If the OP likes Epic Rap Battles of History, Professor Elemental seems like what he’s looking for.
Johnny Bravo, have you listened to any of the suggestions? What do you think?
“Back to Back” is pretty clever. 
Nitpick: Kweli.
But, yeah, I tend to agree that Blackstar is a pretty clever album, at least in terms of wordplay. Particularly “Hater Players.”
Not yet, but I gave been following with interest. I need to set some time aside to sit down with all the suggestions.
Not typical of the genre or the musician:
James McMurtry “How’m Gonna Find you Now?”
Yep, sure is. :smack:
Blackstar pretty much was my favorite album for about the whole of 2000-2003…it was already a couple years old when I discovered it, which means it is also old school I guess.:eek:
I’m not much of a rap/hip-hop fan, but I also like Epic Rap Battles of History. I haven’t listened to much in the genre, but I find I really dislike the “I’m such a thug gangsta, yo! Look at my bitches!” style, and like a lot of nerdcore(rap with nerdy lyrics). MC Frontalot and MC Lars are two I like. I also like Weird Al’s raps. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not the rap/hip-hop genre that I dislike, but just a lot of the subject matter of the popular stuff.
I also like “Thrift Store” by Macklemore and Lewis, which has (at least to me) a bit of a nerdcore vibe. And the only mainstream rapper I’ve ever enjoyed is Eminem. The wordplay and clever rhymes in some of his stuff appeals to me.
Thirded on the Hamilton cast album. Kayla was fortunate enough to attend the show this past spring while it was still at the Public Theatre; she set her iPhone to stream NPR nonstop for a week when the preview version went up, and bought it on iTunes the first day it went on sale. I’m wholly unqualified to discern good hiphop/rap from bad, but I’m not wrong about this being great stuff.
Mr. Miranda truly earned the MacArthur “genius” grant this work got him.