Welcome back to The Bootleg. Now, I swore that I would not be writing a column this week. However, that was before I found a copy of Entertainment Weekly’s “25 Greatest Rap Albums of All Time”.
Trust me, this is a pretty hard list to find if you’re not willing to pay $3.95 for 84 pages of celebrity claptrap and their report card grading style. But, Nick and I have the entire list below, along with our own commentary following each entry. We close with our thoughts on the worst omissions, so we’ve got y’all covered there, too.
Check back next Friday for your usual fix of The Goodness. For this week, Nick and I carve up a little leftover Entertainment Weekly to go with your gravy and mashed potatoes that never seem to taste as good the day after Thanksgiving. Has anyone else noticed this? I mean, I try adding water to the gravy, but still”¦
Oh, I’m rambling”¦why not have Nick handle this week’s opening:
It’s too complex to get into which CD should be ranked where on the list so we won’t get into that too much unless it’s an absolutely ridiculous. Unfortunately, much of it is. Obviously we’re not going for in-depth analysis here. Keep in mind, the people who came up with this list are the same ones who run cover stories like “The Secrets of Making the Hulk”.
Aaron & Nick vs. Entertainment Weekly
conceptualized by Nick Salemi and Aaron Cameron
1. Eric B and Rakim, Paid in Full
Nick: Great album that was way ahead of its time. Undeniably a classic. However, I don’t remember people worshipping it at the time. In retrospect, this one got bigger as time went on. Rakim’s flow is easily the most imitated of all time.
Aaron: Number one? I don’t know”¦personally, I’ll take Nick’s comments one step further and say the top spot should be reserved for the joint that knocked everyone on their asses the first time they heard it. This is a great, timeless piece of Hip Hop culture, but a couple of spots too high.
2. De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising
Nick: Ok, I gotta admit I’m not a huge fan of De La, but I would never deny they are talented and this was a classic album. But number two is way out of whack my friends. WAAAAY out of whack.
Aaron: Definitely top five material, but again”¦this is too high for an album that’s attained most of its lofty status with 15 years of hindsight behind it. 3 Feet”¦ came out, heads were feeling it, then it was devoured by the wave of pop-rap acts that defined the early ’90s.
3. The Notorious B.I.G, Ready to Die
Nick: Hey, you guys know my thoughts on mid-90s East Coast Hip Hop. He helped bring back the East Coast with this disc. He had some help from the Wu Tang, Nas, etc. but Biggie was its most visible star. I think I’ve bought this 3 times.
Aaron: This would’ve been my choice for the number two spot. Ready To Die has been praised to no end, so all I’ll add is that this album’s greatest accomplishment was giving commercial rap a sense of legitimacy across all fan bases (casual, hardcore, even non-rap fans) that it had never, ever experienced before.
4. Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet
Nick: Essential Hip Hop. Not even arguable. However, I always wondered what the people at the mall thought when my parents had to buy me albums like this for Christmas. Public Enemy’s sound had meaning and message and was hot musically. Try finding that nowadays. (Eminem makes one song about politics and its “revolutionary”.)
Aaron: I guess even Entertainment Weekly wouldn’t Do The Right Thing and put this at number one where it belongs. 15 years later and people are still afraid of this album. There is no other piece of work that more brilliantly captures the spirit, vibrancy and rage of that era in America.
5. Run DMC, Raising Hell
Nick: The first rap tape I ever had. As a testament to what type of music fan I was, I had no idea who Aerosmith was when Walk This Way came out. I thought it was Run DMC’s song and they asked Aerosmith to be in it. I liked it so much I had to save up money to go buy the first two tapes. You know with the annoying foot-long plastic security handle on it.
Aaron: In 1986, at the Long Beach (CA) Arena, Run DMC performed during their Raising Hell tour. The concert was stopped about 20 minutes in, when some knuckleheads came through with handguns, nearly inciting a riot. I was still in middle school and not at the concert, but reports were that, guns or not, no one was leaving until DMC finished their set.
6. Dr. Dre, The Chronic
Nick: A timeless classic. This picked up where NWA left off. (Speaking NWA left off where the F*(%$ are they on this list? I’ll get to that later.) Dr. Dre introduced us to West Coast G-funk, and dominating the rap scene for several years straight as a result of this album. It gave rise to numerous careers and ruined numerous others.
Aaron: I’m not sure if Dre “invented” G-Funk (some of the early work of Above The Law, seems to indicate otherwise), but I know that this is the very definition of “goodness””¦well, the other one. Nearly a dozen rappers share mic time throughout and sometimes, I still think RBX, Lady of Rage and Dat N*gga Daz are gonna someday be stars.
7. Wu Tang Clan, Enter the Wu Tang
Nick: No one had seen gritty, raw Hip Hop like this in years. This album also was revolutionary in that it set off the careers of 9 MCs, as they all had separate solo deals. They started off as an all-star team rather than the reverse. This method has been copied since, but never to the level of success that the Wu pulled it off.
Aaron: Released at the height of the West Coast’s rap dominance, this is one that we were feeling 3,000 miles away in Cali. Maybe the most “perfect” rap album ever, in that so many MCs were on it, in just the right amount of doses throughout. In addition, it’s EP-length running time had us wanting more the moment it ends.
8. Nas, Illmatic
Nick: Often mentioned as the greatest Hip Hop album from start to finish and rightly so. Mentioned almost as much is how Nas set the bar too high for himself. I’m not a real believer in that. If you put Nas’ body of work outside of Illmatic next to most MCs, it’s not even close. No collection should be without this.
Aaron: I don’t believe Nas (or Biggie, or the Wu) “saved” rap in the mid-90s, as they took it back to its basics. Illmatic is the essence of the Hip Hop culture and might be the most underrated great album out there today. Nas has been overshadowed by bigger selling acts during his whole career, despite holding his own for more than a decade.
9. A Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory
Nick: This tape wore out the deck in my Chevy Malibu. You could probably argue that Midnight Marauders was as good or almost as good. No argument here. This was the Tribe at its best. I think they were wearin’ throwback jerseys even back then in the Check the Rhyme video in 1991, so someone tell Jigga he can stop taking credit for “making them popular” over a decade later. I know it’s irrelevant.
Aaron: Maybe it’s all those reunion rumors or the Q-Tip solo album that took thirteen of my dollars and 63 of my minutes, but I’ve never considered Tribe to be more than good-to-sometimes very good. Low End”¦ is unquestionably their best effort, but Top Ten? Nick’a Please!
10. Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique
Nick: OK, first horrendous inclusion. To have this over Licensed to Ill is the first big mistake and to have it at number 10 is even more mind-boggling. This is another CD nobody bought at the time, but over the years it’s become a classic. Not to me, though. At least it was before their “Free Tibet” stage.
Aaron: Can’t really say add anything more than what Nick said. Using the one artist/one song rule, this isn’t even in the same area code as Licensed To Ill. I guess “rap” fans in Middle America can now know their voices have been heard. C’mon, EW, how could you have screwed this one up?
11. Outkast, Aquemini
Nick: Much like De La, I’m not a fan of Outkast but will admit they made some original Hip Hop. I’m somewhat surprised they picked this album though, but clearly it was the beginning of the new direction they’d be headed. Quite a departure from Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.
Aaron: Mrs. Bootleg has purchased every Outkast album and, for the life of me, I just don’t get it. M’man Nick explained their appeal in this very space last year, thusly: they dress funny. Different doesn’t always equal good, kids, as this choice (which is, admittedly, their best effort) just reeks of a bunch of EW writers in a room saying, “OK, we’ve got to have an Outkast album on here, somewhere”¦”
12. Cypress Hill, Cypress Hill
Nick: The debut of Cypress Hill was historic, because it was the beginning of one of the bigger selling Hip Hop groups. However, after this album, they became their own genre, sort of separate from Hip Hop. And when Insane in the Brain dropped off their next album, they totally crossed over. Please read : “white suburbanite kids liked that they talked about smoking”.
Aaron: Another deserving entry that has been criminally underrated by the mainstream. It’s like I’ve been known to say: “different always equals good”. The group kind of strayed into self-parody a few years later and got a little too caught up in their MC Cheech & Chong act, but credit to EW for getting this one right.
13. Gangstarr Daily Operation
Nick: Guru and Premier, together, IS Hip Hop. I think they actually got better with each album up until 1998’s Moment of Truth, which is their best album overall. They say it themselves, “we have certain formulas, but we update our styles”. Well said, Guru. So right group, wrong album.
Aaron: Again, Nick said it before I could. Adhering to the ridiculous one artist/one album rule should’ve made this one a no-brainer. Moment of Truth was only the best album of 1998 and one of the best of the decade. Just because it dropped somewhere in between Puffy’s “Shiny Suit Era” and Master P’s Reign of Uhhh shouldn’t keep it from being remembered.
14. Ice Cube, Death Certificate
Nick: Superb album and an example why he hasn’t totally been shunned in Hip Hop due to later, lackluster efforts. With N.W.A. and Amerikkka’s Most Wanted already established classics, O’Shea had cemented his place in Hip Hop, and Death Certificate only bolstered that. I understand he can’t still be talking about the same things when he was in his early 20s and pre-millionaire stage. But, I prefer to remember this Ice Cube.
Aaron: “The Death Side” and “The Life Side”. If you throw in 1992’s Predator, which is uneven, but solid, there might not be another three-year rap reign quite like vintage Cube. This one includes some uncomfortable commentary on Asians, Jews and the Nation of Islam, but it should still be here as an accurate homage to the African-American experience of the early 1990s.
15. Jay Z, The Blueprint
Nick: I’m a little conflicted on this one. I think one could make a case for Reasonable Doubt. Jigga was on fire here, though, from start to finish, definitely more so than his previous four albums. Hey, it’s nice to have multiple classics to choose from.
Aaron: In one of my earliest reviews, I gave this album a 7.0. How can this joint be here when Jay-Z doesn’t even have the best verse on his own album? The Source famously handed it a perfect rating of “5 mics”, which was actually a transparent attempt to play a part in the Jigga/Nas beef at the time. It’s a good album, but no more and not worthy.
16. LL Cool J, Mama said Knock You Out
Nick: Uncle’s L’s best offering included several classic tracks. Imagine he was saying “don’t call it a comeback” in 1990. He really has been here for years. About twenty. In Hip Hop years, he’s older than Yoda.
Aaron: Let’s continue the right act, wrong album theme by asking where the hell Radio is on this list. And, I’m probably in the minority on this, but I thought Bigger and Deffer and Mr. Smith were both better than Mama Said”¦. If MTV hadn’t incessantly played that “¦Knock You Out video (and accompanying live band session), then this one wouldn’t be remembered so fondly.
17. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP
Nick: Another close call, as many think The Eminem Show is his best offering. He definitely got even bigger with this album, though. I’m not sure we’re far enough away from this to judge it just yet.
Aaron: The good/great tracks: 1-8, 10 & 15. The not-so-good tracks: everything else. This isn’t even Em’s best album as The Eminem Show, while equally inconsistent, put a finer point on many of the themes he covered elsewhere. Considering some of the notable omissions (see below), the inclusion of this one seems even more galling.
18. Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Nick: I’m not what sure what to think about this one. Is she a rapper or a singer? She does both quite well and has something to say, as well, rather than talking about guns and clothes. I guess I’m still clouded by the question, “What the hell happened to her?” I guess none of that should matter, it’s a great album.
Aaron: Ugh. Setting aside the whole “is she a rapper” question, can someone answer this one: Shouldn’t you have to write at least half of your own material before you can be included on any “Best Of..” list? She was in the right place at the right time (Hip Hop’s uncertain future in 1998) and cashed in on some leftover Fugees hype.
19. The Pharcyde, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
Nick: Are you ready for some non-gangsta west coast Hip Hop? These guys were original and bucking the trend that all West Coast acts sounded alike. A mixture of slick rhymes and humor on Bizarre Ride“¦makes these guys one of the more original acts in all of Hip Hop.
Aaron: Wow. Again, I’ve gotta give it up to EW for finding a spot for these nuts from South Central LA. The fact that they moved nearly a million units of their debut album is all the more impressive when you consider how against the grain it was in 1992. Pick up Labcabincalifornia while you’re at it. It was their second album and almost as good as this one.
20. Mos Def, Black on Both Sides
Nick: Who does he know? People always talk about how great he is but I’ve seen no evidence of an entire album worth of goodness yet. A hot track here or there, yes, and he does have content to what he’s saying but, hey”¦that does not always make a great album. And to call this a top 25? C’mon now. Much like his character in The Italian Job, I ain’t tryin’ to hear that.
Aaron: “Nutritious and delicious”, this ain’t. I’m sure someone felt that a
“conscious” rapper or two would lend some backpack, record-crate cred to this list, but there were only a dozen other acts/albums they could’ve selected. This is a good album, but more Top 200, than Top 20.
21. BDP, By All Means Necessary
Nick: Here’s an example of classic Hip Hop. This dropped in the late 80s, around the same time as NWA did. Both coasts knew there was something wrong with the system. Question: is everything OK now? Hell no, but rap has become such a moneymaking industry that talking about the system might exclude you from that corporate cash to promote your album.
Aaron: Yeah, yeah”¦these lists are all subjective, but there’s no justifiable excuse why this important release is buried behind so much that isn’t nearly as good. BDP managed to overcome the death of Scott La Rock in 1987 to put out this gem. KRS-One kicked in our door right from the album cover and didn’t stop until the final track (Necessary). Should’ve been Top Ten.
22. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5, The Message
Nick: Great all-time song, great (a-hem) message but the whole album is really pretty dated and tough to listen to all the way through. Try it, go ahead.
Aaron: Well, it has to be on here somewhere, I guess, and this spot sounds about right. This is why I riff on the geriatric rap community, though. Sure, this album was rap’s first”¦.well, something. But, it hasn’t aged well and still heads in walkers and wheelchairs try to point to this as if it’s stood the test of time. It hasn’t.
23. Missy Elliot, So Addictive
Nick: Please. Timbaland’s beats are more obnoxious than anything else and ask yourself, is this a CD that came out that you had to own? I didn’t think so. Entertainment Weekly probably wants to stay on her good side because she’s still around. They’re probably not worried about offending Kool Moe Dee or someone like that. Actually, no one is.
Aaron: C’mon, Nick”¦has the “Black Trash Bag” video version of Missy obscured the fact that she’s actually a pretty talented artist when she wants to be? And, while So Addictive doesn’t deserve to be here, there’s no question that 2002’s Under Construction does. That one was wonderful ode to the old school.
24. Dr Octagon, Dr. Octagonecologyst
Nick: OK, now they’re trying to annoy me. I realize Hip Hop has many branches and styles but Kool Keith and his alter ego being included here over more deserving acts is borderline criminal. Let’s not try and be chic about this OK, EW?
Aaron: We’re a long way from the Ultramagnetic MCs, people. I haven’t heard this one since it dropped six or seven years ago, but in their quest to find the obscure, EW should’ve looked elsewhere. There is no way that more than ten people even remember this album, much less consider it an all-time great.
25. Aceyalone, A Book of Human Language
Nick: I’m going to straight up admit, I’ve never heard this entire album, so I can’t be critical about it. But I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be in the top 25. And I’m pretty sure you won’t find a soul at Entertainment Weekly that has ever heard this album either. Another “trying to be different” choice. Spare us.
Aaron: This is actually an interesting “concept” album from the alumnus of Freestyle Fellowship. However, the later “chapters” are weaker than the first few, as this lyrical journey through life tends to limp towards the finish line. Hailed as “true” Hip Hop by many in the know, Aceyalone is pretty stuck on himself for a guy who’s supposed to be “better” than the rampant narcissism that runs all over commercial rap. Nice try, but no dice.
What Should’ve Made the List, but Didn’t”¦
Nick’s List
I can think of dozens of discs that should be included but for time’s sake I’ll name a few:
N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton: Unbelievable this wasn’t on the list. The United States government got involved as a result of this album.
2Pac, Me Against the World: How’s the most famous MC of all time not going to have an album on this list? I am a big fan of Makaveli: The 7 day Theory as well, but this gets the nod.
Slick Rick, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick: Another often imitated MC with multiple gems on this disc, one of the most sampled albums ever.
Mobb Deep, The Infamous: Shook Ones, nuff said.
Onyx-Bacdafucup/Das Efx-Dead Serious: These two are a tie as they both came with a new sound that everyone in the industry tried to copy, and let’s just say the imitators were terrible.
Snoop Doggy Dogg, Doggystyle: Anyone think to include this at EW? They probably run little snippets on him every week, so how did this slip through the cracks? Too busy trying to be funny writing about him saying izzle? Izzle has been over for years, people, get with the program.
Aaron’s List
There was no worse omission than Me Against the World, which featured a lyrically maturing and tragically fatalistic 2Pac staring down the eyes of his own mortality. Here are a few others that should’ve had a place on the list:
Raekwon, Only Built for Cuban Linx: Featuring production goodness by The RZA, this is unquestionably the greatest solo Wu project ever. What, you didn’t read Nick’s Mixtape Series?
Scarface, The Diary: He took the best elements of East and West Coast rap and manipulated them into a masterpiece.
EPMD, Strictly Business: Another inexcusable non-entry”¦C’mon, EW, where’s the love for the influential boys from Brentwood?
Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back: While I think EW made the right choice, taking Fear of”¦ over this one, this album’s influence cannot be overstated.
Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill: Speaking of influence, I’ll never understand why fans think the white rapper phenomenon began Rob Van Winkle or Marshall Mathers. They’ll never admit it now, but bruthas were sleepin’ on The Beasties like crazy until we finally woke up.
OK”¦you’ve seen our thoughts on Entertainment Weekly’s, as well as our own on what should and shouldn’t have made it. If y’all wanna join the debate, get at either me or Nick and we’ll keep it going until all of us get it right.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we’ll see you next week!
Lousy holiday hit rates. Get at me on AOL or Yahoo IM: ajcameron13″¦please.
