The Top 100 Hip-Hop Albums (no. 24-1)

24. Dr. Octagon, Dr. Octagonocologyst

Don't look now, but there's a horse in the hospital.

23. Main Source, Breaking Atoms

As a producer, Large Professor probably ranks in my top 5. Definitely in my top 10. As a prolific creator of albums? Dead last! I think he finally dropped that album last year. I didn't buy it because I got tired of waiting. So did everybody else.

22. The Pharcyde, Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde

When this was first released it took a little while to grow on me. It stands as the best non-gangster rap West Coast hip-hop album ever made.

21. Outkast, Stankonia

This one solidified 'Kast as the most consistent and best hip-hop group of all time.

20. Redman, Whut? Thee Album

One from the time capsule: there was a period when posse members of established MCs and groups made albums that outshone those who put them on. No one has meshed together hardcore with humor quite like Red, and no one probably ever will.

19. N.W.A., EFIL4ZAGGIN

Didn't have the impact of Straight Outta Compton, but it's by far the better of the two. Alwayz Into Somethin' was Dre's G-Funk opening salvo.

18. Outkast, Aquemini

On their third album, Dre and Big Boi (mostly Dre, with assistance from Mr. DJ) started producing their own material, with phenomenal results. De La turned green with envy.

17. Redman, Dare Iz A Darkside

Even without psychedelics, this album is a trip. Put it on while you're going to bed and you just may wake up in another dimension.

16. GZA/Genius, Liquid Swords

"The Head" and RZA crafted a gem, one which runs the conceptual gamut -- from late-80's b-boy braggadocio, cautionary tales of street life and mafioso-inspired crime tales, to criticism of organized religion and, with an assist from Killah Priest and 4th Disciple, a deep look at the holy book (the bible, not The Brothers Karamazov). Best played on cold winter nights, with a bottle or a blunt by your side.

15. Mobb Deep, The Infamous

By comparison, N.W.A.'s music seems almost cartoonish. N.W.A. brought gangster rap to the masses. Havoc and Prodigy brought us thug music.

14. El-P, Fantastic Damage

I hasten to call this a new millenial sound reminiscent of The Bomb Squad, because that would be unfair. El-P's much more talented. A masterpiece sonically, conceptually, and lyrically. I can't praise this album enough.

13. A Tribe Called Quest, Midnight Marauders

When you buy this album and 36 Chambers on the same day, one of them is initially going to be neglected. But only for a short while. I still don't know what the hell Q-Tip is saying on the chorus for Electric Relaxation.

12. De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising

If hip-hop music were Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, 3 Feet High and Rising would be the tall black monolith standing before the primates.

11. Nas, Illmatic

Nas was like the Lebron James of rap (getting tired of the analogies? Don't worry, we're almost finished). Thankfully LBJ won't spend the rest of his career trying to recapture the success of his rookie campaign.

10. Wu-Tang Clan, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

True story: Because none of the record stores in my hometown stocked much rap music (my how things have changed: now they have everything released by anyone, ever), I and my friend, Mike, had to get his mom to drive us to Hamilton -- which is never a fun experience, because Hamilton sucks -- so we could both pick this up on cassette. Neither of us had heard a single song from the album, but based on two articles from RapPages and The Source which had hyped the Clan, I knew this album was going to be special. I still remember us riding back, each of us listening to Bring Da Ruckus on our Walkman, and the simultaneous look of holy shit, this is fucking next level! we gave each other. At the time, absolutely no one at our high school had heard of Wu-Tang. Once we played 36 Chambers for friends and family members, shit caught on like wildfire.

9. Dr. Dre, The Chronic

I laughed when I saw the cheap album cover. After hearing it, I would laugh at The Chronic no more. Is to my generation what The Marshall Mathers LP would be to the next one.

8. Raekwon, Only Built For Cuban Linx

I still can't understand half of what Rae and Ghost are saying. Doesn't matter. The best album RZA produced, and the Wu's pinnacle success.

7. Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

Believe it or not, there was a time when people believed that this album could help change society. Even though it didn't, and regardless of some of PE's members' later shenanigans, it remains a cornerstone in hip-hop. Other groups and MCs of the time may have kicked knowledge on wax, but none of them sounded as angry, as militant, as Chuck D -- and none else certainly had the sonic punch of The Bomb Squad to back them up.

6. De La Soul, ...Is Dead

In titling their sophomore album, De La gave the people what they thought they wanted at a time when hip-hop music was progressively getting harder. No one wanted to hear that daisy shit. But didn't nothin' really change but the weather. In fact, The genius and humor of 3 Feet High and Rising was still there, and they went in a bolder and more mature direction without compromising one bit what made De La De La.

5. Eric B & Rakim, Paid In Full

With this album, Rakim became the prototypical new school MC, and still none can match him. They must have broken the mold.

4. Boogie Down Productions, Criminal Minded

Should be in the dictionary under "hip-hop." See: Criminal Minded.

3. Brand Nubian, One For All

3 MCs. One had slightly more charisma than the others, yet each shone like a quasar. The SD50's crafted an album full of funky melodies, the genius of which neither they nor their peers would ever successfully emulate. Would be no. 1 were it not for the crassly awful Try To Do Me.

2. Common Sense, Resurrection

I hestitate to liken it to Joyce's Ulysses, because I fucking hate that piece of shit, but Common's 2nd album contains lyrics which are so punningly skillful that I'm still finding new meaning in them 12 years later. The best lyrical effort by an MC, ever.

1. A Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory

What makes Low End so great? The beats, mostly, and the fact that they can be listened to both while chilling out and to get one amped. Q-Tip has never been better, and Phife pulled a Gilbert Arenas on everyone. From the opening bass strings of Excursions to the resonant chorus of Scenario, no other album stays with one quite like The Low End Theory . You or I might periodically claim that album x or album y is the best hip-hop record ever made, but we're both fooling ourselves.

The Low End Theory is the best, bar none.

PS - Lists are stupid.