More Favorites:
Kurious - A Constipated Monkey
Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain
Black Moon - Enter The Stage
ODB - Return To 36 Chambers

shit. add dr. octo's first album and company flow's funcrusher plus to mine

my top 5 probably goes something like this:

king geedorah - take me to your leader
new kingdom - paradise don´t come cheap
victor vaughn - vaudeville villan
wu tang - 36 chambers
aesop rock - labor days

1) Cannibal Ox - Cold Vein
2) TTC - Ceci n'est pas un disque
3) Killarmy - dirty weaponry
4) Beasty Boys - Ill communication
5) Cypress Hill - Temples of doom / The Psycho realm - s/t


^^^good stuff!
hip hop ain't nuffin' to fuck wiv'

Cocaine Blunts (the only hip hop zine that matters):
http://www.cocaineblunts.com/blunts/

Rakim - 18th Letter
Nas - Illmatic
Black Moon - Enta da Stage
Gang Starr - Step in the Arena
Chef Raekwon - OBFCL

It's really too hard for me to say. I've struggled, but probably more than half of my entire music collection is hip hop. It's really hard to narrow that down to five. MIDNIGHT MARAUDERS is definitely my #1 though. And ENTER THE WU-TANG is way up there.

yes, i had to just write the first five that came to mind, thinking about it would have made it impossible

1) Dr Dooom "First Come First Served"
2) Dead Prez "Lets Get Free"
3) e-40 "The Element of Surprise"
4) The Grouch "Dont Talk to Me"
5) 2pac "All Eyes on Me"

notable mentions

NWA "Niggaz4Life"
Tribe Called Quest "The Love Movement"
Busta Rhymes "Extinction Level Event"
Gravediggaz "Six Feet Deep"
DJ Quick "Rhythm-al-ism"
Method Man and Redman "Black Out"
RZA "Prince Rakiem"
Scarface "The Diary"
Slick Rick "The Art of Storytellin"
Outkast "Aquemini"

11. Big L-Lifestylez Of da Poor and Dangerous
12. Gangstarr-Daily Operation
13. EPMD-Strictly Business
14. Ghostface Killah-Supreme Clientele
15. Madvillain-Madvillainy
16. 2pac-2pacalypse Now
17. GZA-Liquid Swords
18. Beastie Boys-Paul's Botique
19. Nas-Illmatic
20. Jeru the Damaja-The Sun Rises in The East
21. A Tribe Called Quest-The Low End Theory
22. Ultramagnetic MC's-Critical Beats
23. 2 Live Crew-As Nasty as they Wanna Be
24. NWA-Straight Outta Compton
25. Public Enemy-YO! Bumrush the Show
26. Lost Boyz-Legal Drug Money
27. UGK-Super Tight
28. Three 6 Mafia-Smoked Out, Loced Out
29. Ice Cuba-AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
30. Dr. Dre-The Chronic (its a perfect pop album, despite never having to hear it again, I cant knock it, lyrical gangbang is the best for blasting on car stereos)

Yeah, I lope Hip Hop.

Public Enemy: Fear Of A Black Planet.
Gang Star: Moment Of Truth.
DJ Shadow: Endtroducing.
A Tribe Called Quest: Low End Theory.
Alias: OTher Side Of The Looking Glass.
Ice Cube: The Predator.
Eminem: Infinite.
Public Enemy: Apocalypse '91.

these are the best albums of this year!

natty dread takin over the hyphy movement y'all! shake them dreads..

Plenty of great choices! E-40 has a mass of amazing material. He's related to Turf Talk, and he's worth checking out with this new south-west intertwining sound.

Some of my favorites:
Nas - Illmatic
2Pac - All Eyes on Me
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
Public Enemy - Fear of a black Planet
Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele
Raekwon - Only Built for Cuban Lynx
J Dilla - Donuts
N.W.A - Straight Outta' Compton
Black Milk - Popular Demand

1. three 6 mafia - mystic stylez
2. the geto boys - the geto boys
3. wu-tang clan - 36 chambers
4. a tribe called quest - the low end theory
5. eric b & rakim - paid in full

bonus: dr. octagon - dr. octagonecologyst

(off the top of my head today).

i'm more of a hip hop mixtape person.

By the way, I urge you all to go and listen to the vintage hip hop mixes that wfmu have been posting on their blog. gold.

like this one: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/0...x-machine.html

haha you can't really go wrong with three 6. besides the fact that it is possibly some of the dumbest music i've ever heard it is just too good to deny.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Inhuman again.

have you heard mystic stylez? about 75% of the lyrics are about being serial killers.

well, it's probably dumb, but they are great at delivering.

Chewin alligator meat live cowsteak
sittin on old newspapers by thekitchen sink
You think im off limits driving a 74 Dodge Plymouth
Up the street with human feet colored apple-green
with spots eatinblueberry Pop Tarts
With the eighth body in my trunk my elbow bleeds with lumps
Walkin from the sanitation dump with rotten skulls
on my waterbed with Miller beer kegs
Blood in my cabinet, ears in my closet
watchin the Raptors play the Houston Rockets
With your arms in the freezer I grab a icicle
puttin fingerprints on my bicycle
Walkin up to have a drink at the club ?there is? three Irish chicks
lookin at me like im sick
Walkin by chin-chins I stole the keys from ya friends
Lookin out ya ?Madrion? hotel window like Elvis Presley
coming down the elevator
Good evening mister excuse me pardon me with body parts
And credit cards walkin down Sunset Boulevard past the red light
I threw a rat with mayonnaise at ya head lights
Four blonde girls screamed and put on their hi-beams
I fake like i'm ?vomiting smoking sick? threw acid on their stomachs
And drove of with a wig down La Brea listen to a tape by Slayer
Parked in a parking lot behind Burger King
eatin a raw pack of chicken wings
With blood on my fingers I blast a CD by the Staple Singers
The cops told me to turn it down,
they like my shoes from Buster Brown
I went up the block an bought some incense
for the wrong smells in the air conditioner vents
Hey kid need twenty cents havin a cook-out with my neighbor
How ya like the meat flavor mmmm

 

The Coup - Pick a bigger weapon
The Roots - Either Game Theory or Things Fall Apart
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
Bone Thugs N Harmony - Greatest Hits

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five - The Message
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions...
Themselves - The No Music
The Last Poets - The Last Poets
Boogie Down Productions - Gheto Music the Blueprint for Hip Hop

I considered Dr. Octagon, but really "Blue Flowers" is so much better than the rest of the album. Admitedly, that didn't stop me with "The Message", but you just can't get more classic than that track, and the rest of the album is still good. Funny that the song most famous for Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five doesn't even have Flash on it!

good classics there, herr dead air.

These are personal faves

1 - It takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back - PUBLIC ENEMY



2 - Paul's Boutique - BEASTIE BOYS




3 - The Great Adventures of Slick Rick - SLICK RICK the RULER, AKA, MC Ricky D



4 - Stakes Is High - DE LA SOUL

and number 5 is

PAID IN FULL - Eric B. & rakim

and the rest are all typical like Paul's Boutique - Beastie Boys, Nation of Millions - Public Enemy, and Raising Hell - Run DMC

over 3 feet high... and is dead? interesting.

(for the record, i haven't heard any de la soul album at full lenght).

right now it's

The Could Vein
Fear Of A Black Planet
Enter The Wu-Tang (or maybe Wu-Tang Forever actually)
Liquid Swords
Straight Outta Compton

pretty standard list... I don't listen to an awful lot of hip hop I must admit.

"De La Soul Is Dead" is still to my ears the best work they've ever done, and
the only album in the history of the genre where the skits aren't a complete
total utter absolute fucking waste of space and time.

de la is dead and buhloon mindstate are fucking awesome, but I can never hear stakes is high enough.

1)A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
2)Black Star - Mos Def and Talib Kweli are...
3)Quasimoto - The Unseen
4)Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
5)Dälek - From Filithy Tongue of Gods and Griots

6)Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever
7)Edan - Beauty and the Beat
8)Digable Planets - The Blowout Comb
9)GZA - Liquid Swords
10)The Alkahoiks - Coast II Coast

11)Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst
12)Nas - Illmatic
13)Method Man and Redman - Blackout!
14)Ghostface Killah - Ironman
15)J Dilla - Donuts

Donuts and 36 Chambers are my jamz.

Operation Doomsday is catching up.

Does Flylo count as hip-hop? LA is my favorite album this year.

I've listened the fuck out of Madvillain and Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury.

Eric B/Rakim, GZA, and Ghostface, I dont consider human. more like demi-god

Yes he does and yes LA is great.

Hmmm, not sure about this. It's a fucking amazing record don't get me wrong, and I understand their influence in creating rap (proto-rap, if you will), but to me listing this as one of your favourite records is like saying Velvet Underground & Nico is your favourite punk record...

Obviously alot of fans of golden age/old school hip hop here, which is great. But makes it more surprising I havn't seen this record pop up yet:

No, it would be more like saying White Light/White Heat was one of your favorite punk records, which I probably would say if pressed.

I always wonder with hip hop history why the Last Poets, and in particular that album, doesn't get stronger mentions. The mix of vocal styles, the content, the lyrics (note their reclamation of the word "nigger" decades before NWA). Yeah, they're not based firmly in funk beats since funk hadn't happened yet, but the first major evolution of hip hop from those funk roots was towards jazz, where the Last Poets had resided to begin with.

an overlooked album

I understand your choice here, but yeah, funk had happened, I mean that record came out in 70 or 71 and funk was happening. Other great groups like this were: Gil Scott-Heron,Watts Prophets and Kane. My favorite cut from that record (Last Poets) is ******'s Are Scared Of Revolution.