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The best hip-hop artist websites

© Steve Juon

As part of a three part June series on the explosion of hip-hop online in 1999, Suite101 is pleased to present to you the Hip-Hop Music & Culture editor's picks for "best of" in three different categories. This week's feature is the best websites devoted to hip-hop artists - many of them run or edited by the actual artists themselves!

1. Naughty by Nature - www.naughtybynature.com. Run and maintained by Vin Rock from Naughty by Nature, this well designed site is a perfect introduction to their newest album "Nineteen Naughty Nine." Right from the start, you will appreciate that the opening page has an option to skip the Shockwave intro - either for the browserly unenhanced or for those with slow connections. If you have the time, it is worth watching. Among the regular featurs such as news, bios, and a discography, NBN is also conducting a talent search -- so all you aspiring rappers out there, record your demos and send it to them ONLINE. That's right, ONLINE! Ya heard? If you register for the enhanced site, you can also download MPEG files at see live concert footage. For NBN fans, it's well worth the price.

2. The Hieroglyphics - hieroglyphics.com. Webmaster StinkE does an incredible job of putting together this site to represent one of the illest and most diversely talented crews to ever come out of California. This site gets extra marks for being so colorful and bright in a sea of web mediocrity, as well as for having an online store where you can purchase the latest Hieroglyphics releases as they come out. That's right, AS available. Be sure to check out their news and updates for the latest moves these hip-hop masters are making, and visit their link to CDnow to check out soundclips and purchase the slamming "3rd Eye Vision".

3. Mountain Brothers - www.mountainbrothers.com. Currently competing for a spot on MTV's show devoted to indie music, the Mountain Brothers have built an excellent website to showcase this diversely talented Philadelphia trio. Yes, they even have CULINARY recipes. The Mountain Brothers love to cook it up - good music and good food! They also have a semi-serious "dictionary" of Illadelphian and local crew hip-hop slang. One word summarizes this site and this group up really well: FLAVOR. Make sure to check them out on MTV's Flying Indie and let the powers that be know that the best hip-hop doesn't always necessarily come from a Big Six record label! PS: the best quote from the site is group member Styles recipe for french fries: "You will smell like garlic and onions for about two days but this only will enhance your natural sex appeal."

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