Find what you like and then deep dive into that genre. Learn the history about it, look up the producers, the stories behind the albums, the songwriters, the studios that they were recorded at even.
A lot of historical context can be built from that. And you also find more artists that way. Also if you really want to get into it, look up the instruments that are influential in the process of the albums you find. For example, J Dilla's MPC was one of the most important tools of the 90s Neo-Soul and Hip Hop scene (it's actually in the Smithsonian). But other producers have mastered it and its decedents... like Araab Musik, Pete Rock, or Kanye.
If you want to be a person who respects all different genres of music, look into the history of genres as you explore them and find the most influential albums in that genre (usually this correlates to albums sells for "popular" music, influential is usually tied to the network of artists someone has influenced, worked with, produced for, etc).
Hopefully that helps. I'm a huge music buff, so I'd be happy to discuss.
I agree 100%. I think hip-hop in particular makes it very easy to trace these relations with it's heavy use of samples and collaboration.
For example, Common's Album "Be" is the album that started me on my path back in 2009. I really liked the album and using those relations I was able to discover so much more music:
1. Kanye West produced it
-> Check-out other Kanye production credits
-> Jay-Z's "The Blueprint"
-> Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III"
-> Kanye's solo albums
2. Marvin Gaye's "God is Love" is sampled in the song "Love is..."
-> Check-out Marvin Gaye's album "What's Going On"
3. John Legend is a feature on "They Say"
-> Check-out John Legend's album "Get Lifted"
Of course, it might be a little silly to think I needed to discover big names like Kanye, Common and John Legend but the process of discovering them through the music itself can help separate the artist from some of their non-musical pursuits that might not be as interesting.
Yes. I sort of miss having connections to groups that I was a part of, but it's been well worth it. Google and their products are next (with the exception of Chromecast via a burner gmail).
A lot of historical context can be built from that. And you also find more artists that way. Also if you really want to get into it, look up the instruments that are influential in the process of the albums you find. For example, J Dilla's MPC was one of the most important tools of the 90s Neo-Soul and Hip Hop scene (it's actually in the Smithsonian). But other producers have mastered it and its decedents... like Araab Musik, Pete Rock, or Kanye.
If you want to be a person who respects all different genres of music, look into the history of genres as you explore them and find the most influential albums in that genre (usually this correlates to albums sells for "popular" music, influential is usually tied to the network of artists someone has influenced, worked with, produced for, etc).
Hopefully that helps. I'm a huge music buff, so I'd be happy to discuss.