Although the editorial crew didn’t bother ranking these fifteen, here’s my top fifteen for ninety two…
1) Boogie Down Productions – Sex and Violence
2) Lord Finesse – Return of the Funky Man
3) Pete Rock & CL Smooth – Mecca and the Soul Brother
4) Gang Starr – Daily Operation
5) Diamond D – Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop
6) Showbiz & A.G. – Runaway Slave
7) Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Live and Let Die
8) Das EFX – Dead Serious
9) EPMD – Business Never Personal
10) Grand Puba- Reel To Reel
11) Redman – Whut? Thee Album
12) Da Lench Mob – Guerillas in tha Mist
13) Beastie Boys – Check Your Head
14) Dr. Dre – The Chronic
15) Compton’s Most Wanted – Music to Driveby
We could argue about the order all day, but a strong case could be made for 1992 being the greatest year for nineties rap.
Agreed.
Agree…to me 88 and 92 are my favorite 2 years.
so masterpieces like organized’s and black sheep’s debut albums don’t make it to these lists because they have been released in october? hmmm, these source charts confuse me…
if I’m not mistaken, there also have been artists’ charts for these years and a lot of them voted for o.k. and mecca & the soul brother…
I agree with most of your ranking, althought I don’t care about the west coast stuff except for cmw, and I’ve never been a fan of the diggety das efx shit … plus, I listened a lot to grand pu’s solo in ’92…
Check Your Head was the big album for me that year,loved the mix of instrumentals & vocal tracks,still sounds dope as well. The best Beasties LP imo.
Good picks. Here’s mine:
1) Da Lench Mob “guerillas in tha mist”
2) Paris Sleeping with the enemy
3) The disposable heroes of hiphoprisy hypocrisy is the greatest luxury
4) Dr dre The Chronic
5) 3 years, 5 months and 2 days in the life of Arrested Development
6) Bizarre ride II the Pharcyde
7) BDP Sex and Violence
8) Yo Yo Black Pearl
9) Fu Schnickens FU don’t take it personal
10) The Goats Tricks of the shade
11) Hardknocks School of Hardknocks
12) Rage Against the Machine s/t
13) Das EFX Dead serious
14) Bushwick bill Little big man
15) Ganksta NIP Southpark Psycho
@ kool max power. Black Sheep and OK were released in 1991. Maybe that’s the reason why they didn’t make it onto this list.
@kool max power: Magazines are/were written 4-8 weeks prior to publication. Year end lists wouldn’t be much of a draw to readers in February/March and not so useful to labels/publicists needing “Album of the year….As recommended by…” endorsements in time for Xmas shopping.
…makes sense, Dino
Cosign 88 & 92, check your head, and pharcyde talk…smh @ CRC leaving out mc ren’s solo and common’s 1st joint…yo Robbie zip up some music bro….
@$yk: Both great but I like the first fifteen better.
I’m surprised a really mad-on-the-mic Paris with DJ Shadow cuts and sampling wasn’t your thang. My fave album of all time!
Agree with your list overall, but not the order and I’d definitely remove Beastie Boys and add The Pharcyde. ’92 is mos definitely one of the best years in HipHop history. I turned 18 in ’92. Actually ’88 to ’96 is the greatest time period in HipHop history… to me at least.
There was tons of great music released in ’92, but nobody dropped more classic material than DITC. Not even the Hit Squad.
“so take it slllloooowwwww amigo (ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh)”-Poisonous Products
Agreed #1 BDP
The stellar Pos K album in your top 10 gets a free beer from me…
yo speaking of album of the year are you going to review MF Doom and Czarface album
@Dino Sorry but that’s a shitty list. Explains a lot about you. Arrested Development? The Goats? Ganksta NIP?
To each his own I guess.
@Ty Hendricks It must be so hard for you having to deal with other humans having differing opinions to you about what they enjoyed putting in their ears over a quarter of a century ago. Thoughts and prayers. Thoughts and prayers.
Ice Cube – The Predator deserves a mention.
All the west coast albums on here were fucking Trash.
I got the true west coast boom bap!
YOU’RE NOT HIP-HOP IF YOU LISTEN TO “TOO SHORT”.
DINO YOUR PICKS ARE WACK AS FUCK! YOU’RE NOT HIP-HOP!
There is nothing wrong with The Goats debut! Their sophomore effort in ’94 was a little too rock band like. The heavier sounding Roots vibe didn’t work, IMO…
@3BM-Ark tbh, I now prefer “No goats no glory” to “Tricks of the shade.” TOTS has some of the best album skits in hiphop and the songs have better topics than NGNG but the crossover production is very much of its time. NGNG flopped when it dropped because the depoliticised pro-stoner 180 was seen as a cynical attempt to cash in on the Black Sunday/Chronic stoner market.
This is actually one of the biggest mistakes by The Source ever. Death Certificate (Ice Cube) is NOT in their 91 best albums list because it was released on October 29th, but then it wasn’t included in the 1992 list either. Flat out wrong
@Junior, agree, but The Source was extremely east coast-centric in those early days, pre-Doggystyle…
Spice 1 in the album of the year. Guess that sums up the oddness of The Source back in those days at times
As far as Spice 1 goes, that self-titled is a great album. I don’t have much of an issue with it here.
Also, damn, why do folks keep overlooking Live & Let Die? Is it just me that thinks this?
Grand Puba – Reel to Reel
The best album of the year.
Hard Knocks – School of Hard Knocks is messing. This album must be in the top 5 at least. Runaway Slave is the the best DITC album ever release.
Sex & Violence 1992 #1