Top 10 For Hip Hoppin' (ha ha, what a phat rhyme...)
Nov 25 '00 (Updated Dec 02 '00)
Pardon the lame title, but give me a little bit of alcohol and I get the idea in my head that I'm funnier and more clever than I actually am.
If I were to truly list my ten favorite albums, it might read something like: "10. Public Enemy 9. Public Enemy 8. Public Enemy 7. KRS-One..." And really, I do think those two musical acts have proven to be the greatest over the longest period of time in the hiphop scene. But I don't want to limit such a list to only two artists, so I decided to include ten artists, and take my favorite album from each one. Try these:
10. Roni Size - In The Mode
Yeah, I'm probably going to get a lot of crap for putting a drum-n-bass album in the hiphop category, but it's gotta be said. No rap artist, not even the mighty Afu-Ra or Wu-Tang Clan or M.O.P., came through as strongly as Roni Size in 2000. If you're a pure hiphop head and have not stepped into the jungle world as of yet, then the beats of Roni Size will bewilder you...and yet you'll be unable to deny the excessive 'phat' content contained within them, whether we're talking the instrumentals, the rap songs, the R&B tunes, whatever. The tune 'In Tune With The Sound', featuring the great Rahzel of The Roots, is as close to being a pure hiphop sound as you'll ever find, end of story. I defy you to listen to 'Ghetto Celebrity' with Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan fame, and tell me that that tune is NOT hiphop. It absolutely, 150,000% is. And Dynamite MC singlehandedly transforms the idea of 'mix rap with jungle' from a cool little novelty idea (like KRS-One and Goldie treated it) to a thing of beauty.
Frankly, I'm only putting this at #10 because A: it is first and foremost a jungle album, and B: it's so freaking new that I haven't had time to test its longevity alongside Public Enemy and BDP albums...but believe me, I was awfully tempted to put it at #5 or so. This is definitely my favorite hiphop-oriented album of 2000, and perhaps the best pure party-rocking album with hiphop flavor you will ever find. It's relentless energy from beginning to end, and all the rhyming found here ranks from 'dope' to 'very dope INDEED'.
9. EPMD - Strictly Business
Just mentioning this album should elicit an immediate 'HELL YEAH!' from any rap fan of the late 80's. Their production skills got better with every album, but their lyrical ability, sadly, did not. I'll list this over the other close contender ('Business Never Personal') due to the nostalgia factor. I remember being in middle school in Indiana, and being maybe the only person there who knew any names in the rap game outside of L. L. Cool J, and every time I broke out this album, I was able to wow my friends with my obvious superiority in musical taste. I daresay that at least 10 die-hard Indiana hiphop fans are exactly that thanks to their hearing me going on and on about how great EPMD was. 'Strictly Business' is not the most intelligent album ever written, but it is flawlessly suited for rocking parties. Very few albums can even come close in that regard.
8. Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
I only really enjoy Ice Cube's first three albums. I can't put my finger on precisely why I'm not down with 'Lethal Injection' and everything afterwards, but I just feel that he started off (at least, in his solo career) as the West Coast incarnation of Public Enemy. Indeed, he had the Bomb Squad's help in producing the beats here, which cause the songs to range from nearly-PE-levels of chaos and anger ('The Bomb', 'Endangered Species' with Chuck D, 'Turn Off The Radio') to funky with a captial F-U-N-K-Y ('What They Hitting For?', 'Once Upon A Time In The Projects', 'Who's The Mack?'). For a gangsta-rap artist, Ice Cube and crew demonstrated a vast array of styles in both rocking the mic and the beats.
7. Ice-T - Home Invasion
Hot on the heels of the release of his insanely controversial album 'Body Count' (I say insane because I still can't believe that very forgettably boring album generated so much controversy when there was far more offensive music being written at the time), Ice-T delivered one of the most vicious and heart-felt 'f*** you!'s ever written in the form of 'Home Invasion', which is his angriest, yet most intelligent album ever written. As an added bonus, DJ Evil E also does his best work behind the wheels of steel in producing this album - I mean it's noticably better than any other Ice-T release aside from 'O.G. Original Gangster'. In particular, 'Message To The Soldier', 'The Pimp Behind The Wheels', and 'Home Invasion' are Ice-T at his best.
6. Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles
I hope I don't really need to elaborate on why I'm including this, but if so, I'll just say that any random RATM album would fit perfectly in the #6 spot, yet 'The Battle Of Los Angeles' boasts their finest work on a purely musical basis. It's all just a matter of degrees, as I think they've produced marvelous music from the moment they hit the scene. Zach de la Rocha's flow may be irritating to some people, but there's no denying his lyrical brilliance. There are songs of his that are as deep and angry and well-thought-out as any Public Enemy song, which is saying a great deal. And Tom Morello is one of the more innovative guitar players I've heard in recent years...some of the tricks he pulls off with a guitar are bewildering.
5. The Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang:36 Chambers
I had a hard time choosing between this, or their followup 'Wu-Tang Forever'. In the end, I had to pick 'Enter The Wu-Tang' because every time I listen to it, I listen from beginning to end, never skipping a track. How many rap albums do you own that you can say that about? I'll bet the number is somewhere around zero. Yet the Wu came through with great song after great song. Maybe 'Wu-Tang Forever' has some better songs, but there's a lot of filler material on that release that lessens the overall quality quite a bit, so my money is on 'Enter The Wu-Tang'. Some of the RZA's greatest production can be found here ('C.R.E.A.M.', 'Da Mystery Of Chessboxing', 'Bring Da Ruckus'), and the lyrics will strike you harder than Chi Kwan Chun does in "The Massive".
(Non-sequitur: If you've not seen the classic kung-fu movie "The Massive", you really should. It's downright hilarious and awesome all at once.)
4. De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
De La Soul really, really, really misses Prince Paul right about now. Their latest two offerings, not being blessed with his superior production skills, don't even come close to being as strikingly original and brilliant as their first three albums. Now take into consideration the fact that I still like their latest two albums a great deal, and you might just barely begin to appreciate my love for their initial albums. And of those three, 'De La Soul Is Dead' is just barely my favorite.
I know, it's almost heresy to not pick their debut '3 Feet High & Rising', but I just think '...Is Dead' is more humorous, sports much phatter beats, and gets deeper on a mental level. In particular, 'A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays' is one of the best party songs I've ever heard of any genre of music, 'Afro Connections At A Hi 5' is quite funny and deep simultaneously (and has that awesome Maceo Parker horns sample), and 'Ring Ring Ha Ha Hey' would have been my favorite all-time De La tune if it wasn't for the fact that I heard everyone use the freaking thing for their answering machine when it was first released.
3. Gangstarr - A Daily Operation
DJ Premier is one of the most respected names in rap music, and this album, for me, epitomizes his unique combination of jazz samples with hiphop. And unlike so many albums of today (indeed, even unlike Premier's own production style of today), the rhythms found here sound, as Jeru The Damaja put it, 'detergent-free' - I mean they are dirty. Almost as if Premier dug in the crates and grabbed the most scratched-up discs he could find and sampled those, with little to no noise reduction, just to make it sound that much grimier. That might not sound, on paper, like a formula for some of the most fantastic hiphop beats ever, but boy would you be wrong to assume that. Songs like 'No Shame In My Game', 'Flip The Script', 'Take 2 And Pass', and 'Conspiracy', and 'I'm The Man' boast some of the - um - slammingest beats ever.
Oh yeah, the lyrics. The Guru grabs the mic. That should be 'nuff said right then and there, but for the uninitiated, The Guru manages to be extraordinarily rebellious, angry, intelligent, and laid-back all at the same time. Unlike KRS-One or Chuck D (or, indeed, like almost every other politically-charged rapper out there), The Guru always sounds like he just finished smoking God's Own Joint before doing a tune. He has the most laid-back vocal style I've ever heard, yet his diction is flawless at all times. And he has a way with words that very few MC's could hope to compare to...great flow, great vocabulary, great intelligence. This album rocks my world.
2. KRS-One - KRS-One
I know, everyone and their mother says KRS-One's best work is on 'Criminal Minded'. And you're all wrong! I do enjoy that album, but I think KRS-One elevated his game several levels by the time he dropped this self-titled masterpiece. The song 'Free Mumia' (with the great group Channel Live) is just ridiculously good...so good it should damn near be illegal to listen to it. Then tunes like 'Represent The Real Hiphop' (with the also-great Das EFX) and 'De Automatic' are some of the best combinations of battle-rapping and thought-provoking rhyme skillz you will ever hear. Did I mention that DJ Premier produces a lot of the tunes? That should convince you of how awesome it is right there.
Yeah, KRS-One's oldest material is some of the most influential hiphop music ever written. I have no problem admitting that. But if I had to choose between 'Criminal Minded' and 'KRS-One', frankly, it's not a hard decision at all. 'KRS-One' is simply better.
1. Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet
For me, this is a no-brainer. This album is several levels beyond pretty much any release by any other hiphop artist, on either a lyrical or production standpoint. The Bomb Squad produced a whole slew of beats that could make Trent Reznor whimper for mercy (indeed, Reznor listed P.E. as a primary influence of his on his debut release 'Pretty Hate Machine', and you can indeed hear it). And yet those beats are nothing when compared to the verbal assault of Chuck D, Lyrical Terrorist par excellance. It doesn't matter if he's battle-rapping (B Side Wins Again), decrying police brutality (Anti-Ni**a Machine), writing what have proven to be all-time hiphop anthems (Fight The Power), or reducing critics to a pile of ashes (Welcome To The Terrordome)...Mistachuck's vocals will grab you by the throat and shake you mercilessly and won't let go. Add Flavor Flav's infinite amount of juice to the mix (particularly the second all-time hiphop anthem 911 Is A Joke) and you have an untouchable album. The fact that it has 20 tracks and is well over an hour in length, yet almost never stumbles in any way is a further testament to its greatness.
And of course, I'm going to have to resort to listing some 'honorable mentions', as when I first started this thing, my list of ten rapidly expanded to about thirty or so. So, albums that almost made it and are very worthy of your attention regardless:
Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - Hipocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury
Digable Planets - Blowout Comb
Outkast - Stankonia
The D.O.C. - No One Can Do It Better
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - Mecca & The Soul Brother
Jeru The Damaja - The Sun Rises In The East
L.L. Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out
Killah Priest - Heavy Mental (BLATANT PLUG: check out my review of this one)
Eazy-E - Eazy Duz It
Cypress Hill - their self-titled debut release
Beastie Boys - Check Your Head (BLATANT PLUG: check out my [poorly-written] review of this one too)
Redman - Dare Iz A Darkside
The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride 2 Da Pharcyde
Eric B. & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em
Brand Nubian - In God We Trust
Quannum Collective - Quannum Spectrum
DJ Spooky - Riddim Warfare
Nas - Illmatic
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Run-DMC - Raising Hell
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
MC Ren - Shock Of The Hour
Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown
Afu-Ra - Body Of The Life Force (another BLATANT PLUG for my review of this)
Scarface - The World Is Yours
PMD - Shadee Business
Erick Sermon - No Pressure
Diamond D - Stunts, Blunts & Hiphop
Black Sheep - A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
Digital Underground - Sons Of The 'P'
Tupac - Strictly For My Ni**az
The Goatz - No Goatz, No Glory
And the best Hiphop Soundtrack ever is: Ghost Dog:Way Of The Samurai, featuring a vast array of artists from The Wu-Tang Clan and their side projects. No other soundtrack is even remotely as good.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
churst
|
|
Member: Craig Hurst
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Reviews written: 98
Trusted by: 37 members
About Me:
"God is dead." - Nietzsche, 1883... "Nietzsche is dead." - God, 1900
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.