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Out of 2pac's marathon recording sessions was born the hip hop double disc. In the late 90s a double release became mandatory for a solo artist to achieve gawd status, but it was perhaps the groups who proved more adept at entertaining over such an uncomfortably long listen. Did this arbitrary goal sidetrack any careers? Will we see a return of the double album? Is there a version of life after death with puffy's juvenile histrionics mixed out? We may never know.

all eyez on me
life after death
art of war
wu tang forever
blueprint 2
street's disciple
i am+nastradamus

...Shame cube never made a double album.

TRU 2 Da Game

how on earth is 'i am'/'nastradamus' a double album

Yeah and if youre including the Nas ones your Cube question is resolved

Master P arguably started this shit. Life After Deaths the goat(best Biggie album too imo). my 8Ball- Lost super edit is my 2nd fav though

outside of the TRU album, there really aren't too many double albums full of bangers and consistent dopeness.

edit: i forgot that 8ball upped the ante with that triple album that had a Canibus solo track on it.

Also 40 Water had one of the best ones and is possibly still doing it now, possibly cos yeah the distinction is arbitrary in 2014. Whatever Yeezy & the Sa-Ra Creative Pop Art Paris Posse sez, rappers may as well just throw out a couple .rars of jawns in any sequence, no one gaf about your "vision" now doggie. Kendrick set everyone back years imo

Oh shit I forget it was triple. Barely counts though, especially with Canibus on it.

Also Styles P was on the breakfast cub recently and finally cleared up why rappers, people with srs music writing delusions and all manner of gobshites have been saying "project" and "body of work" the past few years and its cos "tape" and "album" dont describe anything anymore, obvious I suppose. I thought they were just being pretentious

EMCEE DARTH MALEK wrote:Out of 2pac's marathon recording sessions was born the hip hop double disc. In the late 90s a double release became mandatory for a solo artist to achieve gawd status, but it was perhaps the groups who proved more adept at entertaining over such an uncomfortably long listen. Did this arbitrary goal sidetrack any careers? Will we see a return of the double album? Is there a version of life after death with puffy's juvenile histrionics mixed out? We may never know.

all eyez on me
life after death
art of war
wu tang forever
blueprint 2
street's disciple
i am+nastradamus

...Shame cube never made a double album.

War and Peace?

probably because "itunes download" doesn't have a special ring to it.


War and Peace was more like Snore and Peace.

definitely a half assed idea since it was two seperate releases, and mainly just capitalized off of the whole "it's okay to make a double album regardless of quality" era.

what was always dumb to me was Soundscan counting double albums as two units even though they were sold as one package with one UPC code.

sleazy_j wrote:what was always dumb to me was Soundscan counting double albums as two units even though they were sold as one package with one UPC code.

They were more often expensive though, made sense if true. Cant remember who but I think some rap blogger debunked the "double scans" thing or at least clarified it, dunno if it literally meant gold=platinum.

Larry2times wrote:

sleazy_j wrote:what was always dumb to me was Soundscan counting double albums as two units even though they were sold as one package with one UPC code.

They were more often expensive though, made sense if true. Cant remember who but I think some rap blogger debunked the "double scans" thing or at least clarified it, dunno if it literally meant gold=platinum.

from what I remember double scans only refers to RIAA certifications, not Soundscan units sold. i.e. a double album that goes gold only sold 250k units etc

ackbar wrote:how on earth is 'i am'/'nastradamus' a double album

It's not, but the bulk of the music recorded for both came from the 'I Am... the Autobiography' double LP recording sessions. Columbia will tell you they shelved it due to bootlegging. The real reason is they wanted their star rap artist to release 2 albums in a year like Def Jam had just done with DMX.

EMCEE DARTH MALEK wrote: life after death
all eyez on me
wu tang forever
diplomatic immunity
blueprint 2

I still bump Tru 2 Da Game pretty regularly.

I too have a 8Ball Lost mix that is pretty awesome...

I thought Kuruption was fairly underrated, although I really don't listen to it all that often anymore.

Are we not including UGK's Underground Kingz because it was released a few years removed from this era?

nah, the real reason is that i been liking art of war a lot more than i used to and i want to say that bizzie bone is top 5 and krazy bone is top ten.

gonna go dl the 8ball triple disc just to hear the canibus track

edit:

life after death
art of war
wu tang forever
tupac

All Eyes on Me (almost every single track is a hit. It's only like 3 songs on there I don't fuck with)

Wu Forever (I prob only really like about 7 songs on the album, but they get major play)

Art of war (a few songs get major play)

Life after Death (liked it when it dropped, but I can't go back to it, just Notorious Thugs is the only song I still fuck with)

Blue Print 2 (never really fucked with that album besides the watcher 2)

If this was like 97-2001 I would of ranked life after death #2


I don't know anyone outside of the Internet that fuck with UGK or 8 Ball and MJG ..they don't get any play in the Bay Area..

Tru 2 da Game was good. My coworker from the N.O used to bump it on the boom box everyday as we were cleaning the streets of Oakland in our teens for this summer job..

The Yukmouth double lp was one of my faves when it dropped..now I can't go back to it all. It aged terribly..

EMCEE DARTH MALEK wrote:Out of 2Pac's marathon recording sessions was born the hip hop double disc...

Double disc maybe depending on how you look at it, but double album in general nah, that was Will Smith back in '88. Then Uncle Luke the following year. And if you wanna count compilation albums (not greatest hits but actual new music), then Master P also had Pac beat on the double CD by some months with the Down South Hustlers' shit. First solo artist to do it though, I'll give you that.

Req wrote:From what I remember double scans only refers to RIAA certifications, not Soundscan units sold.

This.

Notable Double Albums

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper
2 Live Crew – As Nasty As They Wanna Be
Master P Presents Down South Hustlers – Bouncin' and Swingin'
2Pac – All Eyez On Me
TRU – Tru 2 Da Game
The Notorious B.I.G. – Life After Death
Wu-Tang Clan – Wu-Tang Forever
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony – Art of War
Scarface – My Homies
8Ball – Lost
Master P – MP Da Last Don
Nate Dogg – G-Funk Classics, Vol. 1 & 2
E-40 – The Element of Surprise
Kurupt – Kuruption!
Yukmouth – Thugged Out: The Albulation
NaS – I Am... The Autobiography [Unreleased]
Krayzie Bone – Thug Mentality 1999
Suge Knight Represents – Chronic 2000: Still Smokin'
Jay-Z – The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
The Diplomats – Diplomatic Immunity
OutKast – Speakerboxxx / The Love Below
NaS – Street's Disciple
UGK – Underground Kingz

Definitely was a big thing for the second half the nineties and into the early two thousands in the West, South, and with the bigger names in New York. Seemed like a popular move for debuts. (And I know, the OutKast is just two solo albums packaged together but it technically counts.)

Plus this list is actually not counting artists or groups who dropped more than one album the same day, like Esham in '92, DJ Magic Mike in '93, Mac Dre and Nelly both in '04, Malik Yusef in '09, E-40 in '10, then again in '11, and yet again in '12, with E-40 & Too Short in '12 as well and E-40 and K-Rino both last year, among others I'm forgetting. Anybody remember any more of those? Because that's interesting in its own right.

Then there's the triples like MF Grimm's in '06 (Celph Titled put out a quadruple compilation that year as well) and The Grouch & Eligh's this year. (Chamillionaire did a triple mixtape that was really a double in '04.)

1. 2Pac
2. Wu
3. Biggie

If you stripped LAD to one disc it would be a classic.

1. Wu
2. 2Pac
3. Biggie

If you stripped Street's Disciple to one disc it would be a classic.

Versive wrote: If you stripped Street's Disciple to one disc it would be a classic.

Depends. Knowing Nas the best tracks wouldnt make the cut.
Either way I think "classic" would be pushing it. It'd probably be better than Gods Son but not quite as good as Stillmatic.

observe911 wrote:I don't know anyone outside of the Internet that fuck with UGK or 8 Ball and MJG ..they don't get any play in the Bay Area..

you could make a double disc of just songs featuring UGK/8-ball and bay area legends






etc.
etc.
etc.

JUST GOT BACK FROM CALIFORNIA KICKED IT WITH B-LEGIT

Lets not forget the proposed Too Short/Pimp C album


smh @ not including Pop The Trunk though, Ack

ackbar wrote:

observe911 wrote:I don't know anyone outside of the Internet that fuck with UGK or 8 Ball and MJG ..they don't get any play in the Bay Area..

you could make a double disc of just songs featuring UGK/8-ball and bay area legends






etc.
etc.
etc.

No one in the bay were checking for them tho..just cuz they were featured doesn't mean anything..we didn't really know who they were till big Pimpin came out,,and we knew 8 ball and MJG from the one video they had in the 90s..around that time Lil Troy and Yungstar was more popular out here..even Maino speaks on how no one knew UGK in NY till Jay z put them on..like I said..if you're not from Oakland or the bay you wouldn't understand..I never left the town..I know what's coming out the trunk since the 80s and for damn sure niggas wasnt blapping that..some cat on the coli was talmbout we was fucking with them in the town and he got shut down..to this day I've never heard niggas play UGK out here..just that Bun B solo album with the Hov feature..that shit knocks..

LOL

What the fuck?


PEACE

as far as release dates and concepts go, i think Esham beat everybody when he dropped the Judgment Day vol 1 and 2 double album back in 1992.

granted, i had no idea who Esham was before the internet or ICP, probably 1998 or so, but dude did indeed drop a double album
and even released it as two single tapes/discs.
but maybe that was because the whole double-disc packaging wasn't even an idea to him at the time.

and he released it independently.

i think Master P had Priority on his side, and his first double CD was just a huge compilation, anyhow.

Esham started off pretty prolific, but definitely went downhill fast once he pretty much abandoned being 100% horrorcore content in the late 90s.

anyhow, those Wu-Tang and Bone double albums aren't as good or strong as their previous single-disc releases.

Life After Death
Diplomatic Immunity
All Eyez On Me
Blueprint 2

Those are all classics to me. Nas' shit was wack and never bothered with the others.

Came in here really to say that I always thought Pac did the double-LP so he could fulfill album requirements and get off Death Row asap.

edit: Obv listened to Wu-Forever but like someone said, there are a handful of great tracks along with several misses. Not something I can listen to all the way through.