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Tuesday, October 22nd, 1991.

Two LPs: Black Sheep's debut, through Mercury / Polygram and Del's first, on Elektra.

Pick your favorite and / or the best album, doesn't matter.

Previous Dropped Same Day(s):

Enter the 36 Chambers vs. Midnight Marauders.
Guerrillas in tha Mist vs. Runaway Slave vs. Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop vs. Whut? Thee Album.
'93 'til Infinity vs. 187 He Wrote vs. Return of the Boom Bap.
Blowout Comb vs. The Diary vs. (Twista's) Resurrection vs. Word...Life.
Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous vs. Rollin' Wit' Dana Dane vs. Return to the 36 Chambers.
Ahmad vs. Ill Communication vs. Nuttin' But Love vs. On the Outside Looking In vs. The Sun Rises in the East.
The Ablist vs. A Prince Among Thieves vs. The Slim Shady LP vs. Street Cinema vs. Things Fall Apart vs. War Zone.
Da Hood vs. Doe or Die vs. KRS-One vs. Last Chance, No Breaks vs. No Man's Land vs. South Central Los Skanless.
Aquemini vs. Enquiring Minds vs. Foundation vs. The Love Movement vs. Vol.2... Hard Knock Life vs. Word On Tha Streets.
Doom vs. The Equinox vs. Phenomenon vs. When Disaster Strikes... vs. X-pressions.
Apache Ain't Shit vs. Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde vs. Hard or Smooth vs. Live and Let Die.
The Final Tic vs. h vs. It Was Written vs. Stakes is High.

Two incredible debut albums from extraordinarily, perhaps even prodigious artists.

Both end to end bangers, production-wise. Del's is very straight ahead with the perfect funk loops, while Black Sheep dig DEEP into multiple genres, flipping a ton of joints for the first time ever, in incredibly demented ways.

Emceeing on both is spectacular. Flawless. Above the fray and setting the bar in 1991. Dres is super-smooth with his flow and shows a ton of personality. Del is technically precise but also totally out of left field. Lyrically, both albums are as diverse as it gets, songs about damned near every topic and a whole bunch of songs about nothing in particular that still amount to a great listening experience.

I can't call it.

I love the Black Sheep album, but the Del album is such a perfect teenage album to me. It really captures being a teenager and just going around the city/dealing with friends/girls/etc.

Thun wrote:Two incredible debut albums from extraordinarily, perhaps even prodigious artists.

Both end to end bangers, production-wise. Del's is very straight ahead with the perfect funk loops, while Black Sheep dig DEEP into multiple genres, flipping a ton of joints for the first time ever, in incredibly demented ways.

Emceeing on both is spectacular. Flawless. Above the fray and setting the bar in 1991. Dres is super-smooth with his flow and shows a ton of personality. Del is technically precise but also totally out of left field. Lyrically, both albums are as diverse as it gets, songs about damned near every topic and a whole bunch of songs about nothing in particular that still amount to a great listening experience.

I can't call it.

Spot on, imo.
Personal nostalgia will probably reign this voting round.

Thun wrote:I can't call it.

Verge wrote:Personal nostalgia will probably reign this voting round.

I agree. Definitely splitting hairs here. While I rushed out to buy Black Sheep when it dropped, I picked up a used version of Del's CD two months after it was released. After 20 + years, I've played Del's CD many, many times more. Like Verge mentioned, it's that personal nostalgia thing.

Side note - However, Black Sheep's "Similak Child" remix VIDEO will forever reign in my top ten. Damn, those honeys were fine. I still watch that video on youtube when my wife isn't around.

for me it's Black Sheep, what a fantastic album.. actually i played "NON FICTION" recently too, and that gets waaaay too much shit. the main problem is that Mista Lawnge rhymes too much on it hahah. i don't know, maybe you need to be a huge jazz fanatic like myself to really dig the sound of the production?

how was Dres' "Sure Shot Redemption" btw?

had to go with black sheep by a infinitely small margin.

and no, the production on non fiction is pretty much stale and boring. even without jazz samples wolf has a more "jazz" approach to production than non ficiton has

I'd have to go back and listen to Del but in 91 Black Sheep was far and away the favorite. Always thought Del was dope but I was lukewarm on the singles Dr. Bombay and Sleepin On My Couch. AWISC remains on my all-time top 15. Disclaimer: Having revisited many lps in the recent past, I've reversed my original opinions on not a few of them, so I won't be so stupid as to vote right now...

Love both albums greatly but A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing for me personally.

claaa7 wrote:for me it's Black Sheep, what a fantastic album.. actually i played "NON FICTION" recently too, and that gets waaaay too much shit. the main problem is that Mista Lawnge rhymes too much on it hahah. i don't know, maybe you need to be a huge jazz fanatic like myself to really dig the sound of the production?

how was Dres' "Sure Shot Redemption" btw?

Not bad and the 8WM and From The Black Pool of Genius albums had some dope shit on them as well.

dres raps circles around del and thats why i give the edge to wolf....and thats not a knock on del but dres was the best emcee on the planet in 1991...nobody was touching him

Both albums are equal until you get to Black With NV on AWISC

Top 10 song of all time for me and one of the most eloquent, simple, and aurally aesthetically pleasing 4 minutes you are ever going to hear.

The extended metaphor about dishes in the 2nd verse should be studied in writing classes

See, I think Del's surrealism on "Sunny Meadowz" is right up there. No, he doesn't employ a super human flow like Dres on "Black With N.V." but he subtly changes his cadence and inflection and sounds great on a track that most other emcees could not have handled, in my opinion.

Mistadobolina and Sleepin On My Couch clinch it for the Delmeister.

The only other semi-worthy '91 era line-up that I could find / think of would be DJ Quik's Quik is the Name vs. Gang Starr's Step in the Arena on January 15th, 1991.

And that would (presumably) end up more one sided than this.

So if anybody has any good matches from '91 or earlier, lemme know.

Took all study out of the picture and decided my ears prefer Black Sheep.

Big Sleep

Oct 29th 1991
BDK - Prince Of Darkness
OK - Self Titled
Ice Cube - Death Certificate

Del. probably one of my all time favorite albums.

Black Sheep all the way for me. This thread reminds me of how much that debut album overwhelmed my daily Hip Hop listening experience back in '91, I still remember the day and where I bought it (The Wiz at 97th St. & B'way in Manhattan). To me it was one of those albums that wasn't just a listen but a way of life in a sense because of it's popularity along with the influence of the rest of Native Tongue. Dres and Lawnge's persona is very memorable on AWISC so the album sort of plays like a movie to me.

At the time I'd have gone for Del.

Nowadays I'd be inclined to go for Black Sheep.

I voted on this a few days back and erm, well I can't remember what I voted which in many ways speaks volumes as these 2 albums are both very dope to me.

I think back in 91 I was still too young to really appreciate Black Sheep yet Del was kinda goofy and juvenile which suited me at the time.

It's interesting to me to see these polls and reflect on how my tastes have changed over the years. I was the perfect age for all the classics of 93/94/95 etc but it wasn't until later that I understood a lot of the dope shit from 92 and earlier as back then I was mad young and my tastes were a lot simpler. Del's tales of riding buses and smoking weed were much more relevant to me than Dres rhymes about pussy

Still going with Black Sheep. As dope as I think Del is, his steez can't hold my interest for the length of an album. True then and now.

Can I have two votes? If not, I'm not voting.