barelyawake wrote:Influential albums I think you missed:
Black Sheep (was part of the Tribe triad)... "We got brothers in the jungle (jungle brothers), cousins on the quest (tribe called quest)... You can get with this, or you can get with that."
D.O.C. is my favorite album that never got any play at all. At the time, I thought the toughest rhyme I'd ever heard was Easy-E's bit on the Grand Finale (YouTube it). That whole album was hot.
First off, I think "Jam on it" spread rap more than the Sugar Hill Gang.
Then, there was the Island album (which began reggae/political rap) and then Beat street.
Digital Underground (comedy rap)
Guru's solo work (besides Tribe, first to really explore Jazz)
Busta's solo work
Big Daddy Kane is a must on any list...
Disposable Heroes of Hiphopcracy (continue of poli-rap, post-P.E.)
Basehead (the first chill/emo/druggie rap band -- god I love basehead)
There's more... Let me think...
I snuck a few in on the crossposted edit. I should have slipped pharcyde and bahamadia in with the West Coast alternative crew, Hieroglyphics et al.
Yeah Jam on it. And Roxanne Roxanne. etc. The one I really should have tagged was Grandmaster Flash "The Message". "It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under... huh huh huh"
I know I'm missing a ton from here but I was too young to buy any albums, just heard people playing them at school parties on those little record players they used with film strips. Like "
Le Freak" by Chic, or "Another one bites the Dust" by Queen, or even Chic's "
Good Times" segueing into 'I said a hip, hop, hip to the hippetty...' and even all us little white kids jumping in '...and the chicken taste like wood.' Same way the black kids rhymed along with "The Devil went down to Georgia" country rap, like. Classes were about 50/50 mixed in my elementary school. I just felt bad for the jehovahs witness kids who had to stay home when we had parties.
Digital Underground is notable as the place where Pac got his start, as a roadie...
I also missed 'bout all the female emcees, plus:
Fat Boys. Never had so much spit been sprayed and bad breath displayed, but what the hell, who needs a DJ.
Speaking of fat boys: Biz Markee. Nobody beats the biz. You still hear cats pay homage today to the Biz, a genuine nice guy in an industry of scheming thieves.
Cypress Hill (begat House of Pain when DJMuggs produced them and suggested Everlast go with his Irish roots thing same way they did the Latin thing. Though they were SoCal punkrox listening to suicidal tendencies way before the hiphop hit 'em)
I missed the whole Reggaeton thing (Daddy Yankee et al).
Plus 2Livecrew introducing the Miami 808 bass sound.
I'm sure I'm still missing a key cornerstone.
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But Michael Franti's thing (Spearhead, I think, wasn't it? Disposable heroes was the album if I remember it right) eh, I dunno how impactful or influential that was. Ditto Basehead. Each had one nice album, but dunno how many heads heard it.
Might as well have put "Tennesee" on there by what's their faces. Arrested Development. Probably should've, I just didn't really like 'em. Or PMDawn or whatever. One dropped rock, no ripple effect.
(And I liked basehead's album, anytime I wanted to get nice and depressed).
I just didn't include a ton of cats I liked at the time either for lack of long lasting effect. Onyx. Or Das EFX. Fu-Schnickens. Whatever.