OT: Best Rap Album of All time?

[vincecarter4pres]

1- Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde - The Pharcyde

Ha! I had actually thought about bringing up LabCabinCalifornia as an honorable mention.

[vincecarter4pres]

Two of my favorite albums when i was a youngster.They were just so creative for the time and well put together.

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx "The Purple Tape!"



Liquid Swords

Yeah, these are 2 straight classics.

"The world can't touch Rae and Ghost Purple Tape!"

[jerseyjac]

I have been talking to my friends lately about this topic and i have come up with this list.
5. Eminem- The Marshall Mathers LP
4. Kanye West- Late Registration
3.Outkast- Aquemini
2. Biggie Smalls- Ready to Die
1. Dr. Dre- Chronic 2001

Feel free to argue my list and maybe open my eyes to a album i forgot, or just name your own. This is a pretty fun list to think of, it took me a few days.

I'm gonna have to say Kanye comes right off this list and (Gasp!)Ready to Die as well, which is a highly overrated album IMHO.

I love the Chronic, but I don't think it's making my top 5 either. IDK that's a super super close call.

As for Aquemini, great great album, but I'm giving the nod to ATLiens.

Am I homer for giving incredibly strong consideration to Muddy Waters?

ATLiens is definitely in my top 5 though.

Illimatic has to be on there for me as well.

So that's 2 spots definitely filled.

I'd put Gang Starr Moment of Truth on there as well without question.

3 spots done.

Supreme Clientele is without question in my top 5.

Common Sense Resurrection is so close for me. This is so hard.

As is the Marshall Mathers LP, but I think both just miss.

I mean Reasonable Doubt has to have a strong argument as well.

Midnight Marauders?

Three separate Roots albums have a super strong case for top 5, Illadelph Halflife, Things Fall Apart and Tipping Point.

How about Black on Both Sides or the Ecstatic? Or Talib as Reflection Eternal on Train of Thought?

Black Star?

Both of Pete Rock and CL Smooth's albums were bananas.

This is sooooooooo hard to narrow down.

Big Pun?

Wu-Tang Forever?!

Artifacts That's Them is one of the most unknown classics of all time, just a masterpiece of 90's grimy hip hop, but you'll never hear people listing it this high and that's a shame.

And if we're going to include compilations? Man Sound Bombing 2 is like a top 5 lock, just kicking someone right the **** off the top of the pyramid.

I mean what about Doggystyle?

I could make a solid argument for either of O.C.'s 1st 2 albums.

And how about Pharoahe Monch? Yeah man, why is dude so unknown? Internal Affairs was so dope.

You know I'm listing all these albums and seeing nothing even close to new and I don't even feel like I'm showing my age, it's just hip hop has become such happy go lucky pop bull **** that I'd like to choke someone out.

Even the underground scene is pretty s***ty now. Everyone trying to hard to be non-mainstream or abstract or it's too cookie cutter copy the last man who's underground but blew. Then some of the underground legends have completely changed into some emocore cornball bunt cakes.

And you know the reason I know it's not me showing my age and the fact hip hop in general sucks dick these days? Cause I like a lot of new rock and even just straight pop ****.


But back on topic, this is so hard.

So in no order:

Supreme Clientele
Moment of Truth
ATLiens
Illmatic(almost forgot, I'm slipping.)

Have to be in there on my list, no matter what argument I can come up with for other albums, those 4 I feel are in there.

I think I have to put the Chronic 01 in there as well I think.

Then I'm on the fence whether I go Marshall Mathers LP or with Things Fall Apart? So damn close. Can I make it top 7 haha? Oh ****, what about Muddy Waters too? Man...

I feel like we have done this every couple of years with a different title...Its been a week since this thread was started and I still can't come up w/ a final 5...Without a doubt this is not an easy task...too many albums of significance on top of you not trying to be partial to ones you love and probably deserve to be on the list...However, if you didn't struggle to make this list, I'm sorry you don't know hip hop...

VC always gets me going w/ hip hop topics...1 cause we see eye to eye on most 2 because you could see how he struggled to make a top 5 by the time he got to the end of writing his post...there are not many others on this board that know hip hop like he does...

Every time I read an article or forum topic like this it brings me back to the day where I started listening to rap and the various styles even the early days of hip hop had when it was developing...First and foremost, most of these albums are tapes to me ...however, it always comes back to how that one album imprinted its mark on the rap game, forever.

...sometimes the so called first album of an artist or group comes out and ends up being their first born, other artists try to put something out that sells and then they realize who they are (eventually for one reason or another) those artists then end up peaking down the road an album or 2 or even a couple down that creative journey we got to enjoy and listen to....that was when we as fans knew they were finally there (at the top of their game) We knew we got everything out of them...and this album WAS IT!

Either way it doesn't matter when the album happens, its how it impacted hip hop and ultimately opended eyes and affected the rap game as a whole...Most importantly it doesn't really matter how many albums were sold or the accolades the album received vs others...

One thing I do feel is necessary to understand is how newer artists will be omitted from this top 5...There is no question, to even make a top 10 or a top 20, the album has to be around for close to 10 yrs...give or take...

For example:

Lupe for one is getting there for me...I definitely feel his first album is starting to embed itself into history...but for me it still needs to be out for longer than 6 years...Food and Liquor was released on this day 6 years ago...to some it may feel like that album has been out a lot longer, I know I do...but I really do feel this album needs to age a bit more before we start putting in a list vs some which are more than twice its age...But I can tell you one thing, this album will eventually get there, Kick, Push...Instrumental to He say She say, Daydreamin, The Cool ( the title of his next album)...run through the rest of the songs, they hit you off for one reason or another...and I love how it starts, nice and slow introducing himself to you until Kick Push II which he then eventually finishes you off with...a lot to say, a lot of work breaking down this album and turning it into a masterpiece...

With that said, it probably doesn't make my top 25...I actually feel I am being generous because I know how important I eventually feel it will be (right around that time hip hop was becoming stale and losing its edge while falling from its roots...)...You'll see as his newer albums grow, this one will only get better...and I thinks that's my point when you consider making a top 5 top, top 10 or even top 20...

You'll ususally see most of the top 5 consist of albums which were born in the 90s as rap music peaked and then there are those albums which are even older that some feel cannot be left out because of what they started...lets say you have to leave out the best albums made by RUN DMC, Eric B & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill, NWA and EPMD to name a few...could you do it, was it easy...again do you really know hip hop...or did you just start listening to rap yesterday? (that is a serious question, dont' take it to heart if you are younger and just started to really listen to a certain genre of music)...

I personally realized the album has to be advanced enough to stand the test of time for it to really be worthy of the top 5 of all time...Obviously there is not going to be a single list that tops all, they're all going to be personal to a certain extent, they just need to be worthy...Don't let earlier work or later work by an artist deter you from putting them on the list...The majority of successful artists you'll find all have good albums, but only one or two are great albums...

We also have to remember some albums will make a top 5 classic, a top 5 80's or 90's or 2000s, but might not find themselves in the top 5 or top 10 of all time...

The top 5 list of all time has to encompass the superiority and domination that it brought to the rap game initially, while becoming timeless on a pedestal leaving its mark forever...

[vincecarter4pres]

Well said JJ!

And for me, that's why I don't have a lot of really old originators of rap stuff on there.

I wasn't old enough for it to come out when it was new and be something I bumped, but in my early teens I definitely owned a lot of older albums like BDP, Eric B. and Rakim, Beastie, EPMD, Biz, etc., and those albums are not only classics in their own rights but so important to the movement of the art, the start of it, but... when I go back and listen to a lot of that stuff, even though a lot of songs are so dope in their own right and I get amped when they're on and rap along with the radio... I can't get into it listening to an album all the way through, it's just too basic... not to be disrespectful to them... but to quote Rza... a lot of it is some Mother Goose, Cat in a Hat nursery rhymes... There was no advanced flow or lyrics or style... I love it and respect it for what it is, but it still falls into my personal top 20 to 30 level just off importance and some real true bagers on the albums...

Guys and albums that do stand the test of time that are I guess that old that I forgot to mention though, definitely Eric B and Rakim, definitely Kool G Rap and definitely Kane.

Main Source and mainly(pun intended) of course Large Professor out of that group.

I mean Diamond D's Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop is such an important and dope album, but I don't see it cracking my top 40.

Or Big L's first album? And that's even getting later into the early 90's, I'm more talking 80's.


As for Lupe, I like him a lot. He's one of the few new school guys I really respect. He just gets a little repetitious at times and I don't love his beat selection over the course of entire albums.

This to me is the dopest Lupe track of all time though, as much as I love Kick, Push.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyLLmByA6Y0[/youtube]

[Doctor Dray]

F&LII leaked today...