5 Mainstream Rappers You Should Be Listening To

It seems as though we live in a day and age where everyone who claims to be anyone is trying to tell you what popular things are terrible and what super-indie, underground thing you should be investing your time into. I won't lie; I am a victim of this myself, but there are some mainstream things that are worth sticking around on the surface for. I present to you 5 mainstream rappers that you should be listening to.

5. Wiz Khalifa

When I first heard “Black and Yellow”, I thought it was dumb and therefore probably done by a dumb artist. I mean, all he does is smoke weed and rap about his car and weed... right? Well, one day, I caved and downloaded Rolling Papers and I was pleasantly surprised by the variation in topics, moods, and sounds. Happy songs, sad songs, fun songs, heavy songs... Khalifa offers it all. His recent effort, “Young, Wild, and Free” featuring Snoop Dogg and Bruno Mars, is fantastic to listen to and definitely gives the listener a spiritual lift.

4. Tyler, The Creator

Like Wiz, I didn’t like Tyler at first. I had heard nothing but negative things, such as him being overly grotesque and rapping about nothing. When I first listened to him, I didn’t like his voice and I was a little put off by his subject matter. However, I soon began to recall visions of late 90’s Eminem and the Marshall Mathers LP. Tyler was channeling the spirit of that young, angry Eminem who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind no matter how twisted the thoughts may have been. Tyler also presents his album, Goblin, in an interesting way. The tracks are presented as tapes recorded during therapy sessions between Tyler and a mysterious therapist. He is very thoughtful and stylistic in his approach to the grotesque nature of his lyrics.

3. Kanye West

When Kanye’s debut album dropped, I was all over it. From “Through The Wire” to “Diamonds” and “Touch The Sky”, I loved Kanye’s music. Then after falters with Graduation and the dreadful 808’s and Heartbreaks combined with his insane publicity stunts, I had given up on him. When the “Runaway” music video came out, I reached the peak of my hatred of Kanye. Though I loved the song, I hated the arrogance of him directing some short film. My opinions changed once I heard My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. To this day, I listen to that album almost daily. Then, his collaboration album with Jay-Z, Watch The Throne, left me extremely satisfied AND wanting more from a dream team collaboration. Kanye’s arrogance has peaked and I absolutely love it. I find solace in his brutal honesty on everything including his character.

2. Wale

I was first introduced to Wale in my friend’s room the summer before I left for my 3rd year of college. The music video for “Chillin” was fantastic and was one of the first reasons that I fell in love with my favorite artist, Lady Gaga. Then I discovered some of Wale’s old mixtapes and his first studio album, Attention Deficit. I eagerly awaited his second album, Ambition, and loved the teaser release of a full mixtape, The 11.1.11 Theory. Ambition dropped and it was even better than I had hoped, blowing his debut album out of the water. Tracks such as “Ambition”, “Chain Music”, and “Focused ft. Kid Cudi” bring totally different flavors and collaboration tracks such as “Slight Work” featuring Big Sean with a beat by electronic music artist Diplo bring unique sounds to the album. Wale is perhaps the most difficult artist to mimic. Oh, and his snapback game is unmatched.

1. Kid Cudi

I first heard about Cudi just before Wale when I listened to “Day N Nite” for the first time. I enjoyed it but didn’t really look further into him until I heard “Make Her Say” featuring Common, Kanye West. I was initially drawn by the sample of Gaga’s “Poker Face” and Kanye’s epic verse, but I soon learned to love Cudi. When his follow-up album, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager, dropped, I immediately bought it and loved every single track from the get go. It is an album that I truly feel must be listened to in its entirety every single time. It even spawned a nickname for my friend Sam, earning the monicker Mr. Rager. Cudi has since released a single as himself and another single with his band WZRD (Cudi and DotDaGenius). WZRD’s first single, “Brake”, has a deliciously psychedelic feel to it that calls upon the 1970’s with Cudi’s unique twist. His other single, “No One Believes Me”, has a very grunge-esque feel to it. Cudi’s moaning and bellowing recalls memories of Kurt Cobain. To me, Kid Cudi is more than a rapper, he’s an experimentalist… a mad scientist mixing all sorts of sounds and genres to produce some of the most unique music being released today.

Honorable Mention: Childish Gambino

Check out Kid Cudi's music video for "Mr. Rager" after the jump.