Can fluther suggest some meaningful rap or hip-hop?

I’d recommend Mos Def and Talib Kweli to start, along with some Atmosphere. Or Jamie T, which is a bit different, but I’d still call it Hip-hop.

And as a bonus, there’s always The Salmon Dance.

i love the salmon dance :P

Dead Prez. They’re super-lefties.

One who has probably tipped over into being a “sell-out” (but not obnoxiously so) is Common. His earlier stuff is more political, definitely.

Matisyahu mixes up a lot of sounds into his Hasidic tradition.

If you want to go old school, go with Tupac. Yeah, a lot of his stuff is about gangsters and hoes (it was the age of gangster rap, after all) but his song Changes is great. Course, most people already know this song, since it’s pretty classic as far as rap goes.

Immortal Technique’s Point of No Return is good too, as is Coolio’s Gangster’s Paradise.

@uberbatman YES! haha. I like Beastie Boys. That’s as far into rap as I go… I usually stick to rock.

I love Souls of Mischief and the Pharcyde.. You might know the Pharcyde from Summertime by the Pharcyde and Sublime. I don’t know how substantial any of these songs are, but they are great low-key listening.

If you’re interested in this stuff, you’ll definitely like the Samurai Champloo soundtrack. The whole series is a great fusion of hip-hop and samurai romances. It’s a total mishmash of anachronisms.

The Roots or Mos Def are great examples of intellectual/ political hip-hop. Common is awesome and socially conscious. Outkast is a great fusion of all different kids of music, like funk, blues, jazz, and rock.

Okay, this is a lot of links… but I think what you might be really asking about is alternative hip-hop, and if that’s the case, you might really like all of these.

There’s always the old school Grandmaster Flash or Ultramagnetic MC, too.

I like Death Row. I’m friends with the engineer. Try Rob Wasserman Space Island. It rocks!

Drop the world from Lil Wayne was really good

Lil Wayne is not welcome here….

lol i just really like that particular song.