Entertainment Weekly's Top 25 Rap Albums Ever

also this list is rockist.

Highly agreed.

(xpost)

It's because of Pulp and St Etienne fans that this must be done.

I see there's a lot of content on their website, so I'll defintely bookmark them.

NWA??? HEEEELLLOOOO???

Also, does Missy class as rap per se? I know she does some rapping but I would perhaps have put her in RnB more. She's unique whatever she is and I love her for it.

Aceyalone really is a strange pick though.

Makes complete sense to me.

Chuck do you have to approach opening the canon up as my "canon is better than your canon"?

(this is a general observation that's been in my mind over the last couple of weeks and is not directed toward any person's comment on this thread)

My point is - lots of people enjoy those albums in the list, and some of them people find more enjoyable than the artists you listed. I want to make it clear I'm not defending the list - far from it - but you're just constructing your own canon and saying its "better" than their canon.

If you approached it as "these artists really are unfairly unrepresented in lists like this" rather than "these albums are better than those" it would have less to do with your subjective opinion on those albums listed. I love lots of the albums listed in that canon and dislike others. I love some of the albums by artists you mentioned and dislike others.

SHOCKAH.

I'll say it again.

Any Entertainment Weekly reader who doesn't learn anything from this Entertainment Weekly list probably shouldn't be reading Entertainment Weekly.

xp = that was referring to your previous post, not the Neneh one.

xpost

xp

And I already explained the "rockist" thing, too. Repeatedly.

"These almost all seem like "ALBUM" albums. Mostly by "IMPORTANT ARTISTS".

what the hell, I'll do it again. SHOCKAH.

Will someone please tell Alex in SF that I don't agree that "a lot of pointless whining" is the purpose of music message boards? He doesn't seem to be able to see I'm in the room.

GOLDEN AGE
1. It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back - Public Enemy (Def Jam 1988)
2. 3 Feet High And Rising - De La Soul (Tommy Boy 1989)
3. Criminal Minded - Boogie Down Productions (B-Boy 1987)
4. Fear Of A Black Planet - Public Enemy (Def Jam 1990)
5. Critical Beatdown - Ultramagnetic MC's (Next Plateau 1988)
6. Paid In Full - Eric B. & Rakim (4th+B’way/Island 1987)
7. Paul's Boutique - Beastie Boys (Capitol 1989)
8. Breaking Atoms - Main Source (Wild Pitch 1991)
9. The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest (Jive 1991)
10. Step Into The Arena - Gang Starr (Chrysalis 1990)
11. Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A (Ruthless 1988)
12. Raising Hell - Run-D.M.C. (Profile 1986)
13. Done By The Forces Of Nature - Jungle Brothers (Warner Bros. 1989)
14. Yo! Bum Rush The Show - Public Enemy (Def Jam 1987)
15. Strictly Business - EPMD (Sleeping Bag 1988)

MODERN AGE
1. The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem (Aftermath 2000)
2. Illmatic - Nas (Columbia 1994)
3. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… - Chef Raekwon (Loud 1995)
4. The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill - Lauryn Hill (Ruffhouse/Columbia 1998)
5. Ready To Die - The Notorious B.I.G. (Bad Boy/Arista 1994)
6. DoggyStyle - Snoop Doggy Dogg (Death Row 1993)
7. Binnenlandse Funk - Extince (Virgin 1998)*
8. Black On Both Sides - Mos Def (Rawkus 1999)
9. The Chronic - Dr. Dre (Death Row 1992)
10. Iron Flag - Wu Tang Clan (Loud 2001)
11. Ecologyst - Dr. Octagon (Bulk/MoWax 1996)
12. Ironman - Ghostface Killah (1996)
13. Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) - Wu-Tang Clan (Loud 1993)
14. The Blueprint - Jay-Z (Roc-a-Fella 2001)
15. Things Fall Apart - The Roots (MCA 1999)

*) Dutch rapper

That's the thing exactly.

Golden Age? This occured while I was alive! What little I remember of my adolescence tells me it was anything but Golden.

You laugh, but you don't know. Also, don't underestimate the impact of someone speaking to you in your own language when you're used to hearing only English rapping (when that is not your first language).

Also wondering whether I'm the only person who thinks that Run DMC's first album should have made both the EW list and (way more fun, thanks in part to *Binnenlandse Funk*) Holland list instead or *Raising Hell.* I guess it never occurred to me until now that critics would generally prefer the third one. They're very wrong, but I'm not complaining about it, honest. I'm just kind of surprised.

Nobody actually reads the lists Chuck! We just enter the thread, take sides and argue till dawn.

(For some reason I also misread Netherlands as Nebraska?!?! originally which made the dutch rapper that much more funny.)

or they could have maybe done Scarface's The Diary or something for a little Pete Rockist approved south stuff...

http://www.maggotron.com/Discog.htm

Anyway Chuck, I'm wondering, the dutch guy aside, why did you think the dutch list was more fun?

SELECTOR TONYPHRONE'S TOP 25 HIP-HOP ALBUMS OF ALL TIME!!!!!
( I gues it seems obvious that I went to high school in NYC in the early 90's)

1. De La Soul 3 Feet High And Rising (1989)
2. It Takes A Nation Of Millions - Public Enemy (1988)
3. Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique (1989)
4. Eric B & Rakim Paid In Full - (1987)
5. RUN-DMC - Raising Hell (1986)
6. Dr. Dre -The Chronic (1992)
7. Wu-Tang Clan Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)
8. Nas -Illmatic (1994)
9. A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory (1991)
10. Raekwon- Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… (1995)
11. Outkast - Aquemini (1998)
12. Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill (1991)
13. Gang Starr - Step Into The Arena (1990)
14. N.W.A -Straight Outta Compton(1988)
15. Main Source - Breaking Atoms (1991)
16. EPMD - Strictly Business (1988)
17. A Tribe Called Quest Midnight Marauders (1993)
18. The Fugees -The Score (1996)
19. The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride ll The Pharcyde (1992)
20. Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown (1988)
21. Outkast - Stankonia (1999)
22. Ice Cube - Amerikkka;s most wanted (1990)
23. De La Soul De La Soul is Dead (1990)
24. Jungle Brothers - Done By The Forces Of Nature (1989)
25. Diamond D - Stunts,Blunts and Hip-Hop (1992)

I was listening to it a couple days ago and said pretty much that exact sentence out loud to myself.

I don't know about this though...they hadn't even released many of their best songs at this point! Although if you see their first couple albums, their most revolutionary work, as their height then I guess it could be seen as the beginning of their downfall. But I think they had similarly high creative peaks further down the road.

@ M@tt - its interesting bcuz Pharcyde doesn't really fit into the mold of "legendary important artist" a la KRS or Rakim or something, but honestly I think "Bizarre Ryde" is unquestionably one of my ten favorite hip-hop albums ever.

They ignore the hip-hop/dance connection in the '80s, when, as Chuck points out, there was some really exciting shit happening (Bambaataa, Roxanne Shante, the earliest Run-D.M.C. and LL). This is also a very white-boy kinda list ... how else to explain Missy, the Pharcyde and Paul's Botique being on there ... not to mention the "oh we need a curveball pick" of the Aceyalone record?

In fact, I'd put only nine of these records on my personal list. Go with Reasonable Doubt over Blueprint; It Takes a Nation ... over Fear; AmeriKKKa' Most Wanted over Death Certificate; Straight Outta Compton over the Chronic (?!); Criminal Minded over By Any Means Necessary; and put in the Raekwon record, the Handsome Boy Modeling School record; Cannibal Ox, the Bambaataa singles collection put out by Tommy Boy in 2001, Banner's Mississippi: The Album, Black Sheep's The Choice is Yours and Boy in da Corner. And some others I'm too tired to think of now.

Maybe because they're good? What makes something a "white-boy" kind of album anyway? I'm not talking about sales demographics - assuming there are really any kind of reliable figures on that kind of thing - I'm talking about the music itself. Does the music sound "white" to you? That's strange, because music doesn't normally have a color to my ears. (PS- CanOx and Banner are nowhere near as good as Missy or the Pharcyde.)

it's too "white boy" but you want to ADD handsome boy modelling school and cannibal ox?? explain what you mean by "white boy list"

xp haha

Funny you mention it, I read an interview w/ Kanye earlier this year where he said that Bizarre Ryde was his favorite album ever.

Chris O: You so crazy. What everybody else said +
I'm past arguing whether Dizzee is or isn't hip-hop but it really stands out in a bizarre way on a list like this.

By "white boy list," I mean it just has a ring of critics/editors pushing 40-45 who want to seem relevant by dipping into hip-hop coverage. So the list takes on a superficial sheen. That comment has NOTHING to do with fan base and everything to do with how phony-baloney the list is ... I mention Cannibal Ox and Handsome Boy because they're true to hip-hop orthodoxy and are really innovative and potentially influential to the genre. That, and they're just better albums than some of these.

The Missy album is good ... but Timbaland and her did better work on the Supa Dupa Fly record, and Tim did better work with Bubba Sparxxx just last year. That's on there because of Missy's high profile. Same with Lauryn Hill.

the new handsome boy modelling school is even called "White People" though and has Mike Patton and dudes from Franz Ferdinand on it!!

I mention Cannibal Ox and Handsome Boy because they're true to hip-hop orthodoxy and are really innovative and potentially influential to the genre.

I don't know what this means..."potentially" influential?? true to orthodoxy??....the handsome boy modelling school had like the singer from moloko on it....You seriously think that Can Ox and Handsome Boy have influenced more people than Paul's Boutique and Missy?

Haha you've got to be kidding, right? Okay excepting Lauren Hill and some of the more esoteric (for a mainstream mag) pics this list is almost exactly the same one you'd see in most hip hop mags (the CANON is the CANON for the most part.) And . . .So Addictive is a way better record than Supa Dupa Fly (the Bubba is debateable, as are the Missy records that preceded and followed it.) And that Handsome Boy Modelling School record is a joke.

Whereas being Semitic gets you #10.

And yeah, I agree w/Anthony about "Walk This Way" - I've always preferred the original & found it funkier than the remake. A little looser, less "on the one". Tho it could just be because the original was so ingrained. I wish they'd redid "Lord Of The Thighs" instead. ('s got practically the same drumbeats)!

Gotta disagree here, Alex in SF. Lotta the same artists, yes, but the hip-hop mags would go with different records.

In fact, my sense is that only 12 of these records would make an XXL/Egotrip sorta list -- Eric B./Rakim, Biggie, De La, Run-D.M.C., Dre, Wu, Nas, Tribe, OutKast, Cypress Hill, Jay-Z, Grandmaster.

Gotta believe 2Pac's Makaveli record and some Marley Marl stuff would make their list, too. Perhaps Kool G Rap as well.

PLENTY of women have made great hip-hop albums, Chris. Though yeah, *maybe* that's a thing of the distant past (not that that should matter on all-time list.) But Trina should kick their ass regardless.

And I guess you're right: half is a pretty good ratio for a mainstream mag.

oh, and it's "King of Rock" >> "Rock Box" >> "Tougher Than Leather" >> "Can You Rock it Like This" >> "Walk This Way" (and King of Rock >> RUN DMC >> Raising Hell

I agree, too, btw, that singles comps should be considered for a list like this because this just wasn't an album genre till the mid-80s.

Paid In Full: A great album, but the only way a Eric B. and Rakim record is #1 of all time is if you take the best singles from this, then add the best singles from Follow the Leader and Don't Sweat the Technique.

3 Feet High And Rising: De La Soul is Dead is funnier, catchier, has more great hooks and somehow manages both to mock R&B-style hip-hop and crank out superior examples of it ("A Roller Skating Jam Called Saturdays"; "Keeping the Faith"; "Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)").

Raising Hell: Have they ever released an album without one really lame-ass track on it?

Cypress Hill: Yes, yes, I miss the '90s too. Just sit down and listen to Devin the Dude now, OK?

Daily Operation: Guru and Primo remind me of Radiohead in that I have no real problem with and often enjoy the original article but if I hear one more motherfucker mimeographing their style I will go snikt snikt berserker on some unsuspecting bastards.

Death Certificate: Korea Would Like to Have a Word With You, Entertainment Weekly

The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill: The Score was better. Live with it.

Black On Both Sides: And boring after the first, har har har.

By All Means Necessary: KRS' '93 solo was his peak (probably his least politically didactic; most of his soapbox stuff was street-level stuff that worked on a populist level).

Dr. Octagonecologyst/A Book Of Human Language: Blah blah antidote to bling rap blah blah all about the lyrics yakity schmackity how about Critical Beatdown and No Need For Alarm for once?

xp: I'm not saying that outta print = pointless. Just mentioning that a huge all-encompassing conglomo-mag might think that way. Which is of course why alt-weeklies need to exist. Trust me, telling me about the joys of record-hunting is like telling Chris Pontius that thongs are funny.

20th Century Masters!

While there are no writers names listed at the end of the top 25 albums list, at the end of "The 25 biggest hip-hop moments" piece they list writers and reporters--I recognize Neil Drumming who used to write for the Washington City Paper and has written for various NY publications, Leah Greenblatt I think wrote for Time Out NY, Michael Endelman writes alot for EW...