When will rap music be less mainstream?

Back to the original question - Digable Planets - Blowout Comb - Bar none the best underground hip-hop album of all times. Lyrics, beats, samples and scratching, all A1.

That said. MC Hammer? If you like MC Hammer try listening to Rick James, Super Freak. It will sound very familiar...

That said here are some recommendations some may have already been provided by others above:

- Tribe Called Quest (from New-York not LA) all there albums are great, my favorite is midnight marauders.
- The Pharcyde, best tracks are runnin'(beat is based on Stan Getz Samba sample) and passin me by.
- De la Soul
- Common the album Ressurection, specifically the scratching on the title track, plus various samples throughout from Roy Ayers' "everybody loves the sunshine"
- People Under the Stairs
- Mos Def

And the list goes on... wait one more!

MC Solar, his two first ablums are his best, preferrably the first "Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo", the Track Caroline, is the finest heart-break hip-hop ballad of all times... Only French rhymes can accurately portray the emotional heart break you feel when you find your girl sharing a cigarette with another man in the subway. Truly poetic.

What makes hip-hop/rap good. IMHO, good poetic lyrics, not just words that rhyme. Rappin' about b!tches and hoes should be a crime... (pun intended). Original musical beats, not simply slowing down or speeding up or reversing James Brown's Funky Drummer. Samples that are relevant and credited to the original artists from who composed them. And DJ that can Scratch (Turntabalism).

One more point, if I were to listen to only hip-hop/rap I wouldn't need hig-end audio system. Generally, there are no "musical instruments" used, so the detail, emotion sound stage isn't there. So whether listening on an IPOD or $50k system the marginal difference would not warrant the investment.

But without hip-hop I would not have not learned to appreciate much of the Jazz, Funk and Soul which I enjoy on my system daily.

Finally, it was my passion as a Dee-Jay which has given rise to my interest in the this Audiophile hobby (or is it an addiction?).

Thanks Nick, you have now joined the united front of Thomas, Shadorne, Dark Mob and myself. Remember, always outnumbered but never outgunned. Thomas is suggesting we meet for beers. I am down with it.

Nicksr

Thanks for that. You have got me a little curious now. I bought one Digable Planet's CD a long time back, can't remember the name and am too lazy to go and look now. It was was too hippy for me and I never looked more into any of the rest of their stuff as it really turned me off, but I will look into Blowout Comb....you never know.
I used to listen to a lot more hip-hop until I got my system but the sound quality on most records (CDs) ruined it a bit for me. I am fairly new to the Hi End audio thing and am in my honeymoon period I guess and am dabbling with all kinds of music, but it has to be well recorded or I get turned off right away on my new system.
As much as I really the music I already own I have always been on a mission for new stuff and never buy, say, rock classics that I am already familiar with. Being a DJ like yourself I love discovering new stuff for me and new new stuff for the crowd, say, two months old max. In my scene which is techno/house two months is getting old unless I am playing old tracks that nobody else has then I can get away with it.
Have to disagree a bit on the soundstage, emotion thing not being there. The soundstage can definitely be there and the emotion too but I agree most stuff doesn't have the sound quality as in a lot of organic music.

There is a lot of really good music recorded on analogue recording equipment. Out of England, I can recommend James Hunter (sings like Sam Cooke) and Richard Hawley ("Coles Corner"). In the US, I can highly recommend Birdmonster (who records in the studio where REM made their first two records), Eli "Paperboy" Reed and Raphael Saadiq. For rap, I highly recommend the Roots, De La Soul, Arrested Development and the Beastie Boys (especially the "In sound from way out").

For Soul/Blues/Folk fans, one of my all time favorite artists (and albums) of the last ~15 years is Ted Hawkins' "The Next Hundred Years". His voice and musical style is a cross between Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, although his songwriting has tinges of Woody Guthrie and Blind Willy Johnson with a touch of Bob Dylan.

The entire disc is incredible, but especially check out the songs "Strange Conversation", "Big Things", "Biloxi", "Green-eyed Girl", and especially his A capella cover of John Fogerty's "Long as I Can See the Light".

Ted had recording contracts which spanned almost 30 years, but vagrancy, drugs, jail, and alcohol always seemed to undermine his career just as it was about to take off. Over that time, his style changed with the time, incorporating, Blues, Folk, Soul and finally fusing them into something wholly his own.

In 1994, he was re-discovered and signed to Geffen Records by producer/A&R rep Tony Berg who backed Ted's beautifully sparse tunes with minimalist musical accompaniment. The cd received widespread critical acclaim and national attention. Rolling Stone Magazine said in it's review:

Over five previous records – only two of which are available domestically – Hawkins' reputation with musicians, critics and European audiences has grown, while popular acclaim in his native country remains elusive. Hopefully,The Next Hundred Years, Hawkins' major-label debut, will begin to change that. Years is a passionate collection of gospel, soul, country and blues songs about mortality, perseverance and transcendence that are given credence by the artist's own experiences as an ex-convict and street singer.

He toured Europe and North America to ecstatic fan praise and said "that he had finally reached an age where he was glad to be able to sing indoors, out of the weather, and for an appreciative crowd".

Sadly, he died of a stroke on New Years day 1 year after making his one hit album. I had the honor to meet and hang out with him little in that short period while working at Geffen. He was one of nicest, most real, people I'd ever met. He left an indelible mark on everyone he came into contact with.

After his death, many of his early recordings from the mid-60's and 70's were compiled and released. Check out "The Ted Hawkins Story: Suffer No More" for when his style was similar to early James Brown, Otis Redding, and Sam Cooke circa 1966.