Never been into rap much but... Immortal Technique? recommendations?

[Adze]

Immortal Technique - I like this guys style, so I'm thinking I'll grab an album or two of his.
Any recommended albums to start with? two songs I've heard and like are:
-<forgot the name> goes something like "this is the motherfucking point of no return, if I back down now then forever I'll burn"
-Freedom of speech (I think thats what its called)

I've always liked RATM and SOAD
Another artist I've been getting into is Butterfingers (and Evil Eddie) - but thats an Australian artist probably not known too well on here.
Don't mind N.E.R.D either.
never been that impressed by Eminem.

looking for more stuff like Immortal Technique though.

I don't know anything about categories of this stuff so yeah, go nuts recommending 'hard' intelligent rap artists.

[Anon]

You'll probably want to check out Atmosphere/Slug and Murs, and Jedi Mind Tricks. The former isn't quite as aggressive as Immortal Technique, but Jedi Mind Tricks is pretty aggresive.

[Spartan26]

I can't believe The Game's The Documentary is 9 years old. Yikes! Where does the time go?? Anyway, did you ever hear that? What did you think?

Who's big now?? Kendrick Lamar, I think Ice Cube said he's the best thing going now.

EDIT: Crap, missed the part about intelligent. Taking A$AP off the list.

[Adze]

A few good suggestions there, JMT looks interesting.

Still not sure where to start, I might just try to get hold of an Immortal technique album or two, with a familiar song or two on there.

Not sure I've heard anything by The Game, worth checking out?
(like I said I've never been much into rap, so even if its mainstream I might not know it)


EDIT: looks like Revolutionary Vol 2. looks like the one to get first, since it has two familiar songs.

[Spartan26]

The Documentary is one of my favorite rap albums. Dreams was the big song off of it.

I actually had a celeb sighting of The Game. One Sat morning coming out of a mall bookstore. My brain totally wasn't functioning. I was looking to kill a little time before my movie started. I'm walking in right as he's walking out. He's like holding the door for me and I'm looking at him thinking "I've seen the guy before..." and then I'm trying to think from where and what is his name but then I kept coming up blank since I can think of exactly zero people I know who have tattoos on their face. But you wanna know what the cool thing was?? He was looking at me the same way, like "where do I know this guy from??" Then I got inside and heard people talking to each other "Psss, did you see The Game?" He came back in and people were whipping out their cellies for photos.

Same thing happened to me with Laura Linney. This was coming out of a restaurant. Just a brief catch eyes and twist the head a half turn cuz of slight recognition. She smiled and said hi. It took like two seconds and I realized I had never met but she's an actress. Like, who do I know who's that glamorous? Oh yeah, no one. But I couldn't figure out who it was. She had to be someone cuz almost immediately 5-6 guys in dark suits, bright shirts and power times kinda circled around her. It just so happened to be the day after the Emmy's and when I got back to the office the trade newspapers, which come out late in the day after Oscars or Emmy's, had photos of the night's events. Laura's was there cuz she had just won for John Adams. Glad that happened cuz it would've bothered me forever trying to figure out who she was. I think her hair was longer than I ever remember seeing it. Plus she was better looking. Anyway, yeah, enough. [/story told 10,000 times at Central.]

[Roger Mexico]

Revolutionary Volume 2 seems to be Immortal Technique's most popular and well-known album. I used to own a copy and quite enjoyed it.

If you like political rap music, there's a huge list of artists who'd fall into that category. You might try The Coup, although they're far from the newest kids on the block.

If what you're into is more specifically the aggro/horrorcore thing with a tint of politics and conspiracy theory, I'd say check out the general catalogue of Babygrande Records, which includes the group Jedi Mind Tricks. They're of a similar bent musically, and have done a few collaborations with Immortal Technique.

I've been a big JMT fan for years. Vinnie Paz is one of the best rappers currently active anywhere.

[Adze]

cool thanks

I think I read somewhere about a member of JMT converting to Islam? whats your take on that? was it true? was it Vinnie Paz or another member?

I guess 'political rap music' does sum it up pretty well. Plus I have a habit of being curious about political / conspiracy combinations aswell.

[Roger Mexico]

cool thanks

I think I read somewhere about a member of JMT converting to Islam? whats your take on that? was it true? was it Vinnie Paz or another member?

Well, Vinnie did, or at least he writes songs about it. JMT is really just him and the DJ these days, so he's probably the one you're thinking of.

I don't know that I have a particular take on it. Rap artists often create elaborate semi-fictional (or entirely fictional) personas for themselves as a form of storytelling, so I wonder a little how much of what he says in the songs is a serious expression of his worldview. I mean, the way he presents it in his lyrics is that it's about a guy who went from being a common street thug to tripping out on shit tons of drugs until he reached a religious epiphany that way and has now become violently militant about his religion--but not enough to stop doing shit tons of drugs.

Since he raps about suicide bombings and shit like that, I'm assuming he's not entirely serious.

Some of it strikes me as subtle but deliberate social commentary about the nature of religion/politics/etc. (That the way a sadist or psychopath thinks about their actions is fundamentally similar to the way anyone with a zealous belief in anything thinks about the things they do to advance what they see as an unquestionably righteous cause.) But that could just be me reading things into it--who knows, maybe he literally believes all of these things, or maybe it's all just bullshit he made up to entertain people.

[Pan_Sonic_000]

I always liked Dr. Octagon (AKA Kool Keith, etc).

[ObtainGnosis]

I've never been much of a rap fan either. But I've always sworn by Wu Tang Clan's Enter the 36 Chambers, Notorious BIG's Ready to Die, and Cypress Hill's Temple of Boom.