In his post celebrating the 25th anniversary of De La Soul Is Dead, he mentions 1998 being his 3rd favorite year in hip hop behind 88 and 91. I think we all pretty much agree that 88 and 91 were great years but 98 I can't see it. I'd put 94 and 95 above it. 96 too. Maybe I need to go back through my 98 collection. Only albums I remember loving off top is Aquemini, Moment of Truth, Still Standing, The Miseducation... and Rhythm-al-ism. It's just opinions but what y'all think? What are your 5 favorite years in hip hop?

5. 1996
4. 1988
3. 1995
2. 1991
1. 1994

Quest's IG post https://www.instagram.com/p/BFXG8iqwa2g/?taken-by=questlove

Poll result (16 votes) 98 in my top 3 (3 votes) Vote 98 not even in my top 5 (13 votes) Vote

1998 was a very strong year.

Aquemini
Moment of Truth
Miseducation
First Family 4 Life
Soul Survivor
Capital Punishment
40 Dayz & 40 Nightz
Black Star
Love Movement (even though it's frowned upon)
Foundation
T2: Judgement Day
Heavy Mental
Doc's The Name
400 Degrees
Still Standing
Vol 2
Rhythm-al-ism
ELE
DMX (I'm no fan)
Don Cartegena (this shit is dope to me)
Pieces of A Man

This is just random shit I remember.

So while I don't agree with 98 being better than 94 or 95 or 96...it is definitely right there and what I will say is that some of my favorite songs ever are from this year. I feel like production was at a peak.

ONP produced Aquemini and Still Standing
Moment of Truth is, to me, the best Gang Starr album and Primo's peak.
Soul Survivor knocks like no other album. Listen to the drums on The Game!!

Then you have the aspect of Aquemini and Miseducation bringing the genre to new heights.

1998 is definitely the most slept on year.

my guess is since he was really getting into the industry at that time it has a special meaning to him

But yeah, pretty laughable IMO

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whenever you did these things to the least of my brothers you did them to me

TFA was kinda the Roots graduation to a bigger level of recognizability

It was released in early 99 so it stands to reason it was mostly made in 98

Quest has been clear that Biggies death changed his view of rap politics

So 98 was probably a year he was branching out & absorbing a wider range of the rap spectrum

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whenever you did these things to the least of my brothers you did them to me

I asked because it's a dumb ass angle.

Sharp as a kitchen knife indeed Phil.

We're a bunch of fans trying to read shit from afar, none of use were "there"

Difference is some of us trust these guys & consider them heroes and some of us are skeptical & know they're just people who have reasons for how they present "history" to the fans

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whenever you did these things to the least of my brothers you did them to me

because ALOT OF CLASSIC ISH came out that year.

NO! LIST
Tom Petty
M J
Zeppelin
Springsteen
Neil Young
Eagles
Ray Charles
Madonna
Chuck Berry
South Park TV Songs
Justin Timberlake
"Food Glorious Food"
"Twilight Zone" theme
"A Boy Named Sue"
"Night Moves"
"The Situation"
"Superbowl Shuffle"

In 94 y'all were fighting

By 98 y'all made it

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whenever you did these things to the least of my brothers you did them to me

just stop. just....no.

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.

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And I was in the industry then. Sorry.

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Literally. That "Romeo and Juliet" song from Silk E. Fyne was playing on the radio that year and it felt so empty to me that I literally had wondered what made me like hip hop in the first place. Then Big Pun came on and I was reminded why.

That year, despite all of the dopeness that did drop that year, was the turning point for me of when hip hop was changing for the worst. It started small that year but it grew into the garbage we are inundated with these days.


Since 1976

Of the living room then

By 98 cats that didn't know Masta Ace from Mellow Man Ace were finally feeling themselves like they had been heads all along

It's how we got Ruff Ryders & Cash Money and all that other bamma shit

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whenever you did these things to the least of my brothers you did them to me

>By 98 cats that didn't know Masta Ace from Mellow Man Ace were
>finally feeling themselves like they had been heads all along

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...everything that I wasn't feeling. Like, I saw that there was this own separate genre of wack hip-hop forming, and I just decided to not even bother sweating it's existence anymore.

-----------------

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I've got all of the "usual suspect" years ahead of 1998 ('88, '91, '94), plus most of the years that preceded it (at the very least, every year from '89 to '95). Only one I guess I'd put it ahead of '97, but I think I gotta take a deep look at that year too. There might be a few years in the '00s I'd put over it too.

-----------------

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Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

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98 had Aquemini, Blackstar, Foundation...and that's just one Tuesday LOL

shoutout to Volume 2 as well

edit: Third Eye Vision dropped that year too, no?


Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

I'm not big on black star or foundation. I'm surprised that people really like foundation that much. I rock with half that album. As far as black star, guess I'm not a big Shawn j fan. Probably explains why I don't care for the second artifacts LP much.

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Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

Wasn't this the time when they started recording all the soulquarian stuff?
Maybe the state of hip hop at the time inspired them to do what they did. *shrug*

1. hard knock life vol 2
2. aquemini
3. moment of truth
4. miseducation of lauryn hill
5. doc's the name 2000
6. capital punishment
7. still standing
8. it's dark and hell is hot/flesh of my flesh blood of my blood (whatever your personal opinions, you cannot deny the IMPACT X had on the game in 98.----cats loved Hov, but X got way more impact and bang in 98)
9. NORE (this got much play imo, probably more than c&n albums---and REALLY established The Neptunes)
10. mos def and talib kweli are black star
11. the love movement (i mean not as groundbreaking as their cannon, but cmon now)
12. soul survivor
13. rhythm-al-sim
14. ele: final world front
15. hello nasty (up even throwing them in the pot)



1. hard to earn
2. illmatic (which lets be honest is what cats are thinking about when they say "94"---just like my theory on cats saying "Resurrection" was so classic---when they really mean "i used to love her" was waaaaaaay more impactful as a single and placed on an album that complimented it well---but besides "resurrection" (and really that extra p remix tho) and "communism" ---we really wanna go there?
3. resurrection is a great common album (there i said and meant it)
4. southernplaylisticadillacmuzik
5. regulate is another "resurrection" one, it had 3 cool hits, got 4 mil sold. did i personally consider it classic material? at the time? not really, but for sentimental purposes ill put personal opinions aside, but i still say those 3 hits on a triple plat album make people feel otherwise---and come to think of it, did i even mention any of the pen and pixle albums of 98?
6. ready to die
7. blowout comb
8. word life
9. the main ingredient
10. tical
11. ill communication (i mean i put nasty in the other list so....)


some of these 94 entries were struggle at best.

i think east coast heads fight for 94 as the last few years we really had our identity (the east/west war did us in, "NY,NY" did us in, the most disrespectful element of 'hit em up" was the fact that pac spit over the worst hidden beach unplugged karaoke background track ever. THATS WHY i won't play that song ever. can you imagine the dilemma cats woulda been in had he spit that over "stranded on death row" beat, or even that wasted "natural born killas" track?, the Big/Thugs track did us in (yes, next to Cube/Bomb Squad probably the 2nd most impactful summit meeting on paper, however all it led to was a Harriet Tubman mission for NY rappers (hello Big Pimpin) to run for their lives and save themselves and abandon ship.

yes. 94 was a great year.


FOR SINGLES

regulate
gin and juice (came out early 94 from a 3rd quarter lp)
flava in ya ear
juicy
born to roll
most beautifulest thing in this world
mass appeal
i got cha opin REMIX
bring the pain
bucktown
nappy heads REMIX
supa star
H.E.R.
Crooklyn Dodgers
electric relaxations (technical 94 release)
aint no fun (94 single)
afro puffs
back in the day
plays ball REMIX
seen a man die
the world is yours REMIX
I'm sure CREAM got released in 94
stress by OK
time's up
nowhere to run nowhere to hide
nuttin but love
pimp of the year


---again y'all i dont just make statements off the top w/o doing the knowledge

i feel 94 was a better singles year than an album year HOWEVER yes the monster and beauty of hip hop creations came out in 94.

"distortion to sta---jokes

i really feel like 98 was the curtain call on "the classic album"---

in which there were more than 7 you liked.

after the aughts

could ya really namecheck more than 10 albums that were permanent like tattoos in your life?

again....my opinion.

NO! LIST
Tom Petty
M J
Zeppelin
Springsteen
Neil Young
Eagles
Ray Charles
Madonna
Chuck Berry
South Park TV Songs
Justin Timberlake
"Food Glorious Food"
"Twilight Zone" theme
"A Boy Named Sue"
"Night Moves"
"The Situation"
"Superbowl Shuffle"

>could ya really namecheck more than 10 albums that were
>permanent like tattoos in your life?


That shit is real.

_
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To me, 98 has high highs but that's it.

I'm way more pressed to get to 10 in 98 than I am in 94 or 95. And for sheer volume...96 is the best without question to me.

A lot of those albums in 98 I didn't even like. DMX, Vol 2, etc. so I won't deny their impact but we're talking quality here. NORE...yeah we played that but it's not even seeing Artifacts' debut.

1994
Illmatic
The Main Ingredient
Hard To Earn
Dare Iz A Darkside (how you gonna name Doc and not this?)
Word...Life
Resurrection (it seems like you shit on this album and then praised it?)
Tical
Ready To Die
Stress...The Extinction Agenda
Southernayalistic
Ill Communication
The Diary (did you even name this?)
The Sun Rises In The East (did you even name this?)
Blowout Comb
Street Level
Between A Rock and A Hard Place

That's 15+ and I didn't even name the average albums like Regulate, To The Death, Super Tight etc.

for instance Hard Knock is not my fav Jay lp but its his highest selling album and the album that established his rise to the kingdom.

so its half and half about impact and how it stood and merit.


because for real for real: Master P owned 98 with a gazillion albums.

98 is non descript but held major weight in hip hop. no lp in 94 got the cover of time mag.....


98 however....

NO! LIST
Tom Petty
M J
Zeppelin
Springsteen
Neil Young
Eagles
Ray Charles
Madonna
Chuck Berry
South Park TV Songs
Justin Timberlake
"Food Glorious Food"
"Twilight Zone" theme
"A Boy Named Sue"
"Night Moves"
"The Situation"
"Superbowl Shuffle"

Of course in that case you could 98 was better than 94 but you could also say that (insert terrible 00's year) was better than 1998.

Yeah he's talking pop culture over quality. I don't care about a Time magazine cover. If you put the best of 98 next to the best of 94, 94 is better. Quest is a businessman so I understand where he's coming from.

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Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

some impact stuff is stuff I'm cool on ("wild innocent e street shuffle", "slava a political overture", 808 & heartbreak)

some classic shit the rest of the world be like WTF son? (anything Dilla related when he was ALIVE, paul barman)

like none of Pac's discography aint on none of my top 5 but id be a fool to ignore the cultural impact of it all.

and yeah we can be like "fuck the man's media and all of its coverage"

but that Lauryn cover had a BIG domino effect which impacted TFA positively (side note: still lukewarm on both her acclaimed offerings to the hip hop culture----and I'm beyond certain her copies of illadelph are still in whatever janitorial staff cleaned our dressing room in kansas back in 96.

you gotta acknowledge both.


one man's garbage is another man's meal.


group home SUCKS as mcs.

but i bet that album in everyone's top 10 for 95 tho.

its all relative is the point, I'm not tryna convert y'all.

I'm just personally feeling that 98 was an impactful year on hip hop that we tend to forget.

i feel like its the last of the "hip hop we remember year"

cause even if you look at what we deemed as "classic" that was far away from the 10 year ago definition of it:

dilla's method of sampling was way different than beatnuts/de la grab 4 measures and loop.

as much as people was think TFA universally loved as a classic i still say it was classic to *this set*---the weirdos of the world who will also mix Radiohead with their BloodOrange with their NERD with their Adele----

so i guess the lesson here is opinions are just relative to the experiences i guess.

also i guess it was cause Dilla was feeding us all them beats monthly and i was making Voodoo---so i have a way sunnier "ahhhhhhhh" pretty view of 98 i guess.

NO! LIST
Tom Petty
M J
Zeppelin
Springsteen
Neil Young
Eagles
Ray Charles
Madonna
Chuck Berry
South Park TV Songs
Justin Timberlake
"Food Glorious Food"
"Twilight Zone" theme
"A Boy Named Sue"
"Night Moves"
"The Situation"
"Superbowl Shuffle"

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whenever you did these things to the least of my brothers you did them to me

?uest forming his opinion on the best year in hip-hop to his 'industry breakthrough' is definitely a bit misguided since it has nothing to do with the quality of the music released at the time.

Also, DYWM dropped in early 95 so by that same exact measure he could say 94 was the best year.

He just seems to be a little all over the place in this post.

He says his praise for 98 isn't tied to The Roots breakthrough and then later says that it is.

He borderline shits on Resurrection and then says it's a very good Common albums and lists it among the best of 94.

He excludes Dare Iz A Darkside but includes Doc's The Name.

He excludes The Diary, The Sun Rises, and Between A Rock from 94 but lists DMX and Nore from 98.

Shit just ain't adding up.

And I really like some of those 98 albums but that year is clearly behind 94-95-96.

But yeah, I don't see it at all as a fan, find it laughable even

But being inside the industry will change how you look at things, the Roots still make dope albums that's all that really matters to me now

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whenever you did these things to the least of my brothers you did them to me

He also slid that forgettable Tribe album on his 98 list

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Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

Orange Pineapple Sauce doesnt' do it for ya? I love that whole album. What is it about the other songs that you don't rate as classic? I suppose it's somewhat minimalist in places....but I also think the whole album has a really warm, rounded out sound.

It's always interesting when you find people with common tastes who disagree on a particular. For me...it's Wu Tang. If you saw my cd collection at the time you'd figure I was also a Wu Tang fan by association with everything else. But I could never appreciate the RZA beats at all. I didn't find the flaws endearing like other people. It's one thing to be lo-fi...but I insist that all the off-kilter rhythmic shit was not by design or self-aware....just sounded like bad music to me....made by someone who just doesn't have groove.

I don't get what he was doing with the Illmatic comparison.

resurrection is one of the best-produced, most cohesive rap albums ever, imo. contender for best drums, too.

if no ID never did anything after that, i'd still hold him in the same regard as many do easy mo bee or somebody like that.

____________________________________________________________
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Poll everyone you know who listens to this stuff.

Who is still bumping NORE in 2016? Unprompted. BEFORE you asked. Who played it in the last year?

Now, who is still bumping Blowout Comb?

Start crossing shit off the list, then compare what it left.

Now you have reduced your '98 numbers significantly.

Compare what is left.

This is TRUE impact. Lasting impact, not just "Neptunes came up because of this."

Just to name a few albums we were obsessed with as 21yr olds in Philly. And that means memorizing lyrics front to back -- listening to instros to singles from these participating in blunt hazed cyphers that formed in basements, bedrooms and cafes.

Fugees - Tha Score
2Pac - All Eyez
Bahamadia - Kollage
De La Soul - Stakes (still my favorite de la )
OutKast - Atliens (still my favorite)
The Roots - Illadelph (tied with TFA as a favorite - depends on time of day)
Redman - Muddy Waters
Da Bush Babees - Gravity (one of my favorite Hip-Hop albums period)
ATCQ - Beats, Rhymes and Life

werd.

I can get to like 25 albums that are very good to great.

>Just to name a few albums we were obsessed with as 21yr olds
>in Philly. And that means memorizing lyrics front to back --
>listening to instros to singles from these participating in
>blunt hazed cyphers that formed in basements, bedrooms and
>cafes.
>
>Fugees - Tha Score
>2Pac - All Eyez
>Bahamadia - Kollage
>De La Soul - Stakes (still my favorite de la )
>OutKast - Atliens (still my favorite)
>The Roots - Illadelph (tied with TFA as a favorite - depends
>on time of day)
>Redman - Muddy Waters
>Da Bush Babees - Gravity (one of my favorite Hip-Hop albums
>period)
>ATCQ - Beats, Rhymes and Life
>
>werd.

Adding on: Ridin Dirty. Untouchable. Reasonable Doubt. Ironman. Hardcore. Pac's post-death Makaveli and the barrage of songs/bootlegs that followed.

And cats around me had hella love for It Was Written too. We weren't sitting around crying about how it wasn't Illmatic. I didn't see that until years later once I started spending more time on the innanet.

I REALLY like 96. It is a personal thing for sure (last year of high school; first year of college and some awesome etceteras that I'll spare you all here). Still, there's a gang of jams from most of the most important artists of the decade fo sho.

Not to mention, albums 'lasted' longer back then so 95 stuff was still getting caught onto. Ready to Die. Conspiracy. Group Home. Infamous. Purple Tape. Above the Rim. Murder Was The Case. Safe+Sound. Dogg Food. Soul Food.

Yeah...I jammed like crazy in 1996. There was just so much progress from the early 90s. Cats were getting the green light forreal. Stuff was selling, getting better budgets/promotion/videos. All of that. Sure, some of that wasn't happening without 91 - 94, but still. 96 was grand.

Fuck no.

I know some saying boom bap is gone but to me it's not and during that time anybody could've came out with a single or album and dropped some heat, even if they wasn't lyrical, they had beats and concept; it's was all about staying in your lane and make the most of it, kats would make put out a few singles, drop an album a few years later, then get a ton of guest spots on other kats albums, then just disappear but leave you with good music but wondering what happened to them.

I will say 1994 & 1998 had a slew of acts getting signed to major labels but the label never knowing what to do with them but want them to make that one obligatory commercial track, even hard ass emcees like Big L. had that one single.

https://tinyurl.com/y4ba6hog

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"We in here talking about later career Prince records
& your fool ass is cruising around in a time machine
trying to collect props for a couple of sociopathic degenerates" - s.blak

1996 showed impact (The Score)

1996 showed classics (Illadelph and ATLiens to start)...

ATLiens
Illadelph Halflife
Reasonable Doubt
It Was Written
Ironman
Muddy Waters
Firing Squad
At The Speed of Life
Hell On Earth
Wrath of the Math
Beats, Rhymes & Life
Stakes Is High
Makaveli
All Eyez On Me
Entroducing
The Score
Riding Dirty
The Coming
Nocturnal
Legal Drug Money
Enigma
Soul On Ice
The Awakening
Gravity
The Juggaknots
From Where???
AIDS Compilation
God Connections
Realms & Realism
Blah, Blah, Blah
Da Storm
This Is My First Album
Wild Cowboys
Kollage
Takin Mine
The Lost Generation
Ill Na Na
Hardcore
High School High
Business Is Business

Those aren't all classics but all were legit albums.

And I definitely agree with ?uest that experience plays a lot into personal opinions with this topic.

It just seemed like something dropped every week that was a dope album. Even the average albums were dope.

Honestly, every year there's 15-20 quality hip-hop albums I enjoyed so while I don't rank 98 over 94 I don't hate it.

98 was about that time where I started gravitating more to the indie/underground joints and wasn't overly concerned with what everyone else was messing with. I was aware and exposed to (whether I wanted it or not.....hello Sumter, SC) No Limit, Cash Money, Ruff Ryders/DMX, etc., but I rocked with what I liked and kept it moving.

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I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

There's elements of the music and culture that exist in '98 you can't find in '94 both good and bad imo, though I personally prefer '94 over '98.

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