People love to pay this compliment to strange albums that aren't commercial successes that critics seem to fall in love with. Such critics like to explain away the albums impenetrability with statement like "listeners will be digesting and appreciating this album for years to come".


But does that even happen anymore?

This post is inspired by Blonde.


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I would say Weezer's "Pinkerton" grew in appreciation.

then Pavement's "Wowee Zowee"

then a little with Rage Against the Machine "evil empire"


outside of rock, I think

Maxwell's "embrya"

and Badu's "Worldwide underground" sort of grew in appreciation.


at a loss for more examples

"Embrya" is personal classic...I believe Sweetback (Sade) did a lot of the production...some incredible stuff on there....

The revisionist history on this one is strong

I could do a similar post about that an album's like Ready to Die that I know people were hating or not checking for at the time when it dropped but got on the band wagon once that album blew up.

Not quite the same as an obscure album becoming popular, but similar.


The revisionism for BRL has to be because of Dilla. Yeah people weren't feeling the different direction of Tribe but had to show respect for Dilla da Gawd's work once he became the Gawd.

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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>I could do a similar post about that an album's like Ready to
>Die that I know people were hating or not checking for at the
>time when it dropped but got on the band wagon once that album
>blew up.
>

Reasonable Doubt is THE example of this.

New York was ready for Reasonable Doubt. Can I Live and 22 Twos were on Clue mixtapes before the album dropped, Dead Presidents was a nice warm up and Aint No Nigga was one of the biggest songs of 1996 on Hot 97

It wasn't beloved by the masses or viewed as a classic until much later. It was a second tier album at best.

and it was hot from jump.



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not too many people were digging it when it dropped, seemed to get more love after Dilla passed.

I was a senior in high school.

I think those a bit older than me and the Tribe diehards might've felt differently. I personally didn't love it. It was cool. But the average hip hop fans that I knew who were mostly listening to Jay-Z, Ruff Ryders, Cash Money, Eminem, were feeling that album.

This shit is wack. Who or what is 'The Ummah'?

After Dilla became diafied there was a whole lot of backtracking on that initial stance

I dont think Q-Tip has ever made a bad album. Beats Rhymes and Life and Love Movement have 2 weak songs a piece to me

had that famous Brian Eno quote, something like everyone who bought the album started a band.

Was generally revered and respected by critics as well as most highly accomplished musicians, but never got much love from the mainstream audience. However, this album seems to get more love over time as people recognize it's genius.

I loved it immediately and know that it got some high praise round these parts, but as we all know it got pummeled by critics as well as some boom-nap heads at the time who described it as too left field. I feel like most of the hip-hop world has come around, many now christening it as ahead of its time (it was). Though I do still see the occasional "Electric Circus was Common's big career misstep" from people who don't know shit about shit.

Before The Love Below, and without the acclaim. Shame.

Agreed...very dope...

I don't know why people were dissing it though, yeah it was a departure from "Like Water For Chocolate" but that's what everyone said about LWFC as well, that it wasn't another "One Day It'll All Make Sense".

I will say it was two songs on "Electric Circus" that I use to skip for a few months until I let them ride through and now like them as well: "I Got A Right Ta" & "Jimi Was A Rock Star".

"Heaven Somewhere" was the song I would play for anybody who questioned the album, that song should've been in the middle of the album or first cause that shit is like some epic soulful journey in feels.

>I don't know why people were dissing it though, yeah it was a
>departure from "Like Water For Chocolate" but that's what
>everyone said about LWFC as well, that it wasn't another "One
>Day It'll All Make Sense".

I don't remember seeing this sentiment anywhere at all. Not saying it didn't happen but I just didn't see it. I *did* hear people (myself included) pining for a No ID/Dug Inf track or two and wondering why he ditched the Chi altogether but I really don't recall people complaining about LWFC not being its predecessor like they did with EC en masse.


>I will say it was two songs on "Electric Circus" that I use to
>skip for a few months until I let them ride through and now
>like them as well: "I Got A Right Ta" & "Jimi Was A Rock
>Star".

I always loved I Got a Right Ta cause I loved the goofiness. Jimi Was a Rock Star" did does and will always suck to me.


>"Heaven Somewhere" was the song I would play for anybody who
>questioned the album, that song should've been in the middle
>of the album or first cause that shit is like some epic
>soulful journey in feels.

For sure. Great track.

...I loved it at the time it came out...used to be telling everybody how good it was.

When i revisited it..a the song I used to champion didn't age well at all..I am music..i don't like it at all now..seemed a bit contrived..

the rest of it still goes

For sure ahead of it's time. Wish could hear some of the other as Common put it,"I need some weiurd shit Dilla."

Dills saying. "Okay....and Com saying not that weird."

Where are those beats? Lol

more like a year or so. I, like a lot of folks, was pissed at how short it is and how little black thought rhymes.

now its one of my roots favorites and play it pretty frequently.

i for one, hate it. i've seen a few people like it, but mostly it seems to be at or near the bottom of everyone's Roots album list.

I don't remember anybody liking that when it dropped, but it's regarded highly now, and arguably better than the first.

the album as much as I did. In real life, he may have been the only person (besides my lil bro)I know who even knows they released a second album. LMAO

I remember hearing "Spontaneous" & "Classic Material" on Kid Capri's syndicated back in the early 90's and liked what I heard so I copped the album six months later and it was different; it was them trying to get into the bass heavy sampled sound that kats were doing in '93/'94 but other than that it had great rhyming all through out.

I won't say it was a sleeper, it's just it wasn't well put together or flowed from song to song, it has great singles but I think it was too much to sit and listen to at one time; but I still enjoy "The Inner Mind's Eye" when I go back and listen to a cd in the car, I'll skip a few songs but overall it's a decent album that many wasn't wanting with their second album; but I was also surprised by Busta's first solo album, that shit blew my mind.

ppl summed it up as luxury rap when it first dropped...now ppl are realizing what Jay and Ye were really doing on that album

>now
>ppl are realizing what Jay and Ye were really doing on that
>album

I've never been able to figure it out. I hate that album.

critics loved it, steely dan fans loved it,musicians and music geeks loved it, however it gets its love more and more over time

I remember seeing the video for "New Frontier" as a kid a really diggging the song's laid back and jazzy vibe.

The video itself was cool too.

I knew nothing about Steely Dan and it's status in music.

Fast forward about 20 years, with my music knowledge game infinitely stronger, I see the Nightfly album and it all makes sense.

I loved that song as a kid. It was the video that got me onto it.


Since 1976

.

I got IWW the same day as Stakes Is High, and I know for sure that clouded my view for the better part of a decade.

So, it's been wild for me to see folks begin/start to appreciate it. Both albums are in my top 10 hip hop albums of the 90s.

Illmatic was cool but it just didn't move me like that. IWW was dope on first listen and continues to get more burn.



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IWW is better than most major label rap albums that come out now but it's not touching Illmatic. I'm sorry but that sample-heavy Trackmasters sound didn't age too well. Illmatic, on the other hand, is timeless. To each its own tho.

"Illmatic was cool but it just didn't move me like that."

Illmatic is like some of my favorite jazz. I can't dance to it, outside of Life's A Bitch, but I can sit back and zone the fugg out to appreciate the supreme lyricism and beats. IWW hit me differently because I could dance to it while still being zoned out on the lyricism and production.

I'm from the era where we danced to rap music. All of the greats before Nas' Illmatic had music that you could dance to. Illmatic was just different to me.

Like I said, both are in my top 10 of the 90s and maybe even of all time.

I still hold Illmatic way higher than IWW but I can certainly understand this viewpoint.

lol

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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>

Came in for this one.

It seems like the 70s is a haven for 'folks won't feel it until years later' type of albums, but it continues to happen. I guess we can't escape our expectations sometimes.

i was young, but when it came out a do remember people throwing shade on it for one reason or another (its not doing well commercially, it doesn't have any bug hits etc etc).

as a kid, i didn't listen to the album at all really. But when i got a little older i got a chance to listen to it on my own and fell in LOVE with it. Its actually probably the Marvin studio album that i listen to more than any of his others...

so yeah, "Here my dear" is a perfect pick for this thread IMO...


�
have you listened to
her stuff?
v
https://www.facebook.com/officialmeshell?fref=ts
http://www.meshell.com/site/
http://www.freemyheart.com


RIP David Williams:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Williams_(guitarist)

Rap a lot and southern rap fans knew what was up but it wasn't until years later when they linked up with Jay Z where the album started being praised by rap media and more casual fans...

didn't hear it in it's entirety until my early college years in the early 2000s. First time I heard it my mind was blown. I've forever since been giving UGK and that album props. I started posting here in 2003 and rarely remember this album getting love until sometime in the mid 2000s when UGK finally started getting a lot more mainstream love.

but hated it when it came out.

It was a lot different than his previous stuff where Blochead did most of the beats

This sounded so cluttered and herky jerky to me at the time.

Now I think it's dope.


http://twitter.com/collazo

I rank it pretty high in his catalog.

.

To my knowledge, the album was liked by diehard fans of the group, but the general public and some critics felt it was a misstep and an unfamiliar sound.

But looking back, the album was ahead of the game.

It probably was received by fans on here who like the album, but doesn't the album have the fewest record sales of any of their four classics?

>To my knowledge, the album was liked by diehard fans of the
>group, but the general public and some critics felt it was a
>misstep and an unfamiliar sound.
>
>But looking back, the album was ahead of the game.
>
>It probably was received by fans on here who like the album,
>but doesn't the album have the fewest record sales of any of
>their four classics?

A lot of the die-hard fans from album one didn't like the new sound. ATLiens got them more fans outside of the southern region. It sold more than Southernplayalistic... OutKast got more popular with each release.

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994) 1 Million
ATLiens (1996) 2 Million
Aquemini (1998) 2 Million
Stankonia (2000) 4 Million
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003) 11 Million

I guess I was "technically" outside the region, but I was really feeling what DF was on back then

>To my knowledge, the album was liked by diehard fans of the
>group, but the general public and some critics felt it was a
>misstep and an unfamiliar sound.
>
>But looking back, the album was ahead of the game.
>
>It probably was received by fans on here who like the album,
>but doesn't the album have the fewest record sales of any of
>their four classics?

It wasn't easy to digest. ATLiens was my first full Outkast album. My roomdog at LSU, who I barely knew cuz it was freshman year, came in with excitement, threw it in the CD player, and it was on from there. The only song we didn't immediately like was ET cuz our speaker situation wasn't right at all. A couple years later, we had the floor speaker joints and 'discovered' it..haha.

I had Soul Food tho. So I viewed it as the next album in DF's lineage moreso than the follow-up to SPCM, so I had an easier shot at it.

I think it was the die hards who were thrown by this album, though it got them a larger audience.



**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

B.O.B was on stankonia.

atliens was my first Kast purchase. it took me a minute to get with their first album, which I bought later. I was all on on atliens tho.

>
>But looking back, the album was ahead of the game.

production was immaculate..lol

..this is an unpopular view..but i was disappointed with aquemini at first...that took me years to get into,...i wanted another ATLiens so bad...wanted them to continue the comic strip.....smh..
took me years to really appreciate Aquemini as an album...i still prefer ATLiens tho..it's my favourite outkast album

The lyrics were flying over my head.

ppl didn't appreciate it for real until after Funk exploded later in the 1970s and the album's influence became clear.

Wow, I had no idea that this album wasn't considered an instant classic. I've go to to go back and check out some reviews of the album when it dropped.

It Was Written is a classic. Had it not followed what many consider to be the GOAT hip-hop album, it would have been considered a classic right away.

Nastradamus is still lower tier nas but there are some good tracks on there. It isn't the coffee table coaster that most make it out to be, IMO.

by far his worst.

I recently revisited it a week ago and it sounds worse to me now than it did upon it's release back in August. The lack of musical variation, laughingly "hip" lyrics and pointless skits just show me that Ocean let his pretensions run wild. He knew the critics would lap it up but jury's still out if it will stand the test of time and reveal itself to be a dense, difficult masterwork.

I put these two together because....

...they both came on the heels of their artists' respective commercial peaks.

...both elicited a collective "huh?" from the general public and fans

...both were musical departures from the huge albums that proceeded them.

...both demonstrated that the artists were going to grow musically and stylistically and be more than one-trick ponies

...and finally, both have gotten props years later as albums on their own and proof of Prince's and the Beasties' skills

.

i hated it at first and then went back and listened again it's a solid album that was ahead of it's time.

look at the reviews it got blasted.

I was always a Organized Konfusion fan but with their third and final album as a duo, it was them trying to go with an concept album but still bring the same vibe from their second album.

I remember when it dropped, "Numbers" was already getting play on some radio, mostly college radio, and underground mix shows, but it better songs out during that time so it got lost in the mix, so when the album dropped I think most was thinking it was going to be a wordplay album with straight singles and dirty b-sides, but that wasn't the case.

The album had tons of skits inbetween that basically slowed it down to where you couldn't wait to hear the songs and just passed by the skits and straight to the songs; personally I liked a few of the skits, the songs followed the theme/story of the skits, but sometimes it wasn't necessary; I had a lot of my friends tell me the album was terrible or boring but a month after it came out I decided to finally cop the album and take a listen (which I was going to do anyways), and I understood why they wasn't feeling this album.

Like I said it was the skits that was holding the album back but to me I understood what Prince Po & Pharoahe Monch was trying to take it, but I guess boom-bap songs don't really need a storyline or subject matter in 1997 to entertain or to not bore the listeners on repeat listens but I think it went over fans heads a lil' too much.

I listened to it a few more times and after that I didn't listen to that album again until a year after Pharoahe Monch's solo album dropped (cause I played the shit out of "Internal Affairs" almost everyday) but when I did listen to "Equinox" I liked it even more and had it on rotation for almost two months.

Was it a sleeper, I'll say yeah, most didn't appreciate it for what they were trying to do but to me the songs were banging, beats were dope, rhymes had meaning, flows & styles were off the meter; but during that time you would think with Wu-Tang returning, Common & The Roots were making dope material, EPMD got back together, jiggy rap was big, you would think this was the perfect time for a underground hip-hop to be releasing an album.

So of my friends still don't care for that album but when I start playing songs from it or talk about it, they like that was dope or forget those songs were on that album...go figure.