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

[Dids]

So since we're developing some catch all threads, I thought this might be a way to start the El Diablo Forum Hip-Hop Thread:

My Top 10 Albums, offered in no specific order, not the top 10 best album, just my personal favs:

Ice Cube-Death Certificate

In my mind, the perfect west coast album. The right touches of humor, politics, anger, and also just technical precision. Amazingly solid, and in a way depressing given how Cube fell off and some of the subsequent choices he made.

Siah and Yeshua daPO Ed/Blackalicious - The Visualz/Melodica EP

Not really an album, but a tape a friend made for me. These are two amazing EPs.

Siah and Yesh were an NYC duo with a really jazz heavy production. Their most notable song is "A Day Like Any Other" that's a 10 minute epic story with frequent beat changes and some amazing lyrics. Siah is one of the most amazing writers I've ever seen. His rhymes come in paragraph form, and just feel effortless, when I expect they were anything but.

Melodica is by far the best work Blackalicious has ever done. They're kinda stale now, but this EP is amazing. Gift of Gab is probably one of the top 5 technical MCs ever.

Atmosphere - Lucy Ford

In their releases after this album, Atmosphere has become pretty hit and miss (still more hit than miss, imo) and a lot more emo. That's earned them some ire from hip-hop heads. Still, they can't hate on this album. Slug's writing is insane here, and the production is just weird and clumsy enough to add a really organic feel to things. A really, really solid release that's more grounded than a lot of people likely remember.

Digital Underground - Sex Packets

Shock G is my favorite rapper/beat maker/nose wearer/etc. You are probably sleeping on him right now. The ultimate fun album.

Nas- Illmatic

Just pure [censored] hip-hip. Amazing production lineup, fantastically written songs. Probably the most solid album from start to finish on this list.

EPMD - Business Never Personal

I spent an assload of time driving around Pullman, Washington in a Plymouth Horizon listening to this record. Very strong emotional connection here. I don't think anybody would argue it's EPMD's best releast, but it's my favorite by far.

Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus

Mindblowing album. At least for me, a massive shift in how I viewed hip-hop. El-P's production on this is amazing. Just a wonderfully dark and haunting record.

Cannibal Ox- Cold Vein

The logical offspring of Funcrusher Plus. Again, El-P destroys the beats and Vast and Vordul just contrast beautifully on this.

De La Soul - De La Soul is Dead

Prince Paul is God. Another album that's just amazingly high on the fun quotient. It never really takes itself seriously, and some of the really virtuoso performances kinda get lost. Even the skits are classic.