Forgot about Wu Enter the Wu Liquid Swords by GZA Only built for Cuban Linx by Raekwon good ****. Verbal intercouse, Raekwon and Nas. Get that **** homies. Rap used to be so good. Now its laughably bad. I think it truly is dead.
BDP - By All Means Necessary Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back A Tribe Called Quest - Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhthym Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full LL Cool J - Bigger And Deffer Run DMC - Raising Hell Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill NWA - Straight Outta Compton Ghetto Boys - Ghetto Boys Digital Underground - Sex Packets Sir Mix-A-Lot - S.W.A.S.S. Rodney O. & Joe Cooley - Me and Joe Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - I'm the D.J... He's the Rapper De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising Honorable mentions: M.C. Hammer - Let's Get It Started (pre-Vanilla Ice tour) 3rd Bass - The Cactus Album -----to name a "few" Must haves, mostly in the '85-'90 range... Many other good ones since... Outkast has been brilliant, Luda... definitely Pac, Biggie... Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) etc. But without the ones I listed (the albums that solidified the genre in pop culture), there are no others.
I agree the GZA is seriously underrated. I've got to vote for at least on Tribe Called Quest album, but I can't decide. And I'm probably alone on this, but I've also got to vote for Pharcyde's Bizzare Ryde to the Pharcyde. I love Jay Dee's production skills (aka J Dilla, RIP), and this album did it for me on many levels. Where it seems like everyone is trying to look harder than the next guy, Pharcyde weren't afraid to show a different side. Songs like Passing Me By and Running Away (from their next album) were something I think most people could really relate to but afraid to admit.
Just a few classics... Dr. Dre - The Chronic Snoop - Doggystyle BTH - Eternal 1999 2Pac - Me Against the World 2Pac - All Eyes on Me DMX - It's Dark & Hell is Hot Scarface - Diary of a Mad Man Jay-Z - The Blueprint Outkast - Southernplayalistic Outkast - AT Aliens B.I.G. - Life After Death
Enta Da Stage Any Htowners remember the Odd Squad, a group on Rap A Lot records whom Devin the Dude got his start with.
5 Greatest Hip Hop albums of all time - Eric B & Rakim - Paid in Full Beastie Boys - License to Ill - Paul's Boutique was well ahead of it's time Run DMC - Raising Hell NWA - *****s4Life 2 Pac - All Eyes On Me
Uhm, would this be considered a hip-hop album aside from Qbert scratching in it? Just curious, personally I think his first album was classic!
Greatest hip hop albums of all-time A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders, The Low End Theory Jay-Z - Blueprint, Reasonable Doubt Nas - Illmatic Combinations of Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and DJ Hi Tek - Blackstar, Reflection Eternal, Quality, Black on Both Sides Common - BE, Like Water for Chocolate Kanye West - College Dropout Notorious BIG - Ready to Die Gang Starr - Moment of Truth Fugees - The Score Outkast- ATLiens, Stankonia The Roots - Illadelph, Do You Want More?!?! Public Enemy - It takes a nation of millions to hold us back Those are my thoughts for the moment. No Tupac, no Rakim...just can't choose an entire album as good as those above.
