Massively popular album that cemented hip hop as a cultural juggernaut. A new style of rockstars you could say. This album in fact is so rock adjacent that it basically becomes a rock fusion album that was likely seen as a very possible route rock could evolve from. And in a lot of respects it did. And not only that this album forever changed music relations as a whole, attaching brands to faces in the industry, Run-Dmc were basiaclly brand ambassadors for Adidas which was unheard of at the ... read more

This album is squished inbetween two of their most well known and influential albums so it ends up being this weird transition project that no one really talks about. Going into it I was expecting just a continuation of their first album, but instead this one leaned a lot more heavily on their rock influences which was a cool switch of pace, added a lot more energy and strayed a bit from the griminess feel of their first. And from what I can remember they would continue and master the rock ... read more

I actually really enjoyed this, I think this is objectively the best album of this whole elctro rap genre. It's enjoyable for the whole tracklist except the random 5 minute instrumental version of "5 minutes of Funk" disguised as "Featuring Grand Master Dee," without the vocals it misses half of the fun and has no purpose really. The instrumental track "out of control" though is absolute fun, sounds like halloween hip hop, its zany and weirdly entertaining, ... read more

This album has "The message" and then everything else. I mean everything else is pretty cool but throughout the tracklist your just waiting for THE song. The message SONG is a absolute banger, the conscious lyrics mixed with the funky upbeat production makes for a unique combo that really hasn't been replicated since. And they couldn't have picked a better song title, this song brought the messaging into hip hop, the social advocacy was always there, hip hop in itself was a ... read more

These guys were the first to record rap which brought the whole idea of records to the genre. And although it's made up of stolen flows it still works as a fun showcase of hip hop to the world. Really was a hit that catapulted the genre's success.

Afrika Bambaataa was an essential dj in hip hop's early days, early like even before Sugarhill gang's breakout, with his block parties being a staple of the 70's bustling scene, creating the circumstances for a hit like "Rapper's delight" to even exist. And although he wouldn't be recorded til years later, once he started relasing he came out with heat. Its not his first song but "Plant Rock" is so much fun to listen to that it kinda just exceeds any ... read more

This is a spoken word album, a genre which would become the basis for the artform of rapping and its messaging. It's interesting how political and uniquely black many of hip hop's roots are, it just further proves to me of the art being built from the black experience (poverty experience). The same spirit present on this album would be carried on decades later in new form, but as for the form it's presented in 1970, it's very prescient; listening to this gives a energy of ... read more

This is arguably the first mainstream hip hop album (Sugarhill gang one barely has hip hop) as it includes the singles "Christmas break" an early genre commercial success and "The breaks" which is the first certified gold rap song; Rapper's delight most likely would have claimed this title if it had decided to register the song but due to sample clearance issues they decided not to. Sigh....even near its inception sampling has been used to f*ck over artists. But yes, ... read more

I don't remember liking LL Cool J all that much and this album kinda just didn't change anything, but still I must admit that it's a pretty decent project for its time. Releasing hot off the heels of LL Cool J's single "I need a beat" which was produced in Rick Rubin's NYU dorm, "Radio" served as the breakthrough Def Jam records was waiting for, with songs like "Rock the bells" and "I can't live without my radio" becoming ... read more

Considered the original gansta rap album, it's not nearly as provacative and in your face as what would come, with the actual gangsta part of the album being pretty subtle. "P.S.K" is probably the most outirght gansta song on the album but it's still pretty chill. What isn't chill though is the REVERB on this thing, the drums are absolutely drenched with it and it makes for a strangely pschedelic sound and when paired with Schoolly d's more layback rapping it makes ... read more

So people say this album marked the shift in hip hop from a party aesthetic to a more aggresive and hardcore one, although I can see the stark shift away from the hippity hop rapping of the past, this is still a party album through and through. Except, instead of the tight pants of disco they started rockin streetwear while rapping about more pressing issues of their community. So yes they were more aggressive with delivery, but they still made it danceable, I mean like look at "Rock ... read more

This Mostly consists of tracks recorded in the 50s late in his career. During this time he began to garner more recognition even touring in Europe which was pretty unheard of for blues musicians, but despite this he still died fairly poor. Which is a runing theme with most of these blues artists sadly, kind of just a product of the time for black artists. Anyways, even though he wasn't able to fully capitalize off his sucess, his increased exposure (mostly to white audiences) helped ... read more

Rakim's rapping holds up really well which is a testament to his influence. His laid back flows and intricate rhyming makes all his contemporaries sound corny in comparison and although the production is pretty dated it's not as bad as people make it out to be; I personally think the production is great especially for its time and carries all the best qualities of minimalistic beats. Really its only flaw is that some of the songs kinda just bleed together but this isn't nearly as ... read more

Adding guitars does not make it good