The top albums I listen to when down are:
1. "Good Music" - Ray Wonder
2. "Traffic" - Pinko Pinko
3. no album - MODMAN
4. various - various Palestinian rap groups
5. anything by Sondre Lerche
If rap is all about downtrodden people who make the best of it, why doesn't Palestinian rap top the charts? I mean, these dudes throw rocks at the F16s that incinerated their mothers with GPS-guided rockets. You can't get much more downtrodden than that, eh.