POX: Hip-Hop Albums

1. Nas - Illmatic
2. Tribe - Low End Theory
3. Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
4. Notorious BIG - Ready To Die
5. Jeru The Damaja - The Sun Rises in the East
6. Jay-Z - Black Album
7. De La Soul - 3 ft. High and Rising
8. Dr. Dre - The Chronic
9. Outkast - Aquemini
10. J-Live - All of the Above (this last one's a really hard choice)

In no particular order

Gravediggaz: The Pick, The Sickle, and the Shovel
De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising
Mos Def: Black on Both Sides
Prince Paul: A Prince Among Thieves
Jungle Brothers: Done By The Forces of Nature
Public Enemy: Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Stikes Back
Outkast: Stankonia
Tricky: Pre-Millennium Tension
Dr. Dre: The Chronic
Deltron 3030: Deltron 3030

Rhymes: Content, vocab, innovation, stories, brains, jokes

1. Public Enemy- It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
2. Nas- Illmatic
3. Tupac- All Eyez On Me
4. Notorious BIG- Ready to Die
5. Jay-Z- the Blueprint
6. Black Star- S/T
7. Raekwon&Ghostface- Only Built For Cuban Linx...
8. Wu-Tang Clan- Enter the Wu-Tang
9. Eminem- The Eminem Show
10. NWA- Straight Outta Compton

Beats&"Flow"-- feel if you didn't speak English

1. Jay-Z- The Blueprint (I'm sorry, but come on now. You know.)
2. N.W.A.- Efil4zaggin. (Even the skits)
3. Tribe Called Quest- Midnight Marauders
4. Dr. Dre- The Chronic
5. Outkast- Stankonia
6. Public Enemy- Fear of a Black Planet
7. Wu-Tang Clan- Enter the Wu Tang
8. Snoop Doggy Dogg- Doggystyle
9. Gang Starr- Hard to Earn
10. Eric B & Rakim- Paid in Full

overall:

1. Jay-Z- The Blueprint (not political, but it's got every other fucking thing going for it--the best and most innovative beats since ages before, a different super-competent flow on every song, wit, beauty, humour, rhythm, soul, and goofy bonus tracks)
2.Public Enemy- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (And it took an advance of millions to make them wack. But anyway: four singles, and not a single bad song--and the production was ten years ahead of its time. The only flaw is Chuck's failure to switch up his flow too much on this longish record-- but given the timeframe you can't blame him for that--and for both radical politics and solid storytelling in a jam no one has ever matched him--least of all in "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos." The first and best record that rightly placed rap as the music of whoo-gonzo revolution.)
3. Nas- Illmatic. (Every beat's pretty good and some are great; the song order is perfect; it plays as a 2-side record and a CD both with total satisfaction; kid-Nas's flow is nearly flawless and he singlehandedly revived the doublerhyme from Rakim and passed it to the likes of Eminem and many others, reviving a big part of the linguistic and vocab-based engenuity in rap; the storytelling is amazingly vivid and consistent throughout the album and especially in a couple songs like the awesome "One Love;" he seems totally humble and sincere throughout the whole album, which is crazy in itself for any kind of rapper; he didn't completely burn out or die in the subsequent decade; and practically every song bops your head.)
4. Wu-Tang Clan- Enter the Wu-Tang (This hardly seems fair, because obviously it has everything going for it, but remember how nuts it sounded when it came out? This was 1993-- before Tupac and Biggie were even on the radar; when big-money rap was what you heard at bar mitzvahs-- and if the kids in the inner city were having bar mitzvahs, it's what they heard too, after "911 is a Joke" 3 times in a row. Remember when you first heard "Protect Ya Neck," with "Method Man" on the B-side"? The sound was totally new, totally different-- the beginning of minimal rap-type beats with their sources anywhere you wanted--and not just in recorded music!, the beginning of the permissability of source material for rap beyond funk n soul, and the beginning of a lot of new lyric modes: the monotone storytell/extended metaphor (GZA), the junior mafia peon reminiscing and waxing nostagic on hard times while in the thick of the big-dough game (Raekwon&Ghostface), the good-time guy bound for guestspots who can't even be bothered to rhyme so tweaks the language to suit him--and so begets dozens of rappers with new ways of rhyming by tweaking words or accents, ending with Em rhyming 'oranges' for the first time in recorded history (Method Man: "I'm better/ than my competors/ I mean competitors./ Whatever./ Let's get togever.")--and just as significantly the Outsider Artist Rapper--ODB--, whose lyrics are as inexplicable as his quick popularity-- on this album first goofin' on the idea of bringing a solid flow or even being ready to rap when your verse comes up--for eight bars! Or until he rhymes "boom" with clearing his throat and makes up the word "rappenin." First drawing the humor from the other members of his otherwise serious crew and then tempering the horror of his existence with humour into one obsessingly obtuse album and one entirely incomprehensible one. Such was the crew of the 21st century, the ones who came to save rap-- a couple of pedants, a couple of loquatious potheads, a dangerous psychopath with an oddly catchy way of shouting "Brooklyn-Zuh!", a nerd and one or two wannabe gangsters with excellent memories and vivid imaginations (not to mention innovative methods to alter Wallabees for street wear.) Guess who found success?
5. Tupac-- All Eyez On Me. (This album is not much fun to listen to--and that's probably why I include it on this list. It think it's the man's most articulate and least bullshit-ridden album, and that's saying a lot as I like even the worst of them. The beats, though crypto-Dre, are great on this album, and every rhyme Tupac does has its own character. This was when his unique oratorical flow was at its best--before it got too goofy or crazy, a couple months later. Every song bumps, every song makes you think and worry, and they're all infected with this eerie and calculated existenial nihilism. "My every move's a calcluated step/ to lead myself closer to a mercenary death"? I should just brush that off, right?
to be cont'....

1. All Eyez On Me - Tupac Shakur
2. Speakerboxx/The Love Below - Outkast
3. Doggystyle - Snoop Doggy Dogg
4. The Chronic - Dr. Dre
5. 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of... - Arrested Development
6. Hipocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury - The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
7. Regulate..The G-Funk Era - Warren G
8. The Marshall Mathers LP - Eninem
9. Miss E...So Addictive - Missy Elliott
10.Stankonia - Outkast

* 2pac: All Eyez On Me
* Public Enemy: Yo! Bum Rush The Show
* A Tribe Called Quest: People's Instinctive Travels & The Paths Of Rhythm
* Bubba Sparxxx: Deliverance
* OutKast: Stankonia
* Malk de Koijn: Sneglzilla
* Missy: Miss E - So Addictive
* Wu-Tang Clan: The W
* NWA: Straight Outta Compton
* Eminem: The Slim Shady LP

Eric B. & Rakim, Follow The Leader
Schoolly D, Smoke Some Kill
Public Enemy, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Mecca and the Soul Brother
Tricky, Pre-Millennium Tension
The Jungle Brothers, Straight Out The Jungle
Sensational, Loaded With Power
Ol' Dirty Bastard, Return To The 36 Chambers...The Dirty Version
Genius/GZA, Liquid Swords
Ice Cube, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted

36 chambers
ready to die
doggystyle
illmatic
the blueprint

the w
cuban linx
supreme clientele
ironman
liquid swords

This is harder than it looks. My list looks just like everyone else's!

It's not hard to pick these out because I have things to remind me. I have a 'Supreme Clientele' neighborhoodie, I'm planning to get an "Inner City Griot" one and I am getting a tattoo that says "From The Soul" when go back to Canada in May.

Forgive me Big L, it's early here.

1. Big Pun - Capital Punishment
2. Pac - All Eyez On Me
3. UGK - Ridin' Dirty
4. Bobby Digital - Bobby Digital In Stereo
5. Mobb Deep - The Infamous
6. Eminem - The Eminem Show
7. Dr Dre - Chronic 2001
8. Scarface - Mr Scarface Is Back
9. E40 - Charlie Hustle
10. Jay Z - Vol 3

It's not racist; I could pick 10 rock albums in the same way...

-- Squirrel_Police (goblinatri...), September 22nd, 2006. (later)

Follow the Leader
Paul's Boutique
No One Can Do It Better
Midnight Marauders
Illmatic
Reasonable Doubt
Aquemini
Supreme Clientele
Lord Willin'
MM... Food

Run DMC - Self Titled (life changing)
Beastie Boys - License to Ill
Public Enemy - Nation of Millions (life changing)
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (I didn't like this until later)
DJ Magic Mike - Bass is the Name of the Game
The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride
Digable Planets - Refutation (oddly life changing)
Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
Wu Tang - 36 Chambers
The Pharcyde - Labcabin

Outkast: Aquemini
Gravediggaz: 6 Feet Deep
Heltah Skeltah: Nocturnal
Cee-Lo: Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine
Eve: Let There Be Eve
M.O.P: Warriorz
Da Beatminerz: Brace 4 Impak
Nas: God's Son
Eric B. & Rakim: Paid In Full
Cannibal Ox: Cold Vein

Lots of love for Illmatic on this thread. Might need to hunt that down, only song I've heard is 'It ain't hard to tell' and it's pretty tight.

that would be a good idea

remix of my thread starting post:

illmatic
ready to die
reasonable doubt
capital punishment
lifestyles of da poor and dangerous
low end theory
trap muzik
the chronic
liquid swords
3 feet high