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Timlaska’s Top Ten-est Albums Ever #4

Friday, February 19th, 2010

If I were to ask you “Where’s my killer tape at?” you would undoubtbly know that “Shameek from 212 got bust in his head two times and he was laying there like a new born fucking baby god with all types of fucking blood coming out”

Or if in passing I said “torture muthafucker torture” you might inform me that you would indeed “stab my tongue with a rusty screwdriver”

Let’s say you were hungry and wanted to get some food that was best described as “some marvelous shit to get your mouth watering” you would know who to see.

How is it that we would all know this?

36_chambers

Well from our number four album Enter the 36 Chambers by The Wu Tang Clan.

Released in 1993 it revolutionized production and offered up a bevy of styles from GZA’s traditional rhythms and cadence to ODB’s madman with a mic style, it was unlike anything that any of us have heard at the time and since then artists have been trying to replicate it with expectedly boring and lackluster results….I’m looking at you white people.

My first experience with the Wu was at the Wiz on Central Avenue in Yonkers. I spent my summers working on a Coors truck and every Tuesday I would go to the Wiz and by all the new releases whether I heard them or not. Towards the end of that summer I bought the cassette single for Protect Ya Neck b/w Method Man. The art work could best be described as non-descript, basically plain white cover with a logo. I never heard them, but I read about them and people suggested I check them out. I went back to my car, at the time a Colt Vista Wagon, aka a piece of American shit that Detroit has become famous for, and played the single for a good 45 minutes before pulling out of the parking lot. It was that good and different. Even U-God came off, which is usually the case when he limited to 8 bars or less.

Needless to say I was stuck. I waited and waited until the album came out that fall. The wait was worth every second. The album dropped and it felt like everything changed, at least it did for me. Production now had to be moody and cinematic, lyrics had to be strong and layered and flows had to be insane. The album feature 3 of the greatest songs in the history of rap (Protect Ya Neck, CREAM, and Can It Be All So Simple) and I guess you can argue for a fourth with Method Man, which for my money was a great song for the 90s but not all time.

Everything about the album (with the exception of the song Tearz) is perfect, even the skits are enjoyable to this day. What other album has had skits that spawned hours of conversations and inside jokery, t-shirts, Youtube clips, etc. There are none.

I can’t believe I considered leaving this album off the list.

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Timlaska’s Top Ten-est Albums Ever #5

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

ice-cube-sts-240bb033009

So we finally cracked the top 5, and I have had this album slated as high as number 3, but with the inevitable reshuffling that comes with shit like this I had to move it down to number 5. I also had to decide between two albums by the same artist for this slot. I knew I wanted one of the first two Ice Cube solo records it was just a matter of which one. Was it the one that I romanticized as being better than it was, or the one that I never really gave a fair shake too? Either way it is hard to argue against either of these albums making it into any top 5 anywhere. I think his stretch from Straight Outta Compton through Death Certificate is one of the most dominant in the history of hip hop. If you were to take the best 3-4 year periods for rappers since the start of the genre it is hard to find someone that had a better stretch than Ice Cube during this time. In fact I might have to explore this at a later point.
Since I was torn on these albums let’s do the side-by-side comparison.

Rapping – Ice Cube was a better technical rapper on Amerikkka’s Most. It’s hard to argue against that. He hit on all cylinders – flow, voice, cadence, storytelling, battle raps, style, etc. On Death Certificate he was still quite capable and delivered a powerful performance but the technical side suffered a bit. He became a bit one dimensional running couplet after couplet. I think on Death Certificate we start to see the very early stages of what became of him on Lethal Injection and everything that followed. The fall off was small but it is there.

Advantage – Amerikkka’s Most (any truth to the rumors that Del helped him write this?)

Production – This one was a shocker for me. For my money there has never been a greater production team than the Bomb Squad, so I expected this to be a landslide win for them. However the more I listened the more I realized that the work that Sir Jinx did on Death Certificate surpasses the work they did on Amerikkka’s Most. To the point that I now have trouble listening to Amerikkka’s Most. He took everything that was great about the first album and then made it his own, giving Ice Cube a signature sound as opposed to sounding like PE light. It is an amazingly impressive work.

Advantage – Death Certificate (by a much bigger margin than you might remember)

Content – While Ice Cube does what he did best on Amerikka’s Most, the content itself is pretty one dimensional, a few battle raps, a few stories about scandals chicks and a few gang related tales; it is really a myopic world view. On Death Certificate, while still hitting on the same topics, he opens up his scope more and turns his lens on race relations, economic hardships, the realities of gang life and bagging stank broads, as well as the expansion of gangs and crack, the problems in the black community within the black community. It is a stronger effort that ultimately made Ice Cube a more rounded MC.

Advantage – Death Certificate

Guest Appearances – Death Certificate didn’t have Yo-Yo

Advantage – Death Certificate

Overall – I expected Amerikkka’s Most Wanted to run away with this. It held a special place in my heart but once I put them side by side it became more and more obvious that Death Certificate is a much better record. The production is stronger, the content and rapping is more complete, and the album seems to move much better and doesn’t suffer from being too long and stagnant portions the way Amerikkka’s Most does. Both albums are terrific but Death Certificate is a better album.

Winner – Death Certificate

DC

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Mos Def – Laskified

Friday, February 5th, 2010

mos_def

I have recently been thinking about artists that show potential but never reach it for whatever reason. This phenomenom tends to be of epidemic proportions in rap music and I am not sure why. It could be the culture in the record industry demanding quick turn over and a follow the leader approach to marketing the music. It could be that most rappers do not have the musical background to understand what it takes to make a strong record. it could be that there isnt a lot of guidance other than the “make sure you have the x, y and z” style songs on your album. Or it could just be that some rappers are either too self indulgent or lazy to ever get the best from them.

I started thinking about this because of the artist Mos Def. Obviously a talented rapper. His work in the late 90s with Black Star was brilliant. His first solo album Black on Both Side, though uneven showed immense promise. Sadly that promise was never reached. It was a combination of him being bored with rap, trying to do too much, acting, getting hammered by Christopher Hitchens on Bill Maher, etc.

The point is he was unable to keep focus for a full album and his works became increasingly, how can I say this without being insulting, shitty.

With Mos there are always amazing moments.

When he is on, it is exactly what I want to hear when I listen to rap music, but when he is off it is exactly everything I hate when I listen. So this got me thinking, what if some one like Mos, or The Roots, or Ras Kass had a strong personality with an ear for what makes a great record pushing them to do so? Would it work. Would we get what we always hoped for from them? Sadly we will never know because the music industry has pretty much eliminated the true A&R position for quick profits and disposable artists. So I decided to try on my A&R hat and see if I couldnt put together a great album from the material that is already out there. I set a few rules in place to avoid just turning this into a best off type deal:

1. The music can only come from the artist album catalogue, no collaborations, guest appearances or side projects.
2. The project must flow like an album, which means if the song doesnt fit, it doesnt get on, I dont care if it is their biggest hit or has a Jay-Z or Kanye guest appearance.
3. It must not be longer than 55 minutes and 14 songs, because no album ever should be.

So lets see how this little experiment worked out. Mos Def, you are about to be Laskified.

Mos Def – Laskified

Track Listing

1. Champion Requiem
2. Mr. Nigga
3. Murder of a Teenage Life
4. Ghetto Rock
5. Quiet Dog Bite Hard
6. Undeniable
7. White Drapes
8. Sex, Love, and Money
9. Napoleon Dynamite
10. Close Edge
11. Umi Says
12. History feat. Talib Kweli
13. Brooklyn

Mos Def – Laskified

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Timlaska’s Top Ten-est Albums of All-time #6

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

midnightmarauders

So today we go back to our weekly series dedicated to naming the top ten-est rap albums of all time.  I picked the ten albums I wanted to feature in advance.  Since then I have been listening to them pretty non-stop which has lead to many of them being second guessed, removed, and shuffled around.  Today’s record was originally slated in the number two spot, but the more I listened there was just no way I could justify putting it above the albums to follow. 

A Tribe Called Quest was one of the best groups of the 90s.  THey have also become one of the groups that annoying white people that want to discuss hip hop but have no real grasp of the culture cling to.  They are like Cypress Hill minus the weed or the Beastie Boys minus the nasally NY jewish voices.  Additionally Tribe reached a creative zenith that neither of these groups came close too….fuck anyone who says Paul’s Boutique was this or that.  The MCing sucked so the album isnt good.  It would have been better suited as an instrumental album, but sadly that trend didnt really take off till years later. 

Midnight Marauders was the high water mark of creativity and artistry for the group from Queens.  It also marked the first time that Phife Dawg wasnt a complete liability.  That said Phife is also the reason for the albums drop from number two to number 5.  There was just no way i could put an album that he shared lead vocal duties above say, Illmatic, which was originally in this slot. 

Midnight Marauders is the most complete work from the group, it was the moment all the key elements came into their own, with the exception of Jarobi who came into his own by no longer appearing after the groups first album.  The scope of their content moved from very hip hop centric concepts like Buggin Out and having The Jazz to more universal topics like romance,  the experience of a young man in the city and even just everyday problems one faces in their life.  Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s production was cohesive throughout and wasnt limited to just the obscure jazz samples that made Low End Theory a landmark album that has ultimately aged poorly.  The production is thick and lavish and creates a mood that ties the album together from start to finish.  Q-Tip while not displaying the same level of craftmanship in Low End Theory offers a more complete performance combining content, flow, voice and lyrics to help him reach even greater heights as an mc.  The guest appearances are not frivolous and include a top notch performance from Large Professor, getting booth guest vocal and guest production credits on Keep It Rollin and chorus appearances from Trugoy and Busta Rhymes on Award Tour and Oh My God respectively.  The album also spawned two undeniable hip hop classics the aforementioned Award Tour and Electric Relaxation which ended up on every mixtape I made for my lady friend that year. 

I think most would agree that Midnight Marauders is the magnum opus for one of the genre’s most creative acts and remains as poigient and fresh sounding today as it did back in 1993.

Personal note: I went to SUNY New Paltz and this album circulated the campus for about two months before its actual release.  Albums that also leaked that school year and made the rounds were Black Moon’s debut and Nas’ Illmatic.  So I guess leaked records were not just a symptom of the internet age. 

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Links for the previous entries:

Number 10:

Number 9

Number 8

Number 7

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Timlaska’s Top Ten-est Albums of all time #7

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

DE_LA_SOUL_-_BUHLOONE_MIND_STATE_-_1993

At number 7 we have an entry from De La Soul, Buhloone Mindstate. It is the best De La record to date, and considering how bad their recent output has been, it is probably the best De La album period. Artsy types will often gravitate towards their first two records 3 Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead, one of which is good and one of which is kind of a cluster fuck. Ill let you figure out which is which. Purists will often go with Stakes is High which is an average effort at best, and the worst of the 4 De La albums that matter, it also signified the beginning of the end for De La as an important entity.

Bulhoone Mind State is the high water mark of their artistic creativity and maturity. Marking the first time in the groups history that all three major contributors were on the same playing feild. Dave aka Trugoy was always a capable MC but was carried by the greatness of Posdnous and Prince Paul. This was the first time it felt like Dave could hang. It is also the only rap record that ever made it into the category of grown folk music that wasnt a Jay-Z post Black Album-esque snooze fest or some crotchety old folks telling the kids to pull their pants up.

The Lyrics are intense, layered, and personal. Posdnous delivers one of the greatest lyrical performances in the history of the genre. His lyrics are brilliant, revealing, and easy to grasp, while still holding true to his abstract style. His patterns are absolutely absurd. The high point being his verse on I Am I Be. Prince Paul’s The production is a cleaned up and more to the point version of 3 Feet High and Rising. They are soulful and not in a shitty Common post Resurrection vibe.

Outside of the weird asian guys rapping (which luckily isnt too long) the album is flawless. Truth be told I have recently become reacquanted with this album and it is the inspiration for this bizarre quest to change the way we look at rap albums, moving from an impact, historical significance and sales number model to one of artistry. Buhloone Mindstate is definitely one of the artistic high points in the history of the genre.

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Timlaska’s Top Ten-est Albums of All-Time #8

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

ghostface-ironman

I spent a lot of time trying to fill this slot. I was torn between two albums that I absolutely love, Breaking Atoms by Main Source and Whut? Tha Album by Redman, but the more I listened to those albums the less I could justify including them in the top ten-est rap albums of all time based on the criteria laid out in this space two weeks ago.  So I pondered, and tried to figure out what I could put in this slot.  I already had every album I wanted to include on this list plotted out and ready to go.  Then it hit me I needed to move Ghostface Killah’s Iron Man from its previous position which was so high because it was going to be the de facto Wu album to the number 8 slot and move Enter the 36 Chambers into the slot held by Ghostface.  After all Enter the 36 Chambers is a monster that has earned its right to represent itself. 

So here we are at number 8 with what I consider to be the best of the Wu Tang solo records and one of my favorite records of all time.  One could argue that any of the first round of Wu Tang solo records could claim a top spot on this list, but you would be wrong.  Tical was very good for its time, but Meth’s style on the record has become dated; Liquid Swords aged horribly mostly due to Gza’s anti-personality; and Return to the 36 Chambers while fantastic was just a little too uneven.  That leaves Raekwon’s Only Built for Cuban Linx and Ghostface Killah’s Iron Man.  I feel like you can make an argument for either of these albums being the high point of mid 90s NYC street rap perhaps only being matched by Mobb Deep’s The Infamous and Hell on Earth, but I can’t give any credence to an album where Havoc is prominently featured on the mic.  So I went with my personal favorite of the two.  Iron Man.

There is something special about this record, I wouldn’t say it is the high point creatively for Ghostface and the Rza, that would be Supreme Clientele, and it isn’t even the high point for ghost as a lyricist.  But there is something about this album that makes me revisit it for weeks at a time.  It has a cohesiveness that the others lack, still holds to the signature Wu sound which you could easily argue was the last sound out of New York that really mattered.  Sorry Jay-z’s The Blueprint was cool and all but it was not redefining shit.  Where Supreme Clientele and Bulletproof Wallets highlight the verbal ability of Ghost they are lacking in a constant that tethers you to the music, causing the albums to lose urgency as time goes on.  Pretty Toney, while enjoyable was the start of the downfall of Ghost as a creative entity eventually leading horrifically boring projects like Fish scale and More Fish. Sure they had moments but they were few and far between.  I think what makes Iron Man so special is the emotional core and the rawness of the sound.  It resonates through time and the music throughout the record is phenomenal, with a perfect mix of Wu Tang battle raps, street revelry and introspective genius that I think I will still be revisiting well into my latter years.   

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Timlaska’s Top Ten-est albums ever (#9)

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

To recap last week we started our Top Ten-est Best Rap Albums of All Time with our number ten selection Kanye West’s Late Registration. Today we will take a look at #9. I was torn between two albums from the same artist for my #9 spot. Hard to Earn and Step in the Arena by Gang Starr, the first being the classic album everyone seems to hold as their go to and the second the classic album where they first made the leap from run of the mill to great. I have since been sitting with both albums and comparing and contrasting to see which one deserves this slot. To figure this out I think we need steal an idea from Bill Simmons and break them down Dr. Jack style to see who wins.

Beats – It’s hard to argue that during this period there was nobody better than primo. His work from Step in the Arena through Hard to Earn stand out as one of the strongest three album periods for any producer, and that is not even including his production with other artists. For me it was a matter of what worked better through the entire album. Both albums have a cohesive feel and where Step in the Arena is more consistent throughout, it can’t match the high points that are featured on Hard to Earn. Songs like Code of the Streets, Mass Appeal and Dwyck feature some of the greatest beats ever dropped. On top of that he dropped beats that made the two Group Home appearances listenable. I would take away points because there are beats that lack and show the early signs of Primo’s movement towards a one dimensional sound that would hound later Gangstarr efforts. It is hard to point out a weak production moment on Step in the Arena which for my dollar is the high point in jazz inspired production. I really can’t call it here; I wouldn’t kick the production from either of these albums out of bed but if I had to pick at gun point…

Edge: Hard to Earn but just barely.

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Timlaska’s Top Ten-est albums ever

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

I recently decided that I needed to put together the definitive list of the top 10 bestest hip hop albums of all time. It is an on-going process which I hope will finally put this discussion to rest. I have set up some ground rules that include the following:

1. No albums released before 1988 or after 2005 are eligible, when the last great rap album (Kanye West’s Late Registration) was released. Sorry Raekwon, Cuban Linx two was good but not great. We need to be honest with ourselves in that historical significance and record sales have nothing to do with the quality of the record, which is why you won’t find any Run DMC, EPMD or Dre on here.

2. The album must still be good. I don’t care if it was great in its heyday, if it isn’t good today it won’t be considered. You need to compete in all eras of the music to be considered one of the all time greats, again see any Dre or Snoop album.

3. If half the album sucks it doesn’t matter how good the rest of the album is, so this rules out all NWA albums, all BDP albums, all Eric B and Rakim albums, and so on. Many of the most impactful albums in rap music were half bad. They were fortunate that they came at the right time and the portion of the album that was great was revolutionary enough that they could ride into the history books.

4. We will not confuse a long career of good with a onetime moment of trancendent greatness. Jay Z while a great MC with many great songs never had a trancendent moment. The same goes with Biggie Smalls. While Ready to Die is a great album it’s not trancendent and just because he died early we like to remember him as the greatest ever, when in reality he was probably top 10-15.

5. Any album on this list must get the “I see where you can make a case for this being on here even if I don’t agree” seal of approval.

6. The album must be known to at least a few hundred thousand people. This means no obscure underground shit. If your album wasn’t good enough to spawn some sort of movement, even if it was just among active hip hop fans then you aren’t on here.

7. Finally – No Tupac….he fucking sucked. Tupac fans are right up there with white kids with dreads and vice interns as the most annoying group of people ever.

This is going to be a long journey, it will probably take us at the very least a few months to get through it all but I imagine that by the time we are done you will agree that this is the most complete list of the top 10 rap albums ever:

Coming in at number 10 we have the aforementioned Kanye West with Late Registration. Originally I had this ranked higher at number 7. Partially because I feel it is a phenomenal album and partially because I knew placing it that high would piss people off and start up some discussion. When I bounced the idea off some friends I consider to be knowledgeable on the subject they all felt the mere inclusion of Kanye in this list would spark the same discussion and emotions. So I rightfully moved it to the 10 slot, the album is only four years old and has yet to stand the test of time.

8768-late-registration

You probably think I am crazy for including Kanye on this list, but I as I make my case I hope you see my point. I think we can all agree that as a mc Kanye ranks between Phife Dog on the low end of the spectrum and maybe big Boi on the high end. Two 2nd fiddles in legendary groups, who were great as a complimentary voice to the lead vocals of Q-Tip and Andre 3000 respectively. Both have ventured into solo territory with varying degrees of success, Phife being an unadulterated failure and Big Boi having some marginal success and a few good jams. The difference is Kanye was able to pull off the average mc making a great album, outside of Guru he is the only subpar MC to make this list.
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