What Didn't Make the Top 10 and a Preview
Dec 02 '03
The Bottom Line My Top 10 selections will be posted as individual reviews during the next two months or so. Here's a look at what I didn't include.
The reason I’ve never done a “Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of All Time” is because I don’t have money to buy all the albums. I know my tracks and anybody who tests my mix CDs will get their feelings hurt. But, because what used to be my favourite type of music, dancehall, has turned mainstream as I’ve predicted, only a lot quicker than I predicted, my interest has shifted back to hip-hop. I mean, I can only take so much Wayne Wonder and Sean Paul appearing in every second hip-hop and R&B single.
I said hip hop the hippie…
I really forgot how much I loved hip-hop. I spent almost $500 the past three months to pay my dues to some of the greatest albums ever released, with the intention of writing the “Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of All Time” of all “Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of All Time” lists. My list will be different from other lists mainly because I love the old school. New albums, no matter how good, just can’t give you that feeling of nostalgia, that longing for a bygone generation of funk and soul.
Hip-hop, like all forms of true art, gets better with age. So, as hard as I considered OC’s Word… Life and Jazzy Jeff’s The Magnificent, they simply have not had the time to become a part of hip-hop lore. I mean, remember when gold was in? Remember when people wore their Converse to play hoops? Remember Whoudini’s “Five Minutes of Funk” and when Afrika Bambaataa succeeded in “Searching for the Perfect Beat”? I don’t. I’m only twenty, yet I know how damn fun and sweet the past can be; so if you’re older than me and you can’t give maximum respect to the old school, then that’s just inexcusable.
Rap is something you do; hip-hop is something you…
As much as I’d like to love KRS-One’s music, I don’t. Although both are important, I think the music should come in front of the statement. Hip-hop is not “edutainment”; it’s entertainment. This is why I thought KRS-One was a lot better back when he had DJ Scott LaRock. Public Enemy also did not make my top 10. How is that possible? I hate politics; most of all, American politics. When a song becomes more about the message than the music, I don’t consider it fun anymore.
You can find me in the club…
If everyone’s having a good time; I’m having a good time. I love all of the club staples, “In da Club”, “California Love (remix)”, “Hot in Herre”, including some club songs that I seem to appreciate more than anyone else, such as, “Quiet Storm”, and “Me and my Crazy World”. But you can breathe a sigh or relief because none of those songs are on the albums in my top ten. I was seriously tempted to try and squeeze in Lost Boyz’ 1997 release of Love, Peace & Nappiness, which is a party album that often gets slept on, but in the end, club tracks, even the most popular ones, don’t age as well as those with some intellect.
Just like how I was complaining about politic-rap, hip-pop just doesn’t have all it takes to make something as elite as my list. While Public Enemy and KRS lacks the fun, Lost Boyz and 50 Cents lacks the knowledge. I think I like the popular party songs more than a self-respecting hip-hop fan would, but I’m not about to let Nelly and his entourage on my list.
Deft with the record…
As much as I love turntablism, I did not include the likes of DJ Rectangle, DJ Qbert, or Dilated Peoples because they excel in only one area of “rapperfection”. But I came really close to giving love to Rectangle’s “Turntable Terror” and Qbert’s “Scratchin’ Good Times,” where he takes the Sugarhill Gang classic and turns it into his playground. Some of Rectangle’s and Qbert’s rap compilations are also noteworthy but to include them would feel like cheating.
For the same reasons, I did not include Lyricists Lounge Vol. 1, even though I feel it has enough quality and age to be a top five album of all-time, but compilations seem just unfair. Still, you owe it to yourself to get to know the prototypal rap stylings of Sarah Jones, and not just the “Blood” track, but also, and especially, on “Your Revolution” with DJ Vadim.
I thought you knew… I thought you knew… Bitches are hustlers too…
I’ve yet to see one female emcee on any top 10 list and I made it my mission to include one on mine. I have failed my mission. The most respected female emcee is probably Lauryn Hill, and The Miseducation of… is a great, five-star album, but it’s more R&B than hip-hop. And then we have Missy Elliot, whose a great personality and makes incredible music videos, but doesn’t really have the lyrical skills. I tried some Salt-N-Pepa, and props has to be given to them for teaching inner-city girls self-respect without advocating nunhood… but shit, I couldn’t put them in, could I?
Some of the lesser known female rappers got some consideration, but in the end, hardly anybody knows them, so they really haven’t influenced hip-hop’s history. But still, MC Lyte, Jean Grae, Bahamadia, and Apani B., should all get some more listen. But, amusingly, the female MCs I enjoyed more than all of them was Northern States, featuring three white girls from Northern California… after listening to “Dying in Stereo”, I was hooked. It’s just too funny.
Ain’t no shit like the west coast shit ‘cuz the west coast shit is da bomb…
If I have to choose a side, I gotta choose the West. There’s something about George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars that makes me wish I was alive during the 70s with my “Flashlight” on vinyl. West Coast rap, back when West Coast rap was distinctive, was simply fun. I love The Chronic, and Doggystyle, but they didn’t make it for being club albums all about fun and devoid of intellect. I did include some hip-hop from the west, but none of it contains the unconstrained weed-smoking and misogyny, on a droning bassline, that put America under a spell during the first half of the 90s.
The hazy days go to nights returning on and on…
Three rap acts that did not make my top 10: Blackalicious, A Tribe Called Quest, and Common. What do they have in common? I guess I just don’t know how to really like the soothing, “electric relaxation” styles of hip-hop. I’m going to be honest and tell you my favourite tracks for these folks, and you’ll be like, “What the hell?” For Blackalicious: “Swan Lake,” and “Sleep.” For Common: “The Light,” and “Nag Champa.” For ATCQ: “Bonita Applebum,” and “Ham ‘N’ Eggs.” I mean, if you are going to pick an ATCQ album, why not the People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm? I know the “scenario”, but straight up, I’m not feeling it. And besides, ATCQ is sooo not the greatest rap group of all time, as you’ll see…
The Cannibus is ill like that…
Finally, I also left out the classic battle raps. Battling is fun, but it’s not all that hip hop’s about. I guess someone forgot to tell Cannibus and Kurupt, whom represent two of the sickest lyricists in the business (however, none are better in battling than Canada's own S&M), with “a tongue like a whip to administer lashes.” But the thing about battles is that it’s all about shock value. You can remember that line better than your girlfriend’s birthday, but you can’t really remember the song, and even less the album.
Allusions, metaphors, and knowledge are all parts of what make hip-hop great but, like the songs of the ten albums that did make the list, you gotta have everything: some age to ripen, great beats and scratching, thoughtful (not didactic) lyrics, and some innovation that changed the course of hip-hop.
(Read #10: Tupac's Me Against the World)
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youngchinq
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Member: JJ Pi
Location: Maryland
Reviews written: 187
Trusted by: 161 members
About Me:
I am starting medical school in August! In the meanwhile my brain atrophies.
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