one thing that helps making writing about random coefficients and insurance contracts more enjoyable is listening to hardcore gangster rap. one gripe i have with rap / hip hop though is that there just isn't enough of what i enjoy, and the new guys just aren't as good as the current or older ones.
so i've taken it upon myself to find some more hip hop that will help me get through the doldrums of thesis writing, and now i will present that research to you.
usually these kinds of lists preface themselves with some line like, "if you like ___, then you'll love ___!" but in reality, i like the originals better than these new guys i am suggesting. but as i said, the volume these OG's put out just isn't enough to satisfy my needs. so here it is:
if you love: t.i.
then you'll like: pill
while t.i. goes on his year and a day hiatus in some cushy prison cell (think avon barksdale in the wire: kfc, playstation, hardcore criminals stopping their softball game so he can walk by...), someone's gotta take the throne as king of atl. well i'll tell you right now it's not pill. i don't know much about this guy and i don't care. but he put out a mixtape with some random ass producer (dj burn one..?) and let me tell you, pill sounds a lot like t.i.. he even cops some of his beats to exhibit his above-average lyrical skills. some of the songs are pretty bad, but most of them are listenable to good. so overall, pill's mixtape is worth a free download.
if you love: young jeezy
then you'll like: gorilla zoe
if t.i. is the king of atlanta, jeezy is the king of the trap. the snowman's flow is dark, scary and very addictive. befitting for a guy whose made his career flaunting his drug lord street cred. and the thing is, i think he's just getting better and better. i s2 young jeezy. if young is what you want, then young is what you getting... with the same ominous tone and life-threatening raps of gorilla zoe. that's zoe as in alonzo... not sure where that extra e came from. must be from all the beans he's poppin while he's all day trappin. like jeezy, zoe's flow is infectious and straightforward, though with a bit less character (and originality). what he lacks though is the star-studded production staff that backs dr. jeezy, though some of his songs are catchy as hell.
if you love: kanye
then you'll like: drake
you may have heard drizzy drake on the radio in one of two top 40 hits: the single "best i ever had" and as a feature on young money's "every girl." consider the latter: "what are all your names, again? we drunk, remind us/ are any of ya'll into girls like i am - lesbi-honest..." as an emcee, drake is 100 times better than yeezy. as a singer, drake is 1000 times better. he looks like a cheezy rnb star as it is, and he's a self-proclaimed workaholic who doesn't like the club scene. when he goes off on an introspective rap, he points out nuances about his insecurities that most people wouldn't realize they had. example: "transitioning from fitting in to standing out/ watchin Hov's show, embarrassed to pull my camera out." subtle and poignant.
his singles out right now are good, but don't be fooled... drake is for real.
if you love: outkast
then you'll like: hollyweerd
outkast has a special place in any self-respecting hip hop fan's heart, and i find it a bit odd that their influence isn't reaching a lot of emcees these days. in fact it's hard to find a quality hip hop "group" now, and even outkast is a once-in-a-while reunion of big boi and 3 stacks (more on him later).
there is one group of fellow atliens that are stepping into the void of genre-bending, catchy hip hop once occupied by 'kast. who am i kidding, outkast is still the best. but hollyweerd is next on the list. they're a quartet of emcees that blend hip hop, jazz and indie rock into something that's actually listenable. normally when you genre-blend everything together, what you get is some cheezy self-righteous world-music crap. hollyweerd though hits the right tone of fun-loving rappers who happen to like jazz and indie rock. and best of all, they don't rap about how hip hop is dead; they almost exclusively rap about atlanta.
if you love: andre 3000
then you'll like: b.o.b.
this is an anticlimactic ending to this list. in reality, if you love 3 stacks then you should listen to some old lil wayne if you haven't already. weezy wants andre's balls so badly it's sad, and while wayne is bar-none in lyrical creativity, he just doesn't have the musical chops or sensibility to match 3k.
the artist formerly known as b.o.b., or bobby ray, is an up and comer from atl who sounds just like andre when he raps. that and their atl connection may be the only thing that you can compare, but see for yourself. he's got several mixtapes and a proper album coming out this year.
*****
i'd post individual songs to illustrate what i'm talking about but this has taken too long... also, if the links don't work, you'll have to just do your own searching. but so as not to leave you emptyhanded, i'll give you a dirty south sampler which features pretty much all these guys. except for kanye. and.... forgive the oceans 7 song, though some may find it too catchy to pass up despite dupri's "rap".
tracklist:
1 Funkin Around Outkast
2 Seat Down Low Lil Wayne
3 Hollie Oillie (Focus) Hollyweerd
4 Wasted (Feat. Plies) Gucci Mane
5 Shooter Lil Wayne
6 Throw Some D's Remix
7 What It Is Gorilla Zoe
8 Poppin Them Bottles (Featuring Currency & Mac Maine) Lil Wayne
9 The Art Of Storytellin' Part 4 feat. Outkast & Marsha Ambrosius DJ Drama
10 what you know T.I.
11 Hypnotize (Produced By Shawty Redd) Young Jeezy
12 Im Goin In f. Lil Wayne & Young Jeezy [NoDJ] Drake
13 Wheres The Love Oceans 7
14 International Players Anthem Outkast
15 Super Fresh T.I.
16 Pro Nails (Rusko Rmx) Hollyweerd
17 Where The Cash At Lil Wayne
18 On The Corner f Sean Kingston Gorilla Zoe
19 Streets On Lock (Produced By Cool N Dre) Young Jeezy
20 Georgia Bush Lil Wayne
