You would NEVER catch me in a million years with a piece of that racist clothing on my body. You DO know what fubu stands for.. right? (For "Us" By "Us", and the "Us" only means black folk, bump that noise.
For today? Well first I have to preface it with I don't have as much time nowadays to keep my finger on the pulse the same as before in terms of off-the-beaten-path artists and venues. Been really vibin on Alla Xul Elu (A.X.E.) though lately. But let's see... an example of a non HorrorCore artist I've really enjoyed might be like... Eyedea? Brother Ali (A White Albino dude). Um... DZK is very clever. Several more horrorcore artists in the mix for sure like Necro, and of course that whole <ICP, Twiztid, Psychopathic Records, MNE> thing. A fun one is Homeless Bob. For some wickedly vivid imagery pop in some Rheotaxis some day when nobody is around and the windows are up, and trip the bleep out. Another dude by the name of Gentle Jones has some really good dream-like imagery too. Hell's Kitchen has some real catchy growly tunes. And whoo! For some high octane Rap-Rock type of stuff Jason Porter aka JPD brings it in spades. Bishop Lamont, gotta rep Carson baby! Also kinda dig on the different vibe of Die Antwoord, a South African rap duo that does a style called Zef that reps their area and sometimes has elements reminiscent of 90's rave-like bits thrown in for flavor. And definitely that land has influence on some of their rthymical inspirations for sure. And I forget where I found his track at...maybe MP3.com? Some dude going by illnon... man.. his stand-and-deliver battle-rap styles are DEEP! He's that dude I said will have like lines that have 3 layers deep of word-play within them! QStrange another good up and comer in the horrcore thing. Wolfpac is intense. ZipperNeck has a song you'l never forget, PM me about it, NSFW. There's some chic called Jymini that was makin fresh stuff independent as well. OH and of course been diggin on Tom Macdonald. MadChild is growing on me a lil. The High Children have some really cool joints people been diggin on when I slip em in at parties.
Anyway it's really not a thing of particular artists. I began in the era where a song had to stand on it's own over the radio only and attain notoriety that way.
Nowadays you got a lotta (EDIT: main-stream) songs that won't even make any sense unless a person has seen the video it was produce for/from. And that's just plain dumb.
For me.. I have to be able to close my eyes and listen and be able to "see" all the imagery the MC is trying to deliver and sense whether or not I can feel the vibe he's trying to emote in the delivery of his lyrics. And is he committing completely to their delivery or not? When you experience an MC that truly connects with the material and they commit themselves fully to the personna or caricature they envisioned for these lyrics. Violent J is the hands-down best there is at committing fully to the delivery, injecting intense emotional inflection into it while delivering, makes for excellent story-telling/picture-painting of the imagery invoked.
anyway I'm sure there's a bunch I'm forgetting.
EDIT: Not a Rap artist, but I'm really diggin on tunes from the duo "Rising Apalachia" You country guys would likely dig on them.
