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A Beginner's Hip Hop Playlist

40 points by zmatilsky 9y ago

lawrencewu 9y ago
Nice playlist! Shameless plug, but you can also check out a collection of my favorite songs on my Juicebox: http://www.juicebox.dj/lawrence http://www.juicebox.dj/lawrence It's mostly hip-hop, deep house, and experimental music.
patresi 9y ago
Upvoted this only because I feel that hiphop is a genre that doesn't appeal much to the hacker news crowd, which, from my experience, is more focused on metal, electronic or classic. Good playlist but ultimately (and predictably) incomplete
rohan_ 9y ago
This is more of a meta-comment, but is this being upvoted because it's on github? I think this is a great list, but there are many similar to it not hosted on github.
- grzm 9y ago
  I'd say it's being upvoted because people think it's a good list. I don't recall seeing other such lists submitted to HN (which doesn't mean there haven't been, just that my memory's not perfect and I haven't seen every submission), and what hasn't been submitted can't be upvoted. I don't think where it's hosted has anything to do with it.
bebop22 9y ago
This is a really shitty intro to hip hop. Clearly the author is like 16 years old as he neglected to include anything pre-1996 except Sabotage.
- satori99 9y ago
  Not to mention, it's all rap. There is plenty of quality instrumental hip-hop that deserves a mention. Entroducing (1996) by DJ Shadow remains one of my all time favs. I believe it may even have been the very first album composed entirely from samples* edit: * Wikipedia doesn't say it was the first.
- dagw 9y ago
  he neglected to include anything pre-1996 Why is that a bad thing? If I, as someone who knows nothing about the genre, wants to find out what it's all about, isn't it better to start with contemporary bands that are still active so that I can get a feel for the current state of the hip hop scene? All else being equal, I prefer to discover new bands that are still putting out material and touring to discovering 'new' bands where the last member died 1998.
- sdnguyen90 9y ago
  The 90's era was great but is extremely overrated. IMO the 90's doesn't come close to the 2000's and 2010's and I grew up on the 90's.
- tdb7893 9y ago
  What songs would you suggest for that time period?
- MaddAgent 9y ago
  It's not totally terrible, but I do think its lacking without some Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul or maybe even The Roots for example - its quite Rap based and Rap != HipHop.
  - zmatilsky 9y ago
    Good suggestions, definitely all worth checking out.
- huac 9y ago
  Nobody, let alone a hip hop beginner, should be subjected to Joey Bada$$.
  - trisomy21 9y ago
    His last album included collaborations with some of the most legendary producers in rap/hip hop including Statik Selektah, DJ Premiere, and the Roots. In fact, the Roots collab featured a previously lost beat from J. Dilla, another legend. It's a strong album that any true fan of the genre would appreciate. He's also a great sonic and lyrical bridge between the 90s style and modern day. His current album features Schoolboy Q, Styles P, and J.Cole, among others, and is unabashedly political and, at times, quite poignant. I just wanted to reply to your comment so people wouldn't be influenced by your uninformed opinion. In many ways, people who reminisce about the 90s and think rap/hip hop has changed too much or died, might be reinvigorated by Joey. I also challenge you to give him another listen :)
oliyoung 9y ago
It's skewed heavily to really really new stuff (and they're on the money with Kendrick, Chance, J Cole) but … https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qpbd-fHbMyfWXlWPRA_XfgzYayc8cIjn8J9CuL-aNpE/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qpbd-fHbMyfWXlWPRA_X... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ewEzXRHj8LGvUB3g9QbnIK_m89I2Q5Y2LzsgqKOG6Xg/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ewEzXRHj8LGvUB3g9Qbn... The best place to start is https://reddit.com/r/hiphopheads https://reddit.com/r/hiphopheads
- muuck 9y ago
  Lists can't cover everything, even your best albums list is lacking. Where for example are Critical Beatdown, Hard to Earn, Stunts Blunts and Hip Hop, 2000, Paid in Full, Funcrusher Plus, Unfinished Business, Breaking Atoms on that list?
  - oliyoung 9y ago
    not my list, that's the standard response in r/hhh to the same question
x4nt 9y ago
I would have liked to see less mainstream artists and more underground artists. Hip hop, by definition, at least to me, is more of an underground culture evolving from jazz, funk and poetry. I also think most people have heard these songs because they are pretty widespread on the radio, like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Outkast, Drake, Beastie Boys... etc. A better introduction would be to move through different hip hop periods to show how the sound has evolved as the genre has matured, including artists that are actually in it for the art and not solely for the money.
- zmatilsky 9y ago
  Very fair criticism, I think when I was putting this together I went the mainstream route because I wanted to get broad appeal from people who had never even given the genre a chance, but thinking more about it your suggestions make a lot of sense (i.e. moving through different periods).
norea-armozel 9y ago
The list needs some Kool Keith, MF Doom, and Aesop Rock, but I'm biased.
- gatesphere 9y ago
  Yeah, the omission of Aes was pretty bad.
neilzo 9y ago
This is a decent list, though I'm not sure why Dave made it over Wu Tang or A Tribe Called Quest.
- zmatilsky 9y ago
  Wu Tang and Tribe definitely should've been included, bad oversight on my part... I included Dave more because I thought it would be interesting for people to see an international artist, not because I thought he was better than either of those groups. I guess I did have that covered with Skepta though.
Caveman_Coder 9y ago
I don't get why people use GitHub for their random lists of shit they like...
hfourm 9y ago
People being over critical here. Hip hop is great in all forms from underground to more popular artists, mumble to conscious. Not sure what your goal of putting this together and posting on HN was though.
- hfourm 9y ago
  Post edit: black thought is the GOAT though, how many rappers got a salaried day job on a talk show
  - zmatilsky 9y ago
    yeah I definitely should have had the roots on there, there were a few major omissions here that people have accurately pointed out. to answer your earlier question, no particular goal in sharing this on hn, just thought it would be fun to encourage people to listen to music that they may have avoided in the past and get feedback from hip hop fans.

40 points by zmatilsky 9y ago

Nice playlist! Shameless plug, but you can also check out a collection of my favorite songs on my Juicebox: http://www.juicebox.dj/lawrence http://www.juicebox.dj/lawrence It's mostly hip-hop, deep house, and experimental music.

patresi 9y ago

Upvoted this only because I feel that hiphop is a genre that doesn't appeal much to the hacker news crowd, which, from my experience, is more focused on metal, electronic or classic. Good playlist but ultimately (and predictably) incomplete

rohan_ 9y ago

This is more of a meta-comment, but is this being upvoted because it's on github? I think this is a great list, but there are many similar to it not hosted on github.

grzm 9y ago
I'd say it's being upvoted because people think it's a good list. I don't recall seeing other such lists submitted to HN (which doesn't mean there haven't been, just that my memory's not perfect and I haven't seen every submission), and what hasn't been submitted can't be upvoted. I don't think where it's hosted has anything to do with it.

bebop22 9y ago

This is a really shitty intro to hip hop. Clearly the author is like 16 years old as he neglected to include anything pre-1996 except Sabotage.

satori99 9y ago
Not to mention, it's all rap. There is plenty of quality instrumental hip-hop that deserves a mention. Entroducing (1996) by DJ Shadow remains one of my all time favs. I believe it may even have been the very first album composed entirely from samples* edit: * Wikipedia doesn't say it was the first.
dagw 9y ago
he neglected to include anything pre-1996 Why is that a bad thing? If I, as someone who knows nothing about the genre, wants to find out what it's all about, isn't it better to start with contemporary bands that are still active so that I can get a feel for the current state of the hip hop scene? All else being equal, I prefer to discover new bands that are still putting out material and touring to discovering 'new' bands where the last member died 1998.
sdnguyen90 9y ago
The 90's era was great but is extremely overrated. IMO the 90's doesn't come close to the 2000's and 2010's and I grew up on the 90's.
tdb7893 9y ago
What songs would you suggest for that time period?
MaddAgent 9y ago
It's not totally terrible, but I do think its lacking without some Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul or maybe even The Roots for example - its quite Rap based and Rap != HipHop.
- zmatilsky 9y ago
  Good suggestions, definitely all worth checking out.
huac 9y ago
Nobody, let alone a hip hop beginner, should be subjected to Joey Bada$$.
- trisomy21 9y ago
  His last album included collaborations with some of the most legendary producers in rap/hip hop including Statik Selektah, DJ Premiere, and the Roots. In fact, the Roots collab featured a previously lost beat from J. Dilla, another legend. It's a strong album that any true fan of the genre would appreciate. He's also a great sonic and lyrical bridge between the 90s style and modern day. His current album features Schoolboy Q, Styles P, and J.Cole, among others, and is unabashedly political and, at times, quite poignant. I just wanted to reply to your comment so people wouldn't be influenced by your uninformed opinion. In many ways, people who reminisce about the 90s and think rap/hip hop has changed too much or died, might be reinvigorated by Joey. I also challenge you to give him another listen :)

oliyoung 9y ago

It's skewed heavily to really really new stuff (and they're on the money with Kendrick, Chance, J Cole) but … https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qpbd-fHbMyfWXlWPRA_XfgzYayc8cIjn8J9CuL-aNpE/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qpbd-fHbMyfWXlWPRA_X... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ewEzXRHj8LGvUB3g9QbnIK_m89I2Q5Y2LzsgqKOG6Xg/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ewEzXRHj8LGvUB3g9Qbn... The best place to start is https://reddit.com/r/hiphopheads https://reddit.com/r/hiphopheads

muuck 9y ago
Lists can't cover everything, even your best albums list is lacking. Where for example are Critical Beatdown, Hard to Earn, Stunts Blunts and Hip Hop, 2000, Paid in Full, Funcrusher Plus, Unfinished Business, Breaking Atoms on that list?
- oliyoung 9y ago
  not my list, that's the standard response in r/hhh to the same question

x4nt 9y ago

I would have liked to see less mainstream artists and more underground artists. Hip hop, by definition, at least to me, is more of an underground culture evolving from jazz, funk and poetry. I also think most people have heard these songs because they are pretty widespread on the radio, like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Outkast, Drake, Beastie Boys... etc. A better introduction would be to move through different hip hop periods to show how the sound has evolved as the genre has matured, including artists that are actually in it for the art and not solely for the money.

zmatilsky 9y ago
Very fair criticism, I think when I was putting this together I went the mainstream route because I wanted to get broad appeal from people who had never even given the genre a chance, but thinking more about it your suggestions make a lot of sense (i.e. moving through different periods).

norea-armozel 9y ago

The list needs some Kool Keith, MF Doom, and Aesop Rock, but I'm biased.

gatesphere 9y ago
Yeah, the omission of Aes was pretty bad.

neilzo 9y ago

This is a decent list, though I'm not sure why Dave made it over Wu Tang or A Tribe Called Quest.

zmatilsky 9y ago
Wu Tang and Tribe definitely should've been included, bad oversight on my part... I included Dave more because I thought it would be interesting for people to see an international artist, not because I thought he was better than either of those groups. I guess I did have that covered with Skepta though.

Caveman_Coder 9y ago

I don't get why people use GitHub for their random lists of shit they like...

hfourm 9y ago

People being over critical here. Hip hop is great in all forms from underground to more popular artists, mumble to conscious. Not sure what your goal of putting this together and posting on HN was though.

hfourm 9y ago
Post edit: black thought is the GOAT though, how many rappers got a salaried day job on a talk show
- zmatilsky 9y ago
  yeah I definitely should have had the roots on there, there were a few major omissions here that people have accurately pointed out. to answer your earlier question, no particular goal in sharing this on hn, just thought it would be fun to encourage people to listen to music that they may have avoided in the past and get feedback from hip hop fans.