I would have liked to see less mainstream artists and more underground artists.
Hip hop, by definition, at least to me, is more of an underground culture evolving from jazz, funk and poetry. I also think most people have heard these songs because they are pretty widespread on the radio, like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Outkast, Drake, Beastie Boys... etc.
A better introduction would be to move through different hip hop periods to show how the sound has evolved as the genre has matured, including artists that are actually in it for the art and not solely for the money.
Very fair criticism, I think when I was putting this together I went the mainstream route because I wanted to get broad appeal from people who had never even given the genre a chance, but thinking more about it your suggestions make a lot of sense (i.e. moving through different periods).
Why is that a bad thing? If I, as someone who knows nothing about the genre, wants to find out what it's all about, isn't it better to start with contemporary bands that are still active so that I can get a feel for the current state of the hip hop scene? All else being equal, I prefer to discover new bands that are still putting out material and touring to discovering 'new' bands where the last member died 1998.
It's not totally terrible, but I do think its lacking without some Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul or maybe even The Roots for example - its quite Rap based and Rap != HipHop.
His last album included collaborations with some of the most legendary producers in rap/hip hop including Statik Selektah, DJ Premiere, and the Roots. In fact, the Roots collab featured a previously lost beat from J. Dilla, another legend. It's a strong album that any true fan of the genre would appreciate. He's also a great sonic and lyrical bridge between the 90s style and modern day. His current album features Schoolboy Q, Styles P, and J.Cole, among others, and is unabashedly political and, at times, quite poignant. I just wanted to reply to your comment so people wouldn't be influenced by your uninformed opinion. In many ways, people who reminisce about the 90s and think rap/hip hop has changed too much or died, might be reinvigorated by Joey. I also challenge you to give him another listen :)
Wu Tang and Tribe definitely should've been included, bad oversight on my part... I included Dave more because I thought it would be interesting for people to see an international artist, not because I thought he was better than either of those groups. I guess I did have that covered with Skepta though.
Lists can't cover everything, even your best albums list is lacking. Where for example are Critical Beatdown, Hard to Earn, Stunts Blunts and Hip Hop, 2000, Paid in Full, Funcrusher Plus, Unfinished Business, Breaking Atoms on that list?
yeah I definitely should have had the roots on there, there were a few major omissions here that people have accurately pointed out. to answer your earlier question, no particular goal in sharing this on hn, just thought it would be fun to encourage people to listen to music that they may have avoided in the past and get feedback from hip hop fans.
This is more of a meta-comment, but is this being upvoted because it's on github? I think this is a great list, but there are many similar to it not hosted on github.
I'd say it's being upvoted because people think it's a good list. I don't recall seeing other such lists submitted to HN (which doesn't mean there haven't been, just that my memory's not perfect and I haven't seen every submission), and what hasn't been submitted can't be upvoted. I don't think where it's hosted has anything to do with it.
Upvoted this only because I feel that hiphop is a genre that doesn't appeal much to the hacker news crowd, which, from my experience, is more focused on metal, electronic or classic.
Good playlist but ultimately (and predictably) incomplete
Hip hop, by definition, at least to me, is more of an underground culture evolving from jazz, funk and poetry. I also think most people have heard these songs because they are pretty widespread on the radio, like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Outkast, Drake, Beastie Boys... etc.
A better introduction would be to move through different hip hop periods to show how the sound has evolved as the genre has matured, including artists that are actually in it for the art and not solely for the money.