STRAIGHT BANGIN’ Dot Com Saves Hip-Hop…
Hip-Hop died last year, but don’t tell pal JOEY from the website, Straight Bangin’ Dot Com. He has almost single handedly resurrected the movement by praying to the elders. In a figurative and literal kind of way. He sent me (and several hundred bloggers and personalities) an e-mail requesting a list of my top 25 G.O.A.T. Hip-Hop albums.
This sounded like a fun project at first and I begun by thinking of my all time favorite rap album. Public Enemy’s ‘Fear Of A Black Planet’ is one of the two Hip-Hop albums that I will take on the spaceship with me. When this album was released New York City was a blatant boiling cauldron of social inequality and supremacy that was out of control. The YUSUF HAWKINS lynching, the lying Central Park jogger who conspired with corrupt police to demonize innocent Black males and a draft-dodging, race-baiting, onetime Federal prosecutor campaigned for mayor of the city.
The song ‘Fight The Power’ was inspiration made reality when P.E. came to Bedford Stuyvesant and Crown Heights to film their video for the soundtrack. I had spent my teenage years mostly fighting other Black and Brown teens, but now my vision was no longer blurred and I knew who was responsible for the wickedness in the world. If you told me back then that the son of a BUSH called G DUBBZ would be president and the white-gloved minstrel character of Flavor Flav would be the face of rap in the future I would have laughed you off the block. I miss being that naive…
So here’s my list of my 25 favorite Hip-Hop albums. Yes, some of your favorites aren’t here and if that bothers you so much send a list of your favorite 25 over to JOEY @ StraightBangin’ Dot Com. I’m sure he’d like to do nothing more during this beautiful weekend but to collate lists from us internets freaks celebrities.
And now, the list…
Put me on a spaceship with this album as well as COLTRANE’s ‘Giant Steps’, ‘Mothership Connection’ and STEVIE’s ‘Talking Book’ and ‘Innervisions’
The DNA of this album can clone rap music for generations
This was the last album that I memorized from beginning to end. Free RODNEY KING!
The Sun, Moon and stars along with the spirit of RAKIM ALLAH came together to form this rap music manifesto masterpiece
True Hip-Hop pioneers that expanded the content of the genre. Their relevance to this day proves that the album wasn’t a fluke
KRS-1 gave the notion of a teacher a new dimension as he added historian and warrior to the mix
Your label’s budget would collapse if you tried to duplicate the Bomb Squad’s early production techniques. Imagine trying to clear forty samples… For just ONE track!?!
This album defines a generation
Show these niggas some mother-effing respect. Best. Album. Art. Evar.
Twice as good as his debut. Proof that he could use any style to spit lyrics.
My rapstar hero because of his intelligence and his shortcomings. His heart was purer than 99.9% of the rest of the world. He should be considered a saint. “Wu-Tang is for the children”
The strength of this album cements B.I.G. as the G.O.A.T. because he could write a hit album for a lady with no problem.
This was when I first got turned on to these cats. Diverse and talented pioneers.
My final thoughts on this list… Damn, I’m old.
April 21st, 2007 at 2:34 pm
nice list. i am currently working on mine. i like that you did not go with same ol same ol easy picks that i imagine most will be throwin down.
April 21st, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I would like to work on a list but my brain would fucking bust, I can ramble off 25 albums I can think off in a minute. But I think this requires a little bit more thought and I too lazy right now. So I will just add some to your list and make it more than 25.
The Art of Story Telling
The Dude
Lord Willin’
College Dropout
Black on Both Sides
Like Water for Chocolate
Blueprint
Guess who’s back-Fisty cent
Marshall Mathers lp
Fantastic Voyage vol.2
the Listening
The Fix
Aquemini
The Carter 2
at the speed of light
XO Experience
Supreme Clientele
Ironman
Internal Affairs
Blue Collar
It Was Written
Doggystyle
Bionix
……….I know this list is a bit much but thats what I mean about it taking forever to come up with a list, imo
April 21st, 2007 at 4:31 pm
^ Choosing my favorite 25 was agonizing but I just had to think about what albums I have enjoyed the most in my life. I still had to leave off a lot of bangers.
April 21st, 2007 at 4:42 pm
yeah, i feel you my dudes.
i got my top 25 by just goin with my gut feelings. i wasn’t thinkin about who did what first. i asked myself, what records do i still listen to on a regular basis?
i left off some major records, but i’m happy with my 25.
April 21st, 2007 at 4:59 pm
VIk,
Up your 25 to BCS
April 21st, 2007 at 5:42 pm
The One supreme Album you fuckers slept on:
BLOWOUT COMB-Digable Planets
Xodus-X Clan
Ressurection-Bone Thugs
Bulletproof Wallets-Ghost & Raekwon
Ghetto Music-KRS1
Jazzmataz-Guru
Liquid Swords-GZA
Black On Both Sides-Mos DEf
Like Water for Chocolate-Common
400 Degreez-Juvenile (for the classic “HA”)
Can-I-Bus-Canibus (fuck you, smoke a dime bag play it and then tell me if you get it )
Swordfish Trombone-Tom Waits (ditto)
Peace, Ernie Paniccioli-author of Who Shot Ya?
April 21st, 2007 at 5:52 pm
it’s comin my dude.
damn ernie….forgot about bone thugs and mos def’s record.
they just weren’t meant to be on my list……
April 21st, 2007 at 7:13 pm
biochemical slang’s top 25:
http://biochemicalslang.blogspot.com/2007/04/internets-is-runnin-this-rap-ish.html
April 21st, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Reasonable Doubt>The Dynasty
It takes a million…>Fear of a Black Planet
April 21st, 2007 at 9:10 pm
^ Uh…. No, and hell no.
April 21st, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Here’s mine
1) Illmatic Nas
2) Ready To Die The Notorious BIG
3) Midnight Maruders A Tribe Called Quest
4) Reasonable Doubt Jay-Z
5) All Eyes On Me 2Pac
6) Life After Death The Notorious BIG
7) Vol. 2: Hard Knock LifeJay-Z
8) The Chronic Dr. Dre
9) Paid In Full Eric B & Rakim
10) Enter The 36 Chambers Wu Tang Clan
11) The Marshall Mathers LP Eminem
12) The Score Fugees
13) The Blueprint²: The Gift & the CurseJay-Z
14) Straight Outta Compton N.W.A.
15) Low End Theory A Tribe Called Quest
16) The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory Makaveli/2Pac
17) Doggystyle Snoop
18) Muddy Waters Redman
19) Strickly Buisness EPMD
20) College Dropout Kayne West
21) It Was Written Nas
22) Mama Said Knock You Out LL Cool J
23) Raising Hell Run DMC
24) Atliens Outkast
25) Hard To Earn Gangstarr
April 22nd, 2007 at 1:57 am
You’re trippin’. You already fucked up the first ten!
1. Wu - Tang - 36 Chambers
2.Biggie - Ready to Die
3. Outkast - Aquemini
4. Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
5. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele
6. Dr. Dre - The Chronic
7. Raekwon - OB4CL
8. Snoop Dogg - DoggyStyle
9. Ice Cube - Predator
10. Jay - Z Blueprint
Then..
11. Eminem - Marshall Mathers LP
12. Nas - Illmatic
15. Mobb Deep - Infamous
14. 2pac - Me against the World
15. N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
16. Eric B + Rakim - Paid in Full
17. Bone Thugs - E. 1999 Eternal
18. GZA - Liquid Swords
19. Outkast - Atliens
20. RUN - DMC - Raising Hell
21. Jay - Z - Reasonable Doubt
22. Biggie - Life after death
23. Pac - All Eyez on Me
24. 3-6 MAfia - When the Smoke Clears
25. Metallica - Kill em’ all
April 22nd, 2007 at 9:30 am
Ace list.
Last album I learned in full was Death Certificate.
Last came close to that was Nigga Please.
I’m 26.
Hmm.
@!
April 22nd, 2007 at 10:35 am
That’s a dope list, but it seems you might have been running out of worthwhile albums towards the end.
Late Registration???
The Dynasty???
Nigga Please???
April 22nd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
The following songs have been listed in no numerical order.
1. Nas Illmatic
2. Jay Z Resonable Doubt
3. Smif & Wessun Dah Shinin
4. HI Tek & Talib Kweli Reflection Eternal
5. DelaSoul Stakes is High
6. Eric B & Rakim Paid in Full
7. Oynx Last Dayz
8. Wutang Clan 36 chambers
9. O.D.B. Return of The 36 Chambers
10. Raekwon OB4CL
11. Tribe called Quest Midnight Marauders
12. Dr Dre The Chronic
13. Organized Konfusion The Extinction….
14. Common Like Water for Chocolate
15. Redman Wut Da Album
16. Redman Muddy Waters
17. Slum Village Fantastic Vol.2
18. Slum Village Trinity
19. The Roots Illadelph Halflife
20. Big Daddy Kane Its a Big Daddy Thing
21. Fugees The Score
22. Lauryn Hill The Miseducation….
23. Public Enemy Fear of A Black Planet
24. OutKast Stankonia
25. E.P.M.D Buisness Never Personal
I’m never doing this again.
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Great list. I felt old on my list too. Especially with Criminal Minded near 20…20!…years ago. 2 Live Crew making it at #25 is nice; all the “non-rap” kids in high school (basically everyone but me) wanted to borrow that from me every damn day.
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:02 pm
great lists everyone. if hip-hop could back a fraction of what’s on these lists it would be the shit again. oh well…
oh yeah,
epmd - strictly business!!!!
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Ya’ll all skipped over
Naughty By Nature - Self Titled) not gangsta music, but thug misic
The FIRM - Firm Buz-Classic Foxy and Nas, with some the best AZ material. Fuck Nature
DMX - It’s dark and hell is hot - Original Dark Man flows, before he started slippin
And Reasonable Doubt is waaaaaaay better than The Dynasty
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Blowout Comb is CHURCH.
And I co-sign on Fear of a Black Planet. . . De La is Dead is in my top 5 if not my #1 for monthly rotation.
Also, KMD - Mr. Hood is in my sheet as well.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Late Registration? Interesting choice…I always thought Kanye made decent music. But he is a douchebag.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Here’s my GOAT Top25 list.
Like Vik, I’m going with what has the most replay value to me, not what albums had the most historical importance/influence.
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/elgringocolombiano/album___goat_by_genre___rap
April 24th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
BTW, I encourage yall to join the free, community website rateyourmusic.com.
Especially those that complain about how current rap sucks. Yall could view the highly-rated albums of users that have “music compatability” with you as calculated by RYM (eg you & that user have rated your albums similarly). By doing this you can discover current quality underground stuff that gets no play, or old classic albums you slept on originally.
The user diction in particular is the most thorough rap head/nerd (in a good way) I’ve seen on the internets, the guy literally reviews 100s of albums each year
RYM is ill already, but it would be even greater if some more knowledgable rap heads like yall join up.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Nice list, DP. Solidarity on Fear of a Black Planet as #1 - it was life-changing for me as well.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Ernie- I know you have been in the game for a minute, but you are smoking crack for putting Juvenile in yout Top 50 !!
April 26th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
pretty nice lists here..here’s mine:
http://www.effbombs.com/2007/04/26/my-25/
April 27th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Kool list..here’s mine homes
dahshyt.blogspot.com/2007/04/25-shots-to-your-dome.html
April 29th, 2007 at 1:44 am
I’m late to the drop, but I can still point out that this list is nice. DP is on point as always.
July 10th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Hello
Very interesting information! Thanks!
Bye
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Nice list homie, I can respect that. Was actually looking for some info on Nas & Pac in Central Park as I watch Kanye’s Top 25 Hype videos on BET. Just played If I Ruled The World and I remember how much some of us New Yorkers hated that “Pop” record when it came out. Then I remembered that was around the time of Pac’s death and so on…
April 20th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
getfresh Says:
Reasonable Doubt>The Dynasty
It takes a million…>Fear of a Black Planet
the_dallas Says:
^ Uh…. No, and hell no.
I respect when you say that your top 25 is a list of your personal favorites, but when you flat out say that The Dynasty is better than Reasonable Doubt, well, that’s just wrong. I like The Dynasty, I think it might be Jay’s second best album, but if you went line for line, beat for beat through those two albums, Reasonable Doubt would blow The Dynasty out of the water. I feel like people don’t actually listen to Reasonable Doubt sometimes, I mean, on the list that was eventually assembled at Straightbanging it was number 15. That’s a travesty to me. The whole album has a cohesive feel, even though Jay is rapping about the money he has made, there is such a saddness behind it, a feeling of inevitable fall. His imagery is so vivid, and at times so emotionally moving and deep that not many albums can compare. Reasonable Doubt shows such understanding and consciousness of what its depicting its astounding to me. Am I the only one who feels this way? Can someone please explain this to me?
September 14th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
[…] everybody else says: robbie, dallas penn, noz, bol, and of course joey […]
November 21st, 2009 at 10:38 am
1 Illmatic
2 Reasonable Doubt
3 Makavelli
4 Amerikka’s most wanted
5 Chronic
6 Paid in Full
7 It takes a nation
8 Ready to Die
9 Marshal Mathers LP
10 Stillmatic / Blueprint