"I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie" - The Hip Hop Thread

[WestwayKid]

I love hip hop. Who else out there loves (or at least likes hip hop)? The first record that ever felt dangerous to me was License to Ill. They had a vinyl copy at the local library and I checked it out, took it home and made a copy on the sly. It felt like something I should keep from my parents (who actually probably would have been fine with it). That record was my gateway into the World of Hip Hop: Run-D.M.C., Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Brand Nubian. When I started getting into groups like the Clash a few years later, it was cool to hear how much they too appeared to love hip hop.

I love the music, how they start with a good beat and then build off that: layers of instruments and samples. It becomes hypnotic to listen to. I love the flow of a good MC, the way their voice weaves in and out and around the beats. I especially love groups that have more than one MC, like Tribe, where the interplay between Q-Tip and Phife was almost telepathic - trading lines and rhymes and playing off one another.

Top-15 Greatest Hip Hop Groups (in my opinion)

1) Wu-Tang Clan (actually not my fave, but the greatest none-the-less)
2) A Tribe Called Quest
3) Run-D.M.C.
4) N.W.A.
5) The Roots
6) De La Soul
7) Public Enemy
8) Beastie Boys
9) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
10) Geto Boys
11) Three 6 Mafia
12) Brand Nubian
13) Cypress Hill
14) Fugees
15) The LOX

[oliver]

My top few would be
1) Public Enemy (especially the first 3 albums)
2) Ice-T
3) Ice Cube
4) Beastie Boys
5) Kool Keith
6) Eric B and Rakim
7) EPMD
8) BDP

Some of the early 90s lyrics can be, shall we say, problematic but I can compartmentalize it.

There's something very hypnotic about a repeated loop over a sparse drum beat

[WestwayKid]

My top 5 would be
1) Public Enemy (especially the first 3 albums)
2) Ice-T
3) Ice Cube
4) Beastie Boys
5) Kool Keith

Some of the early 90s lyrics can be, shall we say, problematic but I can compartmentalize it.

I agree with that for sure.

[motorsmell]

1. Wu Tang + it's splinter groups and solo projects, Czarface is one of the best regularly releasing Hip-hop records today!
2. Nas
3.Ganstar
4.NWA
5.Public enemy
6.Roots Manuva (Often forgotten about British legend)
7.Run the Jewels

Plenty of others to add but they are on regular rotation on the turntable...My Wu tang collection is on par with my my clash if not bigger....

Wu Tang is for the children!
I highly recommend the 4 part Wu Tang documentary called of Mics and Men. Think it's on Sky Arts and of course Blu ray

[matedog]

I'm not as much of a hip hop guy as I wish I was. The genre is just so vital and evolving relative to rock now, that I'm missing out on terrific art. I got into the usual late 80s/early 90s stuff that early middle age white guys love, so yeah, 88-93 Ice Cube, Tribe, BDP, NWA, Naughty By Nature, Outkast, Run the Jewels are all on my list.

That being said, Kendrick Lamar is just light years ahead of anything else as far as I'm concerned. He makes all of those groups seem so so dated (as they are). Same for Kanye, specifically Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Yeezus, though I'm obviously on indefinite hiatus from Kanye. Travis Scott and 21 Savage are doing some crazy stuff within the trap subgenre which is still something that is intriguing but foreign and difficult for me to really penetrate.

Also, not sure why these really trashy songs appeal to me, but I can't help but like them:

[WestwayKid]

I'm not as much of a hip hop guy as I wish I was. The genre is just so vital and evolving relative to rock now, that I'm missing out on terrific art. I got into the usual late 80s/early 90s stuff that early middle age white guys love, so yeah, 88-93 Ice Cube, Tribe, BDP, NWA, Naughty By Nature, Outkast, Run the Jewels are all on my list.

That being said, Kendrick Lamar is just light years ahead of anything else as far as I'm concerned. He makes all of those groups seem so so dated (as they are). Same for Kanye, specifically Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Yeezus, though I'm obviously on indefinite hiatus from Kanye. Travis Scott and 21 Savage are doing some crazy stuff within the trap subgenre which is still something that is intriguing but foreign and difficult for me to really penetrate.

Also, not sure why these really trashy songs appeal to me, but I can't help but like them:

I saw Kendrick Lamar at an outdoor show in Chicago maybe 10 years ago and they had this older white dude doing sign language off to the side and it was crazy to watch this dude trying to keep up!!

[matedog]

I saw Kendrick Lamar at an outdoor show in Chicago maybe 10 years ago and they had this older white dude doing sign language off to the side and it was crazy to watch this dude trying to keep up!!

That's wild! Just found this awesome clip:

[revbob]

Public Enemy
KRS-1
Ice-T
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
Michael Franti's early post DHoH before he turned into Dave Matthews is good too.
Dead Prez.
Salt n Peppa
Early Queen Latifah
MC Lyte

Dont much care for the flow of a lot of the newer stuff.

[matedog]

God damn this performance is brilliant. First part is a little slow, but keep with it.

[Flex]

Kendrick Lamar is great. I like pretty much everything that's been listed so far. I spent a lot of my youth not into much hip-hop outside of PE, Run-DMC, Cypress Hill, etc. simply due to how much it had been embraced by the affluent white jock shitheads (and so forth) I went to school with. Took me a while to circle back and gain an appreciation for post-80s hip-hop and rap. I'll admit, a lot of the newest stuff doesn't do much for me. I've speculated that it might be the influence of trap, which I don't really care for, on the genre. It's become very ubiquitous, especially with some of the biggest names going. Stuff like Kendrick doesn't have as much of that and I like it a lot more.

Let me toss out Guru (of Gang Starr)'s Jazzmatazz albums. Love 'em. Especially that first one.

[gkbill]

Hello,

Public Enemy was really important at their peak. They called out white as well as black racists. The public (well, mostly white public) was really caught by their confrontational approach (imitated by many, duplicated by none). Run-DMC still shines despite sounded aged.

I'm an East Coaster/New Yorker so my bias shows. I saw Kurtis Blow open for the Clash on the pier in NYC so I'm old school as well. I try to keep up but it's difficult.

As far as I am aware, Public Enemy was the first to have a ASL interpreter on tour. The woman is dancing while she signs!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sEBOCkHCW70

[JennyB]

Mine are pretty much stuck in the 80s/90s

1. Public Enemy
2. Beastie Boys
3. Eric B and Rakim
4. A Tribe Called Quest
5. Run DMC
6. LL Cool J
7. N.W.A.
8. Salt n Pepa
9. De La Soul
10. Notorious B.I.G.

ETA: Oh, jeez, I forgot Outkast.

[oliver]

Kendrick Lamar is great.

I tried to like To Pimp a Butterfly but couldn't get into it. King Kunta is probably my favourite rap song of the last 10 years though.

[WestwayKid]

We visited the Universal Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx last September. Really cool place, lots to see and do. They're in the process of building a bigger, permanent museum across the street and I think we'll make it a priority to get back and check it out then. Being in NYC it had a definite East Coast vibe to it, with West Coast not getting as much visibility.

[Kimmelweck]

1) DJ Hollywood