Boards

Try Aesop Rock, Passage, Restiform Bodies, Sage Francis, Beans, Pedestrian, Alias, Sole, Kill The Vultures, Oddjobs, Clouddead, Cannibal Ox, MF Doom, Busdriver, Themselves, Mr Lif, Murs, Subtle, Atmosphere. And Outkast, obv. You'll have a blast.

Alias, Sole, Clouddead, Cannibal Ox, Themselves, Subtle, Pre 2005 Why?, MC Pitman (funny)

It's not rap, but RJD2's Deadringer is absolutely ace too.

sensational
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYiaIdFISxQ

http://clppng.bandcamp.com/album/midcity
Noisy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVUyyHYkBHk

Eyedea & Abilities
Dalek

Disappointed.

http://grindcorekaraoke.com/album/human-hallucinogen

http://jomrapstar.bandcamp.com/

autistic outsider rapper, genuinely moving/depressing stuff sometimes...

http://chondriticsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38572

That's me life right there. Asperger's is shit.

Going to check the thread... peeping anti-con stuff out right now...wow... sick

along similar lines, but in italian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ly8E32q-F4

i suppose kool keith is kinda like the father of all this stuff.

check him out if you haven't already.

But lets be clear, there's nothing even remotely weird about Joey Bada$$

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMI3HnaX4r4

for Dalek

I think of 'weird' as more of a production thing? Eminem's is pretty straight up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFSwxKJPIYw
still sounds gr8

come on, you're out there, bring it if you got it

I think of it lyrically as well, just the whole package really, he's a much weirder figure than Joey Bada$$, or he was initially at any rate.

because of how twisted it gets.

It's all opinion though :-)

Yo... in actuality that was a bad reference... because really he is playing off the old style which makes him pretty "norm" .. I guess I was just naming people I liked and to me he is really new :P

Someone Pm'd me Blue Flowers by his alias Dr octagon. lol. Amazing

lol... prepare... they are coming!

Actually nothing pretentious yet... i'm pleasantly surprised

http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4422491

But whatever people can like it if they want. I just get annoyed when people dismiss mainstream hip-hop when the reality is it's produced far more fucked up, weird and experimental music than Anticon or some other lame 'alternative' label.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoKjrfi-s30

http://mishkanyc.bandcamp.com/album/808s-dark-grapes-ii

...and affiliates like:

Deniro Farrar & Shady Blaze

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ed4N9W1MDk

http://denirofarrar.bandcamp.com/album/kill-or-be-killed

100s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhRuFhcfTK8

http://dreamcollabo.bandcamp.com/album/ice-cold-perm-2

Mondre Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvaIyhBL1mM

http://dreamcollabo.bandcamp.com/album/m-a-n

or freaks like...

Lil Ugly Mane

http://youtu.be/-mcfBLoQS0A

http://liluglymane.bandcamp.com/album/mista-thug-isolation

you are the hater

http://pitchfork.com/news/49340-download-pusha-ts-wrath-of-caine-mixtape/

Surprisingly short, hooky and like, good. Not 'weird' per se, but this guy is pretty much out of the mainstream now (the odd guest verse aside) and he sounds like he's having fun here.

Is that cause what I posted is kind of noise'ish?

There's a soul and Motown covers album by Vinnie Jones, you'll be enriched to learn.

King Louie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeqqHUsnq7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbMPVO8XGrE

Gunplay
http://youtu.be/WHMkcnPCQ7M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phvq_bQ0lY8

Gonna post them anyway cos they're prob weird if you only hear Joey Badass, EL-P or something and they're the best in the game right now if you ask me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9UHcRrCWlI
this is Andy Cole's single

will check out Vincent Jones' music soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ2eF0kcsrg

fake four are a pretty decent label as well - cheschi, factor, myka 9, sadistik and the like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdGCtf1cUjE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrh1gNCygXo

can't get enough of young fathers at the moment either

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPzQh8ml900

and here's some really nice free stuff from emay

http://ivanemay.bandcamp.com/

http://emay.bandcamp.com/

Kind of when you criticize people for the exact behavior your involved in. What is wrong with the video I posted? - http://youtu.be/C9qSKPDRTuE

Tons of good suggestions so far. Dalek is dope

in the end I think I didn't like rap, just because whats on the radio and such... when I dug a little deeper i've found a lot that I like

if I revived that how pissed would everyone be?

I bump old threads all the time as long as I have something interesting to add.

But Subtle's For Hero For Fool record is really good even today. I don't know if it's really rap though. Or even hip hop.

El-P is great, check out Company Flow who were his previous group. And then get the Cannibal Ox record which he produced and is probably the best thing his name is on. The Killer Mike record he produced last year is really great too, but don't stop there. Mike's been rapping for years and he's done some great tracks, have a little search on youtube and dig into his back catalogue a little. Never Scared and Ready Set Go are particular favourites for me.

I agree a bit with what's said up thread about people being too quick to dismiss mainstream stuff as boring and ordinary; but I'm not as vehemently anti backpacker rap as some in here. There's good and bad stuff on both sides, find the diamonds amongst the rough.

But for mainstream hip hop of recent years Lil Wayne's Da Drought 3 is essential and free (in spite of whatever shite he's put out of late) and you don't get more fucked up than that when you think about it. His voice is beyond weird. Second Gunplay and King Louie as well, Gucci Mane (older stuff) , Pill, Freddie Gibbs (older stuff) and Yelawolf are all great too. I'm a bit out of the loop but I've also just heard Chief Keef which was pretty mindblowing too.

I love everything Main Attraktionz are associated as well, you can get a lot of that stuff free via mixtapes etc.

so dope

but only because of his context. he's good because he's just doing what the fuck he wants to do.
his flow is absolutely nothing like anyone else's.

^definitely this. think i prefer the original though ;;;;)

<3 this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnDcnCdaOhI

and they weren't even on anticon!

Style over substance

Then Why?, if only for Elephant Eyelash and Alopecia. Think I even perfer Hymie's Basement to cLOUDDEAD tbh.

Unicorns were horses

EXCEPT for this song, which I would classify as weird:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am-np-pNhHo

There's nothing weird about it, for two.

who runs FakeFour has released three great solo albums. One of them is here: http://fakefour.bandcamp.com/album/the-one-man-band-broke-up

The last Astronautalis album was pretty good too. http://fakefour.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-our-science

Penny, who has released two really hard to find CD-Rs and a recent free download on FakeFour is also amazing. http://fakefour.bandcamp.com/album/twenties-hungry-the-unbound-anthems-of-yesteryear

And finally another vote for cLOUDDEAD. Their EP compilation is one of my favourite albums ever. Top class production.

i dunno man, i mean that's a snappy soundbite but is it actually true? back it up! i'm not a big fan of anticon but there's plenty of interesting music in this thread. also i think most people who dismiss mainstream hiphop do so because of the widespread bigotry, and that's pretty valid.

depends what stuff we're talking about i guess. clearly the aforementioned kool keith is no stranger to misogyny, but amongst the kind of artists that might identify as 'experimental hiphop' or similar, i'd say it's far less prevalent.

mindblowing is overselling. But it is deeply weird.

I dig some of this stuff, but I find myself listening to less and less avant-rap these days. As I think somebody said upthread, mainstream rap can sound just a wild to my ears as some of this music which is more obviously leftfield.

Having said that, backpack rap played a big part in me getting into hip hop in the first place so I'll always have a soft spot for the classics. And in the case of something like Def-Jux, those key releases are still some of my favorites of all time.

Was listening to the new Serengeti record 'Saal' earlier today which I guess would fit here. Like Why?, Geti's hardly even doing hip hop anymore but his new one is lyrically brilliant as ever.

Juice Aleem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teYECuwt-uI

Themselves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYf2CcHUo_g

Antipop Consortium?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUxuW06Aqe4
and their very own Beans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3TwcibY0k

The Isolationist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9kIAqho9u8

Your ears? are my punching bag...

but no mention of the Deep Puddle Dynamics record (The Taste of Rain...Why Kneel), its goddamn awesome it features Sole, Slug, Doseone AND Alias, they all drop verses on pretty much every track and there's some sweet production from Jel and Ant amongst others. Find it, buy it.

Also a shout out for Sole himself, the most gifted underrated MC on the planet. Anything under his own name, with the Skyrider Band or under his Mans Best Friend alias is good but Selling Live Water would be my recommended starting point

for the love of God, aceyalone. also, freestyle fellowship

^^^^^^^examples, please. examples. and explanations. statement, example, explanation.

:')

with encyclopaedic tastes n all that shit

if they can't refute this, there's no hope, el-p has won, dalek have prevailed, five deez ridden roughshod over the chartpophop clones, death grips punched the bell, clouddead fucked the pussy raw, gold chains, rollin' lexus, ruining cunts

c'mon, I'll give you Lil B for starters, although I'm not sure he was ever that mainstream. amazing artist tho. you can have some of the latest Diddy-Dirty Money album, and you can have Outkast. and if she counts as hip-hop, Erykah Badu soars above all of these. see, I've started you off! but you gotta do the rest

One issue I see is that most rock/indie fans that approach rap think that experimental/weird means rap with guitars or psychedelic leanings.

What does the OP even mean?! WEIRD? Look at the names in that original post and then the link he gave! Nothing weird there imo outside of maybe Death Grips. We all have different stakes in the ground as what we constitute as weird.

http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4425707#r7345581

but I really, really don't mean rap with guitars (which Outkast do heaps anyway) unless you're talking Dalek. I mean rap that uses fresh or striking sonic approaches, which I know could mean yer Public Enemy/De La Soul classics, or El-P's hyper-nuanced electro-rap, or Dalek's noisestorm. But I know - you might mean it in terms of lyrics, in terms of what constitutes pop, in terms of a transgressive public persona. So I guess I just got sodomised by subjectivity again. Still, would be nice to hear some examples :P

I think it's completely valid to realise that there's a world away from Lil Wayne guest verses and Eminem, and if you don't know hip-hop at all then you may well think that Clipse or Wu-Tang or Outkast are 'really weird' - especially in the UK, when we have a load of sanitised US pop-rap stuff shoved down our throats along with a shitload of sub-grime sub-Eminem angry white boy shit being peddled constantly. I don't necessarily think everyone is after the most obscure, indie shit - fair enough there's a load of people who can't want to start spouting about anticon. to earn themselves some hard-earned indie cred but that stuff is just as legit as Kendrick in my opinion, whether it's 'hip-hop' or not it's still fucking amazing, interesting music.

You mentioned a couple (De La) but if I mention those its like uh yah no since those sounds are so engrained in hip hop now.

Timbaland blazed completely new 'weird' trails with his production, but that sound is so universal now as well.

http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4357989#r7039274

Also, Rhymesayers have got a free sampler on Amazon at the moment http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymesayers-Entertainment-Label-Sampler-Explicit/dp/B00B0R7PX2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361401670&sr=8-1
I dunno if it's really weird cos I haven't bothered downloading it (yet?), but them and Anticon tend to attract similar crowds.

Legitimacy is another issue. Whether these examples are 'trve hip-hop' or not isn't the discussion here. I don't think this thread has gone that route. Pretty much everything (outside of Erykah Badu) itt falls under the hip hop umbrella in some way.

Kendrick might be a good example of mainstream weird, his voice is very unique and his delivery can be strange.

Swimming Pools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-ejyHzz3XE

Cartoon & Cereal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwamhuY6Yy8

I remember saying how weird I thought Cartoon and Cereal was when I heard it. His martian voice n that.

LOOOK AT MY POST
http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4317075#r6573797

Chart success? Blog success? Youtube views? Major label signed?

I think people confuse a style/sound within hip-hop as mainstream when a lot of *that sound* is just as underground, if not more so, than a lot of stuff itt.

the mad hyperactive hedonistic heavy drum machine, synth and sample based production of a lot of rap is some of the most stricking music around. Its way odder than a lot of indie rap sort of stuff. Its all got its place but yeah there is something really out there about a lot of it. Have a listen to the Gunplay and King Louie examples I posted above. The way Louie flows over those beats has a mad zoned out twisted feel thats still raw and catchy. Gunplay is pure energy and hype, loads of fun like a cartoon and unltra dark and violent all at once. And that kinda production crosses into the charts too. I mean Niggers in Paris by Kanye and Jay Z aint normal, have you heard that beat its madness. Beyonce's Videophone is pure trap in production those strobing hi-hats and bass kicks shouldn't be in the charts, they're fucked, like some kinda alien just landed.

With all the recommendations out of the way we can get to the fun stuff.

So much mainstream stuff is crazy as fuck now. I mean I commented on it in the Rolling thread before I even saw this thing, but look at Future and loads of Mike Will's production, that stuff is NOT normal. The beats are crazy, they encompass Euro-pop, Trap music (in the modern sense), old-school Southern Rap electro, all coated with this new rap-singing-autotune hybrid. This stuff is mainstream, but it's hardly simple, there's so much too it. And Gunplay's flow is just... I don't even know, but I like it.

http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4422708#r7346042

But yeah, I've never got into this Anticon, underground Hip-Hop stuff. As far as I've gone is El-P and Cannibal Ox. etc. That's not to mean I don't rate it. There are certain 'underground' experimental artists I can really get with. Shabazz Palace's was one of my favourite albums a couple o'years back.

I just don't really feel I 'need' to listen to it- in a way I don't think of it as 'Hip-Hop' at all. I mean, that Death Grips album last year was good, but that, to my ears, wasn't Hip-Hop, not even remotely. It always annoyed me when people declared it their 'Hip-Hop release of the year' and overlooked stuff like Future, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy, Ka and Roc Marciano (all of which differs immensely in itself, but which is actually Hip-Hop, unlike Death Grips.)

I guess, like people have mentioned above, it's dependent on the way you got into the genre. I appreciate that on this forum a lot of people would have got into it through indie labels like Anticon. I was always into rap/hip-hop/r&b as a kid- I got into the 'indie' side of things after. First hip-hop albums I loved were The Game's 'Documentary', Kanye West 'College Dropout', Dre's '2001', Twista, Fabolous, Cam'Ron then obvious stuff like Illmatic and Reasonable Doubt. I mean, one of the first artist's I loved was fucking Ja Rule :D

This isn't meant to be a holier than thou post so sorry if it comes across that way, I guess i'm just trying to analyse why I find it hard to get into the indie rap stuff. For me a lot of the beats Anticon artist's use seem fractured, it doesn't fit the flow of the lyrics. They're damn clever in their own right, but I find it hard to listen to someone rap over something so, I dunno, intricate. It's something that has even hindered my enjoyment of artist's like MF Doom. Whilst I can appreciate the artistry of his flow and lyrics (they're unrivalled in modern rap, probably) I can't enjoy 'the songs' themselves. There's a smoothness to beats like Timbaland's and Dre's which just sounds more appealing to my ears.

I fucking love Shabazz.

I think i'm your opposite.

I guess i first got into the hip-hop stuff i like whilst/via liking 90s trip-hop, electronica and broken beat stuff. Never really got into the late 80s/early 90s gangsta stuff. The first phase was a little before my time and kinda passed me by, really, and the later stuff like Biggie and 2Pac just felt at the time like shouty knobbers with nothingness beats underneath. And all that transitioned into R&B-centric stuff that I couldn't really get into either. Missy seemed to me like the first mainstream stuff that managed to break out of the dullness by introducing more interesting dance-tinged tracks and stuff with quirks. Loads of good oddball mainstream stuff has followed on.

Wu-Tang fitted in to my mind's eye as a bridge between the crossover-ness-with-aggression of PE and (with Rza's beats) the more off-kilter end of the spectrum, like Antipop Consortium or RJD2. Otherwise, the ultra-obvious white boy funk/soul/disco legacy backpack/throwback stuff like Tribe, De La, J5 Solesides, Ugly Duckling, DJ Format, etc was the stuff that was holding my attention at that time (but for every traditionalist act from that type of scene there were also people amongst them like Prince Paul and Shadow who were doing more interesting stuff, e.g. Handsome Boy Modelling School). Throw in some stuff like Kid Koala, and you have a million reasons why...

...dun dun derrrr, sharpen your knives... I've come this far in my life without having listened to a Jay-Z, Kanye or Fiddy album. And that bombshell concludes one of the most mockable posts you're likely to find on DiS for a while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKKxPtP6XjQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA-V2y7-rLA

Let me clarify that my position isn’t at all about authenticity or some sort of holier than though crap, it’s about challenging the false mainstream/underground dichotomy. There’s a definite prejudice against mainstream rap (or pop or any other music for that matter) amongst some music fans who write it off as boring/stale/unoriginal/market orientated filler or whatever while lauding underground stuff for being weird/creative/exciting etc. and it’s just objectively bullshit. I think class and race definitely come into this too, but that’s a whole other debate that’s best left aside.

Let me give you an example. In like 2007 or something someone posted a similar thread to this one on here. Most people were recommending the exact same artists a lot of people are mentioning now. I said you should check out Lil Wayne and a load of people responded that his music wasn’t ‘weird’ at all just bullshit chart music and that I didn’t understand underground rap properly and I should listen to Sage Francis or some shit. To me that’s just nonsensical prejudice. At the time Lil Wayne was really pushing things forward. Freestyling over crazy beats from all over the place, messing with nuts metaphors and stretching his voice and his cadence in all sorts of new directions. Sage Francis, whatever you think of him, was really working within quite safe and well-established backpacker parameters.

Part of it is of course Rockism, i.e. applying the prejudices, standards and logic of guitar based music to a totally different genre that operates in a different way. So you get the search auteurs, the focus on the ‘album’ as the ultimate art form, dismissing of ‘disposable’ music etc.

At the end of the day a lot of it is about taste. I fucking hate Aesop Rock but people who like him are perfectly entitled to, I’m not looking for some grand theoretical narrative to objectively prove that he’s wack (which of course he is). It’s when those Aesop Rock fans elevate their personal taste to an ideological position with which to dismiss pop music that I get pissed and call out the bullshit. I’m not accusing the OP of any of this btw just explaining my position.

P.S. will post examples of 'weird' mainstream stuff when I get hom from work.

People will dismiss Niggers in Paris because its huge and lyrically and vocally it's trading in very routine stuff. But listen to that beat! That shit cray for sure.

there are way more examples of hip-hop pushing the boat out production wise in the mainstream and pop than prob any other genre. Its mad the stuff that gets thru the pop machine that has come from the genre. like you say bellow, Lil Wayne was the oddest most fucked up thing for some time in pop when he was at his peak. Gucci Mane prob pretty much had that at some point too. So did T-Pain. and Future prob does now.

I'm not even a Jay Z and Kanye fan and I like that track, the beat is too, good makes you want to wheel it and start again right away.

The guy needs to take a few months off and just edit: it's like half his lines don't even rhyme. Someone should suspend his rap account or something

are exactly the things that make him appealing. Theres just no convention really at all.

I'm not really a fan of his music but I love what he does and how he goes about it.

or is it like 'Ive come this far, why start now' like I was with the Beatles til last year?

---It’s when those Aesop Rock fans elevate their personal taste to an ideological position with which to dismiss pop music that I get pissed and call out the bullshit.---

I will say that DiS has gotten better about taking this stance. Maybe its because us regular handful of rap discussers on here have been squashing it down for so long or maybe finally the tides are changing? Although maybe no one says anything but the implication is there still?

Just take a look through the most recent Aesop Rock thread and there is none of that, just discussion about quality of the music, no BS.
http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4357989

Primitive Plus is a good album, I suppose you'd call that 'weird' (more weird than the artists in the OP anyway)

http://www.last.fm/music/Radiohead/Me+&+This+Army:+Radiohead+Remixes

This is my favourite mixtape. It's a bunch of great hip-hop vocals over tracks made from Radiohead samples.

Edan and Mr. Lif, Rapperfection over The National Anthem
MF Doom as Viktor Vaughn, Change the Beat over I Am A Wicked Child
Ghostface Killah, Daytona 500 over My Iron Lung

I'm not going to lie to any of you: not only did I not know Vinnie Jones made an album of soul covers, but until looking at his Wiki page, I didn't know he was a footballer, either.

I love learning.

haven't actively been avoiding, just that there's always been other stuff higher up the queue, y'know?

but if anyone has my ear when making a hip-hop recommendation, then shipment_da_shipment is he.

so, of you pick me out an entry point for Jay-Z, Kanye, 2Pac, Biggie and/or Fiddy, I'll try to get around to finally giving then a shot.

in this order please:

Biggie 'Life After Death'
2Pac 'Me Against the World'
Jay Z 'Reasonable Doubt' (also 'The Blueprint')
Kanye 'College Dropout'
50 Cent... just listen to this song http://youtu.be/kvNuw_cZ_a8 when that beat does that thing it does at about 2:15 godddddaaaaaam one of the best things ever EVER. Listen to either of his first two albums as both are small-scale personal classics. I would probably rec other albums over 50 for you though if you make it through those other artists first.

would be approx 1 trillion X more interesting than the R****h**d one.