Here are links to 10 top tattoo photos from some of the best rappers and hip-hop artists in the music industry:

1. Rick Ross Tattoos
2. Lil Wayne Tattoos
3. Jim Jones Tattoos
4. Pharell Williams Tattoos
5. The Game Tattoos
6. Rapper Nelly Tattoos
7. LL Cool J Tattoos
8. Rapper Eve Tattoos
9. Busta Rhymes Tattoos
10. 50 Cent Tattoos
11. Rapper Plies Tattoos

Related article: Rapper 50 Cent Removes Tattoos for Hollywood Acting Career

1. Pharrell Removes Tattoos and models for Ice Cream Footwear
2. Rapper 50 Cent Removes Tattoos for Hollywood Acting Career
3. Rappers Tattoos: 2pac, Dr Dre, Eminem, Eve and 50Cent
4. Rappers Tattoos – Home Video of Nas Getting Tattooed
5. Tips for Rappers – The Case Against Rap Dictionaries

A couple of weeks back, I finally got onto Last.fm and got myself a premium membership.

Now their software sits on my desktop, and whenever I launch my iTunes, it pops open. I can just type the name of an artist – say, Mos Def – and it’ll play songs either by the artist, or by artists that sound like him.

Last.fm Software/Client

Over time, Last.fm learns of my music tastes and plays music that I like. So if I play a lot of Eminem in my iTunes, very little of Asher Roth, then it’ll detect that I like the Eminem sound more and play me more music like that.

The monthly membership costs $3 – a pittance, honestly.

The best part? I’ve discovered more new music in the past one month than I did in the past two years. Bands and artists I’d never heard of are now my iTunes staples. I’m discovering entirely new genres of music – Lounge and House music, for instance – as well as new artists. There is a definite heavy emphasis on independent and new artists in the suggestions by Last.fm, which is a great thing for people like me.

If you are a serious music lover – and I bet you are since you read Rappers.org – then definitely get a Last.fm subscription. You won’t regret it.

1. New Hip Hop Music: Resources For Discovering the Best Hip Hop From Around the World
2. Featured Artist: Urban Rock Band
3. Hip Hop Beat Production Software – Sonic Producer
4. Hip Hop Beat Production Software – Rappers.org Weighs Your Options
5. Rappers – How to Hone Your Voice to Become a Great MC

There’s an interesting article in the Time magazine today about music – rock, and hip hop in particular in Iran.

From what I know about Islam, the hardcore Islamists consider music to be against their religion. It is surprising to read then about the fledgling underground music scene in Tehran. These are people who are really, truly in love with music – they have faced persecution and prosecution, and have had to live the lives of refugees for their one particular love.

Its surprising to find that liberties which most of us take for granted are sometimes so difficult to attain for others. In so many countries, just voicing your opinion or expressing yourself can land you in prison.

Articles like these make me proud and thankful of the fact that I live in a secular, democratic nation.

1. New Hip Hop Music: Resources For Discovering the Best Hip Hop From Around the World
2. Can Rap Be Conservative?
3. Rap Beats And Hip Hop – How To Set Yourself Apart From The Rest Of The Aspiring Rappers And Singers
4. The Exploding Business of Hip Hop Accessories
5. Hip Hop Beat Production Software – Rappers.org Weighs Your Options

Rap, as a movement, originated in the inner city hoods where, well, murder, etc. were part and parcel of daily life. Add to the fact that rappers have conventionally rattled off their “pimpin” potenial, and how they dealt drugs, and you have a class of people who aren’t very mainstream.

In other words, rappers, and rap in turn, cannot be coservative by nature.

But as rap has gained legitimacy and become (one of) the most popular music genres today, it has been embraced by everyone across the board: young white college kids, middle aged black mid-level managers, your octogenererian grandpa, and even conservative preachers.

So you have rhymes about God and Jesus, purity rings, chastity, etcetra, by conservatives – none of which, fortunately, has escaped to the mainstream (but its only a matter of time).

But I ask you, readers, does this dilute rap? Does this take away from rap’s underground credentials. Its a fact of life that whatever is underground will soon escape to the mainstream. But rap, as a musical movement, is so closely related to the nature of life in the hoods that conservative rhymes about suburban homes take so much away from its essence.

Agreed? Or Disagreed?

1. Cool Kids Rap
2. 5 New Rappers From the UK You Didn't Know About
3. Hip Hop in Tehran
4. Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement (Paperback)
5. Tips for Rappers – The Case Against Rap Dictionaries