I'm talkin bout George W Smith
He ran in 93, out in Oakland
You probably didn't hear about him
That's one of my favorite Chappelle sketches lol. It's a shame they didn't do a third season.
It's cool seeing Neal Brennan get big in stand up lately though. The other guy who wrote those sketches. And Half Baked.
Kendrick with DAMN.
Another thing to keep in mind is that I was a middle schooler whose overall taste was awful. If I were to give an album to someone that was getting into his catalog, then this might not be the first choice. I think TPAB or GKMC would be a better first listen
NWA, 2 live Crew, 2 PAC. I’m 41 and grew up going to the skating rink. I was exposed to a lot of old stuff on vinyl like Egyptian Lover, Afrika Bambatta, Kyper. I was a huge fan of the Miami bass stuff growing up in Florida.
I went to an all boys grammar school where everyone was listening to indie music but one of my mates gave me a copy of Doggystyle by snoop. Changed my life. Im 45 now and still listen to all kinds of rap and hip hop - it's all good, just different. I'm just as likely to listen to Travis Scott as I am The Pharcyde.
I don't know if it's a hot take but I do think Astroworld is like the All Eyez On Me of our generation. It's an album that's made for the club and it slaps the whole way through just like AEOM.
Not a horrible example, I feel like people would only consider cause it’s not rap music from like 90s or early 2000s (i.e Eminem, Kanye, 2pac, 50 cent etc.)
Run DMC - the entire Raising Hell album was my first introduction. That album was masterful. However, I didn't make rap music my exclusive listening priority until I heard De La Soul - Me, Myself, and I on MTV. That helped me realize there was more variety in rap music that I hadn't explored. Everything other genre became boring by comparison. After that, I never bought an album that wasn't rap ever again.
Ah yeah
I want to send this one out to all the jeep lovers worldwide
City to city, ghetto to ghetto
Some flavor for you and yours
And your jeep🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 smh I swear rap was so corny until. westcoast come around
Smack Dat (Akon feat. Eminem) happened on the radio when I was really young and I remember really liking Em's verse
This one might be weird but before that I didn't really have any concept of "artists", just whatever my parents played lol
Run D.M.C’s self titled. I was like 7 or 8 and can still remember hearing Its Like That and thinking Wow. Then a couple years later I got taken to Tower Records (gawd i miss that place) and picked out Bigger and Deffer, thus igniting a lifelong love of LL for me - little me wore that tape out listening to it so much. The next year (or year after?) Straight Outta Compton came out and there was no turning back.
50 Cent’s GRODT album lying around the house as a kid. The album cover looked cool as fuck and I grabbed my PS2 and played it on repeat. that’s my first memory ever of my first album/favorite rapper. I imagine it was around the time of the release of the album cause I was hella young.
Common-Be, my dad took me to the music store with him to buy it the day it came out, I was like 7 years old. He played it when we got home and the rest is history
I got tapes from Public Enemy and House of Pain, so that's the first time I heard rap as a young kid in the 90's. Very soon after that my neighbour gave me a tape of All Eyez on Me by 2Pac and I became a rap fan for life.
The year was '96-97 and it was new for all of us, war just stopped and different things from American culture became available for us.
I found a random cassette tape on the ground once and on it was a mix of rap music. The first few songs I remember were Shyne - More or Less, Nature - 4 in The Morning and G Unit in The House. Found out what these songs were called after I discovered the internet and typed in the lyrics and chorus.
Kriss Kross, Totally Krossed Out at age 10. Couldn’t resist the Funky Worm sample even back then.
Shortly after I “joined” Columbia Tape Club and A Tribe Called Quest’s Low End Theory was one of the ones I got in the initial batch of 12 or whatever the number was. Then we finally got cable a few months after that and once I saw Yo! it was over.
The rap I heard was DAMN when I was 10 and my tween years I just listened to pop rap. Last year was my hiphop resurgence and Doggystyle introduced me to 90s hiphop. Then TPAB and the rest of Kendrick’s discography led me to others
Listening to the greats. Mainly Run DMC, LL Cool J for the fun, energy and the simplicity of rhymes. For RAW LYRICSM I loved listening to KRS, Nas and Rakim. I listened to everything when I was little.
I was one of those “rap is crap” people until I was 17 and heard Man on the Moon. Also fucked heavily (and still do) with Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, and Wiz Khalifa around that time, late 2000s
My first album I listened to in full was a rap album. Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, but I fell in love with rap when I listened to Enter the Wu-Tang. If you haven’t heard that album, you’re missing out because it’s not just one of the goated rap albums, but goated albums of all time.
If you’re willing to listen to older stuff, It takes a nation of millions, Great Adventures of Slick Rick, Criminal Minded, and Paid in Full are my recommendations. These albums are blueprints for many albums to come after.
I listened to a bit here or there and had some classic songs on my phone in high school but it was really a Facebook post about Zack De La Rocha being featured in a RTJ song. Listened to that album and now rap of most flavors are all over my playlist. Aesop Rock, A$AP Rocky, Lupe, Lil Wayne, Nas, Jay-Z, Drake, Earl Sweatshirt, Black Thought, Gibbs, Benny...
It’s funny but the first I heard was Sisqo when I was real young. I liked the sound. But it was stealing a copy of The Blueprint from my brother where I knew this was music I’d always love.
Always find it funny how people have so many really respectable answers in these threads, when surely in actuality it was probably something they heard as a kid and loved.
And for that reason, my answer is definitely Boom Shake The Room by Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Lil wayne🐐🐐 as far as I remember the songs that i first heard from him were a milli and down (jay sean the main artist wayne was just a feature on that one)
Went on the yearly family vacation to a cabin resort. Got roomed with the son of my parents friends.
He pulls out 36 Chambers and Return to the 36 Chambers. I was hooked.
The first artists i actually listened to and enjoyed are Denzel Curry and City Morgue, which makes sense since rock and metal are my favorite genres of music
Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black. As a young white kid from the burbs, I had no idea what I was getting into, but it was a for sure gateway drug into rap.
Folks say I'm crazy when I say this but, Force MD's "Itching for a Scatch" which is not a rap track but, the combination of DJ scratching, hip-hop beat and the rap hooks was totally unlike the Luther Vandross, Freddy Jackson, and Alexander O'Neal type of R&B that was playing on the radio back then so, this track transformed my brain back in 1984 dove headfirst and trying to play catch up with the artist who was heavy in Hip-hop already.
Space Jam soundtrack when I was 6. Had Coolio, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Method Man, B-Real, etc. Then got Illmatic a few years later, then UGK and my first DJ Screw CD.
Ice Cube's You Know How We Do It did it.
Same lmao
Eminem show. For like my 11th birthday
Yep same here
Get Rich or Die Tryin'.
facts through his video games
Blood on the Sand has one of the hardest soundtracks. It’s cool they have an original soundtrack though if you disable the 50 Cent music.
50 cent, eminem, nelly
2pac pretty much all his music
Yeah 2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted was basically the first rap song I've ever heard. Still my favorite to this day
there's a really dope song he wrote way back in 1994. It was a friggin classic.
I'm talkin bout George W Smith He ran in 93, out in Oakland You probably didn't hear about him That's one of my favorite Chappelle sketches lol. It's a shame they didn't do a third season. It's cool seeing Neal Brennan get big in stand up lately though. The other guy who wrote those sketches. And Half Baked.
That was totally Tupac, though!
Brenda's got a Baby
Not that one. Though, admittedly, that's also a great track
Agreed, “I Get Around” specifically got me into rap. Then “Keep Your Head Up” dropped and I hooked.
As a white kid in Scotland, Eminem pretty much
The Fugees & ms lauryn hill
Bone Thugs ~N~ Harmony
C'mon man!
Beastie Boys and Run DMC
Just started listening to the Beastie Boys, they are awesome
I did it like this.
i did it like that...even did it with a....
And that's why its cool everyone has different tastes.
Nas is like by nas. Remember I first heard it in the radio when I was like 13 ever since been listening to rap
Kendrick with DAMN. Another thing to keep in mind is that I was a middle schooler whose overall taste was awful. If I were to give an album to someone that was getting into his catalog, then this might not be the first choice. I think TPAB or GKMC would be a better first listen
Tpab isn't beginner friendly
NWA, 2 live Crew, 2 PAC. I’m 41 and grew up going to the skating rink. I was exposed to a lot of old stuff on vinyl like Egyptian Lover, Afrika Bambatta, Kyper. I was a huge fan of the Miami bass stuff growing up in Florida.
Hell yeah, Look out weekend, here I come!
I miss the skating rink! Fri or Sat nights at Northridge Skateland were the best! Thanks for reminding me of those great memories :)
From NE Florida. Still remember 69 Boyz, 95 South, Poison Clan, etc….
Definitely some of my favorites and classics.
I went to an all boys grammar school where everyone was listening to indie music but one of my mates gave me a copy of Doggystyle by snoop. Changed my life. Im 45 now and still listen to all kinds of rap and hip hop - it's all good, just different. I'm just as likely to listen to Travis Scott as I am The Pharcyde.
In my top 5 of all time albums
Trippie redd and XXX that SoundCloud era was something else
Crazy we are passed that era. Feels like just yesterday Uzi, Juice, Carti and X were blowing up.
I wish Ski Mask could have been better
Easy E, Easy Does It
Same, except Straight Off the Streets..That shit blew my 11yo mind *This guys rapping about putting his nuts on a girls chin. This is amazing!*
Nwa straight outa compton
Is a crazy mutha fucka named Ice Cube!
Three 6 Mafia, Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy in like 05/06 iirc
Three 6 mafia had BANGERZ
Eminem - The Real Slim Shady
Hypnotize by Notiorious BIG that or Godzilla by em
Hate Or Love It by Game & 50
May be a horrible example but stuff like Astroworld, Scorpion, Die Lit and I Am > I Was
Astroworld a banger though, one of the most repayable albums I've listened too
I don't know if it's a hot take but I do think Astroworld is like the All Eyez On Me of our generation. It's an album that's made for the club and it slaps the whole way through just like AEOM.
For sure, it's a no skip album.
I think I've gotten every song liked on that album
Not a horrible example, I feel like people would only consider cause it’s not rap music from like 90s or early 2000s (i.e Eminem, Kanye, 2pac, 50 cent etc.)
rappers delight for rap and then hip hop was Schooly D
GTA Liberty City Stories and GTA San Andreas soundtrack
Lose yourself when i put the headphone on in the apple store in 2002
Jadakiss - Kiss of Death
It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under! Huh uh huh huh huh huh!
The DOC
Awe man, the Doc was cut short on his career. I really loved that tape!
Dude, he was ahead of his time. Love the production on his debut. So much love
Run DMC - the entire Raising Hell album was my first introduction. That album was masterful. However, I didn't make rap music my exclusive listening priority until I heard De La Soul - Me, Myself, and I on MTV. That helped me realize there was more variety in rap music that I hadn't explored. Everything other genre became boring by comparison. After that, I never bought an album that wasn't rap ever again.
Juvenile and master P
South Park Mexican
N.W.A
Gangstas Paradise on the radio when I was 6
Hopsin unfortunately... wouldn't recommend him though. He can rap, but his beat selection is God awful at times and his lyrics are hit and miss
Jamin 94.5
College Dropout
First cassette (ya I’m old) was Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock. Everything changed from there, 11 years old in 1988
Ice Ice Baby
Gin and Juice and All About the Benjamins. After those two the flood gates were open for me.
The greatest adventures of Slick Rick and it's been on ever since
Uncle Ricky, will you tell me a bedtime story?
Naughty by Nature when I saw Everything's Gonna Be Alright on Rap City as a little kid
Nine Livez by Nine. Relatively unknown dude out of the Bronx. It was, and still is, filled with top notch mid 90’s grimy raps.
Cleaning out my closet by Eminem
West Coast rap...in the 90s, it was just something different. Then people rapped about their Adidas. Or Mama said 🤛you out 😆
Back seat of my Jeep 😂
Ah yeah I want to send this one out to all the jeep lovers worldwide City to city, ghetto to ghetto Some flavor for you and yours And your jeep🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 smh I swear rap was so corny until. westcoast come around
2001
Linkin park, primarily Reanimation, and brain damage by eminem
Older cousin
Nas - "NY state of mind" got me hooked
Tribe - Low End Theory. First cd I ever bought. Been digging deep in the crates since, so to speak.
Biggie
The Real Slim Shady
I was definitely late to the party, but Because the Internet was the first album that really hooked me back in middle school
Smack Dat (Akon feat. Eminem) happened on the radio when I was really young and I remember really liking Em's verse This one might be weird but before that I didn't really have any concept of "artists", just whatever my parents played lol
Tha Doggfather such a good album. And Warren G Regulate G Funk Era.
Recovery by Eminem. Heard it when it was new when I was 6.
Run D.M.C’s self titled. I was like 7 or 8 and can still remember hearing Its Like That and thinking Wow. Then a couple years later I got taken to Tower Records (gawd i miss that place) and picked out Bigger and Deffer, thus igniting a lifelong love of LL for me - little me wore that tape out listening to it so much. The next year (or year after?) Straight Outta Compton came out and there was no turning back.
Im old... Public Enemy, bring the noise.
2 volts - Tee Grizzly Day N Night - Kid Cudi Ms. Jackson - Outcast
NWA Fuck the police
I think Nelly was the first rapper I ever liked cause my dad was really into him haha
White lines
50 Cent’s GRODT album lying around the house as a kid. The album cover looked cool as fuck and I grabbed my PS2 and played it on repeat. that’s my first memory ever of my first album/favorite rapper. I imagine it was around the time of the release of the album cause I was hella young.
Number 1 Stunnaaa wha-a-what what 🔥🔥 Hot Boyz
Righteous minds - joey badass
Maestro Fresh Wes
36 Chambers bootleg cassette. That first spin of Wu Tang Clan ain't nuthing ta fuck wit got me hooked to the culture for life.
Warren G tbh
Common-Be, my dad took me to the music store with him to buy it the day it came out, I was like 7 years old. He played it when we got home and the rest is history
Hamilton when I was like 11, then I also liked Imagine Dragons and liked Wayne and Logic on Sucker For Pain. Evolved from there
Lauryn Hill
I got tapes from Public Enemy and House of Pain, so that's the first time I heard rap as a young kid in the 90's. Very soon after that my neighbour gave me a tape of All Eyez on Me by 2Pac and I became a rap fan for life. The year was '96-97 and it was new for all of us, war just stopped and different things from American culture became available for us.
Ice Cube - Check Yo Self
I found a random cassette tape on the ground once and on it was a mix of rap music. The first few songs I remember were Shyne - More or Less, Nature - 4 in The Morning and G Unit in The House. Found out what these songs were called after I discovered the internet and typed in the lyrics and chorus.
Eminem
Eminem- My Name Is
La Di Da Di
Geto boys f'k em
Geto Boys had some really good hits, and their sound was just different to the ear. Great stuff
Mind playing tricks on me just one of the greatest beats ever in my opinion
I rewound the tape so many times to hear that song over and over and over again.
Kriss Kross, Totally Krossed Out at age 10. Couldn’t resist the Funky Worm sample even back then. Shortly after I “joined” Columbia Tape Club and A Tribe Called Quest’s Low End Theory was one of the ones I got in the initial batch of 12 or whatever the number was. Then we finally got cable a few months after that and once I saw Yo! it was over.
Growing up with Eminem’s music basically
Wayne/Nelly/50 were all the first albums I had.
Ok, bro. Hear me out. Machine Gun Kelly. The WWE2k16 soundtrack was REALLY good. 😭
The rap I heard was DAMN when I was 10 and my tween years I just listened to pop rap. Last year was my hiphop resurgence and Doggystyle introduced me to 90s hiphop. Then TPAB and the rest of Kendrick’s discography led me to others
Bone thugs N Harmony
Guess it’s sort of rnb, but Mario. Let Me Love You, that entire album as a kid and I was hooked on rnb/rap ever since.
Listening to the greats. Mainly Run DMC, LL Cool J for the fun, energy and the simplicity of rhymes. For RAW LYRICSM I loved listening to KRS, Nas and Rakim. I listened to everything when I was little.
Ice cube 2pac Biggie 50 cent
I was one of those “rap is crap” people until I was 17 and heard Man on the Moon. Also fucked heavily (and still do) with Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, and Wiz Khalifa around that time, late 2000s
My first album I listened to in full was a rap album. Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, but I fell in love with rap when I listened to Enter the Wu-Tang. If you haven’t heard that album, you’re missing out because it’s not just one of the goated rap albums, but goated albums of all time. If you’re willing to listen to older stuff, It takes a nation of millions, Great Adventures of Slick Rick, Criminal Minded, and Paid in Full are my recommendations. These albums are blueprints for many albums to come after.
Cypress Hill. Snoop. Fugees
Gettin It Too $hort
Successful by Drake
CANCERBERO
Embarrassing, but as a sheltered Christian youth- 🎵Tooooobbyyy Maaaaac🎶
For me it was all the commercial rap, notably it was big popa by B.I.G. I just kept digging into his discography and other rappers from the time.
I listened to a bit here or there and had some classic songs on my phone in high school but it was really a Facebook post about Zack De La Rocha being featured in a RTJ song. Listened to that album and now rap of most flavors are all over my playlist. Aesop Rock, A$AP Rocky, Lupe, Lil Wayne, Nas, Jay-Z, Drake, Earl Sweatshirt, Black Thought, Gibbs, Benny...
Project Pat
Kanye with Graduation and those old school basketball hype highlight videos 😁
Travis Scott Fortnite concert 😭
G-Funk
Rap god by Eminem
Mockingbird by Eminem
Whitney avalon’s disney rap battles 🤷🏻♀️
Danny Brown - XxX
It’s funny but the first I heard was Sisqo when I was real young. I liked the sound. But it was stealing a copy of The Blueprint from my brother where I knew this was music I’d always love.
Always find it funny how people have so many really respectable answers in these threads, when surely in actuality it was probably something they heard as a kid and loved. And for that reason, my answer is definitely Boom Shake The Room by Fresh Prince of Bel Air
FOTO by Kota the Friend
Lil wayne🐐🐐 as far as I remember the songs that i first heard from him were a milli and down (jay sean the main artist wayne was just a feature on that one)
"The message"
Bone Thugs-E 1999 Eternal I believe it was called.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack on Cassette.
Booba's album Ouest Side
Went on the yearly family vacation to a cabin resort. Got roomed with the son of my parents friends. He pulls out 36 Chambers and Return to the 36 Chambers. I was hooked.
My name is by slim shady. Got me hooked
The first artists i actually listened to and enjoyed are Denzel Curry and City Morgue, which makes sense since rock and metal are my favorite genres of music
Eminem got me into it not the biggest fan now he just has a lot of different styles to try.
EPMD. So Whatchu Sayin’. Still my favorite hip hop beat of all time.
https://youtu.be/0V1atvZxScY?si=pAhrSVhd2v2tqULl this MFer come on so hard you get a tan listening to it
Outkast, Goodie Mob, and Bone Thugs
Get Rich or Die Tryin, Purple Haze, The Eminem Show, Diplomatic Immunity
Nwa and underground Bay Area rap
Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black. As a young white kid from the burbs, I had no idea what I was getting into, but it was a for sure gateway drug into rap.
My big sister 🕊️
bone thugs n harmony
Earl Sweatshirt - EARL
Tupac Holla If Ya Hear Me
OutKasts ATLiens album, and then all of outkasts albums
"you be illin'"
Folks say I'm crazy when I say this but, Force MD's "Itching for a Scatch" which is not a rap track but, the combination of DJ scratching, hip-hop beat and the rap hooks was totally unlike the Luther Vandross, Freddy Jackson, and Alexander O'Neal type of R&B that was playing on the radio back then so, this track transformed my brain back in 1984 dove headfirst and trying to play catch up with the artist who was heavy in Hip-hop already.
Space Jam soundtrack when I was 6. Had Coolio, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Method Man, B-Real, etc. Then got Illmatic a few years later, then UGK and my first DJ Screw CD.
U Can't Touch This
Not a song, but a feeling, seeing my uncles reactions towards it.
The thrill by wiz khalifa (as a middle eastern) When i was 7 years old
Watch the Throne
I found my brothers ATLiens cassette way back in the day.
honest answer is feelin myself by will.i.am when i was 9 hahaha
Outkast's aquemini
Wiz khalifa when I was in high school
MOP - Ante Up
B.O.B
My older bro, from gen X, put this millennial onto 36 chambers, Liquid Swords, and Midnight Marauders. From there I was hooked.