Best Hip-Hop/Rap Album Included on Pitchfork's Top Albums Lists (2001-08)

College Dropout or Cold Vein

Eminem Show is easily the worst, and that's including all the oi oi oi grime shit

lol whiney

Kinda think The Grind Date is hella underrated.

i like most of this list but it's missing all my emphatic favorites from the decade

voted pretty toney

voted Boy in da Corner.

Time has already not been kind to The Streets. Can't imagine how he'll be regarded (if at all) in another 10 years.

voted madvillain

coulda gone pretty toney or king

hhnf

What is the point of this?

sigh @ whiney

huh weird that let's get it is in here but not the recession.

1. king
2. boy in da corner
3. under construction
4. run the road
5. the college dropout
6. da drought 3
7. late registration
8. let's get it: thug motivation 101
9. showtime
10. tha carter iii

its not really that weird, 'let's get it' is his breakthrough

isn't the point of a breakthrough that the stuff that comes after it also gets recognised?

lost his trendy hipster cachet by that point iirc

viktor vaughn, had a new sicker song, i think he called it lickupon, but umm

ts: wale "mixtape about seinfeld" vs young jeezy "the recession"

What is the point of this?

have you ever seen an ilx poll? it's about as pointless/unpointless as pretty much any other poll going. anyway- read the intro text, why don't you? bunch of hip-hop albums picked out by a site not renowned for its hip-hop knowledge, leaving out lots of bona-fide 'classics' etc. etc.

Stankonia, The Blueprint, Supreme Clientele, Miss E...So Addictive, The Marshall Mathers LP, Lord Willin'... all of these were ignored by Pitchfork's year-end lists on release, then retroactively added to the half-decade and decade lists... so they're not included here.

sux bc i like those better than p much everything else on this list (that i know)

everybody vote maths + english so both the people who hate grime & the people who love it can go apoplectic

I vote T.I. -- King cuz I'm a T.I. stan

Eminem Show is easily the worst, and that's including all the oi oi oi grime shit

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Sunday, March 13, 2011 7:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

yea the album is hella boring, other than Soldier.

What is the point of this?

have you ever seen an ilx[or] poll?

ZING

dead perez hilton

I like that Lupe Fiasco album too

xpost, yeah thats what the dn is ref to, deej

loooooool aerosmith, A+

i liked maths+english — was just listening to the ugk track the other day

T.I. - King

i know you ilx0rs is broke, cuz i know what ya charge

Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein [Def Jux; 2001]
Dälek - From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots [Ipecac; 2001]
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow [MCA; 2002]

try as I might, I could never get into that Blackalicious outside of a few songs. that was around the same time I was in my major The Coup listening phase tho

i liked a few songs off nia esp this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i27ri_etWxU

there were some p dorky songs they dropped tho esp on blazing arrow

i forget the name at the moment, but i always kinda dug that one 7-minute long new-age/prog-rap odyssey (feat. saul williams)

but yeah extremely dorky ("chemical calisthenics" to thread!)

okay i definitely still f/w this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIGJ1lekcMg

that Cee-Lo and Beanie Sigel are great too

oh shit that beanie is easily my #1

wish i hadnt missed that

lol I adore both those 2001 albums. lol 2001, and I

can't believe there's TWO lil wayne albums on this list and neither are 'tha carter II'

excuse me, three lil wayne albums

'run the road' was DEFINITELY a better 2005 rap album

anyway

1. college dropout
2. king
3. we got it 4 cheap
4. purple haze
5. dedication 2

carter 2 would easily be my fav if it was here, was the first thing i looked for

i don't care about any album on this list up until college dropout

8 albums from 2003 but no 50 cent

a quick glance at the list myself (didn't really think abt my favs when compiling) and the frontrunner is El-P - Fantastic Damage [Def Jux; 2002] but i'll give it a bit more thought & replay some stuff b4 i vote

LJ u need to hear this one ^^ if u haven't yet btw

Actually I was not aware that we had polls on ilx. Voted dalek even though I've never heard it.

write-in vote for K-Fed solo album

Ilxor, do a metal version of this poll

make sure to create one poll for every two years

Voted dalek even though I've never heard it.

― gr8080 sings the blues (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

hear itttttttt

top ten is like: late reg, college dropout, king, the b. coming, dedication 2, black album, food & liquor, quality, purple haze, speakerboxxx

so many mediocre or mind-numbingly average albums by mostly over the hill artists, though. good poll idea, ilxor, especially taking out things that were retroactively grandfathered into the decade lists.

huh weird that let's get it is in here but not the recession.

― lex pretend, Sunday, March 13, 2011 7:20 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

the key to this is just how much rap was in their '05 list (seven albums) versus their '08 list (only three). also '05 year-end time was when PF got all excitable about WOW DID YOU NOTICE MULTIPLE HIP HOP ACTS RAP ABOUT DRUG DEALING.

The Recession didn't get great critical reception. go on Wikipedia.org and look at the roundup of the reviews. one of the most o_O things ever, given how sonically awesome it is.

I'll go as far as to say Recession is amazing and Lets Get It is str8 garbitch

^^^^^^ rong

I sling snow, ITS WHITE
and you know, ITS WHITE
i like coke, it's COKE
my girls bubbly LIKE A COKE

Let's Get It is like if OJ Da Juiceman's freshman freestyle was a 50 minute Def Jam albnm

this is coming from the guy who voted for jeezy's verse on "amazing" as the best guest verse on any kanye album

uh, i liked it because it sounded like jeezy was stretching the limits of what he could do, but thanks for pulling out your .xls on my opinions

Recession placed 49th in Pazz & Jop, which is a better indicator of its EOY critical enthusiasm than metacritic (although Let's Get It placed higher there too, 39th)

xpost, like in that song he's rapping about his fucking sodium intake like a grown-ass man instead of being fucking snowblower that shoots cocaine onto the 50 yard line of the Georgia dome

Let's Get It has too many undeniable songs to be totally trashed as an album, although i don't really hold it in high esteem. The Inspiration, on the other hand, has zero essential jams and even lazier lyrics, like dude drops the rhyming a word with itself and doesn't even rhyme period half the time.

"inspiration" does have some choice jeezy jams

"3 am", "mr. 17.5" are classics -- i think "go getta", "i luv it" & "hypnotize" are pretty good too

xpost, like in that song he's rapping about his fucking sodium intake like a grown-ass man instead of being fucking snowblower that shoots cocaine onto the 50 yard line of the Georgia dome

― dead perez (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, March 13, 2011 11:08 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

didn't you start the ilm thread about fucking "port of miami"

i know people get hype about "Hypnotize" or "3AM" or whatever but honestly those are on par with like the 10th best song on Recession imo

xpost

he prefers Rick Ross cuz he uses throat lozenges

saying lets get it is trash is way offtm, and while i like recession & think its a stronger front->back listen, lets get it still has the establishment-of-a-style thing going for it. & yeah there are way too many classics on it cmon

trap or die is prob >>> than either tho

whiney's denials of Let's Get It is to cover up the fact that he has a huge coke factory in his basement

man whiney_opinions.xls is getting some serious ctrl+f action tonight

ctrl+f

"Whoomp! There It Is top hip hop single of 1993"

This poll list is actually a handy condensed history of pitchfork's writer hiring policy.

haha

wait a minute why do we all hate the eminem show?

Sing For The Moment

Superman

Cleaning Out My Closet

the key to this is just how much rap was in their '05 list (seven albums) versus their '08 list (only three).

2003-04 had eight albums each-- even better! all downhill from there.

Hailies Song

Drips ft. Obie Trice

goddamnit whiney plz do not post the entire track listing for The Eminem Show (even though it would be defensible)

What if I gave my opinion of each track

Cleaning Out My Closet

― dead perez (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, March 14, 2011 12:03 AM (4 minutes ago)

oh you dislike good rapping ok get it

not gonna stan for every track on there but there are some good ones & it's a solid album

IM SORRY KEVIN KELLER
I NEVER MEANT TO HURT YOOOOOOUU
I NEVER MEANT TO MAKE YOO CRY BUT TONIGHT
IM CLEANING OUT MY ZING CLOSET

keep in in here guys: Worst Song on 'The Eminem Show'

whiney, full track reviews and/or liveblog most welcome

Pretty Toney.

can't believe there's TWO lil wayne albums on this list and neither are 'tha carter II'

i agree with this

'run the road' was DEFINITELY a better 2005 rap album

but this is also true

actually i didn't realize that this was the rap albums from each individual year end list -- they are excused from not having carter II in the 05 list cuz it came out in late december -- should've been in the 06 list tho duh

these three run the road tracks are probably in the top 10 tracks across all of these albums, fuiud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Pp3V0N0hk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mznv4ACjkzc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61xa-C7qBi0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwRPbPtGFqU&feature=related

Make you feel that way!!

need to listen to Mr Lif again. been a looong time

Madvillain - Madvillainy [Stones Throw; 2004]

Not only one of my favorite hip hop albums of all time but also top 10 of the decade for me.

Supreme Clientele is great and on par with the kind of albums they rep for... can't believe they overlooked that one. I guess they redeemed by adding it on the top 20 albums of the decade feature.

actually i didn't realize that this was the rap albums from each individual year end list -- they are excused from not having carter II in the 05 list cuz it came out in late december -- should've been in the 06 list tho duh

― J0rdan S., Monday, March 14, 2011 3:43 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

generalist critics weren't really checking for Wayne until the post-Carter 2 mixtapes, i don't think it was about the december release date -- on Pazz & Jop from year to year he went from #83 for that album to #75 for Dedication 2 to #35 for Drought 3 to #6 for Carter 3

need to listen to Mr Lif again. been a looong time

― Ludo, Monday, March 14, 2011 5:01 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is otm

I still fuck w/"Make You Feel That Way," too.

oh man i used to loooove mr. lif, still have his coupla albums sitting around here someplace

i just finally got run the road for $1 in a used bin this year and it really is pretty awesome

^^ yup, love this

Volume 2 kinda sucked tho didn't it?

2 had that funny Plan B song on it tho

yeah 'funny' is not what i want from Plan B... not that i want anything from Plan B in the first place, i guess. see also: eminem and those 'funny' songs all over The Eminem Show

vol 2 had doctor & davinche "gotta man?", low deep "get set", ghetto & katie pearl "run the road", jme "serious" and yeah that was about it

I fully understand that people will like what they're going to like but can I just say that I'm basically sitting over here all smug and "I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG" re: The Streets?

No.

fully justified imo

ha xp!

lol

I'm willing to concede that my view on The Avalanches is neither rational nor defensible (but rather a prejudiced "wrong place wrong time" phobic reaction to something I would normally love) if ppl will just admit that The Streets were always terrible.

The thing with The Streets is, the subsequent stuff was so bad that it actually serves as a handy barometer of how good the early stuff was.

But I think part of the problem for Skinner's pre-revival/repackaging rep (in about 10 years time maybe) is that enough people bought into him as pure novelty that it's very easy for them now to go "oh 2002 lol wtf".

I'd be surprised though if anyone who genuinely thought OPM was amazing would now be like rofl what was I thinking.

Supreme Clientele is great and on par with the kind of albums they rep for... can't believe they overlooked that one. I guess they redeemed by adding it on the top 20 albums of the decade feature.

― Moka, Monday, 14 March 2011 09:25 (7 hours ago) Bookmark

Came out 2000, this poll is 2001+

OPM is dope, everything after suuuucks.

Man thank you for whoever posted Down & Out. Now I just want to spend the day jamming to Killa Cam

i didn't know you hated the avalanches as well dan!!!! i'm so glad all these years it's seemed like just me

xp i kind of disagree, skinner's badness now isn't the kind of badness that shows the earlier stuff in a better light, it infects the earlier stuff in retrospect - like everything execrable about the streets now turns out to have always been there, in plain sight. i remember liking (not loving) OPM at the time but i don't think i could even bear a full song off it now.

co-sign the avalanches hate

Came out 2000, this poll is 2001+

i checked the 2000 list, actually -- would've included it in the poll but there are zero hip-hop/rap albums

http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5816-top-20-albums-of-2000

any self-respecting 2000 list should include Stankonia, The W, Supreme Clientele (and i guess The Marshall Mathers LP if you buy into general crit-hype, though i never saw the big deal about that guy)

and that's at a minimum for, say, top 20 albums

That P4k 2000 list is very odd.

king, dedication 2, under construction, pretty toney, hope.

think i own every one of the 01-04 except the streets, lol

That P4k 2000 list is very odd.

the only album on it that I've actually heard is... Kid A

those clinic and lsf albums rule

only one not ringing bells is "summer hymns"

this is pfork's top 20 albums of 2000 with ilxor-style revisionism-- scratched out the obviously bullshit choices, replaced with a few necessary albums, mostly hi-hop. otherwise, not messing around w/ placing. makes a pretty great top 20, i think!

20 Jackie-O Motherfucker: Fig. 5
19 Two Lone Swordsmen: Tiny Reminders
18 Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour of Bewilderbeast Deltron 3030: Deltron 3030
17 Summer Hymns: Voice Brother and Sister Reflection Eternal: Train of Thought
16 Sleater-Kinney: All Hands on the Bad One Slum Village: Fantastic, Vol. 2
15 Enon: Believo!
14 Super Furry Animals: Mwng Quasimoto: The Unseen
13 Crooked Fingers: Crooked Fingers
12 Gas: Pop
11 King Biscuit Time: No Style EP KMD: Bl_ck B_st_rds
10 Smog: Dongs of Sevotion
09 Clinic: Internal Wrangler
08 Les Savy Fav: Rome (Written Upside Down) EP Aesop Rock: Float
07 Microphones: It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water
06 Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump Wu-Tang Clan: The W
05 Godspeed You Black Emperor!: Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven
04 Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
03 Modest Mouse: The Moon and Antarctica Ghostface Killah: Supreme Clientele
02 Sigur Rós: Ágætis Byrjun OutKast: Stankonia
01 Radiohead: Kid A

lol "mostly hi-hop" -- entirely hip-hop, and obv. a big typo there

edifying

take notes DJP

j/k, this is ilxor in full-on "bored @ work" mode

this is my version of what the Pitchfork 2000 list should have been:

http://www.blissfulkidsparties.com.au/store/images/my-little-pony-beverage-napkin2.png

dare i look up if that's an actual album...?

16 Sleater-Kinney: All Hands on the Bad One Slum Village: Fantastic, Vol. 2

ilxor i have made it this far without sb-ing you but if you don't find sleater-kinney dope, i think i have to.

les savy fav brings way more jams than aesop rock

also does KMD count for this time frame?

actual physical release was in '99 over here. i remember reading the review of it in the first hiphop magazine i ever bought! (more because i was confounded by the pictures of doom in his mask than anything)

generalist critics weren't really checking for Wayne until the post-Carter 2 mixtapes, i don't think it was about the december release date -- on Pazz & Jop from year to year he went from #83 for that album to #75 for Dedication 2 to #35 for Drought 3 to #6 for Carter 3

― some dude, Monday, March 14, 2011 9:29 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah i know -- they did run a very positive review of the album tho written by nick sylvester

ilxor i have made it this far without sb-ing you but if you don't find sleater-kinney dope, i think i have to.

that album's a snooze (sorry) but i like S-K fine in other places; they got better as they went along, One Beat is pretty good and i think The Woods is a hell of a rock 'n' roll album. maybe that's just me!

oh god that carter 2 review

yeah nick sylvester and 'carter 2' in the same sentence is just conjuring all kinds of horrible castles in my mind

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

S

M

H

and indeed KMT

lol lex otm

this makes me really worried about the upcoming ilm hip-hop poll tbh

lex one day i am going to write a computer program to automatically post lex posts to ilm & u will have a lot more free time on your hands

it shouldn't have won but madvillain is p awesome i think

lex have you heard it?

what weirds me out more than the top 3 is
Kanye West - Late Registration [Roc-A-Fella; 2005] 0

My guess is that Madvillainy is a bit too lo-fi for Lex

Your number one came fourth Lex. That ain't so bad right?

the nominations thread this makes me really worried about the upcoming ilm hip-hop poll tbh

― B1ll C4ll4h4n (symsymsym), Thursday, March 24, 2011 8:15 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

perhaps the goon lurker army will rise to the occasion

that too

i thought i voted for Late Registration but i guess i forgot to

Cam'ron - Purple Haze [Roc-A-Fella; 2005] 1

^ this is the most smh vote possible, honestly

Jesus You People

ha i voted for dalek even if i never heard it cuz i thought it was a dumb poll

so mark one vote down for beanie sigel - the b.coming

dalek is p much the best

i need to check it out

yeah, that rec is a good place 2 start imo

hell hath no fury is the best on this list imo

maybe tha carter 2 is better though

this guy

Does no-one like clipse on ilm?

i used to be one of the biggest clipse stans! then i got over it. but to say HHNF is better than

T.I. - King
Kanye West - The College Dropout
Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album
Cam'ron - Purple Haze
Beanie Sigel - The B.Coming
Young Jeezy - Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101
DJ Drama & Lil Wayne - Dedication 2
Clipse - We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 2
Various Artists - Run the Road
Kanye West - Late Registration
J Dilla - Donuts
Jay-Z - The Black Album
Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3
Missy Elliott - Under Construction
Madvillain - Madvillainy

is a helluva statement imo

lf 'lord willin' was on this list it would be up there for me w/ college dropout

their shtick was way tired by the time HHNF dropped, and i don't think it's a coincidence that they haven't dropped one thing of consequence since that album. the decline started w/ that album.

woah, for me HHNF is like top 5 of the 00's. Of that list you just gave, only late registration, pretty toney and dedication 2 come close. But tbf ive not even listened to half of these these records fully through. Like is TI's King really that good? I've only heard what you know and front back, which are both tunes, but never listened to the full album. Is it worth downloading?

Also some weird choices, pretty toney over fishscale and supreme clientele? Dedication over tha carter 2?

i didn't post that list

and yes, "king" is worth downloading

Also some weird choices, pretty toney over fishscale and supreme clientele? Dedication over tha carter 2?

― prego, Friday, September 2, 2011 6:35 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

i didn't order the list. it's just a c/p.

Yeah I was addressing both of you in 1 post, should have made it clearer

Yeah I meant weird choices from pfork

"pretty toney over fishscale and supreme clientele?"

Without a doubt.

^ still think this is nuts

Supreme is close but Pretty Toney is way better than Fishscale.

xpost, like in that song he's rapping about his fucking sodium intake like a grown-ass man instead of being fucking snowblower that shoots cocaine onto the 50 yard line of the Georgia dome

― dead perez (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, March 13, 2011 11:08 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark

tis is a funnie post

Supreme is close but Pretty Toney is way better than Fishscale.
I still don't understand this line of thinking. Of his first five albums, Pretty Toney is easily his weakest IMO. Fishscale might not be the best collection of beats of his career, but rhymewise it's his peak.

Ironman thru Bulletproof = thesis
Pretty Toney = (transitional album) antithesis
Fishscale = (near-perfect) synthesis

Wtf that doesn't even make sense

it doesn't even make hegelian sense

"but rhymewise it's his peak."

This doesn't really concern me much. Overall vibe/energy/soul/fun of Pretty Toney > his other releases

I like the sample choices better as well, feels like a soul album more than a rap album.

^^^100% otm

i prefer SC to Pretty Toney but not by much. PT was the last great ghost album to me

i also prefer toney to fishscale, but fishscale had the best single: "back like that"

anyways here is my super alt top ten list. didn't realize my taste in hiphop was so WILD BEASTS

1. donuts (how did this get NO love?)
2. run the road
3. cold vein
4. grand don't come for free
5. madvillainy
6. got it 4 cheap 2
7. pretty toney
8. let's get it (i actually prefer inspiration tops out of the jeezy LPs tho)
9. 808s
10. rjd2, lol

also would have voted the unseen above madvillainy if it made the list

i rep for 'back like that' too actually

1. donuts (how did this get NO love?)

not having rapping iirc

Of the albums on this list I've heard, HHNF is the most consistent by a long shot. Generally speaking I've got backpack-ass tastes in hip hop, though, so I probably can't be trusted.

King Geedorah - Take Me to Your Leader [Big Dada; 2003]

man i still play this, shits real

haha i still play monster island czars, the rawest

Good poll winner, smh at those who sths

yeah that monster island czars record is really good

Otm

smh at those who sths

lost line from an EPMD outtake