Kanye West - Graduation

1. Kanye West – Graduation
2. Jay-Z – American Gangster
3. Lupe Fiasco – The Cool
4. Talib Kweli – Ear Drum
5. Commmon – Finding Forever
6. Paroahe Monch – Desire
7. UGK – Underground Kingz
8. Little Brother – Getback
9. Ghostface Killah – The Big Doe Rehab
10. Blu & Exile – Below The Heavens
11. Wu-Tang Clan – 8 Diagrams
12. Black Milk – Popular Demand
13. Brother Ali – The Undisputed Truth
14. Freeway – Free At Last
15. Joel Ortiz – The Brick: Bodega Chronicles
16. Joe Budden – Mood Muzik III
17. Sean Price – Jesus Price Supastar
18. El-P – I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead
19. Consequence – Don’t Quit Your Day Job
20. Devin The Dude – Waiting To Inhale
21. Prodigy – Return Of The Mac
22. Marco Polo – Port Authority
23. Blue Scholars – Bayani
24. Busta Rhymes, Mick Boogie & J Dilla – Dillagence
25. Statik Selektah – Spell My Name Right

Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

1. Ghostface Killah – Fishscale
2. The Roots – Game Theory
3. Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor
4. Clipse – Hell Hath No Fury
5. Game, The – Doctor’s Advocate
6. TI – King
7. Rhymefest – Blue Collar
8. Jay-Z – Kingdom Come
9. The Coup – Pick A Bigger Weapon
10. AZ – The Format

MCs, DJs, and Producers

1. Xzibit
   
2. Chamillionaire
   
3. Y-Love
   
4. Lupe Fiasco
5. Jim Jones
6. DJ Drama
7. Diddy
8. B.O.B. (Bobby Ray)
9. Asher Roth
10. Hi-Tek
11. Ice T
12. Danjahandz
13. DJ Babu
14. Chace Infinite
15. Joell Ortiz
16. Alchemist
17. Raekwon
18. Talib Kweli
19. Styles P
20. Jadakiss
21. Immortal Technique
22. Emilio Rojas
23. Swizz Beatz
24. Jake One
25. Warren G
26. Jay Rock
27. Uncle Murda
28. Evidence
29. J Cole
30. Pras
31. Yung Berg
32. Juelz Santana
33. Saigon
34. Corey Gunz
35. Drake
36. Paul Wall
37. Pleasure P
38. Gorilla Zoe
39. Lil Flip
40. Fabolous
41. Curren$y
42. Yung Joc
43. Fonzworth Bentley
44. Maino
45. DJ Drama
46. Russell Simmons
47. El-P
48. Jermaine Dupri
49. Fat Tony
50. Dujeous

Hip-Hop Literati

1. Ivan Rott
2. Danyel Smith
3. Kris Ex
4. B-Double
5. Dom Corleone
6. Big Ced
7. Michael Miraflor
8. Ernest Baker
9. Rahiem Shabazz
10. Ian Steaman
11. DJ Booth
12. Roc 4 Life
13. Conrad Salvador
14. Aura Harewood
15. Nima Etminan
16. Shea Serrano
17. Andrew Schweizer
18. Nahshon Landrum
19. Jaap
20. Black Barbie
21. Combat Jack
22. Joe La Puma
23. Rashaun Hall
24. GangStarr Girl
25. The Rap Up

Other Movers & Shakers

1. Nancy Byron – OGPR
2. Michelle McDevitt – Audible Treats
3. Aleesha Smalls – Iconix Brand, Rocawear
4. Theda Sanford – Digital Marketer
5. Kyambo – Hip Hop Since 1978, Manager for Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne, Jeezy
6. J Nicholson – Cornerstone Promotions
7. Mel D. Cole – Village Slum Photography
8. Richard Louissaint – Photographer, Writer
9. Scooter Braun – Asher Roth’s Manager
10. Dove Clark – CEO, Tygereye Entertainment
11. Big Dho – Little Brother’s Manager
12. Anthony Marshall – Co-founder of Lyricist Lounge
13. Plain Pat – Manager for Kid Cudi, G.O.O.D. Music A&R
14. Gilles Peterson – CEO Brownswood Recordings
15. Benji B – Host of Deviation on BBC 1Xtra
16. Dru Ha – CEO Duck Down Records
17. Jonathan Kim – Blu’s Manager
18. Sucio Smash – CEO, High Water Music
19. Tim Westwood – Radio Host/DJ
20. Havana Joe – Stones Throw Records
21. Dominic Del Bene – Head Honcho, iM Culture
22. Dan Green – Clockwork Music
23. Big Kid Dru – BeatJunkies/DilatedPeoples
24. Bill Sharp – VP of Operations Fat Beats Records
25. Cathryn Marie – Digiwaxx Media

One Last Note…

This list is only a partial roster of hip-hop tweeps. I regret that I couldn’t fit everyone into the Top 100. Obviously, it’s not gospel and you shouldn’t stop where it does. Go forth and tweet.

[Major props to Michelle and Cathryn for the assist]

The Notorious BIG

Follow these Hip-Hop Personalities on Twitter.

1. Notorious B.I.G. – He used to read Word Up Magazine
2. MC Hammer – Owner of the world’s largest collection of parachute pants
3. ?uestlove – Half-man, half-funkybeard drummer
4. Amanda Diva – Spandex-wearing soul-rappah
5. Noreaga – Good MC, bad reggaeton dancer
6. Jay Electronica – Follow him now or he’ll melt your brain in your sleep!
7. Eli Porter – Winner of the greatest freestyle battle ever
8. Sickamore – Famous hip-hop DJ, also addicted to burger
9. Countbass D – One of the illest producers on the mic
10. Q-Tip – Nasal-voiced ATCQ frontman
11. DJ Green Lantern – The Evil Greenius
12. Wale – First rapper from the underwater
13. MC Lyte – GFOAT
14. Just Blaze – The Megatron Don of beatsmithing
15. Donny Goines – If you don’t know his name he’s not working hard enough
16. Charles Hamilton – The reason Brooklyn tourism hit an all-time high in 2008
17. Black Milk – Detroit’s newest, funkiest, nastiest, illest, producer
18. A-Trak – Only dates chicks with mile-long acrylic nails
19. DJ Semtex – The Explosive One!
20. Joe Budden – The Internet’s favorite rapper
21. DJ Enuff – Loves music, hates music business
22. Pacific Division – Victims of The Grown Kid Syndrome
23. Double-O (Kidz in the Hall) – Cave Spelunker and Tectonic Plate explorer
24. Naledge (Kidz in the Hall) – Chicago makes smart rappers too, you know
25. Kid Sister – Feisty femme fatale with a penchant for fancy fingertips
26. Mick Boogie – Globe-trotting hip-hop DJ
27. Clinton Sparks – Get Familiar!
28. Bavu Blakes – It’s Bah-VOO. Say it with me, Bah-VOO!
29. Illmind – Producer guy from Jersey
30. Rhymefest – Never met a beat he couldn’t pummel into submission
31. Khrysis – Producer guy from North Kakalaka
32. Nina B – BK femcee
33. Skyzoo – Premier thinks he’s nice, so he must be
34. 6th Sense – Heavy Obama supporter
35. Yak Ballz – Hip-hop’s first Scifentologist
36. Murs – Touring machine
37. Mickey Factz – Bespectacled rapper from Bronx, NY and big fan of Mortal Kombat
38. Von Pea – Dictionary-toting MC from Brooklynati
39. Don Cannon – Only slightly less influential than Jimmy Iovine
40. Cashless – Deadly on the 1’s & 2’s
41. Jean Grae – Better than your favorite female rapper
42. Oddisee – Producer guy who happens to be sick on any tempo
43. Chino XL – Deadly with the pen
44. B-Real – The Hip-Hop Chuck Norris
45. Soulbrotha – Had to write a song about Twitter to make this list
46. Rukus – Deadly on the mic
47. Phonte – Part time Little Brother MC, part time sanga
48. Big Pooh – That other guy in Little Brother
49. John Brown – Undisputed king of Burbology
50. Shaq – Sometime rapper, sometime baller. Always quotatious

twitter

So, let’s say you’re not looking to stalk your favorite hip-hop artists on Twitter. Instead, you’d like to get at that damn blogger who had the nerve to say that Lil Wayne is better than Rakim. Well, it’s not as easy as typing in their name after twitter.com/name. Case in point: I almost sent a tweet to the user @eskay hoping to reach this guy. Turns out it was actually some tween who hates her boyfriend so much that she totally scrubbed the toilet with his toothbrush. No need to make the same mistake, because I’ve got your back like scoliosis.

In NO particular order, here are 50 hip-hop bloggers to follow on Twitter.

1. Dallas Penn – DallasPenn.com
2. Byron Crawford – ByronCrawford.com
3. Eskay – Nah Right
4. Miss Info Miss Info TV
5. Khal – Rock The Dub
6. Enigmatik – Boo Goo Doo Boom
7. Nation – Nah Right
8. Shake – 2 Dope Boyz
9. Nigel D. – Real Talk NY
10. William E. Ketchum – Speech Is My Hammer
11. Clyde Smith – Prohiphop
12. Elliott Wilson – Rap Radar/Danyelliott
13. NerdwithSwag – Nerd With Swag
14. Gyant – SOHH Atlanta
15. Jay Smooth – Ill Doctrine
16. Herfection – Herfection.com
17. John Gotty – The Smoking Section
18. Dart Adams – Poisonous Paragraphs
19. Rafi Kam – Oh Word
20. Matt Sonzala – AustinSurreal
21. Andrew Barber – Fake Shore Drive
22. Melissa – The La La Blog
23. Randy Exclusive – Writer’s Block Media
24. Low Key – You Heard That New
25. Wesley Verhoeve – Wesleyverhoeve.com
26. Zillz – ZillaSays
27. Alex Delarge – LiveAGL
28. Scott Yeti – Woooha Inc
29. Kid Legend – OnSmash
30. Meka – 2 Dope Boyz
31. Ron Mexico – RonMexicoCity
32. Sumit – HipHopChronicle
33. Isis Wisdom – Word on the Streets
34. Carl Cherry – Funky Minds
35. smokeYYY – That Real Ish
36. Alvin “Aqua” Blanco – Allhiphop
37. Blogxilla – Blogxilla.com
38. HoneySoul – Honeysoul.com
39. CouchSessions – The Couch Sessions
40. Peter Rosenberg – Rosenberg Radio
41. Che Grand – Chegrand
42. Jeff & Eric Rosenthal – The Real
43. Joe La Puma – Complexmag.com
44. IllVibes-DMV – Illvibes-dmv.com
45. SeanTheROBOT – LupEND Blog
46. Lynne D Johnson – Lynnedjohnson.com
47. Contra – The Smoking Section
48. FWMJ – Rappers I Know
49. Robbie Ettelson – Unkut
50. Nick Catchdubs – Catchdubs.com