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Underground > Radio & Music >

What's the last rap album you've bought?

08:13 / 19.03.03

So last year I was between jobs for about a month, had to pay rent, and sold almost all my CD's to pay rent. Then I got a good job, got cable internet and have been burning songs ever since. But I want to get my CD collection going again, so I started a couple of weeks ago. There are a ton of CD's I need that I used to have but I wanted to start with something new.

So on the strength of a song on the radio called "I Can" I bought Nas' God's Son. And I love it. I remember hearing that song on the radio and thinking there was no way this was a real song. It must be a public service announcement or something. When I realised it was more than 30 seconds, I started wondering if it was maybe a local guy, because it was like 3am at the time and sometimes they'll play local guys. I also wondered if whoever was doing this, if their whole gimmick was based around being positive, and feeling sorry for the guy because positive rap is so 1980's. But at the same time I thought it was great. So a friend tells me later it was Nas.I'd heard good things about him here, and in magazines (yes I am a sucker for corporate music magazines, I can't help it) that he was quite good. SO I gave the album a shot.

The guy's just kind of different. He talks about how his wife cheated on him, and instead of talking about his revenge he will take out on her, he understands that he was just too quiet for her. On "Book of Rhymes" he raps a line about how he felt jealous of his newborn getting so much attention from his wife and others. Just these little things I don't expect to hear.

His explanation of the Jay Z beef on "Last Real Nigga Alive" was great. He just sits back and examines the whole thing, with lines I felt were coming from the heart, like when he says he spent the last few months with his dying mother trying to give her support, and how during that time is when people started dissing him.

And I just love his flow. I like the way he puts those words together. The only bad thing on the entire album is when he let's the Bravehearts rap. Otherwise it's perfect. What Nas album should I get next?

And what was the last rap record you got? And were you as satisfied with it as I am with mine?

No star here laces

08:55 / 19.03.03

You need Illmatic, oh so badly. It's like the best thing ever.

Last one I bought was the Clipse album. But really I shouldn't have bothered cos I already had all the best bits on mp3...

09:29 / 19.03.03

I've just acquired Talib Kweli's Quality, which I haven't actually listened to yet but am looking forward to immensely. Oh, and Common's Like Water For Chocolate, which is great.

09:50 / 19.03.03

any of sage francis' work really impresses me. he's very disappointed in the way hiphop turned away from the late80s rakim/krs1/chuckyd axis and embraced drugs, bitches and voluntary slavery. get his sampler album 'sick of waiting tables' for excellent slammery describing how white boys from rockunroll towns can be touched too.

12:48 / 19.03.03

I bought a tape of that Arrested Development album "3 Years, Five Months, and something something something" from a goodwill shop a few weeks ago. I bought it mostly because I have some fond memories of my roommate playing that tape all the time back when I was in college, and I wanted to indulge in some nostalgia. It holds up pretty well, I've been listening to it in the car when I drive to and from work a lot. It usually makes me smile, especially when that guy says "I am still THIRS-TY!" That part always makes me laugh. That "Mr. Wendel" song is pretty cool too.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:20 / 19.03.03

any of sage francis' work really impresses me. he's very disappointed in the way hiphop turned away from the late80s rakim/krs1/chuckyd axis and embraced drugs, bitches and voluntary slavery

Ya-huh. Something tells me Sage stopped paying attention to contemporary hip-hop music around 1993 and has since gained most of his information and opinions about it from the pages of broadsheet newspapers...

Anyway, last rap album I bought was Common's Electric Circus, which I basically think is half good shit, half boring worthy noodling, with the good shit outweighing the dull, just. 'Soul Power' is a great display of battle skills - "you had a dope track, I guess opposites attract" is my favourite diss in some time, and "the nympho of info, I'm fucking what you heard" is just *neat*; 'Electric Power Hustle Flower' actually manages to mix in a psychedelic rock sound successfully; 'The Hustle' is a really catchy, funky hip-hop tune to make you move your shoulders. 'New Wave' features Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab and is pretty cool although I think there are people out there who'll like it more than I do (the beat on the verse increasingly reminds me of RZA on an off day); 'I Got A Right Ta' was my initial favourite track and has The Neptunes showing off a new production style with chugging blues guitar and harmonica... Those are the best tracks, I think, people who take different drugs to me may like this album more than I do, but I do like it enough to be glad I got it.

The next one I *want* to buy is The Majesticons, Beauty Party. Kerr-ching!

14:10 / 19.03.03

Last thing I bought from the hip-hop section was Themselves 'The No Music'. I don't know if it strictly counts as a "rap album", but then, it's fucking good, so I don't particularly care.

Previous to that, probably the Wu-Tang's 'Iron Flag' and some free Def Jux promo CDs.

14:13 / 19.03.03

heh yeah he is kind of an old whinger. but the production on his last album, not the one i mentioned above, is as tight and sharp as things ever should be in my book. and boy does he know a lot of words that rhyme. probly fair to say that my interest in hh waned severely around 93 too, when i heard the velvet underground for the first time, maybe that's why i like him, i really bought all that hiphop for the uplifment of humanity stuff. bit of social responsibility never hurt no-one tho. guess i like to be moralised at

.

14:31 / 19.03.03

The next one I *want* to buy is The Majesticons, Beauty Party. Kerr-ching!

That's the last one I bought. One dodgy track ('Parlor Party',) the rest is just fantastic interpolation of 'overground' by the 'underground'. "Get in my helicopter."

Helicopters feature a fair bit, too. And I like helicopters.

Jack - do not, I repeat do not get Nas' third album with the pharaoh cover. 'I Am' I think it's called.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

15:09 / 19.03.03

Murs' The End Of The Beginning is a must buy.

It's the got the return of Humtpy Hump, raps about waiting in line for Episode II figures, some Rjd2 and El-P production, Aes Rock guest rhymes, and just a lot of straight from the heart lyrics. GREAT stuff.

I also picked up Busdriver, Radioinactive, and Daedulus' The Weather which is just.....you'd have to hear it to believe it. It's Phlanged out.

Princess Superstar is the female Paul Barman, so she's worth checking out.

What else, what else....

Rjd2 and Blueprint's Soul Position is great. I picked up two of Diverse's EPs from Choco Industries and THOSE are great too.

Five Deez are always worth listening to as is their producer, Fat Jon's solo instrumental work.

Speaking of beats, Prefuse 73's new one has hit the net full throttle and will be released May 1st. And he's PHENOMENAL.

Back to raps, check out Atmosphere and People Under The Stairs. I second that Themselves vote. I need to buy that, NOW.

These are the good things.

16:53 / 19.03.03

The Beastie Boys first album. Im feeling old now.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

17:22 / 19.03.03

Jurassic Five's first album. It was in the CD sale at the library.

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:30 / 19.03.03

Jeez, you lot.

If I were going to buy a single, and if it were out as one in the UK in a format I could listen to, it would be 'The Jump Off' by Lil'Kim featuring Mr Cheeks. Timbaland raises his game with a production built largely around handclaps, and an XTRA-LARGE chorus, Kim let's off some shots on-point: "at the top but we still got room for improvement, our presence is felt like a Black Panther movement".

ver onion: Social responsibility in hip-hop did not end in '93 any more than violent, misogynistic or drug-related content began there (er, cover of that Boogie Down Productions album with KRS toting a gun? Chuck D's attitude to women? don't get yr history twisted...).

And Birdie, the Princess shits on Barman's so-so ass.

The Natural Way

18:34 / 19.03.03

I hate that shit.

"Back to the Old Skool!"

Fuck off.

Now, The Majesticons - Let's go!

Last Hiphop album - Missy Elliot's.

Regrettable Juvenilia

19:24 / 19.03.03

I've lost my CD of that. Still got the box - must have lost the CD down the back of my bed or someting. Gnashing and wailing! How am I living without 'Slide'?

A

06:11 / 20.03.03

Recently, I've picked up cheap second hand copies of albums by Eric B & Rakim, Slick Rick, and the Digable Planets. I would have bought a cd by Sydney hip hop group ESL, but there's already a copy of that in my house.

06:21 / 20.03.03

"Three Feet High And Rising" by De la Soul. When it came out. Gosh, I miss the Daisy Age.

The Natural Way

09:43 / 20.03.03

Oh, I was slagging J5 BTW.

10:11 / 20.03.03

I've been picking up stuff I missed out on in my long stretch without a CD player, so my last two were Missy and Nelly.

Mostly I wanted to say, though, that I don't understand why anyone would buy that Majesticons CD - my housemate has it, but to me it's just commercial rap with irony instead of good production - why?

10:13 / 20.03.03

You could try the new Common album, I especially recommend "Electric, Fire, Hustler, Flower".

10:14 / 20.03.03

I've been picking up stuff I missed out on in my long stretch without a CD player, so my last two were Missy and Nelly.

Mostly I wanted to say, though, that I don't understand why anyone would buy that Majesticons CD - my housemate has it, but to me it's just commercial rap with irony instead of good production - why?

10:16 / 20.03.03

I've been picking up stuff I missed out on in my long stretch without a CD player, so my last two were Missy and Nelly.

Mostly I wanted to say, though, that I don't understand why anyone would buy that Majesticons CD - my housemate has it, but to me it's just commercial rap with irony instead of good production - why?

10:20 / 20.03.03

Dr. Octagon - The Octogonacologist (1997?). Kool Keith doing Doc Benway. Weird, sci-fi and funny. He also does Burroughs' character Jerry Wentworth the stranded astronaut on DJ Spooky's "Prince Charming" CD.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:16 / 20.03.03

Cruncy - re: Majesticons - that was my instinctive suspicion too, but what I've heard of the album itself is good stuff - seems to be made of love for the great things about 'commercial' hip-hop rather than with a clever-clever, 'knowing' attitude. But I could be wrong.

The Natural Way

21:06 / 20.03.03

Based on my experience of the *Rock Beaut* boys: Pretty sure Majesticons Made Of Love - hard to imitate stuff without getting into it. Believe me. Coonversations about the "Angry young men of Soft Rock" aplenty.

22:36 / 20.03.03

I saw them recently and they performed most of the gig in suits and sequinned bikinis and played exclusively Majesticons tracks, until during a rant from mike ladd, stripped out of their bling and into hoodies to perform some freestyles over "extra raw" versions of the beats from the Infesticons album, finishing on "Hero Theme".

While it was possibly the best hip hop gig I've seen, superb in music and performance, the triumphalism of the return of the Infesticons at the end had the disappointing implication that the "underground" really is "better".

Which is not to say that I disagree with Runce and Fly, but... what I mean is that i've been hoping the third album (I believe Mike Ladd has it planned as a trilogy) would go all Invisible vol3 on us and dissolve the blah blah, but I don't think it's gonna happen.

As for the album itself, I am enjoying it, but almost think it's not worth getting unless you have "Gun Hill Road".

....

Recently I'm particularly loving J-Live's "The best part", which I actually got turned onto when Byron mentioned it in a similar thread a while back. Made a while ago, not officially released until last year, I think.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

05:45 / 21.03.03

Runce-horse Oh, I was slagging J5 BTW.

Oh give me a break, I'm an indie white kid who's afraid of black people's music!

06:23 / 21.03.03

I love "The Best Part" - great album.

Last thing I brought was Nas's outakes LP "The Lost Tapes" - and some here may disagree with me, but I found it disappointing. "Purple", "Black Zombies" "No ideas Original" are nice tracks, The standout killer though is "Doo Rags" which is absolutely amazng - sentimental but really moving, using the central metaphor as a great linking point for so many different ideas and concepts - but I found the rest of it a bit weak - and I hate those synthesied beats - they're fucking godawful, send a horrible shiver through my musical appreciation faculty. But who knows I've not realy listend to much hip hop lately,maybe I'm a fool from the old school, hanging onto my 93 memories...

Talking of which, Jack - like Byron says - you NEED Illmatic.

Fengs for the Memory

12:01 / 21.03.03

Tricks of the shade - The Goats, shit that was a long time ago. Inspired by seeing them support Bad Brains,that was an interersting night.

A

00:12 / 22.03.03

Tricks of the Shade is great. Whatever happened to the Goats? I heard they put out a second album that reportedly sucked, but that must have been 9 years ago or so.

14:10 / 22.03.03

I don't have 'Gun Hill Road', nor have I heard it, but I have 'Beauty Party'. The production is excellent.

Everything Runce has said here is truth.

17:19 / 25.03.03

I D/L'd a bunch of stuff by the Streets recently. I like some of it. Before that, I bought RJD2's Deadringer in September and El-P's Fantastic Damage in May. Oh, and I got Jean Grae's Attack of the Attacking Things as a gift over the summer.