> all I ever wanted was to pick apart the day, put the pieces back together my way
I cry every time.
I really enjoy listening to Aesop Rock, even though I barely understand most of the lyrics. He has a pretty soothing flow, and trying to decipher his convoluted lyrics makes the music more interesting, especially when you're going through the drudgery of a daily commute. What I love most is the production quality: if you got rid of the rapping you'd still end up with awesome tracks that would stand up on their own as instrumentals. None Shall Pass is one of those rare albums where I love almost every single track; on most rap albums there's usually only a handful of tracks that stand out amongst a load of shite.
What are some good rapsters and hippity hoopers that released albums in the noughties/2010s? Apart from Aesop Rock, I pretty much stopped keeping myself up to date with the scene sometime around 2001. What are the essential albums from 2000-2014? I'm particularly curious if there are any British rappers worth listening to; preferably ones who don't rap in a repulsive Jafaican patois where they talk about theirs beefs with da mandems in da ends.
Sorry for my lack of methodicalness. These are just what I forgot above.
Danny Brown - Old
Esau - The Debut Album... The Farewell Tour
Every album by RA The Rugged Man
X-Ray - The Hand That Feeds You
SpankRock Yoyoyoyoyo
Count Bass D - Dwight Spitz
The Game - The Documentary
Hopsin - Knock Madness
Hopsin - Raw
RJD2 - Deadringer
Wu Tang Clan - Enter The Dubstep - May not be your thing but I loved it.
Lovage - Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By (not quite hip hop but it involves Dan the Automator and Kid Koala and I liked it.)
Kno - Death Is Silent. I didn't get around to the other CunninLynguists stuff yet but they're meant to be a big deal.
I don't know if the three Die Antwoord albums would be your thing but I love them. I liked Spoek Mathambo' Mshini Wam too.
They didn't get the greatest reviews but I really liked Bigg Jus's Plantation Rhymes and Black Mamba Serums.
These two are by DJ Vadim who's British but he's just producing and I can't swear there's nothing skippable:
USSR: Life From The Other Side
USSR: The Art Of Listening
Are you aware of the HipHopLossless website? It's wonderful.
Like yourself I haven't kept up with new releases or artists for ages but somehow over the years I have come across a few gems.
To start with British ones:
Roots Manuva - Run Come Save Me (2001).
Maybe you know the tune 'Witness (1 Hope)' it was pretty popular on the radio & tv iirc, the album as a whole is top notch as well. Check 'Swords in the Dirt.' He's released at least 2 more albums since this one as well.
The Streets - Original Pirate Material (2002).
Half UK Garage half Hip-Hop, I'm sure you know it already since this should be in the top 10 out of any genre of the noughties.
Plan B - Who Needs Actions When You Got Words (2006).
From what I've seen on telly Plan B is now more of a singer these days but this album is exceptional, too many good tracks to mention.
JME - Poomplex (2006).
Grime can hardly be lumped in with Hip-Hop, but at a stretch you could call it Rap I suppose. JME's second Boy Better Know release is full of sick productions and lyrics (sorry, bars) that aren't the standard beefs with da mandems in da ends.
Stig of the Dump - The Homeless Microphonist EP (2006).
Toon Hip-Hop, vibe can get agro on this one but that's not a bad thing.
Lowkey - Dear Listener (2008).
Check 'Alphabet Assassin', who can match that? Lowkey shows up on this board from time to time, his album 'Soundtrack to the Struggle' from 2011 is excellent as well. Curiously he no longer makes music. EXTREMIST
Akala - DoubleThink (2010).
Akala released a couple of mixtapes and an album before DoubleThink, which I consider his finest work. Check 'Find No Enemy.'
Fliptrix - Theory of Rhyme (2010).
'Graffiti Won't Die' is jokes, quality productions throughout.
This post has gone on for far too long already so now I will just list albums, these aren't from the UK though.
Dead Prez - Lets Get Free (2000).
Immortal Technique - Revolutionary (2001).
Ludacris - Word of Mouf (2001).
Cunninlynguists - Will Rap for Food (2001).
Talib Kewli - Quality (2002).
Cyne - Time Being (2003).
Cyne - Evolution Flight (2005). This is my favourite album.
Rehab - Graffiti the World (2005, re-issued 2008).
Dälek - Gutter Tactics (2009).
Hopefully we can get a thread full of good stuff, I never heard Aesop Rock before so that's a start.
>>8783 I can personally recommend all of these albums, to the point that I thought I'd made this post myself whilst drunk - you should especially pay attention to Akala if you like conscious rap, he's a living legend in my eyes. Stig and Fliptrix are enjoyable too, if you want stupid silly rap then you can go the whole hog and check out Dirty Dike et al on High Focus - Jam Baxter and Verb T also come to mind. Albums I'd recommend from those chaps:
Dirty Dike - Bogies and Alcohol (2008) - listen to it when pissed, I dare you to not find his particular brand of grotesque imagery and happy-slapping cockfestery amusing. If you don't you're dead inside.
Verb T - Morning Process (I don't know release years off by heart really) Songs about toast and raising kids. I like Verbs.
Jam Baxter - Gruesome Features (2012)
There's other albums featuring Jam (he usually turns up on anything SMB related, naturally) that are worth listening to but this might be crossing too far over over into the BARE BAD MANNERS sphere for you. Check out the Dead Players album if you want excellent beats and can bear a bit of I'M A BADMAN A REAL BAD BADMAN chatter after all.
There's a super political rapper a friend mentioned to me who likes to wax about socialist themes, I'll try and find out his name too if that sounds like the sort of thing you'd be into. I can't really talk about American stuff with nearly as much authority as I can the UKHH scene so yeah. I might even do you a "females of UKHH" post if you like. It's my special subject.
To the writer of >>8783, uh, are you single? Or are you just me in an alternate universe? D-do you w-want to sh-share my tent at Boombap...?
>This time capsule approach to each year uncovers a slew of already forgotten gems. Ayres says it best: ” I think that hip-hop has this canon of “old-school” jams that get played at parties and make it onto “greatest of all time” lists, but over time the canon shrinks, and you’re left with a bunch of songs that represent current tastes rather than what was good at the time. As a DJ this can be frustrating, because we don’t want to be limited to Biggie, Tupac, Tribe, etc. We love those artists and but also feel there are lots of other great forgotten artists who were maybe less influential but still have records that will rock at a party. So I hope the series can do something to push back against that narrow-mindedness, or forgetfulness, or whatever you want to call it, that shrinking awareness that happens over time. It would be a shame if in 20 years the Throwback at Noon show was comprised of only Eminem, Drake and Lil Wayne…”
They are really outstanding. They've made me seek out a bunch of hip hop albums after hearing tracks on there.
Trying to get into music I don't know kind of feels like a chore so I just get into one new mixtape at a time and have it on very heavy rotation along with albums/mixes I know already. Therefore 2006 is the only one I've heard yet. I started with that one because that's the last year I was up on popular hip hop and still had Sky TV music channels. Since I stopped watching TV I'm a lot more up on Pitchfork-level music but I thought I'd start with that 2006 mix because I knew some of the songs already.
I have absolute faith I'm going to love the other mixes though on the basis of the quality of The Rub's It's The Motherfucking Remix 1, 2 and 3 etc. The MP3 version of ITMFR Vol 3 is here: http://therub.crewcial.org/ and called ITMFR3.mp3.
>Are you aware of the HipHopLossless website? It's wonderful.
1994hiphop.com is too and it's actually where HHLL take a lot of their rips from.
I also came across three free debrid sites which just do uploaded.net for free. It's restricted to 1 gig a day and you have to disable your ad-blocker.
bitdebrid.com
is the best and
debrid.us
leecher.us
are a bit flaky because you check a box saying you're human and it's meant to show a captcha but sometimes it doesn't and says "re-enter captcha" when you try to proceed. I'd only try those if I've exhausted my BitDebrid free gig.
For non-hip-hop, my favourite is http://wrzmusic.net/category/lossless/ because they weed out a lot of the crap releases like LosslessInside (RIP) used to do.