The Hip-Hop Thread, or Dids's Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums

[schwza]

[ QUOTE ]
Dids,
Could you at all give me an explanation preferably with examples of the difference between hip hop and rap?

[/ QUOTE ]

rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live.

[sixfour]

Don't have a huge amount of albums (have lots of tracks here and there though) so I'll just list ten in no particular order:

Deltron 3030 - s/t
The Roots - Phrenology
Dilated Peoples - Expansion Team
Kanye West - Late Registration
Jurassic 5 - s/t
Outkast - Stankonia
Handsome Boy Modeling School - White People
Eminem - most of it, mainly the second album
Dr Dre - 2001
Fugees - The Score

Got a fair bit of stuff by the Beastie Boys, Roots Manuva, Xzibit, Obie Trice, Jin, 50 Cent, Audio Bullys (if they even count as hip-hop), Run DMC, NWA etc

[rhymenocerus]

J-Dilla is the best producer ever imo. also i questlove's, pharrell's, and kanye's mo. Many dont know he was behind all of the old tribe called quest beats, some sick old busta beats, and produced for Masta Ace . If you dont like donuts you should def check out The Shining and Ruff Draft instrumentals imo. also 3 super sick unreleased beat tapes are available for download. Its def standard knowledge that Dilla is of the greatest if not the greatest to ever do it imo.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vVYza0NiWuU

and he raps

[rhymenocerus]

ps thats dillas little bro impersonating him in the video

[rhymenocerus]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bM_jjEnha...ed&search=

[rhymenocerus]

2nd illest producer evar Madlib obv

[rhymenocerus]

1 Nas Illmatic
2 mobb deep the infamous
3 mobb deep hell on earth
4 Busta the Coming
5 Slum Village Vol. 2
6 Dre the Chronic
7 Prodigy HNIC
8 Dilla Donuts
9 Common Resurrection
10 Common Like Water For Chocolate

http://youtube.com/watch?v=R_ryEDaqT...arch=jay%20dee

[IanB000]

Many of you might want to consider getting into some mix tapes. Any of papoose's are great and for you Roc fans you definitely need to get into chain remains volume 1 and 2 by DNA. A good actual CD that hasn't been listed yet is young gunz - tough luv.

My favorites would basically just be nearly all Jay-z, Lupe's Food and Liquor, and Clipse with Lord Willin.

[knockonwood]

This list here isnt far off mine. Being roughly the same age, I think 86-96 was a pretty cool era in hip hop. I liked all the native tongues stuff a lot. Tribe, De la, Jungle Brothers and Black Sheep.

[EHoffman]

I'm just going to post my top 5 favorite hip-hop albums, don't feel like expanding to 10 (in order):

5. Puff Daddy and the Family - No Way Out
This was put out right after Biggie's death, and it's really a spectacular album. The tone is set immediately on the first track "Victory," a raw, heavy track with a rough hook, amazing (top 5 of all time?) beat, and incredible verses from everyone involved. I think Biggie might have ghost-written for Puffy here, it's just too good to be Puffy's own work. Biggie's first verse is one of my favorite of all time, especially this line: "And I'm, quick to bust, if my ends you touch/Kids or girl you touch, in this world I clutch/Two auto-matoes, used to call me fatso/Now they call me Castro, my rap flows." Another great line delivered by Puffy is, "You ain't gotta like me, you just mad/'Cause I tell it how it is, and you tell it how it might be." Other key tracks include "Been Around the World," "It's All About the Benjamins," and "I'll Be Missing You."

4. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
I loved Lord Willin', Clipse's first album, so I admit I went into listening to this album for the first time with high expectations. You know what? It blew me away. The first time I listened all the way through, I knew this was a classic. I'm not going to say that I relate to anything Clipse raps about, but the pure poetry and creativity in some of the lyrics are such mind-blowing. I actually laughed the first time I heard "Mildew-ish when I heat it, it turn gluish/It cools to a tight wad, the Pyrex is Jewish." I think this is the only rap line that has actually made me laugh. It's just a great album, and I'm a huge hater of new rap. But this is just great. Key tracks include "Mr. Me Too," "Ride Around Shining," and "Keys Open Doors."

3. Talib Kweli/Mos Def (as Blackstar) - Blackstar
This album was really swept under the rug, and it remains to date the only album made under the Blackstar name. It's an utter disappointment because Blackstar had the potential to be a huge hip-hop power. Even so, this album is honestly one of the most under-appreciated pieces of music ever created. Every song is incredibly soulful and beautifully done. The middle of the album is weaker then the beginning and the ends, but that's only because the beginning and end are probably the greatest string of songs on any hip-hop album. Yes, I said it. Better than any string of songs on Illmatic, Reasonable Doubt, any other great album. It's that good. If the middle few songs lived up to the beginning and ends, I would probably have this album at number 1, but alas. My favorite line on the album: "My presence felt my name is Kweli from the Eternal Reflection/People thinkin' MC is short hand for misconception." The song "Respiration" is the most beautiful hip-hop song ever made. So raw and emotional...if you don't download the whole album, just download this song. If you don't love it, you have no soul. Other key tracks include "Astronomy," "Definition," and "Thieves in the Night."

2. Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
I just love this album, and it has absolutely everything. It's definitely Jay-Z's Magnum Opus, bar none. It has beautiful jazzy songs, raw, emotional lyrics, and just a beautiful flow and organization from song to song. Just incredible tracks, my favorite hip-hop line of all-time is from the raw "D'evils," a fantastic concept track: "Stop screamin', you know the demon said it's best to die/And even if Jehovah witness, bet he'll never testify, D'Evils..." Just let that line sink in. Think about it. Beautiful, isn't it? Seems like something a poet would write. The whole song is chock full of great lines, and it's really complex. I'm still discovering new lyrical nuisances every time I listen, and I've heard the song hundreds of times. It sets the tone for the middle of the album, and the flow is totally switched up towards the end, becoming more playful and hopeful, in a sense. Just great organization, as I said earlier. Other key tracks include "Can't Knock the Hustle," "Brooklyn's Finest," "Dead Presidents 2" (You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song).

1. Nas - Illmatic
As you can probably tell, I'm a huge east coast fan. I find west coast rap to be convoluted, cheesy, and unemotional. And because I love east coast rap, my favorite album has to be the greatest east coast rap album ever made. And, really, it's not even close. If I were to make my list of my top 10 rap songs of all time, at least half would be from this album. And it's because this album is so perfect. So influential. Nas' career has suffered because of how great this album is. How? He just can't achieve this level of greatness again...no one can. It's an unattainable level of perfection, it's just so perfect. Raw, emotional, other-worldly. I sometimes wonder how Nas was able to make something this great; on his other albums, he's alright. But this album just peaks...it's the Mt. Everest of albums in a world of anthills. It absolutely made Nas' career; it also made AZ's career. On the track "Life's a Bitch," which I consider the greatest rap track ever, and will likely never be topped, AZ's verse is amazing. Great. Epic. And you know what? It pales in comparison to Nas' verse. Absolutely. AZ: "Visualizin the realism of life and actuality/[censored] who's the baddest a person's status depends on salary/And my mentality is, money orientated/I'm destined to live the dream for all my peeps who never made it." Nas: "Now it's all about cash in abundance, [censored] I used to run with/is rich or doin years in the hundreds/I switched my motto -- instead of sayin [censored] tommorrow/That buck that bought a bottle could've struck the lotto." Holy [censored]. Holy [censored] [censored]. Other key tracks include "N.Y. State of Mind," "The World is Yours," "Halftime," hell, the whole album is great. It just doesn't get better than this. And it never will.