Welcome to InsidePulse’s Essential Hip Hop. Originally this was supposed to be our “November Feature” timed to coincide with Hip Hop History Month, but instead you’re reading it now. And I’ve got to confess; it’s all my fault.
I really wanted this feature to be special, since I hold Hip Hop near and dear to my heart. And in my desire for perfection I caused a few delays. For instance I personally nixed a few of the ideas that were tossed around as proposed focuses for the feature. Here’s a peek at some of the rejected ideas;
Hip Hop’s Most Misogynistic Songs
The Best Hip Hop Albums Utilizing Proper Grammar and Spelling
Hip Hop: Perpetuating Stereotypes for Over a Decade
See, that’s just a taste of what was being tossed around in our Super Secret Staff Forums. After much debate we finally agreed that selected InsidePulse contributors would write up Hip Hop albums that they deemed “Essential.”
But, because I wanted this feature to be the best that it could possibly be I decided to complicate things by adding one rule; every writer’s list had to be distinct. Which is to say no two writers could feature the same album. My rationale was that, as a reader, I wouldn’t want to read a feature with seven different writers and see Wu-Tang, Nas, Tupac, NWA and Biggie five or six different times. That wouldn’t be fun.
This way, you’re guaranteed a sizable list of Hip Hop albums that someone thinks is the cream of the crop from the genre. And as you’ll find out, we’ve got some pretty diverse tastes in Hip Hop featured.
That said some of these lists were a bit too “diverse” and didn’t quite make the cut. For instance Widro’s “Essential” Hip Hop included P.M. Dawn and Snow, and Matthew Michaels is partial to Brian Austin Green and Vanilla Ice (in his rap/rock incarnation). We had to maintain a modicum of respectability. I even sent Jeffery R. Fernandez back to the drawing board when his list was littered with Limp Bizkit and Puff Daddy.
What did make the cut? Well let me give you a brief glimpse of things to come;
Michaelangelo McCullar picked five albums that are universal classics.
Greg Wind covers a broad spectrum with his picks.
Mike Eagle, InsidePulse’s resident Hip Hop artist found five albums that were dear to his heart (and mine).
Aaron Cameron provides a very personal Essential Five.
I managed to coax Nick Salemi (of the Friday Bootleg fame) to give us five albums he deemed Essential.
Rumor has it that Michael Chadwick came out of “retirement” to give his Essentials.
Jeff Fernandez puts his signature stamp on the feature.
So get ready because InsidePulse is about to give you some of Hip Hop’s Essential albums. You might disagree, you may heartedly concur, either way drop us a line or visit our Music Forum and post your feedback.
I hope that you enjoy it and find that it was well worth the wait.
