Fact mag: The 100 Best Indie Hip-Hop Records Of All Time

[drizzle]

Did some blurbs for this.

http://www.factmag.com/2015/02/25/the-1 ... -all-time/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mud]

You and Funk Docta Bombay teaming up, eh?

[drizzle]

Lol yup he did a few of these

[Philaflava]

Just tell me yours. Not flipping 100 pages to read lazy writing like

98. Grav
Down to Earth
(Correct Records, 1996)

A solid release from the consistent Correct Records, produced by Dug Infinite and some kid named Kanye West, who handled the majority of the album

.

[Philaflava]

That came out kinda dickish, what I meant to say was let me know which ones you did so I don't have to sift through 100 pages of Anticon tugging.

[Y@k Bollocks]

You and Funk Docta Bombay teaming up, eh?

Good list though.

[ChaMerZ]

fukkin hate the website layout. it's designed to maximize the # of clicks the user has to perform, minimize readability and maximize ad space.

jakob nielsen would turn over in his grave.

i'd appreciate a cliffsnotes too, if you can provide one

[drizzle]

That came out kinda dickish, what I meant to say was let me know which ones you did so I don't have to sift through 100 pages of Anticon tugging.

All g, we had to do 85% of this between 3 people so a lot of the stuff toward the bottom is very simple, just 'this exists and it's pretty aight'. The further down you go the more elaborate they get. There's actually very little anticon, we're all NY guys on this and it shows

of the more significant ones I did Can Ox, Juggaknots, Atmosphere, Cage, Soundbomings, NY Reality Check, Jus, Dwight Spitz, Rough Draft, LL2, ... umm a few others itwas kinda blurry in the past few days

[mud]

You should have put Beautiful Mutant in there dude...

[Philaflava]

The list is a combo of singles and albums? I'll check it out later.

[drizzle]

The list is a combo of singles and albums? I'll check it out later.

yeah

our criteria were pretty loose in that regard. also there's not a 100 albums total from that era that aged well enough to include.

[Y@k Bollocks]

Been listening to Cold Vein a lot lately. Definitely one of my favourites from that era. I think you got Look Mom… No Hands mixed up with The Revolution of Yung Havoks though?

List definitely has me digging out a few things I haven't played in a while, although I was hoping for something to represent all those late 90s Wu Tang B-team artists (Camouflage Large Clique, Dark Skinned Assassin, Royal Fam etc).

[drizzle]

We debated on Wu-affliates, and ultimately collectively agreed that since we started with the word 'backpacker' we would only go so far into the more street oriented material and this was a little bit past the boundary. I don't 100% agree with that personally since backpackers def loved the affiliate stuff, but it is what it is. I tried to get stuff like NY Reality Check on there to balance that out since it has things like Street Smartz.

You're right on the Yung Havocs, good catch and thanks for pointing it out. Editor actually added that himself just to give a concrete example of Vordul's solo stuff and probably just confused one for the other in a rush to get it posted. We were like 2 days over deadline as is, I had to push off a work meeting to bust down a major blurb that was still missing like 10 mins prior to posting.

[Versive]

List-making gives me cultural anxiety.

But I read every line of this one and enjoyed it thoroughly. Great jobs all around.

*Goes off to make his own list of Top 10 Indie Hip-Hop Records left off of the Fact List*

[Y@k Bollocks]

We debated on Wu-affliates, and ultimately collectively agreed that since we started with the word 'backpacker' we would only go so far into the more street oriented material and this was a little bit past the boundary. I don't 100% agree with that personally since backpackers def loved the affiliate stuff, but it is what it is. I tried to get stuff like NY Reality Check on there to balance that out since it has things like Street Smartz.

Yeah, I'd probably lump the Scaramanga album in with the street oriented style too, and I love that album for the same reasons I love the obscure Wu stuff.

Have a lot of time for Factmag. Their lists always open me up to new stuff.

[Alias@anticon.com]

That came out kinda dickish, what I meant to say was let me know which ones you did so I don't have to sift through 100 pages of Anticon tugging.

[Philaflava]

That came out kinda dickish, what I meant to say was let me know which ones you did so I don't have to sift through 100 pages of Anticon tugging.

The first few I saw were all you. Thought you were on the payroll Alias. Hi pal.

[Spartan]

Crazy how many of those albums I own and haven't listened to in years.

[Versive]

http://jucommie.blogspot.com/2015/02/th ... ds-of.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

10 Favorites that were Left Off

10. C-Rayz Walz - The Prelude
9. Cage - 4 Letter Word
8. Last Emperor - Secret Wars Part 1
7. Immortal Technique - Dance with the Devil
6. Mikah Nine - It's All Love
5. Cormega - The True Meaning
4. Bronze Nazareth - Sinuhe's Impasse
3. Royce da 5'9" - Boom
2. MF Grimm - Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera
1. Last Emperor - One Life ft. Poetic

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

this is morphing my perception a bit. mega is certainly "indie" but not at all a "backpacker" imo.

[drizzle]

Nice. I actually had the Realness on my list of candidates and it got overruled on some technicality, can't remember what exactly but it was similar to the Wu affiiliate restriction, too street/not backpack enough. In truth we smudged the line between indie and backpacker, and because the delineation was loose some inconsisent choices crept in here and there. There were some compromises made along the way for various reasons, but I'm not mad about it since we did manage to get some really good shit in there that doesn't come up often on these kinds of lists. Revisiting/reminissing on all this was great and by far the best part and the reason why i got onboard in the first place, the list itself is just digital farts in wind.

I think fact should've ran it as 'backpacker' and not 'indie' in the title tbh, small difference but it has a rippling effect on people's expectations. The term backpacker feels more specifically Eastcoast-centric for some reason (might just be my own pov idk), and picks were def skewed that way. But I think that was probably a higher editor's choice.

[myself]

I saw El-P tweet that he was directly involved in 15 of top 100.

I really don't remember the reception to Cold Vein as described in the article. It got a lot of praise in 2002 (and before). Wasn't really aware there was some decade long creep of revisited praise and new love for Vordul. I doubt I've even read or heard much about it since whenever Vast coined "Cheap Shoots"- that had to have been like '08 or '09, right? The failed reunion was way back in 2004 or 2005. I remember El first saying it "wasn't happening" back when he was hangin with Puff rehearsing for the ISWYD tour (07-ish).. By that time the Cold Vein's status was more than solidified and people were tired of waiting years for a followup. Even their most recent reunion has been dragging on forever with the failed Kickstarter and all of that.

[EMCEE DARTH MALEK]

aren't pharcyde/heiro/etc backpacker? am i completely misunderstanding the term?

[drizzle]

aren't pharcyde/heiro/etc backpacker? am i completely misunderstanding the term?

you know what, lemme backpedal on this because I don't really have a good argument on it. I might be stuck in circular logic where i'm reaching about east coast because i experienced the backpacker scene through the lense of the east cost

I will say though, west coast stuff didn't really register or spread too much here. there were west coast acts that got some burn in NY back then, and we tried to touch on those in the list, but a lot of their scene (whatever you call it) either didn't exist to us or was just shrugged off.

[Myjah]

As a Minneapolis person, thank god you picked Lucy Ford over God Love's Ugly (no offense sean, just saying).

[Myjah]

That came out kinda dickish, what I meant to say was let me know which ones you did so I don't have to sift through 100 pages of Anticon tugging.

There really was way too much Anticon on that list though. Not trying to be a hater, but that was not the best stuff. You have all that Anticon on there and no mention of, like, Eyedea and Abilities? Whatever.

[Mindbender Futurama]

That came out kinda dickish, what I meant to say was let me know which ones you did so I don't have to sift through 100 pages of Anticon tugging.

There really was way too much Anticon on that list though. Not trying to be a hater, but that was not the best stuff. You have all that Anticon on there and no mention of, like, Eyedea and Abilities? Whatever.

[Versive]

Nobody's yet mentioned that Bigg Jus' Black Mamba Serums ranked higher than El-P's Fantastic Damage, which is something I fully endorse and which we've discussed here a bunch -- how they're solo works compare.

[Cryptic One]

maybe I missed it clicking through but Enta da Stage should have made this list.

[drizzle]

lol there's 3 anticon things on there at the most, out of a hundred. give it a rest.

E&A got nominated and turned down, them's the breaks.