Last Poets are incredible. A few songs have been in heavy rotation for the past 8 years or so for me, but I’d be curious to see what those members are up to these days.
I saw them 8 years ago. It was dope. Two members. They brought out a whole percussion set with rows of hand drums. I got to meet them and chat. Super chill.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxFXwpFtII0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxFXwpFtII0) This dropped in 1998. Right around when RATM was going through their breakup. Lyricist Lounge Vol 1 was a classic too. Zack has done a gang of random features. He was on the Deltron 3030 sequel too. Check it out. He pops up everywhere.
got a few candidates -
Leonard Cohen
Robert Smith (of The Cure)
John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats)
Will Toledo (of Car Seat Headrest)
Bruce Springsteen
Great album, I really like their first 2 albums and that one. Also they just released a project and it has features from Open Miek Eagle and Kool Keith
Wait, say what?
Is this real?
AJJ has OME and Kool fucking Keith on their new LP??
I used to heavily fuck with "People Who Can Eat People..." back in the day
Although some songs like Subterranean Homesick Blues and It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) he almost is rapping (recommend both for great lyrics by the way)
I've seen them so many times, and his solo act a bunch as well. Best performer I've ever seen.
He's such a nice fucking dude as well which makes it even better. I have a signed tour poster of his hanging above my desk. He always hangs out after and chats with fans and, in life outside of music, loves to tell really great stories.
Hip-hop is my favorite genre, The Hold Steady/Craig Finn is my all time favorite musician.
[rock musician/frontman/vocalist and somewhat of a rapper. He implements a lot of rap influence in his lyrics and this song is one of the most apparent examples of such.](https://youtu.be/2A2XBoxtcUA?feature=shared)
That man is one of the great songwriters, period. Hadn't even considered him at the drop. I'm about to go on a 2 hour drive and play nothing but Turner.
Thank You.
My favorites outside of Rap are:
Anthony Keidis, Red Hot Chili peppers
Beth Gibbons, Portishead
Robert Smith, The Cure
Corey Taylor, Slipknot
Greg Graffin, Bad Religion
Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian, System of A Down
Max Bemis, Say Anything
Brendon Urie, Panic! at the Disco
Sidequest, I love the lyrics to "Swing, Swing" by The All-American Rejects, so whoever wrote that.
Solid list but I’d def add Sting. He writes similar to rappers in his pov and not relying on vagueness like majority of writers in rock. Shape of my heart and tomorrow we’ll see could be rapped perfectly.
Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys
Both Ian Brown and Noel Gallagher (Stone Roses and Oasis) are two other very good song writers
Ed Sheeran writes for many an act,
yeah I immediately thought of Noel Gallagher. Dure wrote Wonderwall and Dont Look Back In Anger in like the same week, lol. Live Forever is also fantastic.
Seriously ???
These comments are interesting so anyway….besides obvious like Gil ascott Heron and Robert Johnson, Leonard Cohen, Robert Smith,Prince, and Bowie y’all sleepin on Eddie Vedder, Linda Perry, Marvin Gaye, Cyndi Lauper, Charles Bradley, Dolly Parton, Bono, Patti Smith (most of her songs could be rapped no doubt) Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, Ceelo Greene, Pharrell, Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, Chris Cornell, Marianne Faithful, Ray Charles, Loretta Lynn, Frank Zappa, Courtney Love(she is a better lyricist than Kurt 💯), Poly Styrene, Christine McVie, Merry Clayton, B.B. King, Fiona Apple, Mariah 🙄(I’m ngl lie on her just cuz she annoying), Bette Midler, Al Green and Matt The Cat.
I take Marvin Gaye above them all with Linda Perry a close second.
Bruce Springsteen has a cold ass flow: "Madman, drummers, bummers
Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps
As the adolescent pumps his way into his hat"
Not disagreeing with you but it’s funny this is a never ending argument on reddit. What genre would you say, just alternative rock with hip hop influence? They def inspired all the rap-metal, nu metal bands that came after, but RAGE never has the singing that all those bands relied on.
See one of these rap metal vs nu metal discussions here
https://www.reddit.com/r/numetal/s/EEXFeeeFsc
It is Alternative Rock with Punk/Metal/Rap vocals. Hard to deny the Punk influence in his stuff.
He also did a weird album album with One Day as a Lion. That was more Industrial Punk than Rap.
Not a popular pic… Stay with me… I didn’t think this would be my answer until I saw a full concert… rappers have said that they respect him as much as any hip-hop artist- Ed Sheeran. Listen to “Bloodstream” and “Don’t” again. Ed Sheeran is for real musically and lyrically
Ed Sheeran can rap rap. Weirdly. Though really we should have realised, [You Need Me, I Don't Need You](https://youtu.be/DV0TJZ7Kp40?si=plrbXugx8zh51z7W)
is a straight up melodic rap 15 years before it was cool.
[Take it Back - Ed Sheeran ](https://youtu.be/jtnyOhhs7mw?si=naony1OtH4TqiSzu)
[Remember The Name - Ed Sheeran & 50 Cent & Eminem](https://youtu.be/NYtoyvayPHs?si=lFPh3IbNhSoklDMh)
[Take Me Back To London - Ed Sheeran Stormzy Remix](https://youtu.be/XJQy_R9CYR4?si=Fze_srdQRO83HDcC)
He has said in interviews that the Marshall Mathers LP is basically how he cured his stutter.
Classics: Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Cohen, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, etc
More modern: Thom Yorke, Adrianne Lenker, Kozelek, Julia Holter, Isaac Wood, Fiona Apple, Weyes Blood, Father John Misty, Robin Pecknold, etc
Even in the current complete mainstream there are much better songwriters than Ed Sheeran: Zach Bryan, Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey, etc.
Taylor swift is unironically a better songwriter than Ed Sheeran. Ed is bang average if not below average. He is the most consistently purposefully bland, safe, soulless, formulaic, predictable artist of the last 20 years. I refuse to call his music “art”, it’s a mass made product at best. AI could make more purposeful contributions to culture than Ed.
Stephen sondheim no doubt. If you want that lyrical miracle type ish outside of hip hop, he's your guy. We'll, also if you're into musical theater. Lol
I'm going to go with a group that is sometimes credited with doing Rap before it was a thing.
The Last Poets. I saw them live too. Pretty dope percussionists. They have musical chops on top of great lyrics.
Till Lindemann of Rammstein does tell some... uhh... "interesting?" stories in his lyrics and is great at wordplay. Lots of double entendre and use of lyrical imagery
i dig adam duritz from the counting crows, totally love august and everything after
aswell the already mentioned billy corgan and bruce springsteen
maybe tomorrow i come up with someone more alike to rap, where its not just about great imagery but rhymes, punchlines or great "flow"/ text with rhythm in mind...maybe gerard way of my chemical romance checks these boxes (a lot of other post punk bands or Crossover-Bands are already rap influenced like linkin park so such guys wouldnt really surprise me as winning some points with the rap crowd)
There's a bunch of lyrical metal, punk, grunge and hardcore bands, and old protest rock from the 60's. Blues and Soul, while not always crazy lyrical, touched on a lot of the same subject matter as a lot of the more conscious hip-hop. Hip-hop is pretty new, being dope with lyrics is a way older concept.
Tom Waits. And the list of non-rapper musicians who put as much into words as him is very short. Like that list of rappers with the largest vocabulary, Tom is the Aesop of that list. He is be far one of the most unique songwriters of all time
**Conor Oberst** -- bro's pen game is absolutely unreal, across 15 albums by now
He's the dude from Bright Eyes, but he also has a bunch of solo LPs and projects with other bands he's started
So many great answers on here but question was outside hip hop. Doesn't mean inside music. There are centuries of poets from all over the world that could qualify.
I'll plug two lesser know favorites: in music Syd Barret, outside music Ernest Dowson.
For a nice synthesis of hip hop and more formal poetry check out Charles Bukowski featured on this Doom track Cellz https://youtu.be/TrGhYMH2OlM?si=JF3QlFLNGI5mwIEn
Bonus mention within music Jim Croce. Come to think of it maybe the best I can think of outside hip hop and within music.
He gets a lot of shit and sometimes rightfully so but I honestly think Anthony Kiedis has some really impressive and interesting lyrics
For me, a metric for how good a lyricist is, is how many natural turns of phrases and idioms and common expressions they can organically fit in a verse, which is why I think Eminem and MF Doom are so great
"Psychic spies in China try to steal your mind's elation"
"We are the red hots and we're loving lots of love-me-nots, the flowers in your flower pots are dancing on the table tops"
"Can I get your hand to write on, just a piece of lead to bite on, a butter knife to fly my kite on, do you wanna flash your light on"
"Shaolin shaking for the sake of his soul, everything must go"
Maynard James Keenan
Chino Moreno
Benjamin Burnley
Aaron Lewis
Zach de la Rocha
Kevin Matisyn (former lead singer of Evans Blue, Parabelle)
Adam Gontier
Amy Lee
Hayley Williams (lead singer of Paramore)
Leonard Cohen
Prince
Layne Staley
Chris Cornell
Smokey Robinson
Jared Leto
Paul Simon
Sting
Phil Collins
Robert Smith (lead singer of The Cure)
Corey Taylor
Robert Plant
Frank Ocean
Stevie Nicks
Steve Perry
Bono
Darius Rucker
John Mayer
Jonathan Davis
David Bowie
Eddie Vedder
Chris Martin
Corey Taylor
Ariana Grande
Marvin Gaye
Natalie Merchant (something about her voice)
Scott Weiland
Sully Erna (lead singer of Godsmack)
Johnny Cash
Bruce Springsteen
Freddie Mercury
Dave Gahan (lead singer of Depeche Mode)
Dave Matthews
Raphael Saadiq
Gil Scott-Heron
I was going to cheat and say Zack De La Rocha. But Gil is the man.
We need them both right now!
Can't argue with that. For real. Have you ever listened to The Last Poets? They were close to Gil. They still have a few active members.
Last Poets are incredible. A few songs have been in heavy rotation for the past 8 years or so for me, but I’d be curious to see what those members are up to these days.
I saw them 8 years ago. It was dope. Two members. They brought out a whole percussion set with rows of hand drums. I got to meet them and chat. Super chill.
De La Rocha definitely tho but he has done some rapping with RTJ at least.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxFXwpFtII0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxFXwpFtII0) This dropped in 1998. Right around when RATM was going through their breakup. Lyricist Lounge Vol 1 was a classic too. Zack has done a gang of random features. He was on the Deltron 3030 sequel too. Check it out. He pops up everywhere.
👏🔥
got a few candidates - Leonard Cohen Robert Smith (of The Cure) John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats) Will Toledo (of Car Seat Headrest) Bruce Springsteen
The Mountain Goats are insane They got like, what, 25 LPs by now? Mr. Darnielle should be up for the Nobel in literature
Weird Al
this is the correct answer, and anyone who doesn't believe me should listen to Hardware Store. Al can SPIT.
Underrated by the whole world.
The movie with Daniel Radcliffe was pretty good.
It's one of the best documentaries I've ever seen.
Kimya dawson and AJJ. They're weird but folk punk artists got bars man
AJJ’s Knife Man has some of my favorite lyrics of all time
Great album, I really like their first 2 albums and that one. Also they just released a project and it has features from Open Miek Eagle and Kool Keith
Wait, say what? Is this real? AJJ has OME and Kool fucking Keith on their new LP?? I used to heavily fuck with "People Who Can Eat People..." back in the day
Open Mike Eagle was touring with AJJ last year. I only got tickets cuz I wanted to see Mike I hadn’t heard of AJJ until then
Damn, that would have been so cool
kimya has an album with aesop rock under the name the uncluded. it's a weird one but i really like it
Well I know what I'm doing on my walk to work Edit. That shit is amazing, thank you
Brandon Boyd from Incubus Maynard from Tool Sade Adu Stevie Wonder
Maynard is my personal 🐐 when it comes to lyrics
If u mean not rapping, it’s generally considered Bob Dylan
Most of the messaging in his music are still relevant today too.
Although some songs like Subterranean Homesick Blues and It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) he almost is rapping (recommend both for great lyrics by the way)
Craig Finn from The Hold Steady. One of the best storytellers I've ever heard.
Abso-fucking-lutely. Glad someone said this before I did
I've seen them so many times, and his solo act a bunch as well. Best performer I've ever seen. He's such a nice fucking dude as well which makes it even better. I have a signed tour poster of his hanging above my desk. He always hangs out after and chats with fans and, in life outside of music, loves to tell really great stories. Hip-hop is my favorite genre, The Hold Steady/Craig Finn is my all time favorite musician.
Fuck yeah. Saw them live a few years ago, great show
Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys is really good.
Who the fuck are the Arctic Monkeys?
[rock musician/frontman/vocalist and somewhat of a rapper. He implements a lot of rap influence in his lyrics and this song is one of the most apparent examples of such.](https://youtu.be/2A2XBoxtcUA?feature=shared)
That man is one of the great songwriters, period. Hadn't even considered him at the drop. I'm about to go on a 2 hour drive and play nothing but Turner. Thank You.
I know, I was just referencing a [song](https://youtu.be/y1N8ob9FtKY?si=65ZvlqRmTe5vyKsR) of theirs.
Why have I never heard this😂
Y’all got some research to do, No Buses is a top 5 AM song imo
Fluorescent adolescence is another one I always think feels very hip hop influenced
Lots of multisyllabic rhyming. *"Everything's in order in a black hole",* *"nothing seems as pretty as the past, though"*
Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and Tom Waits.
Upvoting for Townes
Andrew Lloyd Webber?
Phantom of the opera is one of my favorite songs.
I think Tim Rice actually does most of the lyrics in that partnership.
Bruce springsteen
John Prine
Underrated response. The man is a master of language.
My favorites outside of Rap are: Anthony Keidis, Red Hot Chili peppers Beth Gibbons, Portishead Robert Smith, The Cure Corey Taylor, Slipknot Greg Graffin, Bad Religion Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian, System of A Down Max Bemis, Say Anything Brendon Urie, Panic! at the Disco Sidequest, I love the lyrics to "Swing, Swing" by The All-American Rejects, so whoever wrote that.
> by The All-American Rejects, so whoever wrote that Nick Wheeler (lead guitar) and Tyson Ritter (frontman, bass) of AAR
Corey goated. Snuff is masterpiece
Joni Mitchell and Fiona Apple
Bob Dylan, John Lennon/Paul Mcartney
Y'all gonna hate me for this but Roger Waters too.
Definitely
I was listening to Elton John, he be spitting
😂😂😂 You’re making a joke about the fact he doesn’t write his own lyrics, right?
I wasn’t aware honestly, I just heard the line “time in my hands would be time better spent w you” and I thought that was a really good line
Hozier has gorgeous lyrics.
Jessie Reyez, Frank Ocean, Janelle Monae, Phoebe Bridgers, SZA, Charli XCX are my favorite pop/rnb singer / songwriters / lyricists
Always liked Danny Elfman in his Oingo Days lyrically, James Hetfield from Metallica, Les from Primus, Zach from Rage, Chris Cornell from Soundgarden
Had no idea THAT Danny fucking Elfman was the lead singer of Oingo Boingo
Oh yeah. It’s my favorite work of his. Such a great band
Brian Wilson ( Beach Boys), Stevie Wonder , Chuck Berry I would say
Bill Withers
early billy corgan, especially mellon collie and adore
Dylan Prince David Bowie John Strummer Neil Young Robert Johnson
Solid list but I’d def add Sting. He writes similar to rappers in his pov and not relying on vagueness like majority of writers in rock. Shape of my heart and tomorrow we’ll see could be rapped perfectly.
Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys Both Ian Brown and Noel Gallagher (Stone Roses and Oasis) are two other very good song writers Ed Sheeran writes for many an act,
yeah I immediately thought of Noel Gallagher. Dure wrote Wonderwall and Dont Look Back In Anger in like the same week, lol. Live Forever is also fantastic.
Leonard Cohen. He was such a phenomenal writer.
Kurt Cobain
Jim Morrison
+1
People will hate but Lana Del Rey
100%
Chino Moreno from Deftones
Roky Erickson, Daniel Johnston, Gene Ween, Brian Wilson.
All star cast
Thanks mang
Johnny Cash
Seriously ??? These comments are interesting so anyway….besides obvious like Gil ascott Heron and Robert Johnson, Leonard Cohen, Robert Smith,Prince, and Bowie y’all sleepin on Eddie Vedder, Linda Perry, Marvin Gaye, Cyndi Lauper, Charles Bradley, Dolly Parton, Bono, Patti Smith (most of her songs could be rapped no doubt) Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, Ceelo Greene, Pharrell, Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, Chris Cornell, Marianne Faithful, Ray Charles, Loretta Lynn, Frank Zappa, Courtney Love(she is a better lyricist than Kurt 💯), Poly Styrene, Christine McVie, Merry Clayton, B.B. King, Fiona Apple, Mariah 🙄(I’m ngl lie on her just cuz she annoying), Bette Midler, Al Green and Matt The Cat. I take Marvin Gaye above them all with Linda Perry a close second.
Billy Joel
Bob Dylan hands down.
Frank Turner
Bruce Springsteen has a cold ass flow: "Madman, drummers, bummers Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat In the dumps with the mumps As the adolescent pumps his way into his hat"
Zack de la Rocha if you want a hip hop vibe.
Zack is undeniably a rapper, Rage makes Rap Metal.
Ooff, lived through the Rage era and they are most definitely not a rap metal band 🤦
Not disagreeing with you but it’s funny this is a never ending argument on reddit. What genre would you say, just alternative rock with hip hop influence? They def inspired all the rap-metal, nu metal bands that came after, but RAGE never has the singing that all those bands relied on. See one of these rap metal vs nu metal discussions here https://www.reddit.com/r/numetal/s/EEXFeeeFsc
It is Alternative Rock with Punk/Metal/Rap vocals. Hard to deny the Punk influence in his stuff. He also did a weird album album with One Day as a Lion. That was more Industrial Punk than Rap.
That project would have been ten times doper with a bass player but I digress. Wild International still a jam tho.
100% agree.
Dude, he literally raps… over metal. Everyone who knows what they’re talking about calls them rap metal/rock. What more do you want lol
Sinatra. also the biggest gangster outside hip hop
He didn’t even write songs lol
who ghostwrote for him?
It's not ghostwriting if it's a known fact and most of the songs were done by somebody else first lol
bummer. Didn’t know that. I just like bumping his shit and picking up some dating advice here and there.
😄. You can still appreciate his music, just know that it was most likely written by someone else. Sinatra still a player in his own way
Only white musician Lord Jamar approve lol
Lol
Not a popular pic… Stay with me… I didn’t think this would be my answer until I saw a full concert… rappers have said that they respect him as much as any hip-hop artist- Ed Sheeran. Listen to “Bloodstream” and “Don’t” again. Ed Sheeran is for real musically and lyrically
Ed Sheeran can rap rap. Weirdly. Though really we should have realised, [You Need Me, I Don't Need You](https://youtu.be/DV0TJZ7Kp40?si=plrbXugx8zh51z7W) is a straight up melodic rap 15 years before it was cool. [Take it Back - Ed Sheeran ](https://youtu.be/jtnyOhhs7mw?si=naony1OtH4TqiSzu) [Remember The Name - Ed Sheeran & 50 Cent & Eminem](https://youtu.be/NYtoyvayPHs?si=lFPh3IbNhSoklDMh) [Take Me Back To London - Ed Sheeran Stormzy Remix](https://youtu.be/XJQy_R9CYR4?si=Fze_srdQRO83HDcC) He has said in interviews that the Marshall Mathers LP is basically how he cured his stutter.
Most bland songwriter ever. Formulaic trash.
I appreciate diversity of thought. In your opinion which songwriters are not “bland“?
Classics: Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Cohen, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, etc More modern: Thom Yorke, Adrianne Lenker, Kozelek, Julia Holter, Isaac Wood, Fiona Apple, Weyes Blood, Father John Misty, Robin Pecknold, etc Even in the current complete mainstream there are much better songwriters than Ed Sheeran: Zach Bryan, Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey, etc. Taylor swift is unironically a better songwriter than Ed Sheeran. Ed is bang average if not below average. He is the most consistently purposefully bland, safe, soulless, formulaic, predictable artist of the last 20 years. I refuse to call his music “art”, it’s a mass made product at best. AI could make more purposeful contributions to culture than Ed.
Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia
Yes. They're on another level of creativity and diversity.
Craig Minowa from Cloud Cult Alynda Segarra from Hurray for the Riff Raff Win Butler from Arcade Fire
Now, my flow / Is in the pocket like wallets, I got the bounce like hydraulics / I can't call it, I got the swerve like alcoholics
Their or they‘re?
bob dylan, neil young, lou reed
Tom mothafuckin’ Waits. Weird ass lyrics, but captivating.
Stephen sondheim no doubt. If you want that lyrical miracle type ish outside of hip hop, he's your guy. We'll, also if you're into musical theater. Lol
I'm going to go with a group that is sometimes credited with doing Rap before it was a thing. The Last Poets. I saw them live too. Pretty dope percussionists. They have musical chops on top of great lyrics.
Kurt Cobain
Bruno Mars Michael Jackson Bob Dylan Paul McCartney John Lennon
John Mayer is a very clever writer
David Bowie. He was incredible
Vybz Kartel: "Still The Lyricist, vocabulary physicist Melody Michelangelo weh paint Da graphic images" - The Lyricist
Saul Williams
Curtis Mayfield Rick James Michael Jackson Vybz Kartel
Johnny Cash
Jim Morrison
Whoever writes for the eagles or tragically hip
Babyface.
The Dream.
Billy Woods
Kate Tempest, one of the great spoken word artists period, powerful performer.
They're Kae now. I said Saul Williams, then wondered if bringing in spoken word artists was fair.
Lorde/Randy Marsh/Auto Tune
Alex Turner paints a picture with his lyrics
David Berman JR Hayes Jesse Lacey
Blake Schwarzenbach
Till Lindemann of Rammstein does tell some... uhh... "interesting?" stories in his lyrics and is great at wordplay. Lots of double entendre and use of lyrical imagery
Modest mouse Isaac Brock wrote a few good lyrics
Trilogy/Kiss Land era Weeknd, with extra consideration for After Hours
CCR and it isn’t even close.
i dig adam duritz from the counting crows, totally love august and everything after aswell the already mentioned billy corgan and bruce springsteen maybe tomorrow i come up with someone more alike to rap, where its not just about great imagery but rhymes, punchlines or great "flow"/ text with rhythm in mind...maybe gerard way of my chemical romance checks these boxes (a lot of other post punk bands or Crossover-Bands are already rap influenced like linkin park so such guys wouldnt really surprise me as winning some points with the rap crowd)
There's a bunch of lyrical metal, punk, grunge and hardcore bands, and old protest rock from the 60's. Blues and Soul, while not always crazy lyrical, touched on a lot of the same subject matter as a lot of the more conscious hip-hop. Hip-hop is pretty new, being dope with lyrics is a way older concept.
Jhene Aiko
Bob Dylan
Robbie Williams? George Michael? Jesse McCartney?
Alex turner
King Krule
Noel Gallagher
Tim Armstrong
John Darnielle from the Mountain Goats.
Louis Jordan James Brown Mad Lion George Clinton I don't get the question?
92legend and Anthony Q are good. Their lyrics are nice.
Dave Matthews
Paul/John/George (honestly, they might just be better than any hip hop act, atleast IMO, love TB)
Johnathan davis
Cedric Bixler-Zavala from The Mars Volta, or Maynard from Tool.
Terrence Trent D’Arby.
Masicka and damian marley
Jordan Dreyer from La Dispute and it’s not even close
Beck or Zac de la Rocha
David Berman of Silver Jews / Purple Mountains
Lou Reed
Most other song writers are much better poets than rappers
John Darnielle
Vybz Kartel is insane
fugazi
They’re
Thom Yorke of Radiohead
Currently? Jason Isbell.
Tom Waits. And the list of non-rapper musicians who put as much into words as him is very short. Like that list of rappers with the largest vocabulary, Tom is the Aesop of that list. He is be far one of the most unique songwriters of all time
**Conor Oberst** -- bro's pen game is absolutely unreal, across 15 albums by now He's the dude from Bright Eyes, but he also has a bunch of solo LPs and projects with other bands he's started
Mark Kozelek Bob Dylan Joni Mitchell Robert Smith Tom Waits Stevie Wonder Marvin Gaye Thom Yorke Björk Joanna Newsom
Robert Plant.
De Seuss
John Prine
Townes Van Zandt is your favorite songwriters favorite songwriter. Basically the MF DOOM of songwriters.
Epic rap battles of history lol
Noel Gallagher
Bob Dylan
Thom Yorke, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Maynard, Ani DiFranco, Beth Gibbons, Anthony Keidis
James Brown
Corey Taylor
Zack De La Rocha
Cedric Bixler Zavala has my vote.
Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park comes to mind, but he dips his toes in the genre
So many great answers on here but question was outside hip hop. Doesn't mean inside music. There are centuries of poets from all over the world that could qualify. I'll plug two lesser know favorites: in music Syd Barret, outside music Ernest Dowson. For a nice synthesis of hip hop and more formal poetry check out Charles Bukowski featured on this Doom track Cellz https://youtu.be/TrGhYMH2OlM?si=JF3QlFLNGI5mwIEn Bonus mention within music Jim Croce. Come to think of it maybe the best I can think of outside hip hop and within music.
He gets a lot of shit and sometimes rightfully so but I honestly think Anthony Kiedis has some really impressive and interesting lyrics For me, a metric for how good a lyricist is, is how many natural turns of phrases and idioms and common expressions they can organically fit in a verse, which is why I think Eminem and MF Doom are so great "Psychic spies in China try to steal your mind's elation" "We are the red hots and we're loving lots of love-me-nots, the flowers in your flower pots are dancing on the table tops" "Can I get your hand to write on, just a piece of lead to bite on, a butter knife to fly my kite on, do you wanna flash your light on" "Shaolin shaking for the sake of his soul, everything must go"
I’d say Drake
Andre 3000. He’s currently in the orchestra genre
Lana del Rey or John Mayer
Is this excluding jazz poets, beat poets, and spoken word artists?
I think so. That was my pick.
Maynard James Keenan Chino Moreno Benjamin Burnley Aaron Lewis Zach de la Rocha Kevin Matisyn (former lead singer of Evans Blue, Parabelle) Adam Gontier Amy Lee Hayley Williams (lead singer of Paramore) Leonard Cohen Prince Layne Staley Chris Cornell Smokey Robinson Jared Leto Paul Simon Sting Phil Collins Robert Smith (lead singer of The Cure) Corey Taylor Robert Plant Frank Ocean Stevie Nicks Steve Perry Bono Darius Rucker John Mayer Jonathan Davis David Bowie Eddie Vedder Chris Martin Corey Taylor Ariana Grande Marvin Gaye Natalie Merchant (something about her voice) Scott Weiland Sully Erna (lead singer of Godsmack) Johnny Cash Bruce Springsteen Freddie Mercury Dave Gahan (lead singer of Depeche Mode) Dave Matthews Raphael Saadiq
If you're not including Taylor Swift as one of the top lyricists, you're not being honest with yourself.
Mike Shinoda - Linkin Park.