ChrisKy, there are much better forums than musicbanter to learn about home recording. Really, almost any other sound / music-related forum you could find through a google search. For all the high-throned, arrogant dipshi
ttery that goes on here, there's very little actual skill or knowledge supporting it. Those who might be able to help you here probably thinks its uncool or beneath them to do so.
Still, so you're not completely empty-handed after the usual round of abuse, I got a home studio and just a little bit of experience and can share a few starting tips. Beware that I'm not particularly interested in hip-hop and and I don't know how new you are to this. Anyways, to start with, you're probably gonna want a soundcard / mixer that you can connect a condenser mic to (make sure it has XLR-input and phantom power supply). You're gonna want a decent condenser mic and there are various relatively cheap options for vocal recording, like the Røde NT1-A.
If you're gonna be mixing, you should get studio monitors. These are speakers with a relatively flat EQ which is pretty essential when mixing. M-Audio's B5 (small) and B8 (a bit larger) are a couple of relatively cheap options here.
If you wanna add instruments you don't already own to your music, like a string quartet, you can often do so with a midi-keyboard and virtual instruments. M-Audio Axiom 49 is a relatively cheap keyboard that I use for such things. You can load up virtual instruments (VSTs) and the like on your computer, for example pianos, synths or saxophones, and play those instruments with your keyboard. To reduce latency (the time it takes between pressing a key and hearing the sound), you may want to connect your keyboard directly to your sound card through the use of a midi cable. Note that you can record VSTs without a keyboard, so only get it if playing with your fingers rather than "programming" them is important to you. There are tons of free VSTs too by the way.
When you got that covered, you're probably gonna want to do some acoustic treatment of your room to reduce its reverb time which means the time it takes for sound bouncing around the room to lose its energy and die out. You want the room to be relatively dead and you can do this with soft screens, drapes, etc. that you can use to cover hard, reflective sufaces. I myself have done some basic carpentry and made some soft screens that I can use to make a nook in one of the corners of my studio. Draping duvets or blankets over things might help and stuff like drawing the curtains to cover the window will also help. Another relatively simple and cheap way to improve acoustics when you're recording vocals is to get a
mic screen. When you record, you want to use a pop filter. Also, get close to the mic and record at the highest volume you can without the sound clipping.
To help acoustically analyse and treat your room, you can use software like
EQ Room Wizard (downloadable program) and
RT60 Calculator (runs in browser).
Record various tests of various locations / setups in the room. Document them with pictures. When you're satisfied with your mic placement, treatment, etc. it's time to learn software. For vocals, you're probably gonna want to look into EQing and compression straight away.