Freestyle Fellowship - To Whom It May Concern... (1991)

Aceyalone, Self Jupiter, P.E.A.C.E., J. Sumbi & Myka Nyne; the anti-gangsta rap from the West Coast- these guys were kinda like the De La Soul of the L.A. scene. When everyone else (N.W.A., Ice-T, et. al.) were rapping about gats and hoes, these five MCs were waxing poetic on the state of welfare, education, higher consciousness, yeah.

Even though it's 20 years old, it doesn't sound the least bit dated. Give it a spin...

Freestyle Fellowship - To Whom It May Concern... (1991; Sun Music)

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)

Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030 (2000)

What can I say about one of my favorite hip-hop records of all time? As far as concept albums go, it's one of the best- an intergalactic futuristic rap battle over Dan the Automator's productions and Kid Koala's scratching, El Cerrito's Del tha Funkee Homosapien absolutely kills everything in sight. Appearing here (respectively) as The Cantankerous Captain Aptos, Skiznod the Boy Wonder and Deltron Zero; the trio play so well together it's as if their spinal cord is fused into one being, that being is an album named Deltron 3030.

This was the impetus for the Gorillaz; the small-scale success of the Deltron project (is calling 1.2 million albums sold "small-scale" an insult?) gave way to the mega success of the ten-plus million units moved by that first record- just listen to the track Time Keeps on Slipping (featuring Blur's Damon Albarn) to hear an "early" Gorillaz song.

Anyway, if you want to hear what an intergalactic rap battle to save humanity while fighting oppressive governments and evil multinational corporations is all about, peep this joint.

Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030 (2000; 75 Ark Records)

Aesop Rock - Labor Days (2001)

This is kind of a no-brainer for today. Aesop Rock was working as a waiter during the writing and recording of this, so at times it's a bitter record; there's themes of disillusionment, regret, anger- but there's also the light at the end of the tunnel, which is the solution to all these negatives. What do we do to give our lives meaning? We find the work that satisfies us, fulfills us, helps us to transcend all the bullshit of daily life.

It's a concept album based on what it's like for us day-to-day working stiffs- existentially speaking we're just these bodies that get up every morning, drag our asses to our jobs, punch a clock, fulfill certain duties, eat, shit, go home and do it all over again. Ultimately, our jobs begin to define us; construction worker, pre-school teacher, karate instructor, CEO of a Fortune 500 company, etc. How do I want to be defined? By my job title itself or the lives I touch through my work? 

So, happy Labor Day, folks. I hope you love your job as much as I do, and I hope you can find a life full of meaning through it...

Aesop Rock - Labor Days (2001; Definitive Jux Records)

Atmosphere - Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP's (2001)

I can remember watching one of those HBO-televised rap battles years ago and was blown away that the dudes killing it were from Minneapolis of all places. I can remember Eyedea winning one year, and finding his first album he did with Abilities (2001's First Born). I wasn't blown away by that record, but I remember the clerk at Repo Records in Rosemont, PA (R.I.P.) telling me (I can't remember his exact words) that "I might want to check out the other rappers on Rhymesayers, like Slug or Brother Ali..." Long story short: I went back later that week and sold back that Eyedea album and picked up some Atmosphere.

Atmosphere is DJ Ant (Anthony Davis) and MC Slug (Sean Daley), also two of the founders of Rhymesayers Entertainment, a Minneapolis-based hip-hop collective that put the Twin Cities on the map. This album collects Atmosphere's first three EPs (Lucy, Ford 1 and Ford 2); it features production from a few other guys besides Ant- tracks from Moodswing9, Jel (of the group subtle and the anticon. collective) and El-P (founder of the DefJux label and Company Flow). The track The Woman With The Tattooed Hands is one of the best hip-hop tracks of all-time; I would consider it Atmosphere's signature song, in that it contains examples of all the trademarks of a great Slug rap: smart lyrics, great storytelling and excellent flow and delivery.

Grip this now!

Atmosphere - Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP's (2001; Rhymesayers Entertainment)

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)

Brand Nubian - In God We Trust (1993)

If you like the first Brand Nubian record, you'll probably hate this one. That one had party raps and fun jams, this one is serious; full of Nation of Islam imagery, Five-Percent ideology, Black empowerment and knowledge dropping left and right. If 1990's One For All was Grand Puba's coming out party (it had those "bitches and blunts" songs but was still politically charged and socially conscious), then consider this record Sadat X exerting his emerging influence over the group (Elijah Muhammad voice-overs, abrasive and anti-Semitic at times; anti-homosexual, anti-pork, anti-white, etc). Puba was more or less forced out of Brand Nubian before the recording of this album, so Lord Jamar would see more work on the mic, plus- he agreed with Sadat.

While Sadat X's protest jams can seem bloated and offensive, they serve as an important indicator to what was going on in the African-American community in the early-1990's. The Nation of Gods and Earths (also known as the Five Percenters) were an offshoot of the Nation of Islam, and seen as extreme and radical in its teachings (hence the anti- stance above on many issues). Many young black men sought refuge here from the negative things around them in the ghetto; and Brand Nubian considered themselves adherents to the teachings. Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Trenton's Poor Righteous Teachers and most notably the Wu-Tang Clan would also feature Five Percenter ideas in their music.

While I don't agree with some of the things that are said on this record, the views of Brand Nubian are taken as a history lesson (I consider myself both a fan of and an academic music appreciator) of what it was like in their part of the world almost 20 years ago. Controversy aside, the positive things on this album outweigh the negative, plus the music is so damn funky.

Brand Nubian - In God We Trust (1993; Elektra Records)

The Genius of DJ Shadow...

I often wonder about DJ Shadow, and when he was working on Endtroducing...... if he knew it was going to get such critical acclaim, be such a landmark in the hip-hop genre? I mean, the album made the Guinness Book of World Records for fuck's sake (for being the first album constructed entirely of sampled material), has appeared on so many "Best Of" lists and has legitimized turntablism and sampling as true art forms- this might be the one album your mom could name (because of its inclusion on Time Magazine's 2006 Best Albums of All-Time list). Seriously...

So we've all read the hype and most of us have listened for ourselves- this one's for you fence-sitters (I'm trying to sway you over to our side), or you guys that haven't heard it yet (casual hip-hop fans: once you've heard this and you're still convinced that "hip-hop isn't real music...", please send me your address so I can mail you the back of my hand because you deserve a slap!) because I think the proof is in the pudding.

This took like two whole years to produce- I can only imagine the frustration (if you've ever messed around with or own an Akai MPC-60, you know what I'm talking about) trying to make this work, and as coherent and flowing as this record is; the fact remains that it's a record in the truest sense of the word- as in the record of an event: the event being a man, a turntable, 60,000+ records (it's been said this man's collection rivals most large music shops) and that old sampler coming together in perfect harmony.

I'm also including the album he did with Cut Chemist (formerly one-half of Jurassic 5's production team); 1999's Brainfreeze, another album made completely with samples from old soul, funk, jazz and rock 45's. They did it tag-team style, recorded in one take as a practice for a double DJ set they were scheduled to play live at the Future Primitive Soundsession in San Francisco.

The man is a genius, yo. Get hip to this shit, now!

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing..... (1996; Mo' Wax Records)

DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist - Brainfreeze (1999; Sixty7 Recordings)
-link opens to YouTube video-

Madlib - Shades Of Blue (2003)

After all the great shit that Premier, Pete Rock and the D.I.T.C. Crew did with marrying jazz to hip-hop in the early 90s, it's a wonder anything was left over for anyone else to do. Taking the expansive Blue Note Records back catalog and rendering it for a new set of listeners is an amazingly tall task, and Madlib stepped up and does it better than anybody (actually, I bet Dilla could've done it too, maybe better).

So here's Shades of Blue, with Madlib invading Blue Note and taking all the best stuff from the collection; samples of pianists Andrew Hill, Herbie Hancock and Horace Silver, vibraphonists Bobby Hutcherson and Milt Jackson, trumpeter Donald Byrd and saxophonist Wayne Shorter as well as faeturing some original compositions and cover versions of some old favorites from Madlib's own jazz group Yesterday's New Quintet.

Listen to this one today!

Madlib - Shades Of Blue (2003; Blue Note Records)

Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst (1996)

Earth people; New York and California. 

Earth people; I was born on Jupiter...

Dr. Octagon - Octagonecologyst (1996; Mo' Wax Records)

Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep (1994)

What happens when you take rapper Too Poetic, Stetsasonic's Prince Paul & Frukwan and the Wu-Tang's RZA and put them all in a studio with some Freddy Krueger and Jason movies?

This album...

I'mma send a personal shout-out to Weady D for this one; I can remember driving around his old whip smoking blunts and noddin' our heads to this one, way back in the days of '95. I think Scotty Del and Haji Casale know what's up, too. This album is for all you cats (suicide, it's a suicide, widda bop-bop...)

Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep (1994; Gee Street Records)

Greyboy - Mastered The Art (2001)

Andreas Stevens (aka Greyboy) first emerged as a DJ at the end of the 1980s. After christening Michael McFadin's Ubiquity imprint with his Greyboy 12 #1, he provided the label with one of its first full-lengths, 1994's Freestylin'. On his third outing, Mastered the Art, the DJ's dusty, hip-hop beats are found mingling with the retro sounds of his extensive 8-track tape collection. Late '90s rare-groove may still be the best description but Mastered the Art's flavors include the sounds of Italian cinema, 70s easy listening and tropicalia as well. Supplying the exotica, are Greyboy All-Star multi-instrumentalist Elgin Park (guitar, piano, omnichord, sitar), and veteran jazz vibe player Dave Pike. It's plainly obvious that Stevens' genre-warping concept couldn't have worked without them.

-from Allmusic.com

Greyboy - Mastered The Art (2001; Ubiquity Recordings)

KMD - Black Bastards (2001)

You may know KMD through two separate avenues; us old heads know them as the guys who rapped on 3rd Bass' The Gas Face way back in '89 and for also collaborating with Brand Nubian. You new schoolers know them as MF Doom's original group. Either way; KMD never got their due, and this album sat on the shelf for seven years before it was released.

Seven years pass by before this album sees the light of day. After the death of Subroc, causing the end of KMD, his emcee partner (and brother) Zev Love X would go through bouts of severe depression, homelessness and drug abuse before re-emerging and re-inventing himself as MF Doom. And everybody knows who Doom is, and if you don't know you better ask somebody who does, knucklehead.

So here's a forgotten gem of hip-hop goodness...

KMD - Black Bastards (2001; Sub Verse Music)

Masta Ace - Disposable Arts (2001)

Masta Ace's flow is one of the best in the game; he's easily forgotten because he doesn't rap about Nikes and gold and gats and all that bullshit- he's real. As real as real can get. Here's what some writer had to say about this record:

Instant classic; a modern-day hip-hopera, a ghetto concept album if you will. How this album isn’t mentioned in the same breath as Madvillainy and Stankonia I’ll never know- but Ace made a stunna here; it follows the story of a man released from jail and his return to Brooklyn. After realizing how tough it is on the streets, he decides to go back to school, but not any school- he enrolls in The Institute Of Disposable Arts; a hip-hop academy of sorts. It’s based on the shadiness of the music industry, the whackness of “thug life”, all that rap-poseurism shit and how to transcend it to stay true to yourself and just make good music; what’s in your heart and how to tap into that. Deep and introspective without being preachy, the beats and samples are some of the best collected on one record- choosing to work with virtual unknowns (producers from the New York underground) as well as some emcees also not known above ground. And since it’s a concept album, the skits are not only integral for the story but actually funny. Ace’s wordplay and lyrical prowess are a sight to behold, every other line induces an “oh shit, did he just say that?”, it’s like watching a rap battle and everyone’s getting slayed. You may recognize his flow, it’s the one Eminem stole (don’t worry; Em’s given Masta Ace mad props and the favor’s returned here- witnessed by the opening lines from Don’t Understand: “I don’t do white music, I don’t do black music / I make rap music, for Hip-Hop kids…”) This is a triumphant return to form- Masta Ace had more or less dropped out of music for almost five years at the end of the century. I’m glad he made it back to drop this gem. 

- from The Musicologists

Masta Ace - Disposable Arts (2001; JCOR Entertainment)