Artists that Genuinely Amazed You When You First Heard Them

[Satire]

I mean amazed. Like literally, you heard them, paused, then sat back and were like "wow...wtf". There's alot of artists that I really like, and then there's the few artists that I was amazed by when I heard them.

1.) Eminem

This is pretty much a given. I found out about him when I was like, 4-6 or something. The first thing I heard was either My Name Is or The Real Slim Shady and even as a kid I noticed how much more melodic his verses were than other rappers. I remember specifically that the second thing I heard from him was "Kim", and had nightmares about that shit, but the emotion in that song and Stan was crazy. I didn't really get into Em until I was a teen but whenever I thought of "Rap", the first person I referred to was Eminem from then on.

2.) Tech N9ne
I found out about him a couple years ago when someone had just burned Everready after it was just released. I remember not liking it that much to be honest. Then I hear "Midwest Choppers" off Sickology 101 and was like .

3.) Diabolic
I don't even listen to this guy that much but the first thing I heard from him was Frontlines and was blown away by his verse. That was on some uncut sh!t.

4.) Kanye West
Kanye is in my top 3 favorite producers ever. His instrumentals have always been incredible. College Dropout was one of the first Rap CDs I ever owned.

5.) Lowkey
When I heard this:
"Fight the power, til I'm out of breath like Malcolm X
You empower the powerful, I empower the powerless"
^ That line is on some 2Pac shit.

6.)The Notorious B.I.G.
I can't even describe how I felt when I first heard his flow. It was just as musical and catchy as Em's, maybe even more. The first thing I heard from him was Hypnotize and Juicy, and even though they're far from his best songs, I can recite the lyrics to them by heart.

7.)Giggs
He's really bad.

8.)Royce Da 5'9
Dinner Time was incredible. Perfect song except I honestly think Busta ruined it lyrically. And his flow and delivery on that Airplanes freestyle, holy shit. It was so smooth.

And that's it. It's funny because I hardly even listen to 3-7. My actual top 10 is drastically different from this.

[Master Chief]

In no order, except for the Top 3

Eminem
Tech N9ne
Royce
50 Cent (Yeah, bitch)
Kanye West
2Pac
Jay-Z
Copywrite
Saigon
Chamillionaire
Lloyd Banks

[mdemaz]

What Chief said.

[Master Chief]

6.)The Notorious B.I.G.
The first thing I heard from him was Hypnotize and Juicy, and even though they're far from his best songs, I can recite the lyrics to them by heart.

Word to that.

Hypnotize is one of those songs I could sing off the top of my head without listening to the song.

[Block]

Good topic, dude.

The first artist I was absolutely amazed by was Biggie. Back in early 2000's my boys and I would skate around town with a cd player blasting biggie and dmx everywhere we went.

Immortal tech - first underground artist I wa introduced to back in 04. I was huge into text battling at the time and he was spitting wordplays and similies that blew my mind at the time. That quickly changed.

Slug - was introduced to him in 04-05 around the time seven's travels came out. I first heard "god loves ugly" and listened to that album over and over. I was astounded by slug's voice a's everything he said.

brother ali - the same thing as slug. I was introduced to his music by a good friend and was amazed at his lyrical ability.

Eyedea/aesop rock - when I heard aes I almost fell out of my chair. The shit he said was absurd. His flow was nothing I had ever heard before. I put eyedea in the same category because it was the same reaction. to this day I haven't heard anybody rival eyedea as far as lyrical ability is concerned.

Spoonfull - was introduced to him in 05-06 around the time he dropped "drawn with an eraser". His uniqueness was something I had never heard before. His flow is amazing and something about his voice was just dope.

Joe budden - his emotion and lyrical ability astounded me. Still does. Was introduced to him in 07 by a close friend.

[classthe_king]

Vinnie Paz, DZK, Diabolic and Sadistik were the only ones that amazed me on the first listen

[SlimShadyX313X]

Eminem
Nas
50 cent
2pac
Biggie

[Spyder]

joe budden
dzk only cause i heard inhuman first
one be lo

thats it. everyone else takes a while to get into

[Satire]

one be lo

Why have I never heard of this guy? He's really fucking good.

[EminemBase]

B.o.B - Eminem - Mos Def - Nas - Oasis - The Beatles.

[classthe_king]

The first song I heard was Inhuman too lmao

From then on I was hooked

[dead prez]

You make the best topics bro, lol. Anyways

1) Mobb Deep- I've only got into Mobb Deep's music about a few months ago, but Prodigy is already my favorite rapper ever. I won't lie though I'm one of those that got into Prodigy because of 8 mile, his verse on Shook Ones II was amazing, his lyrics weren't the best but his voice, delivery, flow was perfect. So yeah, but what really made P one of my favorite rappers was Hell on Earth (frontlines) his first verse was amazing and had some great quotables "Blood flood your eye fuck up your optics", is one of my favorite lines. I also used to only listen to the video, and didn't know there was a 3rd verse, first time I heard that verse I was blown away. Everything from his flow, delivery, voice, lyrics was perfect. He doesn't have multies every line, but his 2nd verse imo is one of the best hardcore rap verses on was at the time. Probably my favorite verse ever.

2) Del Tha Funkee Homosapien- Well it was really Deltron 3030, I was introduced to this while searching album on RYM and so this was on the top on someone list who I have a lot of respect for (posts in other forums, but is one of the most knowledgable Hip Hop heads I've ever witnessed). I decided might as well give it a try, and DAMN I'm glad I gave this album a chance, Deltron 3030 the title track was amazing. Great pump up song, great lyrics, beats, everything. Madness was also great, I loved the sample "Caught in the grip of the city" is so captivating.

3) One Be Lo- I honestly got into his music a few ago, but Rocketship was amazing. I'm not one to go crazy over multies, but damn his second verse was amazing. He's the artist I got to if I want to listen to multies, sadly his delivery isn't as great as Prodigy imo. Quickly shaping up to be one of my favorite artists.

4) Canibus-He's probably the first underground artist I've ever really delved into, I'm not that much of a fan anymore and thinks his voice sucks. But at the time when I used to think listening to underground automatically makes you knowledgable, I used to think he was the best lyricist ever. His Greatest freestyle, still wows me to this day even though I'm not really a fan anymore same with his Yale university freestyle.

5 R.A. The Rugged Man- I was blown away by his Uncommon Valor verse and when I used to think that multies was the end all be all for lyricism, now I honestly think that verse is repetitive especially when compared to his other shit. I'm not really a fan anymore to be honest.

6 K-os- His song Valhalla blew me away, his other songs took some time getting used to though. He's still one of my favorite artists though.

Artists like Nas, Eminem, Jay, Biggie whom I like took some getting used to before I truly appreciated their music, maybe it was because I was younger when I was introduced to their music and couldn't fully grasp or appreciate it. Whatever.

[8milestyle]

woah. first person I thought of was....

k-os: His music is unlike anything I have ever heard. Haha, I actually found out about him through some swedish rap song (which was described as swing-rap) and someone said this random Canadian dude k-os had a song called "4-3-2-1" that was basically swing-rap. I listened and I was instantly hooked. He is in no way super-multi-lyrical, but very poetic. His production is always ON POINT (I fucking love the Zambony beat). Wow, I was actually amazed when I heard it. It gave me goosebumps.

Besides that...

Immortal Technique: First song I heard was Point of No Return and then Dance with the Devil. Well, as you can probably guess, those are two pretty hard-hitting songs and I was fuckin just standing there speechless after hearing them. This was the first underground artist I had heard and that's when I started looking into underground shit.

Macklemore/Blue Scholars: Heard about them around the same time. Both from Seattle (lemme tell ya, Seattle makes some great music) and both amazed me. First song I heard from Macklemore was "Otherside". Talks about some serious shit, has an awesome flow and its over probably my favorite RHCP songs. First song I heard from Blue Scholars is a relatively new one, Lumiere, and I loved it.

Hopsin: First heard Sag My Pants a little bit ago. I couldn't believe it. Just as I was beginning to miss the old harsh, shocking Eminem from his early days, I was introduced to basically the black, early Eminem. Of course, I've listened to both his albums by now and almost every song is gold and he has his own, awesome unique flow and style. Great story teller and brings back that "Don't give a fuck" attitude.

Kinetics & One Love: Another duo. The producer is fucking sick and the rapper really knows how to tell a story, and hes lyrical as fuck. Multis and shit. I feel like people on this site would like them. FYI, they are the ones who wrote Airplanes for Universal who then gave it to b.o.b. (Listen to Sign Language, I love it).

Chamillionaire: Even though Rollin DIrty was huge back when I was in middle school, I didn't TRULY know who Chamillionaire til I was introduced by a friend. He spits fucking TRUTH. His flow is on point and his Mixtape Messiahs are full of gold. Major Pain is nasty, he's actually just nasty all around. In particular, when I heard "Morning News" and "Internet Nerd's Revenge" I was hooked.

I love that feeling you get when you discover a new artist with a completely different sound.

EDIT: OH SHIT I forgot about Flobots. Same sorta feeling when I heard "Handlebars". Hipster hop alert here: I listened to the Platypus version of Flobots before they became (semi)-big so I still have a sense of pride of discovering them so early or some shit like that. But when Fight With Tools came out, I bumped it on repeat for a solid year. Their new albums blows though.

[ThomasJ]

Aloe Blacc
Atmosphere
CunninLynguists
Lauryn Hill
OutKast
Pharoahe Monch
Tonedeff
YelaWolf

[VenomBlackViper]

Well can't say Eminem since I heard him at 12 and wasn't really impressed back then since I didn't understand good music, however after hearing Relapse I was fucking blown away by his crazy tracks like Bagpipes From Baghdad, Insane & Underground. The jawdropping amazement continued as I heard more and more tracks from the SSLP, MMLP & TES.

Immortal Technique is another one, heard him first on Dance With The Devil in 06 and that song was fucking deep. Then while smoking with my friend he played Point Of No Return & The Cause Of Death which impressed me like no other so I downloaded his discography & I wasn't let down. You Never Know is to this day the only love song I like.

Diabolic, first heard him spit on the Hidden Track with Immortal Technique so I got more into his shit & downloaded Foul Play, Triple Epix & a shit ton of his freestyles. The dudes punchlines & multis were fucking godly, then I discovered his album came out a couple weeks ago and holy shit it was

Hopsin, I just recently got into this dude sometime in December after seeing his hype on here and I gotta admit he amazed me, shit that I was bumping 2 months ago i'm still bumping now. He's not only dope but he's something different as well and in a good way.

Rhyme Asylum, I used to hate that UK accent. Then people on here suggested RA and I checked out 2 tracks before downloading both albums and attempting to pick my jaw up off the floor. They've managed to take almost every saying and turn it into a dope punchline, the kinda shit that makes you think "FUCK I WISH I THOUGHT OF THAT" I think these dudes aren't more well known only because of where they live which is bullshit.

Celph Titled, the first real punchline rapper I heard. Had me wondering why Lil Wayne was famous & he wasn't. I did get kinda pissed when I heard a song of his & he used a line similar to what I had wrote before. I said
I'll cut you off while your speaking and take a machete to your tongue
fuck love, bitch don't get at me with that petty cupid stuff
I'll rip your fuckin skirt off & finger you with a freddy kruger glove

then I hear this

Army of the Pharaohs, we never make love songs,
We finger fuck bitches with freddy krueger gloves on

I was proud & pissed at the same fuckin time.