I love hip-hop. The music. The culture. It has been such a big part of my life since I was a kid. I don't know if you are like me, but I have grown really tired of hip-hop being painted in such a negative light all the time. So many people don't understand the music. It's incredibly frustrating.

I know a big part of the problem is that so much popular hip-hop music is focused on money, drugs, violence, and strippers. And although all those subjects may have their place in hip-hop, I'm tired of these things always being the focus. Music should lift us up. Encourage us. Not continue to take us down a dead end path of self-destruction.

The good news is there are a lot of rap artists making positive music. I am here to tell you that positivity is alive and well in rap music today. And to get you started on your journey into the positive side of rap, here are my top 10 favorite positive rappers along with a few key tracks to check out ASAP!

**NOTE: Most of these songs have clean lyrics, but some of them have explicit lyrics. It's my belief that a song can be positive and empowering while still having cuss words in it. In my own music, my goal is to keep it clean, but that is not every artists priority. I have marked the artists that use explicit lyrics so you can skip those if explicit lyrics offend you.