the greatest four-record run in hip-hop history

Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Tical
Return to the 36 Chambers
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Liquid Swords

(Yes, there's five, and yes, liberties have been taken, but this trumps EVERYTHING.)

Also Billy Pilgrim OTM, TRG not so much.

I know people who would argue for Nas.

licensed to ill
paul's boutique
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ill communications

I woulda said De La Soul (3 Feet High thru Buhloone Mindstate is a run of remarkable consistency and power, but Stakes is High is not in that league.

(if you count production credits as valid...)

but nothing can beat the Wu-Tang golden streak

Schoolly D
Saturday Night
Smoke Some Kill
Am I Black Enough For You

hmmm...

How about I Wish My Brother George Was Here, No Need for Alarm, Future Development, Deltron 2020? That's pretty solid, except that FD never got official release until years later. And if you can count crews like Wu-Tang together,Hiero gets you I Wish My Brother George Was Here, 93 to Infinity, Fear Itself and No Need for Alarm, which is looking unfuckwitable.

Schoolly D
Saturday Night
Smoke Some Kill
Am I Black Enough For You

I can't disagree with this one. Who woulda thunk it?

I wish Schoolly wouldn't whore himself out to that piece of shit show with the talking meat character.

The biggest problem with Schoolly D reissues is that Smoke Some Kill would have to omit Signifyin' Rapper because of the whole Led Zep / Abel Ferrara brouhaha. It's like cutting ears off the Mona Lisa, I say.

And I'm sticking with my Wu picks above, primarily because the RZA's production makes them fair game, but De La Soul, Tribe, and Jay Z are STRONG contenders.

also, i don't get what's so great about ATLiens? it really underwhelmed me. am i missing something?

You fucking idiots!

criminal minded>by all mean necessary>ghetto music>edutainment deserves consideration.

also, yo bum rush the show is utterly classic.

and edutainment is really quite good.

I'm sayin'. Nobody is fucking with those four albums.

Eh, "street level" is great, it's "musical massacre" which is cack other than the two singles, 2 songs and the interludes.

I suppose Wu-Tang + the solo albums just about count. How about Dr. Dre..? From the D.O.C album to "efil4zaggin"(+"100 miles and runnin'" ep) to "the chronic" to "doggystyle"..and that's not even mentioning "str8 outta compton" and "eazy-duz-it", although neither are quite in the same league as the above four.

I sorta agree with Eric B. & Rakim too even though the first 3 are patchy with 6-8 unfuckwithable high points each. "Don't sweat the technique", though, rules. Maybe Ice Cube too

As far as greatest-four-record-run-in-rap-12"s-history goes, then Spoonie Gee owns this thread and it's end of story, son. You can take "spoonin' rap" up to "spoonie is back" or "street girl" up to "you's not just a fool" and it doesn't matter. The man dropped marvellous 12"s throughout each specific era from '79 -'88/'89.

(Actually, isn't the party line that the second album sucks and the fourth one is one of their best? That never made any sense to me.)

Do You Want More?!
Illadelph Halflife
Things Fall Apart
Phrenology

I sorta agree with Eric B. & Rakim too even though the first 3 are patchy with 6-8 unfuckwithable high points each. "Don't sweat the technique", though, rules. Maybe Ice Cube too

This about sums up my thoughts, equivocation and all. I think if it was best six-record run everyone would agree it was J-Zed

i will also say aye to missy, debut to under construction, but i feel the last one may be a weak link.

"Explain dislike of Yo Bum Rush The Show plz."

It's not that I dislike the album. In spite of not aging particularly well, it's a solid debut from one of my favourite groups ever. There are some really great moments on this album, but it takes more than just a few great moments to make a truly classic record. In '87 the PE sound still hadn't fully coalesced, and Flav is a bit over the top in places. To be honeset, I'd probably rate this album higher if not for what came next.

doesn't the Michel'le album come in and fuck things up after D.O.C? I've never heard it, just guessing.

i've been listening to 'peoples instinctive travels in rhythm' so much recently; i think its my favourite...

That's ALMOST right...except the run is actually:

Straight Outta Compton
Kill At Will (yeah EP but way classic)
Amerikkka's Most Wanted
Death Certificate

That's the actual run, plus Kill at Will >>>> Predator...

Schooly D is good too, but man Chuck you really like Am I Black Enough For You? that much?...that was when I got off the Schooly bandwagon....

Also...Jay-Z and Public Enemy are good ones!

Scarface:

Geto Boys [or Grip it on that Other Level,same thing basically]
We Can't Be Stopped
Mr. Scarface Is Back
Till Death Do Us Part

Also:

Born to Mack
Life Is..To Short
Short Dog's in the House
Shorty the Pimp*

*IF This is any good, can't remember...but the first three are all great.

King Of Rock was Rush-released (haha), and there was a problem with the master tapes where the vocals got seperated from the drums or something. They had to piece it back together by hand, so the whole album to this day sounds a little "off" and gets slagged a little.

Tougher Than Leather was dogged for a long time as the moment they jumped the shark, but I think people are coming around to it. There's only like three or four stinkers on it.

I couldn't BELIEVE Pitchfork's review of the Run-DMC reissues. Slagging the fucking blueprint drafters for sounding "dated." Against who? The complicated flow of Young Jeezy? Like Fork would say the same thing about the Ramones or the Stooges? Criminy. The reissues are immaculate and sound as timeless and indispenible as ever.

...unless you're a historian or a rich person, save your money.

I like this line
[I]Lyrically, it's nothing special[/I]

Yeah, no one's ever built a chorus out of even the most tossed off line in a Run-DMC song.

Rating Cam'ron, Beanie Sigel, Three 6 Mafia and The Game higher than RAISING HELL is like ranking the Epitaph roster over the first Ramones album.

Agree that the sound is a little too minimalist/droney, but Y!BRTS has my all-time favorite Flav rhyme:

"I got to the beach, the ground was all sandy/Girls on my jock like ants on candy."

And I'm surprised to see Chuck naming Schoolly D like that - I thought that would be left up to me. Am I Black Enough For You? is a great album - even the follow-up, How A Blackman Feels, has three or four very solid tracks on it. He kinda lost it on Welcome To America, though. Still wish I'd gone to see him, with his band, at (long-defunct Newark, NJ punk/hardcore club) the Pipeline in 1988...

I realised on the weekend that you can slot Eazy-Duz-It into both Cube and Dre's runs of classics too

bumping my own thread 5 years later because this is now so obviously

The College Dropout
Late Registration
Graduation
808s & Heartbreak

i think i would still take first four outkast albums and MAYBE first four missy

kanye makes better albums than jay if you're being really meticulous and pedantic about it

Jay makes great albums but never made four great albums in a row

i mean, i still stand by Kanye and my original LL post; but gonna give some extra props to Scarface, e-40 and Too $hort now that I'm a little more familiar with their catalogs than I was in '05

UGK prob would've been a top 3 or 4 pick in this if there wasn't the five year gap after 'ridin dirty'

that's still a good run!

even ilx isn't immune to ugk revisionism, hahaha

well it is, but there's still a real significant drop off to 'dirty money' for the purposes of this thread

Kill My Landlord
Genocide & Juice
Steal This Album
Party Music