77jovian,
This is exactly what I was hoping for, to find people who may not find the genre in their play lists, but will have an open mind, and a bit of curiosity. I agree, a lot of the lyrics in the genre are pretty base and vulgar, but not all. Mos Def has a style that is fairly intense (and may not be for hip hop beginners), but his lyrics are not about gangsters and prostitutes at all. His album "Black On Both Sides" is one of my all time favorites, and I recently bough the LP so I could play it on my higher quality analog front end over the digital. Another group would be Digable Planets. They focus on society at large, shy away from intense vulgarity, and use a lot of jazz and soul in their hip hop.
This is exactly what I was hoping for, to find people who may not find the genre in their play lists, but will have an open mind, and a bit of curiosity. I agree, a lot of the lyrics in the genre are pretty base and vulgar, but not all. Mos Def has a style that is fairly intense (and may not be for hip hop beginners), but his lyrics are not about gangsters and prostitutes at all. His album "Black On Both Sides" is one of my all time favorites, and I recently bough the LP so I could play it on my higher quality analog front end over the digital. Another group would be Digable Planets. They focus on society at large, shy away from intense vulgarity, and use a lot of jazz and soul in their hip hop.