I'm not sure when they started up, but my latest favs have been The Brown Bag Allstars but more specifically from the group Soul Khan. He's got wit in his lyrics, especially in his battles.
I still prefer witty, insightful lyrics over a catchy hook. Odd Future to me just seems to go for shock factor, in both the visual and lyrics. My friend and I argue back and forth about Odd Future, but I just don't get it I guess.
> Some other recent finds I like are Strange Fruit Project, Murs, Codename: Scorpion, > Himalayan Project, and Classified just to name a few. Oh and I forgot People Under > The Stairs, love this one of theirs too.
Thank you for these recommendations, I needed that, I've fallen ridiculously behind on Hip hop since moving to Brazil. Among the last stuff I discovered that I liked was The Last Emperor..I really like the lyrics on this, it's so full of references that you could spend days tracking all of them:
And there's Jean Grae, bought a compilation on Vinyl by Questlove that had this one on it:
Great ghetto story..the piano hook is sampled from that fantastic Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway album..forgot its name..