The only DJ Shadow album I have is "Entroducing" and it would be a
serious genre stretch to call that Hip Hop IMO!
I too have found it very difficult to get into hip hop, having only the odd CD single here and there and just a couple of albums:
Fun Lovin' Criminals - Come Find Yourself
A Tribe Called Quest - Revised Quest for the Seasoned Traveller (containing possibly my favourite hip hop record ever: Can I Kick It, with the Lou Reed "Walk on the Wild Side" sample :v: )
...and..a band that most of you almost certainly hav
NOT heard of:
Fettes Brot - Auf Einem Auge Blöd
Fettes Brot (literally fat - or should that be PHAT - Bread) are 3 white guys from Hamburg who rap about normal every stuff like girls, relationships, getting drunk etc. The songs are
hillarious (helps if you understand German though

) and just really melodic happy tunes. Very intelligent and philosophical lyrics aswell. My favourite is a track called "Nordisch by Nature" (a pun on Naughty by Nature, obviously, but Nordisch means Northener, which is what they are in Germany). I large chunk of it is sung in the North (far North) Germany dialect called Platt Deutsch - which is like a cross between English and German. Since the German part of my family comes from that region I can understand it, and it makes the track all the funnier
As a general rule, I tend to like continental European hip hop a lot more, especially if it's also sung/rapped in a lanugage other than English. It always seems to be much more laid back and melodic than US/UK rap which I find (in the main) just too aggressive and "violent" (in musical character as well as what is rapped about). It's also true that I can get on quite well with Eminem, indeed, he has a lot in common with the type of continental European rap that I like. It's much less about guns, drugs, bitches and hos and much more about normal life. Also, I don't see Eminem making videos packed with 100s of babes in skimpy outfits, pool parties and $200,000 dollar cars/SUVs. I just don't like the materialist/hedonist message that 90% of US rap gives out.
No doubt some controversial statements :duck: but there you go...
Michael.