Wow, depending upon your criteria for being a favorite:
for content: ODB (R.I.P.) makes me laugh no matter what. Definitely gets the most play in our car of the RAP discs that get play. No one, besides Shooby Taylor, signs "really badly in a funny way" better than ODB.

for technical chops: You'll call me grandpa, but the truth is recorded: Will Smith. Code Red. Yep, I said it. I have never heard anyone else do superfast rapping better. Maidel, Code Red is a major reason Rap is a genre in the first place. IMO, no one has had better tech chops than Will Smith IN THAT ERA....clearly he hasn't done anything better & won't again in the future. Code Red is the album I would use to show an alien who knew nothing of earthbound culture what the definition of Rap is. DJJJ does awesome work here too.

THE true production capabilities: Dr Dre. There is no Eminem without the man who "started this gansta s#!t". Dre has always been able to produce quality beyond everybody else. NWA was awesome.

New stuff? I don't look too hard for hip hop (obviously). I have been liking the Large Professor's record.

Snoop definitely deserves a mention.

My Favorite? ODB. But with Will Smith, I could listen with my grandmother or little kids. You can't say that about pretty much everybody else.

Yeah, they're both really popular.

German rappers you say? I know a few of them myself, and they're pretty good: Sido is one of them and if I remember well, there was Fler, with a song called NDW.

I listen a lot to rap, but I can't make out a favorite. Well, there's Favorite, a german rapper I'm fond of. Very explicit lyrics, but I think you guys won't understand any words besides the few english ones.

Is it considered to be overstepping the mark to say the only good rap 'artists' are ones that aren't recording any more music?

I'm going to sound like my dad here... but I just don't understand how someone talking to a beat can be called music, last time I checked this wasn't counted as music - http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... cIL9LPCL3w

Sorry, just had to get that clip in...

Fat Boys! I had a copy of "Crushin'" that I played so many times, it turned to just static. (Yes kids, it was a "cas-ette tape." Google it)

http://youtu.be/KXJzYFxXgbY

I don't think I have a favorite one.. I really like Eminem and Kanye West. Also, Twista and Tech N9ne are some great rappers...and the fastest too.

Doom i must agree with you there, those 2 albums were funny, but didnt really move him forward at all as an artist. But because of those albums, it forced him to take several steps back. Recovery was a step in the right direction with clever lyrics. Without his mother and drugs Em is having to find alternatives to rap about which i am fine with. After Recovery he did a collaboration album with Royce Da 5'9, Welcome to Hell, that i was must say has several standout records, and if you havent heard it i fully recommend it.

As for Jay-Z, i got into jay right around the Blueprint which was a fantastic album, i liked the Black Album, American Gangster, and Blueprint 3. After i was bruned out of listening to those, i ventured into his older stuff. While i enjoyed his first 2 albums, Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life, hooked me. i can jam to that album any day of the week.

Jfpj91, i havent heard to much about Nix, but i will be sure to give him a listen and report back. Thanks for the heads up.

Gotta love Eminem, but he's second to Richy Nix. Nix is a canadian rapper, who is ten times better than Mathers.

Hey insanesee! Don't worry, someone (me) always reads new posts, even on age-old threads..

I only bring it up because you say you're really into hip-hop (full disclosure: it's a recent interest of mine).
I used to have a really high opinion of Eminem. I even thought Encore, while filled with double-plus lame subject matter, was an amazing showcase of his skill as a rapper. That being said, I don't think he has lived up to the legacy he created for himself. Relapse had, for me, almost zero redeming qualities. Recovery is harder to talk about because it was such a massive hit. I admit that it was a welcome breath of fresh air in his discography after two albums of stupid accents and dumber subjects, and occasionally his flow is scathing. But as a cohesive piece of art, it was really repetitive and somewhat lacking. I love the lack of skits, btw... But every single off that album was a ballad and none of them really had an identity. They were all *good* but not particularly distinguishable from each other.
What do you think?

Next we can talk about Hova