u/Kouhazari

I've been a fan of rap since I can remember, but in the UK we don't have the same sort of entrenched knowledge of hiphop and I'm not old enough to remember anything before 2015. I've obviously heard the big hitters, Rakim, Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramag and KRS-One; some later stuff like BIG, Jay-Z, DMX and what have you...

For the past few years I've been going through regional scenes chronologically to peep each scene's evolution. Gotten really into the NOLA, Houston and Bay Area styles for example. But this is obviously hard to do with East Coast rap because there's way more of it, so how do I go about it?

From a consumer perspective.

To me a lot of the discussion with other fans relies too much on top fives and dick measuring contests, just trying to rank/put everything into a box. Is it the competitive nature of the music that makes us like this? Or something else? Are rock fans, for example, the same way? Because I know that's another genre that's pretty split in terms of subgenres and shit. Not even having a go, enquiring.