Reef the Lost Cauze

Reef started battling other rappers in high school and earned a reputation as one of the best battle mc's in Philadelphia. He received a film scholarship to the Philadelphia University of the Arts where he began to visualize a serious career as a recording artist. Realizing his true calling, Reef dropped out of college at the age of 19 and teamed up with Philadelphia-based producer Sleep E to begin working on his first solo project. The 10 track album, The High Life, was released in 2001 and opened doors for Reef as he began performing at area clubs and generating praise from both fans and local media.

In February 2003, Reef released his second solo album, Invisible Empire. He distributed the album himself by way of a national schedule of shows during which he won the Mic Check Battle in Philadelphia and took second place in the Blaze Freestyle Battle in Oakland, California.

Reef took his freestyle skills to another level early in 2004 with an arousing performance at the Beat Society production competition in New York, and a fierce win in the Riddle Records Mic Control Battle. He was also the End Of The Weak (EOW) Challenge Champion at the Rock Steady Crew 27th Anniversary in July 2004, and went on to take the EOW Grand Championship title in 2005. Mindful of his stunning battle prowess, Reef places a determined emphasis on balance with his songwriting and performance abilities.

Feast Or Famine, Reef's third solo album, was released in 2005 to critical acclaim. Also in 2005, Reef was a member of The JuJu Mob whose debut album, Black Candles, was lead by fellow Army of the Pharaohs rapper Chief Kamachi. The debut album from Army of the Pharaohs entitled The Torture Papers, was released in 2006 and featured two songs with Reef as a featured member.

A Vicious Cycle (fourth album) was released on November 18th, 2008. This is a very good album with SICK production. Again im in love with a rappers opening song. This one is called "Back At It".

Dont listen to at work. Unless you could give two sh*** about your job.

Immortal Technique

Immortal Technique, is an American rapper and political activist. He was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Harlem, New York. Most of his lyrics focus on political issues. The views expressed in his lyrics are largely a mixture of commentary on issues such as politics, poverty, religion, social class and racism.

In 2001, Immortal Technique released his first album Revolutionary Vol. 1 without the help of a record label or distribution. Instead using money he had made from winning various rap battles. Revolutionary Vol 1 also contained the underground classic 'Dance With The Devil' which in my opinion is the one of the most "messed up" songs ive heard in awhile. In November 2002, he was listed by Source as the month's featured "Unsigned Hype", which highlights artists that are not signed to a record label. Consequently, since he did not have a record deal or distribution at the time, Immortal Technique is the only rapper in history to have a "Hip Hop Quotable" while being unsigned. He released his second album Revolutionary Vol. 2 in 2003 and The 3rd World in 2008.

But Revolutionary Vol. 1 is my favorite album by him because of the first song "Creation and Destruction". This song is so sick with the production by Marly Marl. Just listen to his lyrics and determine for yourself. And if you get a chance check out "Dancing with the Devil" which is a long song but it is a great/messed up story being told.

Not to be listened to in public places. Unless you really dont care haha.

Big L

With the Notorius B.I.G. overshadowing the whole New York Scene almost, a person you prolly never hear about, was(still is in my opinion) probably one of the most underrated rappers in New York. This is probably caused by a drive by shooting that left Big L dead after his first debut album release. He was sort of a rapper ahead of his time if you know what i mean.

This is my favorite song by Big L called Put it On off of his first album Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous.


He also was in a group called D.I.T.C.( Diggin in the Crates). He had many previously recorded songs before his death, not sure if this is one, but this is another song i like with Fat Joe. Trust me, Fat Joe was better back then, than he is now......

A.O.T.P.

Army of the Pharoahs is a group started by Vinnie Paz consisting of rappers Apathy, Celph Titled, Reef the Lost Cauze, Chief Kamachi, Demoz, Des Devious, Doap Nixon, Esoteric, King Magnetic, Jus Allah, King Syze, Planetary,and Crypt the Warchild. They really caught my attention when they released their second album, Ritual of Battle. This song in particular caught my attention with Celph Titled in the first verse with his unique flow. But this group is very violent and talk about murdering people a lot. Other than that, you can't say they are not good. They are most certainly a really talented group and one of my current favorites.( I just realized how many favorites I have.)

Not to be listened to at work or school.....unless you have headphones!

Atmosphere

One of my favorite rap groups is Atmosphere. The lyrical half of the group, Slug is the main MC. Ant (Anthony Davis) is the other half of Atmosphere, and is the producer of the group. With the exception of Overcast!, he has produced every Atmosphere record by himself. They have had six albums that in my belief got better with each one. Slug never lies in his songs, but does tell stories. He usually raps about depression, and peoples problems. I think it is almost the perfect music to sit down after a hard day of work or school and just fall asleep. To me its the definition of beautiful music.

My favorite song is Sad Clown from the CD Sad Clown Bad Dub II. In the song he talks about a depressed clown.
"Hey daddy tell me why the clown is crying."
"Well son he's got the task of cheering up the ill and dying.
On top of that everybody thinks that he's insane.
Can't fathom why he'd wanna ease their pain."


My second favorite song is Modern Man's Hustle off of the album God Loves Ugly

Random

I always find my self looking for new music trying to find something that is the next big thing or something that has not been brought to the whole world yet like unknown rappers / producers. This is just something I found amazing about youtube as it helps me the most to expand my knowledge and mind with new music. Here is a song that I was not looking for, not expecting to find which really makes me more appreciative of the music that is out there.

Al Tarba is the producer which in my belief is a really good one. So check it out

Note: do not play at work

Detriot Rappers

Detriot in my mind has given birth to many successfull rappers in the past 20 years. It all started out with the legendary producer and rapper J Dilla a.k.a James Yancey a.k.a the best that ever did it. His work with Slum Village brought Detroit music some love. But it sort of blew up when Eminem started out in the late 90's. Eminem could be called the best rapper ever, but has recently fell off my list due to his lack of effort and mainstream garbage. But for his work done before(Infinite, Slim Shady LP, Marshall Mathers LP, etc)...easily in the top five best rappers in my book. He has done some work with D12, Detroit Dozen or dirty dozen. The Group Consisted of rappers Proof, Bizarre, Eminem, Eye-Kyu, Killa Hawk, Fuzz Scoota. They could not find six other rappers so they decided to create alter egos to make twelve. I never was a fan of them but they were a known group throughout the nation with their psychotic lyrics. Black Milk is making a name for himself as a producer and rapper recently. Guilty Simpson is most certainly talented and has a big career ahead of him(hopefully). But my favorite that has come up lately is Elzhi from the group Slum Village. He is amazingly good with his lyrics. Using differnt acronyms for D.E.M.O.N.S. Please decide for yourself.