What is your favorite Hip Hop(Pop)Rap album of all time, and why?

[toadslayer72]

PrimeBigTime said:

toadslayer72 said:
Oh wow, that's too hard to pick one, I don't know if I could pick twenty lol. I mean the 80's had some real good stuff from the likes of Eric B and Rakim, KRS-One, Slick Rick right up P.E., Big Daddy Kane, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Black Sheep and the Jungle Bros. EPMD has some real classics too....get the bozak!!! Then the 90's....more Tribe and De La (I always like them more though), NWA, Gang Starr, Nas, Wu-Tang, Fat Joe, Mos Def & Talib Kweli, The Roots, Company Flow, MF DOOM and so on....

I guess I can only give artists, sorry. Here are my 5 favorite based on what I've listened to most of and in no particular order. El-P/Company Flow, MF DOOM, Mos Def, De La Soul and I can't separate Nas because of Illmatic and Raekwon because of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, those two tapes/cd's got much play in the mid-90's.

You are right on the money with 80's hip hop.  Those were the golden days, when groups had to do more with less, and knew how to spit some dope lyrics.  I disagree with your 90s list, however.  In the 90s, and especially today, groups lost the meaning of words hip hop and RAP.  They don't rhyme or even stay on beat anymore.  Most people forget that RAP stands for Rythmic American Poetry, and for good reason.

Don't forget the first two albums from LL and Run DMC.  Those were classic.  I also loved PRT, but most people never heard of them.  They had skills.  I'm expecting a lot of people on this site to not even be familiar with the 80s, and list only recent crap, which is a shame.

I would never want to argue with a person who is defending 80's Hip-Hop and even such terms as Hip-Hop and Rap but I strongly disagree with your generalization of 90's Hip-Hop. I do agree however that the 90's was the beginning of the deterioration of Rap, unfortunately. But to suggest that an MC like Nas wasn't spittin' fire (whilst staying on beat) on Illmatic is insane to me. Or that Black Star and Company Flow weren't representing the Hip-Hop culture to the fullest in the mid- late 90's is equally insane. There are many MCs from the 90's that grew up listening to the same shit that we were listening to in the 80's and it's influence is apparent. I'm talking battle rap type of MCs too, not just bling, gats and bitches. MCs that gave a fuck about being nice at it just so they could say so. 

Listen, that "72" in my name isn't random, it's a birthyear and although I was pretty young when it really started jumping off, I was right there loving the Hip-Hop culture. I couldn't break, do graf or have the resouces to DJ but observing all of those facets all while really listening to the music was how I came up. At the same time, I know where I'm at, meaning this site, and I don't expect a lot from the community here either regarding this topic. I mean it's not their fault they don't know what Gazelle's are or who the hell the Juice Crew or DJ Red Alert are. Fuck, now I'm feeling old.....I'm gonna go watch Wild Style, Peace.