To this day, many critics lists and personal lists still rate The Notorious B.I.G. as the best rapper who ever lived.  He was called the savior of East Coast Rap and his storytelling ability had few equals.  He didn’t romanticize the Gangster life but rapped it in a gritty realistic way.  His rapping style also did not seem forced and arguably nobody ever made rapping seem so natural.

The BritPop movement brought many good bands out, of which Supergrass was one of them.  The British press and audiences loved them, and they used “uncool” Rock influences in a quirky, fun manner.  This made them a little different form the other British bands at the time, but when it came time for North America, Supergrass got left behind in favor of Oasis and Blur.  Again, as written so often on this site, their inability to penetrate the American market will do them no favor here.  This is especially a shame as this one of the better bands that most Americans have never heard of.

It isn’t the fact that Portishead has only done three studio albums fourteen years apart that makes them an intriguing Hall of Fame candidate.  It is that Portishead could be the band that can get into the Hall while representing the Trip Hop genre.  Portishead was not he first to perform Trip Hop, but they performed it in an almost eerie, sensual way that made it more accessible and dare we say more interesting.  What might be more important is that unlike Massive Attack (who really started it), Portishead was able to become famous in America, and this is a fact that would put them in above any other Trip Hop acts.

From the Dirty South, OutKast took Southern Hip Hop into a more melodic and dare we say more fun direction than many of their peers.  Influenced by the funk of the 1970’s while looking towards the future, the duo of Andre 3000 and Big Boi bring unique visions to the group making them not just one of the more texture groups in Hip Hop but in music in general.