The Battle of '94

[stype_ones]

Left illmatic off for obvious reasons, most importantly because I'm curious to see what people who would have picked that end up picking instead.

What a fuckin year for Hip Hop!

I gotta think about this one. Got the options from going through my ipod on the train this morning.

Pencil in one if you wish..

[stype_ones]

Voted Street Level.

[Philaflava]

Toughest poll yet. Ready To Die is the favorite choice, but like you, I just love Street Level. It's really between that and Word...Life. This was probably my favorite year ever.

6 Feet Deep, Hard 2 Earn, The Diary, We Come Strapped. So many personal favorites.

[unclebengi]

Biggie by the slimmest of margins over Organized Konfusion and Jeru.

Sun Rises in the East might be my favorite collection of beats ever.

[Cryptic One]

Ask me this in 94 id say Organized without hesitation
Ask me this now I say Biggie without hesitation

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

man i like those beats on jeru tho

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Toughest poll yet. Ready To Die is the favorite choice, but like you, I just love Street Level. It's really between that and Word...Life. This was probably my favorite year ever.

6 Feet Deep, Hard 2 Earn, The Diary, We Come Strapped. So many personal favorites.

I actually like We Come Strapped & 6 Feet Deep better than any of the albums listed. Not sure, which I'd pick out of those two tho, that's really tough.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Picking Word...Life from the list, Born 2 Live is just too amazing...



Sidenote: Tical is easily the worst album on the list...

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

not even RZA likes 6 feet deep better than ready to die

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

not even RZA likes 6 feet deep better than ready to die

RZA peaked as a rapper on 6 feet deep, his delivery and cadence is on another level on that album

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Also, I always thought 3 Feet High and Rising & 6 Feet Deep are binary oppositions.

Prince Paul>>>>>>>

[madstadik]

Great year. Very hard to pick a favorite but Main Ingredient was a personal fav for me

[Philaflava]

not even RZA likes 6 feet deep better than ready to die

RZA peaked as a rapper on 6 feet deep, his delivery and cadence is on another level on that album

I have listened to 6 Feet Deep way more than Ready To Die. The singles off that album (R2D) just dilutted the experience for me. I found myself going back to Gimmie The Loot or Machine Gun Funk and leaving the rest.

[stype_ones]

6 Feet Deep should have been on this list. Not sure how I overlooked it. But I don't know... There's at least 5 or 6 albums at least on that list I'd take over it. That's the beauty of music, though. It's a subjective thing..

[Philaflava]

Yeah you can't please everyone. Trust me, I know from making these lists for a decade now. I really would like to see a breakdown of 93 vs 94. 25 from each year. I bet 94 comes out on top as the best year album wise when you truly delve into it.

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

it does have the coolest album cover of all time

[stype_ones]

Yeah you can't please everyone. Trust me, I know from making these lists for a decade now. I really would like to see a breakdown of 93 vs 94. 25 from each year. I bet 94 comes out on top as the best year album wise when you truly delve into it.

95 is really crazy too. We'll run that next week.

[KhillA]

Outkast. A homie had come back from atlanta with an outkast tape before this dropped and we were hooked on this shit. He got a cadillac emblem tattoo after there album dropped (lol) and I started trying to save loot to buy one. A few years later ended up buying a charcoal 90 deville (same one they smash in the elevators video). So yeah, this one influenced me a bit.

[Kiran187]

Biggie but I could have gone with Outkast too. Both albums were huge to me growing up and I still bump both of them regularly.

[Blockhead]

Voted street level.
Biggie wouldn't even be in my top five here. Great album but there are other options I always liked more.

[unclebengi]

Just realized we're missing Super Tight, I think I'd rescind my vote for that.

[djjeffresh]

yup definitely toughest one yet. breaks down like this for me:

1. stress
2. street level
3. outkast
4. biggie
5. tical

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

i bet half u wouldn't vote for illmatic anyway to be cool

[stype_ones]

The Organized was a fantastic album. You listen to that and remember how Hip Hop used to be. The quality of those songs is absurd. It's real artistry.

[Kool Max Power]

94 was the most amazing year for hip hop since 88.

voted for organized, but word...life and darkside are also unique recordings on a similar level.

instead of mop, tical and that mediocre brand nubian album, you should have included saafir's boxcar sessions.

[MistaTurk]

Voted street level.
Biggie wouldn't even be in my top five here. Great album but there are other options I always liked more.

co-signed.

1) street level
2) dare iz a darkside
3) southernplayalisticadillacmuzik

[Quotashun]

Stress

[KhillA]

94 was the most amazing year for hip hop since 88.

voted for organized, but word...life and darkside are also unique recordings on a similar level.

instead of mop, tical and that mediocre brand nubian album, you should have included saafir's boxcar sessions.

Maybe the brand nubian album but boxcars not fucking with the other ones.

I'm not saying this to be contrarian or cool (bc I'm already plenty of both) but I listened to trigonometry more than boxcars.

Also never realized how much people liked stress. These polls bring out the worst in people imo.

[Philaflava]

I too listen to Trig more than Boxcar.

[GUCCI CONDOMS]

Boxcar + unreleased boxcar sessions>>>>>>>>>