This being said, every well-rounded music aficionado occasionally ventures outside of their comfort genre.
Here are a few of my favorite hip-hop albums:
The Roots Homegrown! The Beginner's Guide to The Roots 2005
Notable tracks: Essaywhuman, Pass the Popcorn
Kanye West The College Dropout 2004
Notable tracks: Never Let Me Down, Two Words
Mos Def The New Danger 2004
Notable tracks: Sex, Love, and Money; The Beggar
Hangar 18 The Multiplatinum-Debut Album 2004
Notable tracks: Beatslope, Barhoppin'
Outkast Big Boi and Dre Present...Outkast 2001
Notable tracks: Rosa Parks, Elevators (Me & You), Spottieottiedopalicious
Ludacris Word of Mouf 2001
Notable Track: Saturday (Ooh! Ooh!)
Honorable Mention: Common Be
If you notice, everything I listed came out in the 2000s. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the older stuff: Naughty By Nature, Boogie Down Productions, Snoop Dogg, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys. I was into hip-hop before 2000, but I find the stuff that I keep coming back to has come out in the last ten years.
What are your favorite hip-hop artists and albums?
Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteJay-Z
Anything by Tribe Called Quest
Q-Tip's solo stuff
Clipse
Kanye is great
P.O.S.
Asher Roth is very strong
Nas
Talib
Jurrasic 5
I can go on and on, but those are some faves.
I <3 Q-Tip
ReplyDeleteI <3 Chuck D
I <3 The Beastie Boys, but I just have a hard time categorizing them as hip hop. They're just... The Beastie Boys, you know? But my favorite album is Paul's Boutique.
I am a sucker for classic hip hop, but I have to tip my hat to Jay-Z's Kingdom Come. I just love it, start to finish.
Good list, Corey. I thought I might hear from you on this blog. Is Asher worth a listen? Have heard that one single and didn't much care for it :)
ReplyDeleteHeather: THANK YOU! Originally I prefaced my Beasties listing with something to the same effect, but Kris argued with me that they're hip-hop so I changed it.
I would get his (asher) Mix Tape first, The Greenhouse Effect. It will make you like him more than his Alone In The Bread Aisle release.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many more now that I think about it:
Biggie
Wu-Tang (and now Ghostface/Raekwon solo stuff is just hot)
MF Doom
let me think about some more.
oh damn, I meant to put the dangerdoom album on the list!
ReplyDelete