15 Incredible New Hip-Hop Stars You Must Hear

Hip-hop has never been stronger. From mainstream stars like Drake, Kanye West and Nicki Minaj, to lords of the underground like Lil B, Gucci Mane and Chance The Rapper, the genre has a multitude of talented and interesting figures taking its sound in many disparate directions at once. Mixtape culture has continued to grow in the wake of MySpace's demise, with sites such as DatPiff, AudioMack and SoundCloud offering incredibly user-friendly spaces for artists to upload their beats and verses, and Twitter providing the perfect platform to promote them to eager would-be fans. This list sheds some well deserved light on a few of the most gifted newcomers in hip-hop. It covers a lot of ground, drawing on the trippy sounds of Atlanta, the avant-garde approach of New York, the streetwise Chicago style and the game-changing surreal humour of the Odd Future crew. Many of these rappers will already be known to those that follow the scene carefully, but there will be plenty here that remain hidden from the view of all but the most knowledgeable fans of contemporary hip-hop. And no matter how well-known, these are the monsters of today's scene whose crazy (frequently self-released) mixtapes, albums and singles are pushing hip-hop into totally new - and often truly weird - places.

15. Chief Keef

Chicago's Chief Keef is one of the favourite rappers of fellow Chi Town native Kanye West, and it's easy to see why. He is probably the most exciting and controversial rapper to emerge from the drill sub-genre, a form of trap that features dark and violent lyrics and imagery. Keef maintains a persona that is similar to that of previous icons of gangsta rap, but he has the talents to back it up. Check out his exceptionally weird guest appearance on Hold My Liquor from Kanye's already utterly experimental masterpiece Yeezus, in which he drones through mountains of autotune. It's also worth listening to his latest mixtape, Bang 3, and probably his best release to date, the paranoiac and claustrophobic Sorry 4 The Weight. His music is simultaneously dark and emotive, elevating him above the shock tactics of many other drill artists.