Top 10 Hip Hop Albums of All Time #7

9-11-2001 , a huge day in the history books for our country huh? Ironically so , Bin Laden was announced dead yesterday and this is my #7. Same day as our country's biggest disaster, HOV released one of my favorite albums of all time. Jay-Z , to me, is thee best rapper in the world right now, and will retire as the G.O.A.T. He is the most consistent, point blank, period. Again, this is my personal favorites , and opinions. I don't do these to debate. This album production wise, lyric wise, and creatively is a hands down classic. There is not a bad song on here despite the heavy radio play. The songs were dope and still are. He managed to body Nas, and Prodigy. Have the balls to put Eminem on Renegade knowing Em would get the upperhand and still satisfy the hardcore street fans and lace a classic with M.O.P. Jay, to me is the perfect role model for up and comin rappers. He makes timeless albums, and remains respected by all genres, races, cultures,and whatever you can think of. Sometimes I hear people say they dont like an album but to me, in 5 years they will understand it. He's always ahead of the time in music, he's in. 2001 was important for me, we had just released our first vinyl and landed a situation to stay with future releases. And Hip Hop to me was on a down slide. This was a breath of fresh air. We needed this album, and he knew it. This was the comeback. The sign that it's never gonna leave us for good.I'm sure people will disagree and say he's mainstream and use that to hate this opinion, but Jay will BODY most rappers in the game right now. He made a classic, and I memorized every song within a week. Thats the sign and how I determined this list. What Cd's did I absolutely run into the hole? What albums do i have every song memorized ? if you cant pick your favorite song on a cd, its probably in your top list. I can't explain more how much this album made an impact on everything. This was released on 9/11 the day it happened and still did its expected first week numbers. There's a reason for that. No one else would have accomplished that in Rap. No one. Skip the ad

Top Hip Hop albums of all time #8

Do you remember when the Cappadonna verse from Winter Warz was first circulating? HOLY SHIT! "See my face on a hundred dollar bill" I know typically everyone says the Purple tape, which, if I was doing a top 15, it would be here , but for some reason Iron Man is my favorite Wu album. Ghost is one of the successful members STILL bangin out great albums , so maybe I saw the potential then, I don't know. First off "Winter Warz" and the Cap verse was incredible, then "All I got is You" hit radio and " pluckin roaches out the cereal box" , was the realest shit a rapper ever said. "Faster Blade" was just RAE and incredible. "Asssassination Day" is maybe the best WU beat ever. And you can never forget the vulgarity on "Wildflower" this nigga Ghost was top notch on this shit. i can boast about every dope song on here but y'all should already know. My best memory of this album was me and all my homies from the block got all together, hopped on the bus, and went to "The Wall". Remember that place? With the blue sticker? Haha yeah, we all went and bought the tape, cd, and even vinyl. So excited, ripping the packaging apart on the bus,all the fun things about being a fan those days. Now it's boring. I remember us freaking out when we heard "Assassintaion Day", good times. I dont have to explain the impact Wu put on the game but it definitely hit me like a ton of bricks, and this to me is Wu at it's best. The mixes were improved, and the creativity and topical side of Wu was revealed. GFK for President fuck Donald Trump!!!

Top 10 Hip Hop albums of all time. # 9

As much as I want Black Thought to do a solo album with all the dopest producers on the planet, I have accepted it's never going to happen. Especially now that they're getting that Jimmy Fallon money. All I can say, at age 32 is, "whatever". Although this album, "Illadelph Halflife" is on my top 10, I still am disappointed to never hear a solo. This album did a lot for me as an mc because it meant a lot to me that one of the dopest lyricist, and albums came out of Philadelphia. To this day with his features on Saigon's album, Raekwon's newest album , and Ghostface's album, he has proved he is still amongst the dopest mc's in the game.It seems like he doesn't even try and still baffles me with every line. When this album came out, I was fresh out of High School starting my road to the rap world. This is when me and Crypt got real serious with our rap careers. I like to always say I was Nas until Black Thought came around. In that this is who I studied , and tried to duplicate. I learned a lot about not saying the biggest words in the world but using a lot of words in a line and being on beat without it sounding like a struggle. Which I feel Black Thought has perfected. I remember first hearing the song "Section" and he said "I'm known to par-lay with Gar-cia Vega cigar" I was like WOAH! This was definitely a new style, a new way of spittin' and amazing to me. I listened to this album all day, every day. Literally.The reason this goes ahead of "Let the rhythm hit'em" is because my focus was a career at this point in my life. It WAS 1996 and I had been writin' and been gettin' heavy influences already but this one hit home, and I still study Thought to improve MY game. Hope you give this a listen if you're new to the culture and missed out. For the record, "Do you want more" was a top album for me but this one i would say did more because the band sound strayed on this one and went more b-boy. This was more hard body. He started saying more shit I wanted to hear on songs. Listen to his wordplay on this shit, seriously...

Top 10 Hip Hop albums of all time . #10

I battle myself about who the best rapper of all time is. It's between Kool G.Rap and Rakim. Oddly, Kool G. Rap doesn't have an album in my top 10 BUT because of his longevity and the way he STILL, to this day, bodies EVERY joint I hear him on, I give it to Kool G. Rakim unfortunately being the most amazing lyricist of his day , didn't fall into the path that G-Rap did. Fortunately for this top 10 he made the #10 slot with "Let the Rhythm Hit'em" . I remember when the self titled single came out with the video, and that little midget was running wild, I was amazed by The God's lyrics. I couldn't believe how crazy his word play was at that time. It was 1990, no one was as clever and crazy with their content as Rakim. If there was , they weren't spitting a fraction of what Ra was spitting. This album had hits like "In the Ghetto" which as hard as you can get. Then if you go back to review anything off of this album you may not know, look for "No Omega". He completely murdered that shit! Run for Cover, Mahogany, Untouchables, all joints that helped me get through my early stages of lyric formation. It taught me to be clever, be original, and just sound good on a beat. One thing I admired about B.I.G was he became the beat. B.I.G wrote to a beat like he was an instrument, and I feel that came from being in NY , and growing up listening to emcees like Rakim. It was, and is, an art that I feel Rakim created. So, this is #10 and I gotta figure out my #9. My 10 is set, just gotta really put it together correctly. Find out #9 tomorrow and for now, enjoy this video with the crazy midget. "Hit'em from point blank range,and watch'em radiate"

A new beginning..

Good Morning World.Today is a good day. The weather is nice,and there's good music to listen to. It's safe to say that "Fear of God" is my favorite shit right now, it's on constant rotation. Last time we spoke, I was informing you on Alchemist, and Prodgiy's free digital Ep's. Both DOPE! This time around, I'm excited about, yet another FREE digital EP of 13 songs , which to me is an album but whatever. It comes for N.O.R.E, who is my shit! He ain't the sharpest lyricist on Earth but he makes songs, and that's what counts in my book. It was released on Easter and Noreaga being him, named it N.O.R.Easter, Hahaha. You can get it here: http://nahright.com/news/2011/04/23/n-o-r-e-n-o-r-easter-mixtape/ Here's a video for it too. Nore Shot Somebody. I'm not sure how I feel about all this free music established artists are putting out. It's good to the consumer, but me personally wouldn't mind paying for it. It's seems lke people are giving up on the "make money off your record" idea. I really don't agree that is the way to think but then again, I totally understand being an "underground" artist myself. We have never made a dime off of our records BUT we HAVE had advances , and had that feeling of Labels, and making money. Of course, it was obviously the label but we stll have our fans and hit the road, and get paid to perform and have the opportunty to sell merchandise online and at shows. I get putting out mixtapes to promote the album but I also think your money spent on a mixtape can be used to promote the album you are selling. Nowadays people get that freebee and they're good with just that. With so much competition, I think your window is open for a minute, and you should take full advantage of what you can make money on. So it's a catch 22. The game is crazy, and I really feel bad for these newcomers who unfortunately will have to accept this music shit as a hobby. It's the harsh reality of it unless you're connected which still most likely means nothing. So, as the music game takes a new beginning and makes this harder for people like me, I am willing to take the challenge. I will be on the road after My Brother's Keeper drops on August 23rd, and will be selling everything I can. I just wish the supporters wouldn't get sucked into this new beginning when it comes to buying cd's and loving the cd packaging and keeping that part of music alive. Accept the free music as a thank you for purchasing the ones we are selling. That is all for today and I hope you can help me spread the word on this blog and enjoy the new NORE.

Zack and Cody.

So, being a father of 4 , on a spring break off of school for the boys, I'm stuck watching these horrible kiddie shows on Nickelodeon all day. Fortunately, Phllies have a 1pm start today so the clock's tickin'. as I search the internet for today's happs in hip hop , I come across yet another free downloadable Ep from the legendary Alchemist and his new artist Curren$y . It's called Covert Coup. Here's the link.http://nahright.com/news/2011/04/20/currensy-alchemist-covert-coup-ep/#more-276045 I haven't listened yet but I'm expecting good things. Alc is a monster. I was on youtube yesterday and was on bored, random search mode and I know I'm super late probably but I came across these "What's In my bag" clips that Amoeba Music does with random artist. It's pretty interesting because you see what other artist are buying, supporting, or buying for samples, etc.. I saw Mos Def, Questlove, Alchemist and Evidence, Large Pro,and a lot of other people. If you never checked it, do so, it's pretty cool. Just a heads up on that, trying to share new things I see, I'm kinda new to having total devotion to the internet so if I'm late on shit, bare with me. I thought this was cool of the ones I saw . It's Krs-One with his son shopping. And, in watching this I never knew of the EPMD reissue he speaks of, now I gotta shop for it. Check it out.

Hip Hop is dead?........ I beg to differ.

I sit on my laptop every single day and listen out for new songs, videos, articles, etc.. I hear, see, and read a lot of cool shit. I read a great interview today from Prodigy from the legendary Mobb Deep. He released an EP exclusively through Complex, I am downloading as I type.He also released a book, that you can buy on Itunes as well. I'm anxious to hear this shit. Here's the link. http://www.complex.com/music/2011/04/download-prodigy-ellsworth-bumpy-johnson-ep .. I also, last night came across a dope new video from one of my favorite mc's , Pusha T from The Clipse. It's off of his Fear of God mixtape. This video and song is incredible. It's called "My God".. Peep it Pusha and Mal are the most underrated rap niggas, period. I also, just copped Guns and Butter from Cam'ron and Vado this morning as well on Itunes. Do yourself a favor, and grab that too. Vado is a beast, and Cam is also a personal favorite of mine. Disagree all you want, but Cam is STILL around, and longevity means something with this rap game. He's dope. POINT IS , HIP HOP IS STILL ALIVE AND KICKIN' , YOU JUST GOTTA PUT MORE OF AN EFFORT TO KEEP UP WITH IT..