Haha DOOM is like aesop rock. His rhymes are bullshit.

Dare I say Ghostface?

i liked the Roots around the time of their live album, now they're the most pop that hip hop can get - great musicians, but i just don't dig it anymore... too much John Legend vibe

there's not really anything i think i SHOULD like though... but there tends to be a lot of difference between what i mean when i say i like hip hop, and what my (white, european ; ) friends mean when they say they like hip hop

i'd like to use this moment to ask white people who like hip hop to please get over how great Talib Kweli was/is... you're just afraid to try something new.

Ooh, mad baiting right there! Let me be the first whitey to say I never got what others like about Kweli. Decent voice & ok delivery but his words are shockers! That Raw Shit track on the Jaylib album is embarassing...

no, you musn't..........and i don't really like comin down on people doin their thing, even if its somethin i'm not down with, so lots of dudes get a pass, just not into my headphones and car stereos, but i will say aesop crew has never really fully appealed to me, i can always dig a few tracks but they make it way to intense for me, i mean i guess they are advancing an artform and doin somethin different which i am all about, but for my listenin pleasure??? naaaah i'm straight.......oh shit and technique, that dude definitely doesn't get any pass from me, i don't care what he's progressing or doin different or ill, i can't stand his style of rapping and the things he chooses to say, not what i'm lookin to listen to at all, i fuckin hate kids that tried to embrace hip hop and ended up with technique and put on dance with the devil like its a cool song to listen to with your buddies

Being musical and talented defeats the purpose of being a musician? Interesting.

For me it's MF Doom. He was hard back when he was Zev Love X, but now he just mumbles some shit over good beats.

Not a musician - but a Hip-Hop artist - The roots don't incorporate the whole science of a drum machine - sampling -> They're too good they got they're own melodies, own drummer. That's more like jazz to me, which is dope, but Jazz is something I listen to (and like) so I can sample it and make Hip-Hop. All my opinion, I was trying to explain to my man the other day and he thought i was crazy haha.

yeah but questlove knows his shit and they has definitely used samples in the past, i mean they are best known as being this live band, but quest came up with all the big names makin beats the old fashioned way and was real tight with a bunch of dudes including dilla, you always catch him talkin about the complexities of the way he would cut up breaks and his programming skills and shit, he definitely knows whats up and is just as well versed in crate diggin as the next producer, but i'm not too familiar with their album and song history, i mean i got songs i dig by them but i've never taken the time to "master" their catalog, so i can't reference songs, breaks, samples and shit, although i do believe they've definitely done alot more live instrumentation than sampling.......

the red bull music academy vid of quest is real dope, i remember him talkin about how real early on he was a drummer and his man would ask him to play some ill break used in a hip hop song and refer to it as the (insert hip hop song) break and quest would be like, i just thought of it as the headhunters break cause thats what i knew it as

they actually have... Questo uses a 2kxl to trigger sounds when hes playing and he also flips beats... i dont know why they dont get released as much but he does pay homage to hip hop by sampling...

he says he tries to play like he's a drum machine... and ive been a listener sonce the early 90's when proceed first aired on rap city...

i cosign the immortal tech shit. . .fuck that dude. . .i dont wanna hear all that political nonsense, if u hear him freestyle he cant rap about anything else

cant stand vinnie paz's in your face shit either

del- although i like plenty of his music. . .goddamn stop ranting about nothing. . .seriously try to find one del line that makes sense or is dope. . .the only one i can think of is "time for me is nothing cuz im counting no age" but everything else is nonsense

atmosphere sucks. . .liked them in high school but then i grew a dick lol
and i also dont like blueprint's rapping but do like soul position

as for mine, idk i like living legends but the grouch raps about dumb ass shit!

I'm always down for some Living Legends. "Blast your Radio" is classic.

Oh yeah..I'm s'pose to be saying what I DON'T like...in that case, I have to agree that Del is unbearable to listen to, his proteges Souls of Mischief are much better despite only a couple of releases in that past 17 years!

So guys in the 80s who made their beats on drum machines and synths, no samples, was that not hiphop? I think there can be a fine line between genres, like does Erykah Badu do hiphop, soul, jazz? Either way I think the roots are sick.

Immortal Tech is good, but it gets old very quickly, same delivery the whole time. Check out Lowkey, UK version in that he spits alot of political shit but in my opinion he's better cos he can do other things aswell eg...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhrYQrLBiTQ

I came off as saying Roots aren't Hip-Hop. I don't mean that, I was merely trying to justify why I just don't feel the Roots (It's hard to explain your ears). I'm just sayin the Roots are a group I SHOULD like (everyone loves them clearly lol) and I don't.

Bingo on talib kwali. I feel like he's the rapper that people whip out to let everyone know they're into "underground" hip hop, and meanwhile his shit is lame as fuck

Man everybodys bringin some really good ones I completely forgot about...

And I swear I'm not trying to be controversial here but...

DE LA SOUL!

I hate to even bring up the race thing but I feel like a krackas (I'm "white") looove to pull out the de la soul thing to show how "down" they are but de la's shit imho is so repetetive and booooring

.

I love me some De La but, I agree to an extent. I love Buloon and Stakes is High for the laid back vibe but I can only handle it in small doses. I see "heads" all the time talkin De La this and De La that just because they feel it makes them credible or some shit. I guess that goes with many other rap acts as well, like Kweli mentioned above and Madlib in a HUGEway.