versus95

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.

Plainview

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

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versus95

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

Plainview

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versus95

not funny

Plainview

Well I got told.

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meganzmusic

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!

Michael Fynne

2Pac

Mikauzer

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!

sthug84

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.