Alright, here's the groups/artists to look for:
Aceyalone-bar none, my favorite MC ever, especially when you listen to his "A Book of Human Language" album, I can't begin to understand how they used to call Biggie, Tupac, & Nas the greatest MC's ever
Freestyle Fellowship-Aceyalone's group consisting of him, Mikah 9, Self Jupiter & P.E.A.C.E. who all have there own albums out as well, but Acey'st still my favorite
Awol One-Deffinitly one of my favorite all time MC's, I'm actually supposed to do a song with him someday, if I ever put out an album of my own that is
, probably my favorite album of his is Soul Doubt, some of his stuff is really offbeat & an aquired taste
Shapeshifters-Awol One's group, most of them have solo albums, their best albums are Adopted By Aliens & Was Here especially if someone is not used to their wacky stuff, they're hilarious
Jurassic 5-my favorite "group" EVER, they're barbershop rhyming techniques are amazing
Visionaries-consisting of LMNO, 2Mex, Key Kool, Zen, Dannu, & DJ Rhettmatic who most of also have solo albums
Abstract Tribe Unique-it's mainly Abstract Rude rapping, & there's a couple other guys & a DJ Fat Jack
Acid Reign-they're really tight, but it's hard to find there stuff, I only found a cd of there's by chance at Amoeba's in Hollywood, I didn't even know they had a cd at the time, I haven't seen it anywhere else
Afu-Ra-especially his first album is tight, & both Gza & Masta Killa are on there! Speaking of which..
Gza-one of the dopest of the east coast, doesn't cuss his brains out, & keeps things intelligent
Master Killa-ditto!
Inspectah Deck-ditto again!
Akuma-one of my favorite Shapeshfiters, he only has 1 album AFAIK, & it's only on cdr, but it's a great album
Circus-another one of my absolute favorite Shapeshifters, he's proabably the wackiest of the bunch, but I may mention, they get pretty wacky
J-Live-probably my favorite east coast MC, he's kind of like an east coast Aceyalone, super tight!
Living Legends-which consist of Eligh, Scarub, Murs(aka 3 Meloncholy Gypsies), Sunspot Jonz & Lucky I Am/PSC(aka Mystik Journeymen), Asop(not Aesop Rock), The Grouch, Bicasso, & Arata(who, doesn't speak much english, mostly just japanese)
Blackalicious-1 MC Gift of Gab, another one of the dopest crew's ever, they're a part of Quannum with DJ Shadow, if you've heard of him
Latyrx-another dope Quannum crew, consists of Lyrics Born & Lateef the Truth Speaker who both have solo albums as well
L.A. Symphony-consisting of Pigeon John, Joey the Jerk, Flynn, & a bunch more I can't remember right now
Bus Driver-he's nuts, not just in how fast he rhymes, but about the hilarious things he rhymes about
Ugly Duckling-tight crew, kinda like Jurassic 5, but with more humor, their best album is Taste the Secret
Cali Agents-consisting of Rasco & Planet Asia, who both have solo albums
Capital D-who also has a group called All Natural, some really tight stuff out of Chicago
Heiroglyphics-consisting of Souls of Mischeif, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Pep Love, Casual, & a couple others that I'm forgetting
Deepspace 5
Dilated Peoples
Emanom
E Times 2
Existereo-one of the Shapeshifters
Freddy Bruno
Haiku D'etat-consists of Aceyalone, Abstract Rude, & Mikah 9
Ill Harmonics
Jeru the Damaja-atleast his first 2 albums, I haven't checked out his new stuff
Jizzm-don't let the name scare you, he's really tight, & btw, his name means that he gives life to hip hop, or atleast, that's what he told me a while back
Killah Priest-especially his Heavy Mental album, it's incredible!
Large Professor
Life Rexall-another Shapeshifter
Lootpack
L'Roneous
Mars Ill-another really incredible group, that I recently re-discovered, basically, I forgot how dope they were!
Phoenix Orion-who's a big sci fi nut, he told me he is doing a Transformers based album
Naptron-ditto
Peace 586
Playdough
Radioinactive-he's a kind of like a half member of Shapeshifters, most of his stuff is pretty wierd...in a good way
The Roots
Roundtable MC's
Subtitle-another kind of half Shapeshifter, really tight!
Those are the ones I can recomend the highest, in looking at my list of cd's, there's more you'd probably love, but, these are personal fav's. BTW, alot of those guys I've actually met, & they're all really down to earth people, not into the bling crap, infact, they hate it!
