bball2223

I'm going to try to rank the albums in order 1-50 starting tonight and try to get one up a night. Without further ado here is #1:



1. Illmatic- Nas







Review: Illmatic is just perfection to me when it comes to hip-hop. You have a prodigy in the New York underground circuit hailed as the next "Rakim" because of his insane skill as an MC. His talent comes absolutely full circle on this classic. You combine Nas lyrics, and flow add in probably the most well put production team of all-time (DJ Premier, Large Professor, Q-Tip, Pete Rock, L.E.S., and MC Serch) and you get 40 minutes of hip-hop perfection.



The album starts with "The Genesis" which serves as the intro. The beat just has that raw hip-hop feel to it and just pulls the listener into the album. The album features such hip-hop classics such as "Lifes A *****", "Halftime", "It Ain't Hard To Tell", and "The World Is Yours". "Lifes A *****" features the best guest spot ever from AZ which is suprisingly followed in the tracklisting (and its actually fitting) by "The World Is Yours". Halftime, and It Ain't Hard To Tell are some of Nas best lyrical performances and everything on those songs just flows together. "One Love" features Nas incacrerated friend Cormega receiving a letter and reading it to fellow inmates (in this case Nas obviously raps it speaking of whats ben going on in the 'hood since Cormega went to do his bid). "Memory Lane", "One Time For Your Mind", and "Represent" are all good tracks that fit the theme of the album (not to mention Nas rips every single one). It doesn't matter if you could careless for hip-hop you need to check out this masterpiece and add it to your collection ASAP.



Favorite Tracks:

Memory Lane
It Ain't Hard To Tell
Halftime
One Love


Least Favorite Tracks:

None


#2 should be out tomorrow or Wednesday evening.

sMaK

I can't argue with #1. I'd say most hip hop fans have that as their favorite. I'd probably put up 36 Chambers but I won't argue against Illmatic.

I just saw this thread... that top 50 list is pretty impressive. It's hard to put something like that together, props. I definitely see some omissions though.

Having no Cormega is a shame, just by looking at the type of stuff you like. You gotta check out his first two albums. Both would probably crack my top 20, maybe top 10.

bball2223

I'll check Cormega out, I have listened to a large core of hip-hop but i'm always looking to expand my library. Good lookin out on the suggestion Smak.

sMaK

No Gangstarr either!? Gangstarr doesn't have a bad album.

Not much love for the south either, I see. I'd throw in a UGK album in there for sure.

bball2223

I thought I had Ridin Dirty in there? That will make the top 50 ranked I can assure you that.



Not up to speed with Gangstarr. Have a lot of Preemo stuff (as in mostly everything he has produced for other artists) but have neglected Gangstarr. Will get on that. I have time as my top 10-15 or so is already pretty much set in stone.

ATLien

or Scarface.

bball2223

I'm switching this thread around to just a hip-hop thread, I'm never going to finish ranking the top 50 at this rate so I'll change the direction of this thread to just a hip-hop discussion thread.



Smak, I just finished downloading Gangstarrs discography, and am getting to the Cormega sometime soon. I will report back sometime soon.




Blu is slept on. Below The Heavens is a borderline classic, and Herfavoritecolo(u)r is dope as hell IMO although it's short as hell too.



My favorite releases from the 1st quarter 2009:

Herfavoritecolo(u)r- Blu
A Love Supreme- U-N-I
Born Like This- DOOM
Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6- Madlib
So True EP- Inverse
The Truth Is Here EP- Brother Ali
Flowers EP- Dumhi
So Far Gone- Drake
Torubadour- K'naan

Coatesvillain

Co-siggy-nature. I like 2001 and Doggystyle a lot more than the original Chronic.

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sMaK

2001 is the best out of the three.

UD40

There's a song/dance move called the "Ricky Bobby"...I can't make this **** up.

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thaKEAF

you late fool we on that halle berry now

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UD40

The Halle Berry?!

How is she looking since having a kid?

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All Heat First Team

thaKEAF

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bball2223

at Ricky Bobby and the Halle Berry. Those dance moves are pretty entertaining.



Is it just me or is "The Show" by eMC one of the most slept on albums of 2008? Masta Ace, Wordsworth, Stricklin, and Punchlines all are talented lyrically and the production is pretty solid even featuring some old school boom bap type beats. I wouldn't call it the best of 2008 but it's up there, just a good album all around.

gi0rdun

I give up on listening to all this new hip hop crap. There's just way too much 'decent' stuff coming out. I've deleted lots of those kinda tough guy boring rappers that put out a lot of stuff like Papoose, Cam'ron, Canibus, Cormega and I'm just going to keep some classics that I like such as Run-D.M.C. and some newer things that I like like Black Milk, Elzhi and that stuff. The stuff is getting way too repetitive for me and just isn't a very deep genre in my opinion.

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