Noname Gypsy-Hold Me Up

The only reason I found out about this song is because Chance posted about it on his Twitter because Noname Gypsy is also from Chicago and was in one of his songs. I heard this song and began to look into some of her stuff and recommend you to do. Noname gypsy is definitely one of the stronger rappers of the scarce amount female MC's.

True 2 Life Music-We Go

True 2 Life Music is a Brooklyn rap group that I honestly don't know much about, but their mixtape Black Gods Never Die was unexpectedly impressive.

Black Gods Never Die Download Link: http://www.djbooth.net/index/albums/review/true-2-life-music-black-gods-never-die

B.o.B.-So So

B.o.B. gets a lot of crap in the rap game, including a death threat from Tyler, the Creator. I don't think he's an elite rapper just because he's not the best lyricist, but he lost a lot of respect when he started making pop songs with Hayley Williams. This summer, I checked out his mixtapes No Genre and B.o.B. Vs Bobby Ray and for the most part I wasn't too impressed. However, there was one song that stood out thanks to Jim Jonsin's producing.

Mickey Factz-Paradise

The Bronx rapper probably reached his peak when he appeared in XXL's Freshman class of 2009, but he's got some good music.

Despot

Despot is a Queens rapper who has gained fame from his collaborations with El-P, but has hardly released any music of his own. He has yet to release an mixtape and there is currently no estimated date for the album drop. It's pretty pointless to even post this since there really isn't much Despot music to find, but he's an interesting MC to follow.

The Underachievers-The Proclamation

The Underachievers are a rap group from Flatbush, Brooklyn who hit mainstream success with their incredible mixtape, Indigioism. The Entreproducers also contribute to the project with their slow, mellow beats. The Underachievers have proven themselves to be one of the frontrunners in the Beast Coast movement as Dash and AK work more dynamically together than any other rap duo right now.

Indigoism Download Link: http://www.datpiff.com/The-Underachievers-Indigoism-mixtape.449545.html

Run The Jewels

Run The Jewels are a rap duo made up of Killer Mike and El-P and together they released the 2nd best mixtape of the year (Acid Rap GOAT). It's not the strongest lyrically and the it's only half an hour, but El-P's beats and both of the rappers flows make the album what it is.

Download Link: http://pitchfork.com/news/51324-download-killer-mike-and-el-ps-run-the-jewels-album/

N.E.R.D.-Rock Star

While N.E.R.D. and Pharrell were huge at a time, they seem to have been forgotten. I don't know a single kid my age who knows N.E.R.D, because they broke up right around when my generation was becoming old enough to actually do music research on their own. So in case you missed it, too...

Hieroglyphics

I found Hieroglyphics this summer right after I found A Tribe Called Quest and started exploring 90's rap. Their most notable member is Del the Funky Homosapien and pretty much every song they have released is good. 

Pusha T-Numbers on The Board

Pusha T, half of one of the greatest hip hop duos of all time, Clipse, has released two singles from his upcoming album My Name is My Name. The first of which is "Numbers on the Board" and the other being "Nosetalgia", both are equally great thanks to Kanye's producing
.

Kendrick Lamar-Cartoon & Cereal

Kendrick Lamar is indisputably one of the best rappers right now, maybe ever. He's definitely the best lyricist, as proven by his masterpiece good kid, m.A.A.d city. If you've only heard "Swimming Pools" and "m.A.A.d city", you need to download the album right now and listen from start to finish with the lyrics in front of you and then download Section.80, his previous album.

I really wanted an excuse to post about Kendrick and "Cartoon & Cereal" is it. This song came out after Section.80 but wasn't on good kid, m.A.A.d city, so it fell in between the cracks and a lot of people never found it. The song landed #2 on Complex's 50 best songs of 2012.

Macklemore

One of my goals for this blog is to help people discover artists they've never heard of, not just post new music when it comes out. Obviously, you've heard of Macklemore, his album just went platinum and "Thrift Shop" is 7x Platinum. It's awesome that he got so successful, but most people only know him for "Thrift Shop" and he's still never compared or mentioned when discussing the best MC's right now. Though it may not seem like it from "Thrift Shop", Macklemore writes some of the best lyrics in the game. His songs tell stories and, as you may have heard in "Same Love", he's not afraid to tackle controversial issues. Macklemore definitely isn't for everyone since his rapping style is so conversational, but you should definitely give his old stuff a chance.

"I Said Hey" isn't one of those songs where he tackles controversial issues (check "White Privilege", "Wing$", "Otherside"), but it remains my favorite Macklemore song.

The Dirty Heads

At the moment, it looks like this blog will be predominantly Hip-Hop/Rap, but it's not exclusive to that genre. The blog will change as my music taste does. That being said, one genre that I used to listen to nonstop was reggae-rock (think Sublime). While I don't listen to the genre that often anymore, mainly because it was difficult to find good artists, my favorite band of all time is still a reggae-rock band: The Dirty Heads. It's a group made up of 5 guys from So-Cal they are definitely the best band in the genre right now.

Intro

If you asked, I couldn't really tell you why I started this blog. I don't really care about how many hits I get, all I know is that I have way too much hubris in my music taste and I hate sitting on an artist that I like. Everything I post on here will be based on my tastes in music and opinions.

I thought I'd start my first blog post out with my favorite artist: Chance The Rapper. If you haven't downloaded the Acid Rap mixtape yet, do it now.

Download Link: http://www.datpiff.com/Chance-The-Rapper-Acid-Rap-mixtape