Crawl Before I Walk
February 1, 2010 11:30 PM   Subscribe

After becomming addicted to autotune the news, looping it endlessly while going about my day I'm interested in recommendations of other "uplifting rap" (not about money/pride/sex/fighting/desperation), albums or songs. Need something to rap to when surfing the web to engage my underused verbal faculties.
posted by parallax7d to Media & Arts (17 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Bomani Armah aka NotARapper aka D'mite.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 11:58 PM on February 1, 2010


The rap at 1:45 in the ThruYou video "I'm New" was pretty great. (The original is here.) There's a similar segment in the middle of "This Is What It Became", but it's much more reggae-oriented.

Also, the guy who did the VP debate edition of Autotune the News reminded me of YouTube star Bo Burnham. A lot of his videos are ballad-style, but he has a few rap pieces in there too:

3.14 Apple Pi
Bo Fo' Sho'
I'm Bo Yo

(The style is self-deprecating, nerdy, and often gross-out... Mefi's reaction was love it or hate it when he was posted about a few years ago, so YMMV.)
posted by Rhaomi at 12:17 AM on February 2, 2010


You might try K'naan.
posted by mcroft at 4:26 AM on February 2, 2010


Blackalicious. Talib Kweli. The Roots. De La Soul. Common. Erykah Badu. Outkast. KRS One. Lyrics Born. Little Brother. J-Live. A Tribe Called Quest. Ugly Duckling. Haiku D'etat. I could go on for days...
posted by gnutron at 5:00 AM on February 2, 2010 [4 favorites]


...Black Star, Deltron 3030/Del tha Funkee Homopsapien, Dilated Peoples, Jurassic 5, Collective Efforts, The Pharcyde, 7L & Esoteric, Dan The Automator...
posted by jckll at 6:06 AM on February 2, 2010 [2 favorites]


mc chris

He raps about star wars and geeky girls, smokin' weed and being the your own person, even if other people look down on you for being a nerd. catchy as hell.
posted by cosmicbandito at 6:26 AM on February 2, 2010


Will Smith
posted by downing street memo at 6:30 AM on February 2, 2010


MF Doom. Aceyalone. Aesop Rock. Busdriver. The Coup. Dead Prez. Devin the Dude. Frontline. Gang Starr. Jean Grae. Jungle Brothers. LUPE FIASCO. Murs. Pharoahe Monch / Organized Konfusion. People Under the Stairs. Skillz. Supernatural.

Seriously, if you have not heard Lupe Fiasco yet, stop whatever you are doing and start downloading.
posted by gnutron at 8:12 AM on February 2, 2010 [3 favorites]


I <3>
I would also add Flobots.
posted by dawnoftheread at 8:21 AM on February 2, 2010


That was...I adore Busdriver and have a strong fondness for Lupe Fiasco. Will definitely be checking out gnutron's list, and adding my own recommendation of Flobots. And perhaps Spearhead/Michael Franti.
posted by dawnoftheread at 8:29 AM on February 2, 2010


De La Soul (3 Feet High And Rising and De La Soul Is Dead) and Run-DMC are my go-to guys when I need a little cheering up.

/was a teenager in the 80s
posted by Pallas Athena at 9:02 AM on February 2, 2010


The Roots
posted by DrDreidel at 9:45 AM on February 2, 2010


The group I think of "uplifting rap" is definitely Blackalicious, I especially recommend the Blazing Arrow album.

Talib Kweli, The Roots, Common, KRS One and a few of the others mentioned would more fall under "socially conscious rap" for me, whereas De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Outkast and a few others would be more on the side of party music (but without the elements you want to avoid). Mr Lif is also a good balance between those two styles in my opinion. MF Doom, Aesop Rock, and Busdriver can be all over the map depending on what songs you are listening to, but they tend to be more on the stream of consciousness word-play side of things.

You can't really go wrong with almost all of the suggestions here though. I would suggest looking them all up on YouTube to get an idea for the different styles.
posted by burnmp3s at 10:06 AM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


Comedy-wise you could go for The Loney Island.

Some of their songs don't match your criteria, either because they are not rap, or they feature some negative stuff (although it is funny to hear Natalie Portman rapping about sex, drugs and violence).

The rest of them though I think would work, with subjects like Carlos Santana's new champagne brand, or a future Olympics set in space.
posted by trialex at 1:59 PM on February 2, 2010




White and Nerdy. There's probably more by Weird Al Yankovic out there..
The pens in my pocket, I must protect them
posted by The Biggest Dreamer at 5:01 PM on February 2, 2010


..more like Amish Paradise!

btw this is the best thread ever.
posted by The Biggest Dreamer at 5:03 PM on February 2, 2010


« Older What kind of surgery is this involving freezing...   |   My new favorite band in the WORLD is... oh crap. Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.