Hip hop to dance to?

May 9, 2006 1:36 AM

What are some good hip-hop songs to dance to, that I haven't heard of?

We've had some pretty kickin' dance parties at our house, and between the several of us who live here and word of mouth we've pulled together a very respectable bunch of rap/hip hop songs that have two qualities:

1 - Fun to dance to, and

2 - Obscure, or at least not in the top forty circulation.

I'm not looking for a 'best ever' list here; a good example of what I'm talking about is The Roots 'Seed 2.0,' which isn't what I'd call a well-known song, but never fails to get people up and dancing. I need more like it!

posted by Yelling At Nothing to media & arts (14 comments total)

if you like french hiphop, the Saian Supa Crew are incredibly good to dance to.
posted by tnai at 1:43 AM on May 9, 2006

I'm partial to K-Os, myself (B-Boy Stance is a bit harder, Crabbuckit is infectiously fun). If you like that, Ohmega Watts and Breakestra have recent albums that are good and very danceable.

Recently I've been pretty enamored with DJ Spinna (both for his soulful hip-hop as well as his down-tempo house. Along those lines, (hard to judge from the one track you reference), is Beatonic - lots of songs with track listings. Very funky. Speaking of funky, I've raved before about Rip Slyme. If you've never checked out any j-hip-hop, be sure to check it out.

Also, you can't go wrong with the classics.
posted by lhl at 2:36 AM on May 9, 2006

mama said knock you out - ll cool j
posted by the cuban at 4:43 AM on May 9, 2006

There's a bunch of great downloadable dance mixes at the unparalled Captains Crate mp3 blog.

In terms of your question, I highly recommend his Defibrillators Mix found in the 'Loose Tape' section of the blog.
posted by extrabox at 4:47 AM on May 9, 2006

'Reverse Psychology' by Bullfrog. Its actually kind of a anti dance song.
posted by JonnyRotten at 4:52 AM on May 9, 2006

"What's Golden" by Jurassic 5.
posted by LouMac at 6:39 AM on May 9, 2006

one block radius's "Look Out Below", available for download from their website.
posted by bachelor#3 at 7:40 AM on May 9, 2006

Check out "Backyard Betty" by Spank Rock. It's a bit "dirty," though.
posted by Ekim Neems at 7:40 AM on May 9, 2006

The Herbaliser & Jean Grae - "More tea, More beer."
posted by fire&wings at 7:57 AM on May 9, 2006

I've found countless songs and, hence, albums by streaming beatbasement while I'm at work and looking up the songs I like when I hear them. Almost entirely underground songs which you should be able to find via P2P or, my preference, purchasing from sandbox. Unfortunately, I can't give you any specific songs as I'm awful at associating names to the actual song for some odd reason, however, I'll second K-OS and J5; somewhat obscure but there may be some recognition depending on what circle of friends you keep. Gift of Gab is in the same vein but has had a number of beats show up on national adverts (Diet Coke, I think?).
posted by redsnare at 9:47 AM on May 9, 2006

Not really underground, but "Get By" by Talib Kweli is great.
posted by bullitt 5 at 9:58 AM on May 9, 2006

Here is a mix by siik which I think should float your particular boat.
Or try and seek out some Edan The DJ Mixes, great Old Skool-ness
posted by djstig at 1:34 PM on May 9, 2006

"Bonita Applebaum" by A Tribe Called Quest.
Also, the video is cool.
posted by Radio7 at 2:40 PM on May 9, 2006

holy calamity by handsome boy modeling school (in fact there album so how's your girl is damn good for that)

and just about anything by Deltron.
posted by heartquake at 9:52 AM on May 10, 2006