Sole

As a core member of the Anticon collective, Sole is arguably one of the most influential hip-hop artists alive today. Anticon artists aren’t generally on Top 40 radio. Instead, the imprint has been involved in developing, promoting and otherwise shaping — unwittingly, perhaps — the sound of cutting-edge hip-hop around the world for the past dozen years. Sole’s signature rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness delivery is oft imitated, but rarely with the same degree of intelligence and poetry. Picking apart Sole’s lyrics is a bit like reading Kant: It’s dense, but full of brilliant strings of rhetoric and ultimately rewarding. Live, the guy is a whirlwind of energy and raw charisma. And while the songs can be a little dark, the music is about liberation from the personal demons that plague us and the socialization that colonizes our dreams.