Your Favorite Artists' Favorite Artist and Album

Favorite artist: Himself

"Jay is Kweli's favorite rapper, 50 is Eminem's favorite rapper, and I'm my favorite rapper."

(Source)

Favorite album: The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde

(Source)

Favorite artists: 2Pac, Notorious B.I.G., Jay Z, Nas, Eminem

"My top five, dead or alive. Tupac, definitely. Tupac because the emotion that he put in and how much he related to the people, and how much he connected. That’s what music is about. Biggie, because of his wit. Biggie’s wit was incredible. His wit and his character, his personality and his flow and most of all, his confidence. Anybody that can talk about themselves on a record and still have screaming women at the front of the stage, unless you know it goes a long way with your confidence in being an artist. Jay-Z, it’s an incredible thing where you can listen to his music and feel like you’re having a sit-down with him. Nas, the art of storytelling, I think hip-hop is really based on that and getting your point across. Nas does that incredibly. Eminem, just being a wordsmith, an amazing wordsmith."

(Source)

Favorite albums: Dr. Dre - The Chronic, 2Pac - All Eyez On Me, Jay Z - The Black Album

"[The Chronic] was probably the first rap album I remember them playing in the house from top to bottom. Songs that I actually remember as a kid. That’s the start of them house parties I always talk about growing up. ‘Lil’ Ghetto Boy’ was crazy because of the storytelling, and I do a lot of storytelling in this album. I really pattern… Like I listen to my album and how it’s broken down to 12 songs. It really kind of shapes and forms into an album like that. Just with the storytelling and what represents the city today and kids around the world today.

You know what’s crazy about these Tupac albums? These three records, Me Against The World, All Eyez On Me, and Makaveli [The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory] was played so much that you start mixing up what songs was on what album because there was so much in heavy rotation. With the older songs and the newer songs, they were played so much in the household. All I can remember is just my pops always constantly just playing that album. Just playing it, playing it playing it. All of them really were in heavy rotation. That’s all we knew in the house.

I love [The Black Album]. That’s one of my favorite Jay albums. Everybody say Blueprint, I love The Black Album. First time I heard ‘Encore’ I flipped out. I was probably in tenth grade playing that in class like 10 times in a row. Mainly because he was saying he was on the verge of retiring and then he just hit it in the clutch. Like the beats was dope, the raps was dope. It’s crazy because everybody says Blueprint; 'Blueprint is crazy.’ I think The Black Album is right behind it though. He had “99 Problems,” crazy stuff like that."

(Source)

Favorite artists: LL Cool J, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, and Treach

"I don't know if I can put an order on it. I would probably say all time... LL would have to be in there. There's too many I wanna throw up in there. Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Treach..."

(Source)

Favorite albums: Michael Jackson -  Off the Wall, Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP, Kanye West - Late Registration, Joanna Newsom - Ys

[Off the Wall is] the greatest album by the greatest entertainer of all time.

[The Marshall Mathers LP is] where I got my flow from.

[Late Registration is] the perfect example of a perfect album.

[Ys is] my inspiration for vocal range.

(Source)

Favorite artists: Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Kool G Rap, Ice Cube, Rakim, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Slick Rick, Jay Z, Lil' Kim

"The lyrics [to Biggie's "My Downfall"] are about how he’s acing the shadows of death, despite all of his success, and he’s giving it to you in a way that makes it seem so real.

The way we’re rhyming now? [Kool G Rap] was already doing it then.

[Slick Rick's "The Moment I Feared" is] cinematic. He’s at a hip-hop show and ices this girl who played him, then he’s in prison getting violated by some dude. This was unheard of.

[Jay Z's "Empire State of Mind"] is huge. It sounds like Broadway. It’s New York’s modern anthem.

At the time, female rappers didn’t appeal to the street, but ['Lil] Kim came with the vulgarity, sexuality and gangster shit."

(Source)

Favorite albums: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue, Run-DMC - King of Rock, MC Shan - Down by Law, Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Wanted: Dead or Alive

“Miles and Coltrane made the ultimate jazz albums; there’s a lot of others too. Miles also got commercial success from a jazz album and if you play it, it sounds like it was supposed to be made. That album was supposed to be made. This world wouldn’t be the same without that album.

That’s one of the first rap albums. The commercial success with a different sound—it had rock, they were of a next phase, next plateau from the Furious Five and the Treacherous Three. They were the next thing so they personified the next thing. And then Raising Hell showed how they evolved as hip-hop superstars. The greatest moment of my life being a rap fan was probably when King of Rock came out.

That album changed my life. A big reason is because Shan is from Queensbridge. But still, his rap style, it helped me craft my rap style. The production with him and Marley opened my head to what I wanted to sound like, what I think I should sound like, and what I can potentially sound like.

Kool G Rap is a major influence. What he did with rapping was he took the lyric level to the highest level it can go. Rakim was scientific, Big Daddy Kane was acrobatic, but Kool G Rap was bloody chainsaws fighting each other lyric style. He took it to a level where it can’t go no further. He took it to the highest level."

(Source)

Favorite artist: Mariah Carey

"Mariah Carey is my favorite singer because her voice sounds utterly groundless. It's not even a human voice; it almost sounds mechanical...In medieval Christian thought, it was assumed that the better you were as a singer, the purer your heart was. I don't necessarily think that's true, but Mariah Carey has the voice of someone who has never done evil."

(Source)

Favorite album (of 2012): Doldrums' - Lesser Evil 

"It's not out, but I've heard it and it's fucking awesome."

(Source)

Favorite artist: Kanye West

"Kanye West is my favorite artist so [hearing Kanye say Drake put the pressure on him and Jay Z to make Watch the Throne] was surreal. I still look at guys like 'Ye and Jay and Wayne... I'm 26, I've been doing this for four years, so I don't really look at myself on that level. So to hear one of them say something — to hear anybody say something like that, let alone the guy that's pretty much the reason why I started rapping, that was crazy."

(Source)

Favorite albums: Jay Z - The Black Album, Clipse - Lord Willin', Mick Boogie & Little Brother - And Justus For All, Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death, Outkast - Aquemini or The Love Below

"Top five hip hop albums for me, because I’m young, for me. The Black Album. Clipse, Lord Willin'. Uh, this is not an album, but The Little Brother/[Mick] Boogie mixtape, that was like pivotal in my life. And then I would have to say, uh, I say Life After Death. And then I will say a toss up between The Love Below and Aquemini... And then that’s without….that’s life changing. That’s without, you know, Carter 2 and other things that pushed me to rap. Those were definitive albums that opened my sound. Oh, and Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. Those were just definitive albums that opened my mind to sound and melody and cadences and flows and you know. Those were like really important to me."

(Source)

Favorite album: Love - Forever Changes

 "My friend had just started college. He'd come back on breaks and he had the album with him. He said, 'Yo, this shit tight.' We didn't know what it was though. He got put on to it by somebody else. We was dealing with some old music. We had the Internet and were just doing research about it, reading books. That's probably why I liked it so much, knowing the whole story behind all the shit. I was listening to it in the 2000s. I was messing with J Dilla and shit by then."

 

Favorite artist: The xx (according to vocalist/bassist Oliver Sim)

"I'm in my favourite band and I don't take for granted how good a relationship we have"

(Source)

Favorite artists: Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Kool G Rap, KRS-One, Eminem, Nas

"I guess I would choose B.I.G. [as one of my favorites] because of his ability to tell stories to be humorous, to be dead serious, he just had it all. Just [B.I.G.'s] voice alone. I would choose Pac because his fire will overcome, what he doesn't have in technical skills will be overcome by passion. If you listen to that 'Tunnel' [freestyle] verse where B.I.G. is saying 'MC Hammer and them 357 women' and then you hear how [Pac] comes on, he just screams on the track, his passion could put a lot of guys to sleep. I guess Kool G Rap and KRS-One would be on there. I need more emcees. Y'all got Eminem and Nas..."

(Source)

Favorite album: Michael Jackson - Off the Wall

I got a couple, it's very difficult to say your favorite album. But I think Off the Wall is one of those albums that was timeless, didn't have a genre, it was colorless. And it was ageless, like me and my mom would listen to it. It was just one of those things the whole family would listen to. I think it was the perfect album. I think Thriller, although it was the biggest album and had huge records, the records that were on Off the Wall were so timeless and emotional.

(Source)

Favorite artist: Nas

"I went through a heavy, heavy Nas obsession. In junior high school, I actually got suspended from school over Nas. I went to a Christian school and I had the Vibe cover of him with his 'God's son' tattoo on his stomach, I had like a whole homage to him in my locker. Obviously the Christian dean thought that was blasphemous to have a tattoo saying 'God's son'...Everyone knew I was a fanatic, I used to have Nas on my nails, Nas knew I was a fanatic."

(Source)

Favorite albums: James Blake - James Blake, Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Kate Bush - The Dreaming

(Source)

Favorite artist: Big Daddy Kane

"First of all, I came to the conclusion that Big Daddy Kane was my favorite rapper just recently when I was creating Wrath of Caine. 'Wrath of Kane' is the record that he did that made me be like, 'You know what? He wins.' Big Daddy Kane is probably one of the flyest, most influential rappers. The Wrath of Caine was based off Big Daddy Kane's record, 'The Wrath of Kane.' That was probably the record that made me say that he was my favorite rapper, of all time, like the best, better than Rakim, which is a debate I've been going through my whole life as a youth and hip-hop addict."

(Source)

Favorite albums: Eric B & Rakim - Follow the Leader, Dr. Dre - The Chronic, Nas - Illmatic, Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death

"You still discover shit on Follow The Leader. You can still discover lines. You might have missed some shit. I missed things [that I discovered] just recently. That’s how fucking intricate he was. Of that time, Rakim was Nas, Jay-Z was Kane. Rakim was just greater than most in everything—persona, lyricism.

The Chronic is one of the greatest albums ever made. The Chronic and Doggystyle were well put together with interludes, songs, attitude, defining moments in music, and time, and history. You had to follow what they did. You felt like people smoked weed because of it.

That shit [Illmatic] was poetry, man. That was storytelling at its best. The pictures that were painted, the descriptions, it was incredible. My favorite song on there was ‘One Love.’

Life After Death let me know that Biggie was the best rapper ever. It let me know that he was light years beyond. He not only rhymed with color, not only did he rhyme with lyricism, not only did he rhyme with melody, not only was he a storyteller, he did every spectrum of rap and was the best at it."

(Source)

Favorite artist: Eminem

"Eminem is my favorite rapper."

(Source)

Favorite albums: N.E.R.D. - In Search of, Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP, Pharrell - In My Mind, Eminem - Relapse

Favorite artist: Mariah Carey

"[Mariah Carey] has been one of my favorite artists of all time since I can remember...Some of my best childhood memories with my mom are from Mariah's music. I can't deny that and I can't take away what she's done in my life, and just pop culture in general, and having one of the most amazing voices in the world."

(Source)