Favourite album from 1997?

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:07 pm

oh shit i totally forgot about the soul in the hole ost, good call dredd. so much good shit on there

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:08 pm

Common Sense -One Day It'll All Make Sense

Deezal · Post by **Deezal** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:15 pm

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:26 pm

Backpacker Tapes era

I'll go with the Organized Konfusion LP as my personal favorite, followed by the Artifacts album.

Keepers:

Aesoprock - Music For Earthworms
Artifacts - That's Them
Atmosphere - Overcast!
Buck 65 - Weirdo Magnet
Common Sense - One Day It Will All Make Sense
Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus
Jurassic 5 - Self-Titled EP
K-Otix - Spontaneity EP
Kool DJ EQ - Beats & Lyrics Volume 1
Krs-One - I Got Next
Mr. Lif, Esoteric, etc - Rebel Alliance EP
No ID - Accept Your Own & Be Yourself
Organized Konfusion - The Equinox
Rakim - The 18th Letter
Souls Of Mischief - Focus
Soundbombing Volume 1
Thawfor - Where Thawght Is Worshipped

And I'm sure that I'm forgetting a few.

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:33 pm

Blockhead wrote:i'm kinda surprised how much love the artifacts album is getting.

It shouldn't be surprising, though. That LP is loaded with bangers.

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:35 pm

kimani wrote:I really don't like The War Report. That's all.

I have never knowingly heard a song from the "War Report". I find the front cover and the playlist to be amusing, though.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:37 pm

i'm surprised at the equinox love, i re-listened to it a few months ago for the first time in ages and it mostly left me cold. some good songs, but overall too many skits and a kinda phoned in vibe prevails

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:38 pm

drizzle wrote:i'm surprised at the equinox love, i re-listened to it a few months ago for the first time in ages and it mostly left me cold. some good songs, but overall too many skits and a kinda phoned in vibe prevails

I isolated all of the Pharoah Monche verses. That's how I listen to "The Equinox".

Fuck an album in its entirety, IMO.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:38 pm

hahaha, that makes more sense

Thun · Post by **Thun** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:27 pm

Blockhead wrote:
Thun wrote:I love boring ass rap music.

No screaming and shouting and vocal contortion.

No childish stage antics.

No sitar beats.

Long live boring rap. The more boring the better. Boring boring boring boring boring.
you're so vanilla!

But there's no Dose One or Mack Da Maniak in my iPod!

Me= winnar

Thun · Post by **Thun** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:28 pm

drizzle wrote:i'm surprised at the equinox love, i re-listened to it a few months ago for the first time in ages and it mostly left me cold. some good songs, but overall too many skits and a kinda phoned in vibe prevails

Yeah. They put in no work whatsoever on the mic. Totally pedestrian performances. Might as well have been MC Brains and one of the Rottin Rascalz. Karaoke shit.

In the digital era, a skit is an insurmountable obstacle to enjoying an album. When will the mystical prophets of religion ever figure out a way to advance past a song in a playlist without disrutbing the magical musical orb?

/

sajr · Post by **sajr** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:34 pm

for me its a tie between Wu Tang Forever and Funcrusher plus

Blockhead · Post by **Blockhead** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:46 pm

Thun wrote:
Blockhead wrote:
Thun wrote:I love boring ass rap music.

No screaming and shouting and vocal contortion.

No childish stage antics.

No sitar beats.

Long live boring rap. The more boring the better. Boring boring boring boring boring.
you're so vanilla!
But there's no Dose One or Mack Da Maniak in my iPod!

Me= winnar

would that make it a tie then? i think you have my ipod confused with god mc.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:49 pm

Thun wrote:
drizzle wrote:i'm surprised at the equinox love, i re-listened to it a few months ago for the first time in ages and it mostly left me cold. some good songs, but overall too many skits and a kinda phoned in vibe prevails
Yeah. They put in no work whatsoever on the mic. Totally pedestrian performances. Might as well have been MC Brains and one of the Rottin Rascalz. Karaoke shit.

In the digital era, a skit is an insurmountable obstacle to enjoying an album. When will the mystical prophets of religion ever figure out a way to advance past a song in a playlist without disrutbing the magical musical orb?

/

see that's just you being reflexively ornery

you know damn well that my criticism of the mc work is in context of stress the e.a., and that the ability to skip past a track has nothing to do with judging an album as a body of work. i can go to the next song, but it doesn't change the fact that putting it on there in the first place was a poor judgment on the artist's part, and that reflects on the overall quality. starting an album with 3 skits is just not a good idea.

i'm not saying it's a total washout, but the competition from that year is strong enough to make deficiencies stand out more, especially with the benefit of hindsight.

Blockhead · Post by **Blockhead** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:53 pm

drizzle wrote:i'm surprised at the equinox love, i re-listened to it a few months ago for the first time in ages and it mostly left me cold. some good songs, but overall too many skits and a kinda phoned in vibe prevails

i seriously like two or three songs on that album.
looking back (and i'm assuming i'm alone here cause apparently no respected artists made mediocre music back then) ) this year was the beginning of the end of good major label underground rap in the 90's. contrary to popular opinion, both the artifacts and OK album were HUGE let downs to me...but mostly cause of the production. everyone started doing that atonal boom bap low bass hum type shit or the two tone "vibe" like sound that ruined tribe on "beats rhymes and life". everything sounded the same.
97 is when indy shit started taking off and it was right before being weird on the mike started influencing the wrong people and became somewhat of a bad thing.
but again, my beef with a lot of shit from this era is mostly on the production end.

godmc · Post by **godmc** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:54 pm

Blockhead wrote:
Thun wrote:
Blockhead wrote:
Thun wrote:I love boring ass rap music.

No screaming and shouting and vocal contortion.

No childish stage antics.

No sitar beats.

Long live boring rap. The more boring the better. Boring boring boring boring boring.
you're so vanilla!
But there's no Dose One or Mack Da Maniak in my iPod!

Me= winnar
would that make it a tie then? i think you have my ipod confused with god mc.

are you insinuating that the music i listen to is terrible music that fails to break the barriers of dose one? i should punch you right in the face for that.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:56 pm

Blockhead wrote:(and i'm assuming i'm alone here cause apparently no respected artists made mediocre music back then) )

A POX ON THEE AND THINE DEVILISH SPEW HERETIC

Blockhead · Post by **Blockhead** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:56 pm

godmc wrote:
Blockhead wrote:
Thun wrote:
Blockhead wrote:
Thun wrote:I love boring ass rap music.

No screaming and shouting and vocal contortion.

No childish stage antics.

No sitar beats.

Long live boring rap. The more boring the better. Boring boring boring boring boring.
you're so vanilla!
But there's no Dose One or Mack Da Maniak in my iPod!

Me= winnar
would that make it a tie then? i think you have my ipod confused with god mc.

are you insinuating that the music i listen to terrible music that fails to break the barriers of dose one? i should punch you right in the face for that.

not at all. i just see you having both those artists in your ipod. you're versatile like that.

godmc · Post by **godmc** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:00 pm

i would if i utilized it. i still use a discman.

Verge · Post by **Verge** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:20 pm

Blockhead wrote: shawn j. period

I been meaning to ask - Is this guy a different person from the cat that recently put out that Tribute To Q Tip mix CD? Is J.Period and Shawn J. Period two different people? Just been bugging me.
Anybody?

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:39 pm

Verge wrote:
Blockhead wrote: shawn j. period
I been meaning to ask - Is this guy a different person from the cat that recently put out that Tribute To Q Tip mix CD? Is J.Period and Shawn J. Period two different people? Just been bugging me.
Anybody?

They're different dudes:

DJ J-Period
http://www.discogs.com/artist/DJ+J-Period

Shawn J Period
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Shawn+J+Period

But yeah, Shawn J Period did some terrific work on the Bush Babees album, the Artifacts LP, etc. I could probably put together a 100MB comp of dope tracks that he produced.

I mean, you can't front on beats like Art Of Facts, Return To Da Wrongside, Who's This?, etc.

Blockhead · Post by **Blockhead** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:26 pm

Roy Johnson wrote:
But yeah, Shawn J Period did some terrific work on the Bush Babees album, the Artifacts LP, etc. I could probably put together a 100MB comp of dope tracks that he produced.

I mean, you can't front on beats like Art Of Facts, Return To Da Wrongside, Who's This?, etc.

eh, they were never my thing.

the thing is, to me, his beats weren't wack as much as they were just super run of the mill and boring. his drums were dope but musically, i rarely heard a track he did that stood out. there are a few here and there though.
he also got religious towards the end of the 90's and because of that believed sampling is "stealing" stopped sampling. after that his beats truly went to shit.

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:56 pm

Blockhead wrote:eh, they were never my thing.

the thing is, to me, his beats weren't wack as much as they were just super run of the mill and boring. his drums were dope but musically, i rarely heard a track he did that stood out. there are a few here and there though.
he also got religious towards the end of the 90's and because of that believed sampling is "stealing" stopped sampling. after that his beats truly went to shit.

Yeah, I noticed that he dropped off the map in late '99. I remember thinking that the Wizdom Life stuff really sucked, and that appears to be the last thing that he released.

I never thought of him as an elite late 90s producer. He could never, ever fuck with someone like DJ Spinna, for instance. I still appreciate a good amount of his work, though.

In addition to the Artifacts stuff, I think that these are dope:

Mos Def, Q-Tip & Tash - Body Rock
Heltah Skeltah - Place To Be
Boot Camp Clik - Illa Noyz
Bush Babees - Intro & Outro
Bush Babees - Melting Plastic
Bush Babees - God Complex
J Treds - Never Too Much
Mad Skillz - All In It
Wizdom Life - Fruits Of Labor (just the beat at its base)

It might be a struggle to get it up to 18-20 tracks altogether, though.

thomasv · Post by **thomasv** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:07 pm

can't forget his group Down South...

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:11 pm

thomasv wrote:can't forget his group Down South...

I've never heard anything from Down South, but from the looks of their production lineup (Beatnuts, T-Ray, Shawn J Period, Stretch Armstrong), I should probably make an effort to track down their '94 album.

chillhood · Post by **chillhood** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:27 pm

Roy Johnson wrote:
thomasv wrote:can't forget his group Down South...
I've never heard anything from Down South, but from the looks of their production lineup (Beatnuts, T-Ray, Shawn J Period, Stretch Armstrong), I should probably make an effort to track down their '94 album.

if it's lost in brooklyn I think I have it

Howfresh · Post by **Howfresh** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:30 pm

I'm glad somebody mentioned Down South. Southern Comfort alone is worthy of superstar status. The horns on the entire album are crazy and his drums always popped. Classic mid 90s sound.

In terms of 1997 my favorite are/were:

C-N-N- The War Report
O.C.- Jewelz
CRU- Da Dirty 30- I remember copping the LP and CD back then- Yogi got some beats
Beatnuts- Stone Crazy

Honorable Mention
Diamond D- H, P, & I- had some bangers - This One- but Cream N Sunshine anf Can't Keep My Grands... bring it down a notch

jvg · Post by **jvg** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:35 pm

Of the ones from this list that I actually bought, the order from most favorite to least was, at the time:

1. The War Report
2. Back In Business
3. One Day It'll All Make Sense
4. Wu-Tang Forever
5. The Equinox
6. That's Them
7. Life After Death
8. The 18th Letter
9. For The People

One Day is my favorite now and I like #s 4-9 much more than I did back then. I thought/think '97 was disappointing compared to the years that preceded it. Still, I'd trade '09 for '97 anyday.

DredScott wrote:BCC's For The People LP was possibly the most disappointing album i ever heard when it dropped. i was like "WTF is this? no beatminerz production. soft guitars and shit???"

I had the same reaction. Its grown on me a lot since then but it still can't touch their best.

thebridgeisover · Post by **thebridgeisover** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:08 pm

Money Gripp · Post by **Money Gripp** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:16 pm

Blockhead wrote:
drizzle wrote:i'm surprised at the equinox love, i re-listened to it a few months ago for the first time in ages and it mostly left me cold. some good songs, but overall too many skits and a kinda phoned in vibe prevails
i seriously like two or three songs on that album.
looking back (and i'm assuming i'm alone here cause apparently no respected artists made mediocre music back then) ) this year was the beginning of the end of good major label underground rap in the 90's. contrary to popular opinion, both the artifacts and OK album were HUGE let downs to me...but mostly cause of the production. everyone started doing that atonal boom bap low bass hum type shit or the two tone "vibe" like sound that ruined tribe on "beats rhymes and life". everything sounded the same.
97 is when indy shit started taking off and it was right before being weird on the mike started influencing the wrong people and became somewhat of a bad thing.
but again, my beef with a lot of shit from this era is mostly on the production end.

Good post.

Even though 1997 is considered by many to be the last year of the "golden age" and also saw the widespread emergence of underground and indie artists, I don't see why this is considered such a great year for hip hop purely on a musical level.

The drop off in quality from '96 to '97 is staggering.

Don't get me wrong - The War Report, Wu-Tang Forever, Uptown Saturday Night, etc. - are all great albums, but just the year before you had Ironman, Reasonable Doubt, ATLiens, Hell On Earth and Stakes Is High. I'd argue that every single one of those albums is superior to best albums of 1997. I won't even pit all the great singles that dropped in 1996 versus 1997. Needless to say, it's a bloodbath.

I would contend that 1997 contrary to popular opinion was not the last great year of hip hop. It was the year when hip hop started to suck.

(Sorry to be the turd in the punch bowl)