The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
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The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
list here: http://www.thetroyblog.com/2015/03/27/t ... -all-time/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Love, hate, hate and post your top 10.
Love, hate, hate and post your top 10.
Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Love: Nice list, somewhat more comprehensive than FACT's despite only 50 selections.
Hate: CunninLynguists one spot above MF Grimm is straight-up distasteful.
Hate: Breeze Brewin might be the greatest rapper of all time and you left off all his group's albums.
Top 10 that didn't appear on this list (favorites, not necessarily more important):
1. KMD - Black Bastards
2. Juggaknots - Clear Blue Skies
3. billy woods - History Will Absolve Me
4. Cage - Movies for the Blind (recently revisited this and HW, Movies has aged way better IMO)
5. Bigg Jus & DJ G Man - Poor People's Day
6. el-p - I'll Sleep When You're Dead (better than FanDam in every conceivable way)
7. Count Bass D - Dwight Spitz
8. KA - Grief Pedigree
9. Bronze Nazareth - The Great Migration
10. Juggaknots - Use Your Confusion / Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass (his best IMO)
Hate: CunninLynguists one spot above MF Grimm is straight-up distasteful.
Hate: Breeze Brewin might be the greatest rapper of all time and you left off all his group's albums.
Top 10 that didn't appear on this list (favorites, not necessarily more important):
1. KMD - Black Bastards
2. Juggaknots - Clear Blue Skies
3. billy woods - History Will Absolve Me
4. Cage - Movies for the Blind (recently revisited this and HW, Movies has aged way better IMO)
5. Bigg Jus & DJ G Man - Poor People's Day
6. el-p - I'll Sleep When You're Dead (better than FanDam in every conceivable way)
7. Count Bass D - Dwight Spitz
8. KA - Grief Pedigree
9. Bronze Nazareth - The Great Migration
10. Juggaknots - Use Your Confusion / Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass (his best IMO)
Last edited by Versive on Fri Apr 03, 2015 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Black Bastards was kind of tainted as it was on Elektra and released some singles. Plus it was one of those that rereleased years later. Agree on Count Bass D tho.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Good list. Crazy seeing the span from early 90s up to Roc.
"27. Mac Dre – Young Black Brotha: The Album (Strictly Business, 1993)
Without Dre there would be no YBB records. There would be no Khayree. No Mac Mall. No Ray Luv. I don’t think there would be a JT The Bigga Figga or even Andre Nickatina. There probably wouldn’t even be a hyphy movement, to be honest. Mac Dre is to Bay area as Rickey Henderson was to the Oakland A’s."
This is a reach. We all love Rickey - even John Olerud. But when Rickey was a rookie in 1979, it was only 5 years after the Oakland A's won three straight world series titles.
Anyway, fun list. Back to the hip hop.
"27. Mac Dre – Young Black Brotha: The Album (Strictly Business, 1993)
Without Dre there would be no YBB records. There would be no Khayree. No Mac Mall. No Ray Luv. I don’t think there would be a JT The Bigga Figga or even Andre Nickatina. There probably wouldn’t even be a hyphy movement, to be honest. Mac Dre is to Bay area as Rickey Henderson was to the Oakland A’s."
This is a reach. We all love Rickey - even John Olerud. But when Rickey was a rookie in 1979, it was only 5 years after the Oakland A's won three straight world series titles.
Anyway, fun list. Back to the hip hop.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Good list.
The Soul Position album is not my favorite release from RJ or Print - so I would've left that off.
Also not a huge fan of that Immortal release, but I get it ("importance").
Edan > Rasco (although again I see the importance angle).
Violent By Design >>> Pscyho/social, etc
The first two J-Zone albums both more important and better than Pimps Don't Pay Taxes
Marcberg should be higher. Hugely important album, I almost look at it as saving New York rap from the bits of despair. Even if it wasn't recognized that way on any kind of commercial level I think it got everybody in New York comfortable that they could still make music about New York in the post 2010 era - something that had rarely been done well for about 5 years. More important than say The Realness for that reason (although Mega's album deserves to be on the list too)
If Little Brother deserves to be on this list at all it should be closer to 50. I wouldn't have included them. Second album was better too.
Disposable Arts & Blu's album are both wayyy too high.
Two really important omissions that are actually NOT FORGIVE level:
Clear Blue Skies and Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves.
Both of these albums are easily more important than 50-80% of the stuff on this list.
Other than that - good list.
The Soul Position album is not my favorite release from RJ or Print - so I would've left that off.
Also not a huge fan of that Immortal release, but I get it ("importance").
Edan > Rasco (although again I see the importance angle).
Violent By Design >>> Pscyho/social, etc
The first two J-Zone albums both more important and better than Pimps Don't Pay Taxes
Marcberg should be higher. Hugely important album, I almost look at it as saving New York rap from the bits of despair. Even if it wasn't recognized that way on any kind of commercial level I think it got everybody in New York comfortable that they could still make music about New York in the post 2010 era - something that had rarely been done well for about 5 years. More important than say The Realness for that reason (although Mega's album deserves to be on the list too)
If Little Brother deserves to be on this list at all it should be closer to 50. I wouldn't have included them. Second album was better too.
Disposable Arts & Blu's album are both wayyy too high.
Two really important omissions that are actually NOT FORGIVE level:
Clear Blue Skies and Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves.
Both of these albums are easily more important than 50-80% of the stuff on this list.
Other than that - good list.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Prince Among Thieves was released by Tommy Boy / Warner Bros, so it doesn't really qualify as indy.B. Ware tha Siniq wrote:
Two really important omissions that are actually NOT FORGIVE level:
Clear Blue Skies and Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves.
Both of these albums are easily more important than 50-80% of the stuff on this list.
But yea, Clear Blue Skies and even Use Your Confusion definitely deserve to be on any Indy Top 50, the former toward the top of it. Even if Breeze's impact hasn't yet been fully felt, it's only because other MCs are not physically or mentally capable of spitting anything similar. Dude is Top 5 DOA without a solo album, and his group albums feature some of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time. Use Your Confusion was years ahead of the whole psych rap thing also.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
W/o Rickey there would be no 1989 or 1990 World Series appearances.First Beard wrote: or even Andre Nickatina. There probably wouldn’t even be a hyphy movement, to be honest. Mac Dre is to Bay area as Rickey Henderson was to the Oakland A’s."
This is a reach. We all love Rickey - even John Olerud. But when Rickey was a rookie in 1979, it was only 5 years after the Oakland A's won three straight world series titles.
Anyway, fun list. Back to the hip hop.
Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
I can't figure out how the hell Rap-A-Lot records gets continuously left off of these lists. At first I thought that it was because they had major label distribution at various points in their history, but then I realized that Rawkus and Def Jux both had major label distribution, so that can't be it. Then I thought "maybe they just haven't released any important albums in their 29 years in business", but that's the dumbest thought that I have ever had.
So, can anyone actually explain it to me?
Also, why are "old school albums" excluded, and what constitutes an "old school album"? Surely labels like Sugar Hill, Enjoy!, and Pop Art have released some pretty important albums.
ALTERNATE TITLES FOR THIS LIST:
50 Albums I Discovered in College
50 Indie Rap Albums From a Period in Time Where it was Cool to Listen to "Indie Rap"
49 East Coast Albums + 1 Mac Dre Album
50 Rap Albums That the Major Labels Don't Want You to Know About (YOU WON'T BELIEVE NUMBER 27)
50 Rap Albums for White Kids Who are Afraid of Black Kids
50 Ways to Continue a Circle Jerk
So, can anyone actually explain it to me?
Also, why are "old school albums" excluded, and what constitutes an "old school album"? Surely labels like Sugar Hill, Enjoy!, and Pop Art have released some pretty important albums.
ALTERNATE TITLES FOR THIS LIST:
50 Albums I Discovered in College
50 Indie Rap Albums From a Period in Time Where it was Cool to Listen to "Indie Rap"
49 East Coast Albums + 1 Mac Dre Album
50 Rap Albums That the Major Labels Don't Want You to Know About (YOU WON'T BELIEVE NUMBER 27)
50 Rap Albums for White Kids Who are Afraid of Black Kids
50 Ways to Continue a Circle Jerk
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Clear Blue Skies is a great record but it never dropped on time so I don't think it ever had the impact it was meant to. And Paul = Tommy Boy.B. Ware tha Siniq wrote:
Clear Blue Skies and Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves.
Both of these albums are easily more important than 50-80% of the stuff on this list.
Other than that - good list.
Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
madtapes wrote:I can't figure out how the hell Rap-A-Lot records gets continuously left off of these lists. At first I thought that it was because they had major label distribution at various points in their history, but then I realized that Rawkus and Def Jux both had major label distribution, so that can't be it. Then I thought "maybe they just haven't released any important albums in their 29 years in business", but that's the dumbest thought that I have ever had.
So, can anyone actually explain it to me?
Also, why are "old school albums" excluded, and what constitutes an "old school album"? Surely labels like Sugar Hill, Enjoy!, and Pop Art have released some pretty important albums.
ALTERNATE TITLES FOR THIS LIST:
50 Albums I Discovered in College
50 Indie Rap Albums From a Period in Time Where it was Cool to Listen to "Indie Rap"
49 East Coast Albums + 1 Mac Dre Album
50 Rap Albums That the Major Labels Don't Want You to Know About (YOU WON'T BELIEVE NUMBER 27)
50 Rap Albums for White Kids Who are Afraid of Black Kids
50 Ways to Continue a Circle Jerk
I did think that the exclusion of Mystic Stylez was bit suspect.
Last edited by Versive on Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Major label backing, like No Limit and Cash Money. Rawkus and Def Jux did not have that. Priority and Rawkus happened years later. Same with Duck Down.madtapes wrote:I can't figure out how the hell Rap-A-Lot records gets continuously left off of these list
Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
so the list that drizzle posted was not enough. or did it have a different premise. that one was a hell of a lot more fun to browse through. no diss ^^^
Last edited by ChaMerZ on Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Philaflava wrote:Major label backing, like No Limit and Cash Money. Rawkus and Def Jux did not have that. Priority and Rawkus happened years later. Same with Duck Down.madtapes wrote:I can't figure out how the hell Rap-A-Lot records gets continuously left off of these list
Wasn't Rawkus distributed by MCA?
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Not until 2001.madtapes wrote:Philaflava wrote:Major label backing, like No Limit and Cash Money. Rawkus and De0f Jux did not have that. Priority and Rawkus happened years later. Same with Duck Down.madtapes wrote:I can't figure out how the hell Rap-A-Lot records gets continuously left off of these list
Wasn't Rawkus distributed by MCA?
Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Philaflava wrote:Not for the first 4 years.madtapes wrote:Philaflava wrote:Major label backing, like No Limit and Cash Money. Rawkus and Def Jux did not have that. Priority and Rawkus happened years later. Same with Duck Down.madtapes wrote:I can't figure out how the hell Rap-A-Lot records gets continuously left off of these list
Wasn't Rawkus distributed by MCA?
Rap-A-Lot, Cash Money, and No Limit all started off without major distribution... just like Rawkus?
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Versive wrote:Prince Among Thieves was released by Tommy Boy / Warner Bros, so it doesn't really qualify as indy.B. Ware tha Siniq wrote:
Two really important omissions that are actually NOT FORGIVE level:
Clear Blue Skies and Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves.
Both of these albums are easily more important than 50-80% of the stuff on this list.
You're right. Was thinking more about the glaring omission of Breeze (arguably one of the very most important and inspirational indy rappers ever), than the actual label on that one.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
for some reason I thought Mos was the first album they put out that had major label distribution. Either way it belongs. Distribution shouldn't totally negate the "indy" aspect, especially for an album that influential.Philaflava wrote:Not until 2001.madtapes wrote:Philaflava wrote:Major label backing, like No Limit and Cash Money. Rawkus and De0f Jux did not have that. Priority and Rawkus happened years later. Same with Duck Down.madtapes wrote:I can't figure out how the hell Rap-A-Lot records gets continuously left off of these list
Wasn't Rawkus distributed by MCA?
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
eh, I think that's a slippery slope. Not worth parsing though for the purpose of the list.Philaflava wrote:Major label backing, like No Limit and Cash Money. Rawkus and Def Jux did not have that. Priority and Rawkus happened years later. Same with Duck Down.madtapes wrote:I can't figure out how the hell Rap-A-Lot records gets continuously left off of these list
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
You know what would have been a fun addition to the list? Bring The Noise 2000 by Public Enemy. P.E. attempted to give it away for free on their website (as mp3's) only to have an injunction from Def Jam brought forth to bring it down. They were so ahead of he curve when it comes to digital distribution that it was crazy.
Not much of an omission though as it was mostly just a remix album, and it wasn't too great. But still, indie as fuck!
Not much of an omission though as it was mostly just a remix album, and it wasn't too great. But still, indie as fuck!
Last edited by madtapes on Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Philaflava wrote:Clear Blue Skies is a great record but it never dropped on time so I don't think it ever had the impact it was meant to.B. Ware tha Siniq wrote:
Clear Blue Skies and Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves.
Both of these albums are easily more important than 50-80% of the stuff on this list.
Other than that - good list.
Couldn't disagree more. And you certainly can't argue that albums like Sin-A-Matic, Dark Comedy, Immortal Technique, MF Grimm, Blu were more important (no offense to any of those artists, they all dropped great releases). At least not successfully.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Wouldn't this same logic "never dropped on time/didn't make the impact it should have" also apply to The Best Part?B. Ware tha Siniq wrote:Philaflava wrote:Clear Blue Skies is a great record but it never dropped on time so I don't think it ever had the impact it was meant to.B. Ware tha Siniq wrote:
Clear Blue Skies and Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves.
Both of these albums are easily more important than 50-80% of the stuff on this list.
Other than that - good list.
Couldn't disagree more. And you certainly can't argue that albums like Sin-A-Matic, Dark Comedy, Immortal Technique, MF Grimm, Blu were more important (no offense to any of those artists, they all dropped great releases). At least not successfully.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
good list but the nerd in me has to point these things out:
Siah & Yeshua was an EP - those my peoples so dont take this as a dis to them... its one of my favorite records from that era hands down...i also dont see how Juggaknots doesnt make the list and Visualz did... both records were important in the NYC indy scene... but Juggaknots definitely had a bigger impact here during those times...
and no offense to OME because the record is fucking great... but not sure how it can be on a list that says the list is about "lasting impact it had on the artist/group, label, culture and hip-hop in general" when it dropped last year
Siah & Yeshua was an EP - those my peoples so dont take this as a dis to them... its one of my favorite records from that era hands down...i also dont see how Juggaknots doesnt make the list and Visualz did... both records were important in the NYC indy scene... but Juggaknots definitely had a bigger impact here during those times...
and no offense to OME because the record is fucking great... but not sure how it can be on a list that says the list is about "lasting impact it had on the artist/group, label, culture and hip-hop in general" when it dropped last year
Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Wouldn't be mad if Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes had made it though.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
You guys are right, Jugga should have had some presence on the list.
RE: OME
I think that album helped both he and the label. Mello is making mad moves and none of their releases have received raves reviews like DC did.
RE: OME
I think that album helped both he and the label. Mello is making mad moves and none of their releases have received raves reviews like DC did.
Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
I get the feeling that you would rather be looking at response Top 10s then listening to 50 people tell you Juggaknots should be on the list.
But yo ... JUGGAKNOTS BRO!
But yo ... JUGGAKNOTS BRO!
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
I'd say on the whole the list is incredibly on point actually - despite my Juggaknots related derailing. Nice work.
Another few albums that should've considered careful consideration are probably:
Blackalicious - either Melodica or Nia
Illogic - Unforeseen Shadows
Latryx - Latryx
and although I didn't love either of these two, the influence factor with both was huge (good or bad):
Deep Puddle Dynamics
Dose One - Hemispheres
My Top Ten:
10. Endtroducing
9. Marcberg
8. Lucy Ford
7. Labor Days
6. Clear Blue Skies
5. Cold Vein
4. Black Star
3. Dr. Octagon
2. Funcrusher Plus
1. Operation Doomsday
Another few albums that should've considered careful consideration are probably:
Blackalicious - either Melodica or Nia
Illogic - Unforeseen Shadows
Latryx - Latryx
and although I didn't love either of these two, the influence factor with both was huge (good or bad):
Deep Puddle Dynamics
Dose One - Hemispheres
My Top Ten:
10. Endtroducing
9. Marcberg
8. Lucy Ford
7. Labor Days
6. Clear Blue Skies
5. Cold Vein
4. Black Star
3. Dr. Octagon
2. Funcrusher Plus
1. Operation Doomsday
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
I had Nia on the tentative list but then I realized it was more because of my own personal liking for it. I don't think that album had much impact or influence. It was just a good album TBH. But again, we all know these lists are subjective. That's why I honestly asked peeps to give their top 10 because I'm curious to see what they look like.
Glad we share similar feelings about the top 5.
Glad we share similar feelings about the top 5.
Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
No Party Fun action Committee? Oh, Okay...dick.
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Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
Cool list, think it's good overall. Will post my 10 later. Think Black on Both Sides is overstated though, and why didn't you include Internal Affairs?
[EDIT] Actually, read the purposes of the list again and think the BOB spot is more deserving. Also echo the Juggaknots thought, and think your description about Marcberg was the most fitting.
[EDIT] Actually, read the purposes of the list again and think the BOB spot is more deserving. Also echo the Juggaknots thought, and think your description about Marcberg was the most fitting.
Re: The 50 Most Important Indie Hip-Hop Albums
I still like that "I am an asshole" songBlockhead wrote:No Party Fun action Committee? Oh, Okay...dick.