Back to the original question - Digable Planets - Blowout Comb - Bar none the best underground hip-hop album of all times. Lyrics, beats, samples and scratching, all A1.
That said. MC Hammer? If you like MC Hammer try listening to Rick James, Super Freak. It will sound very familiar...
That said here are some recommendations some may have already been provided by others above:
- Tribe Called Quest (from New-York not LA) all there albums are great, my favorite is midnight marauders.
- The Pharcyde, best tracks are runnin'(beat is based on Stan Getz Samba sample) and passin me by.
- De la Soul
- Common the album Ressurection, specifically the scratching on the title track, plus various samples throughout from Roy Ayers' "everybody loves the sunshine"
- People Under the Stairs
- Mos Def
And the list goes on... wait one more!
MC Solar, his two first ablums are his best, preferrably the first "Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo", the Track Caroline, is the finest heart-break hip-hop ballad of all times... Only French rhymes can accurately portray the emotional heart break you feel when you find your girl sharing a cigarette with another man in the subway. Truly poetic.
What makes hip-hop/rap good. IMHO, good poetic lyrics, not just words that rhyme. Rappin' about b!tches and hoes should be a crime... (pun intended). Original musical beats, not simply slowing down or speeding up or reversing James Brown's Funky Drummer. Samples that are relevant and credited to the original artists from who composed them. And DJ that can Scratch (Turntabalism).
One more point, if I were to listen to only hip-hop/rap I wouldn't need hig-end audio system. Generally, there are no "musical instruments" used, so the detail, emotion sound stage isn't there. So whether listening on an IPOD or $50k system the marginal difference would not warrant the investment.
But without hip-hop I would not have not learned to appreciate much of the Jazz, Funk and Soul which I enjoy on my system daily.
Finally, it was my passion as a Dee-Jay which has given rise to my interest in the this Audiophile hobby (or is it an addiction?).
That said. MC Hammer? If you like MC Hammer try listening to Rick James, Super Freak. It will sound very familiar...
That said here are some recommendations some may have already been provided by others above:
- Tribe Called Quest (from New-York not LA) all there albums are great, my favorite is midnight marauders.
- The Pharcyde, best tracks are runnin'(beat is based on Stan Getz Samba sample) and passin me by.
- De la Soul
- Common the album Ressurection, specifically the scratching on the title track, plus various samples throughout from Roy Ayers' "everybody loves the sunshine"
- People Under the Stairs
- Mos Def
And the list goes on... wait one more!
MC Solar, his two first ablums are his best, preferrably the first "Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo", the Track Caroline, is the finest heart-break hip-hop ballad of all times... Only French rhymes can accurately portray the emotional heart break you feel when you find your girl sharing a cigarette with another man in the subway. Truly poetic.
What makes hip-hop/rap good. IMHO, good poetic lyrics, not just words that rhyme. Rappin' about b!tches and hoes should be a crime... (pun intended). Original musical beats, not simply slowing down or speeding up or reversing James Brown's Funky Drummer. Samples that are relevant and credited to the original artists from who composed them. And DJ that can Scratch (Turntabalism).
One more point, if I were to listen to only hip-hop/rap I wouldn't need hig-end audio system. Generally, there are no "musical instruments" used, so the detail, emotion sound stage isn't there. So whether listening on an IPOD or $50k system the marginal difference would not warrant the investment.
But without hip-hop I would not have not learned to appreciate much of the Jazz, Funk and Soul which I enjoy on my system daily.
Finally, it was my passion as a Dee-Jay which has given rise to my interest in the this Audiophile hobby (or is it an addiction?).