Public Enemy. As a sheltered Midwestern white boy, my first exposure to them was the inclusion of "By the Time I get to Arizona" on the THPS4 soundtrack. I bought their greatest hits and started listening to 90s hip hop from there.

Started off with "Madvillainy", blew my mind. Then I heard "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and I've been hooked since.

GZA for me. Didn't even know it was him. Used to always listen to Clan in da Front back in the day. Knew it off by heart as a 11 year old kid :)

I'm not familiar with that artist.

Pretty sure the first hip hop album I invested time in was Tha Carter 2. I like to think I've come a long way since then.

jay-z vol 2

the carter 2 is a good album

Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady".
I was 14 when it came out.
Used to hate Hip-Hop before that. Thought it was just some stupid yapping.

Well my first introduction to music with rapping that wasn't necessarily hip hop was POD's Satellite. That **** was my jam in first grade. I didn't start to like hip hop until much later.

I can't remember in all honesty. Eminem was probably the main dude though. What a talent.

Yeezus. Is that weird that Yeezus got me into the genre of all albums? It had a sound that I absolutely loved. Hold my Liquor is one of the best tunes Kanye's ever made, so atmospheric.

this group...

In all honesty and I know a lot of people hate the guy and discredit him, but honestly he's the guy that got me into hip-hop and much of his music is in my all time favorites of music in general. That man would be Tyle, The Creator like him, hate him I don't really care all I know is that the song Bastard is the reason I listen to any hip-hop whatsoever.

Not too crazy, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy got me into Hip hop, and Stones Throw records REALLY got me into hip-hop.

The streetsounds electro albums and the movies beat street, breakin' and their soundtracks were my introduction into Hip-Hop.
The songs that really got me into it were..
Run DMC - sucker mc's
LL cool J - radio
Doug E Fresh - the original human beatbox
Doug E Fresh & Slick rick - The show/La di da di
Grandmaster melle mel - white lines/ the message/step off
Ice -T - reckless
Mantronix - needle to the groove/ ladies
Just Ice - cold gettin' dumb
I guess the group that i really seriously started loving was Run DMC.

For me I want to say MF Doom, but I didn't really listen to his stuff until he did Madvillain with Madlib, and that's when I really started getting into hip hop, so I'l say Madvillain first, then definitely P.O.S. and the Doomtree collective.

For me it was Arrested Development. I liked hip hop I heard here and there growing up, but their album 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... was the first hip hop album I got really into, and I listened to it a hell of a lot when it was new.

:yikes:

My first love in Hip Hop was Grandmaster Flash. Run Dmc and The Beasties really kicked it up a notch along with Ice T. I think the 90's really kickstarted hip hop in a way that made it relevant to everyone not just Breakdancers and people who spun records. I literally remember listening to Its Time and Tour De France and people basically wanting to beat my ass for playing it in the very early 80's.

Is that shock that I didn't get into hip hop earlier or are you saying you don't like Arrested Development?

It better not be that he doesn't like Arressted Development. Talk about Hip-Hop with soul.

Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, 2Pac, and Bone Thugs N' Harmony. Mostly Snoop and Dre.

I'd have to say Ludacris. The first hip-hop CD I ever bought was Chicken N Beer...good times, lol.

Now, that's who got me into the genre, Atmosphere, Eyedea, P.O.S, and the entire Rhymsayers crew got me into the underground. :)

still bangs I'm not even gonna lie

Public Enemy, Wu tang, Nas

And Snoops Doggy Style album.................................Gin and Juice. What a banger

smoking crack is all just a part of growing up

^ That's a dope way to discover Hip-Hop

I found NWA, had only listened to pop songs before, and i remmeber how much my mind was blown when i first heard the swearing! what was this nector?!

Best ever Vanilla Ice!

Jay Electronica.
Exhibit C opened my eyes to how amazing hip hop can be.

for sure em. I remember when I was about 12 I already knew lose yourself. Then more or less 6 years later I heard something less mainstream so I started looking for something else. For sure the song that made me fall in love with hh is infinite, which still is my favourite one. Instead now I usually listen stuff like nas, biggie, dilated people, jay dilla, mobb deep, ghostface killa and some italian dudes.

I'd argue all these are still mainstream, though I've never heard of 'Some Italian Dudes'.

Yes you're probably right, but they are the undisputed hiphop pillars. I think no one can talk about hiphop without knowing artists like those. Anyway if you want to check some Italian stuff out I'd suggest you: colle der fomento, egreen, in the panchine and 60hz by dj shocca

not funny

Well I got told.

I grew up with a variety of music around the house, and hiphop was a huge part of it. LL Cool J, 2Pac, Puff (but mostly whats being played on the radio, cos I was mostly a kid back then. I didn't realised the impact of the death of 2Pac and Biggie when I read it in the news back then. But I remember where I was the moment when I read it.)

Edit: Oh I forgot Outkast! Mannn, I was so into them.

And I went through a period of time where I was into lots of indie stuff and rock, particularly when The Strokes came out. Music blogs, downloading free tracks by new artist, discovering new music, it got me excited hearing new music every day.
But over time, interest in them dwindled. Partly due to my renewed interest in hiphop. Also, it somehow failed to speak to me at that time.

I would contribute my renewed interest in hiphop to Childish Gambino, which in turn got me to appreciate Kanye West more (because thats one of his major influence).
I got into him when he was releasing free tracks, mixtapes, albums online, and he rapped over indie songs, which caught my attention.

Then slowly, other artists caught my ears. Kendrick, J Cole, recently Lil Wayne (I dunno why I avoided his earlier stuff, but I really enjoyed his features and most recently, his FWA album really stood out for me).

And now, I find hiphop interesting again. I'm finding myself digging around for new stuff, and it gets me excited again.

Sorry for the disjointed post. This is more of a stream of consciousness than a well thought post.

Thanks!

2Pac

It has to be Eminem, the guy was everywhere when I was growing up! Plus my parents didn't really like me listening to him so that was all the sweeter!

I was always into hip hop in the early days. Loved it all through the 90's. What made me dive further into rap/hip hop and even started my quest as being an artist was listening to DMX. I always loved his style and delivery. His music was always on point.