The Beginning.

My name's Joe, and I'm an idiot.

I'm an idiot because I spent the first six years of my life as a record nerd blatantly ignoring hip-hop. I'm not sure what led me to avoid the genre, but I did. I devoted all my time and energy to alternative rock and never gave hip-hop a look in.

I have a cursory - and I mean cursory - knowledge of the genre. I know and like Snoop Dogg, Earl Sweatshirt, Drake, Tyler the Creator and Kanye. I am a recently converted Kendrick Lamar devotee. I like Public Enemy. I know who Ice Cube is, but only because I saw (and hated) Ghosts of Mars. And to be honest with you, when I first wrote that sentence I wrote Ice-T instead of Ice Cube. So that should show you how much of an idiot I am.

I don't like Eminem. Or at least, I think I don't like Eminem, because I've only heard two of his songs.

I know who A Tribe Called Quest are, but I've never listened to a single one of their songs. Same goes for NWA, NAS, and (perhaps most heinously of all) Tupac. I know of the Notorious B.I.G., the Wu-Tang Clan and...and...

To be honest, that's all that I can think of off the top of my head. I write for a music site called Renowned For Sound, and during my time there I've learnt a little bit more. I did some research, so I feel vaguely confident writing about hip hop these days. I learnt that mainstream critics tend to shit on a lot of rap. I learnt that Drake is memeable, but Snoop Dogg is more so. I learnt that hip hop can be intelligent, and nuanced, and exciting.

But to be honest, researching rap has only taught me that there's so much I don't know.

My name's Joe, and I'm an idiot. And I need your help.

This blog is going to be dedicated to my burgeoning hip hop knowledge. Through this blog, I want to listen to the all-time great rap albums that I missed out on. I want to have an adventure, and I know that is easily one of the nerdiest, lamest sentences I have yet written, but it's true. I want to discover more about hip-hop.

I want you to recommend me the greatest. I want you to recommend me the worst. I want you to teach me. I want you to help me fill in this massive gaping hole (how's that for some gross mental imagery?) and I want you to do it soon.

So, let's get started. Give me some suggestions, and I'll get on them. I'll write up reviews of albums here; I'll tell you what I think; I'll tell you what I've learnt. This blog will document the journey of one very dumb, very nerdy man's journey through hip-hop. And yep, again, that sentence makes me sound like the straightest of the straight. But it's the truth.

Help me, guys.