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.)