FREEFORM 1990's ALTERNATIVE ALBUM POLL - THE RECKONING (TOP TEN COUNTING DOWN NOW)

So good it deserves to be posted twice

Life After Death- It really is on another level. Top 10 albums of all time. It's not even perfect, but the highs are so good that you can deal with boring 112 songs or whatever.

Somebody's Gotta Die is such a perfect way to start the album. Like I said w/ Reasonable Doubt - he potentially throws it all away just to avenge his man. But it's not just that, I don't think anyone else did off the cuff characterisation as Big did, 'see niggas like you do ten year bids, miss the nigga they want, murder innocent kids' and then to pull it around with Jason holding his daughter as a shield. It's fucking epic, it's fucking scary. No other gangster rap was so personal. I mean sure this was post 'lol i'm 2pac and i've called you fat and i had sex w/ faith lol' but Big was saying he doesn't care about the situation, he is ruthless. It's fucking scary and this is even in a complete song w/ lols and punclines (dreaming of how to sell records like snoop, oops!)

But fuck it, y'all prefer Vast Aire for being the second best mc in CoFlow. It's like preferring Juno to a Heat/Godfather 2 double bill. Taking myself out of the alternative 90s 100 before I sb everyone.

xpost Sorry LJ i got shit to say.

and back to Nas for a minute:

I always thought this "diss" from The Takeover by Jay actually kinda summed up what I loved about Nas:

Nigga; you ain't live it you witnessed it from your folks pad
You scribbled in your notepad and created your life

that's how I imagine Nas, a weird quiet kid living in QB that didn't really roll with the hardrocks but just sat back and watched, committing the whole scene to memory, then spit it back as these fracture, poetic pictures of that life that meant more and said more about it than anything that the guys who actually lived through it could say

whoa, he's trying to simulate Autechre's music in his postings, via recursion!

xp

yay autechre

Well, yeah, I haven't even heard Vast Aire's solo stuff, but on the Cannibal Ox album he certainly impressed me more than Biggie ever has.

― Tuomas, Thursday, May 6, 2010 3:36 PM (13 minutes ago)

i am caught halfway between lololololol and O_O xposts

lp5 has been sat on my harddrive for about a year now unlistened, may check it out :)

(is it weird that that LP5 came out at the height of my IDM fandom and I never bothered getting it?)

actually given time to reflect i have settled into t (o _ O t)

it's cool, just tryin' to keep control

proceed with the biggie talk, it's illuminating

as a dude that should be hardwired to like autechre, i have never been able to even slightly care about their stuff. i do not know why.

LP5 is great and seems to always get mentioned as their definitive album but it's not Autechre's best IMO

great set of posts there, M@tt

I've still only got Confield, which is awesome

16 of my picks have made it i think so far

the way this thread is going, somc hotshot young DJ will mix Biggie's raps over Autechre

'somc'

^o look i just invented an autechre songtitle

LP5 is great and seems to always get mentioned as their definitive album but it's not Autechre's best IMO

Tri Repetae made the original 90s poll iirc, and that'll always be my favourite.

I really feel like every male MC on the Bad Boy label except Biggie and Craig Mack has floated dangerously near the line of total abject stupidity.

i am still stuck on the fact that the dude who has been complaining about lack of hip hop and dance representation in this poll just popped up after biggie showed up w/ "you know whos awesome? that fat dude from can ox!"

I really feel like every male MC on the Bad Boy label except Biggie and Craig Mack has floated dangerously near the line of total abject stupidity.

this is a foregone conclusion in my mind. Puffy has so much to answer for.

i am still stuck on the fact that the dude who has been complaining about lack of hip hop and dance representation in this poll just popped up after biggie showed up w/ "you know whos awesome? that fat dude from can ox!"

― HUMAN VELOCIPEDE (jjjusten), Thursday, 6 May 2010 17:01 (9 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lolololololololololololololololololol

rip shyne

so much talent, so much more time in jail forgotting how to rap

also special delivery was dope right? really the first of the 00 dancing kids videos.

i can't really say fuck puffy like i can't really say fuck westwood these days but i think its been said enough in my past to compensate.

black rob was good

I really feel like every male MC on the Bad Boy label except Biggie and Craig Mack has floated dangerously near the line of total abject stupidity.

― it means "EMOTIONAL"! (HI DERE), Thursday, May 6, 2010 11:59 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

as far as solo rappers they've been spotty at best but Bad Boy's had tons of talented rappers signed as groups: The Lox, 8Ball & MJG, Boyz N Da Hood, even Da Band had some decent MCs

so glad my #1 made the top 20, and i'm really hoping another of my choices will make it. lets hope post-this album craziness and shittiness didn't put everyone else off voting for it.

did 8ball&mjg ever actually release a record on bad boy?

I really don't get the amount of hate not being in love with Biggie seems to inspire... Sure, I recognize Biggie's talent, and I have no problem when people call him one of the greatest MC of all time. But on a personal level his lyrics, his subjects, his beats, don't inspire me or relate with me in a way people like, say, Cannibal Ox or Cee-Lo (own his solo albums) do. (And I just named those because of Shakey's "fat rappers" comment.) To me this "best MC of all time" game some rap fans enjoy playing is a bit silly; as if admitting that someone is among the best MCs ever automatically means that you must also love his music more than other rappers'. There's more to rap than just MC skills - someone like Boot Riley might not be considered to be on the same level as a MC as Biggie, but personally what he says, the viewpoints he takes in his lyrics vibe with me much more than Biggie does. To make a comparison: I'm sure someone like Eric Clapton is among the greatest electric guitarists of all time, but his music is still much less interesting to me than the music of some "lesser" guitarists.

(Loads of typos in that post, but you get my point.)

did 8ball&mjg ever actually release a record on bad boy?

― tart w/ a heart (a hoy hoy), Thursday, May 6, 2010 12:10 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

2 albums, one of them went gold

the point is tuomas you were the one hectoring everyone and being like "FOR SHAME FOR SHAME THERE'S TOO MUCH INDIE ROCK AND NOT ENOUGH HIP HOP", and then it's kinda funny when you come in and rep for some kinda corny shit over Biggie

i don't care who ppl think is the greatest, or that this poll should be anything other than a bunch of random records ppl liked...

i just realized that HI DERE and i could have formed an alliance and catapulted several insane clown posse albums to the top of this poll

calling 8ball and MJG a Bad Boy act seems kinda wrong to me tho

yeah more and more i'm wishing i'd devoted half my points to something that would make a mockery of this whole enterprise (xpost)

To make a comparison: I'm sure someone like Eric Clapton is among the greatest electric guitarists of all time

Clapton sucks

i just realized that HI DERE and i could have formed an alliance and catapulted several insane clown posse albums to the top of this poll

I also had this realization

i just realized that HI DERE and i could have formed an alliance and catapulted several insane clown posse albums to the top of this poll

I hope you're trying to throw us off the scent and you truly did this.

they fall pretty well into the category of "every MC on the Bad Boy label" whether it seems wrong to you or not

seeing Riddle Box and Ringmaster near the top of this poll would have been massively funny

Thanks for reminding me to listen to LP5 more often. I still think the computer is getting introverted and insular in its influences hereabouts, and emotionally relate to the earlier albums a bit more... But I have zero objections to LP5 being recognized.

or Cee-Lo (own his solo albums)

do you hate goodie mob too?

i don't care about the greatest thing, it just seems incomprehensible to me that a rap fan wouldn't 'get' biggie or premo/rza/easy mo bee beats. I mean even the most hard headed 2pac fan must by definition like easy mo bee beats for Me Against The World so...

Like, at heart I'm a geek and a left-wing moralist, so wordy, geeky stuff like Nas or inspired communist analysis like The Coup move me in ways gangsta nihilism and hypercapitalism can never do.

(several x-posts)

that's fine, but then you should maybe appreciate that geeky, wordy jangly indie rock might move some people in ways that hip hop can never do and not judge them for it - *hongrosmileyface*

Goodie MOB is awesome btw

17 The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps (1993)
89 points
4 votes
1 first-place vote
Greatest contributor: Dog Latin

http://blog.roodo.com/dionysoslin/4a7d88f1.jpg

I just got "Giant Steps" back from my sister after she borrowed it for months on end, and after listening to it again I have solidyfied my theory that it is the greatest album ever.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 10:20 (6 years ago)

I would agree that Giant Steps is their masterpiece and one of the best records Creation ever put out; although a big hit, I still think it's underrated in the wider scheme of things.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 23 February 2007 15:19 (3 years ago)

GIANT STEPS IS THE GREATEST INDIE GUITAR RECORD EVER EVER EVER RIGHT

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 20:51 (2 years ago)

Part of what makes Giant Steps so incredible is that there’s such a variety of tracks on it, but it all hangs together so well.

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Monday, 18 June 2007 22:18 (2 years ago)

i don't really listen to any of the albums/bands that would be considered contemporaries of this, but i heard "Leaves and Sand" on a Peel comp in high school and got totally hooked on it, really love this album and am definitely voting for it in the 90s poll.

― waka yoga flame (some dude), Monday, 1 March 2010 16:36 (2 months ago)

Now, Giant Steps, on the other hand, is a fucking masterpiece. This is the first I've seen of this poll, but I would have voted for "I Hang Suspended," "Leaves & Sand," or "Thinking of Ways." I will review & report back. Even though it is the obvious centerpiece & mindblowingly awesome, I've always associated "Lazarus" more w/ the EP, which came out considerably ahead of GS iirc.

― Man or Austro-Hungarian? (Pillbox), Saturday, 6 March 2010 05:12 (2 months ago)

that's right, a British indie guitar record that some dude voted for

I too will vouch for its brilliance

that record's pretty good. "Wish I Was Skinny" is purty