DMX, Jim Jones, Run DMC, Ja Rule, Lil Wayne, Bobby Shmurda,
Fu Schnickens
And for the same reason Warrior mentioned him - Kid Rock! I’m still unsure what all the right reasons are - but that is a great line!
2Pac
Biggie
Lauryn Hill
Snoop Dogg (early music)
Those are my all time faves, I guess. 2Pac was a straight up poet. My mom listened to a lot of Biggie and Lauryn Hill as a kid, but I got into 2Pac on my own.
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I also like(d) Ice Cube, Common, Eminem's early music. Dr Dre gets credit especially for Eminem and Snoop. I don't listen to much new stuff, but Kendrick Lamar seems to be the best rapper of this era. His music is insanely creative and complex.
I remember my when I was a little kid and Eminem was first becoming a thing, my mom was obsessed with him. She was in the kitchen washing the dishes and had some music channel (maybe MTV) playing in the living room. "The Real Slim Shady" comes on and I remember my mom loved it so much, she stopped the dishes and ran into the living room to find out who the artist was. She was floored when she saw it was a white guy. For the next couple weeks she was so fascinated and would tell her friends, "have you heard 'The Real Slim Shady?' I couldn't believe that was a white boy rapping!" and, "You gotta listen to this boy!" and blah blah blah. He hasn't had a song I really liked since like 2010, but he has a few hits that I love enough to almost bump him up to the first tier.
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Kid Rock is a joke, he doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Jay-Z or Nas (who aren't even my faves but are hip-hop royalty), or any of the people I previously mentioned and he gave up rap a while ago anyway. He has become so irrelevant I've met people who actually thought he's been dead for a while.
^ Amen Nina!
2Pac was the best poet. Eminem has the best skillz and his 'dis' is unbeatable. Lauryn Hill was a top notch diva AND rapper. And yeah Kendrick is the best of all the new school. His style and poetry is smooth. Also Ice Cube proved that he was the 'brains' of NWA while Dre was the 'soul' (and Easy E was the 'voice').
"2Pac was the best poet."
Yes, Sirlapdancealot. My current tagline is inspired by his short poem about the rose that grew from concrete.
I think a lot of people have a prejudice towards rappers and think all of the hardcore rappers are worthless thugs. I'm sure very few people knew that before 2Pac was a star, he went to Baltimore School For the Arts and studied poetry, jazz, acting, and even ballet. He was in Shakespeare plays and played the Mouse King in a ballet of The Nutcracker. Like he said, his "mama didn't raise no fool."
He was actually a good actor, too. He co-starred with Tim Roth in Gridlock'd, which got pretty good reviews. He showed a lot of potential as an actor, but the acting career was obviously cut short because he was murdered.
He was a very talented man.
I can't believe that Papi hasn't brought up his BFF from down in Miami, Pitbull. After watching the following video, everyone on this site should be a fan of Pitbull :
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Warrior15 I forgot about him. His 'Dont stop the party' is one of my favorite vacation songs ever. The second I arrive in my Vegas hotel room in about a month that'll be the first song I play.
Continued...
Geto Boys
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Songs that feature Nate Dogg
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Slim Jesus
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Lil Peep
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Lil Uzi Vert
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Lil B
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Rappin 4 Tay
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Foesum
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Mobb Deep
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The Pack
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@ NinaBambina
Kanye West is the most innovative, honest, and courageous rapper of all time. His music has only gotten better with each album. He's a much greater producer than rapper, but even based purely off his raps he's still a genius. "Bound 2" is my favorite love song of all time. "Power" is still the coolest, most epic rap song I have ever heard. "Famous" captures the Zeitgeist of America in the 21st Century. "Lift Yourself" is Hip Hop Dadaism. He has yet to make a bad album, in my opinion.
MC Hammer is definitely a rapper, and underrated. People gave him trash for sampling Rick James, when sampling is so key to hip-hop. Vanilla Ice is a legitimate rapper too, and was about as good as most radio rappers of his time.
At this point anybody with lil anything in their name should just quit. Lil xan, lil yachty, lil pump, lil uzi vert, lil b, lil debbie is some of the worst garbage ive ever heard. Worse than country even. Lil wayne was dope before the autotune shit.
I like Rick Ross' rhyming and his deep thick voice goes well with his rapping (until recently I didn't know he grew up in a suburb of Miami called Carol City)
This is hard to answer.
New skool
A$AP Rocky
Schoolboy@
Kendrick Lamar
RA the Rugged Man
Old Skool
Nas
Rakim
Biggie
Big Pun
Tupac
Kurupt
Jay Z
AZ
Ice T
NWA
Dr Dre
early Snoop Dogg
Eazy E
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