It's near the end of the offseason and I wanted to create one last freelance discussion before all of us sell our souls to what is known as College Football season. A lot of members on this site create excellent TIMH columns, but I noticed there is an absence of rap and hip-hop discussion on the site. I'm not going to create a TIMH on the genre because I'm not feeling ambitious today (because college football), so I want to see what qualifies as some of the best rap and hip-hop in your mind. This is a safe zone, so you don't need to worried about being flamed for liking To the Extreme by Vanilla Ice. Okay, you're right, you will be flamed for liking a piece of garbage un-ironically. Without further ado, my list of favorite albums:
1. Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor (2006): Never mind that I sometimes do karaoke to Kick, Push. This album had everything. The storytelling flows, the singles on it are amazing, and the social commentary is revealing. It was difficult to pick between this album and The Cool. If you want to listen to a wordsmith capable of producing triple entendres, Lupe is the guy.
2. Outkast's Aquemini (1998): This could possibly be the greatest album to come out in the past twenty years. Andre 3000 as a wordsmith... amazing, he evokes images in this album that note the perceived dichotomy of emotionalism and masculinity. My favorite tracks on this album are SpottieOttieDopaliscious, Rosa Parks, Aquemini, and Da Art of Storytelling' (Pt 1).
3. Kanye West's Late Registration (2005): Weird guy post his mom's death, but Kanye's first three albums are some of the greatest contemporary hip-hop you can listen to. I rate Late Registration slightly ahead of his introductory album, College Dropout. We Major, Touch the Sky (the Curtis Mayfield sampling is incredible), Hey Mama, Bring Me Down, Gold Digger, Diamonds from Sierra Leone Remix, this album is legendary. Early Kanye as a storyteller was masterful.
My favorite songs: Doo Wop (Ms. Lauryn Hill), Get By and Ms. Hill (Talib Kweli), anything by Nas, anything by A Tribe Called Quest, Return of the Mack C&J Street Mix (Mark Morrison). I'll keep it there for brevity.
