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>I agree that One Day and Black Star raised the bar high the
>reason I love the follow-ups so much and place then so high is
>because they surpassed that expectation for me.
Hell yea. I'll admit I go back and forth about which album I like better, between One Day and LWFC (along with Resurrection, but I'll get to that in a minute) ... but I agree with this. I loved One Day .. so much and had heard that album in real time upon its release. So when LWFC was announced and I knew that Comm had linked w/The Roots/Dilla/D', my expectations were fucking SKY high. The type of expectations that are NEVER matched or exceeded, and always lead to a letdown.
Only that didn't happen. LWFC blew me the fuck away and quickly (at least, for a time) became my favorite Common album.
Kind of the same story for BlackStar and BoBS. BlackStar was a revelation for me as it turned me on to the Rawkus crew and, along with Common and The Roots, was sort of the beginning of my start down the path towards the "underground scene," so to speak. So similar to LWFC, my expectations for BoBS were monumental ... and they were matched/exceeded, just like LWFC.
(As promised, side note re: Resurrection - I didn't hear that album in real time upon its release, so while I loved and love it, and it's top 3 Common albums and possibly my favorite/the best, it doesn't hold that same nostalgia for me).
>Only other album that did that for me in the same sense off
>the top was ATLiens.
For me it was Train of Thought. I guess that's sort of connected to the BlackStar/BoBS thing. But either way ... I *vividly* remember ditching class to buy it the day it was released, then sitting in the hallway back at school vibing, just being wowed by every lyric, every beat turn, every eye-opening piece of wisdom and social commentary, every little interlude (the girl before "The Blast," etc.).
Then transitioning the listening party to my car after school let out, before football practice, and continuing to be absolutely floored. Words can't really describe the feeling, but you and everyone else here obviously know what I'm talking about. In my eyes it's the *perfect* hip-hop album. It's equal parts fun and thought-provoking (while toeing the "preachy" line flawlessly), it's sonically exciting and nuanced ... even though there is diversity in the production from beat to beat, it flows naturally from song to song. Gah I could go on all fucking day. I get giddy like a child just thinking about my first spin(s) of this album.
I never really got those feelings about an album again. Have come very close several times, but nothing *matched* or exceeded that era and those 3 (and a select few other) albums. It's gotta be a combination of my age when they dropped, along with just the excellence of those albums (as well as, like I said above, my having heard them in real time upon release rather than years later), because both artists have dropped phenomenal projects since then. But man oh man was that a fun time.
>And those three albums are in my top 10-15 of all-time.
Yea likewise. Train of Thought is pretty easily top 5 for me. Maybe even top 3. LWFC and BoBs def top 10-15. ----------------------------------------
"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415
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