The HighLife

I may be biased, but i really think i work with some of the coolest people on the planet.  We've got a daily track thingy that we do, and this is content courtesy of one of our 'trackers', Sean MC.  He's on the HighLife, so feel free to find him and commend him for his taste. Any further content from this point is his...
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With VH1 doing Hip Hop Honors and a list of the 100 greatest hip hop songs (questionable but interesting) I’ve been in full hip-hop mode since last week. So this is for the hip-hop heads. Some of my lesser known favorites from back in the day, with the exception of the BDK song which everyone should know.

Here’s the full list in playlist form if you just wanna let it fly. The last track is on the Youtube list but I’ve included a separate link below that’ll take you to a page that plays the song with lyrics.

Each song individually:
Straight up MCing-

Big Daddy Kane – Set it Off

(Black Thought and Common’s tribute at Hip Hop Honor’s a few years back was tight but shows how amazing Kane’s flow is and how a master MC can move the crowd. BDK is almost 40 there and still smokes.

Legendary Debuts:

MC Serch – Back to the Grill

(The major label debut of Nasty Nas. Everyone laughed at me for having this tape but then Nas blew up. Suckers.)

Original Dirty South:

Geto Boys – My Mind’s Playing Tricks on Me

Scarface, definitely one of the best ever.

Intelligent Hip-hop:

Poor Righteous Teachers – Holy Intellect

(Wise Intelligent was an awesome MC. Big influence on the Fugees.)

Just straight raw:

Lords of the Underground – Chief Rocka

East Coast Gangsta:

Brand Nubian – Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down

Sadat X and Lord Jamar appear on Tribe’s Show Business track on Low End Theory.

West Coast Gangsta:

Eazy-E – Real muthaf**kin’ G’s

(Eazy’s response to Dre Day. They just sh*t all over Snoop on this one.)

Chill gangsta:

Nine – Whatchu Want

Bay Area Flow:

Del The Funkee Homo Sapien – Catch a Bad One

(One of my favorite MCs ever. Part of the Hieroglyphics with  Souls of Mischief)

Most Slept on MC of All Time:

Kool G Rap and DJ Polo – Men at Work

Any list of greatest MCs that doesn’t have Kool G in the top 5 to 10 should immediately be disregarded. Kool G Rap is the Godfather of hardcore hip-hop that guys like Nas and Biggie talked about. He’s also the first to bring an attack the mic style that influenced MCs like Busta Rhymes, ODB, and so on. Any MC that uses multi-syllabic rhymes in the same line is coming from Kool G Rap. If you want something a little more slow check Streets of New York.

If any of these don’t work let me know and I got plenty of more where these come from so if anything strikes ya let me know and I can make some other suggestions.