Best Hip-Hop albums Ever ?

#1, 2 and 6 are great! I think #10 - Chronic should be higher. BTW...no love for NWA or 2Pac?? Excellent top ten list either way.

Yeah, I figured some headz would expect to see 'chronic' higher on the list. Just couldn't do it tho. Heck, I left off Raekwon's - Cuban Linx. Probably could've thrown in another KRS or PE joint too. Regarding Pac and NWA, I really didn't think Pac had too many albums, which changed the culture. NWA maybe, but not Pac.

I like this list also, but I think one thing has to be considered - what hip hop meant to each region that embraced it. It has gone along a long journey since NYC.

So I'm gonna write my book of influential albums, songs, and artists... Bear with me 'cause this is long, and purely my recollection of Hip Hop's journey through rap music over the years. My whole point in this (if you don't wanna read it all) is that we can't just take all the influential cats in NYC with a couple from other regions. Each region put a spin on hip hop that added to it's current status today.

Count anyone in history, DJ Cool Herc, Grandmaster Flash... Furious Five... Red Alert... for creating the raw materials of hip hop. Credit Fab Five Freddy, Bizzy B, and the Sugarhill Gang for brewing the commercial element of hip hop that would later take over it's soul.

Run DMC - Their albums paved the way for that hard street entertainer type rapper that would come later. The Beastie Boys - later endorsed by Run DMC, would be in my mind one of the only two legit successful white acts in rap. Eminem was the other one.

KRS - Criminal Minded and beyond - Yes this was influential... while folks called it violent back in it's day, while KRS called to find out when he'd actually get paid for doing it. This was the epitome of lyrical rap.

3. Gangstarr, Blackstar, other crews of NYC taught us how life was in each burrough of New York. LL (who I think was influential as a whole, not his albums) taught us about the different emotions of B-Boys. During this era, rap was only considered good if it was out of NYC.

Public Enemy... Fighting the power... X-Clan rode the wave they created to make some money. Sister Souljah would follow in their footsteps. Like KRS, she went on to become an influential speaker.

WEST COAST:
Dr Dre is a talented musician. But before even him, word has it that the Crips and Blood gangs of LA and suburbs used rap to boast about crimes they committed. My understanding is that many gang members got caught by describing real capers in their raps... then got busted by undercovers. So when Dre put together some music and let some cats called NWA rock over 'em, it was making that gangsta rap public.

West coast artists felt slighted 'cause of all the East coast influence. But they had somethin to say. So what was unique about the West? Gangs? Pimpin? They put it on the map. It blew up and made them rich... and that's why so much West coast music seems more commercial than most. Too $hort, who sold albums out of his car... finally made it big with the album Born to Mack. I consider this just as influential as NWA's Straight Out of Compton. Oakland became a hotspot for crime and pimpin. They joined the LA area and stated that the W-E-S-T was here to stay.

What about the South?

The South seemed enamored by that bass sound out of the 808. East Coast groups used it in small doses - just enough for you to hear the music outside of the clubs... and beatin down the street. But in the East, artists want you to notice their lyrical skills as well. Comin from Cali, a fella by the name of Mr. Mixx and his rapper, Fresh Kid Ice, preferred faster music and liked rockin parties. They began puttin in work and moved to Miami. A promoter named Luther Campbell and an unknown rapper out of NY named Bro. Marquis came together... and the influential tracks of the 2 Live Crew were born. Commercial selling of sex? Yes. But it's a big part of how hip hop began selling itself like a minstrel show for cash. The formula was easy, too. A certain influential cat named Afrika Bambatta and his planet rock beat... then there was a song named 127 BPM (or it was named after a drum machine, I forget)... those two songs made up about 90% of the most popular booty music made.

A lot of hip hop's successful commercial acts are from the south's reinvention of it's hip hop style.. slowing down the beat tempo but rhyming fast over it. Some albums come to mind:

Outkast - SouthernplayalisticCadillacfunkymusic (or something like that)
2 Live's As Nasty as they want to be
BeatMaster Clay D - who rode the Bass train that was an offshoot of Mr Mixx's music. A certain fella by the name of DJ Magic Mike combined the bass with scratchin and made serious money during a brief 5-6 year period when hip hop embraced him as the king of that style.

... and NYC turned their noses at that style. The crews up in NYC (Flip Mode, Flip Squad.. Bounce Squad.. Hit Squad... GangStarr, Blackstar) tried to remind everybody about lyrical content, less bass - more potent lyrics... Some cats named Mobb Deep grew into their sophmore album, the Infamous. They rode Nas' coattails and helped bring NYC back into prominence... and let's not forget the Wu Tang - perhaps the most influential NYC crew of all. Bass music started to die, and the basis for the East/West coast feuding would begin to build...

...Where was the midwest in all of this??!?
Quietly choosing sides. Midwestern Rap has always favored whatever made money. A few cats came out with their own style and made a mark - Common out of Chicago, Eminem out of Detroit - but when you talk about Midwest Rap, you align them with the East, West, or South. To me, Common gets lumped in with the Roots, the Tribe, Digable, De La Soul.. and the cats who show disdain for the commercialization of rap.

AG... I don't remember seeing women in your list, bro.

Queen Latifah had an influential album out - her first one. Suddenly females in hip hop could be more than just sex symbols. Very few females took advantage of this. Salt & Pepa (and their DJ Spinderella) walked that tightrope between sex appeal and lyrical skill. MC Lyte was similar - using edgier lyrics.

Sadly, the broad spectrum of rap that the men explore (or used to explore) wasn't there in the women's game. They found out very quickly that they either had to be in the right era at the right time like the Queen, or they had to balance the thin line between selling out with sex appeal and proving they had lyrics. If they lasted over time, they could make it.

Hip Hop goes commercial.

Someone in Generation Next decided it was time to make a buck. It didn't matter where from - East, West, Midwest, South - something changed when the cats out west moved south, the cats out east moved west, and the big ole hip hop battle between Death Row and Bad Boy was over. Russell Simmons was a mogul, Jermaine Dupri was building an empire, Puff Daddy was building an empire, and Death Row had built an empire, only to have it crumble after 2Pac's death and Dre's departure. It wasn't about the Queens Bridge, Flatbush (remember Special Ed?), or other burroughs of NYC. It was beginning to be about Atlanta. Enter more club music. JD's empire was set. Outkast was having commercial success and tried to make sure some of the old elements of hip hop were in their music. You'd have to buy the albums to hear the cuts. But if you wanted to party all night, just listen for their top hits. Party music was in... and the mergers for singing and rapping were on. Mary J Blige signalled the end of the distinction between rap and R&B as far as hip hop was concerned. Now R&B *was* a part of hip hop. All the females that couldn't rap could now sing their way in. More and more records became hits featuring either a singer with a guest star rapper, or vice versa.

Hip Hop stayed lucrative in the clubs. This allowed an element called Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz to creep in and take over for the southern groups who controlled the party scene. When Luke finally fell off with that booty bass style, Lil Jon was there to capitalize on the next big wave. Bass, in and of itself, didn't matter. But combined with harsh lyrics about tearing up clubs and goin buck wild, it made a hit that carried hip hop into it's current status. It no longer mattered that he flew a confederate flag on one of his top selling albums. He's in like Flynn now.

Nelly brought St. Louis to the cash crop. His delivery was different, and the beats were hard using that 808 that we never forget. Creative uses of the same ol 808 beats have kept commercial rap in business, along with our willingness to support that crap by buying it and playing it in the clubs. Everyone acknowledged that it was time to party and put away the struggle that was talked about in rap for so long. Now if you come out talking about moving forward as Black people, you blow someone's high and get some disinterested looks.

Hip Hop and Jazz...
... Generation X has turned towards bridging a gap between jazz and rap to try and bring some sanity back into hip hop. We're the generation that wanted to party while teaching each other and telling it "the way it really is." We can't stand all this commercialization, yet we dance to it because the beats are just as creative as ever. So we pulled out those words and replaced them with a smoother jazz guitar, saxophone, and other instruments. We also brought along some down-to-earth artists who sing about deeper themes than just sex (love, life, sadness, happiness... ). We applaud the Jill Scotts, Groove Theory, and Lauryn Hills of Hip Hop. Maxwell, Musiq Soulchild, and the Erykah Badus of hip hop. Count Erykah Badu as having a major influence on the smoother form of hip hop that we use to take back the sanity from all these commercial cats.

In addition to Hip Hop and Jazz.. there has been a small rebirth of the movement towards lyrics that are clever and make sense. Underneath the noise of commercial hip hop, there lies a slew of artists who are bringing back lyrical skill. Mos Def and Talib Kweli are among the most successful at making some cash while doing this. Every once in a while they join together and form Blackstar - but to me they have been more successful using the 'divide and conquer' method. Same holds true for Gangstarr. Guru has begun his descent like KRS, but will go down staying true to his roots and what he knows about - just like KRS. Even battle rap is being commercialized these days.

DJs... Kid Capri, DJ Premier... and for commercial appeal - FunkMaster Flexx. DJ Tony Touch, DJ Doo Wop.. and many others I don't know or forget to name... (Cant forget Pete Rock)... put the DJ on the map. Eric B was the first to gain notoriety as a DJ, and his name went first. It would be a long time before those other DJs above would make a name for themselves. DJ Pooh was inspired by this and tried to make his own record... didn't do as well.

Some hot 'flash in the pan' rappers that I think made a difference are below. I didn't put them down in any order - I tried to write 'em up as I thought of 'em. I know I'm missing a few that should be mentioned, but here goes:

Doug E Fresh & Slick Rick - now these ain't flash in the pan, but they are recognized for their ability to entertain.

Special Ed. Good rapper, repped Flatbush, BK, NYC. Everyone seemed to want more from this rapper, but his sophomore album was a bit of a disappointment, and he wasn't seen since.

Cinderfella Dana Dane... road Slick Rick's coattails.

The Alcoholiks... tried to appeal to both East and West coast listeners with their style.

Freddie Foxx - stayed underground and ripped the hell out of the Mic. I think he's more known in NYC than anywhere else. A very underrated MC.

Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff - walked in behind Run DMC and made rap palatable for the whole family. But they made a career out of entertainment. Say what you want - they did have successes in the business.

Father MC - I think he was the first one to resample Good Times since SugarHill did it. He rode Big Daddy Kane's coattails and the debonair, suave ladies' man style he brought. Big Daddy was more like LL Cool J - influential as an artist, but didn't really put out a single influential album.

Onyx - raspy voice cats that put a different twist on edgy, hard core rap. They started a trend of bald-headed wild-on-stage rapping for a brief period in the 90s.

Kool G Rap - one of many who experienced a resurrection in this game.

Twista - took 'fast rhyming' to an extreme. The DOC was the fastest... before then LL dabbled in quick wordplay.

The Afros - tried to bridge Afrocentricity with Gangsta Rap. Proud of NYC, but even Yo MTV Raps couldn't keep them popular for more than one album.

Biz Markie - first clown prince of Rap. Gets props for staying in the game. Don't know if he still has much money.

DMX - gave rebirth to the hard, edgy rap. Also became a spokesperson for the new body that was acceptable to the females - a well built bro. Jah Rule had a similar sound, so I think he rode DMX's coattails into his own career.

Busta Rhymes - Remember how he sounded with ACTQ (A Tribe Called Quest?). Since ACTQ, he molded and changed with the times. An old school cat who learned how to play the commercial game to stay in it.

Nice & Smooth - Naw they weren't influential at all. I just used to like 'em. Big Daddy Kane opened the door for these cats, too.

Master P: hate to say he's influential. But he is. He joined the moguls of rap by proving that if you amassed a lot of money from a previous lifestyle and invested into rap, you could singlehandedly change the industry to like your music. Russell Simmons did it with Def Jam. P Diddy did it with Bad Boy. JD did it with So So Def until he got caught with tax evasion. Suge Knight did it with Death Row. Too $hort did it with everything he put out. Master P *made* America bounce to that stuff. He was proof of how commercial rap had become.

E-40... rode the Oakland style wave and added his own style. Not as popular anymore, as evidenced by the slow down of albums and more appearances in movies. Rappers who don't sell as many records tend to look for other ways to entertain.

Fat Boys - didn't like being criticized for their weight, but they did make commercial a popular way to rhyme without instruments or a band. Beat Boxing was a very influential part of early 80s rap.

Then there's Wrecks N Effect - them cats that did Rumpshaker. Along with a certain Seattle rapper named Sir Mix-A-Lot, they all got paid to glorify booty with slower paced music. I call this influential because this still got played in white folk's bars and all those women who were self conscious about their butts get drunk and hit the dance floor when this stuff plays.

I think I've written enough of my take on hip hop history for a few nights. If you've read this far, then (a) I'm surprised, and (b) you must have a lot of comments about this.