The all-purpose hip hop thread

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All right, so this thread I thought I'd start for a number of reasons... One being the large amount of flak this genre gets here on WrongPlanet, although there are a bunch of hip hop fans.

Another reason is that I'm mostly a newb to hip hop, though I've been listening for years- most of what I listen to , as with all genres, is the music that gets radio airplay. So I thought maybe it would be fun if, along the course of this thread, I could pick up some recommendations for lesser known artists.

At the same time, I'm also curious about the merits of some of the mainstream rappers I've listened to, who has the better flow, who has the most inventive wordplay, that sort of thing. To discuss icons and lesser gods, from Nas to Busta, from Missy to A Tribe Called Quest, on their strong and weak points.

So, as stated, it's an all-purpose thread, meaning that anything goes as long as it's hip hop-related. You could post favourite songs, share the latest news on projects that artists are up to, discuss concerts, delve a bit into history, plug your favourite obscure MC's, it's all possible.

So let's kick it off with a simple question: why do you like hip hop, and how were you introduced to it?

As for me, it's a bit difficult to say. I actually started out not liking rap at all, but in the late 90s, as a schoolkid, I really loved contemporary RnB, singers like Usher, Ginuwine, Aaliyah. Now, when we entered the new millennium, it got increasingly popular for RnB and rap artists to collaborate on singles. Before 2000, it also happened, but usually on album tracks. Buy 2001-2002, it seemed like every RnB song on MTV had a rap verse after the 2nd chorus, while every hip hop song had a hook by an RnB singer (other than Nate Dogg). So, having my fav genre mixed with a not-so-fav genre, I was exposed to hip hop more. And, due to my nature, exposure leads to getting-used-to and to integrating it into my world.
And that's how it got started. In summer 2004, I was listening to a radio channel that aired RnB intermixed with hip hop, and over theyears that followed, I developed a taste for some of the earlier hip hop artists that were contemporaries of my favourite artists from the 90s and early 2000s, like DMX, Nelly, Missy Elliott, and -dare I say it?- Ja Rule, too. This expanded gradually, though hip hop has always remained something of a side-interest when it comes to my musical preferences, I have listened to various hip hop artists over the past month quite A LOT, and that's how I got here.

What about you?