Since a few readers asked me about hip hop music that I listen to after reading my review of Thomas Chatterton Williams’s book Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip Hop Culture, I thought I’d list my favorite hip hop songs and artists of late. Truthfully, I have been putting off the writing of this post because I know that it will just inspire me to buy more music and I didn’t want to have to do that, but I probably will anyway. These are songs that either make me instantly wiggle in my seat and bob my head and sing to them or they are just songs that hit me so hard with their lyrics that I can’t ignore them. Regularly, I listen to hip-hop and Neo-Soul, but I throw in plenty of other things, too. Today, though, I’ve been in a Madeleine Peyroux kind of mood and that’s completely different from either of those two genres. But, hey! When the mood strikes to listen to something I just do it.

As much as I’d love to delve into the socially and politically conscious parts of hip-hop (as opposed to that media-baiting bullshit out there known to most people as “gangsta rap”) I just won’t do it. It’s a waste of time for me because I could instead just be listening to what I want to hear and plus, I’m just not good at writing like that. I’m pretty sure I’ve complained on my blog before about how iTunes still can’t get their genres cleaned up and put real hip-hop artists at the forefront and instead have it filled with mostly rappers. So I won’t go there again because it’s like the I told you so! line that people hate to hear. That is not to say that I don’t have a guilty pleasure in the occasional song from Straight Outta Compton, mind you, but that can’t possibly fill the space in my ears for too long before I get a bit weary of it. This list explains, I think, why I can’t get down with the crap shoved down our throats (I’m looking at you, Justin Beiber and Ke$ha) and if you listened to the lyrics on a few of these songs, you’d instantly get me which is what I want music to do to me.

Without further ado, this is what I’m listening to a lot of lately. Some old, some new, all amazing.

1. “Get By” by Talib Kweli. Clappity clap clap, y’all.

2. “Brooklyn” by Mos Def from his Black on Both Sides album.

3. “Lucifer” and “December 4″ by Jay-Z from The Black Album which is, to me, his best ever.

4. “Supreme People” and “The Craft” by Blackalicious. If you’ve got to get some songs by them, start with these two. I’m not responsible for what you buy after that.

5. “Kick, Push” and “Daydreamin’” (which features Jill Scott) by Lupe Fiasco on his Food and Liquor album.

6. “Worst Comes to Worst” by Dilated Peoples on their Expansion Team album and “Back Again” on their 20/20 album.

7. “Canto de Ossanha” by Jurassic 5. Also, “A Day at the Races” which features Big Daddy Kane, so YAY.

8. “Bring it to the Cypher” and “Ah Yeah” by KRS-One because no hip-hop list is complete without some KRS-One.

9. “Golpe de Estado” and “Harlem Renaissance” by Immortal Technique. Your brain will probably explode a little bit.

10. “It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop”, “Happiness” and “Mind Sex” by Dead Prez. Especially “Mind Sex”.

11. “Passin’ Me By” and “Otha Fish” by The Pharcyde. Both of these are real Pharcyde sounds to me and it takes my mind back a ways when I hear it and all of a sudden I’m in high school again. Except I’m not pregnant this time.

12. “Freakin You” by Jungle Brothers is just about the only song that will make me jump around like an idiot no matter when I hear it.

13. “Bells of DOOM” and “Potholderz” by MF Doom. Again with the brain explosions. Maybe pour yourself a glass of cabernet before settling in to enjoy these two.

14. “Heels” by Q-Tip. It makes me sad that it took this long for this album to be made when it was just sitting there for so many years on the shelf.

15. “Black Mags” by The Cool Kids. I can’t stop myself and yet I entirely blame Mallory for making me like this song as much as I do.

16. “I Ain’t No Joke” by Eric B. and Rakim. Never forget about “Paid in Full” because GAWD, I LOVE THAT SONG.

17. Several years ago my sister, Tracy, got me deep into The Foreign Exchange and while I want to list just one or two songs here, it’s hard so I’ll say the entire album Connected even though I really love “Von Sees” and “Nic’s Groove” and “Brave New World” and “Happiness” and SEE? I CAN’T STOP WITH JUST A FEW.

18. Lately, I am loving the newest song out by Big Boi called “Shutterbugg”. I exercise to this one, clean to this one, and generally dance around the house to this one when I think no one is looking. Check out “Royal Flush”, too.

I’m not even going to go into my deep affection for The Roots (“The Movement”), or my boyfriend Common (Too. Much. LOVE.), or Black Sheep (“The Choice is Yours”) because I am, by no means, an expert at hip hop music nor am I a critic. I just know what I like.