Most "poetic" rappers....

[ivan_astikov]

The Disposable Heroes and Michael Franti are a good source for memorable poetry.

The first day of school was always the hardest
The first day of school the hallways the darkest
Like a gauntlet
the voices haunted
Walking in with his thin skin lowered chin
He knew the names that they would taunt him with
Faggot sissy punk queen queer
Although he’d never had sex in his 15 years
And when they harassed him it was for a reason
And when they provoked him it became open season
for the fox and the hunter, the sparks and the thunder
that pushed the boy under, then pillage and plunder
It kind of makes you wonder
how one can hurt another
But dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler
It’s like breathing with a respirator
It eases the conscience of even the most conscious
and calculating violator
Words can reduce a person to an object,
something more easy to hate
An inanimate entity, completely disposable,
no problem to obliterate

[Lust4Life]

Grand Master Flash and The Message or White Lines,sheer genius.

Vanilla Ice…who is/(Was) V.V.good.
If its good it lasts over time.

If its just the latest craze but lacks merit then basically its nothing.
Someone mentioned The Streets who IMO are not bad.

But if you really,really want to hear some absoloute,untalented,juvenile tripe with rhymes that would shame a five year old then just listen to any Brit Mobo Rap “Collective”,they couldn’t even look up talent in a dictionary…and creativity ?
Just forget the word .

They make me feel ashamed to be British.

[Panurge]

@Nzinga

Whoa! If you had mentioned KRS One, I would have thought we were the same person.

But the OP makes me think of a different kind of poetry feel. I nominate a single line from an old LL Cool J song; “Pink Cookies in a Plastic Bag… Being crushed by buildings.”

Well, then. If you had only mentioned Kool Keith as well, we would be a proper siamese family here…

[gitfiddle]

@ivan astikov

The Disposable Heroes and Michael Franti are a good source for memorable poetry.

I like Michael Franti and Spearhead a lot. It’s one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, so full of energy. Yet, I think that MF’s also got some pretty corny, kumbaya lyrics.

I’m not talking about all of his songs though. Songs like "It’s a crime to be broke in America "

Six percent in college
From livin on the block
Twenty five percent in prison
The school of hard knocks
Fifty percent in poverty
Is livin on the rocks
Five hundred brothas on a death row box

The punishment is capital
For those who lack in capital
Because a public defender
Can’t remember the last time
That a brother wasn’t treated like an animal.

or "Oh My God "

you can make a life longer, but you can’t save it
you can make a clone an then you try to enslave it?
stealin’ DNA samples from the onborn
and then you comin’ after us
‘cause we sampled a James Brown horn?
scientists who’s God is progress
a four-headed sheep is their latest project
the CIA runnin’ like that Jones from Indiana
but they still won’t talk about that (Jim) Jones
(People’s Temple mass suicide) in Guyana
This ain’t no cartoon
no one slips on bananas
do you really think that that car killed Diana
hell I shot Ronald Reagan, I shot JFK,
I slept with Marilyn (Monroe) she sung me happy birthday
singin’

are great.

I’m not familiar with Disposable Heroes though.

[gitfiddle]

Another I’d like to through in there that I haven’t yet is Zach de la Rocha. I mentioned him in the other thread about songwriters, but not here about rappers. He’s the former* frontman of Rage Against the Machine (or "fuck"man as my parents would probably call him). As I get older, I don’t like Rage’s earlier stuff because, even to me, it seems a little too heavy on the “go fuck yourself” style. But as the band matured, Zach became truly poetic.

Without a Face

Uh! Got no card so I got not soul
Life is prison, no parole, no control
Tha jura got my number on a wire tap
'Cause I jack for similac, fuck a cadillac
Survive one motive no hope
‘Cause every sidewalk I walk is like a tightrope
Yes I know my deadline sire, when my life expires
I’m sendin’ paper south under tha barbed wire
Tha mother of my child will lose her mind at my grave
It’s my life for their life so call it a free trade

Sleep Now in the Fire

The world is my expense
The cost of my desire
Jesus blessed me with its future
And I protect it with fire
So raise your fists and march around
Dont dare take what you need
I’ll jail and bury those committed
And smother the rest in greed
Crawl with me into tomorrow
Or i’ll drag you to your grave
I’m deep inside your children
They’ll betray you in my name

He has a new project with the drummer from The Mars Volta called One Day as a Lion , and I’m liking it so far.

• I say “former” but I think RATM is actually touring right now…

[lissener]

Nas, Lucas, Sage Francis, Lauren Hill

[lissener]

@lissener

Nas, Lucas, Sage Francis, Lauren Hill

Dang, that was without reading the thread. I gotta add Michael Franti to this list.

[gitfiddle]

This Aesop Rocks stuff is baddass!

[Hunter_Hawk]

Has Seattle hip-hop started to get much attention outside the local scene?

For example, I’m fond of Joe Metro by the Blue Scholars.

[mshar253]

gallows fodder quoted two songs from Nas’s “I Am…” album. I cannot be too emphatic: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS ALBUM. Nas has put out quite a few albums over the years; none of them, besides “Illmatic,” deserve your money.

Also, my vote goes to Biggie Smalls. Listen to “Ready to Die.”

[davidw]

@mshar253

gallows fodder quoted two songs from Nas’s “I Am…” album. I cannot be too emphatic: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS ALBUM. Nas has put out quite a few albums over the years; none of them, besides “Illmatic,” deserve your money.

“God’s Son” is worth buying. And “The Lost Tapes.”

[gallows_fodder]

@mshar253

gallows fodder quoted two songs from Nas’s “I Am…” album. I cannot be too emphatic: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS ALBUM. Nas has put out quite a few albums over the years; none of them, besides “Illmatic,” deserve your money.

Also, my vote goes to Biggie Smalls. Listen to “Ready to Die.”

All the songs I quoted were from Aesop Rock, unless he’s done covers or something.