You know, initially, it's easy to think "well, it's a little before their time"...
But maaaaaad music that I'm into was WELL "before my time". If you love good music, you love good music, bottom line, and you're gonna search out that classic material. When I hear something dope, I want to hear the thing that influenced them, and then the thing that influenced them, ya know? But I've always been a student of music, literally. When kids were doing their homework, I was studying Wu-Tang, then the Beatles, then Hendrix, then Nas, then Hov, then Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith, Marvin Gaye, The Roots, and the studying never ends. That's kind of a problem for me; when I'm into something, I immerse myself in it. It kinda sucks, because I have so much stuff I need to listen to. There's always dope music coming out; I'm definitely not one of those "MY music was the best..." guys... well, maybe a little bit...lol. I'm really stuck on that Black Hippy camp; have been for the past few months. Well, Jay Rock is aiight (not bad, by any stretch; haven't heard anything new from him lately, wonder if he's gotten better), but the other 3 are on that level I'm in tune with. Between Kendrick, Ab-Soul and Q, they really hit every aspect that I love about hip-hop, and do it WELL; Kendrick has that poetic, abstract style, like a young Hov and Nas mixed together, with amazing songwriting skills; Ab-Soul has that abstract flow times 10, that stuff that true fans of lyricists can appreciate, while touching on unorthodox subjects and mixing that comedy in there; Q has the gangster ish down pat, to a T - like 50 in his prime, but more lyrical. Can't say enough about those guys...