A friend just asked me, based on a viral tweet, what 4 “important” albums that came out in high school were for me.

I present my list:

1. Fiona Apple’s “When The Pawn...”

2. Lauryn’s “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”

3. Matchbox 20’s “Mad Season”

4. Erykah’s “Mama’s Gun”

Y’all?

(And yes for the record this could be based on albums that came out when you were in high school (which is what my list is based on) or albums that came out before you were in high school but that were still important to you while you were there.)

Eric B & Rakim - follow the leader

Bold - speak out

Public Enemy - it takes a nation of millions to hold us back

EPMD - strictly business

all came out while I was in high school

P.E. - It Takes a Nation of Millions...
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
ATCQ - Low End Theory

PE - Takes a Nation if Million - I wore this out!!!

De La - 3 Ft High and Rising

Tribe - Peoples Instinctive Travels

Al B Sure - In Effect Mode

1. Fear of a Black Planet
2. AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
3. Mr. Hood
4. Mecca and the Soul Brother

I want to include De La is Dead and Low End Theory, because they're in my five favorite albums ever. But I played the above the most.

so many good albums between 89-91 but I can’t include those dope albums that came out in May 91 because that was right before graduation.

3FT High & Rising
One For All
Low End Theory
Mecca & The Soul Brother
Stunts Blunts & Hip Hop

Sept 96 - June 00

1 Aquemini - OutKast (1998)
2 Moment Of Truth - Gang Starr (1998)
3 Jewelz - O.C. (1997)
4 Like Water For Chocolate - Common (2000)
5 Voodoo - D’Angelo (2000)

Honorable Mentions
1 Illadelph Halflife The Roots (1996)
2 Black On Both Sides - Mos Def (1999)
3 Soul Survivor - Pete Rock (1998)
4 40 Dayz And 40 Nightz - Xzibit (1998)
5 Uptown Saturday Night - Camp Lo (1997)

Sorry...that’s more than 4

Honestly, my middle school years is where it’s at...Sept 93 - June 96...so many classics!

Makaveli: 7 Day Theory
Aquemini
Things Fall Apart
Like Water For Chocolate

I fought pretty hard with these:

Black Star
Still Standing
OK Computer
Voodoo

Nas - Illmatic
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Raekwon and Ghostface - Cuban Linx
Snoop - Doggystyle
Big - Ready to Die
2Pac - Me Against the world (hit me and my friends like 2 tons of bricks)

92 to 96. Man, Snoop was huge. It’s so difficult to try to get that point across to younger folks now!

I could probably pick 3 or 4 more four-packs but these are the first ones that came to me that felt right and led me to a bunch of other albums. This reminds me how regional folks once thought about rap music. Funny enough, Tupac was my bridge to really listen to more varied acts. I saw him as an east coast rapper who made stuff that everyone should like if they like rap music at all. I remember going around begging folks to give Wu, Big, Nas, and Mobb Deep a chance. I heard Cuban Linx for the first time via a dude from New Jersey (Don) bringing me a dub of it ON TAPE. I went and bought my own purple tape. That and Group Home, which I ran into the ground even tho I thought the rapping was shaky but the beats were too tight to ignore. I was willing to hear it cuz of Method Man’s Bring the pain and Cream. I heard infamous cuz somebody stole a stack of tapes from a store and gave that one away cuz he didn’t know who it was. I took it cuz I knew Survival of the Fittest from Rap City. Rap City got me to Illmatic too. I loved Tribe because of Bonita and Buddy remix but I didn’t hear their albums until CDs became easier to get from pawn shops for deep discounts (mid to late 90s).

I like my college set of albums even better than those.

>A friend just asked me, based on a viral tweet, what 4
>“important” albums that came out in high school were for
>me.
>
>I present my list:
>
>1. Fiona Apple’s “When The Pawn...”
>
>2. Lauryn’s “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”
>
>3. Matchbox 20’s “Mad Season”
>
>4. Erykah’s “Mama’s Gun”
>
>Y’all?
>
>(And yes for the record this could be based on albums that
>came out when you were in high school (which is what my list
>is based on) or albums that came out before you were in high
>school but that were still important to you while you were
>there.)

Wu Tang Clan - 36 Chambers
Nas - Illmatic
Mary J Blige - My Life / Dr Dre - The Chronic
Mobb Deep - The Infamous

Three 6 Mafia - Mystic Styles - After putting out dope underground albums in the city for so long it was cool to see the hometown cats drop this on a national level

Makaveli - The Don Killuminat: The 7 Day Theory - Never was a Pac fan, but this album made me appreciate him and his catalog for what he was.

Gza - Liquid Swords - This solidified my Wu fandom. Loved Enter the 36, Tical, Return to the 36, and the OB4CL, but it was this album that made me the fan that I am today.

Tru - Tru 2 Da Game - I really didn't become a 'Kast fan until Aquemini dropped and I was out of high school and Ball and G's important album came out when I was in jr high, but I was deep into my Wu fandom by this time, but this was the only album that I would listen to other than any Wu offerings.

1. Enter The Wu-Tang

2. What's Going On

3. The Carnival

4. Best of Minnie Riperton

I’m assuming by Aquemini that you at least graduated in 98 which meant you were in high school from 94-98.

What made you go back to Can I Borrow A Dollar so much during that time when Resurrection and One Day has dropped.

Seems strange *shrugs*

... when the OP said "most important" I kind of assumed he meant those albums that, while not necessarily your favorites, were impactful for you.

So to use myself as an example I included Aceyalone's "Book of Human Language" because it was kind of a stepping stone for me toward discovering the other music I ended up loving even more as the years went on.

So while it's not anywhere close to a *favorite* (I mean I really like it, but it ain't at that level), it was "important" to me because of what it led me to.

Make sense ? It does in my head lol.

Just seems odd that someone would listen to that album years after it came out, after Resurrection and One Day came out and still connect with it to the point it was one of the most important albums for them...years after it dropped.

Not hatin’...just find it strange lol

1: Devo - Duty Now For the Future
Never was a sound so "new wave, and brave."

2: Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill
It was simple RUN DMC flows over a new type of music. Raising Hell could be swapped in for this - but I think this one had a bigger impact on me because it brought sarcasm and sampling.

3: Krafterk - Computer World
Once I got this on CD it was over for me.

4: New Order: Substance
Sure - it's a best of , but it covered a lot of ground.

I was in HS from 1984-1988 and during that time the musical world changed about 500 times.

We had radio stations that would play Devo followed by Lionel Richie. We had these bands releasing classics - all at the same time:
madonna. The Smiths. New Oder. Soft Cell. The Talking Heads. Big Audio Dynamite. Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper. Whitney Houston. LL Cool J. Wham. Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Prince. Cameo. Public Enemy. Midnight Star.Kenny Loggins. Van Halen. Culture Club. Duran Duran. Hall and Oates. Stevie Wonder. The Cars. Whodini. Genesis. Kool and The Gang. R.E.M., New Edition. Depeche Mode. XTC. Peter Gabriel. Elvis Costello. The Cure. INXS. Fishbone. Dire Straits. Sting. OMD. Pet Shop Boys.

I could probably name 100 more - it was a crazy time for music.

nobody said they had to all come out while we were in HS

**********
"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"

We Got it from Here
To Pimp a Butterfly
Damn.
Flower Boy











siiike

Quality Control
Vol 3. Lifes and Times
Slim Shady LP
Vol 2. Hard Knocks Life

these are the ones i remember listening to the most, probably never come back to any of those now. aquemini, things fall apart, mm lp and 2001 are honorable mentions. college is when i was really listening to the music that stuck with me, last year of hs i started discovering it.

1. Public Enemy - Nation of Millions
2. Big Daddy Kane - It's A Big Daddy Thing
3. New Edition - Heartbreak
4. Troop - Attitude

he was the next biggie!!! lol

it had some jams

I still liked his random songs (I guess from NY mixtapes) a little better than what ended up on the album.

Common - One Day It'll All Make Sense
Aceyalone - Book of Human Language
Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought
JayZ - The Blueprint

Tons of honorable mentions but just a couple are:
Lauryn Hill - Miseducation
OutKast - Aquemini
De La Soul - Stakes is High

https://twitter.com/PROMO206/status/1287636860735389701

in case you ain't click'd it doe:

(in no order)

Redman - Dare Iz A Darkside

Ice Cube - The Predator

Snoop - Doggystyle

Biggie - Ready To Die

Erykah Badu - Baduizm
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Outkast - Aquemini

ATLiens
CrazySexyCool

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Top 4 is hard as fuck though. There's a couple I could swap out without much of a change in impact, but I think these are the overall top ones

I always thought that album kinda got forgotten about.

Maybe people were over Bone at that point but at the time I remember thinking it was a dope double album.

>I always thought that album kinda got forgotten about.
>
>Maybe people were over Bone at that point but at the time I
>remember thinking it was a dope double album.

It's dope, but there are some joints that I think only the die hards like, i.e, "Friends" probably doesn't hit outside guys like me.

Overall it does seem a little forgotten, but there's some stellar material on it.

The WW1 side is dope from start to finish though. Krayzie Bone's "Hard Times" is a high bar for MC's who do non-traditional singing IMO:

https://youtu.be/W6lgTCzTJBk

That shit is a warm blanket. That's his 13th floor.

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
G-Funk (i'm gonna cheat and lump Doggystyle, the Chronic & Dogg Food together)

>G-Funk (i'm gonna cheat and lump Doggystyle, the Chronic &
>Dogg Food together)

... that was just covered in the album covers for pretty much all west coast classics from the late 80s and 90s. But I didn't see Dogg Food on there (though I likely/hopefully just missed it) so I refused to buy it. Haha.

The whole DR camp was at the height of their cool at that point. Could do no wrong.

Not that they did any wrong prior to that. But there was a certain air of superiority they had at that point that was well-earned rather than just braggadocios like it had been prior to that.

1999
King of Rock
Murmur
Kill Em All



Honorable mention:
Thriller
Let's Dance
Speaking in Tongues

Run DMC’s “Raising Hell” in ‘86 (Beastie Boys also dropped “License to Ill”.)
Eric B & Rakim’s “Follow the Leader” in ‘88 (BDP, BDK, PE, Ice T, Lyte, NWA and a host of others dropped)
The D.O.C.’s “No One Can Do It Better” in ‘89 (BDP, BDK, De La Soul, Kwame, Cool C, Special Ed, Beastie Boys, and too many more)

By the time I hit high school, it was all hip hop for me with the exception of Prince, New Edition, and a few other artists. I’d also gotten into The Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, etc once we moved to New Orleans in ‘87.

Though there were many great pieces of work that dropped, the four I listed above are the ones where there was a crazy balance between what I was really feeling and also what the general public was feeling as it was expressed through radio and video. New Orleans, especially between ‘87 and ‘90 when I left for the USAF, was heavy into what was usually blasting on MTV Raps and because all of the serious acts always floated into the city.

I saw Biz Mark, Lyte, BDK, Ice T, PE, NWA, De La, Too Short, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, and a bunch more in that three time span that I lived in NO.

SHAT! Time’s flown way too fast.

I guess my 4 would be:

2 Live Crew - 2 Live Is WHat We Are ... Word
Run-DMC - Raising Hell
Public Enemy - ITANOMTHUB
N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton



<=========================================
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PYzh4v9cSf4FDnq3yMQyqNqh79o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale%28%29/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4079674/jlio.0.gif

Nas - Lost Tapes
Blu & Exile - Below the Heavens
Little Brother - The Minstrel Show
One Be Lo - Sounds of Nashid Originate Good Rhymes and Music

There were a lot of others then. I was just getting into a lot of hiphop that wasn't NY 2nd golden age "canon"

Big Daddy Kane came out with that Chocolate shit and it was a wrap for me.. and the 90s roared through

between...

Public Enemy
Cube
EPMD
BDP (played the most)
A tribe Called Quest (played the most)
Slick Rick
Kool G Rap
Special ED

Red Man
DE La Soul
BeatNuts
Digital Underground
Snoop
DeathRow
Black Moon
Intelligent Hoodlum
Large Professor
Lord Finesse
Showbiz and AG


SoulIISoul
WuTang
Biggie
Nas
Jay Z
Erykah Badu
The Liks

it's hard to choose.. the most I played out of all that:

All Native Tongues stuff was in constant rotation (i'm also including beatnuts)
Public Enemy, It take a million... (freshman on in HS)
EPMD (business as usual - freshman)
BDP Edutainment and on (freshman and sophomore)
RedMan (whut? and dare is the darkside)
WuTang (junior & senior year - 36 chambers)
Biggie (junior & senior year -ready to die)
Black Moon (junior .. enta da stage)

and I know I'm missing some..

@silentintellect

cause:

PRT
Rakim
Queen Latifah
Main Source
Special Ed
Brand Nubian
EPMD
Slick Rick
BDP
Guy
Keith Sweat
EnVogue
Janet Jackson
Prince
LL

It’s just too many good albums that were in rotation.

I prolly played more PRT and Brand Nubian than Al B Sure but I had to throw one RB joint in there because it was my slow grinding phase.

This was actually pretty hard for me to remember what I was listening to.

Now/Maxwell - I think this was the first album I bought from him...or maybe I bought this a little after Embrya? I do remember listening to it a lot though, esp. my junior year

Confessions/Usher - could not escape this fucking album. Usher book ended high school for me. 8701 freshman year, Confessions senior year.

Lyricist Lounge Vol 2 - Oh No was the first song I heard with Mos on it I think.

Outkast compilation - The first Outkast album I bought (shame). Loved all three of the new tracks Funkin Around, The Whole World, and Movin Cool. Bought this at Walmart and it was edited lmao

I also remember playing the first Nappy Roots album a lot. Listened to it last week for the first time in years.

>Outkast compilation - The first Outkast album I bought
>(shame). Loved all three of the new tracks Funkin Around, The
>Whole World, and Movin Cool. Bought this at Walmart and it was
>edited lmao
>

loved the new tracks too. i think my brother had bought it so between aquemini and this one i became a big fan. you cant top having a slim shady lp edited version though.

and probably Baduizm


Iwas a deep OKP, Spitkicker, Rawkus head lol

> Iwas a deep OKP, Spitkicker, Rawkus head lol

But I took "important" to mean the albums that kind of led me to explore my musical tastes deeper.

So I included "Book of Human Language" in my post because it was one of the first "underground" rap albums I'd bought (I'd bought and heard "Stakes is High" and "Things Fall Apart" in middle school but this post said HS, so...lol), and it started me on the path of exploring the underground further and discovering Common, Rawkus, OKP, etc.

Then I included "The Blueprint" cuz that's the album that reminded me that I didn't actually hate mainstream rap music like I'd largely pretended to for the couple years (soph and junior year, namely) that followed my discovery of all the great underground music mentioned above lol.

Soundbombing 2 is perhaps the most pivotal moment in hip hop for me, because that was my gateway to Common, Mos Def, Talib/Reflection Eternal and Black Star, Dilated, Pharoahe, Company Flow, High And Mighty.

I'd heard Com on Illadelph and TFA, but it was 1999 that had me checking for his albums.

For me, SB2 was a gateway drug of epic proportions, and kicked open the floodgates.

The wave that hit next is, IMO, criminally under heralded.

LWFC, BOB, Internal Affairs, TOT, Fantastic Vol 2, and The Platform made for a monster slate on it's own. Lesser albums by High and Mighty, even. Hi Teknology dropped in 01 to keep that train rolling along.

Even then, I had so much ground to cover just to get caught up, with Black Star, ODIAMS, Resurrection, Funcrusher, SB 1, looking for shit like MOOD, discovering Kool Keith, looking for Rugged Man shit off the strength of his oddball cut off SB2...

SHIT! Your post just took me back for real. All those exact albums and artists. Same. It was my first and second years of college. Common became my favorite MC at the time because of LWFC and his verse on Respiration. I also loved that whole Boston scene of Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, Edan, etc.

>SHIT! Your post just took me back for real. All those exact
>albums and artists. Same. It was my first and second years of
>college. Common became my favorite MC at the time because of
>LWFC and his verse on Respiration. I also loved that whole
>Boston scene of Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, Edan, etc.

I'm from the Boston area so it was natural. Although I don't recall knowing that Lif was a Boston guy in the moment at least ...

Man yea - that timeframe you speak of is hella unheralded, even if it doesn't feel like it around these parts (and thank god for this board, otherwise I'd have like 3 friends to discuss this shit with lol)

But yea that whole string of albums, my god. Just classic after classic after classic IMO. Such incredible creativity coming out of all these likeminded artists. Obviously a ton of them worked together and/or were inspired by eachother, and we were the benefactors.

I'm also with you on the ground I had to cover. I'd bought Stakes is High and Things Fall Apart in 8th grade. Not sure what compelled me to grab Stakes but either way, those were sort of my "starter" albums for music deeper than the mainstream hip hop I'd listened to up to that point. And even though I didn't really know it at the time, those were my intros to Common as well - who would eventually become my favorite MC.

I was still primarily mainstream listening freshman year until I copped Book of Human Language and One Day It'll All Make Sense and it was off and running from there. That's when I caught up on Comm's prior albums, then De La, The Roots, etc. And it was tough because I had to do all this catching up while still keeping up with the current output of those artists and so many others, a ton of which you mentioned below.

I call it "tough" but I just mean in terms of time - I obviously loved every minute of this discovery process lol.


>Soundbombing 2 is perhaps the most pivotal moment in hip hop
>for me, because that was my gateway to Common, Mos Def,
>Talib/Reflection Eternal and Black Star, Dilated, Pharoahe,
>Company Flow, High And Mighty.
>
>I'd heard Com on Illadelph and TFA, but it was 1999 that had
>me checking for his albums.
>
>For me, SB2 was a gateway drug of epic proportions, and kicked
>open the floodgates.
>
>The wave that hit next is, IMO, criminally under heralded.
>
>LWFC, BOB, Internal Affairs, TOT, Fantastic Vol 2, and The
>Platform made for a monster slate on it's own. Lesser albums
>by High and Mighty, even. Hi Teknology dropped in 01 to keep
>that train rolling along.
>
>Even then, I had so much ground to cover just to get caught
>up, with Black Star, ODIAMS, Resurrection, Funcrusher, SB 1,
>looking for shit like MOOD, discovering Kool Keith, looking
>for Rugged Man shit off the strength of his oddball cut off
>SB2...
>

Kev

Shout out to Southernplayistic, The Low End Theory, Illmatic, and Dionne Farris’ 1st album.

C/O '98 in the building

In no particular order...going to go based on what memories come to mind when I think about certain albums:

Going into HS, I was fresh off of Wu-Tang (came out late 93 I believe) and Nas (Spring '94)...throw Black Moon in there for good measure; That summer all we heard was the emergence of Bad Boy (led with Flava in Ya Ear).

1. Ready to Die 94
2. Tie - GZA / Purple Tape 95 (Reminds me of winter and HS football still to this day)
3. It was written / The Fugees / The Coming (All came out in the spring of 96 - reminds me of running track)
4. TRU (I know, I know - was working at Kroger and No Limit was on nonstop, lol) / Life After Death / Wu double CD (honorable mention to the Keith Murray and the El Nino albums) - 97
5. EPMD Back in Business Fall 97 / Dark Man X ran spring of 98 when I graduated

Shots out to the emergence of Missy & Timbo (Ginuwine, Aaliya was killing), D'angelo, K-ci / JoJo (All my life was played at every damn prom I bet) and Baduizm (played this nonstop on my way to work - Taco Bell, lol).

After that...going into college was a hell of a run (Aquemini, Miseducation, Jay Z vol 2, Black Star...)

Far too many to name, I'm missing a bunch...thanks for this one.

>The Coming

It kind of is a side note in grand scheme of 1996 which one could argue was the most prolific year for quality releases.

And then Busta obviously went on to have even more mainstream success.

But this album stands up to almost any album from that year and I feel like it’s never really mentioned.

I think that stretch in 1996 was just a year for great music*. However, I think for folks that were in HS during that time, that album was undeniable. I guess it guess B-side love from a mainstream perspective but for me, that is a staple (when I think 'do my thing' as an opening, it takes me back to being on the bus)


*I feel that way about 1998 as well

>>The Coming
>
>It kind of is a side note in grand scheme of 1996 which one
>could argue was the most prolific year for quality releases.
>
>And then Busta obviously went on to have even more mainstream
>success.
>
>But this album stands up to almost any album from that year
>and I feel like it’s never really mentioned.

... was so perfect coming from him. The musical landscape, the personality, the lyrics, all of it. Really really great and underrated.


>>The Coming
>
>It kind of is a side note in grand scheme of 1996 which one
>could argue was the most prolific year for quality releases.
>
>And then Busta obviously went on to have even more mainstream
>success.
>
>But this album stands up to almost any album from that year
>and I feel like it’s never really mentioned.

He's legitimately on that GOAT shortlist to me, but doesn't really get the tick he's earned in GOAT discussions.

I'm disgusted with myself that I don't talk about him more. Like, I should be posting random Busta joints just because.

That man is one of hip hop's crown jewel artists, IMO

Because I think that both artists "get lost in the shuffle" as you say because a lot of people, wrongly, pass them off as just like contrived, gimmicky artists ... artists with more personality and flair than actual skill.

This is very unscientific but that's what I think happened and happens with artists like Bone Thugz and Busta. I think DMX maybe falls into this category as well. I myself am guilty of kind of being dismissive of DMX, only to rediscover just last week how talented the guy was and is lyrically. I wouldn't personally put him on the level of Bone and Busta in terms of overall skill, album quality, or impact, but he certainly has way more lyrical skill than I would've given him credit for for like a decade prior to last week's Verzuz battle. And I'm just using him as another example of an artist whose personality trumped his skill in the collective mainstream point of view as time has gone on.

Busta is a top tier MC.

He does get mentioned on Top 25-Top 50 lists and maybe that is appropriate.

I just specifically think The Coming not only fits the mold of the classic 96 sound and albums but is also very unique based on his personality.

Again, 96 is a beast of a year so many it is the reason it’s overlooked.

That year legit has 25 GREAT albums...so it may not even be in the Top 10 of that year.

I see Reasonable Doubt listed one people all-time Top 10, Top 5, even seen it as the number one album on people’s list and I’m thinking “shit may not even be Top 5 of 1996.

>
>I see Reasonable Doubt listed one people all-time Top 10, Top
>5, even seen it as the number one album on people’s list and
>I’m thinking “shit may not even be Top 5 of 1996.


^^^ That's 100 and I am a Jay fan. If you were actually there live in 1996, that's exactly how it felt. While RD was a solid album that grew to stand the test of time and be deemed a classic, there was far too much heat out there in 96. The standards were THAT high during that time. It also was so many different styles that your pallet could vary based on how your tastes were conformed. I had RD...but hell I also had Heltah Skelkta Nocturnal too, lol. There was also It was written, Mobb Deep's Hell on Earth (underrated IMO), ATLiens and Ironman from GFK. And once again I'm still leaving out a ton of shit from that year, LOL.

Ironman is underrated. That’s due to not only 96 but also because it followed Cuban Linx and Liquid Swords and isn’t as good as those two albums.

But if anyone thinks Ironman is better than Reasonable Doubt, they will get no argument from me. Winter Warz and Motherless Child were classics on soundtracks. Daytona 500, Camay and All I Got Is You are classic singles making it 5 songs released from that album. Then Iron Maiden, Wildflower, The Faster Blade, Assassination Day, Box In Hand, Fish...I mean DAMN! Lol

But let’s look at the 96 list in no order

It Was Written
Ironman
Hell On Earth
ATLiens
Stakes Is High
Beats, Rhymes & Life
Nocturnal
Reasonable Doubt
Muddy Waters
The Score
All Eyez On Me
Makaveli
At The Speed of Life
Soul On Ice
Illadelph Halflife
Enigma
The Coming
Riding Dirty
Legal Drug Money
Realms N Reality
Firing Squad
America Is Dying Slowly Compilation
High School High Soundtrack
Entroducing
Wrath Of The Math
Dr Octagon
The Turnaround: A Long Awaited Drama
The Awakening
Westside Connection
Gravity
The New World Order
Juggaknots
From Where???
God Connections
Blah Blah Blah
Wild Cowboys
Kollage
Once Upon A Time In America

And I know I’m missing a few...

Not to mention iNi’s Center Of Attention got shelved and in my opinion is a Top 5 album from that year...that shit is special.

But checking this list has me thinking my mind must be scrambled. This list is heavy with great music. Maybe think I should check out a list of 97 releases?

Don't get old, y'all.

I don’t know if the drop off happened until 01.

97 was a change and definitely not as good as previous years but there are some absolute gems that year as well.

98 was a big year.

99 was NOT good at all really but I don’t know if I can say it was the drop off because 2000 was dope.

After that the releases get really sparse and I don’t believe we see another great year until 06...and then again in 12 and it’s been getting strong again from there with some ups and downs.

It’s obviously all related to ones tastes but it hard to pinpoint the drop off imo.

I’m good with saying 97 started the drop though. I’ve just recently been surprised at how well some of those albums held up.

In my age-addled brain, the 2nd half of the 90s was when things started falling off. I checked a list on wiki for hip hop releases in 1997. There were a few gems but not close to 96.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_in_hip_hop_music

1998 was just OK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_in_hip_hop_music

And neither 1999 nor 2000 were that good, IMO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_in_hip_hop_music

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_in_hip_hop_music

I wanna make sure that I say that I don't mean that 98, 99 or 2000 were complete wastes. There were some great albums dropped here & there, some of them my all-time favorites. But overall, I feel like the percentage of great albums too a big drop in these years.

>I wanna make sure that I say that I don't mean that 98, 99 or
>2000 were complete wastes. There were some great albums
>dropped here & there, some of them my all-time favorites. But
>overall, I feel like the percentage of great albums too a big
>drop in these years.

97-00 didn’t have as many good-great albums as previous years but they did have some extreme highs, especially 98 and 00.

What I’m finding with those years are that not only had the landscape changed, so did my tastes and I feel like I missed out on some bangers back then that I appreciate much more now. Like Black Moon’s War Zone...that shit is a banger from top to bottom but I was kind of past that style in 99 so it came off weak.

97 was definitely a change but man...I love some of those albums.

Jewelz
Uptown Saturday Night
One Day It’ll All Make Sense
That’s Them
The War Report
Ghetto Millionaire
Life After Death
Wu-Tang Forever
Aforementioned Art of War
The 18th Letter
In My Lifetime Vol 1
Likwidation
Stone Crazy
The Carnival
Soul In The Hole Soundtrack
Soul Assassins Chapter 1
Hatred, Passions and Infidelity
When Disaster Strikes
Doom
Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars
The Pick, The Sickle and The Shovel
Rhyme & Reason Soundtrack
The Untouchable
My Will
Lunatik Muzik

>1998 was just OK.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_in_hip_hop_music
>

I think someone said it later on but by Fall 98, I was a freshman in college which was an experience in itself and damn if that 98 run didn't "feel" like a soundtrack to where I was at the time. From X's debut (summer) to Aquemini to Miseducation to Vol2 to Black Star to even Dru Hill (with the Belly Movie & first Rush Hour as a backdrop, LOL)

Side note: Looking at that wiki link, the fact that Vol2 / BlackStar / Aquemini / The love moment all dropped in the same week is crazy all by itself! I stayed walking to the Record Exchange, LMAO

-Admittedly biased to the nostalgia of 98, LOL

I don't think there's anything wrong with nostalgia affecting your tastes. Like you said, these songs & albums become the soundtrack to our formative years. So don't let us dinosaurs affect how you feel about your music. Just listen to us and nod so we feel like we're dropping some knowledge.

For us, fall of 93 was really heavy. That was the start of my sophomore year in college and we had:

Buhloone Mindstate
Midnight Maurauders
93 til Infinity (we saw Souls, De La & Tribe together in Dec. 93)
No Need For Alarm
Doggystyle
Enta da Stage
36 Chambers

Brethren I love and miss these types of discussions. Tying music to your life & times type shit.

93 for me was middle school...I'm at the start of the journey of trying to 'figure it all out', lol. I remember all of these albums clearly too due to the influencing years combined with a wide range of quality music. For me, I would say these were palette shaping years musically. I always loved hip hop but middle school was when it started tying to my feelings/emotions vs liking it just to like it.

But on a personal note, I'm glad you have Enta da Stage on here - In my initial post, I said that I was just coming off of that 93 run going into HS and listed Black Moon on there. I remember Buckshot Shorty (cause he takes no shorts, lol) was my favorite rapper for a bit...off of Powerful Impact alone. That whole album knocked in a walkman - very slept on group/production/skills-wise.

.

In general, I'm not a fan of the "Keep your album short" school of thought, but some of Busta's releases are too long.

I have no problems with "The Coming"; that's an unquestionably great album front to back. But on other albums I enjoy quite a bit, like "Disaster Strikes" and "Anarchy," he seems to cram waaaay to much into them.

Also, as his career has gone on, the singles tend to be a lot but than the album cuts, and I'm guy who usually lives for the album cuts.

Then again, I'll also admit he's seemed to find a lot of new fire since hooking up with ATCQ post-Phife, so we'll see.

When Disaster Strikes, ELE and Anarchy are all too long.

Cut those down to 13 each like The Coming...now we’re talking about some unfuckwitable run.

At that point in his career, I thought I probably wouldn’t really like a new Busta album again, but that album had a lot of heat on it.

That “Dillagence” mixtape he had out around that time over all Dilla beats was great too. I gotta find that - had not thought of that in probably over a decade.

"Wish fulfillment" may not be the right word, and I can really only speak for myself.

But he's not really a guy that most people can live vicariously through, like a Jay or BIG.

If you're rapping along to Pac... you can, for the span of 4 minutes, take that energy as your own. You feel damn near like a superhero.

Nas is a narrator and you see the hood through his eyes, and the outside world from that project window perspective.

Wu put on a complete cinematic experience.

If you're about to get into a fight, or just want to burn off some serious aggression...you can put on Real Muthaphuckkin G's.

If you're about to lose your shit over the political landscape? Put on Amerikkka's Most or Fear of A Black Planet.

Throw on Doggystle at any party, and it's a fuckin wrap.

If you're from the hood, but not really out there bangin' like that? You can listen to Regulate.... G Funk Era and feel at home.

Shit... DMX gives you a full human experience in his first two albums.

When I look at Busta's catalog, I don't really get that deeply immersive vibe, where I feel like I can put on his music like a suit of armor.

And when you get to other cats, like The Roots, Tribe, De La, Mos, Com, Kweli? You still wind up in a different state, like you're listening to a more artistically "pure" form of hip hop, something closer to it's original, or, intended state. I'm simplifying here, because this is getting long, lol.

Some of this is me projecting my own experiences, but much of it is observation of others, and some deduction.

And while I don't think this is a scientifically sound premise, I think this is something close. I think Busta brings raw energy and creativity, and does so both visually and musically.

He's the guy who makes art simply because he's an artist. And while he's got the whole end of the world theme, I don't think that resonates on a level that's personally relatable, as with other artists.

>4. TRU (I know, I know - was working at Kroger and No Limit
>was on nonstop, lol)

I'm glad to see someone else had this on here lol. Beats By The Pound had this album right!

Like Teen Spirit

I fucked the years ALLLLLL up first go around lol.
Class of 1995

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

1. Sex & Violence
2. Edutainment
3. Runaway Slave
4. Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time & Space)
DP's remix of Where I'm From was my shit

Honorable mentions: Gangstarr's 'Hard to Earn', Brand Nubian's 'One for All', Del 'I Wish My Brother George Was Here'

Songs that had me in the zone: Gangstarr's 'Take It Personal','The ?Remainz', 'Takin' Loot (Gotta Get Over) Large Pro remix, Souls of Mischief '93 til Infinity, That's When Ya Lost

Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)
Bazaar Ride to the Pharcyde
Blowout Comb
Do You Want More?!!!??!

My first is probably Talib Kweli's Quality. That one fits with the timing of me actually being in High School, though I got in to him and Reflection Eternal all around the same time. Going to talibkweli.com drove me to okayplayer eventually back then, which drove a lot of my musical discoveries later. Those albums were the reason I started caring about music and wanting to go to the store and care enough to buy them.

Next is probably The Listening. The guy at the store I used to shop at put me on because he knew my tastes, in retrospect he was probably the only reason a copy was even in that Pickering mall store back then. I don't think I realized they were dudes from the boards back then yet either, my lurker attention was limited.

My other two might be Franz Ferdinand's self titled debut and Modest Mouse's Good News for People who love Bad News. They were some of my first dabbling outside of Hip Hop at that age, and realizing I could like other genres. I remember listening to them for the first time when no one was home because I knew my Dad would be annoying about not hearing rap coming out of my speakers (I'm not gonna talk about all that lol).

The four important albums that I listened to in high school a lot were:

1. ATCQ "Low End Theory"

2. Dj Magic Mike "Bass Is The Name Of The Game"

3. Ten City "Foundation"

4. Boogie Down Productions "By All Means Necessary"

4. Super tight - ugk
3. Dookie - green day
2. 12play - he whose name shall not be mentioned
1. Doggy style - Snoop Dogg


on sabbatical.

does it really matter?

wonder what bin's doing?
http://i.imgur.com/phECCMp.jpg

Honorable mention to Enter the Wutang .... it's a better album that Suothenrplaya but I just liked OutKast better as an entity.

dr. dre "the chronic"
geto boys "the resurrection"
luther vandross "the best of luther/the best of love"
o(+> "the gold experience"

93 'til Infinity
OB4CL...
Soul Food
ATLiens