The 100 Greatest Hip Hop Albums (05-01)by Henry Adaso, About.com 100-96|95-91|90-86|85-81|80-76|75-71|70-66|65-61|60-56|55-51 |
5. Notorious B.I.G.
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"Like any good director (or rapper for that manner), B.I.G. maintains a consistent level of tension by juxtaposing emotional highs and lows. One minute he sits on the curb reminiscing about more innocent times when parents had more control over their kids and there weren't so many guns ("Things Done Changed"); the next, rapping against himself as part of a Laurel and Hardy-like stickup duo, he's the one doing dirt, boasting of a boosting career that dates back to the days of slavery ("Gimme the Loot")... with his prodigious, often booming voice overwhelming the track, he sweeps his verbal camera high and low, painting a sonic picture so vibrant that you're transported right to the scene. He raps in clear, sparse terms, allowing the lyrics to hit the first time you hear them..." ~ Cheo H. Coker, Rolling Stone |
4. Wu-Tang Clan
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"This debut revolutionized hip-hop (and launched half a dozen solo careers), as much for The RZA's raw barrage of off-kilter, off-key loops and sound effects as for its elliptically violent lyrics. Martial arts--at least as they appear in kung fu movies--are the Wu-Tang Clan's favorite metaphor, but they're also the organizing principle of the group, a crowd of eight rappers, each with his own way-out-there "fighting style." They created their own little self-contained culture, with its own symbols and shifting identities, and let listeners figure it out for themselves. Unless you're willing to immerse yourself in its world, it can be baffling and a little dry, but its aggression and originality are undeniable." ~ Douglas Wolk, Amazon |
3. Eric B. & Rakim
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"Paid in Full is a debut album that is basically a collection of early singles ("Eric B. Is President", "I Know You Got Soul", the title track), is the motherlode of late-1980s New York rap--assured, serious, and hugely influential. Rakim, a rapper's rapper, is the Chow Yun-Fat of hip-hop: cool as steel, absolutely calm, absolutely deadly. His verbal wit and rhythmic gift go hand-in-hand. He flows like a waterfall, playing around the beat, leaping from one ingenious phrase to another, letting the words do all the work. And Eric B.? He comes up with some straightforward but effective backing tracks (he favours James Brown grooves), scratches on a couple of block-rocking instrumentals, and makes room for the master to do his thing." ~ Douglas Wolk, Amazon |
2. Public Enemy
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"It Takes a Nation of Millions was the sign that hip-hop had exploded like a grenade. A rap record as abrasive, hardcore, and eloquent as a JFK speech, the 1988 disc is one classic track after another: tense, multilayered, harmonically wild music. Chuck D. declaims like a master preacher with foil Flavor Flav's voice darting around his. They've got the desperate energy of people fighting for their lives, and everything from their pumped-up rhetoric ("Prophets of Rage") to the group's quasi-paramilitary organization to the sirens and sax squeals in nearly every track declares how urgent their mission is. It's a hugely influential album, and it still sounds fresh and frightening after all these years." ~ Douglas Wolk, Amazon |
1. Nas
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"Nasir Jones made this debut album at the age of 20, already armed with the calm perceptiveness and been-there-done-that attitude of a much older ghetto vet, though sometimes his inner callow youth shows itself. Illmatic is a look back at a life spent in the culture of the projects, acknowledging joy as much as pain and taking note of violence as a fact of his environment rather than a focus of his life. It's enlivened by Nas's kicky, deep-threaded multiple rhymes--you can tell he grew up listening to Mr. Magic's rap show and internalizing the secrets of everybody's flow--and by tracks from a bunch of all-stars, including the Large Professor, DJ Premier, and, most memorably, Q-Tip ("One Love")." ~ Douglas Wolk, Amazon |
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