Entertainment Weekly's Top 25 Rap Albums Ever

also this list is rockist.

Highly agreed.

(xpost)

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

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

NWA??? HEEEELLLOOOO???

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

Aceyalone really is a strange pick though.

Makes complete sense to me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

xp haha

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whereas being Semitic gets you #10.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20th Century Masters!

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