My ex used to love this guy

My all time favourite has always been Akhenaton. He's got a real solid flow, a slight lisp and some kick ass lyrics.
Saw NTM live a few years ago and those old geezas still got it.

Check out "French The Kid"
Straight fire!

ouid

MC Solar - hands down the best french rapper ever!

Cane here to say this!

As everything this is a matter of taste, I do not consider that my country is really a rap nation but we had some good ones in 90's / 2000's like IAM, Fonky Family La Rumeur, Alibi Montana....
Another example

I like section d' assaut. It's like gangsta pop. MC solaar for the old skool

Pour les old schools

Booba! 🇫🇷

I see the obvious MC Solaar mentioned a few times already. How about L'skadrille?

For crew, maybe 357 MP.

It's been a long time since I've delved into that scene, other than listening to Chilla in recent years.

oui!

Old school: NTM, Assassin, triptick, peauple d'herb, IAM...

For their skills: sain supa krew, cut killer

New scholl... C2C

Rockin'squat (or RCKNSQT), former and leader of the the group "assassin". A legend!
Also, IAM, and Fabe (from the "scred connexion" group)

IAM and all the solo projects (Akhenaton/Shurik'n), Orelsan, Caribbean Dandee....

Im always looking for new french rap. I love it...but i dont speak French, so i never know the song names haha

French the kid 🙌

Very Old Skool

Despo rutti 2000-2009

Kerry James
Shurik'n
Lim
Sefyu

I know a lot of ones , all new school But imo best French rapper is Sofiane. His song Tout le monde...

Rick Rubin changed my life - or at least had a big influence on my musical taste. I vividly remember hearing Slayer's Reign in Blood for the first time back in '87. I was gobsmacked! 28 minutes of total mayhem - it never occured to me you were allowed to do that on a record! Along with Electric by The Cult, and Licensed to Ill by the Beastie Boys, to name but a few, he has helped provide the soundtrack to much of my life.

and an original member of the beastie boys

Did I miss Mars Volta on that list? Top 3 Rick Rubin

Also Yeezus, System’s first album and One Hot Minute top tier.

I got hooked onto hip hop when I first PE LP and Ice Cube's Amerikkka's Most Wanted got released, so a long ass time ago. I think Rubin worked on Fear Of The Black Planet with PE. Their first 5 LPs are classics in my library

when u see rick rubin for the first time you would never think he produces rap albums

he is indeed a musical genius!

i come across Rick Rubin on the magna carter documentary

how does rick rubin compare to scott storch?

Not a fan of Scott Storch. In the words of Timbaland: 'you just a piano man'

Me neither.. hahah just a piano man. Indeed! He had a few true bangers in his heyday tho...

seriously

Uk rap is rap, US rap is rap, rap is music, music is a form of artistic expression and therefore subjective. In other words one is not “better” than the other.

Having DJ’d hip hop for 20 years and created it myself for about the same length of time I’ve seen a fair amount or music referred to as rap. Even within the UK we have drill, boom bap, grime, r&b/soul influenced rap, garage and drum and bass. All of the above include rap (some more than others) and all are valid forms of expression.

Personally I’m a sucker for more boom bap leaning hip hop. Musically linked to the 90s/early 2000s but there’s plenty of modern day stuff out there and plenty of UK stuff that equals US stuff for me in terms of quality, with subject matter I can better relate to.

Just a few examples of my tastes:
Pretty much anything put out on High Focus records
Pretty much anything put out on Blah records
Pretty much anything produced by The Alchemist
Griselda

dead players in the house

I can’t stand west side gun though his annoying voice and stupid gun noises. Sounds like a little boy. Brings down Griselda as a whole. Benny and Conway are fire though I just think the thug shit has past its sell by date. I’ll listen to 50, big L pun and prodigy if I want the thug shiz. Can’t beat it. But Harry shotta on drum n bass destroys 99% of all rappers across all genres. The guys a monster.

Boom boom boom boom!!! how can you not like Westside.

I can't even listen to American shit any more, not even the old stuff that used to be good. UK rap shits all over the US, Americans just aren't with it at all.

the US stuff has turned very hollywood, non of it seems real or relatable anymore

True. Unless all you care about is women, money, getting shot, cars and simplistic bars. Nothing intelligent to hear there. Move on. Whenever I hear America rap now, I always think to myself, imagine this in British accent... and it instantly becomes shit, technically and artistically.

US all the time. The amount of UK rap people have tried to get me to like... Just awful.

American for me..just the vibes are a lot better and authentic

yess pistach <3 totally agreed

CANNOT RELATE TO US RAP ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT UK FOR ME FROM SKINNYMAN TO THAT DRILL STUFF.

Uk rap for me personally mate

You've called it, the era of UK rap is upon us

is that even a question? i thought they didnt have hard drugs here

American rap has always taken first place, the amount of quality American rappers is a lot, and also guys like K-dot, J.cole... (just some examples), you can't really find their UK equivalent. However, British rap is much better nowadays, Dave for example is one of my fav rappers, so young but so talented his ceiling is incredible. I also think J Hus, Aj Tracey, Skeps, Giggs and Kano are fantastic rappers, but there is much less of quality British rappers for me personally. Like I can list of more American rappers that I like than British rappers. I'm not a HUGE fan of Drake, but a lot of credit to him for making British rap a lot more popular in the US + worldwide. But at the moment the one rapper I see breaking through to American heights of rappers is Dave, so so talented, and he has a natural knack for instruments. He also loves listening to movie soundtracks and different music as he finds it inspiring which I thought was really cool. Shows that he has a keen eye for production as well.

They are both good I listen to both

Although slowthai is a rapper, I think calling Doorman a rap song is a gross misclassification! It's way more punk/post-punk imo. Fantastic song though.

awesome track, thanks

Thirded. Incredible album. Somehow manages to starts off an instant classic AND be a grower. It's very special. His look, style and content deserves so much recognition. I saw Tinchie comment on his Insta saying he was the best of British right now so hopefully that's the start of him snowballing his way into the hearts of minds of rap fans across the country and beyond.

Standout track for me is Pat Earrings, which I'd already played roughly 1000x before the album came out. That use of 80's horror synth is just something else. Feel like I'm listening to quality rap while trying to escape the monster from It Follows

I second this, my favourite track keeps changing every week and to me that's a sign of a top album.
This week it's 'Sugar Free' for me! I hope Cas will be around for ages but after listening to the lyrics on that album, it doesn't sound great :(

Great track, it takes you all over the place. The album feels like real master piece to me. Nothing quite like it

I get you man, it truly is a masterpiece. There's something really special about Cas, for me it's his ability to spit over pretty much any kinda beat and he'll make it his own.
Like this one in the link above, over one of my favourite 80s songs ever.

Yeah man he sounds at home in there very impressive. I have the vinyl on the way, should be fun

Banging album! Always rated Cas

Not mentioned yet we need DOOM and Mac Miller.

Oder Falco.

reeeeeemix

You need to throw big pun in the mix for sure.

100% needs to be there, I’d put Pun and Big as my Number 1’s personally.

sad to add DMX here

For me Dilla, Doom and Guru are the most important, Biggie may be the best, 2pac the most polarizing. Shock G & Trugoy were heartbreakers...

Sean P, ODB, Phife, Prodigy, Bushwick, Biz, Darkman X, Gift Of Gab, CPO, too many man

Solid list but I’d put Pac above Biggy. East vs West and preference aside, lyrically-speaking, I think 2pac is notch above Big.

tupac had the charisma of a rock star and gravitas of a rebel leader. a great story teller but not as great as mr wallace i think and puffys beats are more consistent than the work of tupac's producers.

Puffy's beats?! lol

puffys samples

Yeah. And anything that Puffy “produced” was made by someone else. Don’t get me wrong, puff daddy was a producer but only in the sense he brought the ingredients together... the ingredients being MCs and producers. The majority of stuff that came out on BadBoy records was produced by The Hitmen (featuring legendary producer Easy Mo Bee) of which he did head up but as more of an organiser than anything else.

Easy Mo Bee is a bad motherfucker and I don't think many realise his scope over the years, Always give daps to anyone that brings him up

peace

Gotta love the one douchebag (Itche) who downvotes but adds absolutely nothing to the discussion. If you’re going to downvote (a comment of personal opinion of all things), at least add to the discussion by posting your own opinion why you disagree.

I don't think downvoting a post when you're too busy to reply makes you a douchebag. Ease up a bit man, a downvote is hardly a slap in the chops now is it? Spark an L and chill.

As for reasoning it's quite simple. Biggie is respected far more widely as a lyricist than Pac. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy Tupac more than Biggie or anyone else for that matter. Music is subjective and what appeals to one person may not to another. That's the beauty of it!

I find the list above massively lacking anyway and it blows my mind that Pac and Biggie get almost singled out as the greatest dead rappers. As Nowherematt mentions bellow there's not even a mention of MF DOOM at all or....
Big Pun, Prodigy, Phife, GURU (?!), Sean Price, Dilla, Heavy D, Adam Yauch.

The influence the guys above had on hip hop is absolutely insane.

Yours sincerely
Dr Douchebag

Enjoying this new album a lot, one of my early favourites.

Great album.

Love it 💜💚

Edit: Video seems to have disappeared🤷🏻‍♂️

.. slipped away

Where have I heard this before... oh yeah Gorillaz

No contest for me but understand if people got into him later. Slip Shady and Marshall Mathers LPs got me through some tough times! Low down and dirty on slim shady EP is one of my all time favourites. Really liked Relapse but nothing else had really grabbed me in last 15 years I’d say. Personal opinion!

old eminem and d12 are my all time favourites

I think Slim Shady LP is one of the best rap albums ever, but he lost me as a fan with that purple pills, dressing like michael jackson, bizarre rubbing his tummy in the video s##t!

Yeah the actual rapping gets better at times and the production stays awesome even without Dre the thing that surprised me was the videos got worse.

Old! Undoubtedly

old Eminem was edgy and cool for the time. plus he was white so he had that going for him. nowadays he just comes across as too whiny and political. even though I don't disagree with much of what he has to say. when I listen to music I like to chill and be entertained. not have political messages lazily thrown at me.

“Infinite” says old Eminem is not new Eminem

Old Eminem, but Kamikaze is an epic album

only song i can play on the piano

YES i thought of meth straight away i see tha oldheads are strong on biggy!!!

Thought of this the minute I saw the thread

Fat Joe scored Ashanti

A love story for the ages...

Bigg up

Fenchurch St by KwolleM - romantic but bittersweet about a failed connection. Beautiful track.

another shout - Makeba by Aceyalone.

She Swallowed It - N.W.A

🤣

😂😂 maximum romantic 😂

RIP Keith E (Guru) - Legend in this thing.

I used to luv her
Mistakes of a woman in love with other men
Maxine
Put it in my mouth
Treat her like a prostitute
How to break up with your girlfriend

i like Cudi

😁