O.C. - Word...Life (1994)

Born Omar Credle in Brooklyn- never for one second has the man stopped reppin' his hood- running with another Out Sounds' favorite Diamond D's Diggin' in the Crates crew, O.C. strikes a balance between his depression and desire to move into the light, presenting us with a dark and introspective record that isn't cringeworthy like a lot of today's rappers. O.C. was very critical of gangsta rap, preferring to talk instead about relationships, his faith and racism. This album is a perfect snippet of the mid-90s inner city zeitgeist. 

Featuring production from an all-star cast like Lord Finesse, Buckwild and Organized Konfusion, the beats and samples are very sophisticated, dare I say abstract, while lending a jazzier quality to the sound that by 1994 a lot of producers in hip-hop were starting to move away from.

O.C. - Word...Life (1994; Wild Pitch Records)

Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary (1988)

"People still takin' rappin' for a joke
A passing hope or a phase with a rope
Sometimes I choke and try to believe
When I get challenged by a million MCs
I try to tell them, "We're all in this together!"
My album was raw because no one would ever
Think like I think and do what I do
I stole the show, and then I leave without a clue
What do you think makes up a KRS?
Concisive teaching, or very clear speaking?"

- KRS-One, I'm Still #1 

Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary (1988; Jive Records)

Main Source - Breaking Atoms (1991)

First off, these beats- considering this album is almost 20 years old, these beats still sound as incredible to my thirty-something ears as they did to my teen ears. And then there's the rhyming, that archetypal early-90s rap flow done to perfection; and oh, let's not forget the samples- James Brown, Donald Byrd, Ike & Tina, Sister Nancy, Bob James, Lou Donaldson, Kool & The Gang, Miles Davis, MFSB, The Meters and Funkadelic (among many others; it's like walking into the Soul section of a record store and just grabbing all the best shit).

One of the first "international" hip-hop releases; two Toronto natives (K-Cut & Sir Scratch) hooked up with Queens-based Large Professor to give you the Main Source. Listen for the first verse ever from a very young and very hungry Nasir Jones- later known as Nas, as well as some of the most socially conscious and relevant lyricism on any hip-hop release, now or then.

Another insanely overlooked album from the Golden Age of Hip-Hop...

Main Source - Breaking Atoms (1991; Wild Pitch Records)

Diamond D - Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop (1992)

Another classic hip-hop record that never got it's due; Diamond D and his Psychotic Neurotics' Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop is a testament to keeping it real. The whole D.I.T.C. (Diggin' In The Crates) Crew were the hardest working DJs and producers in the game in the early 90's, one listen to any of the charter member's albums and you'll know that what you're listening to is pure aural boom bap gold. D was one of the last of a dying breed of beat-maker/rapper; it's a shame more MCs aren't as adept in production as rhyming these days.

Featuring guest verses from Sadat X and Lord Jamar (of Brand Nubian), A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip, Big L, Fat Joe and Showbiz and production from Large Professor, Jazzy Jay and DJ Mark the 45 King; it's a posse album if there ever was one. I always felt that this was one of the last great albums from the old school of hip-hop; it came out at the tail end of the golden age, right before Wu-Tang Clan released their game-changer Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in '93.

Sit back, relax, spark up a blizzy, fuck what u heard- Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop is the shit, kid.

Diamond D - Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop (1992; Mercury Records)

Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown (1988)

Kool Keith is the shit.

So is DJ Moe Love and fellow Ultramagnetic MC's Ced Gee (who actually did most of the producing here) and TR Love (who appears on the album's cover, but strangely contributed nothing to this record). This album was one of my favorites as a kid, it never really fell out of favor with me- another cassette I think I straight up melted from over-listening. I can remember hearing other hip-hop albums that came after this and being all, "Yo, they totally stole this beat from the UMC's!" before the word "sampling" snaked its way into out collective lexicon. But these beats were relatively new; I was like 12 when this record came out and what did I know (everything I learned about hip-hop back then was from Fab Five Freddy).

The more reading I've done about this record (and Ced Gee's production), the more I realize that it's one of the most important in the history of hip-hop and sampling in general. Gee did most of the work on Boogie Down Production's Criminal Minded, so taken along with this record there's two huge landmarks in the genre; sampling a bunch of James Brown and old soul, funk and jazz records gave poetic license and the impetus to help kick-start the careers of literally hundreds of DJs and producers.

This is the 2004 re-mastered re-issue, complete with remixes, b-sides and bonus tracks... 

Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown (1988; Next Plateau Records)

Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda (1994)

Organized Konfusion was a hip-hop duo from Queens consisting of Prince Po and Pharoahe Monch; they were outspoken and politically-charged as well as socially conscious which is probably the reason they never got their due. The beats are tight, Po & Monch's flow is top ranking, there's only one skit and the only two guests are A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip and fellow New Yorker O.C. This album is the very personification of East Coast Hip-Hop; it's got all the proper elements- obscure jazz & soul samples, hardcore street knowledge and that proper boom bap.

Today's rappers need to take this one to heart; this is how it should be done...

Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda (1994; Hollywood BASIC)
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