... OutKast, Common, De La (to a lesser extent), a few others (I went with the "one album per artist" rule personally).

But perhaps the hardest was DJ Quik and whether to go with Rhythm-al-ism or Safe & Sound. Ultimately I went with the latter but I'm kind of regretting that. I heard Rhythm-al-ism in real time when I was in 8th grade and that album must've stayed in constant rotation, meaning I listened to nothing else, for 3 straight months. And that's saying something because I bought a lot of great albums around that timeframe but that one hit me really hard. I heard Safe & Sound shortly thereafter *based* on how much I loved Rhythm ... and over time came to love it more, arguably.

But the more I think about it the more I think that Rhythm-al-ism deserves Safe & Sound's place on my list just because it *led* me to Safe & Sound - which I somehow hadn't heard even though I was *obsessed* with Death Row, and therefore knew of Quik, from 92-96 and beyond, but especially during that initial run.

So I may need an edit/addendum the more I think about Quik haha.