i appreciate rakim from an intellectual standpoint but i don't like listening to any of his albums. same for run dmc, krs, bdk, etc. i tend to view those artists in the vein of chuck berry, scott joplin, or other proto-*genre* artists. i understand their contribution to the genre and their great influence but i still find the actual music to be uninteresting

the one exception is public enemy but that's only because i really like the instrumentals and can tune out chuck and flava's rudimentary and dated rapping. lyrically chuck's stuff is fine but the actual rapping kind of sucks