to laugh to avoid being angry
We learn to kill and learn to go hungry
We learn not to feel, for protection
And we learn to flaunt when we get an erection
.....[snipped verses]
We never ask ourselves
Too many questions
Too much truth in introspection
Maintain the regimentation
And avoid self-degradation
We act out all the stereotypes
Try to use them as decoy
And we become shining examples
Of the system we set out to destroy
Cause even in the most radical groups
You will find
That when you stray from the doctrine
You'll see hard times
Word. Some of the best rap I've ever heard. I think they gave away their first album for free so everybody might be able to find a link to download it somewhere.
LMAO look up the lyric chart . I'd like to get just the beat because it is pretty mellow. Then the imagery being so intense makes a nice blend. Kinda liked the line about punching bears.
I heard this DJ Shadow song with a Japanese rapper. No a clue what was being rapped but it was still anthemic and perfect rap in my opinion. Japanese language is probably fun to rap in. I'll find the song later. Would be nice to have that lyric chart but it is an older Shadow song so hopes not up on ever knowing what the rapper is saying.
I heard this DJ Shadow song with a Japanese rapper. No a clue what was being rapped but it was still anthemic and perfect rap in my opinion. Japanese language is probably fun to rap in. I'll find the song later. Would be nice to have that lyric chart but it is an older Shadow song so hopes not up on ever knowing what the rapper is saying.
I can't find the Shadow song, sorry. This is the only good rap song I've heard lately, besides this one you just posted. I haven't been searching for rap because I'm having a very Metal/Rock winter.
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2PRuvtkAIk[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2PRuvtkAIk[/YOUTUBE]
I'd be willing to listen to another song like that, Smoker. It is so hard to find stuff on You Tube because the tubes are clogged up with too much music. Oh and the fan editing, good God it is enough to make you want to stop looking. I'm interested in absurdist material but with really serious beats. Oh and A$AP is insanely good. Betrayed my code and listened to gangsta one day. A$AP is impossible not to like. The "Long Live" release... dang that is nice.
Das Racist defines my taste in rap though. No direct instructions on how to cook crack, beat females, steal things, hate cops, etc.
And why is the rap industry fueled by pot? I sold weed before Dr. Dre's Chronic album.. and I kid you not - my sales skyrocketed when everybody started listening to that album. Like, oh it is alright to smoke weed now? Seriously, The Chronic album (though ingenious) was a BIG part of the thinking shift you may have noticed. Coincided with the big wave of LSD. SO much of it. 2001 was a drug odyssey for Dr Dre and little kids all over the Country. Easy E made some funny comments about Dre's obsession with drugs. Dre is such a tool. Eminem and The Chronic are the only good things he's produced. Those were flukes. How hard is it to sample an old soul record, smoke a drug and say "hell yeah"? God I hate Dr Dre. Hey... what does "fuck your heel spurs nigga" mean? Someone said that to me when I was commenting on a Dre video. Perplexing.
Das Racist defines my taste in rap though. No direct instructions on how to cook crack, beat females, steal things, hate cops, etc.
And why is the rap industry fueled by pot? I sold weed before Dr. Dre's Chronic album.. and I kid you not - my sales skyrocketed when everybody started listening to that album. Like, oh it is alright to smoke weed now? Seriously, The Chronic album (though ingenious) was a BIG part of the thinking shift you may have noticed. Coincided with the big wave of LSD. SO much of it. 2001 was a drug odyssey for Dr Dre and little kids all over the Country. Easy E made some funny comments about Dre's obsession with drugs. Dre is such a tool. Eminem and The Chronic are the only good things he's produced. Those were flukes. How hard is it to sample an old soul record, smoke a drug and say "hell yeah"? God I hate Dr Dre. Hey... what does "fuck your heel spurs nigga" mean? Someone said that to me when I was commenting on a Dre video. Perplexing.
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IaIQTLvHpY[/YOUTUBE]
thx smoker. Kool A.D put new one out. Missed it early this month. Not too bad this time. Less experimental and a little heavier. Still absurd enough. Digging it.
thx smoker. Kool A.D put new one out. Missed it early this month. Not too bad this time. Less experimental and a little heavier. Still absurd enough. Digging it.