most defensible album in Complex's The 50 Worst Rap Album Fails

Tempted to vote for Forever, way too high on this list.

what a dumb ass list, most of these have some good songs at least.

I will defend:

Unplugged 2.0 (getting my voice, some wonderful stuff on here... if a lot of this material was recorded in a studio/arranged properly it would've been a worthy follow-up to miseducation. "Gotta Find Peace Of Mind"? Come on...)
Blood Money (obviously not their best album but it has some incredible production.... "Pearly Gates" is one of my favorite beats ever,
Nastradamus (it isn't THAT bad)
Kingdom Come (there are so dope songs on here contrary to popular belief... "Oh My God," "Trouble," "Lost Ones," etc.)
Best of Both Worlds (COME ON... so many jams on this)
Beats Rhymes & Life (...)
I'm Gay/Happy (I don't even like this album but it doesn't deserve to be on this list)
The Firm (this album has CLASSICS on it... come on. And all the Trackmasters hate is ridiculous to this day)

my vote*

Wait, wtf, didn't see Walking With A Panther at first glance. Definitely that one. That album was one of the first dubbed rap cassettes I had, without that and Too Short it would have probably been another couple years before I got into hip hop.

this thread is basically bait for a long dylannn post about nastradamus haha

Beats Rhymes & Life is probably objectively my fav but i think i'm gonna vote for Best of Both Worlds, really does have some jams on it

also >>> Watch The Throne

A few of these aren't bad at all (I don't know all that many of these albums though) but Don't Sweat The Technique is great wtf

I voted Lethal Injection. One of my fav Cube songs ever is on that

I'm Gay/Happy (I don't even like this album but it doesn't deserve to be on this list)

^^^I kind of like that it did. I think the album is wack & am glad someone was willing to say so ... like I've never been that into B but '6 kiss' would have been ridic, "i'm gay" is pretty weak tho imo

'worst album fails' is such a weird title, i kno what they mean but it implies that the failing failed or something

I think this is a good mix of received wisdom & mild challops

i do like that Black Sheep record too, never got why ppl hated on it but Im a big Dres fan

43. Mystikal, Tarantula (2001)

WHOA WTF

beats rhymes and life is so good

I think this is a good mix of received wisdom & mild challops

― funky house septics (D-40), Friday, August 26, 2011 9:05 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah totally...i kind of like the idea of trying to cement the canon of infamous rap fan backlashes/disappointments, and the top 10 is pretty spot-on in that regard

i kind of like the idea of trying to cement the canon of infamous rap fan backlashes/disappointments,

yeah, don't like this idea one bit... especially because I'm like 90% the people who compiled this list haven't even listened to most of these. though I guess if the canon is established there's always room for a critical re-evaluation or w/e

^^I kind of like that it did. I think the album is wack & am glad someone was willing to say so ... like I've never been that into B but '6 kiss' would have been ridic, "i'm gay" is pretty weak tho imo

yeah I get what you mean, especially considering the fact that a certain sect of 2dopeboyz/Okayplayer-rap fans really took a liking to the album because of it's more "traditional/backpacker0y sound" I guess it's cool for Complex to be like "no dudes, this actually sucks"

pfork BNM'd it too

the 1st acclaimed lil b record

thank god someone FINALLY came out and said that lil b is wack

anyway, putting the mystikal album on this list invalidates the whole thing

― funky house septics (PappaWheelie V), Thursday, August 6, 2009 11:37 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― funky house septics, let me drain you of this (J0rdan S.), Monday, March 15, 2010 5:39 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well it's more that B's good material supposedly sucks/is killing rap but when he makes a backpack-type album it's TOTALLY AWESOME/WOW HE CAN ACTUALLY RAP/etc.

aw man cuz man i didn't even know of that wheelie sn

thank god someone FINALLY came out and said that lil b is wack

― J0rdan S., Saturday, August 27, 2011 1:23 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

its more that they said the right record was wack

well it's more that B's good material supposedly sucks/is killing rap but when he makes a backpack-type album it's TOTALLY AWESOME/WOW HE CAN ACTUALLY RAP/etc.

― my own private kanyes west (The Brainwasher), Friday, August 26, 2011 8:25 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

exactly

I mean, imo tarantula is a step down from the LP before but its also 10x as good as a bunch of this stuff

i also like can-i-bus in a challop-y sense

yeah tarantula was the first one where i really raised my eyebrow like really you're gonna pick on that record

is immobilarity actually bad? ive never listened to it

some challoptimists on soulstrut were repping for that erick sermon record too, i havent heard it though

challokayplayer

tarantula easily

lethal injection was another one like tarantula where it's a step down but still a really solid album

i'm upset that lil b is on the list too because now instead of discussing the career lowlights of actual legends we have another thread about the pomplamoose of rap's most adowable wittle pubwicity stunt yet

the world would be a better place if lil b had a song in a ubiquitous car commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI_S7NZ2sHQ

obv

give it a year, every fresh young executive in the media industry is currently scheming how they can use their job to meet lil b and/or tyler and hand them a bag of money

These are actually pretty dope:

13. A Tribe Called Quest, Beats, Rhymes, & Life (1996)
19. Goodie Mob, World Party (1999)
23. Ice Cube, Lethal Injection (1993)
28. Eazy-E, It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa (1993)
46. Leaders Of The New School, T.I.M.E. (The Inner Mind's Eye) (1993
49. Eric B. & Rakim, Don't Sweat The Technique (1992)

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

theres a few in here (Cube, Eric B & Rakim come to mind) that could be described as 'gradual fall-off becomes apparent' records rather than records that were expected to be huge & flopped a la the firm

yeah a lot of these seem like basically victims of the rap world turning a page and the artist suddenly seeming passe even if they're doing the same thing that made them hot 2 years earlier

they really messed up not putting Kingdom Come higher

Kingdom Come (there are so dope songs on here contrary to popular belief... "Oh My God," "Trouble," "Lost Ones," etc.)

i'm glad there's at least one person out there who will say this, esp "lost ones"

dammit xp

haha

i do like "Trouble" and the Just Blaze tracks, but i mean that's the album that even BP3-defending stans will still shit on, so it definitely should be in the top 10 pantheon of high profile fails

President Keyes has a good list there.

Dude, I bought that Canibus LP back when it dropeed, album cover looks like some silly condom packaging. I remember not caring about any other song on there for about 3 months cos I just rinsed the absolute shit out of 2nd Round KO. Still listen to that song. Hype-Nitis is a jam, album isnt that bad really, was just a let down in the sense that he was supposed to come through on some M.O.P. hyped up aggressive type raps, but it just wasnt close to that all.

Electric Circus has some jams.

Taste of Chocolate being on here is just madness, MADNESSSSSS, even if it is his worst album.

*dropped

Ghetto Bird through What Can I Do? is a fantastic stretch on Lethal Injection. What Can I Do? is my fav cube joint.

This Erick Sermon track will snap your neck, but that LP isnt that great overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRo6ZlAcuiw

I have some major love for Doggfather as well, just may get my vote. I pretty much love any pre overdubbed vocals Snoop. That album is kind of a personal classic of mine really. Doggfather eats it alive of course, but it holds up, and has aged well. Up Jump The Boogie, Vapors, Snoops Upside Your Head, Doggyland, Blueberry and Groopie are all pure.

DAMMMM, I love New Danger too, I always have to go to bat for that album, but I think its cool. Its way too long and has some issues, but there's so many good songs on there. Great cover art as well.

That Goodie Mobb album has some gems. I almost didnt buy it, the cover threw me, made me think twice, like uh yah so these are the same guys that did Still Standing and Soul Food, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ9LgYhvIkg

Last 2 Walk should be way higher, imho.

working now

wrong thread

Juvenile's Project English is a fucking unbelieveable album. The beats on it are ridic.

Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age is maybe one of the most underrated rap albums of all time. Got a manic Sly Stone vibe. Wildly funky.

MC Serch, Return Of The Product (1992) / Prime Minster Pete Nice, Dust To Dust (1993)

^both these albums are great

my rafikam Complex listicle de-listicler isn't working so no idea what dude is saying bout this shit

Also, I'll stan for World Party

the Goodie Mob album and the paisley-tinged "Put The Message In The Box" band

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

^v much in char

Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age is great. It's held up better than a lot of PE albums, too.

I know New Danger was more infamous, but True Magic was an infinitely shittier album, probably worse than anything in the top 10 of this list.

I loved New Danger when it came out

http://itsevab.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/kanye-shrug.png

alright, enough

True magic is worthless.

thread inspired me to listen to "Put The Message In The Box" twice in a row

I probably paid full retail for about 10 of these albums, but none of those purchases haunts me more than New Danger. I still kick myself for paying full price for that one.

Prince Paul's Politics of Business is the other great regret in my CD collection. A concept album about how terrible the album is. The joke is on people who bought it.

a lot of the titles give that "not really trying" feel like - DMX, Year Of The Dog...Again (2006)

Agree about that pp album. Xp

no wai, love that PP album

gtfo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5XiXOXQdyA

Had a few jams iirc

I remember some major buyers remorse for that one though.

yeah, not saying its a classic or nothing, but def has some jams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84LUpG6ieis

Walking With A Panther is an amazing album that's 1/4 crap. Rap fans in always expecting too much shocker

Everyone wants Jay-Z to make Reasonable Doubt 15 fucking times.

^^Yeah, the one Chubb Rock song that riffs on a Prince Paul beat I already loved was OK. But so much of that disc was shit like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogHfB7fhgzk

The joke gets old fast.

Everyone wants Jay-Z to make Reasonable Doubt 15 fucking times.

― brrr-icane aye-rene (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, August 27, 2011 1:45 AM (4 minutes ago)

dude come on

forget nastradamus. the firm! the album! for whatever reason, i dunno, i heard this fairly recently. i mean, it was five years ago, but long after i was really really into nas. i heard it was horrible. listening to it right now, i am like how i imagine corny sincere college radio rap show djs are when they play a song they love, mouthing oh shit, head nodding sideways. it's like it was written made even darker, with shinier gleamier beats (dre! ). listen to "firm fiasco." az at his most abstruse and doing the best example of the thing that i really like, which is: this constant shifting between quranic imagery, madame blavatsky heavy mysticism (az the visualiza!) and the raw material world of various fabrics and the grunt of engines, gun sounds. bill clinton soundbyte sample nostalgia. and then, like, "firm biz" which has az unimaginable smoothness with a slur and fucking crazy disco hook. put on "throw your guns" right now.

i'm not going to misrepresent things, though. some of it is terrible. "firm all stars."

Muse Sick

i LOVELOVELOVE beats, rhymes & life, and unplugged 2.0, and the new danger is flawed but has a couple of great moments. but muse sick gets my vote, easily my 3rd fave PE and maybe my favourite album of that year.

Love Tarantula, Project English, World Party.

Also, I'll stan for World Party

― brrr-icane aye-rene (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, August 27, 2011 5:13 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

also "aw man cuz man" is my jam

but i'm not gonna use it cause i'll just ruin it

voted

7. The Firm, The Album (1997)

cause there's nothing on any of these records better than 'desperados'

the Goodie Mob album and the paisley-tinged "Put The Message In The Box" band

― brrr-icane aye-rene (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, August 27, 2011 1:14 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.youtube.com/v/DDQeXpIaPpE&fs=1&hl=en

― brrr-icane aye-rene (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, August 27, 2011 1:14 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha ditto

Kane or LL

drive the car around the woooorhooooooooo

firm is kind of underrated. its not what people expected after lifes a bitch obv, which i think is why its on the list - ppl expected it to be a load of lifes a bitch/eye for an eye/verbal intercourse/mo money mo murda type tracks, instead they got this ultra glossy/slick/slightly silly with the cliches (these guys really went to town with their 'look ma, im in a scorcese flick!' fantasies) crime mafioso thriller/tv movie rather than what the godfather typography/the ppl making it might like to think they were making. it IS hip hop's 'cinematic' obsessions/aspirations rendered somewhat succesfully, just more multiplex than arthouse.

i need to check that melvyn flynt album though - i cant remember anything from it

glad im gay is on there - its prob the most boring thing lil b has done

46. Leaders Of The New School, T.I.M.E. (The Inner Mind's Eye) (1993)

OH FUCK OFF. IF YOU COULDNT THINK OF A 50th YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST MADE IT 49 RECORDS AND LEFT OFF THIS K-CLAAAAAAAAAAASSIC.

Melvin Flynt had a decent Neptunes single, "Oh No"

still cracks me up that Nore's 'persona' for that album was conceived as a cross between Larry Flynt and Jack Nicholson's character from As Good As It Gets. not nearly enough rap albums based on the work of James L. Brooks if you ask me.

Behind the scenes, LONS members Charlie Brown and Busta Rhymes were bickering over who was the real leader of the Leaders. And that didn't bode particularly well for their sophomore album, T.I.M.E. After enjoying modest success with their 1991 debut, A Future Without A Past..., T.I.M.E. was a bizarre, self-produced effort that eventually caused so much tension amongst the group that they broke up on camera during a Yo! MTV Raps interview in 1993.

so basically.. they can't even front on how good the record is in the blurb.

DUNNO WHO THIS CUNT IS BUT ANYBODY WHO HATES ON 187um KILLA IS A FUCKING TIN-EARED CLOWN WHO SHD GET CAPPED

voted Eazy btw

Chris Yuscavage more like Chris Yu Disgusting Savage I Want To Shoot You in the Face

looool

there's a bunch of good to great albums on this list tho from a cursory glance

elec circus is prob one of the least enjoyable albums on the list

don't really fuck with Common. wd def go to bat for the Bone Thugs

this list is p otm

Electric Circus should be top 10 for the sheer size of its fanbase-alienating infamy

http://cdnl.complex.com/assets/CHANNEL_IMAGES/MUSIC/2011/08/the-50-worst-rap-album-fails3/620x400/Melvin_Flynt_Da_Hustler_164267.jpg

might vote for this one on the cover alone

whenever NORE says "I try and chill, and sell more records than Creed" I imagine Billboard obsessive A1 Sh1pl3y jizzing in pants over the lack of genre myopia in that statement. no shots

dude what

he said no shots to be fair

except for the jizz shooting out of my dick in his imagination

hey man nice shot

i've never noticed el ship particularly liking rap referencing other genres

for the record there are a lot of doofs on ilm routinely going "omg a rapper acknowledged the existence of a rock band how fascinating/corny/awesome" and i've never really been one of them

xpost thank you

i wasn't saying it was because OMG ROCK BAND, I'm saying it was because NORE was acknowledging a deep knowledge of how Billboard was working that year beyond the rapper hustle and the ubiquitous boy band machine.

I mean he references Smash Mouth in the same song and wgaf about that

yeah i guess. you still have an weird idea of what makes me jizz, though! i've never posted anything like that to ws2011.

i mean NORE building the concept for an album around a Helen Hunt movie is imo more inherently interesting than dropping a throwaway reference to an acts he probably saw higher on the charts every time he checked to see how his record was doing

28. Eazy-E, It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa (1993)

gtfo of here with this bullshit

i'll stand for electric circus as a glorious mess

"glorious"?? I mean, i paid for that & liked some of it but

i really loved it when i was in full art-rap mode, but i just revisited it last month and smh @ me and smh @ common

we dealing wit this water love: Common featuring Mary J. Blige "Come Close" lyrics poll

read this last night and some of the write ups are pretty suspect

oh totally -- reading it i was like 'why did they not get noz to at least help w/ this one'

especially the one where he calls lauryn hill a bitch

well tbf noz would've done that too

also the big daddy kane write up was incredibly prude

"you still have a weird idea of what makes me jizz!"

the answer is creed

with arms wide open iirc

"especially the one where he calls lauryn hill a bitch

― J0rdan S., Saturday, August 27, 2011 6:08 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well tbf noz would've done that too"

WAT

ha sorry i regretted that immediately but i was just thinking about yr harsher writings about female mcs

http://www.gifflix.com/files/4326f39cc6e2.gif

that's really no worse slander than jizzing to nore records though so nobody's getting out of this thread easy

http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/14310000/14318978.JPG

^____^

Oh good it's the part of the thread where D-40 once again brings up a six year old and long ago deleted blog post about the lack of album oriented female rappers as evidence that I hate all women forever.

he's heating up

using a dude's real name when shit gets heated

this fucking message board

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llkwmlm2sy1qalwby.gif

using a dude's real name when shit gets heated

― D-40, Saturday, August 27, 2011 1:54 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what happened to this thread btw

lol i love that gif

this fucking message board

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llkwmlm2sy1qalwby.gif

― based grandpa (noz), Saturday, August 27, 2011 2:55 PM (1 minute ago)

god i've been looking for a gif of something like that for a long time, thank you based noz

when LJ said he was leaving forever i looked around the internet for like an hour trying to finda similar gif

i prefer the one where bart is in the special needs classroom and everyone is going "cuckoo! cuckoo!"

Before anyone freaks out and complains, I deleted the "calling a dude out by their real name when shit gets heated" thread on ILTMI.

http://cdnl.complex.com/assets/CHANNEL_IMAGES/MUSIC/2011/08/the-50-worst-rap-album-fails3/hardcore-fail_164267.png

a hoy hoy otm

ilm hiphop threads make me want to blow up the planet and start over

has anyone ever heard The Funky Headhunter?

I have! My dad had that album. It's pretty fun iirc.

I considered voting for it but went with Eric B & Rakim cause wtf, really.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCTYN2Q58Jk

I have! My dad had that album. It's pretty fun iirc.

― markers aurelius (The Reverend), Saturday, August 27, 2011 5:36 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

XD

the entry on the Funky Headhunter calls "Pumps And A Bump" the worst song, which just cannot be right

the entry on the Funky Headhunter calls http://bustedhisnut.com/images/MC_images/hammer_pumps.jpg the worst song, which just cannot be right

are you imagining someone jizz again

lol both of you

Didn't anyone else think for like 5 seconds this was a "worst rap albums" list? and that the thread title was saying the list was a fail

the title of this list is awful...

i knew what they meant but read it in a literal sense as things that were bad at failing

I'm like 90% the people who compiled this list haven't even listened to most of these.

yeah there are many solid records here. "Don't sweat the technique" may be their least-strongest, but it's hardly a fail.

fwiw, "jizz my/your pants" is like an expression that a lot of ppl use, and we don't need like 30 posts of some dude screeching "no homo" at me

duh, still p lol tho

its one of those things lots of ppl say but that sometimes could use a reminder abt what its actually referring to imo

whiney i'm just saying don't try to use my jizz against me unless you're prepared to get it all over you

cum dude

it definitely felt like they just wanted to put a Rakim record on there to tick a box, like "all the great ones have their fallow period"

actually now i want to think of who the most canonical rap artists are that don't have a single album on this list: 2Pac, Biggie, Eminem, NWA, Outkast, De La, Kanye, Scarface, not a single person from Wu Tang, Beastie Boys, The Roots, Gang Starr, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes

definitely a few in there that could've been on the list

all the biggie fails were technically puffy fails

like, Idlewild and Before I Self Destruct and the Tipping Point were practically made for this list

there's a raekwon record on there

oh right yeah sorry

and fucking Encore! why not Encore!

but overall point still stands--idlewild certainly should have been there

Idlewild maybe

The Tipping Point and Before I Self Destruct are pretty dece albums

Eminem is a weird one

the love below should have been on there

Also, every single thing Pac released while he was alive is overrated beyond all comprehension and besides 2PAC BACK

i think of all the ones listed the one w/ a most obvious fail is either wu or eminem

Also, every single thing Pac released while he was alive is overrated beyond all comprehension and besides 2PAC BACK

― brrr-icane aye-rene (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, August 27, 2011 7:54 PM (16 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

by who / bullshit / gtfo

The only fail NWA had was getting back together without Yella

critically hes one of rap's most underrated relative to his profile w/ rap fans

yeah i would listen to idlewild again before love below for sure

critically hes one of rap's most underrated relative to his profile w/ rap fans

― D-40, Saturday, August 27, 2011 8:54 PM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

he's on the cover of XXL this month

and he's dead

I mean, you're still OTM.

the love below should have been on there

it's hard to consider a diamond record a fail

As much as I hate Encore, it was also a successful record.

aaa i forgot to fix that statement...

in hiphop, it's hard to consier a diamond record a fail.

i am pretty sure sales were not the only criteria for this list

"forever" sold almost 1.5 mil and so

hiphop seems play up the business and money-making aspects more than almost any other genre of music

I'm sure their explanation for including "Forever" was valid.

doggfather's sold two mil

you dudes are good at reading things, especially the part where i claimed this list was entire based on sales.

entirely*

it's hard to consider a diamond record a fail

i'd ask you to unpack this then, but i mean who the fuck cares at the end of the day

"the ilx story"

it was a successful record. last i checked, "success" is an antonym for "failure."

oh you.

the love below should have been on there

― D-40, Saturday, August 27, 2011 8:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

otm

actually now i want to think of who the most canonical rap artists are that don't have a single album on this list: 2Pac, Biggie, Eminem, NWA, Outkast, De La, Kanye, Scarface, not a single person from Wu Tang, Beastie Boys, The Roots, Gang Starr, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes

― some dude, Saturday, August 27, 2011 8:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

feel like for most of these artists their shitty albums more came in the flow of a predicable decline, this list seems to be from a hay wait whatre u even doin perpective

its like opportunities unseized

All those multi-platinum, critically acclaimed Kanye fails, what an injustice

Also Gang Starr never made a bad album. Easily the worst post in this thread

17. LL Cool J, 14 Shots To The Dome (1993)
47. LL Cool J, Walking With A Panther (1989)

"How I'm Comin'"
"Buckin' Em Down'"
"All We Got Left Is the Beat"
"Back Seat (Of My Jeep)"
"Ain't No Stoppin' This"
"Diggy Down'"
"Crossroads"

vs

"I'm That Type of Guy"
"Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?"
"Going Back to Cali"
"Crime Stories"
"It Gets No Rougher"
"Big Ole Butt"
"Jingling Baby"
"Def Jam in the Motherland"
"Jack the Ripper"

i didn't say Gang Star SHOULD have been on the list, just pointing out that they WEREN'T, duh.

it's not like either of Biggie's albums is bad, clearly the list of names wasn't meant like that

oic

Actively enjoy the Eric B and the Tribe albums. Like parts of the Raekwon, Common and PE. Voting Eric B because Complex are idiots for singling out Casualties of War as a dud track.

Never having followed Mystikal's career that closely I didn't realise Tarantula was a flop. Assumed it was big at the time because of Bouncin' Back.

Every album here is more defensible than a feature spread across 50 pages with pop-ups.

Tarantula is the best Mystikal album.

i love Let's Get Ready, really need to check that one out

voted Beats Rhymes & Life

Don't Sweat The Technique

Don't really see how Fuck What You Heard was much of a fail. Was anyone expecting great things from Main Source minus Large Professor?

Think not Heard, sorry

well i think the point is that the group as an entity fucked up big time. i'm sure there were a few fans of Breaking Atoms who bought the album on name recognition alone and were sorely disappointed.

But only the single dropped. The album was shelved.

when i was younger i almost copped that main source record on name recognition

Deej, surely you have some love for Doggfather?

yah its a good record in my memory but i havent listened in a long time. the snoop record ive spent a lot of time w/ post-doggystyle was no limit top dogg

I was so disappointed with Da Game Is Te Be Sold... at the time that I kind of lost track of Snoop from there until R&G.

da game is terrible -- yeah i hated that too. i have vinyl & cd copies of 'top dogg' tho

will check it out

the song w/ dude from onyx & the song w/ suga free are A+++

But only the single dropped. The album was shelved.

― President Keyes, Sunday, August 28, 2011 5:25 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark

oh ok if they're listing a record that was never even released that's a little sketchy (although i guess a follow-up to a pretty well regarded album being shelved is inarguably a fail)

all the No Limit-era Snoop albums are good imo

Doggfather has like two good tracks on it

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Listen to Doggfather again and tell me it only has 2 good tracks on it. The back half of it is all good, not a stinker in there. Tracks 10-20 minus the skit. Plus a couple good front end tracks; Up Jump The Boogie, Gold Rush.

Lethal Injection and World Party are both really solid albums, same with Walk Like a Panther

Lethal Injection is in no way a bad album, but coming after Compton->Amerikka->Will->Death->Predator it's completely worthless as another document of that songwriter

What the hell is Electric Circus doing on here???

worst attempt at trolling ilm in history, well done there snrub.

God, that Leaders album!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxL1qB8TI5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZMqwb3mliM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWtXwVPnk4o

Well, I just bought that album on Amazon for $1.29, thanks guys :D

only good song i remember from world party is chain swang. remember thinking the album was not what i wanted when i got it but i might like it more now.

http://bastardswordsman.tumblr.com/post/9548557138/25-hip-hop-album-fails-complex-forgot-to-mention

I decided to post up 25 album fails that Chris Yuscavage completely missed for whatever reason with explanations as to why they’re mentioned on this list. Maybe Complex would be better served writing lists about Drake’s top 25 sweaters worn out in public or something to that effect? Whatever man! © Redman

Haven't heard most of those but The Dynasty and Tical 0 are indeed terrible. I like Street's Disciple though, as far as inevitably bloated double CDs go.

That post mentioned some good ones but a bunch of shit that doesn't belong anywhere near a "fails" list. Fucking dynasty? I am? Gtfo

the dude who did that list is a boom nap nyc centric dinosaur

"dart adams"

yeah dissing The Dynasty is horseshit, people who love The Blueprint and claim it sucks aren't listening to it.

the one on that list that probably most deserves to be on the Complex list is the Pras album

dude didn't exactly invent the idea of I Am being disappointing

I remember Dynasty being a mess that was too interested in showcasing other Roc-a-Fella MCs. Certainly don't recall it being a proto-Blueprint. But it's been over 10 years since I heard it.

Whiney's right. Not liking I Am is hardly a gtfo offence. That and Nastradamus are famous (though not worthless) duds.

"I Am" has some great tracks on it, fuck that

every nas record has some great tracks on it imo

this list is just trolling bullshit mostly

half of The Dynasty is the exact same kind of soul beats by the same trio of producers that did 2/3rds of The Blueprint, the whole aesthetic associated with The Blueprint started on The Dynasty.

like, including more than one Nas album would be stupid anyway. "Nastradamus" is the consensus 'worst' of his albums so it makes sense that you'd include that one & not any others.

but yeah fucking ... that fabolous album is a "fail"?? wtf

from his blurbs u can tell he has an anti-pop / anti-jiggy / rap nerd bias that makes his opinions suspect imo

wouldn't exactly call anyone riding for Kid N Play's "Funhouse" "anti-pop"

plus his blurbs are all on one page, so i'll actually read them

^^

his Monie Love blurb is OTM

lol yeah dude his idea of 'pop' is two decades old

poisonousparagraphs.blogspot.com/ was his site

also while a commercial flop, Nice & Smooth's Jewel Of The Nile is like all-time rap-nerd "slept-on canon" fodder so whatev

some of those blurbs are v. otm -- im just saying hes one of those dudes whose idea of contemporary rap is narrow & in hock to 90s idealism

he does say "jiggy" a lot

deej, what would you say your single favorite rap album of all time would be if u had to choose one

i couldnt really answer that but for whatever reason the thing that popped into my head was 'hard to earn'

kind of modest for a 'FAV ALBUM EVER' but its one ive come back to for years so its kind of comfort food

I was working on a theory that you could tell what type of rap fan someone was by their favorite album. I bet Bastard Swordsman is an Illmatic guy.

not really following the current strain of conversation but that Lauryn Hill album is simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious when she starts ranting

mine is Low End Theory -- should this be a thread (or possibly a 'what Sex And The City character are you' type web quiz)

some dude OTM, although sometimes it's De La Soul Is Dead or Fear of a Black Planet

(but usually LET)

Dan def strikes me as the type of dude who fav rap album is De La Soul Is Dead, no offense

none taken! luv that shit

yeah i mean it's hard to turn that into an insult. "you like old stuff...really really great old stuff, but old stuff"

xp Hmm, sounds like I should go back to Dynasty. Back when he was putting out an album a year it was easy to dismiss the weaker ones.

wait how the shit did Tical 2000 not make any of these lists? Just because it had 5/25 dope songs doesn't mean it wasn't the biggest mess and FAIL

Mines is probably ATLiens.

^my #2 Rhythm-al-ism is #1 for me.

cuban linx for me.

the infamous.

28. Eazy-E, It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa (1993)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsdLn46UXnA

sex & violence by bdp is kinda up and down, but so is every bdp album after criminal minded

love "duck down" off that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDyYHIDJ1CQ

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

41. Lil B, I'm Gay (I'm Happy) (2011) 7

are you guys just that big of stans for this guy or is everyone on this site secretly 17?

whiney otm x10000

is there a CD on this list that got a vote that isn't better than "i'm gay (i'm happy)"

is there a CD on this list that got a vote that isn't better than "i'm gay (i'm happy)"

― D-40, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 00:09 (2 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Electric Circus.

Voted Cube iirc. Lol @ lil b, some of those votes should have gone to Big Daddy Kane.

the thing about meme rap is that you can never feign too much enthusiasm

u sure never have that problem

good zing but really, al otm

wow, didn't see this. I have a beef w/ the following inclusions:

13. A Tribe Called Quest, Beats, Rhymes, & Life (1996)

Man, Beats Rhymes and Life is like a Dean's List student suddenly getting straight Bs one semester. I mean it's a huge dropoff from Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders, but it's still an enjoyable listen, even if arguably not essential. Just not as focused and the inclusion of Consequence (whom I like) was weird.

41. Lil B, I'm Gay (I'm Happy) (2011)

I like "I'm Gay" -- and I also like shit like Blue/Red Flame. Don't think it's impossible to like both 'sides' of the artist. Think this is just too easy of a potshot.

43. Mystikal, Tarantula (2001)

This is by far the biggest pile of bullshit in the entire list. The defense of its inclusion is very vague and lacking in detail, and makes me wonder when the last time the author listened to this album was. "Pussy Crook" is a great song, yea, Mystikal's later actions do make it a bit o_O, but it's a fucking banger of a song when removed from that. And the entire album is fucking fire -- I mean loving Let's Get Ready and hating Tarantula to me is like loving Super Tight and hating Ridin' Dirty. I prefer Let's Get Ready, but Tarantula ain't much of a dropoff.

36. Hammer, The Funky Headhunter (1994)

I thought this list was supposed to be for awesome rappers making wack albums? If anything, the only Hammer album that is still listenable (even if it is admittedly corny and phony sounding) is this one.

27. Shyne, Godfather Buried Alive (2004)

Man gtfo with this. I actually prefer this to his debut as he actually manages to evolve beyond generic gangsta tropes on several tracks on this one and come up with some semblance of identity. I like the debut too but it isn't like it was a classic or anything.

i'm not necessarily excusing the rest, there's a few I haven't heard.

i didn't even notice mystikal was on there. i voted for the winner but now i wish i could change my vote.

36. Hammer, The Funky Headhunter (1994)

I thought this list was supposed to be for awesome rappers making wack albums? If anything, the only Hammer album that is still listenable (even if it is admittedly corny and phony sounding) is this one.

Let's Get It Started is p dope, fuiud

Maybe 70% of this list could be repurposed as "Actually Kind-of-Dope Albums You Can Get Used on Amazon for $1.99"

would no one stan for Das EFX?

I wanna say Kingdom Come cuz of the Just Blaze trifecta but a) that still was a fail and b) I'm not familiar with all these

the album's subject matter—the War in Iraq on "Casualties of War"?—wasn't on par with what we'd come to expect.

Such an odd criticism of Eric B & Rakim. Rappers addressing the Iraq war? Not that crazy an idea really. Great track too.

46. Leaders Of The New School, T.I.M.E. (The Inner Mind's Eye) (1993)

I love this album, can't understand why people rate it below the debut

is this Boot Camp Clik really worthy of placement?

The Boot Camp Clik album is in no way bad, I guess you call it disappointing if you compare to the debut albums of Clik members (Black Moon, Smif-n-Wessun, Heltah Skeltah), and the lack of Beatminerz is noticable, but most of the beats and raps on it are still solid.

Also, I've never understood why No Man's Land is considered a failure... Just because they changed their style after the debut doesn't necessarily mean SoM were bad at their new style, and they weren't. As far as dark/contemplative rap goes, No Man's Land is really good, personally I rate it even above the debut.

Maybe 70% of this list could be repurposed as "Actually Kind-of-Dope Albums You Can Get Used on Amazon for $1.99"

Truth.

DMX, Year Of The Dog...Again (2006)

why the "Again?", he never had another album called Year of the Dog

i'm upset that lil b is on the list too because now instead of discussing the career lowlights of actual legends we have another thread about the pomplamoose of rap's most adowable wittle pubwicity stunt yet

― some dude, Friday, August 26, 2011 9:51 PM bookmarkflaglink

I lolled

“the pomplamoose of rap” is vicious

2006 was the year of the dog in the Chinese zodiac and they loop every 12 years, so maybe DMX was just commenting on that?

“Good Grief! More Year of the Dog”

xpost that was my theory, it's just a weiiiird title.

The eazy e nomination was insane. Perfect album

Lol Boring