Best Rap/Hip-Hop Artists, Bands, or Groups of the Decades

[jones-y]

try dawn of conversation we as primitive man used to communicate through guttural grunts and crotch grabbing as a show of strength.i give you hip hop in its earliest known form

You know, I guess I should've prepared myself for this sort of comment when I noticed this thread. Oh well, doesn't bother me anymore, I guess its just sad to see that my beloved hip hop is controlled by corp's, who now have the power to direct and define it. And its even sadder to see my fellow musicians buy into it.

For once I'd like to see a discussion of Hip Hop not degenerate.

[ouroboros]

Now answers to my own questions:

1980's: Run DMC, LL Cool J, Eric B. & Rakim, N.W.A., Public Enemy, The Geto Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, Heavy D, Salt 'N Pepa, Ice Cube, 2 Live Crew, DJ Magic Mike


1990's: 2pac, Busta Rhymes, Shoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Dr. Dre, Timberland & Missy

2000's: OutKast, Jay-Z, Eminem, The Neptunes (N.E.R.D.), The Black Eye Peas

I'll need Rakim, KRS-One, & 2pac to battle to help me decide who I think is the best rapper ever.

Glad Big Daddy was finally mentioned.

[Igor 4000]

80s - Run DMC/Public Enemy

90s - Tupac/Beastie Boys/B.I.G.

00 - Jay-Z

[Stupid American Pig]

I wish that more "musicians" would get involved in hip hop. I would like to see people pick up instruments again instead of thinking that you have to have an MPC-2k and some samples to make hip hop. I have nothing but respect for the roots and bands that are trying to make new music as opposed to stealing hooks from 80s records and using samples. I know that this was standard practice in the 90s. But even then there were creative people using samples and making them into original music.(dust brothers and bomb squad are a prime example) this business of taking a 1:1 sample and modifying the hook slightly is just plain retarded.(eh hmm Pdiddy)

But back to my original point- why are hip hop artists afraid to play instruments? It blows me away that flavor flav was a classicly trained pianest, and could play 17 instruments but is reduced to saying "YEah boooyyeee" on PE records.

This goes farther than just hip hop, I wish that all genres would make the music biz about the music again...

[quincy]

Hey, haven't red the thread so far and don't want to get involved with argument about musicality of hiphop, just wanted to say...

Much respect to Dr Dre. I'm not a massive hiphop guy or anything, and i don't like everything he's produced, but i still think he's made some pioneering records and generally the hiphop genre owes him a great deal.

Also Roots Manuva for UK hiphop, some of my favourite hiphop tracks of any kind are his, don't even know the names of all of them them but some of his stuff is just brilliant.

[vurt]

try dawn of conversation we as primitive man used to communicate through guttural grunts and crotch grabbing as a show of strength.i give you hip hop in its earliest known form

You know, I guess I should've prepared myself for this sort of comment when I noticed this thread. Oh well, doesn't bother me anymore, I guess its just sad to see that my beloved hip hop is controlled by corp's, who now have the power to direct and define it. And its even sadder to see my fellow musicians buy into it.

For once I'd like to see a discussion of Hip Hop not degenerate.

twas a joke mate, i beleive a few posts earlier i also stated my faves,and also a liking for hiphop.
we then got into a side discussion about the origin of rapping and i merely made a a joke
wasnt meant to offend or bring into disrepute the musicality or appreciation of hip hop in anyway

[Stupid American Pig]

Hey, haven't red the thread so far and don't want to get involved with argument about musicality of hiphop, just wanted to say...

Much respect to Dr Dre. I'm not a massive hiphop guy or anything, and i don't like everything he's produced, but i still think he's made some pioneering records and generally the hiphop genre owes him a great deal.

Also Roots Manuva for UK hiphop, some of my favourite hiphop tracks of any kind are his, don't even know the names of all of them them but some of his stuff is just brilliant.

I will agree with that- he was calling himself the "Quincy Jones of hip hop" for a while, which may or may not be true, but he does have several classic albums to his credit, and longevity in his career that most hip hop artists can only dream about. most people that hate Dre are jealous. I noticed he has tried to bring musicality back to hip hop which is a good thing as well.

<rant>
As good as Dre is, he can also sort of be responsible for hip hops decline. Gangsta rap was a nice novelty at first, but what is the damn deal with all these people threatening to kill each other on records? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and there is no way that anyone can "justify" that death threats are a reasonable thing. Is life really that worthless that killing someone is a reasonable way to solve a problem of people not liking each other? JaRule, Deathrow, and artists like that are sucking the life out of hip hop. There has GOT to be something more relavent to everyone that doesnt involve killing anyone. I know that this is not limited to hip hop, but other genres have seem to have stolen this idea from hip hop..
</Rant>

[jones-y]

try dawn of conversation we as primitive man used to communicate through guttural grunts and crotch grabbing as a show of strength.i give you hip hop in its earliest known form

You know, I guess I should've prepared myself for this sort of comment when I noticed this thread. Oh well, doesn't bother me anymore, I guess its just sad to see that my beloved hip hop is controlled by corp's, who now have the power to direct and define it. And its even sadder to see my fellow musicians buy into it.

For once I'd like to see a discussion of Hip Hop not degenerate.

twas a joke mate, i beleive a few posts earlier i also stated my faves,and also a liking for hiphop.
we then got into a side discussion about the origin of rapping and i merely made a a joke
wasnt meant to offend or bring into disrepute the musicality or appreciation of hip hop in anyway

Fair enough, vurt. In all honesty, I did only a quick scan of the thread before preparing to post, and I didn't notice your post(s) previous to that one. No harm done!

[vurt]

[jones-y]

<rant>
There has GOT to be something more relavent to everyone that doesnt involve killing anyone.
</Rant>

Oh there is. You won't find it on the radio or MTV though, and you'll have to dig deep (like the last rack at the bottom of the shelf, behind the "non-self-inflammatory, musically-relevant Hip Hop " sign...) to find it at Best Buy.

[ouroboros]

I think I started to lose interest in the new commercial stuff coming out in the '90's. I am glad to see 2 bands from that era get mentioned: The Alkaholiks and Gangstarr. I also really liked digable planets, too. AFter that, the commercial stuff started passing me by, and I only occasionally expended the energy to find new , underground/underrepresented acts. Any suggestions for up & coming/ different acts? I am tired of the gangster stuff now, but let's all 'fess up: when NWA/EZ-E hit the scene, there was nothing cooler then conspiratorially huddling around the tape deck and listening so as not to wake the parents.

All this being said, I also found Nelly's stuff to be very catchy.

[Stupid American Pig]

yeha I know its out there- but why , OH WHY?!?!?! is that not the mainstream?!?!?!?!?!? After all this time does proving your man(or woman)hood still have to come down to violence?

[Stupid American Pig]

I think I started to lose interest in the new commercial stuff coming out in the '90's. I am glad to see 2 bands from that era get mentioned: The Alkaholiks and Gangstarr. I also really liked digable planets, too. AFter that, the commercial stuff started passing me by, and I only occasionally expended the energy to find new , underground/underrepresented acts. Any suggestions for up & coming/ different acts? I am tired of the gangster stuff now, but let's all 'fess up: when NWA/EZ-E hit the scene, there was nothing cooler then conspiratorially huddling around the tape deck and listening so as not to wake the parents.

All this being said, I also found Nelly's stuff to be very catchy.

Yeah the Liks never got enough credit. I think that they kinda lost their drive though to some degree. J-Ro sounded kinda bored on their last few releases..

[jones-y]

Any suggestions for up & coming/ different acts?

Dilated Peoples, Talib Kweli, Mos Def (his new album, "The New Danger" is bananas, its like a Rock/Blues/Soul/Rap hybrid, you gotta check it out!) to name a few. A lot of the good new stuff is being produced by artists that surfaced in the 80's and 90's, like Outkast, Common, Roots, and even De La Soul. Nas has had a hell of a renaissance too, he's begun to shed the industry pressure to conform. Pure genius.

[Mighty_Hero]

Sugar Hill Gang