Some albums just always sound good to me from front to back, no matter how old or apart from current trends it may be..

These are records that may or may not be on a hip hop "best of all time list" but nonetheless are timeless in the feelings they invoke.

My picks are...

BDP- By Any Means Necessary
Mos Def- Black on Both Sides
Pete Rock & CL Smooth- Mecca & The Soul Brother
Outkast- Atliens
Outkast- Aquemini

These records never sound dated, never lose their relevancy, or lose their head nod factor no matter how much time passes .

What ya'll got? I'd like to revisit some stellar old shit that may not be on my radar anymore...

The Low End Theory - reminds me of my rides from Atlanta to Covington to visit fam. this was always the soundtrack.

Dead Serious - just a fun album that me, my brothers and cousins would always quote. no matter what we were doing, playing sports, video games, etc. this album was getting quoted.

Liquid Swords - i love the winter and this album represents everything i love about the winter.

ATLiens - hometown heroes gettin in that ass! nothing better than that. always made me proud to be from the A!

It weird, because of there's any album that should sound "dated," this is certainly one. The beats are almost completely taken from the "Ultimate Beats and Breaks" records. By their own accounts, Keith and Ced scribbled down all their lyrics immediately before getting into the booth, and it sounds like it, especially with Ced (I think he uses the "Smoke/dope/choke" rhyme on four different tracks, at least).

And still, I revisit this album all the damn time. It oddly seems advanced, even 25 years later. Of the classic albums that dropped in 1988, I think this is my second favorite, behind only "It Takes a Nation". And I probably listen to "Critical Beatdown" more than "Nation" these days, if only because I listened to "Nation" soooo much when I was growing up.

I wish there was a universe where Ultramag could get into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame, off the strength of this album alone.

There are a lot...but two that come to mind, from the same year that really hit me are Common "LWFC" and Reflection Eternal "Train of Thought"...Classics...

which isn't necessarily bad really, but it's not timeless
in fact all of Kaney's albums are like that

It's definitely dated. It doesn't make me love it any less, in fact sometimes things sounding dated is a good thing, at least if you were around at that time.

I'm not sure about Graduation or MBDTF (too soon for that) sounding dated, but Dropout is for sure. Late Registration I'd be iffy calling that dated as well, but I could understand something calling it such.

But again, dated =/= bad. I still love the shit out of that album.

it isn't bad, some of my favorite music ever is in the moment
but stylistically his music isn't transcendent in my opinion, it's not really designed to be

his albums are in the style of, of a sound that HE'S defining? At least with his more recent albums, I feel like even if they end up as music of the moments, he was the reason the music defined the moment to begin with. Dropout's soul, sped-up sample obviously wasn't the first album to sound like that, but Ye was very responsible for it being a huge fad in hip hop. Dropout sounds so "early 2000s" because he made that sound the defining sound of that era.

Same can be said with 808s (though, unlike the others, I have zero love for that album).

In that sense, I don't think he should be discredited for his albums being stuck in the era they came in.

it's just the state of things, it isn't bad or good
I personally don't care for his music, but I'd never use 'dated' as a concept of low quality
Bobby Brown's first album sounds dated as hell but it's still a great album

blowout comb

Especially considering that album dropped when I was 10, and a few years before I even got into hip hop, the fact that it still sounds ahead of the current time speaks volumes. ATLiens not as much, but definitely not dated.

Second cosign on Mos' Black on Both Sides, but BDP and PR/CL albums sound dated to me, the former more so than the latter. But, I think it's easier to gauge what's dated and what isn't when you're someone who is hearing these albums after the fact. An album you grew up with and loved may sound fresh and not dated to you even though if a brand new listener were to pick it up they'd be able to tell that it's decades old.

A lot of the songs carry a minimalist production style. A style that producers use today when they want to make a quintessential minimalist beat. The blueprint for that in my opinion is derived from this BDP album. The beats still knock in 2013. And Kris' flow was very advanced for that time. Nothing like the nursery rhyme cadence of his 1998 counterparts.

Take a song like Clipse's "Grindin"or even Tyga's "I'm Faded". These types of beats take a page from from the BDP album. Current, retro and timeless......at the same damn time.

Rapper Big Pooh - Sleepers
Damu The Fudgemunk - Spare Time / Overtime albums
Nicolay - Here
Ab-Soul - Long Term 2
Ohmega Watts - The Find
Edan - Beauty & The Beat

I can put them on and they still hit