Recommendations

[Spyder]

dont get sucked into the evil world of mainstream

go underground

listen to

Rhyme Asylum: Solitary Confinement and State of Lunacy

you obv know Eminem

Joe Budden: Mood Muzik 2-4.5, Padded Room

[Man1x]

Section.80
Control System
Habits & Contradictions
Follow Me Home
Overly Dedicated
Kendrick Lamar EP

*These are newer than most albums suggested, but they are entertaining, amazing musically, very innovative, unknown (it feels good to go with an artist all the way up the mountain of fame, and trust me they will blow up), they are deep, they can be serious or funny, they have loads of emotion, and they are very lyrical (Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Schoolboy Q more so than Jay Rock however. That doesn't mean he's bad they are just so good that he gets easily shadowed.) So, yeah, the TDE/Black Hippy movement is a very good place to start. And if you like rock music check out Trunk Muzik.

Others:

The Eminem Show/The Marshall Mathers LP (But you know these two)
Chronic 2001
All Eyez On Me
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
Ready to Die
Muddy Waters
Late Registration
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
The Blueprint
The Black Album
The Blueprint 3
Get Rich Or Die Trying
The Documentary
Cheers
Hip Hop Is Dead
Stillmatic
It Was Written
Camp
Breakfast
Live From the Underground
Man On the Moon, Vol. II
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
The Infamous
The Cool
Food & Liquor
Anything by Outkast

Then after these check out for a view of hip-Hop's origins:

NWA
Wu-Tang's many members
Public Enemy
Mobb Deep
Mos Def
Common
Etc.....

Then the modern underground:
Hopsin
Jon Connor
Tito Lopez
Etc.....

[Almostlity]

Get some Ye and you're good.

[Man1x]

If G.O.O.D. Music is all you're listening to you're missing the bigger picture and can't honestly say you know hip hop, same goes for those that only listen to Shady/Aftermath, G-Unit (nobody really does any more), or Strange Music. Oh, same goes for Funk Volume. It's good to listen to as much of it as you can, get a good range of mainstream and underground (if it's underground and unbearable because of the rapper's voice or beats don't listen), and listen to all different spectrums of this diverse genre.

[EminemBase]

Internal Affairs by Pharoahe Monch!

[dead prez]

Recommending old school artists to listen to first is awful, unless you really care about the history of hip hop and wanna see it unfold by every album you listen to. Otherwise listen to the newer artists as they're a lot easier to settle into, and have progressed as well.

Go listen to Nas though and I actually agree HHID is a good album to listen too first, most people new to rap don't appreciate illmatic right away.