[tommytwotone]

Blimey it's taken me ages to get round to replying to this thread...

...for the hip-hop arriviste, I'd say that the main advice is to bear in mind that - how shall I put this - it would seem that quality control isn't generally at the forefront when making a hip hop album!

As a result, one finds that there are very few solid gold (5 mics as The Source would say) classic albums of the genre, rather there are numerous albums out there with a lot of average stuff in exchange for the odd flash of brilliance.

In an attempt to qualify my point, let's take Nas for example - first album (Illmatic) back-to-back classics and widely regarded as one of the best albums of all time, let alone debuts.

Contrast with his output since, which is patchy to say the least. "I Am", for example, is mainly filler but contains the amazing "Nas Is Like" (produced by DJ Premier) and one of my favourite "storytelling" hip hop tracks in "Undying Love".

Anyway, I'm chuffing on. Recommendations:

Laid back, "conscious" flava:

Common (aka Common Sense) - Be and Like Water For Chocolate
Hi-Tek and Talib Kwali - Reflection Eternal
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides and The Ecstatic
Little Brother - The Minstrel Show
Jeru Tha Damaja - Wrath Of The Math
Gang Starr - Moment Of Truth

On a gangsta tip:

Nas - Illmatic
Jay - The Blueprint
Mobb Deep - The Infamous
Wu - I'd get 36 Chambers if you haven't already, the subsequent output it proof of my above point
Wu's solo output - a minefield! - I'd go with:

Rae's - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, GZA - Liquid Swords and Ghostface - Ironman. All from a period when the Wu were killing it.

I could go on - but I'm sure that's plenty!

Peace.

[dave]

Some bangers there from TTT.

You down with Jaylib, and hows about Blackstar?

[andy_e]

Look out for DJ premier's mixtapes, boss.

[dave]

Someone put me onto some DJ Premier James Brown tribute mix, never seen it anywhere though.

[robertostallioni]

Not this, Shirley?

http://fliiby.com/file/353878/c6y5r6q12d.html

[cofe]

Generally speaking, if it's east coast it's good, if it's west coast it's shit.

TTT: I reckon Common's 'One it will all make sense' is his best work.

[andy_e]

XXplosive, west coast shit!

[al123]

 
nnooiiiicceee

[Stubbs]

Apparently Dre has got permission to use that Scream remix on his new album, I assume he'll do a better job with it than that...

[Fiend]

Got Dagger Mouth, it is good, closer to older Swollen Members styles than to Armed To The Teeth (which apparently is their less well-reputed album, I think it is awesome even if it is not typical Swollen). Not as good as Balance / Bad Dreams, close to Black Magic though.


Errrrr. That track isn't on the CD though!!

[Fiend]

P.S. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heavy-Metal-Kings-Ill-Bill/dp/B004NZJQRQ/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_3 feeling this for some harder, darker stuff.

[Davey_C]

Jazzy Jeff - 'The Magnificent' and 'The Return of the Magnificent' are a two good albums.
Agree with loads of the previous posts, particularly 'Mark B and Blade - The Unknown' as a brilliant album (and British).
And even though it's pretty corny, 'Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle' is an all time classic.

[underground]

I've always been a bit too into golden era (i.e NY circa 1994 full of funk samples) and UK stuff to take to much notice of much else, so I was glad when my mate Agent J tipped me off on this one:

NouGold bang up to date 'proper' hip hop that I like very much.

This guy got me inspired....

[dakdak]

Psalm One (a lady rapper makes a nice change) (...a good one)

Ian Kamau
http://canadianbaycon.blogspot.com/2010/08/ian-kamau-september-9-mixtape-series.html
Especially vol 1

Beatnuts - A musical massacre (more about hoes and guns than the others but the beats are good)

Ratatat - 9 Beats
RJD2 - Deadringer
both for a different kind of hip hop (mostly instumental, you might have heard some RJD2 in some climbing movies)

[tommytwotone]

Not really been up to speed with modern hip hop of late but took a trip down to London last week and hooked up with my homies from Southern Hospitality at the ever excellent Hip Hop Karaoke at the Social...

Two bangers they've been reppin' recently that are on heavy rotation at the moment:

Wiz Kalifa - "Black and Yellow":



and just out - on the lady rapper tip, Kreayshawn - "Gucci Gucci":



...and while you're there, you could do a lot worse than hook yourself up with "Zonin' II", massive mix from one of London's premier hip hop DJs, and yours for FUCK ALL:

http://www.southernhospitality.co.uk/blog/?p=14809

[underground]

More DJ A UP boom bap bangers courtesy of my mate Agent J over at Groovement in Manc (actually, it's courtesy of A Up but I nabbed J's link)... this is really shit hot.

A Flower was born mixtape

[b3n99]

Sticking with an sbsolute classic 'The Score' by The Fugees is a must have!!!

'How Many Mics' and 'Ready or Not' being the best of a fine bunch!!

[Fultonius]

My dad was asking the other day - "What exactly is hip hop".

I was a bit stumped for an answer. Anyone care to come up with a short sensible definition? 

[underground]

My dad was asking the other day - "What exactly is hip hop".

I was a bit stumped for an answer. Anyone care to come up with a short sensible definition? 

It all kicked off with New York DJs playing the 'break' bit of the same record repeatedly across 2 turntables, to keep the crowd dancing. The man holding the mic then just did some rhyming to get a bit of crowd feedback, and off it went.

Try Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band's version of 'Apache' to get an idea of why this was a good thing.

There was also the 'rap' element, that developed into a bit more than talking over records - a creative and 'freestyle' way of expression and enacted in street 'battles' in which rappers would strike 'blows' to each other's cred in 16 bars patterns.. the late Notorious B.I.G was one of the best


Nowadays though, slightly tougher one, and hip hop has massively diversified since inception on the late 70's, but for me the principles are the same and reached the peak in '94 -  it's a style characterised by a 'break' - i.e. a looped drum pattern, generally comprised of a 'sampled' series of drum sounds from other records, possibly of the soul/disco/funk, but also rock or folk, genre. * Anything sounding good with a catchy section. Often the 'breakdown' bit of a tune, hence 'break', resequenced to make a new tune



Combine this with a bassline of similar provenance, and mostly a vocal track in a rhyming, non harmonious style, generally 'conscious' in a political or social sense, or just bragging about oneself, money, knob, shagging, hardness/badman qualities and you're about there. Maybe a bit of scratching which apparently originated from a performance of Rockit by Herbie Hancock (Grandmixer DXT done the scratching) and is a definite Hip Hop motif.



Interestingly, whenever anyone says 'a DJ?', they hold one hand to their ear and 'scratch' their hand in mid air..... I bet they even say it to Wogan and Sarah Kennedy.

*Guys like AIM and Blockhead recently use classical music and suchlike to good effect.

Aim - Demonique:

Blockhead - Sunday Seance:

Dilated Peoples (a good example of the culmination of style elements)


DJ Shadow (all comprised of sampled records, amazingly skilled DJ and producer, and holds up well against the preconceptions of what 'rapping' is - a gem in the genre, no rap, still Hip Hop IMO)


NWA (one reason for those preconceptions, because those relatively calm guys in 1970's New York gave a voice and public platform to the disaffected youth and a few years later some were angry):


Arrested Development (hip hop was not the preserve of gangsters, of course)


Anyway, that's ended up not being so short, but I'm off for a sleep.

[underground]

Just a couple of things, bit of a potted history above... DJ Kool Herc is the guy usually credited with starting the playing of breaks at block parties, (and with playing Apache which was a cover of a Shadows song) not just 'New York DJs', and specifically it was at parties in the Bronx, in the Bronx River Houses Project,

And when I mentioned a bunch of 'relatively calm guys in the 70s', that was wrong, the Bronx was pervaded by gang allegiance and violence / murder, and Afrika Bambaataa took the lead in creating the Zulu Nation, which was a driving force in bringing people together in a positive way with hip hop as the common bond.

[underground]

Yessss.... before the last Nougold mixtape has even started to get old, here come some more ill shit, this is already my favourite ever flex:

Nougold June 2011

[underground]

Well, another one from tonight, keeping me up listening when I should be sleeping. All down to seeing an advert on the telly, and the soundtrack being by 'darwin deez'.... I had a lil search and came across [urlhttp://darwindeez.com/wonkybeats/]this[/url]

Excellent, if not a lil bit esoteric - proper find....

[fatneck]

Dear Underground,

Thank you for getting me psyched on old hip hop again and also for introducing me to MixCloud, work is a much happier place now!

For the rest of you, check this mix out...

[slackline]

   

[tommytwotone]

OK, so I've had a couple of beers so I've been hitting Youtube for some hip hop flavas:

Craig Mack - Flava In Your Ear (Remix)



Pete Rock and CL Smooth - The Reminisce Over You



And let's not forget Tribe Called Quest while we're talking quality hip hop:



...and while we're talking 90's flavas, let's not forget the Geto Boys: