The good news is that Harvard University will be honouring a minimum of ten hip-hop classics every year for future study and appreciation. The bad news, it seems, is that they’ve put 9th Wonder in charge of curating it and notate everything with links to Rap Dummy. I’m assuming that the enormous importance of pioneering eighties rap albums will be included at some stage, but for the moment it has begun with the following selections: The Low End Theory, Illmatic, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and To Pimp A Butterfly.
Lauryn’s album features around three songs with actually rapping on it and Kendrick’s record isn’t even two years old yet. Surely it would have been more logical to put someone in charge who doesn’t think that rap began in 1991, so here’s my take on how this project may have been better served to commence:
Run-DMC – Raising Hell
The best album by the best rap group in the world at that point in time.
Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
Defined the new cutting edge by taking everything that was great about their peers and throwing it back at the world bigger, louder and smarter. The Bomb Squad changed the way we thought about sampling and Chuck D opened up thousands of minds to a different way of viewing the world.
De La Soul – De La Soul Is Dead
Abandons the youthful innocence of the first album for a brilliant reinvention that still retains everything that made De La special but with ten times more sarcasm and weirder beats. A post-modern rap masterpiece.
Gang Starr – Step In The Arena
Captures everything that was thrilling about the new school of rap, combining the sport of obscure loops with lyrics that blend bragging with social commentary in a seemingly effortless manner. The b-boy manifesto of it’s day.
These four albums provide a balance between where rap long-players began and how they developed from there, setting the stage for nineties heroes such as Biggie and Tupac. Which four would you have started with, and why?
in full gear
critical beatdown
it takes a nation…
straight out the jungle
Enter the Wu-Tang, Critical Beatdown, NWA, Illmatic and It takes a nation
Also, GTFO with any record younger than 10yrs preserved anywhere outside itunes
This is just going to end up with people posting their 4 favourite albums isn’t it ?
Should start with singles before they even begin to think about albums, and they need to start right at the beginning with these 5 singles:
Sugar Hill Gang – Rapper’s Delight
Kurtis Blow – The Breaks
Spoonie Gee – New Rap Language/Love Rap
Duke Bootee & Melle Mel – The Message
The Fearless Four – Rockin’ It
Erase Planet Rock and that nonce Bambaataa from history. Rockin’ It was the far better song to interpolate Kraftwerk anyway.
@Step One: Most likely. It would also help if the reason why each album was chosen was included…
@swordfish: I didn’t include Ultra for the first picks because to understand that album requires a finely-tuned rap brain.
@Corey Cadby, m8: Agreed on all fronts.
Enter the Wu-Tang – created a whole new sound
AmeriKKKas Most Wanted – Classic Bomb Squad with some top notch rapping
Illmatic – Killa Queens action
Criminal Minded – they didn’t invent hip hop but did a damn good job of it
Criminal Minded
Critical Beatdown
Straight out the Jungle*
Long Live the Kane
Im alarmed that 9th Wonder would display such a lack of ignorance for the early days, but alblums like On Fire/ Bring the Beat Back/ Weightless/ Yo Bum Rush the Show and stacks of others could go on there. There are shedloads that broke moulds….
*In America today
I have to regret to say
Somethin, somethin is not right
And it deals with black and white….
When lines from Rappers still resonate, even though they were served almost 30 years previous, those are the records that have ‘stay’.
KL will not be celebrated in 30 years, as good as he is…….#rapsnewgeneration
“Lauryn’s album features around three songs with actually rapping on it”
I’m fine with this so long as they honor a Chubb Rock album in their R&B department.
If I were put in charge of a scholarly archive of rap albums, my first four picks would be:
De la Soul “3 feet high & rising:” The art of sampling….the packaging of hardcore messages within apparently pop sensibilities….y’all know the score….
Gang Starr “Moment of truth:” the planets/stars/fates were all in perfect alignment for this one.
The Aspects “Correct English:”Little-known outside the Westcountry of England yet such an amazing album.An English “Critical Beatdown” or “No future without a past.”
Sole “Bottle of humans:”a middleclass middle American Caucasian pens an introverted rap album that doesn’t contain a single actual rhyme. This is the farthest rap has deviated from its aesthetic and ethnic roots.
Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation…
Diamond – Stunts, Blunts…
Nas – Illmatic
Roc Marciano – Marcberg
Run-DMC: The bridge between original school and Golden Era. Perfect interplay not just between 2 emcees, but emcees and deejay.
Paid in Full: Rakim ended a lot of old-school sounding rappers’ careers, and ushered in the Golden Era.
Straight Outta Compton: Expanded the bounds of free speech while still maintaining dope rhymes, beats and scratching.
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers): Kicked in the door for the hardcore, boom-bap East Coast renaissance of next school artists (along with Enta da Stage) that allowed Nas, Biggie, Jeru, OC, and Keith Murray to wreck shop with their debuts the following year. Plus, rap had never seen that many rappers in a crew before or since.
That Lauren Hill album has no place in a list of rap classics…
Lol @ sole.
I think having ALL 80’s albums is as bad as none. Having 4 albums is just stupid anyway. Harvard is a safe haven for imbeciles.
Man, I’ve been spinning Step in the Arena non-stop for the past few days. This was my favorite album for years, and it might still be.
Da hell is a “sole”…lmfao Dino relax yo…anyway once I ain’t see Criminal Minded I knew this is gonna be some rap f*ckery tangent a la Rap Genius style….annotations,dissertations…u wasn’t there yo cut it out & enjoy tha music
“The Low End Theory, Illmatic”
… OK starts off pretty well….
“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and To Pimp A Butterfly”
… what the …. who put this person in charge ??
I like following form the inclusions suggested…because they are all well crafted rounded albums with good beats, emcees that pioneered their owns styles and were bringing something new and refreshing…
Ultra-mag – for the reason Robbie said he left it off…. ‘because to understand that album requires a finely-tuned rap brain.’ Plus the beats.
Straight out the jungle …. great album, took things in a different direction
Amerikkas most …. what a great way to capture that moment in time; including the political situation … so venomous and from the west coast perspective over best production of it’s time too.
Brand nubian self titled … captured the new York / 5%er vibe of the time perfectly. Great production and mcs that worked so well as a group and with the music.
Criminal Minded .. again KRS took it in a new direction lyrically , over the top notch Scott La Rock / Ced Gee production
Paid In Full … Rakim’s flow and the imagery in his lyrics …. changed the way people wanted to rap – the borderline between the old school to the new school.
PE and Run DMC +
NWA – Straight out of compton
Ice T – Power
Eric B & Rakim – Follow the Leader
Study up Kiddies! And take off those lame Gun and Roses Shirts!
Oh and Illmatic to make it 4. Best written material ever put down….
‘Straight Outta Compton’ and ‘Follow The Leader’ are tricky for me since they both share some of the strongest opening three songs ever but then get a whole lot less interesting on the b-side. Which begs the question – does an album need to be great as a whole to be classic?
Weapon X and Ken Hell
“an introverted rap album that doesn’t contain a single actual rhyme”
@Dino, I’ll have to re-familiarise myself to that project.
Don’t sleep on quiet on the set and the R..Lol
But those early songs make the album classics no matter what is on the B-side…
You can’t put Paid in full on the list knowing that the group’s best work isn’t on it…
“This is just going to end up with people posting their 4 favourite albums isn’t it ?”
@StepOne, you were right.
Lord Finesse: The Funky Technician (DJ Premier intro ducing his production skill outside of Gang starr.Finesse introduces HipHop fans to The D.I.T.C.
De La Soul:Three Feet High and Rising (Something completely different in HipHop pushing it’s bounderies even further.A reintroduction of Prince Paul to new school fans and his ‘quirky’ production sound.
Main Source:Breaking Atoms (PURE Grade A HipHop) loaded with scratching,prime lyrics and [then] unfamiliar samples.
Pete Rock & CL Smooth:Mecca & The Soul Brother!The 1992 album that ACTUALLY dominated that summer.Not the overplayed,hyped Chronic album.Pete Rock’s signature sound raised the bar for HipHop remixes and outside crew productions overall at that time.
Another four to be analysed to death by academia:
MOP “Warriorz”
The Goats “Tricks of the shade”
London Posse “Gangster Chronicle”
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy “Hypocrisy is the greatest luxury”
If we’re just naming 4 albums at random then
Royal Flush – Ghetto Millionaire
Big Mike – Something Serious
Universal Soldiers – Slanguage
Monie Love – Down To Earth
1. Boogie Down Productions – Criminal Minded
2. Eric B and Rakim – Paid In Full
3. Nas – Illmatic
4. Public Enemy – Yo Bum Rush The show
Another 4
1. Big Daddy Kane – Long Live the kane
2. Kool G Rap and DJ Polo – Wanted dead or alive
3. Tribe – Low End Theory
4. Organized Konfusion – Stress the extintion agenda
Paid in Full-Eric B & Rakim
Bigger & Deffer-LL Cool J
Blueprint-Jay Z
Doggystyle-Snoop Dogg
Kendrick would’ve been in there eventually. These are just four of 10 for the first year. No one said it had to go in order and start sometime in the 80’s. AND this isn’t a ranking, it’s a collection to be studied. Relax purists.
4 more albums for academics to frig over:
Aceyalone “A book of human language”
Ras Kass “Soul on ice”
Gravediggaz “6 feet deep”
MF Grimm “American Hunger”
That should keep the White guilt-ridden sociologists and literary theorists busy for a while.
What’s the point of this Harvard archive anyway? Are there no 2nd hand record stores in America?
Has the campus intranet banned access to ITunes and Spotify?
@Dino: I’d say First Family 4 Life trumps Warriorz.
I agree with the inclusion of Raising Hell and It Takes A Nation Of Millions for the same reasons Robbie explained. I’d swap Step In The Arena with Moment Of Truth, as Premier delivered his best production ever on that album and Guru sounds incredibly sharp. My fourth pick would be Long Live The Kane as the greatest battle mc of all time deserves to be studied academically. Plus, Marley Marl’s production is classic and game-changing.
bum rush the show (my favorite, but more realistically it takes a nation deserves the acknowledgment)
critical beatdown
36 chambers
e 1999 eternal (covers a whole world missed elsewhere)
i LOVE step in the arena, but you can’t look at keithy e before keith thornton.
Bottle of Humans is full of rhymes.
Indeed, @Werner. I’m listening to it now.
@$yk, have you ever heard ‘Bottle Of Humans’? Not to compare, because one’s taste is objective, but that album overdoes a lot of “that real Hip-Hop” releases.
The discussions on this site are so much better than Dead End Hip Hop.
hey, it’s werner.
that guy has a great youtube channel
Of the top of my head debut album from
Run dmc
Nwa
Public enemy
Too live crew
Beastie boys
Those albums were game changers, and contributed to way too much to hip hop and american culture!
Run DMC debut album , every one has to have heard it once, world wide.
Beastie boysereally blew up DefJam and gave the white fans their heroes.
PE first album was gangsta, but really brought out a movement and progrrssion in culture.
NWA made so much noise, and had so much political attention, and is the reason why we have new TV station like revolt. Look it up!
Too live crew changed the law and was a victory for sampleing, even though they were just doing a weird al yankovich with their song paradoy.
These albums are great conversation pieces, and research subject.
Maybe they should research the albums that were disasters and ask the question “What the f*ck were they thinking?!”
SeanG:
“Maybe they should research the albums that were disasters and ask the question “What the f*ck were they thinking?!””
Good idea. In which case:
Chilly Tee “Get off mine”
Paris “Unleashed”
KRS ONE “Spiritual Minded”
The Firm “The album.”
Which department is “honouring” these albums anyway? I mean, it makes a huge difference whether it’s history, law, English literature, music, business studies or whatnot.
Neva knew it existed until i read your comment…and if y’all ever read my commentary the last 5 yes, too much sh+t to digest the good don’t get to rise to the top…I’ll peep it homie
I’m tryin’ my damndest to leave my personal favorites out and focus on the joints that mean the most to the culture…
Robbie, I’ll take two of yours,
Raising Hell-Mainstream America’s introduction to Hip-Hop, with a little help from Aerosmith…
…Nation of Millions…-Arguably the greatest Hip-Hop album ever…
Straight Outta Compton-Opened up that Pandora’s box called Gangsta rap, changed hip-Hop, for better and worse
Illmatic-If Langston Hughes had bars, this is the album he would have written…
What about Wild Style soundtrack? The first real rap album.
No Cuban Linx?
Bo$$ Born Gangstaz should be on the list, since we are talking Ivy League type shit here