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I think he used to be a genius but fell off. Once you get past "Mosh" on Encore he runs out of ideas, except for on the great "We as Americans". 5 Relapse is dire excepty for Beautiful, which strill gets nowhere near anything on the first 2 LPs. Top 5 tracks by Em: 1. Stan (feat. Dido) 2. Rabbit Run 3. Role Model 4. The Way I Am 5. Cum on Everybody 6. Any Man 7. Lose Yourself 8. Forgot About Dre (feat. Dr Dre) 9. Sing for the Moment 10. Say Goodbye Hollywood

Rick Rubin is definitely the best producer overall because of great reinvention of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Johnny Cash and work with Run DMC, Beasties, LL Cool J, Jay-z (99 Problems) but if you're looking exclusively at hip-hop influence then Dr. Dre. He pioneered early electro, early gangsta rap, 90s G-Funk and introduced Timbaland (who worked under him to begin with), Eminem and many others. El-P is amazing and totally different to anything else right now. Anyone else who has heard his work would agree. His style is like being kicked in the stomach by an angry mule. DJ Shadow's Entroducing is one of the best albums ever. The production is just all-encompassing. He creates a whole world of sound just by using a sampler. Genius. I love the Roots production by ?uestlove as it feels very much like a rock band with great drumming. Check him out on Jay-Z unplugged, completely duplicated the fast drum machines on the studio versions. The guy is a legend.

In my opinion music should be made for much cheaper than it is. Astronomical amounts of money can only bring an artists output down, destrying it at worst and stopping it from developing at best. What does that amount of money give you in the end. Fair enough some people give to charity but we can give to them ourselves and the vast majority end up with some sort of addiction or shady connections they didn't have when they weren't as wealthy. I say fans should donate a sum they choose (e.g. Radiohead's In Rainbows). If they want our money they're gonna have to earn it! Plus it's the spirit, the people at shows, the acclaim from the audience that matters, not how much money is being made. Sharing on youtube or internet is fine - that's what music is primarily for! You can't put music out then want to keep it privately to yourself! The artists should be happy so many people are downloading their music and enjoying it (which they may not have done had they had to pay for it), whilst not giving the greedy record execs excessive amounts of money

You may choose more than one if you can't decide between two or three equally amazing guys. Sorry if I left off your favourite - I forgot the great Dangermouse - but that's as many big ones as I could think of! It started off being organized roughly chronologically then I thought of really good older ones at the end

Call me old-fashioned by Elvis was the original rock-n-roller. His dancing is classic. The early stuff - before he did the slow ballads - ripped it up! Although he did steal much of the music from Little Richard. Hendrix' guitar playing playing was the most rock-n-roll. Lighting his guitar on fire! Flea is the best bassist by far, at least he was in all of the 80s Chili Peppers material and occasionally afterwards (less and less). His slap bass rules. Whoever played on Metallica's Anathesia (Pulling Teeth) rocks hard (ignore spelling!) Serj & Daron are best vocalists around, at least today. The harmonies on Cigaro and the interplay on BYOB ( and the scream at the begining) are amazing. In the more convential sense, Serj can sing with raw emotion and anger on tracks like Aerials and Empty Walls. Cobain had one helluva scream. Most rock'n'roll drummer= John Bonham. More recently it's Dave Grohl of Nirvana, QOTSA & others; would go on to front Foo Fighters and do a pretty good job too. In terms of traditional rockstar looks it's gotta be Lenny Kravitz - style icon (albeit ripped from 70s fashion pages and switched around for a modern audience). If you're looking for something completely different, it has to been Manic Street Preachers' Richey James. Shouting about political hypocrisy RATM/Public Enemy style while wearing feather boas & glam rock clothing. He also carved 4 Real into his arm. Hardcore! (But slightly concerning!) In terms of live performance overall: I agree with views on Guns N Roses but Black Flag were the most hardcore outfit on stage. Rollins said "I don't enjoy playing unles I see blood or get hurt.

"Sense of community will be displayed in a museum," or something like that. Genius lyrics

They'll be plenty of other identical R&B divas to fill her place. She should be happy she was lucky enough to last this long with Murder Inc. which is essentially a gangsta rap label anyway. Those labels often have shady politics involved .She'll probably be better of on a major if she's good enough. Who's heard anything from her recently apart from fans? It might elevate her status to what it once was: robbing amazing MCs and bands of their chance and replacing it with samey but catchy R&B tunes.

Alt & Punk, like Nirvana being Grunge & Alt. Alt. means not mainstream rock so punk & grunge are both alt. That's unless your talking about alternative in its most extreme kind; not fitting into any genres eg Beck

El-P is a legend! (New album I'll Sleep when You're Dead: Rapping is a bit crazy and sometimes difficult to make out lyrics - like loads of sentences scribbled over each other - but production is mind-blowing) Must check out his group Company Flow after hearing the amazing "Patriotism" from Rawkus Soundbombing II What great tracks/albums by Black Milk, Cage, Aesop Rock, Finale should I download? (Never heard anything by them but certainly heard of them)

Yeah, they're definitely early punk but the Monks were "scuzzy, dirty" too

OK, but why? And who would you have on your list?

Here's my list (thought about for ages) 1. Jay-Z 2. Eminem 3. Public Enemy 4. Eric B & Rakim 5. Kanye West 6. Common 7. Notorious BIG 8. Run-DMC 9. Jurassic 5 10. Wu-Tang Clan 11. A Tribe Called Quest/Q-Tip 12. Nas 13.Mike Shinoda/Fort Minor 14. Atmosphere 15. Sway (UK) 16. Beastie Boys 17. Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip 18. OutKast 19. Pharoahe Monch/Organized Konfusion 20. Black Star 21. Blackalicious 22. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien 23. Fugees/Lauryn Hill 24. Black Eyed Peas 24. Zach De La Rocha (One Day As A Lion/Rage Against the Machine) 25. 2Pac [NOTE: NWA missed out because their rhymes are undeniably powerful but they don't really think outside the gangsta box, except for on the party anthem, "Express Yourself". As for Dr. Dre, his production is amazing but this list is focused on rapping; his rhymes are all ghostwritten, mostly by the Westside MC DOC (I must get round to listening to his LP) or Jay-Z. I think Biggie is rated unfairly high because of his early death although Ready to Die is a classic mix of dark humour, toughness and vulnerability. Life After Death is OK. Where the heck is 2Pac? He would be number 21. He too is overrated due to death and although he has released some great material (Me Against the World, Changes, California Love) he is nowhere near as good as Biggie. Talib Kweli is overall better than Mos Def (seriously fell-off after Black On Both Sides) but as a group with Hi-Tek (Black Star) they were on fire. Just Hi-Tek & Talib is almost as good and they are still part of Black Star umbrella. Mike Shinoda is amazing in Linkin Park and on his seriously underrated Fort Minor project with Styles of Beyond, Common & others. The Roots are the best live act by far, but on record other MC's are better. Company Flow aren't there because I haven't heard enough yet. Apart from those who have only released one album, all the acts have released below-par albums at some point in their career, but most have very long careers and have released other very good albums Let the inevitable debates begin!

Paul's Boutique is the white equivalent of Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation... See if you can spot the sample of Mississippi Queen and don't cheat by using Wiki! B) (Don't wanna boast or anything but I found straight away after too many games of Guitar Hero 3!) Top 10 Beastie Boys (I've only listened to first 3 albums & some singles) 1. Sabotage 2. Lookin' Down The Barrel of a Gun 3. Intergalactic 4. Fight For Your Right 5. Get It Together (featuring Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest) 6. Gratitude 7. Check The Mic 8. No Sleep Til Brooklyn 9. Shake Your Rump 10. Rhymin' & Stealin'

Yes, that is easily the best song. In truth I forget about that because I was so fed up with the rest of the record. The accent is the most annoying thing; it's not even like he used it on the Shady LP. On second listen, his flow does seem to carry it even if the lyrics are mostly crap (except for Beautiful)

I really like both but prefer metal. Punk was there first (The Monks' Black Monk Time 1966) but early metal was more popular (Beatles - Helter Skelter; Led Zeppelin 1 ) Metal has more depth than punk, in terms of both music and songwriting. Punk is NOT Just noise. Punk, post-punk and even pop-punk have produced some great albums and tunes. It has great bands and melody too. But Metal is just better overall. Some would say the creation of rap-metal has marred music but I think it has enhanced it.

Everything he did used to be sharp, funny or downright menacing. Now its just stupid and irrelevant. The new album has a few amusing moments, but nothing to elevate it to the quality of the fairly good Encore, let alone the amazing first three LP's. He just uses the same tired flow for every song, not commanding the mic at all. He went to rehab, and his friend died. I mean, the guy can keep all the private as I'm sure its been a really tough year but surely he shoiuld have some reflecting to do, some purpose to go on, but it isn't there any more. In short, don't buy the album!

1. Longview 2. Basket Case 3. Give Me Novacaine 4. Brain Stew 5.American Idiot 6. Hitchin' a Ride 7. See The Light 8. Jesus of Suburbia 9. 21st Century Breakdown 10. Wake Me Up When September Ends 11. Boulevard of Broken Dreams 12. Christie Road 13. Minority 14. Macy's Day Parade 15. Nice Guys Finish Last FAVOURITE ALBUM is American Idiot but the others are highly underrated I've only listened to 21st Century Breakdown a few times so obviously it's difficult for them to be really high compared 2 ones stuck in my head for years! I've been stuck at home with broken leg and nerve pain for 2 months which is probably why the first four are up where they are!

I'm not a guitarist but I'd say Tom Morello aka Nightwatchman of Rage Against The Machine & Audioslave. Unique - who else could make playing a guitar sound like screaming and vicious hip-hop scratching (most songs, best is Bulls on Parade) and still deliver more conventional-sounding killer solos like on "Settle for Nothing" whilst still being versatile enough to play straight forward acoustic blues on his solo album.