As much as I enjoy droning on about how good rap was in 1987, there’s nothing like the buzz of listening to a brand new rap LP. While there is far more terrible rap being released now than a decade ago, having the means to release music as often as you want rather than being constrained to a record label schedule has led to the mean streets of the rap internets being flooded with good, bad and unspeakably horrible music.
But the art of the long player seems to have been lost to most, as so many albums, EP’s and ‘mixtapes’ provide two or three great tracks in among the filler. It’s one thing to choose forty quality rap songs at the end of each year for the annual Conservative Rap Coalition’s Unkut 40 Oz. collection, but to choose one release for each year is a lot tougher.
Here are the ten rap releases from the past decade that I hope will still stand-up in 2030:
2010 Marcberg – Roc Marciano
This record defined the sound of hardcore rap for the next ten years, and didn’t leave my car stereo for six months.
2011 Greneberg [iTunes version] – Roc Marciano & Gangrene
In a terrible year for rap albums, the bonus track ‘Jaws’ reminded me that all was not lost.
2012 Grief Pedigree – Ka
The Metal Clergyman hit his stride with a unique approach that he continued to hone in the years to come.
2013 My 1st Chemistry Set – Boldy James and The Alchemist
A testament to how the right musical backing can bring out the best in a rapper.
2014 The Infamous Mobb Deep [Disc 2: The 1994 Infamous Sessions] – Mobb Deep
After twenty years of ten-generation tape dubs of these demos and outtakes, hearing proper mixes of ‘The Bridge’ and ‘If It’s Alright’ more than justified picking up the final CD from this legendary crew.
2015 P.I.M.P. (Paper Is My Priority) – Grand Daddy I.U.
Hearing I.U. demonstrate why he’s still as sharp as ever was a memorable moment, as this LP lays it down in his own terms.
2016 Bo: The Legend of the Water Dragon – Agallah
The first of a long line of memorable albums that Agallah has been lacing us with ever since. Don’t ever count this guy out.
2017 The Shepard – Killa Sha
The long awaited, posthumous project from Sha Lumi was everything I’d hoped for. Tragedy’s verse on ‘Pressure Up’ is nothing short of perfect.
2018 Drinkin’ Beer Wit Prostitutez – Da Buze Bruvaz
It’s tough to pick a stand-out from Him Lo and Clever 1 from recent times, since they remain the most consistent team since EPMD, but this one wins on the strength of the title alone.
2019 Boulevard Author – Milano and Showbiz
The album that finally made a believer out of those who wrote Milano off as a second stringer, as both he and Showbiz demonstrate everything that the CRC stands for.
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What would be your picks, by year?
Perfect list.
I would add Reloaded and The Nights Gambit
Here is the approved selection of the East Scotland chapter of the CRC :-
2010 – an above par year with GFK ‘Apollo Kids’ SAS ‘In Search of Stoney Jackson’ & Celph Titled ‘Nineteen Ninety Now’ but we all know the correct answer is ‘MARCBERG’
2011 – Elzhi ‘Elmatic’
2012 – Ka ‘Grief Pedigree’ (if only ‘Life Is Good’ had contained 10 tracks as devastating as ‘Loco-motive’)
2013 – DJ Skizz ‘Brooklyn Queens Experience’, plus the Ugly Heroes album
2014 – Your Old Droog ‘Your Old Droog’
2015 – Czarface ‘Every Hero Needs a Villain’
2016 – Meyhem Lauren ‘Piatto D’Oro’
2017 – Muggs & Mayhem Lauren ‘Gems From The Equinox’ or Apathy & OC ‘Perestroika’
2018 – a vintage year by recent standards & can’t argue with either of Da Buze Bruvaz releases but Griselda also came strong with Benny The Butcher ‘Tana Talk 3’ & Conway’s ‘Blakk Tape’
2019 – AJ Munson ‘Cigarettes & Coffee’ also salute a whole load of CRC approved reissues on Chopped Herring
imo, the strongest longplayers in 2019 came from grilchy party, especially both clever 1 albums are fire… props to marq spekt!
Drinkin’ Beer Wit Prostitutez would still be the best album of 2018 even without that wonderful title.
I doubt any of my favourite 2019 albums could be considered even vaguely “CRC Approved:”
1) Wordburglar “Space Verse”
2) Grouch & Murs “Thees Handz”
3) Touch & The Dirty Sample “Jaws”
4) Junior Disprol “Def Valley”
5) MC Lars & Mega Ran “The Dewey Decibel System”
6) Epic Beard Men “This was supposed to be fun”
7) Ayentee “The Fall”
8) Chris Orrick “Out to Sea”
9) Ramson Badbonez “Mic day the 13th”
10) The Opioid Era “The Opioid era”
Anybody know of a way to view albums according to year in Windows Media Player or some such other free Windows 10 prog? The information is there on my computer but when I click on a given year, it just gives me a loooooong list of tracks.
I submit these….
Reloaded- roc Marci
Deutsche Marks-willie the kid
Tana talk 3-benny
I’m surprised to see Tana Talk 3 get so much love, I thought it was pretty weak. Benny’s rapping always puts me to sleep. Everybody Is F.O.O.D. was the best Griselda LP of 2018. And WWCD is really outstanding, I’ve been playing that a lot lately.
Czarface was a good call. Happy to see the I Dot U Dot get some props too.
I really dug the long awaited Ryu debut solo album from 2016, with all dope beats from the recluse Divine Styler. Possibly slept on by way too many…
Goin’ year by year:
2010: Roc Marciano- Marcberg
2011: DJ Quik- The Book of David
2012: Sean Price- Mic Tyson
2013: Ka- The Night’s Gambit
2014: Cormega- Mega Philosophy
2015: Dr. Yen Lo- Days With Dr. Yen Lo
2016: Ka: Honor Killed the Samurai
2017: Quelle Chris- Being You Is Great…
2018: Crimeapple- Aguardiente
2019: Milano & Showbiz- Boulevard Author
According to my twitters, my favourite albums of the past five years have been:
2019: Wordburglar “Space Verse”
2018: Eligh “Last house on the block”
2017: ALLTTA “The upper hand”
2016: Qeld “Kush Zombies”
2015: Tech N9ne “Special Effects”
Not one of those is “CRC approved.”
According to a cursory search on Windows Media player, the first half of my 2010s sounded like:
2014: Dead Residents “dead thy neighbour”/Drunken Arseholes “Scotian Gold”
2013: The MC Type a good tattoo/Aspects “Left hand path”
2012: mega Ran “Language Arts 1-3” / the Coup “Sorry to bother you”
2011: Braille “Native Lungs” / Super Commuter “Products of science”
2010: B Dolan “Fallen house sunken city” /Sage Francis “Li(f)e”
2015: Conway and Daringer – The Devil’s Reject 2 an album masquerading as a mixtape.
@Dino change the view to be ‘details’ or whatever, then order by the year column. You can even then return to the grouping view and artists’ albums will be ordered by release year, then alphabetically.
Thanks Ross.
There’s a lot of “CRC approved” albums I did enjoy from the past decade (Ka, Doppelgangaz, Kool Keith, etc) just not as much as the albums I’ve already named.
2010: roc marci “marcberg”
2011: has-lo “in case i don’t make it”
2012: billy woods “history will absolve me” (honorable mentions: ka “grief pedigree” & freddie foxxx “kolexxxion”)
2013: armand hammer “race music”
2014: maybe yod’s debut … can’t remember, didn’t really listen to new rap music that year…
2015: ka & preservation “day with dr. yen lo”
2016: mikey d “day of d’struction”
2017: milano “the way we were”
2018: da buze bruvaz “niggativity” / “Drinkin beerz with prostitutez” (both are dope as fuck, can’t decide which one I prefer…)
2019: clever 1 “da dirty harry gun faculty” / “kiss da converse”
ROC MARCI IS WACK!!!!! He is NOT real Hip-Hop he raps over music without drums!!!!! Get off his wack ass tip!
Roc is as fake as Eminem and big krit!
Crime apple is the WORST! They’re fake Tony Montana played out big willie wack drug talk rappers1
NYC fell off!
FUCK THE DOPPELGANGAZ WHO ARE PRO TRUMP RACISTS!
Cali has the REAL Hip-Hop.
Tech 9 dresses like a clown a BOZO and you white devils love him and all your other white rap god that are pure racists like Lord Lhus, Diabolic ,DoppelGangaz and the other Fox News rappers. Keep that racist pro white rap in NYC. It’s wack!
Here’s mine. So far from CRC approved, but all very dope.
2010 Celph Titled – 199now
2011 Homeboy Sandman – the good sun
2012 large professor – professor @ large
2013 Danny Brown – Old
2014 your old droog – your old droog
2015 Dr Dre – compton
2016 Dillon and paton locke – food chain
2017 son of sam – cinder hill
2018 masta ace – a breuklyn story* (*if you delete the skits)
2019 Gangstarr – one of the best yet
I might not be quite as angry as the bloke above, but I will also never understand the popularity of Roc Marciano. I’d struggle to pick out a single verse of his, they all. sound. the. same.
Are you kidding? Roc Marciano is a slogan machine. Come on man, he said that his nuts swing like ribs in a meat truck. That’s the greatest line in the history of rap music.
I disagree. ‘Swingin like my nuts on the toilet when I’m shittin’, is better… 😉
Heres mine:
2010: Marcberg
2012: Reloaded
2013: Marci Beaucoup
2017: Rosebudd’s Revenge
2018: RR2: The Bitter Dose
2018: Behold a Dark Horse
2018: Kaos (with DJ Muggs)
2019: Marcielago
@dough_joe You had two for 2018 and no 2011.
Wait a sec, Robbie said Him-Lo and Clever 1 were the most consistent duo since EPMD. How did that one slip by everybody?
That’s because Roc didn’t really record that year. He was reading old Unkut interviews, obviously…
@dino I also just copy/pasted Roc Marciano’s discography from wikipedia
Roc Marc music is for mark ass busters who are too young to know real Hip-Hop artists. Crime Apple is another overrated white rapper by white people.
Alchemist music SUCKS! Dj Muggs music Really sucks now!
Kendrick Lamar is fake rap music.
And what the fuck is a Bloke? Some mark called me a Bloke? This is America don’t use that sucker slang from your great grandfather’s generation you white devil. Yes I am white but not a devil. I am a Cali B-Boy.
2010 Drake thank me later”
2011 Big Sean “Finally famous”
2012 Tulisa “The female boss”
2013 Mack Lemore & Ryan Lewis “The Heist”
2014 Future “Honest”
2015 Heems “Eat pray thug”
2016 Young Thug “Jeffery”
2017 Lil Uzi “Luv is rage 2”
2018Cupcakke “Ephorize”
2019 Post Malone “Hollywood’s bleeding”
whiteys talkin bout white devils feels kinda strange, same goes for whiteys trying to lay down rules for hip hop…
AC “da program director” “not a white devil real hip hop b-boy” is your album of the decade illmatic or 36 chambers?
The golden ratio is also called the golden section or golden mean. Other names include extreme and mean ratio, medial section, divine proportion, divine section golden proportion, golden cut, and golden number. Many artists and architects have proportioned their works to approximate the golden ratio – especially in the form of the golden rectangle, in which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter is the golden ratio – believing this proportion to be aesthetically pleasing.
In defense of all my “Real” spitters that are uplifting / uplifted humanity
100!
Robbie relented on his M.O.P. vs EPMD argument and nobody seems to care or have even noticed. A little piece of my soul has perished.
@Slappy White: The ‘Sparta’ album with the Snowgoons put the Mash Out Posse out of contention for ‘most consistant’…but they’re still ‘the greatest’ in my book.
Imagine ranting about “overrated white rappers” & those “too young to know real hip-hop artists” then selecting Tulisa ‘The Female Boss’ as one of your albums of the decade. Gotta stop licking those crayons, son.
2010: Roc Marciano – Marcberg
2011: Curren$y & Alchemist – Covert Coup
2012: Domo Genesis & Alchemist – No Idols
2013: Prodigy & Alchemist – Albert Einstein
2014: Freddie Gibbs & Madlib – Piñata
2015: Conway – Reject 2
2016: Westside Gunn – FLYGOD
2017: El Camino – El Camino EP
2018: Benny – Tana Talk 3
2019: Roc Marciano – Marcielago