not most sales. not most imitated. i'm not even concerned with the long term reverberations of the album; just the flat out, best hip hop album ever made. i don't want to hear rationalizations either; you know, "well if it weren't for so-and-so, _____would never have done what he did.". i don't care about concensus opinions. i don't want to hear arguments citing what everyone else tends to agree is the best because it doesn't matter. if the opinion of others weighs heavily on your choice, don't even bother.

i'm talking the album that, to YOU, on it's OWN MERITS, stands head and shoulders above the rest. this isn't a challange. i'm not daring you to prove me wrong. this is just about your personal choice for that number one spot, and why. fair enough?

me? i'm rolling with, drumroll please........

Even the sun goes down. Heroes eventually die. Horoscopes often lie, and sometimes Y. Nothing is for sure; nothing is for certain- nothing lasts forever, but until they close the curtain.... it's him and i...

AQUEMENI.

this is hip hops peak album to me. it does not get better. much has been made of this album, and rightly so. thing is, i don't think it gets lauded ENOUGH. it stands alone to me. it's not neck and neck, it does not stand shoulder to shoulder with any other.

why? just listen. it's a creative masterpiece on all fronts. lyrically it goes places you don't find too much of in hip hop. dre's verse on rosa parks might be the most creative, insightful verse on a mainstream rap song- period, and it KILLS in a club setting to boot, which is just gravy. dre creatively snaps again on the title track in two verses that don't really have peers. da art of storytelling lives up to it's name as perfectly as any. synthesizer is something you genuinely don't expect and yet makes perfect sense for these two. return of the g opens the album up with fire.

plenty of albums can match the sense of adventure on display here, heading out to relatively uncharted waters as a whole, but how many of those albums can match the execution of this one? the follow up upped the anti and holds the five best songs on any of their albums- but the dropoff is steep after that. the three previous efforts were all much better top to bottom.

the fact that aquemeni stands out amongst their own albums- which are ALL stellar through the first five- is saying a lot. everything is here, in droves: social commentary, creative risks, superb lyricism, excellent story telling, adventurous production, it delivers on things you expect and smacks you in the with everything you don't. it's grown up hip hop at it's most refined. it stands alone and does not have a peer in my eyes. it is rightly held in extremely high regard but in my eyes it's never held in high enough regard unless it's considered the very best, hands down. maybe it's not the "right" one. chances are many will disagree. that's all good; this is just how i personally feel about this album. no other album elicits such strong emotion and passion from me.

but that's just *my* take.
what's your pick?

-Sig-

“Why didn’t you do this in your own god damn country?"

-All Stah's view on undocumented immigrants wanting to be treated like human beings.