Hip Hop/RnB

[Lamrock]

Not as good as Aquemini or Stankonia - Big Boi's album is fairly weak (especially when compared to his new solo album!), while I have very fond memories of The Love Below, but listening to it recently, I realized how uneven it was. Great singles though.

[hova-]

I go with Lam, it's definitely a good album, but it's way too long to listen through and the singles were like the best songs anyway, so there's no real reason to listen to the whole LP.

ATliens, Aquemini and Stankonia are just better. Epic, Outkast is just so nice. They got swagger.

[Fresh8]

I like Outkast. Haven't Big Boi's new album yet though.

[Tupik]

Same as the others, although I like Speakerboxxx quite a bit. The Love Below is really sweet, but I have to be in a very particular mood to be able to enjoy it. And obviously it got nothing on ATLiens and Aquemeni, which are the best Outkast albums ever (not that fond of Stankonia)

Just two dope boys in a Cadillac...

EDIT : if you haven't listened to Kno's album Death Is Silent, you absolutely have too. Album of the year for me.

Also @Hova, noticed you don't have Illmatic in your list, wtf ? And since you've been talking about Outkast, it reminded me that I'd probably have to add the two Outkast albums I cited in my almost classics list. And I have one more album that I consider a Hip Hop masterpiece that I left out, don't know why : Soul Food - Goodie Mobb.

[hova-]

I'm just not a big Nas fan. I know everybody says "Illmatic = best Hip Hop LP ever", but what if I just don't like Nas as much as other artists.

I must confess, I never really listened to Illmatic, I will do so in the next days. Still, I like others more.

I totally forgot about "Beautiful Struggle" <- awesome album, the songs fit together and it's one of those albums where every track is very good.

[Tupik]

Beautiful Struggle, I assume you're talking about Talib Kweli ? I'm a huge Kweli fan, but IMO this is one of his worst albums. His best one is Train of Thought with DJ Hi-Tek, along with Black Star with Mos Def. Two of my favorite albums, I consider them pretty much flawless. There are some good songs on Beautiful struggle, but some are really horrible (We Got the Beat, Work it Out & Back Op Offa Me to some extent). I really liked it at first, but it grew off me, I don't think it has enough replay value, just an album I'll bump every now and then, but not that much. Ghetto Show, Broken Glass & Beautiful Struggle are really great songs though.

About Nas, I completely understand you wouldn't like him, I'm far from being a Nas stan, but Illmatic is on a whole nother level. Be careful though, it might not feel excellent on first listen, I know it took me a while to get into it, but once you start listening to it more and more and start catching everything he says and the way he says it... Damn. So I suggest taking time to listen to it, and I can assure you you'll be rewarded. The wordplay and lyrics on this album are amazing IMO.

I also forgot to mention Desire by Pharoahe Monch, now that is one great album.

[hova-]

You see that's just a matter of taste. I love Beautiful Struggle. For me it's a cohesive piece of Hip Hop classic. I also do not rate wordplay that high in songs. Honestly .. it's a cool thing, but the most important thing is the flow and the rhymes which must just fit to the beat creating a certain mood.

Talkin' bout mood, Kanye's new LP really creates different atmospheres with its songs. I love that.

[Tupik]

I don't rate wordplay that high either, but when it's that good you have to be amazed by it. I definitely prefer a good flow and good beat over good wordplay.

[[Q]]

i'm very impressed with wordplay myself. eminem is the king of that. in recent memory, kanye's "blond dyke" line, "too many urkels on your team thats why ya wins low" is great too

[Tupik]

Actually I think Eminem is only second to Canibus. Eminem is extremely impressive, but you have to listen to "Rip the Jacker". The wordplay is simply amazing, and I've yet to listen to anything similar. You should at least listen to the song "Genabis", it is really amazing.

[hova-]

Gave the new Kid Cudi LP a chance to convince me. I listened to it while lying in my bed at night (just what I did with Kanye's new album) and tried to listen through all songs.

All I have to say: are you serious? I only managed to get through 12 songs because those were so bad that I had to skip. Might have a shot at the other ones later.

The beats are interesting and experimental, but why the fuck must this guy sound like he was high on every fucking song he recorded.

Bad enough, Marijuana, from a lyrics standpoint a really embarrasing track (I don't have a problem with him smoking weed, but making a song about revering a thing is just akward - I mean I don't write a song about how I love my Playstation or my computer or alcohol or whatever ... what was he thinking?) ... so, Marijuana is the best track imho.

Right now it's a 1/5 for me, but as time goes on I usually like things more and it could be a 2/5. Still, weak stuff, the first album was waaaay better.

[[Q]]

shockingly, rick ross has been putting out decent music recently. i never thought id live to say those words

[Lamrock]

hova-, I'm not a huge fan of the new Cudi album either, but I think it's worlds better than the first, which was unbelievably boring. MotM 1 had a couple nice singles (love Pursuit of Happiness and Make Her Say were ok, but I didn't like Day N Nite), but the rest of the album was snore-inducing techno-pop with a hip hop vibe.

The new one has a few decent tracks. The lead single (forgot what it's called, but it's a rock song) and the first couple tracks are good. Best track on it by far though is Mr. Rager, which I actually had on repeat for a bit. Still packed with boring parts though.

Cudi is the Trevor Ariza of the music world. He's great in a supporting role (Kanye's albums!), but his albums are pretty weak.

[kibaxx7]

Cudi is the Trevor Ariza of the music world.

[[Q]]

yeah about kid cudi, his album has been out for a while now and yet since july/august they have been playing that david guetta song memories non-stop.

[Axel The Great]

Out of curiosity, how popular/known are rappers from Texas like Z-ro, Trae, Chamillionaire, UGK, Slim Thug, etc? Do you guys even know anything about them or who they are? When it comes to rap or hip-hop, they're about 60-70% of what I listen to, and like everything in Houston, I think they're a little underappreciated.

[shadowgrin]

Chamillionaire...underappreciated.

lolwut?

[Axel The Great]

Bit of an overstatement there. He's probably the most known of the ones I mentioned.

[Tupik]

Well I know all of them, but I'm a big hip hop head so I'm not representative of the rest of the population in any way.

Z-Ro is really good, even though I haven't listened to him a lot, I really like what I've heard, any album you'd recommend to start with ?

UGK are fucking great, Ridin' Dirty is one of my favorite albums ever, it's a masterpiece. Chamillionaire is pretty cool, he started out pretty bad, but his second album was ace - Evvening News, Morning news, and Hip-Hop Police are so amazing.

Trae and Slim Thug I don't like, though I have to admit I haven't listened to anything more than a couple songs. Love Slim Thug on "Wamp Wamp" by the Clipse.

[Axel The Great]

For Z-ro, I started listening to him right around the time he released Crack, he's been naming his albums after drugs (Cocaine, Heroine) ever since then. My favorites by him are True Hero Under God, and Still Throwed (w/ Trae), which were before Crack, though.

I haven't heard much of Chamillionaire for a long time, don't know if he's released any new albums, but yeah, I've listened to him quite a bit.

Some people I've ran into don't like Slim Thug, not one of my favorites, but I think he's good. I think last year or the year before was a good year for him, though I haven't heard much from him either. Trae is a little hard to understand because of the speed he raps at ( ), but I think he's good when paired with Z-ro.

Haven't tuned in to new songs by some of these guys lately, I usually go on youtube for that.

[[Q]]

the only reason i know who slim thug is is because of the whole Mike Jones/Paul Wall movement. honestly i don't think chamillionaire will hit mainstream ever again

[Tupik]

Who cares if he doesn't hit mainstream, I prefer him doing more songs like he did in his second album and being under the radar than doing bullshit popular songs like Riding Dirty.

[[Q]]

i do because that's the only way i would ever hear his songs

[shadowgrin]

The internet is here to help you Q if you're ever interested in finding about more of his least popular 'masterpieces'.

[hova-]

phpBB [video]

New beat I made. Just with Fruity Loops. Was bored.