Dreams-Visions
Member
The recent passing of Prodigy of Mobb Deep fame got me thinking this morning about when I first heard a Mobb Deep song, which was their 96' release Hell On Earth. It was the title track that I heard and it sat heavy on my soul and made me want to pick the album up. It still sits heavy to this day. It wasn't their first album of course, but it was the first of theirs *I* heard. Anyway, that got me thinking about that year in hip-hop, the albums I heard and picked up. I burned through my memory banks and collect some album covers...what an epic fucking year. In no particular order:
These are all the ones I could remember and I'm sure there were plenty more. I count no less than 17 certifiable classics here that no hip-hop fan should be without.
Several of those albums were the "blow up" albums for a lot of these artists, launching them into national and international celebrity. Jay-Z's 1st studio album (and still probably my favorite) which was launched with the single, Ain't No. Busta's first *big** album with Woo Haa! and Everything Remains Raw. Master P's first hit album with Mr. Ice Cream Man and Bout It Bout It. Tela's Sho Nuff, Crucial Conflict's Hay, Nas' If I Ruled The World and Street Dreams, Too Short's Gettin' It and Buy You Some, Lil' Kim's Crush On You, The Roots legendary cynical take on current hip-hop videos in their video and song What They Do, Heltah Skeltah's Operation Lockdown, De La's Stakes Is High, Geto Boys' The World Is A Ghetto, and seemingly countless other huge songs and singles that helped define artist early careers or otherwise put them on the main stage of popular music. I could post a dozen more video links but I'll leave some of that digging to you all should you be so inclined.
And note that we haven't even gotten to 2Pac's two epic albums (including his final) and the countless hits on both, the goddamn FUGEES work of art, OutKast's first really popular and epic ATLiens album, and arguably the best (certainly top 3) Wu album of all-time in Ghost's Ironman. And then there were soundtracks like The Nutty Professor and A Thin Line Between Love And Hate which had their own enjoyable hits. You even had Shaq making completely passable songs with The Notorious BIG, Jay-Z and a few others.
For the sake of argument (and entertainment), I'm going to stan for it as the single best year ever for Hip-Hop (though I also loved me some '95 maybe just as much with my other 2 favorite Wu releases of all time, E. 1999 Eternal and some others...). Some of my all-time favorite albums are pictured above.
So where do you put it among hip-hop's very best years, GAF fam?
These are all the ones I could remember and I'm sure there were plenty more. I count no less than 17 certifiable classics here that no hip-hop fan should be without.
Several of those albums were the "blow up" albums for a lot of these artists, launching them into national and international celebrity. Jay-Z's 1st studio album (and still probably my favorite) which was launched with the single, Ain't No. Busta's first *big** album with Woo Haa! and Everything Remains Raw. Master P's first hit album with Mr. Ice Cream Man and Bout It Bout It. Tela's Sho Nuff, Crucial Conflict's Hay, Nas' If I Ruled The World and Street Dreams, Too Short's Gettin' It and Buy You Some, Lil' Kim's Crush On You, The Roots legendary cynical take on current hip-hop videos in their video and song What They Do, Heltah Skeltah's Operation Lockdown, De La's Stakes Is High, Geto Boys' The World Is A Ghetto, and seemingly countless other huge songs and singles that helped define artist early careers or otherwise put them on the main stage of popular music. I could post a dozen more video links but I'll leave some of that digging to you all should you be so inclined.
And note that we haven't even gotten to 2Pac's two epic albums (including his final) and the countless hits on both, the goddamn FUGEES work of art, OutKast's first really popular and epic ATLiens album, and arguably the best (certainly top 3) Wu album of all-time in Ghost's Ironman. And then there were soundtracks like The Nutty Professor and A Thin Line Between Love And Hate which had their own enjoyable hits. You even had Shaq making completely passable songs with The Notorious BIG, Jay-Z and a few others.
For the sake of argument (and entertainment), I'm going to stan for it as the single best year ever for Hip-Hop (though I also loved me some '95 maybe just as much with my other 2 favorite Wu releases of all time, E. 1999 Eternal and some others...). Some of my all-time favorite albums are pictured above.
So where do you put it among hip-hop's very best years, GAF fam?
