Here’s a quick list of some musicians whose music I feel does not get its fair share of attention and need to be shouted out. No pretense, no thinly-veiled shameless self-promotion - just dope music.

Need Not Worry – Providence, Rhode Island
http://www.myspace.com/neednotworry
I recommend – Formulatin’ Fathers – Sleepless Knights

I don’t know Need Not personally, so I really don’t know what his schedule or his commitments are like at all, but I am adamant in saying this dude needs to do more shows. I did a show with him back in November and his stage presence is amazing. The crown, the candy, the condoms, just the whole package makes for something that’s pretty rare these days. But live show aside, dude’s got rhymes – if he’d agree to teach me just a little of what goes on in his head, I’d do his laundry for a week or some shit. The Formulatin’ Fathers album is an awesome concept (if you like that term, which I don’t) album that follows a kid’s evolution from boy to man. Need Not’s wordplay, rhyme scheme, and delivery are just seamless – the definition of fluid. The whole package reminds me of Illmatic-era Nas, which is about as good of a compliment as a rapper can get. Do yourself a favor and pick up Sleepless Knights, because it’s an amazing piece of music. According to Need Not’s myspace, he and fellow Formulatin’ Father Drumatic (an amazing beatsmith in his own right whose style melds perfectly with his rapper brethren) have started work on the follow-up, entitled Foster Care. I’m pumped.

Cadence – Cambridge, Massachusetts
http://www.myspace.com/cadenceofrawproduce
I recommend – Raw Produce – The Feeling of Now

I first heard of Cadence through a website called www.urbansmarts.com, a sweet hip-hop site that has since gone down the shitter (much to my dismay). He wrote the occasional article for the site, and when I came across a Raw Produce CD in my local Newbury Comics, my first thought was “hey, I know of this dude” and picked it up. It’s now one of my favorite albums of all time, a permanent fixture in my car stereo and on my iPod. The thing I love most about Cade Money is the fact that he is the most down-to-earth rapper I’ve probably ever heard, a quality that stands out in his music miles ahead of his butter delivery and awesome wordplay, which is saying a LOT. Everyone in the underground says they make music for the love, but for the most part they’re full of it; Cadence doesn’t even really say it that often, but his love for the music emanates out of the speakers, neatly intertwined with his lyrics and his dope beats. If A Tribe Called Quest was to be combined into one and respawned as a white dude from Massachusetts, this is who they would be.

Dutchmassive – Tampa, Florida
http://www.myspace.com/dutchmassive
I recommend – Dutchmassive – Junk Planet

I put this guy on the list knowing damn well I do not give him the listening attention he deserves myself, but I plan to rectify that as soon as possible. (I also put him on the list because, for whatever reason, I thought he was from Connecticut. Go figure.) A rapper friend from England I correspond with is literally obsessed with this dude – he has every project he’s done, he’s got him on his top friends on myspace, his computer wallpaper is Dutch – it’s a little disturbing. But no matter how odd his man-crush may be, Dutch’s rhymes and beats justify it (for the most part). I had Junk Planet for a matter of a month, but lost it – the CD got wrecked, I never uploaded it to my computer, and that was that. But before it floated into oblivion, Junk Planet was on the player constantly, and I loved every second of it. Dutch has the flow of a dude who obviously knows his early 90’s hip-hop, but it’s not just simple emulation of his idols, either. Listening to the nostalgia-ridden track Just Me and my Walkman brought me back to the days when my parents were too cheap to buy me a CD player and bought me a cassette player instead – I thought it was awful at the time, but all the hand-me-down cassettes I got from my older cousins were a blessing in disguise. So pick his music up. NOW. He’s dope. Seriously.

Thoughts? Comments? Who makes YOUR underrated list?