This album is a time capsule of such an interesting time in hip hop. Three white frat boys had just made history with the highest selling hip hop album ever at the time. It was a good album, but the gimmick was basically "we are white and we rap" and it was filled with way too much frat boy humor. Not the type of group to make any serious "artistic progression", right? Dead wrong. Their follow-up record, this one right here, not only evolved their style drastically but also ... read more

While Kool Keith may not be the best weirdo in hip hop, he's certainly the weirdest. This album is based on Kool Keith's original character Dr. Octagon, a Jupiter-born, time-travelling, murderous, super perverted gynecologyst. Pretty weird concept to say the least. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether Kool Keith is brilliantly trailblazing new ideas in horrorcore or if he's having a BIT too much fun roleplaying a masochistic sex fiend. Dan the Automator obviously kills ... read more

One of the best produced hip hop albums of all time. Vordul Mega and Vast Aire are both lyrically sharp, bringing vivid lyricism, clever bars, and off-kilter flows to this project. They really paint a cold picture of Harlem. But the main attraction is El-P's completely unique, singular, and mind-blowing production on every single track. I have no words to do it justice, you've just gotta hear for yourself how sonically dazzling this album is.

I see a lot of Jay hate and people saying he shouldn't be considered one of the greatest. And to them I have one question: have you HEARD this album?! The eight-track run from Can't Knock the Hustle to Can I Live is one of the most spectacular runs on any hip hop album ever. JAY-Z is one of New York's most accomplished artists. Such a cutie too.

Who would've guessed that one of the greatest pieces of sci-fi ever made would be a rap album? The world that Del the Funky Homosapien creates with his storytelling feels so real I could touch it, which is also thanks to Dan the Automator producing the fuck out of every track here. This album demands more than one listen. I remember the first time I listened to this, around 9th grade, I didn't follow the story at all because I was so distracted by Del's flow and the incredible ... read more

It's grown on me but I still think it's overrated. There are a few fantastic songs, but also a bunch of really unremarkable ones, especially in the back half of the album. It's super influential and significant, obviously, but I don't factor that into my ratings.

Edit: 70-->80

It's grown on me even more, forget what I said about there being unremarkable tracks, this shit bangs.

Prince Paul really went off with these beats. The album has such a happy and positive vibe to it, at points even sounding like children's music (not that that's a bad thing). It's very entertaining and it's one of my favorite hip hop projects from the '80s.

After grabbing people's attention with the Black Star album, Mos Def solidified his place as one of the greatest rappers of all time with this solo debut. The debate can certainly be had about which album is better, but there's no denying that Black on Both Sides is the more serious and ambitious project. It covers so much ground about his perpective on race, culture, music, and history, and he takes more musical and lyrical risks and uses different sounds and genres to evolve his ... read more

For a dude named Common, his lyrical skill is quite uncommon. If Be is DAMN., then Like Water for Chocolate is To Pimp a Butterfly. Be is a great, tight, accessible introduction to Common that shows you what he's all about. Like Water for Chocolate is his politically conscious, lyrically sharp, Dilla-produced masterpiece. I can't explain why, but this is one of the best albums to listen to in spring.

Public Enemy has a dynamic similar to ATCQ, with one serious lyricist and one that's just fun to listen to. Flava Flav's colorful personality balances out Chuck D's revolutionary, political lyrics. It's a very compelling dynanic backed by some of the best, most aggressive beats of the '80s. As much as I love Chuck D and Flava Flav, the Bomb Squad production is my favorite thing about this album. It's so unique in the samples and sounds it chooses, stringing ... read more

"Backpack rapper" is a phrase that came about to refer to intellectual and politically conscious MCs that would stereotypically carry notebooks and stuff in their backpacks and bring them to cyphers. People don't often use the term anymore, but I like it and I wanna bring it back. This album is the embodiment of that style, with both Mos Def and Talib Kweli being very intelligent, creative, and skilled rappers all throughout. Most duos in rap have a clear standout, but not Black ... read more

I, too, dream in color and in rhyme.

I am of the opinion that Rakim is not the greatest rapper of all time, that there have been many MCs who've taken his ideas, added to them and improved on them. Don't let that deter you from listening to this album, however, because nearly 40 years after this came out, I Ain't No Joke is still one of the greatest lyrical performances of all time. In fact, he has crazy verses all throughout this. It's easy to see why he was so influential. Who else was rapping like this in ... read more

Ghostface Killah is my favorite rapper in the Wu-Tang Clan. GZA is close behind, but Ghostface has always and probably always will be my #1 favorite. He's one of the greatest storytellers in hip hop history; the way he tells stories and sets the scene in my mind reminds me more of how an author would do it than a rapper, and yet he still fits it into these dense-ass rhyme schemes and colorful flows. In spite of how sophisticated his lyricism is, it always sounds effortless and cool. ... read more

If you've heard Mobb Deep's previous album Juvenile Hell, you know that they didn't always have that dark, gritty gangsta rap style they're known for. This album isn't just the inception of that style, but it's also the best example of it. Havoc creates one of the most eerie and grimy atmospheres to any rap album from the '90s, and Prodigy and Havoc's lyrics are so vivid and raw that they cross into being poetic. They're not your typical violent ... read more

It's always André this, André that, let's show some love to Big Boi who kills pretty much every verse he spits on here. He deserves more credit than he gets.

The Notorious B.I.G. was killed on March 9th, 1997 in a drive-by shooting, shortly before his second album was supposed to come out. Given this context, the titles of these two albums are strangely prophetic. In spite of his short life and career, his influence on hip hop was massive. Personally, he was one of my favorites when I was first getting into hip hop. He was clever, fun, vulnerable, and probably the best to ever do it in terms of flow. Ready to Die is a staggering achievement and a ... read more

In my opinion, this is the quintessential G-funk album. It's just so fun. Snoop flows so smoothly on Dre's amazing, chilled out production that matches Snoop's voice perfectly. Just a great time from front to back.

N.W.A. disbanding may have been a tough pill to swallow at the time, but in retrospect it's probably good that it happened, and not just because we got some killer diss tracks out of it. Dr. Dre's relationship to N.W.A. is like Will Ferrell's to SNL; he got way better after he left. Dre's production for N.W.A. is good (I'm not a really a fan of Straight Outta Compton, I don't love the production on it) but on The Chronic, Dre completely levels up his game, invents ... read more

"You become so Pat as my style increases
What's that in your pants? Ahh, human feces!"