And it's too easy to simply list the most famous groups in the world like, again, OutKast and the Wu Tang Clan. At this point, if you don't like those two groups, we've got ear specialists in the lobby to help you with that wax buildup.
So what I think I'm gonna do... I'm gonna give ya'll a list of my favorites in no particular order, but with captions that illustrate what it is that makes these groups special to me.
1. Pro.Era - at a time when I was turned off to the contemporary crop, these guys got me excited about the new generation of Hip Hop MCs. They remind me of a baby Wu, baby Fab 5, baby Onyx; not in terms of their styles necessarily (as they're pretty unique even for stereotypical East Coast rappers), but just in terms of team chemistry and having a kinda kung fu/samurai aesthetic. Matta fact, I recall a cypher they held in somebody's basement once, and this sword somehow magically appeared in the midst of the cypher, and I thought to myself, "...There it is; just like it's supposed to be." I'm encouraged every time I see young people come together with a mindset of honing their craft; it's good when old heads do it too, but when young heads do it, they have time to develop and possibly achieve mastery. Young producers like Kirk Knight and young MCs like Joey Bada$$ and Dyemond Lewis... it's only a matter of time. And my favorite part of this group is the mythical origins of the camp: Pro.Era is the fruit of the late, great Capital Steez. Love a good teacher-students story.
2. Goodie Mob - The Brothas who made me proud to be from Georgia, who made it cool in my eyes to wear humble threads in the "bling bling" era, who taught me that all rap verses don't have to be 8 bars and 16 bars, that all beats don't hafta be over-the-top, that all rap lines don't hafta be punchlines or perfect end rhymes. It befuddles me to this day how people can talk about Chuck D and Public Enemy on some "Fight the Power", but never bring up Goodie Mob's Soul Food album that was inspired by the book Behold a Pale Horse.
3. Organized Noize Productions - Now THIS is a way to shake things up! A Hip Hop group... of PRODUCERS. I gotta give Organized Noize their props for creating the sound by which I judge all other sounds. Not to say I don't have an open mind, but when I would listen to ONP as a youngin, it was literally like hearing food; I felt like I was being spiritually fed just by indulging in the instrumentation these guys put on my favorite songs. Watch the Netflix documentary The Art of Organized Noize, totally worth it.
4. OutKast - "Rules? ...What rules?" OutKast taught me it's ALWAYS okay to go left when everybody expects you to go right. Most of the time when artists switch things up, it's because they're losing steam and they're looking for a new way to win. OutKast would switch things up... while they were still WINNING. To this day, I still hear people say things like, "They shoulda stayed on that first album tip" or "Southernplayalistic was my favorite, why'd they switch up!" or "Aquemini was them at their best"--- yet, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below ended up being their Diamond project(s). Which begs the question: what do fans know? lol
5. Slaughterhouse - If you asked me to name a single Slaughterhouse song off the top of my head right now, I can't even do it. Yet, they're one of my favorite groups. Reason? Because they've created FEAR in Hip Hop. Your leader... is Eminem. Off the rip, if you're on the same battleship with Eminem, your lyricism has to be of a certain caliber. So just think: there's a squad out there with guys on it who have earned Eminem's respect. Rappers can run radio and brag about their skills all they want; deep down, we all know they're just playing around, because, push come to shove, they want no parts of Slaughterhouse. Slaughterhouse is the big bully in Hip Hop, and it's got nothing to do with radio spins, or even quality songs. Just #BARS.
6. Arrested Development - I know, right? Outta NOWHERE. But actually... outta Georgia. I grew up on Arrested Development and had no idea they were from my state until around 2002. They made great songs with a fresh sound; in the same way that Chance the Rapper has his gospel-fusion Hip Hop, Arrested Development had its......I don't even know what to call it. Afro-Outdoors Hip Hop? All I remember is them kinda going back and forth between African rhythms and ethnic instruments (what does 'ethnic instruments' even mean?)
7. Wu Tang Clan - I know, I know--- I left the DF off, so how could I include the Wu. Simple: the Wu has several albums AS the Wu. Matter of fact, they've got a STOLEN album being held by Mark Shkreli as we speak. Which is some legendary chit, when you think about it--- you made music, it never got released, and it fell into the "wrong hands", and the "wrong hands" is a rich supervillain who profits off of the exploitation of the sick. It's straight out of a movie--- matter of fact, the whole SQUAD is straight out of a movie. With names like Ghostface Killah and Method Man, which were taken literally from kung fu flicks. Like... how can the Wu NOT be on your list of all time favorite Hip Hop groups.
I have a lot of honorable mentions, I think the common thread with my favorite groups is that they're groups who changed Hip Hop's culturescape. Pro-Era is making it cool to have move as a crew again; Goodie Mob was a "salt of the Earth" Hip Hop group that the average southern Black man could connect with; Organized Noize Productions was the Grammy-award-winning prestige of the Dirty South; OutKast pushed the boundaries not just of Dirty South rap, but of Hip Hop in general; Slaughterhouse casts a lyrical tyranny over the game; Arrested Development moved the needle of Hip Hop further toward rural and away from urban; and then Wu Tang was one of Hip Hops first instances of cosmopolitan cultural diffusion, borrowing influences from the Far East and blending them with hood culture.
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