1) alive.
2) prolific.
3) relevant.
4) talented.
1. Obie Trice
Detroit is filled with great rappers, but perhaps none have the raw talent of O. Trice. His flows are unparalleled and his wordplay never gets boring. A platinum-selling artist, the two albums he dropped on shady records are classics, especially Second Round's On Me. The mixtapes he did with DJ Whoo Kidd are equally impressive. Not to mention he's as real as they come. Now that he's free from Interscope's stifling bureaucracy, he can pursue his own projects, so hopefully we'll be getting a lot more product from him in the future. Look for his album Bottom's Up to drop on his new Worldwide Hustle label this year.
I put together a tape of some of his rarer tracks:
2. Eminem
Remember what I said about Detroit? The white boy always brings the pain, and is the closest thing the game has to a relevant legend since Jay-Z got bored and started watching movies. Em's production slowed to a faint trickle through all his rehab business, but the new album (Relapse, for those of you who live under rocks) is slated for May and with public anticipation bubbling over, the next rapper on this list is about to learn a thing or two about record sales. To prepare yourself for the new Em, check out some rare old Em--his first LP with some funky beats and a laid back flow that marks the time before he rapped about the occult:
3. Lil Wayne
People love to hate on this guy, which shows you just how big he's become. Y'all know his story by now. Personally I think he's a fascinating experiment--literally raised by the Hip-Hop industry. The formula worked after over a decade of solid grind, and Weezy went multi-plat despite a leaked album. Tha Carter 1 & 2 are classics and dude produces music at Makavelli speeds, showing no sign of slowing. I don't think people can deny it anymore; he's a game changer. The ante has been upped for every rapper operating in the age of the Internet. The latest to leak:
4. Mikkey Halsted
This list just keeps building on itself. Wayne cited this dude as one of his biggest influences--moreso than Gille The Kid, who claimed to have ghostwritten for Weezy. Mikkey's story is an interesting one. Kanye did his demo tape and they were both signed by Cash Money, but Yeezy dipped off to The Roc and fame at the last minute. Mikkey, meanwhile, who was slated to be Juvi's replacement, recorded a lot of tracks that got locked away in a vault by the much maligned Birdman. He's back, though, and is more poetic than anyone out there. He's more than buzzworthy in the Chi, and when his No ID-produced Chicago: The Photo Album sees release on a major label in the near future, dude's gonna blow up. Till then, check out his flawless mixtape:
5. Plies
If you think my list loses credibility by including this man, you can go curl up in your bed and cry about your favorite genre while you listen to Nas through expensive headphones. Plies is hot, he's getting some of the most interesting production around right now and he released three full-length studio albums in a year and a half (Definition of Real is my personal fav). Some chide him for his often monosyllabic rhyming, but I think he's really coming into his own. No one does charming, levelheaded vulgarity like this guy. His earliest records are bangers:
There's more to come. Production's next.
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1 comment:
You know I love to see you writing about rap music, homie, but what kinda crazy Detroit powder have people been slipping into your drinks? :)
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