Jane's Favorite Rap Albums - By Popular Demand

Salix Babylonika

FIRST OF ALL

let me begin by saying that I am absolutely not an expert on hip-hop (the music or the culture that surrounds it) in any way, shape or form, if you're looking to get into the genre from the ground up, there are tons of lists out there to help you out (the HipHopHeads community on reddit has a pretty good one, though it's also quite splotchy. My understanding is that they're working on a better one).

There are tons of reasons my words on the genre shouldn't be taken as gospel, I am, among other things, fairly young (hip-hop emerged in the 70s, I was born in 1994), white (hip-hop is a primarily African-American genre and despite the number of white or otherwise non-black rappers active and indeed, on this very list, that is not going to change), and live in an area that is fairly hip-hop devoid (not too many people are repping the Pocono Mountains, though there are some). This is, plain and simple, a guide to my personal tastes as far as the genre goes. Even within my fairly narrow wheelhouse, I'm not an expert, so take everything you read here with a grain of salt, I am sometimes wrong about things.

I've divided the rappers and producers below into a couple loose categories, based on similar sound, musical philosophy, time period, or geography (or a combination of these ). Artists are then listed alphabetically.

And I'm going to be extremely real with you guys, I started out writing up bios for each artist and descriptions of each album, but that shit takes forever and I got bored by the time I was done with El-P's, so what you have below is a list, sorted by scene.

Late 90s / 2000s Underground / "Backpacker"

• Aesop Rock - Labor Days
• Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth
• Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
• BlackStar - Mos Def & Talib Kweli are....BlackStar
• Cage - Movies For The Blind
• Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
• cLOUDDEAD - cLOUDDEAD
• Del tha Funkee Homosapien - Both Sides of The Brain
• Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030
• DJ Krush - Zen
• DJ Shadow - Endtroducing....
• DJ Shadow - Preemptive Strike
• DJ Vadim - USSR Repetoire - The Theory of Verticality
• Edan - Beauty & The Beat
• El-P - Fantastic Damage
• Genelec & Memphis Reigns - Scorpion Circles
• MF DOOM - Operation: DOOMsday
• MF DOOM - MM....Food
• MF DOOM (as Viktor Vaughn) - Vaudeville Villain
• Madvillain (MF DOOM x Madlib) - Madvillainy
• Madlib - Beat Konducta (an album series, they're all good)
• J Dilla - Donuts
• Jaylib (Madlib x J Dilla) - Champion Sound
• Lootpack - Soundpieces: da Antidote
• Masta Ace - Disposable Arts 
• Quasimoto - The Unseen

Salix Babylonika

90s Boom-Bap (you've probably heard a good chunk of this)

• Big L - Livestyles ov da Poor & Dangerous 
  
• Big L - Big Picture
• Blahzay Blahzay - BLAH BLAH
• Camp Lo - Uptown Saturday Night
• De La Soul - 3 Ft. High & Rising
• Del The Funky Homosapien - No Need For Alarm
  
• Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
• Nas - Illmatic
• Pete Rock - Petestrumentals
• Smif-n-Wessun - Dah Shinin'
• Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
• Gza - Liquid Swords
• Ghostface Killah - Ironman
• Method Man - Tical

2000s Pop Rap

• Cam'Ron - Purple Haze
• Freeway - Philly Freeway
• Jay-Z - The Blueprint
• Jay-Z - The Black Album
• Kanye West - The College Dropout
• Kanye West - Late Registration
• Lil Wayne - Dedication 2
• Lil Wayne - The Carter
• Lil Wayne - The Carter 2
• Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3

Modern Stuff

• Action Bronson & Party Supplies - Blue Chips
• Action Bronson & Party Supplies - Blue Chips 2
• A$AP Rocky - At Long Last, A$AP
• Badbadnotgood & Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul
• Captain Murphy - DuAlity
• Curren$y - Pilot Talk
• Curren$y - Pilot Talk II
• Curren$y - Pilot Talk III
• Earl Sweatshirt - Doris
• Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
• Danny Brown - XXX
• Danny Brown - Old
• Kanye West - My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy
• Kendrick Lamar - good kid mAAd city
• Tyler, The Creator - Wolf

there, I think that's about all for now. I'm sure I missed a bunch of stuff.

ppl better actually read this like four or five seperate people asked for it.

Odradek

Del The Funky Homosapien is still the best rap name ever.

lee4hmz

I read it

Imipolex G

Earl Sweatshirt is a good name too.

SF_Sorrow

I have around 13-14 of those albums mentioned

Salix Babylonika

Imipolex G-cup said:

Earl Sweatshirt is a good name too.

Section42L

I read it, and I do like some of these albums already.

Salix Babylonika

which ones

Section42L

Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox, Deltron 3030, Edan, MF DOOM, De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan, and Kendrick Lamar 

I still need to listen to Nas, El-P, and J. Dilla in full.

They're probably too obvious selections, but the first two Tribe Called Quest albums are my favourite rap albums out of the ones that aren't already on your list.

Salix Babylonika

I don't like Tribe that much. Q-Tip's voice is weird.

I do like "Scenario" but who doesn't.

Tre

• Action Bronson & Party Supplies - Blue Chips
• Action Bronson & Party Supplies - Blue Chips 2

i don't know whether i should be surprised or not that they did rap production prior to doing this

Tachyon

this is a good list

i have like 10 albums on here and they are good albums

there's a lot on here i haven't heard yet

so thats something to look forward to

Salix Babylonika

idk if I wanna maybe turn this thread into a place to review rap albums.

Could be fun. Would anyone read it?

Salix Babylonika

also what ten, Tach.

Tachyon

i read everything

but id be interested, for sure

Tachyon

Planet Jane said:

also what ten, Tach.

none shall pass, deltron 3030, endtroducing..., 3 ft high and rising, enter the wu-tang (36 chambers), liquid swords, the black album, the college dropout, duality, my beautiful dark twisted fantasy

Salix Babylonika

not a bad selection!

east coast af but that's fine.

Tachyon

"east coast af" is a pretty good summary of my listening

i should branch out more, its just knowing where to start

Salix Babylonika

eh I'm pretty heavily biased toward the east coast too

southern stuff is fine, same with Bay rap or Chicago stuff, it's just not my thing for the most part.