I'm not sure how many others here are fans of hiphop, but surely there's at least one other person that is. I'm always looking for new groups to listen to, so I'd like to trade some of the underground groups from my area with some from yours. Here's a list of some of my favorites from Minnesota:


Atmosphere
They're probably the biggest from around here, the rapper is Slug and the beats/producer is Ant. I'm a big fan of their older stuff, but the new stuff is pretty good too. The newer stuff involves more live instruments than beat machines and is slower paced.
Old example: National Disgrace
New example: The Ropes
Look for their albums Seven Travels, God Loves Ugly, When Life Gives You Lemons..., and To All My Friends.


Brother Ali
He's great, does lots of work with Slug, the two of them started Rhymesayers. He's big, albino, and proud of it. I'm sure lots of people here will be able to relate with his message, he's all for love, peace and the belief that humanity is one. I love his work so I'm going to post a few of his works to show the range of the albums.
Tight Rope
Uncle Sam Goddamn
Forest Whitiker
Check out his albums US, The Undisputed Truth, and Shadows on the Sun. Also look for any songs with him and Slug, they're always great together: Blah Blah Blah


Prof
This guy's a lot less known than Brother Ali and Atmosphere, but he's got a great goofy rap style that works. He likes to mock rappers that just do work about money, drugs, and how good they are, but you gotta admit he pulls off a big fur coat.
Figured Out
Amazing
Albums to look for are the Kaiser Von Powderhorns and any mixtapes with his group stophouse. Rocketman is a good example of group, there's lots of versions of it with lots of people but the Yelawolf one is my favorite. A great thing about him is that he gives most of his mixtapes and some albums out for free.


Soulcrate Music
To be fair I think they're from North Dakota, but the Dakotas are Minnesota's little brothers anyway. My favorite album of theirs is Cardboard Cut Outs.
Rap Music From the Middle of Nowhere
For some reason their stuff is hard to find on youtube but you should definitely check the album out.


For some groups not from Minnesota you should check out:
Classified (Canada, is he mainstream up there? he's still underground in USA)
Aesop Rock (Michigan)
Murs (California)
Sage Francis (Not sure, but he has a spoken word style)
Immortal Technique (East coast, it's very angry and Revolutionary 2 involves some conspiracies, so heads up there)

Here is some australian hip-hop if your interested?

Hilltop Hoods- They are one of my favorite groups who have been around since thhe early 90's. They put on a wicked live show.

The Herd- a group from sydney, been around for about a decade.

Bliss an Esso

Phrase- He is in the Hilltop Hoods but does alot of solo stuff. I saw him at a festivle doing a sideshow with an orchestra wich was really cool, he's a very talented artist.

Urthboy- Also in another group (the herd)hee has 3 or 4 solo albums tho. He is becoming bigger in australia.


I hope you enjoy, there worth the listen.

PRGz
Paper Route Gangstaz coming from Huntsville Alabama. A mixture of spacey sound and southern raps.
Oh Yea

P.H. Fat
"Psychodelic-Bass-Rap that smacks hard enough to make you sweat mayonnaise". Reppin' Cape Town, South Africa.
The Big Five

NocternalButterfly, can you link your favourite tracks of the mentioned artists ?

Me fave Sage Francis track (with Saul Williams )

Nocternal, Hilltop Hoods is great, I'm gonna have to try and find some of their albums. I haven't had time to check the other guys but I'll get around to it.

I hadn't heard that Sage song soulfood, looks like he has more albums than I thought. This is the first song of his I heard:
Embarrassed

I can't believe I forgot Eyedea in my list, you should definitely check out his group Eyedea and Abilities. RIP Eyedea

The Roots are my favorite hip hop group. they are simply the best

Black Star is awesome. Mos Def and Talib Kweli. if you haven't heard their album you must listen to it. so good.

..i think Talib Kwali, Mos Def & the Roots are great..for more 'psychedelic' hip hop i like Roots Manuva, LoTek HiFi (both UK),
and original psychedelic breakdance acts T-LaRock ("It's Yours) & Mantronix..

..i think hip hop could get a lot more psychedelic yet (more dmt freestylers please!)...

There's just too many to name here... Masta Ace has been one of my all-time favourites.
This is one of his newer tracks.

I got bored with descriptions...I'll fill them in later

Big K.R.I.T. - Underground Mississippi rapper BIG King Remembered in Time brings a unique mix of conscious lyrics (some less-so than others ) and down South feel. Krizzle does all his own production and his last mixtape and album were both offered for free via http://returnof4eva.com/ and are both outstanding.




Blue Scholars - Hailing from Seattle Washington (by way of the Phillippines and Iran) MC Geo and DJ Sabzi have put out 3 full length albums of conscious, witty poetry backed by world-music influenced beats.




Bobby Ray - His mainstream releases as B.o.B. have been a little weak in comparison to the masterpiece that was the Bobby Ray half of the B.o.B. vs. Bobby Ray mixtape. The mixtape can be found through google...this thread holds the entire Bobby Ray side, so none of those awesome tracks are presented here.




Common Market - Also from the PNW, DJ Sabzi (of Blue Scholars) teamed up with MC Ra Scion to create the perfect complimentary duo to Blue Scholars. Ra Scion's lyrics are some of the tightest-laced multi-layered lyrics out there. With 2 awesomely conceptualized albums and an EP or three, definitely worth checking out.




Cunninlynguists - Reppin the Dirty South, Cunninlynguists are a trio comprised of Kno, Natti and Deacon. Their most recent release "Oneirology" was a mind blowing album of near-unparalleled production. It's linked in this thread. Every single album from SouthernUnderground on has been awesome throughout and the group's progression over the past decade is mind boggling. I met Kno and Natti after a show in my area and they were two of the most down to earth and awesome people I've met. I thanked Kno repeatedly for the entheogen references throughout Oneirology and we had a good chat




Dead Prez - Perhaps not as underround as the other artists presented, DP is a pan-African-leftist-revolutionary hip-hop duo from NY



Ill-Iteracy - From Virginia (and elsewhere in the south), Ill-Iteracy is a hip-hop collective with incredibly fresh beats, impressive lyrics and a raw sound (helped by minimalistic production) that come together to create a very soulful/honest style. The growth from their first release to their second is unmistakable, although both are top-notch.




K-os -




Panacea - Washington DC duo panacea make very unconventional hip-hop and have some of the coolest album artwork I've seen.




Pharaoh Monche -




People Under The Stairs -




Soliloquists of Sound - Coming out of Orlando, FL




Soulstice -




Victor Shade - Ra Scion (MC for Common Market) teamed up with a DJ whose name I can't remember for the life of me right now. Inspired by the death of a family member who had a hobby of assigning superhero aliases to his relatives, Ra Scion released this concept album as a tribute.




Wade Waters -




Wise Intelligent/Poor Righteous Teachers -

I'm a big time hip hop head, though I listen to all genres of music. Btw, NocternalButterfly I came across Hilltop Hoods a while back & they are real dope! Definitely a fan & I'll look up the rest of Aussie hip hop you posted. Australia is high on the list of places I'd love to travel & paint there as well. Here's a taste of some of the hip hop I'm feeling:


Blame One-out of San Diego California USA Great classic hip hop, great beats lyrics & a super cool human being.

Blame One-Hip Hop Hell



Blame One-Glass House


Emanon(Aloe Blacc & Exile)-also out of California I can't say enough about these guys, I've been a fan forever & they're up there in my list of favorite hip hop of all time.

Emanon-Path of the divine


Emanon-Outside looking in


Emanon-Situations


Blu-also out of California(Los Angeles) Real fresh, Exile of Emanon has done a lot of the beats for Blu.

Blu & Exile-Dancing in the rain


Blu- Amnesia


Dirty Circus-Canadian hip hop

Dirty Circus-Return to the Basement


Dirty Circus-Tryptamine dream


The Animal Pharm-(these guys I don't believe are a group anymore)

The Animal Pharm-Psychedelicatesson

I also had problems embedding videos evolutionofone, I even tried the "use old embed code" in youtube. Could we get an example of the code you guys used to embed?

I have albums from about half the people you listed SnozzleBerry so I'm sure I'll like the others, it's a little late here but I'm gonna check them out tomorrow.

{YOUTUBE}VIDEO LINK{/YOUTUBE}

Only, replace { } with [ ]

Definitely been listening to Blu alot lately. And I'm gonna give blame one a listen, I'm actually surprised I haven't heard of him since I'm a local around his parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWmJw34HubM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfocMBdbLNQ

[/quote]

Definitely been listening to Blu alot lately. And I'm gonna give blame one a listen, I'm actually surprised I haven't heard of him since I'm a local around his parts.

[/quote]

Blue is real nice. Give Blame a listen, he's got around 5 albums plus a few mixtapes etc. The guy has literally been rapping since he was a little kid, there's even audio of it on one or two of his albums. SnozzleBerry posted a lot of good hip hop too, personal fav's PUTS, Cunninlynguists, Dead Prez, of course PRT, I'll give the others a listen. Here's a couple more good Blame One tracks Cave Paintings.

Blame One-breaking my heart


Blame One - The Cypher feat. Sojourn & Jimmy Powers

Here's a few of my favorites that haven't been suggested yet.

Del The Funky Homosapien - did the rapping in Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz. Truly a wordsmith. He's actually Ice Cube's cousin, only better imo. I definitely suggest you check out Deltron 3030 which I feel is his best stuff.

Big L - up there with Pac, Nas, and Biggie. Wouldn't have done a lot more damage had he lived longer. Got shot in the back.

Aesop Rock - very abstract and complex artist

other dope MCs I suggest include Illogic, Immortal Technique, Das EFX

Del's really good, I haven't listened to 3030 in a while though now that you mention it. I like Aesop too I just wish I understood more of what hes saying

It seems like alot of us listen to similar music, so I just wanna throw Classified back out there since no one else has mentioned him.



The Choose Your Own Adventure songs on Self Explanatory are great, you can probably find them all on youtube if you wanna follow all the paths, at the end it tells you which track to switch to:
1: track 3
2: track 7
3: track 11
4: track 17
5: track 21
6: track 22

Big L is fun (although not underground in any sense other than hip-hop as a whole was underground when he was coming out...I mean Jay-z and Cam are on old recordings with him ) and how could he not be as CEO of "Flamboyant Records" , Blu and Blackstar are classic and yea classified's good...a bit inconsistent over his insanely long discography, especially if you look at the stuff before his last 5 albums (which he admits in at least a couple tracks)...but that's just cuz he's suffering from "Lil Wayne Complex" (i.e. make a lot of music, you miss the mark a decent amount of times) and if you trim it down, there's a staggering amount of good stuff over his long career.

Also from Canada, you should check out The Aztext and Sweatshop Union

Jurassic 5, Jean Grae (not really underground, not really mainstream), the highly overrated J. Cole is still worth a listen, Galactic's album "From the Corner to the Block" is a minblowing New Orleans hip-hop fusion compilation album from a non hip-hop group that will astound, Dilated Peoples is some good gritty underground, Curren$y is probably technically transitioning to mainstream but if you're into weed rap you have to check out Pilot Talk I and II, Braille is worth a listen...Shades of Gray is the best of his 3 or 4 albums I've heard, Arested Development is a must listen, Erik B. and Rakim...old Skool, undergroundish, some real good stuff whether or not it strictly fits in the category (by todays standards I think it qualifies), AZ, Afroman is always good for a laugh

...come on...we could do this all day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O9rZx7WAI0 - Just discovered this

http://www.youtube.com/w...vEg4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq86umv6eC0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjNmGsQ16Vg

http://www.youtube.com/w...cNXTnNw&feature=fvst

Jay Electronica


Kendrick Lamar


Little Brother



Souls of Mischief


Soul Position



MOAR!

I was about to say..

The song 'The Dive' really is magical in it's own way.
All of his music is amazing, and I can't even pick a favorite.



..

Anyway, I would have to say that Cryptic-One is my other favorite hip hop artist.