Off topic… How was this track not huge?

almost every Lupe Fiasco track before Lasers was this way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5ZYQokkpbE

cp33 – Lasers is pretty dope too

And I wasnt particulary feeling that Jay-Z song, but I know exactly what you mean..

Like, my favorite rapper is J. Cole, hes a beast when hes talking about things with deeper meaning, but its kinda sad that hes known for songs like"Who Dat" and "In The Morning", not bad songs, but hes done soo much better ones..
One of my favs:
 

 Because mainstream radio stations don’t know good music and don’t know shit about real hip hop. It’s all pop rap.

 Lasers was HORRIBLE. That’s the definition of a record label forcing an artist to go mainstream. They also messed up Wiz’s album. Doing it to Diggy Simmons as we speak.

Anyway, that’s always been one of my favorite Jay-Z songs.

Speaking of J. Cole this is new Cole stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXnELft9jlY

 Cole under pressure, what that make? DIAMONDS

Return of Simba was dope from J Cole. The Lasers album from Lupe was a decent mainstream album but cannot touch his Food and Liquor album. XV, Fashawn, Blu, and Versis are also great artists not getting enough attention. One of my favorite rap artist of all time is Mos Def! Here is my favorite up and comer artist. XV 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7ENS9jbuJw

Give him a look if you like Lupe and J Cole! 

 another XV song with a Lebron mix to it. Pretty nice too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52YdEq8dPY8

That could be a reason. Plus the fact that Blue Print 2 was one of Jay-Z’s weaker all-around albums, they could have used the sample much better and Jay-Z has about 50 songs much better than it. All could be reasons, but, to each their own. Still do not know why almost every track produced by DJ Premier does not blow up to ridiculous heights, but all of those artists you have listed know who the best producer of all-time is. My track of 2008.

Did you know that BET(not only is ran by the same people that run MTV) had/have a banned list as far as the music videos they play?

With Little Brother’s The Minstrel Show hitting stores next week, SOHH.com has heard BET is refusing to air the album’s first video, "Lovin’ It" because it is "too intelligent for the BET audience."

The video begins with a delivery truck dropping boxes labeled "gangsta," "backpackers," "earthy" and "icy" onto a street. The rest of the clip mostly sees LB and Joe Scudda, who is also featured on the song, performing in front of a capacity crowd. The clip also pokes fun at the Hip-Hop subgenres by depicting overly exaggerated backpacker and gangsta characters in the audience. "Lovin’ It" also jokingly features typical scenes with Big Pooh sitting next to champagne-sipping models in the venue’s VIP section while LB’s entourage pop bottles. The video concludes with a car running through the boxes dropped on the street earlier.

The statement of the video being "too intelligent for the BET audiece" was discussed recently on Columbia University’s college radio station, 89.9, on the "Squeeze Radio" show. On the show they said the statement was made verbatim by the program director from BET to one of the Atlantic records label reps. This information was obtainmed directly from LB’s 9th Wonder.

SOHH.com contacted several officials at BET, including their vice president Stephen Hill, their program director, and publicist, Michael Llewellen who offered this response.

"It’s not true, not in that context. BET reserves the right to show or not to show music videos of any type based on the network’s own standards and decision-making processes," Llewellyn told SOHH.com.

When questioned further as to whether the words "too intelligent for the BET audience" was used, Llewellen did not respond. Atlantic Records has refused to comment.

The LB incident doesn’t mark the first time BET has allegedly banned underground artists from its video rotation. In December 2004, SOHH.com reported that BET snubbed De La Soul’s "Shopping Bags" video and The Beatnuts’ "Find Us (In the Back of the Club)" clip featuring Akon.

In a meeting with BET heads, De La reportedly said BET told them they "weren’t relevant to the BET audience" while The Beatnuts were told that "BET doesn’t break new artists." The Beatnuts had previously garnered heavy rotation for videos like "Off The Books" from 1997’s Stone Crazy, "Watch Out Now" from 1999’s A Musical Massacre and "No Escapin This" off 2001’s Take It or Squeeze It.

The network has also been under fire from the black community for cutting its news coverage to make room for more videos in the past few years. Recently, the community has been frustrated with BET for its failure to cover the Hurricane Katrina’s crisis.

here is the song

Little Brother should have been way bigger than they were. The first time I heard this song was there video on BET, and I could not believe how awesome it was. Love 9th’s production, and I am a huge fan of Pooh and of course Phonte in everything they do. This track, to me, is a classic. Have no idea how many times I have played it in my car, not to mention other LB classics.

glad to see some other fans of little brother, they are by far my favorite hip hop group of all time, it was sad to see em split the way they did.. thank God phonte and 9th reconciled 

Little Brother were amazing.

My favourite MCs right now:

Jay Electronica: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95RISGKxI40

Blu:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opHOkHfFhVU

Danny Brown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0vpTR4LQBo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVqoRDzJjCs 

Bein’ good is good, that’ll get you Drew Gooden
But me, I want Jordan numbers, LeBron footin’
Can’t guard me, Vince Lombardi, John Wooden
Garbage? Hardly, you niggas silly like Chris Farley

-J Cole Return of Simba

This guy is my favorite rapper also. Last month i went to his concert in Atlantic City, NJ. He killed it. He going to be comming out with an album like real soon.

Also he had a full ride at UNC for basketball but i forgot the details and he didnt go. I think he went to St. Johns tho.

Good point McDunkin… LB’s early work was the bomb. Lupe used to be a breath of fresh air too, big up to mikeyv for putting in some Termanology. You should have picked "Watch How It Go Down" though my man.

Termanology – Watch How It Go Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jLRiCyEvi4

BK stand up! Joell Ortiz – 125, Pt. 2 (Fresh Air) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I85SpeSRSo

If you don’t know the man or this track then you should get the f*ck outta here right now.

Immortal Technique – Dance With the Devil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTy5gIm7J6c

Another insane piece of music, listen carefully to this masterful track.

Immortal Technique – Revolutionary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnD-3MNShYM

To end this sh*t, I’ll add a dope energetic track and a dope headbobber.

Reks – Say Goodnight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUBxS5yxGTA

Big Shug ft. Guru (R.I.P.) – Counterpunch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plg6O4icfL0&feature=related

Enjoy guys, these are true classics everyone should enjoy.

**Bonus track: Heavy track, a Bronx cat that spills his guts over shit he’s been through. This is real…

33 the Great – The Great White Gate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9REFziZcXdM

Oh yeah big up to Paradox too. Blu and Jay Electronica are mad nice.

Reef the Lost Cauze- The Sound of Philadelphia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoiojiYyPPI

This turned into a great thread, I could talk hip hop all day, I agree with all the posts above, there are some great up and coming MC’s that apprecite real hip hop and true lyricism. One guy i came across recently was Chris Skillz, his mixtapes Beautiful Mind and Just Another Morning were dope and free to download.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=724edO_731w

Another up and coming MC to watch out for is Kendrick Lamar…he’ll be on Detox as Dr. Dre’s new protege. This kid is dope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26i90KPB8YI

Also Premo produced, but I liked the track with Bun B more. This should be huge too.