oohh i'm gonna say "The BluePrint" by BDP
that or "Criminal Minded" also by BDP

these are the only two krs albums i give a shit about..

i think i would spend my time on the 1st Cypress Album..their best if you ask me..which you didn't of course..

EPMD = "Strictly Business"
i challenge you to find a better HipHop album..

maybe...hmmm, that's pretty much my number 1..
2nd i'd say some prince hip hop..

r0ck1r0ck2 wrote:i think i would spend my time on the 1st Cypress Album..their best if you ask me..which you didn't of course..

No, but I took care in pointing out that it was one of the three good albums of theirs. It is a good album. Pigs and How I Could Just Kill A Man are great.

On the subject of those songs, I'd recommend Rage Against The Machine's Renegades Album. Covers of various songs, mainly Hiphop (but includes Springsteen and Dylan...) which is great. For anyone who likes Rock, or RATM and would like to hear some Hiphop, get this album.

What is this stupid bullshit thread? The world is full of amazing fucking hip hop. Please, don't show yourselves up for the lame middle-class rockin' white boys that you are. Musically and lyrically hip hop is full of goddamned gems. You're all crazy with the hatin'.

I can think of so many great hip hop records that I don't even know where to start. I don't understand what the fuck you hip-hop lamo haters are talking about.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:

connor wrote:I don't see why anyone would waste their time with this stuff once he or she has discovered punk rock.

The first time I heard It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, I thought to myself, "This is black punk rock."

Salut Brett Eugene Ralph. My thought as well. I remember when I first heard Too $hort's "I Ain't Trippin'" through my sister's bedroom door--during the period that I was playing the Bad Brains ROIR tape to death--and thought, "this is like punk with a fuckload of bass."

And like punk, I find most of the interesting stuff to be on independent labels, unlike most of the stuff mentioned in this thread. Unfortunately, the independent rap labels generally don't enjoy the longevity that the punk indies do, so most of these records fall into obscurity. Here's a few of my favorites:



Makeba & Skratch - "Ain't it Funky"
1989 12" on Elegance records. Two dudes from Syracuse debuted with possibly the best fucking rap song ever. Be prepared to pay.


Phill Most Chill - "On Tempo Jack"
Philly's own breakbeat scholar self-released this EP in 1988. Dookiest beats you ever heard. Phill wrote the "Soulman's World of Beats" column for Rap Pages back when. After lugging the records around for years, having no distribution or interest, Phill threw them all away. Too bad. But it's recently been reissued.

360 Degrees - "Pelon"
South Bronx, where hip-hop was born, is the only topic of discussion on this 12". If you're into this song, be prepared to spend at least $500 for the 12". It features production by Paul C, the square-looking white kid whose short-lived involvement in hip-hop produced some of the most sought after tunes. See Big Daddy magazine's all inclusive issue dedicated to Paul C from some years back.

Percee P - "Lung Collapsing Lyrics"
Before J5 revived him for the collegiate set, he was the fast rap lung-collapsing legend.


991 Volts - "991 Volts of Noise"
A 1988 12" on B-Boy Records.


The Coup - "I Ain't the Nigga"
The Coup are a group from Oakland. This song is from their "Kill My Landlord" album from '93 on Wild Pitch. They are on Epitaph now. Their first three albums are essential: Kill My Landlord, Genocide and Juice, Steal This Album.


Andre Nickatina - "Conversation with A Devil"
This is the version used on the "Slump & Grind" mix CD by DJ B.Cause, who is the authority on Bay Area rap. If you're interested in learning more about Bay rap, you should talk to him. He works at Groove Merchant record store in San Francisco and sells rap records out of his storage unit. Terribly nice guy, a wealth of information. You're thicker than a can of peanut butter, okay?


J-Live - "Braggin' Rights"
His first 12", produced by DJ Premier. Classic.


JVC Force - "Strong Island"
Acronym crazed Justified By Virtue of Creativity For All Reasons Concerning Entertainment, and neighbors to Public Enemy, released this 12" in 1987 on B-Boy Records. Frieda Payne crazy and in serious need of a pop filter. Try to keep up with the "how do you spell relief" spelling lesson.


Low Profile - "Aladin's on a Rampage"
One from the Los Angeles 1980s family. This is W.C. pre-MADD Circle Curb Servin', -solo albums, and -Westside Connection. One of thousands of "let me introduce my DJ" songs. I like this one. From the We're in this Together LP on Priority. Before the braids in the beard.


J Dilla - "Workinonit"
From his newest Donuts LP, recorded mostly in his hospital room just before he died.


M.C. Ant - "Doin' Damage"
10 years before the Bay Area hyphy movement and Too $hort's "Burn Rubber", Ant Banks and M.C. Ant released this LP on Raw Dog Records (clear vinyl). If you were in Oakland in the late '80s, driving a convertible with four 15s in your trunk, messing with the fools in front of the acorn projects, you were most likely listening to this. These guys sold their tapes at the Eastmont Mall, wearing matching ski jackets: Oakland style.



KMD - "What A Nigga Know"
From their Black Bastard LP. Classic.



There are thousands more. It's endless. I'd also recommend Double D and Steinski's "Lessons", Artifacts first record from New Jersey, Main Source, NSP, Chill Rob G, K-Rob and Rammellzee's "Beat Bop" (the Basquiat diss 45), MC Breeze, MC Rajah, Fantasy Three, Diamond D, Heartbeat Brothers, Tuff Crew, Poor Righteous Teachers, Known Rulers, Professor X, Aaorn Dee & C-Nice, Paul Nice, Genius Productions.



"Everybody's rappin'/ but only few can say",
~B














p.s. Here are some foul-mouthed, not-safe-for-anything rap classics:


Ant Banks - "U Just A Punk"
I hold little interest in most of the tough guy sexist rap shit. It's pretty lame, and gets old fast. However, I have a soft spot for the Oakland rappers of the late '80s/early '90s. This stuff tends to be overtly homophobic, sexist, violent, and disgusting, but every once in a while you'll find me singing along with this vocoder "motherfucker don't fuck around with the big man from Oaktown" chorus. Ant Banks, after working with M.C. Ant on Raw Dog Records, started producing for Too $hort on Dangerous Music/Jive, and went on to release a number of solo records. If you've got a remote interest in Bay Area rap, you should start with Ant Banks Sittin' on Something Phat and The Big Bad Ass albums.


Mac Mall - "Sick Wit Tis"
Mac Mall was 16 when he recorded this. He'll be the sweetest motherfucker that you ever met.


Mac Dre - "Too Hard for the Fucking Radio"
Another Oakland classic. Rare. Dre was part of the Romper Room gang in Vallejo, and served time in prison after bank and pizza parlour robberies, where he recorded vocals for his Young Black Brotha LP. Mac Dre was the predecessor of hyphy and the founder of the Thizz Dance. Google it. He was shot to death in 2004. "Dre: You know I never slow down/ Smokin zesty until I'm really toe down/ Walk into the party, fully perked/ Grab the microphone and let the mouthpiece work."


Lord Finesse - "Hands in the Air, Mouth Shut"
This was a cassette-only release. Real tough guy I'm-on-my-own-dick-type shit. "Diss em so bad that they wanna get they name changed."

Salut, Bambouche.

Linus Van Pelt wrote:I actually like hip hop.

horsewhip wrote:

alex maiolo wrote:This genre has a massive quality control problem. I have a feeling that has more to do with the industry than anything else.

The good stuff is truly great. A window into a world I rarely see, as a white middle class guy.
The bad stuff is the worst music being made today.

Really, this is not too different from rock music. There is so much music being made that varies in style and aesthetic. To dismiss the genre as a whole would be only slightly less foolhardy than dismissing the entire rock genre.

This is absolutely correct. I couldn't have said it better myself (literally - I tried and I couldn't). Horsewhip! Nice work!

I think a few of you got the wrong idea. My comments were complimentary. I re-read what I wrote in it's entirety, not just this truncated bit, and I don't see how they can be taken any other way. I haven't dismissed anything. Plus, commented that one of the most muscial people I've ever met was a hip-hop artist.

When I say that bad hip-hop is truly bad, yes, I consider it worse that Jet. I don't like Jet, but I don't like them because the are boring and sound like a million other things. I have no idea what Fall Out Boy sounds like. Bad rap is just a low frequency thud, and some guy spouting off some truly awful tripe about dick sucking.

The good stuff is poetry and a documentary film all rolled into one, and I almost always better than the *best* pop music that's out there today. That's what I mean by quality control problems.

simmo wrote:What is this stupid bullshit thread? The world is full of amazing fucking hip hop. Please, don't show yourselves up for the lame middle-class rockin' white boys that you are. Musically and lyrically hip hop is full of goddamned gems. You're all crazy with the hatin'.

I can think of so many great hip hop records that I don't even know where to start. I don't understand what the fuck you hip-hop lamo haters are talking about.

In the words of RZA, "simmah down, nah!"

I think most people here have been pretty pro hip-hop. There have been very few comments like "it sucks". Anyone who doesn't like it has said "not my thing" at the worst.

Hardly being a haytah.

-A

alex maiolo wrote:I think a few of you got the wrong idea. My comments were complimentary. I re-read what I wrote in it's entirety, not just this truncated bit, and I don't see how they can be taken any other way.

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was taking what you said and running with it.

horsewhip wrote:

alex maiolo wrote:I think a few of you got the wrong idea. My comments were complimentary. I re-read what I wrote in it's entirety, not just this truncated bit, and I don't see how they can be taken any other way.

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was taking what you said and running with it.

Dig it.
The internets is no good at this sort of thing sometimes.

You weren't there to nod in agreement or punch me in the nuts, and I read it the wrong way.

Thanks for not e-punching me in my e-nuts.

-A

horsewhip wrote:

alex maiolo wrote:I think a few of you got the wrong idea. My comments were complimentary. I re-read what I wrote in it's entirety, not just this truncated bit, and I don't see how they can be taken any other way.

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was taking what you said and running with it.

And I wasn't siding with horsewhip against you. I was just agreeing with his comments and leaving yours in for context.

Here's to everybody's intact e-nuts!

r0ck1r0ck2 wrote:LOve Hip Hop

Love Love Love HipHop

HAte Hip Hop

HateHateHateHipHop