Not into mainstream rap at all, anyone into shit like Brother Ali, Aesop Rock, Deltron, Crystal Method, The Streets, Killa Klan Kaze, Kool & The Gang, Lil' Keke, Living Legends? If you haven't already, check out Project Pat. He's got awesome flow, and he uses his memphis accent to a crunk perfection. Pat may be the tightest rapper flow-wise and talent-wise on hypnotize minds.

Aesop, all....those Definitive Jux Records guys are good...
www.definitivejux.net

They are pretty good, I'm thinkin about getting that Revenge of the Robots dvd.

I got some Aesop and Del. and various other "underground" stuff. much better than most of the rap that gets pop airplay.

So how do you all hear about this? I've never heard of any of those rappers efunk was talkin about. I need to be informed, Chicken N Beer is getting way old.

, well to be honest I've heard of alot of stuff word of mouth. I heard about the Roots that way. I even remember they guy who told me about them back in '93. I also heard about Aesop and Del that way too. That's part of the reason why this forum is a good place to be, you get all the word of mouth you want (and maybe a little more).

Word of mouth is definitely the key. Thats how i learned and began to love Definitive Jux. In another case, i walked into a skater shop and heard what i would find out to be was Jurassic 5.

i go to this festival every year called Dead beat and i've never usually heard of most of the acts which is cool cause you get to hear different stuff. never heard of Edan before i saw him there..............

true, word of mouth is how I heard about the Rhymesayers (Atmosphere, Eyedea & Abilities). But Don't leave out the factor of live shows that's where I first heard Brother Ali, and the Micranots. But my favorite is just checkin out guest's on the albums I know i like.

Word of mouth is probably the best way to learn about good rap music.

I also like websites like allmusic.com. They review just about every album ever made and have links like "If you like this artist, you might like ... ". Good stuff.

I think Spin Magazine does a pretty good job of covering "alternative rap". That's where I first learned about Aesop Rock, The Streets, etc. Rolling Stone never covers these guys but Spin does it OK. Other magazines that cover rappers like this are Urb and AP (Alternative Press). You can learn a lot from just browsing these magazines in your local bookstore.