No. 30: Black Thought

There are a few emcees on this list who never had a solo career, but didn't have to — their work as the dominant voice within their group was as compelling as any solo career could have been. Dres (No. 31 on the countdown) was one of them.

Tariq Trotter, better known as Black Thought, is another.

Black Thought was the co-founder of The Roots, which originated as a two-man act with Questlove back in the late 1980s and later evolved into a much larger collective. The group's first major-label LP, Do You Want More?!!!??!, got more love from the Lollapalooza crowd than it did from hip-hop heads infatuated with the Wu-Tang/Mobb Deep hardcore sound that dominated the genre in 1995...but the album nonetheless established Black Thought as a top-level emcee, with songs like "Proceed" showcasing his considerable skills.

Cool, calm, collected my perspective...

Everything got taken up a notch in late 1996 with the release of Illadelph Halflife. Thanks in part to the Internet, The Roots developed a much larger following among the backpacker heads that had finally found a place to link up, and Black Thought's reputation as one of the top emcees in hip-hop continued to blossom. Though "What They Do" brought the most commercial success, the album went far deeper than that, with Thought shining brightly on cuts like "No Great Pretender" and "Push Up Ya Lighter."

Commercial success peaked for the group with Things Fall Apart and the Erykah Badu-fueled single, "You Got Me," but The Roots quietly began to fade from the limelight after 2000, when pop-singer acts such as Nelly and Ja Rule started dominating the radio waves and "conscious emcees" became more and more uncool. That hasn't stopped the group from doing their thing — but Black Thought has been notably absent from some of their more recent projects, including some collaborations with John Legend. He was also relegated to backup-singer duty on a Yo Gabba Gabba! television appearance. (Don't front — your kids love it, too.)

But while he hasn't been popping up much in the mainstream lately, Black Thought certainly hasn't lost his touch, as seen in this BET cypher where he holds his own in between heavyweights Mos Def and Eminem.

Even some Roots fans may not recognize his name, but Black Thought's words will remain an important part of hip-hop's legacy...in large part because he came to prominence during a period when the rest of the genre was quickly falling off.