Sep 10, 2015

Like this post to be included on a DL PM

 

Apr 28, 2016

@mattagascar @El Ares @Maximus @Boyz N The Suburbs @Perry The Platypus @Mike Tyson @Pablo @Nuredin B @Michael Myers @Squid @Fire Squad @Ordinary Joel @Deadpool @MTY @Jakey @Jordan @Serg @Eyjafjallajokull @FlawlessT @Sav @swr @Enigma @Loyalty @Pato v2 @YDB @Iceman @Narsh @Radeem @Rodamon @Groovy Tony @Jerome @Maad City @Flacko @Mow @Daniel Shaw @art @Jehovah @Soldier @Koolo

Spoiler: #3

3. Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt (1996)

Out of all the albums on this list, picking Jay-Z’s was probably the most difficult. I had The Black Album and The Blueprint on here at one point, and the very last change I made to this list was switching out American Gangster for Reasonable Doubt, the latter of which gets the edge due to the nostalgia factor. Part of the reason I love this album so much is that it reminds me of the time I first heard it. I was 16 or so and my friends and I were smoking hookah (lol) and drinking the Miller High Life my friend bought with his fake ID that was printed with computer paper and hand-laminated. We thought we were f---ing cool. Jay-Z was f---ing cool.

And that, of course, is one of the most appealing things about Jay-Z. Up until Magna Carta Holy Grail (@Narsh’s favorite album) came out, he could make pretty much anything sound cool. Jay’s almost always charismatic, but the charisma Jay boasts here is a little more “ruthless.” He’s cool, but also cold (maybe not quite flat-out “villainous,” but closer here than in most places), and for that reason there’s nothing more perfect than the album ending with “Regrets.” The trading of verses with Biggie on “Brooklyn’s Finest” is some of the “best rapping for the sake of rapping” in history. Also, “Feelin’ It” is my favorite Jay-Z song of all time (and probably in my top 25 favorite rap songs of all time). It’s one of those songs that I have distinct memories of at vastly different points in my life. I think most of us find this relatable:

“I'm so confused, okay I'm getting weeded now/I know I contradicted myself, look, I don't need that now/It’s just once in a blue when there's nothing to do/And the tension gets too thick for my sober mind to cut through”

 

Apr 25, 2016

@Maximus @Boyz N The Suburbs @Meero @Perry The Platypus @Mike Tyson @Pablo @Nuredin B @Squid @Fire Squad @Michael Myers @Ordinary Joel @Deadpool @MTY @Jakey @Jordan @Serg @Eyjafjallajokull @FlawlessT @Sav @swr @Enigma @Loyalty @Pato v2 @YDB @Iceman @Narsh @Radeem @Rodamon @Groovy Tony @Jerome @Maad City @Flacko @Mow @Daniel Shaw @art @Jehovah @Soldier @Koolo

Spoiler: #5

5. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Piñata (2014)

Back when the first blog was open and we were making our Top 25 Rap Albums of the 2010s (so far), we all got in a pretty heated argument about this album (it was mostly @Narsh and I vs. @Slyk and @Koolo if I remember right). We had My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as number one, but the number two spot was between this and good kid, m.A.A.d city. If I’m being real, I’d pick Piñata over good kid pretty easily (as demonstrated by the previous entry in this list), but I think they are pretty close in quality. I only bring up the GKMC comparison because I think they share their biggest flaw: relatively lackluster endings. “Compton” and “Piñata” are both victory laps, but the latter is a little bit easier for me to separate from the rest of the album as “Shame” feels like a natural closer has the “Big Time Watts” skit to separate it. GKMC makes more of a clunky transition after “Sing About Me” with the inferior “Dying of Thirst” and “Real.” Still, “Piñata” is a decent posse cut with a few great verses (Domo, Meechy, and Gibbs obviously), but Gibbs’ verse is way too early in the song to have this be the last track, especially when it ends with a subpar Mac Miller verse.

Nitpicking aside, from Madlib’s production to Gibbs’ rapping to the features (it accurately states “featuring every MFer in the rap game worth f---ing with” on the cover), this album is virtually flawless in my eyes. Gibbs is a villain, but what I’ve always loved about him is that he’s an honest villain: he’ll call you out for cheating on your girl or doing blow, but only because you’re just like him. And of course, there’s the ruthless destruction of Young Jeezy on “Real,” which is probably the most underrated diss track of the past few years. It’s hard to talk about this album without going into a full review because legitimately every song is great. “High” might my favorite weed song of all time, and even though I have almost 100 plays of it on iTunes I still can’t manage to rap Danny Brown’s verse all the way through. Gibbs and Scarface complement each other perfectly on “Broken.” Most of all, Madlib’s production truly is timeless — the samples sound crisp and contemporary while still maintaining that “dusting off an old record” vibe. Also, multiple Friday references are also always a plus: “Skinny n-----, six wings mild sauce/With all the fries you can get me I tear them b------s off.”

Side note: the album was originally called Cocaine Piñata because it was supposedly inspired by a dream Gibbs had about a piñata full of cocaine.