best 1994 rap album besides Illmatic and Ready To Die

Arrested Development - Zingalamaduni

paging da croup

Gravediggaz or Odd Squad

Tical gonna sweep this and prolly rightfully so

Gravediggaz for me but I strongly considered Tical

wonder if deej or somebody can explain how the hell 2 rappers from the same city dropped albums called "resurrection" like a week apart (and in both cases only their second album!)

Tical gonna sweep this and prolly rightfully so

― camp lo magellan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, July 16, 2012 2:00 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

nah kast is gonna win

don't feel super strongly about the order but this is my 1-10:

Gang Starr - Hard To Earn
Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Common - Resurrection
UGK - Super Tight
Redman - Dare Iz A Darkside
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony - Creepin On Ah Come Up EP
Warren G - Regulate...G Funk Era
Scarface - The Diary
Method Man - Tical
Da Brat - Funkdafied

lotta good stuff here but nothing as good as Blowout Comb (which I would also rate above Ready to Die and maybe Illmatic altho I dunno that's more of a tossup)

Tical gonna sweep this and prolly rightfully so

― camp lo magellan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, July 16, 2012 2:00 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

nah kast is gonna win
--J0rdan S.

Yeah, smh

lotta good stuff here but nothing as good as Blowout Comb (which I would also rate above Ready to Die and maybe Illmatic altho I dunno that's more of a tossup)
--the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier)

Pretty early for challops

would also stan for:

Tical
Don't Fight the Feelin'
The Main Ingredient
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
AmeriKKKa's Nightmare

don't think I've ever heard the Mailman

was this poll inspired by the gathering of the juggalos lineup

haha no, who's on it?

i would like to think that a board that overrates Stankonia as much as ILM does would give the debut its props but i kinda doubt it

I love the first (second?) track on Blowout Comb but remember nothing else about the album

Gravediggaz or Redman. At the time, probably Gravediggaz but I'm more likely to listen to Darkside these days.

seeing the Big Poppa video signalled the first time I felt disconnected from where hip hop was going. absolutely hated it. I know no one here agrees with me. it is what it is. like a lot of people in the Bay Area I spent the 90s totally ignoring the mainstream-pop-rap stuff that came out of NY.

xp

i heard Darkside for the first time recently and was like 'oh shit, this is what i was wishing Muddy Waters sounded like'

i would like to think that a board that overrates Stankonia as much as ILM does would give the debut its props but i kinda doubt it
--some dude

Southernherbalisticlurkermusik

I voted Reachin' in this because I never heard Blowout Comb beyond the first track, but I am playing that first track now and wishing I'd voted the other way.

― we call him black Nev coz he's black & his names Neville (HI DERE), Friday, March 12, 2010 10:19 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

okay I just checked, it was track 1 of Blowout Comb that I adored

xp: timely repost

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

seeing the Big Poppa video signalled the first time I felt disconnected from where hip hop was going. absolutely hated it. I know no one here agrees with me. it is what it is. like a lot of people in the Bay Area I spent the 90s totally ignoring the mainstream-pop-rap stuff that came out of NY.

xp
--the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier)

No, I totally did this too! Then like four years later I realized I was being a fucking idiot

Super Tight!!!

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

scarface the diary

^^^ yeah would ride for that too. Hand of the Dead Body!

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

The Diary was weirdly disappointing for me to hear, like i'd always heard that it was THE Scarface album but i don't really enjoy it as much as The World Is Yours or at least a couple of the later LPs

THIS IS CRAZY HARD

wonder if deej or somebody can explain how the hell 2 rappers from the same city dropped albums called "resurrection" like a week apart (and in both cases only their second album!)

― some dude, Monday, July 16, 2012 1:01 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i find this almost as O_o as two albums having "comb" in the title

the most 1994 title ever: Funky Resurrection Comb

Huh I just had this high school memory come back about how there was this girl in my school who was considered something of a hip-hop talent, and I was vaguely friendly with her in the way that a high schooler can be with someone who is popular and well-liked and not a jerk. Anyway she was all into biggie at the time and I really didn't *get* biggie yet at all. But I was listening to Blowout Comb all the time, and I gave her my walkman to listen to it once, and she said it was "cute." I was kind of bummed but in retrospect yeah of course biggie is way better than blowout comb what the fuck are you even talking about shakey?!

lol

After looking at this list, it's striking just how regionally divided hip-hop was in '94. Tical aside, I think rankings will generally fluctuate wildly based on one's location in 1994. At least for that subjective part of your evaluation based on nostalgia. I mean, how many New York/Boston folks were listening to the Odd Squad, UGK, or even Outkast at the time?

NYC and Boston radio certainly wasn't giving these artists any burn. You had to be a pretty die-hard Source reader and/or have a fairly large music budget to gamble on some of these quite excellent regional releases. Most of these were not Tower/HMV listening booth material either. I realize that now we've all heard these records, but I feel like these polls are not just an objective evaluation of the best albums in a given year, but also which albums have that essential "1994-ness", or whatever the year which comes from listening to the albums in the context of their respective release year.

That said, I am not a super-frequent poster, so what do I know?

My picks:
Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Method Man - Tical
Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep
Artifacts - Between a Rock & A Hard Place
The Coup - Genocide & Juice
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony - Creepin On Ah Come Up EP
Jeru the Damaja - The Sun Rises In The East
MC Eiht - We Come Strapped

goddamn

what a year

I'm only 19 years old but music was definitely better back then, not like the crap they play on the radio now

shrugs

my top ten in no order

Big Mike - Somethin' Serious
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony - Creepin On Ah Come Up EP
Gang Starr - Hard To Earn
O.C. - Word...Life
Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda
Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Redman - Dare Iz A Darkside
Scarface - The Diary
Spice 1 - AmeriKKKa's Nightmare
UGK - Super Tight

my #1 is a very tough choice between gang starr & scarface

also really wanted to put the beatnuts & common in there but what can you do

might switch big mike out for common idk

im kind of an o.c. stan, i feel like there's no reason that it should be ahead of a few of the records i left off but i think its a great lp & underrated

Gravediggaz, Method Man and Organized Konfusion basically impossible to choose.

The Diary

I like the beats on Blowout Comb a lot but there really isn't a whole lot going on lyrically.

Jeru is a classic too imo

organized konfusion, outkast, tical, or jeru

gonna throw a vote to o.k. cuz i'm afraid no on else will

creepin on ah come up is great too

this is all great! we used to have it so good

Ah, it's not just me weighing up Jeru then. Love that album. In fact my top four are the same as strongo's.

control the mic like Fidel Castro IMO

Casual - Fear Itself was a good Heiro album....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svGt7XeBwkw

Close call between Scarface and Jeru The Damaja. Gang Starr and Gravediggaz would be up there too.

jt the bigga figga was good too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RZVNOfylBU

Organized Konfusion

Weak spot for jeru, brand nubian, and Scarface, but I've always loved 6ft Deep.

I Didn't Mean To Remix is so hard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5Enh-_ZpHQ

damn paris on the list too

gotta go Hard to Earn

^^

actually no im going w/ tical but hard to earn gets more listens these days

top 10 (not in order) would be .... Hard to Earn, Tical, Beatnuts, Blowout Comb, Brand Nubian, Gravediggaz, Jeru, Organized Konfusion, OC Word...Life, Outkast

would also stan for:

Tical
Don't Fight the Feelin'
The Main Ingredient
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
AmeriKKKa's Nightmare

don't think I've ever heard the Mailman

― the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, July 16, 2012 2:08 PM (3 hours ago)

shakey you've heard the coup right?

what a year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TNXoH7EYWY

was disappointed to find out Kam's records were '93 and '95, i love both those

ha yes speaking of shakeybait

just listened to neva again this morning

I don't think I've heard that particular Coup album, no

Kam was underrated!

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf68J5iqK6g

O.C. had a lot more depth than just 'times up'

also dunno why I left Hard to Earn off my list, just an oversight

Close call between Jeru/Method Man/Gravediggaz for me.

im surpried to hear tical is so acclaimed round here i never liked it much past the singles & a few select traxxx.

maybe that's an overstatement. but its def a kind of low-key record to me idk

i like jeru & always will altho i def feel like his rap style has aged kinda poorly. the guys he inspired were so much worse than him. i still remember ethan calling afu ra "jeru's jeru" lol

well you DO remember how absurdly wu-centric that all-time rap albums poll we did was, right? this is how it ranked 94:

84. Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda [4 votes, 134 points, 1994]
51. Jeru the Damaja - The Sun Rises In The East [8 votes, 204 points, 1994]
47. Method Man - Tical [8 votes, 208 points, 1994]
25. Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep / Niggamortis [10 votes, 317 points, 1994]
5. The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die [21 votes, 749 points, 1994]
2. Nas - Illmatic [24 votes, 3 #1 votes, 901 points, 5 mics, 1994]

xpost

ha wow. alrighthen

still pissed about that poll

yeah deej i feel you, i think it's weird that ppl are acting like OH OF COURSE tical is the runaway winner...

tbh at the time it seemed like it was perceived as a relative dud compared to the rest of the first round of Wu Tang solo albums

i guess i've always thought of it as underrated, but maybe it's overrated.

fuckin a that keith murray album is fucking great too i listened to that so much

i think i'm gonna vote for keith so it gets one vote

My top 5

Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Digable Planets - Blowout Comb
UGK - Super Tight
Gang Starr - Hard To Earn
Redman - Dare Iz A Darkside

smh at Whiney hating on SPCM

actually, wait, put Bone at #5

dare iz a darkside is a stong contender....i think ppl got used to redman as sort of a snoop/willie nelson/ludacris/busta "welcome guest appearance" guy for so long that they forget the first two albums are super powerful dark funk with red rhyming his ass off

first album is my fave

A lot of albums on this list are better than Illmatic, real talk

not too early for challops anymore eh

list them xp @ Whiney

Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep
Method Man - Tical
Odd Squad - Fadanuf fa Erybody
Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
UGK - Super Tight

but i thought Outkast was for herbs

hahahaha

outkast is an amazing group. thinking outkast made the greatest album of 1994 or any year is for herbs

unless you count big boi solo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A__90V2h_9o

GREG NICE
GREG
N
I
C
E

voting Hard To Earn obv

how is this not mellow gold?

There it is

in 94 I definitely listened to Common more than any of these

outkast is an amazing group. thinking outkast made the greatest album of 1994 or any year is for herbs

― camp lo magellan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, July 16, 2012 8:09 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

unless you count big boi solo

― camp lo magellan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, July 16, 2012 8:09 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...

:O

LOL @ Shipley's total snub of Ill Communication

outkast is an amazing group. thinking outkast made the greatest album of 1994 or any year is for herbs

― camp lo magellan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, July 16, 2012 8:09 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I take this back because 1998

almost as lol as constructing a byzantine pecking order in which something can be better than illmatic but definitely not the album of the year (xpost)

"if this is higher than 4th place on your list but lower than 8th place, then FUCK YOU HERB"

Replace the album names with Mike & Molly episodes and Semisonic songs & you can call me your brother from another mother

:P

^then implying that that pitchfork big boi record was better than any of kast's records. the audacity

xxp

Replace the album names with Mike & Molly episodes and Semisonic songs & you can call me your brother from another mother

― camp lo magellan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, July 16, 2012 9:00 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

you have ad hominem tourette's, dogg, stay on the topic

kevin, i wasn't saying that, idiot

voted scarface over gravediggaz if only cuz that's how i would've voted in 94. i can understand why it's not here but the above the rim soundtrack seems like an omission in terms of 'what was unavoidable in 94'. haha also the fresh soundtrack.

yeah i thought about including Above The Rim since it felt so huge just off of "Regulate" being on it well before Warren's album dropped but just decided to stick w/ artist albums. "Pain" is one of my fav Pac songs, though.

btw Scarface recently revealed in an interview that the original title of The Diary was LISTEN TO THIS BRAD

Surprised myself by voting The Coup over Gravediggaz or Organized Konfusion, but Genocide & Juice is such a perfect example of how political music should be: part funny, part angry, part sad, with great rabble-rousing beats too.

didn't surprise me since the main reason i included The Coup was that you whined about their absence in best rap album of 1998

the rhythm is the bass and the bass is the treble

btw Scarface recently revealed in an interview that the original title of The Diary was LISTEN TO THIS BRAD

― some dude, Tuesday, July 17, 2012 4:21 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hey i know but still i'm lollin @ this

Genocide & Juice is great

Has anyone heard that Dred Scott album?

I bet I'll like it, I am very afrocentric

didn't surprise me since the main reason i included The Coup was that you whined about their absence in best rap album of 1998

Haha, well yeah, but the 1998 poll didn't have as many (non-Coup) albums I love as this one.

In the 1998 poll I would've voted for The Coup without a second thought. But here I had to think hard what to vote, even though Genocide & Juice is my favourite Coup album. Just shows how great a year 1994 was for rap.

btw ppl not up on Blowout Comb should really get up on Blowout Comb, it's fucking great

I would still pick Gravediggaz, Tical, and Outkast over it (possibly also O.K.) but it's a great album

I think I might buy everything on this list I don't already own (looking esp. at you, Jeru)

anyone heard that Main Source (minus Large Prof.) album? I thought it never came out, but wikipedia says it was released and then shelved (whatever that means) and then released in 1999.

i remember reading about how bad it supposedly is a while back but i didn't realize it wasn't actually released in 94, my bad for including it

btw Scarface recently revealed in an interview that the original title of The Diary was LISTEN TO THIS BRAD

glad i voted for it

love that jeru album, some of premier's best work ever

"if this is higher than 4th place on your list but lower than 8th place, then FUCK YOU HERB"

^^^this

wtf whiney

people on an internet forum calling each other "herbs", i mean really

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7ba1evEwO1qargt4o1_400.jpg

nice tits

anyway, my favorite herb tits = gen & juice, blowout comb, 6 ft deep, tical and southernplayalistic

went with gravediggas because i have nostalgia

tical isnt even in my top 20 prob

I think I like it more in theory than in actuality - the first few tracks are so murky and clouded they kinda leave the false impression that the whole record is some sludged-out bleary-eyed stomper, but the more uptempo stuff doesn't work imho

yeah i love Meth and WANT to be able to go "best Wu solo album fuiud" etc. but i just can't, it ain't that hot

it does have a very unusual sound - it's interesting to chart the gradual shift in production from 36 Chambers to Tical to The Dirty Version and then there is just a huuuuge leap with the Raekwon and GZA records

Blackout! >>>>> Tical

xxxp to be honest I can't really remember the uptempo stuff. It mostly just strikes me as an odd record (esp. so since Meth is really the most conventional of the Wu-Tang). If Meth was less of a face (and minus the Wu-Tang connection, of course) it's hard to imagine it coming out on a major label.

I Get My Thing in Action, Release Yo'Self, Stimulation... they're okay but they aren't great or unusual or anything

keep beating that "tical ain't all that" dead horse guys

hard to earn is p rad

The uptempo parts are the GOOD parts of Tical!

O.C. - Word...Life

boring album but this is classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCJ6f5VnVVo

nah my fave tracks are Tical, What the Blood Clot, Biscuits, PLO Style

xp

boring album but this is classic

― am0n, Tuesday, July 17, 2012 4:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yet still better than tical :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j70w-I5Utx8

also the reason i was always a lil underwhelmed when blaze/jay flipped this sample :(

word...life isn't boring, but the songs are all super tight and flawless in the same way so it doesn't feel like there are any high points

we should have a thread about rap albums from '93-'96 that were wack. It seems like there were none. Almost.

Some of these albums seem years apart in my mind.

I voted for Blowout Comb, but if you asked me IN 1994, I would have probably said Method Man or Outkast. Main Ingredient is great too

Also the Public Enemy seemed good at the time, I probably haven't heard it in ten years though

i've still never heard that PE album. A slave to the critics, I guess

i'm listening to the albums I've never heard on spotify:

Big Mike- Somethin' Serious is pretty dope.

yeah, listened to that one and Fadanuf Fa Erybody!! today. Love the track with Pimp C on the Big Mike (the drums!) and the Odd Squad is downright brilliant

having thangs by big mike is a classic off that

Blackout! >>>>> Tical

― chain the color of am0n (The Reverend), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 4:41 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

qft

we should have a thread about rap albums from '93-'96 that were wack. It seems like there were none. Almost.

― President Keyes, Tuesday, July 17, 2012 6:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i filtered Vanilla Ice, Hammer and ICP albums out of the poll options btw

the hammer album had a few good tracks

my fav rap singles of 94:

Snoop Doggy Dogg - "Gin And Juice"
Notorious B.I.G. - "Juicy"
Warren G and Nate Dogg - "Regulate"
Wu Tang Clan - "C.R.E.A.M."
Craig Mack - "Flava In Ya Ear"
Gang Starr - "DWYCK"
Queen Latifah - "U.N.I.T.Y."
Beastie Boys - "Sure Shot"
Sagat - "Why Is It? (Funk Dat)"
Domino - "Getto Jam"
Jeru The Damaja - "Come Clean"
Heavy D & The Boyz -"Black Coffee"
Nas - "Ain't Hard To Tell"
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - "Thuggish Ruggish Bone"
Ahmad - "Back In The Day"
E-40 f/ The Click - "Captain Save A Hoe"
Hammer - "Pumps And A Bump"
Nas - "One Love"
Da Brat - "Funkdafied"
Keith Murray - "The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World"
69 Boyz - "Tootsee Roll"
Domino - "Sweet Potato Pie"
Beastie Boys - "Root Down"
Common - "I Used To Love H.E.R."
Scarface - "I Seen A Man Die"
Outkast - "Player's Ball"
Lady of Rage f/ Snoop Doggy Dogg - "Afro Puffs"
Gang Starr - "Mass Appeal"
Lucas - "Lucas With The Lid Off"

Cleeeeeeeeaveland

Definitelyyyyyyy

in the

house

I f/w that Hammer album

sorry for not funky headhunting guys

man I just listened to "U.N.I.T.Y." for the first time in a looong time; that shit is great

i know right!?

I freely admit one of the reasons I like Tical so much is because of the Prodigy remix of "Release Yo (DS)elf":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uivw43LOwKo

alright partly strategic but i voted 4-tay. i'm not sure people know how consistent that album is... to me it's up there with kast and scarface

that album is totally solid!

Gravediggaz, along with regulate and doggystyle was my intro to hiphop. It was my fave then and remains to be to this day. Pretty much every track a banger. Prince paul's beats, the funky flows, rza in raw mode and the hilarious lyrics make it a classic. Still get's listened to on the reg.

prodigy remix of release yo delf is basically one of my top

...10 singles ever

that was much better than I expected. never heard it before

in retrospect, that remix feels like it sucked the last remnants of Howlett's Jilted Generation energy, leading him to write the same single three different ways and poop out some truly horrible album tracks for Fat of the Land

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

bump

bump-skiggidy-bump

I don't know any of these well enough to vote, but I'm looking forward to the results to guide my future exploration.

Cant go wrong with the majority of that list. Don't have a clue how to pick just one! My list runs pretty parallel with deej's.

I have major feelings for Word Life, Spice 1 and the Diary. Tical is also great, I think its aged pretty well, love the overall gloomy vibe, it sounds so deep at times. MC Eiht - We Come Strapped is kind of a personal classic for me as well.

Would be interested in a 93-98 countdown poll.

considering that the big rap albums ballot poll we did was pretty heavy on 93-98 i think that might be a little redundant. i'd be happy to organize more yearly polls like this, though, with or without Illmatic/Ready To Die type exceptions to make things more interesting.

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

you'd have to exclude enter the wu tang from '93

xpost fuck you wu heads

For fuck's sake, how did Muse Sick beat Resurrection? Have you people heard that album?

seriously

Good point xp, I do like the idea of these yearly ones.

ilx has the weirdest taste

ilx has the taste of borks

i think i'm going to do non-Wu polls of '93 and '95 -- dunno if anything else is obvious enough to take out (Doggystyle? Midnight Marauders? The Infamous?)

cuban linx

oh non-wu

how did whiney get 3 votes?

gotta say i am impressed by the spread of the votes -- lotta albums nobody even posted about got multiple votes!

tbh i have no clue what i wouldve voted for in this poll if id known about it. scarface probably

how did whiney get 3 votes?

― balls, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:29 PM (30 seconds ago) Bookmark

http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

i'd say exclude cuban linx and liquid swords from 95 and doggystyle and midnight marauders along w/ 36 chambers from 93, maybe infamous if it's that apparent it would win

yeah definitely excluding all Wu solo albums -- wouldn't trust some of y'all not to put ODB at #1 tbh

forgot to vote. happy to see Extinction Agenda placed fairly high. Pharoahe Monch is one of the best to ever do it.

to me these results invite a discussion about how many albums you should actually have heard out of a list of 40+ if you're gonna cast a vote

i'm forever of the opinion that if you only know one option in a poll it's fair game to vote

3 votes going to P.E. means we should set the floor at at least "1"

huh

what'd you end up voting for, hard to earn?

xp idk can anyone defend Muse? nobody talked about it on the thread

i voted for rappin' 4-tay just to get it on the board. anyway i wasn't trying to say i've heard (of) all these albums, but at the risk of being a dick it seems like most polls are mostly silent majority and they just turn out meaningless.

the gravediggaz herbs weren't very silent, tbf

what'd you end up voting for, hard to earn?

tbh i dont think i actually voted for anything but thats my pick in spirit its more that i didnt think anyone rated those jeru and warren g records never mind thought of them as the best (or i guess 3rd best) rap album of 94... and like there are bunch of albums that got votes that ive never heard a minute of.

the Warren G album is def not my #1/#3 but it's really, really dope

i do have a soft spot for jeru because he was headlining the first rap show i ever went to i got to 'sneak in' because my friend jessica knew the guy who was working the door and he let us in and i was to nervous to really do anything but sit and goggle at stuff but i had a p rad time so i always associate him w/ that, like for a minute he was my 'favorite rapper' because he did some crazy freestyles and i was very impressed with both that and myself in general so

xp idk can anyone defend Muse? nobody talked about it on the thread

― een, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's maybe like the 10th best album on this list of legendary albums; but it's dope and wildly underrated. Really a smart--fuck it, visionary--mix of samples and live instruments rubbing against each other. Ragged Sly vibes. It's great.

I guess most of the Tical voters went to 6 Feet Deep instead.

Left your boys at 99th and St. Clair high and dry.

Gravediggaz is the best

LITTLE-KNOWN FACT the original title of the Gravediggaz album, before the record company made them change it, was Niggas in Paris

i voted gravdiggaz, classic shit, there are a lot of good musics on here tho, except digable planets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33DM2i1Hv70

^^^scarier than gravediggaz

ilx has the weirdest taste

― max, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbh i have no clue what i wouldve voted for in this poll if id known about it. scarface probably

― max, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i never seen a max cry
until i seen a max *sigh*

gravdiggaz is not actually suposed to be scary guys, its just for fun

Who voted Keith Murray? I remember that record being really underwhelming after hearing a bunch of freestyles and guest verses and thinking he had a ton of personality and an interesting voice. That said, it ws years since I heard it. Worth trying again? His other records arent very memorable either.

its def the most beautifulest album on the list, the best tho, not so sure

xpost 'scary'

"Horrorcore", whatever. Sometimes I use it to get me pumped, sometimes I incorporate it into my enhanced interrogation of susupected terrorists, and yeah, sometimes I turn off all the lights and get real stoned and pretend that RZA is actually a psychopath i'm locked up with

Rolling Stone (10/6/94, p. 90) – 3.5 Stars – "[Gravediggaz] evoke the atmosphere of horror movies and ominous effects, they've also been street tested, boasting hard beats and verbal skills."

Entertainment Weekly (8/19/94, p. 62) – "The album doesn't take itself very seriously, but the flustered beats, washed in minor chords, are strangely irresistible--partly because it is all so silly". – Rating: B

Q magazine (11/94, p. 129) – 3 Stars – "The foursome use death, burial and The Grim Reaper as central themes for a chilling mid-tempo stomp through America's urban problems."

The Source (9/94, pp. 91–92) – 3.5 Stars – "No, this isn't the climax of the latest Stephen King flick or Jason, part 17. It's an image created by the Gravediggaz, one of a number of new groups combining rap with horror-movie macabre to create a genre unofficially known as `horror-core'".

NME (12/24/94, p. 22) – Ranked #22 in NME's list of the `Top 50 Albums Of 1994.'

NME (Magazine) (9/10/94, p.46) – 8 – Excellent – "Gravediggaz feverishly document the low life – graveyard low.[5]"

In 2009, Fangoria named it as a iconic horrorcore album.[6]

tbh i dont think i actually voted for anything but thats my pick in spirit its more that i didnt think anyone rated those jeru and warren g records never mind thought of them as the best (or i guess 3rd best) rap album of 94... and like there are bunch of albums that got votes that ive never heard a minute of.

― Lamp, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 10:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the jeru is def widely considered a classic; if anything its star has fallen slightly in recent years but 'come clean' was like THE premo beat for awhile

that digable planets album >>> gravediggaz

i dont actually know that i believe that but hating on that DP album is weak

def agree with that second post

i know nothing about Digable Planets other than filing them alongside "Cantaloop" as an embarrassingly corny 'jazz rap' video that was on MTV all the time in 1993, so i've just stayed far far away from them in the decades since

you could have just stopped at "I know nothing about Digable Planets" tbh

which may be especially silly coming from someone whose favorite rap LP of all time is Low End Theory, but that's where i'm coming from

xpost

I think you would really dig Blowout Comb tbh, esp since you dig The Low End Theory

thread is lol

for some reason I didn't actually hear that Gravediggaz album til years later (even tho I did get the second one when it came out) so I don't have the sentimental associations with it that I would guess some folks here have. it's good tho.

not as good as Blowout Comb of course

hahahaha what the hell?

jesus

Blowout Comb is awesome, fuiud.

Also, one of two albums in this poll I've actually heard*, but don't worry, I didn't vote.

*the other is Zingalamaduni lol

lol jaymc

up until this moment I always thought that album was called Zingalamundi

boy your face must be read as you recall all the conversations where you pronounced it wrong and your appalled friends hesitate to say anything

yes ~~the shame~~

luckily I don't think I've ever pronounced it out loud

digable planets r cute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJKIPz1c0Gw

me: guy in the koala shirt

although tbf that planet is much more respectable than the first one

jazzy joyce jazzy joyce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4kqL13jGM

ilx: the white dread

are the two of them brother and sister that cutesy ny accent rap voice thing they do is so grating

biddy biddy bop FUNKY FUNKY

baby talk paddy cake eat a bucket a buns

second album is a completely different animal from the first imho (altho the first has its moments)

dp is pretty innocuous.

loving them or hating them too much is nagl

lol youre some aspiring rapper who moves in the same circles as the nascent digable planets then they sign a deal and get huge and youre all that guy for real world THE BABY TALK GUY

no one said blowout comb wasn't a charming artifact of the post native tongue bo-ho era, but c'mon

gravediggaz is good but i've never understood ppl on ILX rating it so highly.

I think you would really dig Blowout Comb tbh, esp since you dig The Low End Theory

― PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 10:49 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbf some dude ignores 99% of recommendations

but just to be clear everyone my dislike of them is not that intense and totally w/in aceptable parameters

gravediggaz is good but i've never understood ppl on ILX rating it so highly.

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 11:53 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they like menacing rappers to be as cartoony& self aware as possible?

that sounds about right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eVp0hi0TCQ

musically its just a dope record

although 'lets get creamy' i guess sounds kinda silly. but w/e

gravediggaz is good but i've never understood ppl on ILX rating it so highly.

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 11:53 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they like menacing rappers to be as cartoony& self aware as possible?

― google deeznuts (D-40), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:54 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or maybe its really good music, two of the best producers at the top of their games, dope rappers having fun idk

don't love DP but BC is musically dope

I straight-up loved the first DP album when it came out. I mean, I bought the Us3 album, too, and Me Phi Me, and dubbed a tape of Miles Davis's Doo Bop from the library, and my dad bought Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool after TIME magazine named it the best album of that year, and I was ~very interested~ in what I read about Guru and Greg Osby at the time (though, pre-Internet, I never actually bothered to check them out) -- but Reachin' pretty much took the cake.

I think you would really dig Blowout Comb tbh, esp since you dig The Low End Theory

― PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 10:49 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

digable planets definitely like low end theory a lot, but that abt as far as id go

cmon they have a much difft style than tribe

you cannot deny that digable planets love the album the low end theory

musically its just a dope record

^^^this

the rapping is almost secondary (altho there are definitely some great bits)

diff style but comparable ~vibe~

production is WAY different

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuJ1NALgZ8s

digable planets tried to take a short cut to the low end theory vibe

xposts Granted, Me Phi Me's kind of an outlier there ... but after falling in love w/P.M. Dawn in 1991 and Arrested Development in '92 and Digable Planets in '93, I spent a fair amount of time in early adolescence trying to discover the next awesome "alternative rap" act.

LET is way more spare, boom-bap style than BOC, much of which has more of a blaxploitation feel to my ears (all the Shaft sdtk samples etc)

zoom out a lil bit shakey

digable planets tried to take a short cut to the low end theory vibe

otm

and?

i mean yeah that totally ruins it for me

idgi what was this "shortcut"

gravediggaz is good but i've never understood ppl on ILX rating it so highly.

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 11:53 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they like menacing rappers to be as cartoony& self aware as possible?

― google deeznuts (D-40), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:54 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol, tell us more about your views on the perfect authentic black entertainer. self-awareness is only for elvis costello, after all

christopher...

... confront an alligator, let it eat u raw

up until this moment I always thought that album was called Zingalamundi

If you asked me before now what this album was called, I would've told you Zingalangamundi.

Lots of script-flippers on this list.

i'm just saying that self-aware rappers isn't some gateway drug into kitty pryde or nothin

gravediggaz is good but i've never understood ppl on ILX rating it so highly.

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 11:53 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they like menacing rappers to be as cartoony& self aware as possible?

― google deeznuts (D-40), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:54 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol, tell us more about your views on the perfect authentic black entertainer. self-awareness is only for elvis costello, after all

― camp lo magellan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:18 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

really puzzling how u got from point 'a' to 'b' on this one.

i mean yeah that totally ruins it for me

it's not supposed to "ruin" anything it's just a way of talking about music

xpost to whiney: ya okay point taken. still kind of a silly double-strawman situation, on some two-siris-talking-to-each-other shit

But I just spat coffee over yr DN, so all is forgiven

GRΔVVΞ○DIGGΔZ

"it's just a way of talking about music"

nah it's bullshit

fwiw i like that the gravediggaz are self aware, raider klan would be better if they had more self awareness for a contemporary parallel (no i dont think they're nearly as good as gravediggaz) i just meant that it was that factor that made them the landslide winners in this poll

imo blowout comb is obv made in a universe where they are very aware of low end theory but its not even close to biting it.

I think the appeal of Gravediggaz is pretty obvious. Not just of the music, but of the musical object. Obscure (I know it's not THAT obscure, but relative to Wu- stricto sensu) camp classic by which tru obsessives (i.e. ILM posters/lurkers) distinguish themselves from the casual fans.

Would be v.interested in the results of a "how many of the albums from this list have you heard" poll

I count 12 but I may be forgetting a few I heard when they came out and promptly never listened to again

21; all of the vote getters except the PE, Heavy D, and Rappin 4tay

I think you would really dig Blowout Comb tbh, esp since you dig The Low End Theory

― PITILESS LIVE SHOW (DJP), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 10:49 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbf some dude ignores 99% of recommendations

― google deeznuts (D-40), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:54 PM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark

i would like to be so self-possessed that i somehow have listened to thousands of albums without ever heeding someone else's words but i dunno how that's possible actually

28

15 (13 before the poll) but i'm pretty herbish

i would like to be so self-possessed that i somehow have listened to thousands of albums without ever heeding someone else's words but i dunno how that's possible actually

― nakhchi little van (some dude), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:53 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah except i've recommended & watched people recommend this album on ilx over & over & youve ignored us so far, why stop now

ive heard 40 or 41

i was pretty forthright upthread about why I've avoided Digable Planets for years and years, not in a proud way but just saying that's my baggage

can we have a new board called I Love Rap But I Don't Have to Be A Dick About It for like, you know, the rest of us

was i being a dick? sorry man, i thought i was just trying to be honest about my hangups

eh I'm probably just cranky, it feels like it is completely impossible for there to be a rap thread on ilm without people being super hardman abt shit or dragging beef from thread to thread - wasn't responding to yr post directly fwiw

aero OTM sadly

still pissed there wasn't a 3rd X-Clan album in '94 btw

Brat and Bone Thugs 94 convo over here.

i thought this thread has had really the bare minimum of nastiness given the subject matter but maybe my perspective is out of wack?

it feels like it is completely impossible for there to be a rap thread on ilm without people being super hardman abt shit or dragging beef from thread to thread - wasn't responding to yr post directly fwiw

― tallarico dreams (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 2:49 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the best thing about rap threads on ilx tbh

nas v. jay-z

no, aero, we definitely need more threads of people being super tolerant and understanding of white european max tundra fans calling deltron 3030 the truth.

link?

dude whose fav album was ranked higher by NME than The Source coming down hard on the borks

super hardman, beef lover loves super hardman beefy threads, film at 11

just humblin' herbs

every time I come onto these threads I feel like I'm talking to 20 Michael Rapaports

this is the best thing about rap threads on ilx tbh

yes Whines I know. your favorite thing is everybody being aggro to each other. I'm just registering a complaint, fear not old boy, as long as you're around to help ruin every rap thread there's little risk of any fun to be had for people who don't consider shooting rubber bands in class an elevated form of discourse

for w/e reason the last few posts have been v funny imo

good morning, and welcome to
THE RAP REPORT
starring 20 Michael Rapaports

M-Rap's Tribe documentary was pretty good tho

if not for Zebrahead we might not have Illmatic so all due respect to Agent Rappin'port

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i2K5bF1aXI

dude whose fav album was ranked higher by NME than The Source coming down hard on the borks

― nakhchi little van (some dude), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 3:05 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dude whose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpv8-5XWOI

M-Rap's Tribe documentary was pretty good tho

dude is obviously terrible but yeah movie was awes

I am a terrible Tribe fan, I still haven't seen it

when mouthbreathers on twitter try to shoot you down with LOL YOU LIKE LINKIN PARK do you go "wow that perceptive argument shut me up, i oughta use that strategy sometime, airtight" (xpost)

oh joy this again

why are you searching out and cataloging my posts

lol

gravediggaz is good but i've never understood ppl on ILX rating it so highly.

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 11:53 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they like menacing rappers to be as cartoony& self aware as possible?

― google deeznuts (D-40), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:54 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or maybe its really good music, two of the best producers at the top of their games, dope rappers having fun idk

― lag∞n, Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9:57 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i love 6 ft deep, i don't think it's cartoony all of the time, though i feel like it's using horror film style to describe the most horrific aspects of real life as they see it, like some of the stuff they're covering is fantasy and some of it is pretty real. it's not like it's a mr dead album.

when mouthbreathers on twitter try to shoot you down with LOL YOU LIKE LINKIN PARK do you go "wow that perceptive argument shut me up, i oughta use that strategy sometime, airtight" (xpost)

― nakhchi little van (some dude), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 2:24 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

guys you BOTH like terrible rock music

i know! should be a uniting factor, not a dividing one!

what is whineys fav album

killer mike doing metal covers of the 2nd arrested development album

ysi?

you can find it on amazon its called 'the hybrid theory'

BACK ON TOPIC yall make me embarrassed to admit the number of these I've heard... I'll just say that it's even less than my age in '94, which was seven

also found this while halfassedly attempting to pirate comb http://archive.ohword.com/features/5/slicker-that-year?pg=all

no, aero, we definitely need more threads of people being super tolerant and understanding of white european max tundra fans calling deltron 3030 the truth.

I'm a white American Max Tundra fan -- should I check out Deltron 3030? Serious question.

tbf i'd heard even less until recently, thread was inspired by trying to catch up on a lot of this stuff (xpost)

jaymc there's a LOT of albums talked about itt that you should check out before Deltron 3030, that's all i'm gonna say

Yes, but which one sounds the most like Max Tundra?

it feels like it is completely impossible for there to be a rap thread on ilm without people being super hardman abt shit or dragging beef from thread to thread

this is pretty standard for online discussion of hip hop on all message boards. something about the music, I guess. I mean, even Jeru and the Fugees recorded disses of each other.

Redman (xpost)

Yes, but which one sounds the most like Max Tundra?

Spice 1 - AmeriKKKa's Nightmare

Deltron 3030 is terrible

Btw, my girlfriend in 2001 briefly lived with a stoner dude who had a cat named Deltron. We called him Del.

fucking hate Automator. as deej might have said back in the day, dude is "corny"

mad corny even

Oh wait, the cat's name might've just been Del -- I forgot that Deltron and Del the Funky... were the same guy.

del the funky tron

main ingredient deserved a vote or 2

I'm not sure I have any hangups about "corny" hip-hop -- funny to me that that's a big put-down.

Main Ingredient > Mecca & The Soul Brother

corny is pejorative xp

*reps the corn*

Deltron 3030 is terrible

― giallo shots (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 3:17 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^Ignore "corny"; focus on this.

corny is pejorative xp

Well, I know that, but what are the implications: it's bad because it's ... square?

corn·y
Trite, banal, or mawkishly sentimental

i tend to use cheesy to denote 'corny but good' and 'corny' to denote 'cheesy but bad'

I love Blowout Comb but didn't realize so many people here rated it, thought it was just like...me and deej and Dan.

xp Cool, thx for the vocabulary tip

ha, well played, deej

me and deej and Dan

what am I, chopped liver?

Just realized my two favorite albums on this list both start with weird, angular horn blasts

xp you're more like a foie gras

not allowed in california

struggling to form some kind of Whiney:suggest-banned/foie gras:California joke

Surprised Super Tight didn't get a vote.

what is whineys fav album

― lag∞n, Wednesday, July 25, 2012 3:56 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

like ever or of 1994 or rap album or on this list or

idk just wondering re the nme v source zing upthread

Gravediggaz

iirc whiney prefers the Grave Ferris mashup album

hoping this is the point of the clusterfuck where we all start making puns

but before it devolves into accusations of custos

Surprised Super Tight didn't get a vote.

― n00bs on my damn chain (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 21:55 (Yesterday) Bookmark

i wavered

idk just wondering re the nme v source zing upthread

― lag∞n, Wednesday, July 25, 2012 5:22 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

lol i was referencing the list of Gravediggaz reviews YOU posted upthread

oh hah

I wouldn't take Source reviews as damning, they've been wrong about a lot of things.

oh obv their word doesn't really mean anything and anyway they gave it 3 1/2 stars. i just thought the "white european max tundra fans calling deltron 3030 the truth" line was bullshit coming from someone who picked a UK critical darling like Gravediggaz over Gang Starr/UGK/Scarface/etc.

3 1/2 stars was a good review score back then

lol stars

haha mics sorry

what u do w/half a mic

all i need is one half mic

lol