Greatest Rap Album of all Time?

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Yeah -- this year's reissue of AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted has made me rethink my favoring of Fear as the Bomb Squad's best. (And I always thought it was superior to Death Certificate.)

I know I mentioned Breaking Atoms upthread, but I don't know what I'd place as the first now. AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted? Fear of a Black Planet? Liquid Swords? Live and Let Die? The Blueprint? Supreme Clientele?

― Andy K (Andy K), Monday, 14 July 2003 20:11 (twenty years ago) link

yeah what the fuck, mecca and the soul brother is ALL ABOUT the fucking instrumental interludes!!! theyre aight though i like that tight lil loop before t.r.o.y.

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 14 July 2003 20:35 (twenty years ago) link

is that the 'Jagger the Dagger' one? you can't beat that, um, beat.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 14 July 2003 20:40 (twenty years ago) link

andy, main source doesn't stand a chance (future-historically speaking) without a cd reissue. but I heard some of the tracks recently and they're really good. I wish I could find the rest so I could hear the whole thing.

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 14 July 2003 20:43 (twenty years ago) link

in the ilx best albums poll a couple years ago me and andy were the only ones who voted for it!!!

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 14 July 2003 20:49 (twenty years ago) link

Endtroducing and Paul's Boutique

― Evan (Evan), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 00:03 (twenty years ago) link

i would like to do some experiments on you

― trife (simon_tr), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 00:08 (twenty years ago) link

there ain't no rapping on Endtroducing, pardnah.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 00:15 (twenty years ago) link

endtroducing is why hiphop sucked in 96 (why it didnt: all eyez on me, drop a gem on em, tha crossroads, woo hah got you all in check, lil kim debut, hell on earth, reasonable doubt, tried by twelve, foxy brown f blackstreet)

― trife (simon_tr), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 00:25 (twenty years ago) link

Resurrection and Illmatic are my two favorites. The two best examples of emceeing throughout a whole album both of which happen to be accompanied by great beats. De La Soul Is Dead, Low End Theory and ...Nation of Millions... probably round out the top 5 for me.

Does anyone actually think Common now is anywhere near as interesting an MC as he was at Resurrection?

― Matt Kasper..., Tuesday, 15 July 2003 03:16 (twenty years ago) link

I just looked at the little list I posted.

I've never even heard two of the things I listed. (Gangstarr, Black Moon.) And I don't like All Eyez on Me. I don't understand why I would lie about that. I wanted to seem worldly or something, I guess.

― d k (d k), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 03:33 (twenty years ago) link

So I'm all like "ew" looking at my old post......oh, and LIQUID SWORDS!!!
-- nickalicious (nza2342...), May 14th, 2003.
Nick, I know that feeling so well.

The thing about picking "greatest" things and just making canons in general is that there's always these albums that, while you'd never want to put them in that Greatest position, they'd always win if you listened to them end-to-end with any of the albums one would want to canonize. Like Dead Prez's "Let's Get Free".

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 04:03 (twenty years ago) link

In retrospect Return... is way better than N**** Please except of course that it doesn't have Got Your Money

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 04:44 (twenty years ago) link

Sterling OTM -- having dug out N**** Please the other day I was fairly underwhelmed and just wanted to hear Return.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 04:48 (twenty years ago) link

Breaking Atoms was reissued five or six years ago, but might be outta print again. I'm just happy somebody said Sensational, makes my night.

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 15 July 2003 04:52 (twenty years ago) link

i never would have voted for illmatic back then, but here we are

― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 04:52 (twenty years ago) link

there's always these albums that, while you'd never want to put them in that Greatest position, they'd always win if you listened to them end-to-end with any of the albums one would want to canonize. Like Dead Prez's "Let's Get Free".

Yeah, I don't understand the the Dead Prez hate I've been seeing here; are they becoming the new PE? In my opinion, "Let's Get Free" is one of the best rap albums of recent years, and it would definitely make into my canon.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 07:22 (twenty years ago) link

I'm surprised at the amount of love for Supreme Clientele. I love it to death, but was under the impression that most people consider it to be a lesser Wu solo effort.

My choices are all fairly typical, I suppose...Illmatic as #1, followed by Liquid Swords, 36 Chambers, Nation of Millions...and the first Gold Chains EP as the darkhorse.

― Clay, Tuesday, 15 July 2003 07:26 (twenty years ago) link

no, all the critics loved Supreme Clientele. I always assumed that's why people here didn't talk about it as much.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 07:57 (twenty years ago) link

let's all just say the greatest rap album of all time is whichever one just got released

or, yeah, clouddead

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 08:16 (twenty years ago) link

The goggles do nothing!!!

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 09:13 (twenty years ago) link

C'mon, kids! If we all try really hard, we can make trife's head explode!

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 10:08 (twenty years ago) link

i guess i'd go with midnight marauders.

― ron (ron), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 14:06 (twenty years ago) link

Endtroducing... is a fuckin' fantabulous amazing rekkid, but as an entry in a thread about Greatest Rap albums of all time...I mean, you might as well suggest a Buckethead record or something!

An oft overlooked super-classic great-from-beginning-to-end album chock fulla great lyrics, beats, & interludes = Kool Keith's Sex Style. Unfuckwithable. To the MAX.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 14:17 (twenty years ago) link

I still think ATLiens is the best thing Outkast have done. Even though it had some strong tracks, Stankonia suffers from too much gloss and those silly vignettes after every other fucking song- "break!". As for Aquemini, I dig it (and should probably spend more time with it) but I find myself skipping tracks.

ATLiens: strong from start to finish and the production gels perfectly with Andre/ Big Boi's flow. Deserves the modifier "dope" more than any hip hop record in recent memory.

― Will (will), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 14:33 (twenty years ago) link

"much gloss and those silly vignettes" = why Stankonia is so great!

actually every Outkast album is perfect (except the best of)

― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 14:46 (twenty years ago) link

In which parallel universe is _AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted_ a Public Enemy album?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 14:48 (twenty years ago) link

big pun - capital punishment

― sean g, Tuesday, 15 July 2003 15:51 (twenty years ago) link

In which parallel universe is _AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted_ a Public Enemy album?

i think what tuomas was saying is that hank shocklee was involved with engineering both records but under a different guise (ts: bomb squad vs. lynch mob) and that several people on this thread prefer his work with ice cube vs. public enemy.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 17:07 (twenty years ago) link

plus Chuck and Flav are on it

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 19:19 (twenty years ago) link

Flav isn't on it. Da Lench Mob is Ice Cube's crew; they recorded a good but forgotten album (Guerrillas in Da Midst) around 1993. The production on all but (I think) one of the tracks on AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted is credited to the Bomb Squad.

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 19:36 (twenty years ago) link

...they recorded a good but forgotten album (Guerillas in Da Midst)...

Oh shit, I forgot about that album! Ice Cube's cousin Del(aka -tron aka -Tha Funky Homosapien) was on it too! That was a great album.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 19:59 (twenty years ago) link

i don't know why i thought Shocklee was behind the Lench Mob...

chilly chill was the DJ for the Lench Mob and if you haven't heard Ice Cube's "jackin' for beats" (and you love mid-school rap), you should... It's a really funny song (musically, not literally).

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 20:08 (twenty years ago) link

Most of the production work on AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted is indeed credited to the Bomb Squad, and there's also a couple of tracks produced by Sir Jinx of Da Lench Mob. And Flav is there too, on "I'm Only Out for One Thang".

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 20:20 (twenty years ago) link

You don't have to rap to make a rap album. I always thought "rap" was just a rhyming lyrical tactic that could be done over any form of music.

― Evan (Evan), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:00 (twenty years ago) link

You don't have to sing to make a singing album. I always thought "singing" was just a tone-ordering tactic that could be done over any form of music.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:11 (twenty years ago) link

So you take the vocals off a rap track -- what does it become? I have all these instrumental versions. Are they 'electronica' instead of rap? Are the Ventures not rock 'n' roll? Are Booker T. & the MGs not R&B?

― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:16 (twenty years ago) link

So you take the vocals off a rap track -- what does it become?

A beat.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:21 (twenty years ago) link

So if I had a record store, I'd obviously have Jay Dee's Welcome 2 Detroit filed in rap. But if I also stocked that instrumental comp of his, I should file it somewhere else -- in the 'beats' section, I guess?

― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:32 (twenty years ago) link

haha - dj shadow: more likely to be filed under electronica or hip-hop?

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:34 (twenty years ago) link

(I know where every record store in athens files him)(including best buy and sam goodys)(hint: not hip-hop)

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:35 (twenty years ago) link

(You're ruining it for me, JB.)

(That's what I get for playing devil's advocate.)

So... greatest album of all-time...

― Andy K (Andy K), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:39 (twenty years ago) link

TS: Rap vs. Hip Hop

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:44 (twenty years ago) link

taking sides: major league baseball vs. baseball

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:50 (twenty years ago) link

ts: barry bonds vs. josh gibson

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:51 (twenty years ago) link

he's a grown man gygax!

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:55 (twenty years ago) link

Next thing you know there'll be some crazy rock band that doesn't even have a GUITAR

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 22:12 (twenty years ago) link

< /90% of Kid A reviews>

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 22:15 (twenty years ago) link

that a tribe called quest album title to thread

― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 22:18 (twenty years ago) link

the love movement?

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 22:20 (twenty years ago) link

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