proper Hiphop/rap

[Haixen]

as i was growing up in the 2000s the hip hop scene took a huge turn and branched to become mainstream more than ever, with hits and misses at that time the evolution of hiphop sadly became the worst outcome of a music genre ever,music that lacks soul and oomf, no unique thoughts go into it, just mumble rapping about money,B*tches and you know what in the beginning of covid i started watching a twitch streamer reviewing and sharing old hip hop and how proper hip hop evolved in the 90s, artists using proper english with hard hitting bars and unique wording, using the dictionary for god sake and actually coming upwith rhyms out of this world, i sadly lost the guys channel and i wanna recall these songs again but all i got in my brain is the yoke the joker song so ill use it as examble, this song was so unique to me that i forgot everything else but this song and i actually memorized the lyrics no N words in sight or shaming people for who they are, just straight up bars and that is hella cool to me

if you have songs that are unique and obsecure please share them so i can make my playlist and find old treasures and idk maybe inspire any small rapper to make shit like this again

Edit: in my rambling about the evolution of hiphop i meant the recent/this gen became more mid than ever since most main stream stuff are your regular gang banging rap, the 2000s rap were great i grew up with it playing rockstar games (Gta,Midnight club) that was my start and then i started shaping my tast based on what i liked from these games, i think i left this detail out and it sounded like i hate all 2000s rap/hiphop so i wanted to clarify my statment above, sorry yall english is not my first language and i think in arabic then type my thoughts in english so some details get lost in translation

 

[Cris_Agev]

I don't know much about rap, but just with any relationship you have they all leave pieces in you of new things you never explored before. My first gf used to be fan of Eminem so she made me listen to his songs and I liked them.
He is a big name in the rap world and this maybe is not "obscure", but its my favorite song of him, its dedicated to his daughters.

 

[RickSonX]

Here's an underground jam from the 90s. RIP A.D.O.R.

 

[xuvetyn96]

I can think of lots.

A Tribe Called Quest: they differed a lot from the gangster rap of the 1990s, with a focus on playful and humorous lyrics and wordplay. Also great production that sampled a lot of jazz (they're considered one of the inventors of the "jazz rap" genre). This is one of my favorites by them.

The Pharcyde: another great 90s group. "Runnin'" has an excellent early beat produced by J Dilla (considered one of the best producers of all time).

Souls of Mischief: Very playful, like Tribe. '93 Till Infinity was their main big hit but they have a lot of other great songs.

Nas: considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, he has some great lyricism and delivery. His album Illmatic is a great place to start.

These are all 90s groups/rappers, since it sounded like that's mainly what you're looking for, but I want to stress that there is also a lot of great rap from the 2000s and there's still good rap being made today (even if it is harder to find).

Just realized you specified you were looking for obscure stuff, whoops! None of these are really that obscure but are great nonetheless.

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QGLnq9VYxA

edit: last one is Digable Planets - 9th Wonder - no idea why link won't embed but yea

I've got tons upon tons of similar or even diff vibes than these - this is just to help start you off n all

 

[xuvetyn96]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QGLnq9VYxA



I've got tons upon tons of similar or even diff vibes than these - this is just to help start you off n all

Love Gravediggaz, was listening to 6 Feet Deep a ton during October. It's one of my favorite albums to play during Halloween.

 

[newageretrohippie]

Early 2000s had a lot of good hip hop

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

Love Gravediggaz, was listening to 6 Feet Deep a ton during October. It's one of my favorite albums to play during Halloween.

2nd album some ill shit as well - better technically from rhyme standpoint in cadence n delivery but sadly a slight bit self-conscious n the explaining of the theatrical elements as a veiled social commentary was already obvious to many n so the horror-themed elements sorta became secondary n in doing so was less refreshingly distinguished from the 'norm' that was already increasingly drowning in its obsession with respect insecurities n 'hyper-realism'. agreed that some searching can turn up rhymesayer heads with clearer n more passionate artistic ambition worth listening to - or alt-hiphop or deathrap or just experimental stuff skimmin the outskirts of the culture just enough to round themselves out

 

[bjork]

I think a lot of great stuff came out of the east coast in the late 80s/early 90s. I haven't kept up at all so I don't know who's still around or considered great in hindsight, but back then (at least in my area and little circle of kids who had rap tapes) it was like any Native Tongues stuff was good. BDP was good. Poor Righteous Teachers. I really liked Masta Ace. There are probably others I forget at the moment, but I used to watch Rap City and Yo MTV Raps all the time back from like... let's say 90-94ish? West coast back then was more associated with like NWA and Ice-T, but I always liked stuff like DJ Quik and Too Short. Heck, even that Sir Mix-a-Lot album with Posse on Broadway was a fun one. But even older than that, LL Cool J's Radio is a classic, and "you would think it was a party, not a Cadillac" is still something I say to myself any time I see an old cadillac, heh.

 

[RealBout]

Machine.

 

[VodkaEnergee]

Binary Star's Masters of the Universe Album:

Camp Lo's Uptown Saturday Night & On the Way Uptown Album:

Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus Album:

Rawkus Presents Lyricist Lounge Volume One: Indelible Mc's - Weight

Das EFX's Dead Serious Album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PU22-fsGA0


Keith Murray's Enigma & It's A Beautiful Thing Album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ippxdBLBNk0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0LcQk3PYHA

Keith Murray's The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World Album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2srZJQvo_H0


Little Indian's One Little Indian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=autKV9b4Ycs


Main Source's Main Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLhNKhkyqcI


Heavy D & The Boyz - Somebody For Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2fS9XtWemY

Heavy D & The Boyz - Nuttin' But Love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJEbfeG2oAE


Other:
Organized Konfusion's Stress: The Extinction Agenda
Mobb Deep's Hell On Earth & The Infamous Albums
O.C. Word...Life & Jewelz Albums
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth's The Main Ingredient & Mecca And The Soul Brother Albums
Big L
GANG STARR
CZARFACE
Tommy Wright III
DJ Zirk's 2 thick and Looken For Tha Chewin albums

REDRUM781

🖕🏾😈🤝🏾👿🖕🏾

www.youtube.com

Steeks’s Library | Last.fm

Listen to music from Steeks’s library (181,376 tracks played). Steeks’s top artists: J Dilla, Fat Jon, Metal Fingers. Get your own music profile at Last.fm, the world’s largest social music platform.

www.last.fm

Q-Tip Albums:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFnpFuwPWNQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu6pEYYJECQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTjBhplTGY

Q-Tip's Live At The Renaissance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_29jguJvz1Y


One Be Lo's S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhPlcpI_wCI


Pete Rock's Soul Survivor Album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5No1Lnciok

The Ballers's A Day Late And A Dollar Short Album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmeYfi6rgGY


Slum Village's Fantastic Volume 1 & 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrFbdN9zvbI




Single Tracks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G1c04bxNc0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5lByFc7HiM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUl8nQLmJDg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQJxvsKzKx4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5MogMGLWAA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fJZbBcDsRQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LHjGbsG7Lw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpaN_wnZ1B8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSGOSOqaRZc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6XwcELtxs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgs9FPRWz4A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj-Zfs2fvlk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9gkci335l0


MF Doom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT1Ie1ltxNc

Live at 9:30 Club (13/06/04)
MF Doom & Ghostface - Operation Ironman (2004)
The Doomilation Bootleg (2003)
Special Blends Volume 1 & 2 (2004)
Special Herbs + Spices Vol. 1 (2004)
The Prof. Meets The Supervillian # 0 (2003)
3 Dollars (5" Single) (2012)
DOOMMIXMIXMIX by BADBADNOTGOOD
Ray Gun ft. DOOM by BADBADNOTGOOD
Sniper Elite & Murder Goons (Bonus) (2006)
Gorillaz - November Has Come (feat. MF Doom) (2005)
Best of Mf (2003)MF EP (2003)
MM.. Leftovers (2004)
The Mouse and The Mask (Metalface Edition) (2017)
Born Like This (2009)
Key To The Kuffs (Butter Edition) (2013)
Take Me To Your Leader (2003)
The Missing Notebook Rhymes (2017)
Vaudeville Villain (2003)
(VV:2) Venomous Villain (2004)
Bookhead EP (2014)
Unexpected Guests (2009)
DoomStarks
Madvillain - Madvillainy 2 The Madlib Remix (2008)
CZARFACE - Super What? (2021)
Monsta Island Czars - Escape From Monster Island! (2002)
DOOM Aboard
Checkmate ft. Earthquake
True Lightyears ft. Jay Electronica & KMD
Blacklist ft. Aesop Rock
Hooks Is Extra
Air
Change The Beat
Bells of Doom
Angels ft. Ghostface Killah
Great Things ft. Bishop Nehru
Papermill ft. Madlib
Books of War ft. RZAAvalanche ft. Madlib
REIGN… IN THE SUBWAY
Coco Mango
Get Er Done
In The Streets Ft MF Doom & BJ The Chicago Kid (The Return Of The Dragon)
DOOMSAYERSLAYERGUMIXSavior Beans (Live at BBC XTRA)
HYRDROCHOLRIC ACIDTHE MIC SOUNDS NICE
Lively Hood (MF Doom & Ghostface Killah)
Trap Doordedicated to love
The Beat Ft. MF DOOM
Last Sniff Ft. MF DOOM
Lunch Break - MF DOOM (Prod. Flying Lotus)

 

[PlayerJuan]

These aren't really obscure but they're def 100% old treasures!

 

[Waffles]

I know that this isn't exactly what the thread is about, but I couldn't resist sharing this gem:

Early Internet creativity was something else.

 

[buffalo]

How you describe hip hop is completely disrespectful to the genre. Just because you don't like how a genre evolved doesn't make it automatically bad. Look at how much rock has evolved. All of the subgenres that have derived from rock. Rap is the same way. This "mumble rap" is just a term used by ignorant people not willing to educate themselves on a very extensive genre. There are plenty of good modern rappers. Have you actually tried finding rappers from the 2010s or 2020s that you enjoy or are you just going off of the popular songs you hear snippets of online? This is completely stupid and dogwhistling racism.

Some Open Mike Eagle

Some JID

Obligated mention for Kendrick Lamar, the most lyrical rapper of this era

My personal favorite rapper ever, Danny Brown

And to finish it off, Injury Reserve

 

[xuvetyn96]

How you describe hip hop is completely disrespectful to the genre. Just because you don't like how a genre evolved doesn't make it automatically bad. Look at how much rock has evolved. All of the subgenres that have derived from rock. Rap is the same way. This "mumble rap" is just a term used by ignorant people not willing to educate themselves on a very extensive genre. There are plenty of good modern rappers. Have you actually tried finding rappers from the 2010s or 2020s that you enjoy or are you just going off of the popular songs you hear snippets of online? This is completely stupid and dogwhistling racism.

Some Open Mike Eagle

Some JID

Obligated mention for Kendrick Lamar, the most lyrical rapper of this era

My personal favorite rapper ever, Danny Brown

And to finish it off, Injury Reserve

I was debating dropping some Danny Brown in here as well as some Peggy, but figured they're not the best for someone just starting to get into rap lol. But those more alternative/experimental rappers are what I mean when I say there's still great, unique hip hop being made today. Injury Reserve's great too, shame we'll never get another release (RIP Groggs).

 

[Haixen]

holy shit i woke up and saw that i started a war in my comments lol, I'm gonna listen to everything yall linked and then reply to everyone, i love the passion people still have for hiphop and i thank you all for showing me some of your favorites, threads like these the reason i love forums, i wont find treasures like these on a twitter thread lol, love yall and sorry if my rambling wasn't clear, just made an edit clearing the misunderstanding

 

[Yousef]

as i was growing up in the 2000s the hip hop scene took a huge turn and branched to become mainstream more than ever, with hits and misses at that time the evolution of hiphop sadly became the worst outcome of a music genre ever,music that lacks soul and oomf, no unique thoughts go into it, just mumble rapping about money,B*tches and you know what in the beginning of covid i started watching a twitch streamer reviewing and sharing old hip hop and how proper hip hop evolved in the 90s, artists using proper english with hard hitting bars and unique wording, using the dictionary for god sake and actually coming upwith rhyms out of this world, i sadly lost the guys channel and i wanna recall these songs again but all i got in my brain is the yoke the joker song so ill use it as examble, this song was so unique to me that i forgot everything else but this song and i actually memorized the lyrics no N words in sight or shaming people for who they are, just straight up bars and that is hella cool to me

if you have songs that are unique and obsecure please share them so i can make my playlist and find old treasures and idk maybe inspire any small rapper to make shit like this again

Edit: in my rambling about the evolution of hiphop i meant the recent/this gen became more mid than ever since most main stream stuff are your regular gang banging rap, the 2000s rap were great i grew up with it playing rockstar games (Gta,Midnight club) that was my start and then i started shaping my tast based on what i liked from these games, i think i left this detail out and it sounded like i hate all 2000s rap/hiphop so i wanted to clarify my statment above, sorry yall english is not my first language and i think in arabic then type my thoughts in english so some details get lost in translation

Salam. I believe modern hiphop has an undeserved stigma of being just mumble rap. In my humble opinion, THE WEEKND is the exception to the rule. He’s my all time favorite. [

As for classic hiphop, I have a suspicion 99% of what I’ll recommend is something everyone already listened to so I don’t wanna be redundant and instead try linking a slightly lesser known but inspirational song. [

For more mainstream stuff, I have this. I love ice cube so much.

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

How you describe hip hop is completely disrespectful to the genre. Just because you don't like how a genre evolved doesn't make it automatically bad. Look at how much rock has evolved. All of the subgenres that have derived from rock. Rap is the same way. This "mumble rap" is just a term used by ignorant people not willing to educate themselves on a very extensive genre. There are plenty of good modern rappers. Have you actually tried finding rappers from the 2010s or 2020s that you enjoy or are you just going off of the popular songs you hear snippets of online? This is completely stupid and dogwhistling racism.

Some Open Mike Eagle

Some JID

Obligated mention for Kendrick Lamar, the most lyrical rapper of this era

My personal favorite rapper ever, Danny Brown

And to finish it off, Injury Reserve

I must preface this with commending your good taste in modern hiphop. I have to hear more JID but the rest gets the thumbs up or horns from me. I agree that generalizing smacks of laziness n autopilot instead of the more healthy but high-maintenance case-by-case basis n research, immersion, upkeep. I try to never make spiteful, contrarian, or knee-jerk judgments n like to call it a WIP work-in-progress that only finishes when I die (therefore no judgment of mine ever gets put into solid stone that I'm aware of)

...that all said, generalizing ANY genre of music doesn't necessarily have anything remotely to do with racism or other nasty bigotry. now generalizing with HATE n the mentality of half-ass insensitive stereotypes is a different story. another thing to challenge that - you do know not all MC's are black, right? or white. so if you think dude was bein unjust, ignorant n inconsiderate - try to not make the same sort of fuck up while in reply to it.

 

[Yousef]

holy shit i woke up and saw that i started a war in my comments lol, I'm gonna listen to everything yall linked and then reply to everyone, i love the passion people still have for hiphop and i thank you all for showing me some of your favorites, threads like these the reason i love forums, i wont find treasures like these on a twitter thread lol, love yall and sorry if my rambling wasn't clear, just made an edit clearing the misunderstanding

There won’t be any war from me haha. I’m open to all rap.

Post automatically merged: Jan 3, 2025

How you describe hip hop is completely disrespectful to the genre. Just because you don't like how a genre evolved doesn't make it automatically bad. Look at how much rock has evolved. All of the subgenres that have derived from rock. Rap is the same way. This "mumble rap" is just a term used by ignorant people not willing to educate themselves on a very extensive genre. There are plenty of good modern rappers. Have you actually tried finding rappers from the 2010s or 2020s that you enjoy or are you just going off of the popular songs you hear snippets of online? This is completely stupid and dogwhistling racism.

Some Open Mike Eagle

Some JID

Obligated mention for Kendrick Lamar, the most lyrical rapper of this era

My personal favorite rapper ever, Danny Brown

And to finish it off, Injury Reserve

All excellent picks.

Post automatically merged: Jan 3, 2025

I was debating dropping some Danny Brown in here as well as some Peggy, but figured they're not the best for someone just starting to get into rap lol. But those more alternative/experimental rappers are what I mean when I say there's still great, unique hip hop being made today. Injury Reserve's great too, shame we'll never get another release (RIP Groggs).

That’s true.

 

[Haixen]

How you describe hip hop is completely disrespectful to the genre. Just because you don't like how a genre evolved doesn't make it automatically bad. Look at how much rock has evolved. All of the subgenres that have derived from rock. Rap is the same way. This "mumble rap" is just a term used by ignorant people not willing to educate themselves on a very extensive genre. There are plenty of good modern rappers. Have you actually tried finding rappers from the 2010s or 2020s that you enjoy or are you just going off of the popular songs you hear snippets of online? This is completely stupid and dogwhistling racism.

Some Open Mike Eagle

Some JID

Obligated mention for Kendrick Lamar, the most lyrical rapper of this era

My personal favorite rapper ever, Danny Brown

And to finish it off, Injury Reserve

first of all i would like to apologize to you personally if i said something horrible and offended you, that wasn't my intent at all, and i hate all kinds of bigotry and i would not wish it upon my worst enemy, with that being said, when i rambled in my OP i was talking about the face of rap that you cant deny it shoved in our faces by some of the mid ass rappers in history, I'm trying to find good rap and hiphop from this gen with this post, that was my intention, i just explained the kind of rap i liked the hard hitting profound rap that every lyric feels heavy and a lot of double meanings, shit so poetic will make the guy getting dissed turn in his grave, i know rap has a big cultural side I'm not aware of and still learning about some of these small details, i like hip hop because how every artist has his way of sending his msg either with high energy rap or more calm slow like the chopper rappers that i think personally are a very underrated sub genre of rap and deserve more love like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnbtkelhJFo

you just prove my point that its not out there as it was in the 80s and 90s the mainstream direction shifted to just brag about shit and thier song aint that special and dosent intrest me while there is still good har hitting ones but no one talking about them and showing them, specially gate keeping music these days is a personality trait i fucking hate specially with hiphop when the damn artist is trying to blow up after he dedicated his whole life rapping,thats the whole point of this thread, its a forum where you discuss things and you couldve came to me in a more calm way and knew exactly where im coming from rather than attack me like that, regardless im not mad or anything, and im sorry again if i wasnt clear in my op,and please if theres is anything i said above that was offensive and bad please pointed to me so i can apologies and recognize my mistake, thank you for sharing your music ill be listening to them

 

[Yousef]

first of all i would like to apologize to you personally if i said something horrible and offended you, that wasn't my intent at all, and i hate all kinds of bigotry and i would not wish it upon my worst enemy, with that being said, when i rambled in my OP i was talking about the face of rap that you cant deny it shoved in our faces by some of the mid ass rappers in history, I'm trying to find good rap and hiphop from this gen with this post, that was my intention, i just explained the kind of rap i liked the hard hitting profound rap that every lyric feels heavy and a lot of double meanings, shit so poetic will make the guy getting dissed turn in his grave, i know rap has a big cultural side I'm not aware of and still learning about some of these small details, i like hip hop because how every artist has his way of sending his msg either with high energy rap or more calm slow like the chopper rappers that i think personally are a very underrated sub genre of rap and deserve more love like this one

you just prove my point that its not out there as it was in the 80s and 90s the mainstream direction shifted to just brag about shit and thier song aint that special and dosent intrest me while there is still good har hitting ones but no one talking about them and showing them, specially gate keeping music these days is a personality trait i fucking hate specially with hiphop when the damn artist is trying to blow up after he dedicated his whole life rapping,thats the whole point of this thread, its a forum where you discuss things and you couldve came to me in a more calm way and knew exactly where im coming from rather than attack me like that, regardless im not mad or anything, and im sorry again if i wasnt clear in my op,and please if theres is anything i said above that was offensive and bad please pointed to me so i can apologies and recognize my mistake, thank you for sharing your music ill be listening to them

It’s ok I think you did nothing wrong. I disagreed with your take but there’s nothing with thinking that. I also think @buffalo was just expressing his thoughts and didn’t mean to attack you or anything xd
I hope you like my recs!

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

It’s ok I think you did nothing wrong. I disagreed with your take but there’s nothing with thinking that. I also think @buffalo was just expressing his thoughts and didn’t mean to attack you or anything xd
I hope you like my recs!

I had zero problem with what Buffalo said up until the final 2 words. I said this in a d-msg but might as well paste it for (hopefully) clearer understanding

"
"in a discord chat, I got timed-out for making a 'racist remark' about legendary guitar-master Chuck Berry bein a women-hitter -_- which is utterly ridiculous. the newer gens rail hard against racism (which is great in itself!) but don't even seem to know what it is or isn't."

 

[Haixen]

It’s ok I think you did nothing wrong. I disagreed with your take but there’s nothing with thinking that. I also think @buffalo was just expressing his thoughts and didn’t mean to attack you or anything xd
I hope you like my recs!

the end of his comment calling me racist was kinda eh i just hate when people jump to that like im the one attacking them in my OP thats all

 

[Yousef]

the end of his comment calling me racist was kinda eh i just hate when people jump to that like im the one attacking them in my OP thats all

Oh lmao sorry habibi I missed that part although I’m pretty sure this is all giant misunderstanding xd

Post automatically merged: Jan 3, 2025

I had zero problem with what Buffalo said up until the final 2 words. I said this in a d-msg but might as well paste it for (hopefully) clearer understanding

"
"in a discord chat, I got timed-out for making a 'racist remark' about legendary guitar-master Chuck Berry bein a women-hitter -_- which is utterly ridiculous. the newer gens rail hard against racism (which is great in itself!) but don't even seem to know what it is or isn't."

I agree with what you’re saying!

 

[Haixen]

I had zero problem with what Buffalo said up until the final 2 words. I said this in a d-msg but might as well paste it for (hopefully) clearer understanding

"
"in a discord chat, I got timed-out for making a 'racist remark' about legendary guitar-master Chuck Berry bein a women-hitter -_- which is utterly ridiculous. the newer gens rail hard against racism (which is great in itself!) but don't even seem to know what it is or isn't."

yeah that's exactly what bugged me off I'm fine with the criticism please critic me all you want and shit on my take but calling me a dogwhisling racist for saying the face of rap its not what it used to be is a bit much, if anything he should be happy that i like the golden age of rap