Well, this is it. My final blog post of the year. To the four of you that read this, thank you. Now, here we go with my last and most difficult post. I couldn't do just a normal review for the last one, but it is Rogan Music Reviews after all. So I'll do some miniature reviews, as part of a list. These are what I think are the top ten greatest rap albums of all time. The one rule is I am only putting one album per artist on here. Let the countdown begin.
10. A Tribe Called Quest -- Midnight Marauders I've never been the biggest fan of Tribe as much as I like a lot of their music, as their fanbase loves to call them the best rap group ever and elevate their music to a level of fake woken political bull. But this project is a masterpiece, as much as I hate to say it. Q-Tip's production is the spark to the album, using jazz similar to Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, but this one uses it to create more mellow and funky instrumentals. One thing noticeable about this production is that Q-Tip manages to use vocal samples and put them as part of the instrumentals, which is a trend used on later rap albums. In some ways, Midnight Marauders was a trendsetter. But lyrically, how the album is able to do different things makes it special. Some songs focus on boastful and charismatic verses while others reflect on what it's like to be black in New York City, and more broadly in America. A unique experience is created between Q-Tip's more casual and laid back delivery and Phife Dawg being a little more aggressive with how he raps. And it's this really good balance of confident and clever rapping on hits like "Award Tour", and other songs that manage to be both great sonically and politically. From a whole song addressing the use of the N-word and the controversy of it ("Sucka N---"), to a song about the dangerous lifestyle of the city ("Midnight"), the project managed to be an embodiment of many things: of the funk sounds that Tribe started to introduce with their sophomore project The Low End Theory, of political rap started by NWA and Public Enemy and later continued on by people like Ice Cube and Tupac, and the clever lyricism and storytelling of Phife Dawg and Q-Tip. While no song on here would be in my say top 25 favorite songs ever, all the songs on here are very solid at the minimum and this is one of the most consistent rap albums ever and a milestone in jazz and conscious rap. 9. Tupac -- Me Against The World This is easily the best album we ever got from Tupac. It takes the element of street rap from his first two albums and makes them more sophisticated, adding a personal and more complex element to it. The thoughts are deeper, the lyricism is improved, and it's more focused all around. The difference between this and All Eyez On Me is that Me Against The World has a purpose for each song. This was written while he was prison and was a reflection on his troubles with the law, his upbringing, and other troubles black youth face. They say Tupac is not an elite lyricist or technical rapper, and while that may be true, he certainly was no slouch in that department. Some songs like "If I Die 2Nite" (which almost eerily predicted his shooting at Quad Studios) feature the use of heavy alliteration, while he uses great rhyme schemes in songs like the title track (the last verse has a rhyme scheme of: stressin', oppression, questions, possessions, lessons, questions, blessings, essence, address). And even on tracks where he is not so technical, most of the song features great and vivid storytelling. Shakur accurately creates depictions of what it is like growing up in a poor neighborhood, and these graphic images of people dying young. It's these elements that were present in his first albums, polished up, and mixed with the more personal side to it that makes it stand out. "Lord Knows" is almost a gut-punching song how it takes you into Tupac's world of depression, and how depression brings up all sorts of feelings, from regret to remorse. And the culmination of this album and probably the culmination of Tupac's music is the ninth track on the album, "Dear Mama". One of the most heartfelt and honest songs (any genre) of all time, reflecting on the highs and lows of his relationship with his mother and how he still loves her through everything. It's one of the few songs that has ever made me cry. It's this emotional growth from Tupac, the honesty in his lyrics, the blues-inspired production, that while even though the actual rapping itself leaves something to be desired at occasions on the album, this is still one of the best and most important rap albums of all time. 8. DMX -- It's Dark And Hell Is Hot People mention Tupac and Biggie for hip hop "what if"'s. But DMX is also in that discussion, as he dropped three very good albums before going to jail, this one being his personal best. This is nothing held back, simply one of the darkest albums I have ever heard, from the production, lyrics, delivery, album cover, etc. Hardcore gangsta rap was being replaced right about this time, but DMX with his uber aggression brought it back. After the intro skit, the album starts off in the most appropriate way possible with "Ruff Ryder's Anthem", a confrontational warning for what's ahead that still is one of the hardest songs ever released even twenty years later. It is the ultimate song for jamming out, working out, and basically any moment you want to feel like you cannot be messed with. The gruff tone to DMX's voice almost makes him sound like one of his "dogs" he makes several references to throughout the album, perfectly fitting his brutally honest and harsh lyrics. Like Tupac, it's not any sort of fantasy, it's stuff he has been through. Unlike Tupac, there aren't some deeper messages behind the songs. For the most part, it's just DMX explaining how angry or pissed off he is. But it works for what it is supposed to be. "Damien" is one of the greatest storytelling songs of all time where DMX does these evil deeds for a man named Damien in exchange for fortune and fame, but Damien turns out to be the devil. And while obviously people aren't dealing with the devil themselves in real life, this whole relatable theme through the album of being in dark places and how people react to it is most present in this song. The track "Look Thru My Eyes" is another standout, where this laundry list of things DMX has had to do is listed off, and he explains he does what he has to do in order to survive and put himself in the best situation. Similar to Me Against The World, the lyricism is not the greatest. But the brutal honesty and emotion portrayed in the lyrics, with no holds barred, leads to one of the most charismatic albums. DMX's first three albums are all great, and he could've kept it up if not for going to jail. Still one of the greatest. 7. Raekwon -- Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Raekwon, a member of the legendary Wu-Tang, actually upped their 1993 debut 36 Chambers in my opinion with his 1995 solo debut. There are mixing issues with 36 Chambers, and also it is diluted being a group album as there are weaker members that thus give some weaker performances. But Raekwon is almost unanimously top three for Wu-Tang, and so with this project he is very rarely being held back by somebody not as competent of a lyricist as he is. The best rappers tell about what they have been through, and Raekwon continues the theme of previous entries DMX and Tupac with stories about what he has been through using street rap about crime, drugs, etc. This project is responsible for bringing back mafioso rap, a subvariant of gangsta rap in which references to the mob and crime are prominent. Raekwon said this project is supposed to play like a movie, with fellow Wu-Tang rapper Ghostface as the supporting actor and another Wu-Tang member and producer RZA as the director. RZA does a fantastic job producing this album, making various beats from the piano-driven "Knuckleheads" to the violin-assisted "Rainy Dayz", he finds way to use nice soul samples and catchy melodies and drum loops easy for Raekwon to flow over. One complaint from a few colleagues of mine is this album is unoriginal, but context has to be taken into consideration here. This seems unoriginal now, but look back twenty years to when this came out. Only other person who was this in depth about their crime life was Kool G Rap. This album indirectly inspired the more mafioso direction of Life After Death, and mafioso rappers like Jay-Z, AZ, Rick Ross, and more. The album is gritty and colorful like Wu-Tang's group stuff. What Raekwon manages to do so well is say a lot without saying a lot. In verse 2 of "Knowledge God", he manages to tell a story of a man he met named Mike Lavogna, give him a personality, and end the story in only twenty bars. And despite how hard Raekwon tries to seem like he is stone cold, it's the moments with a little bit more soul that might be the best. "Rainy Dayz" features the great use of the violin as mentioned earlier, with soulful and absolutely beautiful vocals from Blue Raspberry, with Ghostface on the first verse and Raekwon on the second reflecting on what they want and how the ways they try to get it can be dangerous, but it is their best option. The storm sounds in the background mixed with the eerie sounds of the strings and brutal lyrics of Rae and Ghost make for the standout of the album. Nas even has a verse on here, being the first non Wu-Tang member to have a verse on a Wu-Tang album. This project uses everybody to their fullest, and despite being a tad bit repetitive remains an absolute classic. 6. Nas -- Illmatic This is often considered the greatest rap album of all time. And while I would not go that far, there are many things outstanding about this album. Rakim was the first rapper to introduce things like internal rhyming, rhyming within lines and not just at the end, as well as multisyllabic rapping. Nas took these things and built on them, delivering these verbose snapshots of street life in Queensbridge. And unlike some other artists, like Tupac's earlier work, this seemed a lot more intelligent: no misogyny, no overreactions, just the truth. It is so hard to believe that Nas wrote the majority of this album when he was 19 years old. This album was so influential in many ways for hip hop. For starters, it brought back traditional lyricism in the New York area in a time when alternative work by people like the aforementioned A Tribe Called Quest was popular. And it shifted the matra in hip-hop from a focus on the flow/speed to a focus on the lyricism, which rubbed off on people like Mobb Deep, Ghostface Killah, Jay-Z, Raekwon, and others had this project's laser-sharp lyricism rub off on them. This is not just a lyrics dream, though. DJ Premier is sometimes considered the greatest producer of all time, and largely because of what he did on this album. The samples he is able to use create great beats using heavy drums and genres of different genres, including jazz and soul. And I give more credit to Nas, as there are hardly any guest features on this album. The two that are there are a mixed bag: AZ delivers arguably the greatest feature verse ever on "Life's A B----", while Q-Tip makes a good beat on "One Love" but his chorus is only one line and feels disappointing. Some of the beats sound like a time machine into the 1990s, and that is not a good thing. The drum patterns and mixing on some of the songs do sound old, even compared to some other 1990s music. And the track "One Love" in general is a weak point, I just find it to be the weakest lyrically and the weak chorus doesn't help either. But with those small blemishes aside, Illmatic is arguably the most influential rap album of all time. And even if it's not the absolute greatest rap album, it may be the one I respect most. Every time a classic album is brought up, usually the first thing it gets compared to is Illmatic. And if that doesn't speak wonders about its quality... I don't know what does.
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