It's story time. So pull up a chair, and get your hands on some Atmosphere. Soo many albums I could name when you factor in the Sad Clown series, so I'll just throw out my favorite tracks:

God's Bathroom Floor
Modern Man's Hustle
Lovelife
My Songs
Between The Lines
Sunshine
Always Coming Back Home To You
Don't Ever ****ing Question That
Godlovesugly
Trying To Find A Balance
The Woman With The Tattooed Hands
That Night
Reflections
Yesterday
Painting
Saves The Day
Guns And Cigarettes
Scapegoat
Say Hey There
Your Glass House
Sound Is Vibration
Nothing But Sunshine
**** You Lucy


That's a good start.

can anybody direct me to some "dark" rap? like **** about life being ****ty, real hardcore make you feel like you can do anything, shoot somebody down in the street for no reason rap?

edit: why the hell are their language censors on here?

Ice Cube. Duh.

To the opening poster, I recommend the following accessible, intelligent and catchy albums.

K'naan - The Dusty Foot Philosopher

Blackalicious - The Craft

Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass

CunninLynguists - A Piece of Strange

Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Angles

All of the above albums are extremely intelligent, with amazing beats, lyrics and lacking the gangsta fixation of the mainstream bollocks.

As to looking for ugly, dark hip-hop, might I recommend:

Ill Bill - Black Metal

Immortal Technique - Revolutionary Volume 1 (or 2)

Hochii - Bullets Through the Speaker

O.C.-Jewelz
Showbiz & A.G.-Runaway Slave
Big L-Lifestylez Ov Da Poor And Dangerous
Smif-N-Wessun-Dah Shinin'
Sean Price-Monkey Barz
Clipse-Hell hath No Fury
Madvillain-Madvillainy
Jay Z-Reasonable Doubt
Nas-Illmatic (and It was Written)
Raekwon-Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Ghostface Killah-Ironman
Little Brother-The Minstrel Show
Gang Starr-Moment of Truth
J Dilla-Donuts
A Tribe Called Quest-Midnight Marauaders
Common-Resurrection
Dj Shadow-Entroducing
P.O.S.-never Better
King Gheedorah-Take Me To Your Leader
GZA-Liquid Swords
AZ-Doe or Die
Cunninlynguists-Will Rap For Food (or Southernunderground, its a toss-up)

Theres some lesser known albums that may be up your alley, I kept most of the more obvious essentials

^ That P.O.S. album is amazing.


Also...

Anghellic by Tech N9ne.

I'll second "Game Theory" by The Roots. I'm more of a rock person myself, so I can definitely say it's an album with appeal beyond rap fans.

I concur, I got a leaked copy a few days before it came out in stores and was totally blown away cause I had never heard of him before. I then promptly went out and got The Audition, another amazing album.

As far as albums to recommend I would recommend "Fight With Tools" by Flobots
It's hip hop with a violin, what more could you want?

The Audition by P.O.S. is my favorite.
And I had Never Better on pre-order.
Refused to listen to the leaked copy. I wanted to hear MY copy.

I can relate to that.

P.O.S. really kicked my ass as well.

Highly addicted to K'naan - Troubador. I mean, just...wow.