Hip Hop & Rap recommendations for Taters


There is a rather heated thread that is fairly universally bashing rap & hip hop here in the music section of the Audiogon forums.  This is a thread to search for the best that the genre has.  Please recommend artists, albums, and songs that you feel are the best that hip hop & rap have to offer.  What tracks would you recommend to someone who enjoys music, but is quite far outside of the usual listening audience for hip hop and rap?

Here is the thread that inspired this post:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/when-rap-came-out-30-years-ago-i-thought-it-was-just-a-fad?la...

So, to start it off, I'll offer up a few of my favorites.  I'll surely come up with a few more, but for now, this is where I would start.  I hope you enjoy this challenge!

- Mark


Format:
Artist
Album
Track


A Tribe Called Quest
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
Bonita Applebum

Mos Def
Black On Both Sides
Hip Hop

Mos Def
Black On Both Sides
Ms. Fat Booty

Us 3
Hand On The Torch
It's Like That

Common
Like Water For Chocolate
The Light

Kanye West
The College Drop Out
All Falls Down

Digable Planets
Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)
Where I'm From

2 Pac
All Eyez On Me
Only God Can Judge Me


marktomaras

Taters,


Here are your quotes:

"For me the only reason to have a high-end system is to listen to Jazz, Classical or the blues. If I didn’t listen to that type of music I would not bother with owning a high-end system."

"Personally I think rap or hip hop would sound the best on a high powered car audio system with sub-woofers."



I’m a music lover period and have tried to build a system that plays most everything with dynamic musicality and hi fidelity. Everything from the most current R&B, hip hop, indy rock, 80 rock and pop, 70’s classic rock on vinyl, classical CD’s and vinyl from all eras, and 1950’s and 60’s Jazz on vinyl and the excellent Frank Sinatra /Riddle capitol recordings. I have several original Sinatra records from the 50’s.

I have an open musical heart and make no assumptions of good and bad and what systems I need to have to play a certain type of music on...Just sayin... Even when people here try to help you end up digging a deeper hole for yourself.

Its a new day and the young at heart will hopefully love great sound regardless of your views

Excellent Response jetrexpro.

Taters, it looks like you didn't take my point to heart from the other thread that led to this thread.  I only suggested that you open your mind, and stop bashing stuff.  To suggest that a fan of a particular style of music shouldn't bother with a hi-fi system is plain silly.  Who only listens to one genre?  And who's to say that a particular style of music isn't worthy of a good system?  Do you think the recording studios set aside their $50,000 microphones & preamps and instead break out their smart phones to record hip hop?  

I do appreciate what you said above:
 "I will give the op credit by trying to have a civilized discussion about rap music or hip hop without without making me the bad guy. I do appreciate your effort in starting this thread."

I don't want you to be the bad guy, but your determination to bash and generalize is making you sound like a bad guy all on your own.  I am not a hip hop devotee, I really have eclectic tastes and hip hop is only a small percentage of the music I love, but I do love a good chunk of hip hop.

Look, I wanted to do two things here.  I wanted to stop hearing people bash and put things down, as that dumbs down the dialogue.  We all can do much better when we talk about ideas, and look to find the positive, rather than trash talk.  I wanted you to challenge your own notion that this music is garbage by trying to find one bit of it that you may be able to say, ok, that is not my go-to music, but that track or that album has merit.

If you decide this all is for naught, and we are all hip hop brain washees, and we don't know anything about music, that's fine, but I suggest you move on.  Stop thinking about hip hop as it is only making you upset.  Instead, I would hope you find more pleasure and positivity by exploring the genres that you do like, and perhaps looking deeper into the depths of those genres, and expand your music universe in a positive way.  That won't happen bashing genres that you dislike.

In my post on your other thread, I mentioned that I do not like modern mass market country.  Last year, my cousin invited me to go to the Tortuga Fest in Ft. Lauderdale.  This is a festival style concert for none other than modern mass market country, and you know what, I went!  I decided that it would be fun to see what it is all about, to see it in all of its glory, and not hearing it as background music at the stop light from someone else's car.  In the end, my feelings have not changed, but you will never see me starting numerous threads to bash it, or to suggest that the artists have no talent, or that the fans should not disgrace their hi-fi systems with it.

Lastly, if you didn't take a listen to any of the hip hop recommendations, give this one a try:

Us 3
Hand On The Torch
It's Like That

Ask yourself it this is worth a listen, for you or for anyone.  Maybe your son or nephew is into hip hop and never liked jazz.  Us 3 can be a great way to expand his musical tastes (or at least musical appreciations), and your own.   Its a fusion style hip hop that borrows quite a bit from jazz.  Great stuff.

Trash talking is bane, boring, and bullshit!

Life is too short. Look for the good stuff!


MarkTomaras,

I have been getting very tired of this blanket genre and new music bashing and its not just Taters. Some of the recent stuff said about Adele is embarrassing. Her singing moves millions of people including me.

One of the coolest things I have been hearing over the past years is how so many of these current styles like Rap, Hip hop, rock and R&B have been combining in so many wonderful ways.

Kanye, Rick Ross, Justin Bieber, Alabama Shakes, Nicki Minaj  and so many many more are making great music and yes TATERS it happens to sound GREAT on a hifi system. The new Justin Bieber record sounds wonderful! The new David Bowie is a monumental record. Prince has a new one that I have not checked out yet. So much great new music and great sounding to. I think a great way for some of these folks to get into new music is listen to how many current artists are drawing from Soul, Motown, R&B from the 60 and 70's.

With a tool like youtube a music lover has a wonderful resource to find new music he/she might want to buy. Regards Jet

Jet, I like your style.  You seem like a music lover that I could have a few drinks with.  If you're ever in Miami, let me know!

MarkTomaras, ditto. if you get to NYC Brooklyn let me know.

I have been posting and reading threads here on Agon for 4 -5 years and have always kept it light and positive - always about mine and others system, DIY, and the music I thought others might enjoy. I have learned a huge amount. Its only been in the past few months where I started to feel the need to speak up about some of these very negative blanket bashing threads. All I have learned from these threads is what people don’t like and why they don’t like it and why others should not like it. That’s a bunch of Crap.

The young people who might be into good sound and good music may read some of these threads and run away. I don’t want to see that happen. Jet