At this point, it’s becoming clear that The Source Mind Squad are beginning to lose their cot damn minds. I understand that they wanted to reflect their rapidly broadening readership by catering to the entire spectrum of regional rap…but some of these selections are just baffling with the benefit of hindsight. And thanks to their November 1992 – October 1993 cut-off point, Snoop, Tribe and the Wu got bumped onto the 1994 list.
I can hardly be bothered ranking this shit-show, other than to point out that no one in their right mind is listing Bo$$, Spice-1, Erick Sermon or Run-DMC as best on show for 1993 even five minutes after this issue dropped.
01) Brand Nubian – In God We Trust
02) Tha Alkaholiks – 21 And Over
03) Positive K – Skills Dat Pay Da Bills
04) The Beatnuts – Intoxicated Demons
05) Mobb Deep – Juvenile Hell
06) Masta Ice INC – Slaughtahouse
07) Black Moon – Enta Da Stage
08) De La Soul – Buhloone Mindstate
09) Fat Joe – Represent
10) GETO Boys – Till Death Do Us Part
11) Big Daddy Kane – Looks Like A Job For
12) Scarface – The World Is Yours
13) King Tee – Tha Triflin’ Album
14) Dr. Dre – The Chronic
15) Cypress Hill – Black Sunday
16) Ultramagnetic MC’s – The Four Horsemen
17) KRS-One – Return of the Boom-Bap
18) Souls of Mischief – ’93 Til Infinity
19) Onyx – Bacdafucup
20) Leaders of the New School – T.I.M.E.
Forget No Pressure (I will still defend this album to the death, the beats are nuts), who the fuck would rank Trendz Of Culture as best of ’93? It’s not a terrible album, but c’mon…
This is a very strange list, but good on them for including The Four Horsemen and Slaughtahouse.
And Robbie, good lookin’ out on the Kane and LONS joints. Love both of those albums, and they still get unjustly overlooked.
This is one of the few editions I haven’t thrown out after all these years. It was a good guide as a shorty…
That Spice 1 album is great. Same goes with Bo$$.
Spice One 187 He Wrote is classic!! He was rapping hard and switching to reggae mid verse over prime Ant Banks beats. Agree with the rest though, Boss wasn’t bad but was exiled for being a fraud. If she existed today she’d have 10 million instagram followers and the number one album! She was ahead of her time!
Spice 1 album is his best and definitely one of the best of the year. How about tossing Fat Joe out of there and make way for him? Here are a few of my favs not mentioned on either list:
Black Mafia Life – Above The Law
Neva Again – Kam
You Better Ask Somebody – Yo Yo
Sickinnahead – Threat
Get In Where You Fit In – Too Short
Damn I forgot the Threat, that should be in the top ten. Guess I should also give that Spice 1 another listen…
Trends of culture???? LoLzzzzz
lotta pretenders started popping up on the scene ’bout this time
Good call on ranking In God We Trust #1. Slaughtahouse should be #2, though.
Checked the Spice 1 album again and it still doesn’t do anything for me. *shrugs*
Come on, murder never sounded this funky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRhevhoLErM
@Caesar: Good track, but more than two Spice 1 songs in a row is one too many for me these days.
‘Peace To My Nine’ is a classic though.
The best Spice 1 release is his EP demo from ’91, containing mostly songs from his debut LP. Ahead of his time, jazzy like CMW back then… The Kam debut is top 5 for me though. Best from the west with the Liks that year…
@3BM-Ark: The Kam album was pretty good now that I think about it. It’s been a while since I heard it.
That Fat joe album was the biggest waste of great beats of all time. My mum could have rapped on those beats and made a better job of doing them justice. And T.I.M.E by LONS (with exception of those two singles) is just horrible. They could put that whole album on repeat in guantanamo bay at full volume to get people to confess to stuff they hadnt done.
The rest is lovely though, stick a could of @hotbox’s choices in there and it’s golden. (I’ve got a soft spot for that Yo-Yo album and I don’t care who knows it.)
Few notable omissions:
Judgment Night OST
Poor Righteous Teachers Black Business
The Coup Kill my landlord
K-Rino Stories from the black book
Gunshot Patriot Games
Akinyele Vagina Diner
sorry to say, but “vagina diner” shits on most of the albums on your list, robbie. you can’t go wrong with priceless extra p beats plus ak in his prime.
back then, I also prefered “no need for alarm” to “93 til infinity”, but I didn’t listen to both since the mid-90s…
Yeah, Vagina Diner is definitely top 10 of ’93. That Kam album is excellent too; same goes for the Yo-Yo LP. And Black Business is still mad underrated. Guess that’s what happens when you have one single from your album and then crickets? It deserves revisiting for sure.
My top 10 albums of 93:
Midnight Marauders
Enter the Wu Tang 36 chambers
Black Sunday
Doggystyle
|Judgment Night OST
In God we trust
Looks like a job for….
Black Business
Neva Again
Innercity Griots
@Kool Max Power: This wasn’t one of my finest moments. How could I forget one of my personal all-time favorites?
Judgment night OST on a top 10 list lol. I listened to it maybe twice and it never found its way back of out of the “CD Wallet”
Lords of the Underground – Here Comes the Lords
Show & prove lyrics and on-point scratches on top of K-Def & Marley beats? It’s an absolute classic, and I always considered them real hip hop and not a gimmick.
Represent is a classic. You guys are nuts. I love that album.
I’d lean towards K-Rino over Scarface/GB for the pick of the RAL/SPC releases that year. Del has more Hiero replay value today too, for me…
The Ant Banks beats were the weakest, IMO. E-A-Ski and the homie CMT crafted real gems that season… 😉
Tragedy – Saga of A Hoodlum was one of 93’s best.
’cause u not using zippy as your friend
@Robbie listen to that Spice 1 again. Your dismissal of this album gives me the assumption you think the only classic West Coast gangsta shit exists in LA. The Bay gettin hated on yet again smdh
The west coast music really sucked that is listed here. I should have been listed, I was known then.
I can honestly say I’ve purchased or listened to all of those albums except the Fat Joe.
If yall know anybody looking for issues I have them starting from the issue with Yo MTV raps on the cover. XXL and Vibes too.
@Dough_Joe: I had “Innercity Griots” in my 93 top 10 yet “Judgment Night OST” is the controversial pick? Go figure…..
Kam’s “Neva Again” was like an album of “Death certificate” b-sides in a good way. Yo Yo’s “You better ask somebody” is however like a grip of “The Predator” rejects in a very bad way.
I thought Intoxicated Demons would have ranked higher, or are we not trolling Nas anymore?
But in all seriousness, nice list, except I don’t remember Juvenile Hell being that good
what no Freestyle Fellowship ‘Inner city Griots’ ? haha
Edo G. – Roxbury 02119
Real talk Juvenile Hell sucked and that II Leaders of the New School album felt rushed , now Frankie Kutlass 1st cd called the Frankie Kutlass show should be on there, it includes the classic song Puerto Rico.
You put Positive K’s album in both your 92 and 93 list…lol. Something’s wrong