All that talk about classic albums the other week got me thinking, can a front loaded rap album stand up against something that’s strong from start to finish?
41 thoughts on “The legacy of top-heavy LPs”
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All that talk about classic albums the other week got me thinking, can a front loaded rap album stand up against something that’s strong from start to finish?
Comments are closed.
Mostly in agreement; ‘Let The Rhythm Hit Hit ‘Em’ is the overall “better” release, but, I don’t look at the 2nd LP as a slouch, either.
Can’t forget “If It Ain’t Ruff It Ain’t Right” after the 1-2-3 combo. Casual listener thought, “even the weed carrier’s sound great” Little did they know, he wrote just about everything.
Can’t comprehend the lack of love for “No Competition” here. Rakim over that raw Manzel “Space Funk” sample – what’s not to love?
“The R” is a great summer jam too. It was, to paraphrase Max B & Dame Grease, that nu-wave BBQ music. Plus, you can play Level 42-style airbass to it.
Straight outta Compton’s B-side has Dopeman one of Dre’s best beats of all-time. So lumping it on this list may work for a blog post but it isn’t entirely accurate.
Bit unfair to describe “Straight outta Compton” as front-loaded/top-heavy no? “Express yourself, Compton’s in the house, I aint tha one (and) Dopeman” were all B-side/side 2 jams.
I’ve always been an album fan and rarely if ever buy singles so inability to deliver end-to-end longplayers is a dealbreaker for me. Frontloaded albums that spring to mind:
Method Man “Tical”
Cypress Hill “III: Temple of boom”
Paris “Guerilla funk”
A+ “Hempstead High”
Lost Boyz “Legal drug money”
Nas “It was written”
@dino Legal Drug Money might be THE most front loaded album of all time. Good call. The A-Side of that album was nearly all singles WITH videos.
Cypress Hill self titled from ’91
1. Pigs
2. How I Could Just Kill A Man
3. Hand On The Pump
Still a classic but that’s how u start a fucking album!
It’s not about the rest of the albums in question being terrible (since they aren’t), but there’s no denying that despite so other high points that can’t match the impact of three incredible tracks at the start.
Cypress Hill and Lost Boyz are two more great examples.
It was written??? Lol hell naw yo…joint with Lauryn is on the b side.. With shootouts, black girl lost & that mobb collabo…anything that CD is balanced with well placed skippables
A good album that’s albeit heavily frontloaded is KRS ONE’s “KRS ONE.”
Latyrx’s first album loses momentum after a couple tracks.
Both Fu Schnickens albums started out with 2-3 bangers but then gave way to mostly filler.
It’s always worrying when an album’s title track is the first track and the lead single. For every one Liquid Swords, there’s a dozen rushed one-hit-wonder cash-ins.
Definitely ‘a thing’
I recall a period where the first single of the album was track 4 as well.
Cypress Hills second album is top heavy, the debut and Temples of boom are not.
@Arson: Black Sunday is solid from end to end. Cypress Hill 1 dips after 3 cuts. Temples of Boom has NOTHING to offer on its utterly skippable 2nd half.
Dr Dre’s “The Chronic” is frontloaded. 1-8 is dope but then who’s seriously checking for “high powered,” “lyrical gangbang” and the like?
Recent tribe album was front loaded.
Efil4Zaggin is a prime example of this. The first few songs are crazy MC Ren is his prime over some of Dre’s best beats and the skits make it a movie. Then there’s Eazy E comedy singing which may have been amusing at 14 but has aged poorly
Black Sunday is rushed, sounds like it, with a few massive homeruns among the likes of 3 lil Putos and When the shit goes down etc. Temples of Boom is a fucking solid album experience. Debut album is a homerun from start to finish, from Pigs to Tres Equis(granted Born to get busy isnt the best album closer ever).
Wow, the first 4 Cypress albums were great. I suggest you guys re visit Temples of Boom. I slept as well. Has aged nicely, probably my favorite album of theirs.
And 4 was the last good one. A drop off overall, but well put together. Everything after that was trash.
PE- Fear of a Black Planet
Brothers gonna work it out
911 is a joke
Welcome to the terrordome
Yeah I always liked the third cypress one where muggs got all influenced by the trip hip sound that was big at the time in UK.
Arson I always thought born to get busy was a odd way to wrap up the first album too.
Stezo Crazy Noise was one for me
EPMD’s “Business As Usual” comes to mind, first 3 tracks top heavy with “I’m Mad” “Hardcore” and “Rampage” then it teeters all over the place
@MAAD: I’ve always considered that to be their best (and most level) LP.
oh and Audio 2 “What More Can I Say?”
Temples Of Boom is great once you get past the fact that it sounds like they forgot to do any hooks or choruses. Probably due to Sen Dog quitting for a while there. Production is superb though.
Not sure I agree with Tical being front-loaded, there’s a lot of excellent stuff throughout (“Sub-Crazy,” “P.L.O. Style”). Always liked that record a lot, kinda surprised a lot of people view it as a disappointment.
And yeah, The Chronic is front-loaded, but c’mon, “Lyrical Gangbang” rocks that Zeppelin break so well. And “Stranded On Death Row” is the joint.
And don’t forget Bitches aint shit on The Chronic!
I loved the initial wrongly mastered version of Tical, a dirty grimy masterpiece. The remastered version released a few years later was nothing to write home about. Perhaps that’s the version people talk about when they dislike the album. I was as happy as a little girl when it came out the first time.
Front-loaded doesn’t mean that the entire remainder of the LP is trash, just that the strongest cuts are near the beginning. ‘Mr Sandman’ on ‘Tical’? C’mon..
@Arson: Never knew about Tical being mastered incorrectly on the first pressing, it’s dirty as all get out though.
“Because I made it look like they both killed each other” – Sandman is ill
R u fuckin kidding, tryna put sandman out there like that? I fuckin LOVE that shit.
@Robbie I see what ya mean, but I’d pick Strictly Business as their best
@MAAD: I’m assuming that’s simply on the strength of ‘The Steve Martin.’
I like “Temples of boom” but let’s be real (no pun intended), tracks 8-15 are pure filler with no killer.
“Tical” is frontloaded – as is “Return to the 36 chambers, the Dirty version.” Both were rushed jobs with a couple hits at the front and a lot of demo/unfinished material to pad them out.
I agree that the recent Tribe LP is lop sided.
It drags towards the end, coulda done without ‘Ego’, ‘The Donald’ etc.
It’s a Big Daddy Thing has to be the most front loaded album ever IMO. Except for Warm It Up, Kane…
The way albums are generally structured is a result of technical limitations of vinyl, the louder tracks needed to be first on each side. It just carried over into tapes and CDs
@Bone – interesting point you make – so essentially the sequencing of an album (as per your point) has nothing to do with artistic flow or creativity but merely technical?
@Bone: Can’t believe I didn’t consider that. Well played, sir.
Stillmatic.
Technical limitations of vinyl has nothing to do with the quality of the music itself though. If that was the case, we wouldn’t have any albums great from start to finish.
The thing that REALLY slows down It’s A Big Daddy Thing is fucking “To Be Your Man.” Fucking hell…
If you skip that one, it flows much better. Mister Cee’s house track is one of the very, very few hip-house tracks that actually sounds like a legitimate house banger. You could mix it in with some Todd Terry or Mr. Fingers, and no one would guess it was from a Kane album. And yeah, “Warm It Up, Kane,” and the remix to “Lean On Me” is also dope.
@Arson – Never heard about that mastering thing for Tical. Can’t find anything about it. Where did you hear about this?
Whatever version I have sounds dusty as fuck, never heard any other version. Still love that record as one of the most blunted things committed to tape. The disc almost oozes with resin.