OK, another shift in draft strategy for me! Ha ha. For whatever reason, I didn't realize I could pick so many hip hop albums by simply slotting them in the "year" categories. So now I'm gonna pick plenty of those, because that's what I know. I was gonna try and overextend myself into other genres, and while I still will make some picks in that vein, who am I kidding. I don't know Led Zeppelin all that well. But I know hip hop. I love hip hop. So I will represent that genre as best I can with my picks, and hopefully open some of you up to some classic LPs you might enjoy.
Might as well start with my favorite album of all time, and one I really should've taken with my 1st round pick just to show how much I love it. Decided not to let it slip any further, with a bunch of hip hop LPs nabbed in the past 20 picks or so.
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The Four Elements select with their 2nd round pick, in the
R&B/Soul/Funk/Hip Hop category:
Nas - Illmatic
Tracklisting:
- "The Genesis (Intro)" – 1:45
- "N.Y. State Of Mind" – 4:54 (Produced by DJ Premier)
- "Life's A Bitch" (f/ AZ) – 3:30 (Produced by L.E.S.)
- "The World Is Yours" – 4:50 (Produced by Pete Rock)
- "Halftime" – 4:20 (Produced by Large Professor)
- "Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" – 4:08 (Produced by DJ Premier)
- "One Love" (f/ Q-Tip) – 5:25 (Produced by Q-Tip)
- "One Time 4 Your Mind" – 3:18 (Produced by Large Professor)
- "Represent" – 4:12 (Produced by DJ Premier)
- "It Ain't Hard To Tell" – 3:22 (Produced by Large Professor)
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Everything about this album just works. The cover. The length (relatively short--9 tracks-- for a hip hop record). The list of producers, and their beats. The intro. The seamless quality/unifying sound of the album that so few hip hop LPs have these days. Nas' almost unparalleled rhyming abilities. In one sentence-
I think this is the best hip hop album of all time. I listen to it front to back AT LEAST once a month. It's one of those records that's timeless, and has a special quality about it. From Pitchfork:
Quote:
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With Nas spitting spools of ghetto philosophy over a tightly sequenced collection of lush instrumentals provided by a dream team of producers (including DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and Large Professor), Illmatic is the meticulously crafted essence of everything that makes hip hop music great; it's practically a sonic strand of the genre's DNA. On the classic "The World Is Yours", Nas self-consciously kicked verses about writing rhymes and wove rhythmic inspiration into his trademark smooth delivery while Pete Rock's debonair rolling piano motifs and steady drum breaks flawlessly captured the indifferent winds of time passing; while on "Life's a Bitch", over a heady instrumental of thick layers of bass, and pensive Rhodes flourishes, Nas reminisced about waking up on his twentieth birthday ("My physical frame is celebrated 'cause I made it"), and finding newfound motivation facing the hardships of life in the projects of Queens ("I switched my motto, instead of sayin' f*** tomorrow, that buck that bought a bottle could've struck the lotto"). Even Nas' arch-enemy Jay-Z couldn't deny the brilliance of Illmatic on his diss track "The Takeover". Maybe he understood, as everyone does, that this was the original blueprint.
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I bolded that particular line because I think it's 100% right- if you wanted to give an alien one LP that would best represent hip hop, this is the one.