[plonter]

I like coolio!  

 just kidding..I don't listen to rap but i don't hate it either.   so far,the best rap album i heard was "the score" by the fugees.

 

[suzthecool21]

I've been a lover of Hip hop for a long time, and lately there are no good rappers out there besides my friendly underground hip hoppers. Murs, Slug, the group Glue, Cunninlyguist are fabulous.
I'd check those people out, and also some not so famous -band, firstandmostiloveyou.com and the billy goats.
 
Thanks

 

[Stn.]

Quote:

I've been a lover of Hip hop for a long time, and lately there are no good rappers out there besides my friendly underground hip hoppers. Murs, Slug, the group Glue, Cunninlyguist are fabulous.
I'd check those people out, and also some not so famous -band, firstandmostiloveyou.com and the billy goats.
 
Thanks
 

You can't be more wrong. There is at least 3 albums a week released that are quality. Only the hip hop eliteists who can't stand anything with modern production claim hip hop is dead. www.ughh.com . Visit it more often.
 
Last 3 Albums For Me
- Awon & Kameleon Beats - Love Supersedes EP
- Input & Dope Fiction - Lessons Learned
- K-Dot-Oh-Dot - Monsters
 
My 2 favorite releases this year so far are Nas & Damian Marley - As We Enter and yU - Before Taxes.

 

[Rockford]

"Underground only" hip-hop heads are almost always elitist idiots, personally a good 75% of my hip-hop collection is underground but i know how stupid it is to make idiotic claims. To say that the underground is all that is still good is silly, and hilariously enough MANY of the underground(independent) artists are on independent labels, which 90% of the time are owned by the big boys.

 

[Blu.]

On average artists blame it on the corporation taking away their artistic freedom but in all honesty I think it's the failure of the artists to experiment with what they're producing out of fear of losing their fans or something grander in the schemes of this world-material gain. Underground Hiphop financiados are elitists but so what...this website itself is an elitist by product.
 
Okay umm time to drop more knowledge 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An5_TOhtKuE&feature=related
This album was dope cop it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUEDZ7HMYPc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIbzxXGpzVw&feature=related
This album was amazing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bqHp3TNl2Q&feature=related
Good stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbWtGRWkFCo&feature=related
Dope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guNYWjFCmu4
Up and Comer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BffumeEaYOI&feature=related
Really nice lyricist. The wordplay is just ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t29aiSwZw6c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG_wOMSKlTc&feature=related
 
I'm not going to lie, mainstream is awesome too. Live your life by T.I was great so was Kid Cudi with Day and Nite and Pursuit of Happiness. Nas, Common, Eminem, Ludacris, Ice Cube and to some extent Jay-z have always been the breadwinners of this genre. No shame in listening to mainstream, as long as it's not nickleback or lil wayne. I'm actually glad Eminem is the face of hiphop, it's better than having Drake or Weezy. Some new mainstream cats like Wale and Asher Roth aren't that bad either. 
 
Edit: Going through my vinyls 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u72nMAIJkno

 

[nonname]

jay z??

 

[nonname]

I like jay z

 

[nonname]

I like jay z and fifty cent

 

[racer_x124]

Sage Francis is up and coming? He's a very established name in hip hop.

 

[mayweather]

Okay, I'll just make my assumptions. The best rappers RIGHT NOW are
 
1. Beanie Sigel

2. Saigon

3. Chamillionaire

4. Ice Cube

5. Scarface

 
They're all active right now (even Scarface coming back out of retirement to drop his first mixtape soon) and the songs aren't too old.
 
Alongside that, I thought this was a very nice song that came out like a month ago.

 

[Surreal.]

Aw man, come on. I wouldn't put any of those guys in the top 5. It is who you think deserves it though.
 
I will cosign on the Reflection Eternal mention though. The RE:Union mixtape was one of the best mixtapes this year. That 'Just Begun' track was insane. And their album is just as good.
 
 Thinking of new albums, I still need to give Distant Relatives a listen. Anyone go through this yet? I'm sure it's good, right?

 

[mayweather]

Quote:

Aw man, come on. I wouldn't put any of those guys in the top 5. It is who you think deserves it though.
 
I will cosign on the Reflection Eternal mention though. The RE:Union mixtape was one of the best mixtapes this year. That 'Just Begun' track was insane. And their album is just as good.
 
 Thinking of new albums, I still need to give Distant Relatives a listen. Anyone go through this yet? I'm sure it's good, right?

Well I did say it was my assumptions (meaning not the official top 5, if there is even such a thing??). Well 2Pac favorite rappers were Ice Cube & Scarface in his time. So you wouldn't have Ice Cube or Scarface there? Ice Cubes new s*** (Raw Footage) was one of his best albums and Scarface still gave Geto Boys vibes and ain't lost nothing. Saigon/Beanie Sigel/Cham are all new players, they all have very creativite songs, and not creative like a lot of these whack suckers that use creativity just to be creative, these guys use creavity to aid their vision. Their songs extends to a wide variety and they really now how to harness the power of words. If you're basing this off albums, I don't really listen to album, there are always blogs and Itunes where I download singles.
Could you name your favs by the way?
 
I stand tall on the saying Sigel is the best rapper now. No word is excess and they got meanings (on his good songs), I read his lyrics and just think "He couldn't of wrote this s***t in like 10 minutes". He probably took hours or days writing it, altogether well written stuff and it relates to street people like me (ONE of the powers of music is to relate with the song matter/be the voice for peoples that ain't got a voice). He does has his weaknesses, though. For one albums are filled with a lot of subpar songs & I've seen him take very creative approaches to music but he's only dedicated his talents to street music and hasn't breached different concepts straying away from his comfort zone.

 

[mibutenma]

Already mentioned this rapper in the beginning of this thread.
 
But just speaking of Scarface he has said that K-Rino is his personal fav and thinks hes one of the best.

 

[mayweather]

Quote:

Already mentioned this rapper in the beginning of this thread.
 
But just speaking of Scarface he has said that K-Rino is his personal fav and thinks hes one of the best.

Yeah, I know. I was just giving the top 5.
About his fav being K-Rino, my bad. I identify users with avatars instead of names.

 

 

[Surreal.]

Who me? I never said anything about K-Rino
 
Only person I mentioned was Lupe, as the thread asked for best rappers.
 
But I'll throw a few more names out there:
 
(Lupe)
Nas
Common
Kanye
Jay Z
Big Pun
 
 
To me those are the best lyricists that I've heard. 
 
Now there a few newer guys that I enjoy listening to that I wouldn't quite put on a top list but they have really good tracks out there. Just not enough consistency (yet; or overall) to be regarded as a heavy hitter (in my eyes).
 
Such as:
 
Talib
Mos Def
K'Naan
Wale
J Cole
Mickey Factz
Q-Tip
etc.
 
You can get a jist of the type of hip-hop I like. 
 
Usually peoples tops consist of rappers that they related to and hung on to and then associated a skill rank based on the narrow category they rotated through. But skill is skill and you can't really disregard it regardless of the "type" of hip-hop you listen to.
 
Give the former list a listen and while you might not like the subject matter or wordplay techniques, you can't discredit their talent.