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lyfstyl:

The 10 Best Conscious Rappers Of All-Time

Conscious Rap is a sub-genre of hip-hop that focuses on creating awareness and imparting knowledge. Conscious rap is propelled by the conviction that radical social change comes through knowledge of self and personal discovery.

So what exactly makes for a good conscious rapper? Is it life experience, message, relevance? I think it has to be a combination of all three. While some of you might disagree with my choice of placing 2pac at the top of the list of Conscious Rappers, especially since he made some violent songs. You cannot deny Pac’s talent, impact and positive messages that can be found on all of his albums.

1. 2pac
2. Common
3. Mos Def
4. Lupe Fiasco
5. The Roots
6. RZA
7. Q-tip
8. Krs-One
9. Immortal Technique
10. Talib Kweli

I’m reblogging just to object to the rankings.. when it comes to ‘conscious rap’, Immortal deserves to be much higher than 9th, certainly higher than RZA, Q-TIP, Lupe and Common.. his entire career is about consciousness. He releases his albums free, meaning they are incredibly accessible. To further this dispersion, he encourages the public sharing/burning of his own music. Entirely seperate from the influence of a record label, he can and does say exactly what he wants to…  his songs are always full of potent, pertinent and well expressed messages which rival even Tupacs most ‘consious’ works. Immortal almost always uses every line and word of his work to explore and publicise a cause, from drug legalisation to the awareness of the fragility and corruption of the capitalist system. It is ridiculous to put him at number 9 on a list of rappers who mainly write of love/sex/being the best rappers/chilling with their boys and sometimes explore issues such as human rights/the empowerment of people/government corruption… especially as even when they do/have, it is very rarely (if ever) on the same level as Immortals, particularly in that there has been very little conceptual progression in their messages, literally rewording what the rapper before them had said. Conversely, Immortal makes a point of reading, exploring and discussing his ideas immensely before expressing them in albums bursting with intellectual prowess. 

Oh, and Dead Prez should probably be on that list if you’re putting RZA and Lupe.. for fucks sake. 

(Source : lyfstyl)