2008
Common
Finding Forever (2007)
It was January right after the New Year and I went on a trip to upstate NY to see the inauguration of Elliot Spitzer, I actually met Andrew Como on the elevator in the hotel I was staying in. It was a long ride so I made a mix CD that contained 90s rap to the new era rap and everyone loved it. Whenever we would be out of the car I would plug in my headphones and bump Commons album which I loved at the time. Listening to it now brings a Nostalgic feeling of that trip to upstate NY and the end of my winter basketball season with my father and his coworker as coach and becoming an All-Star my first year. This album would also appear on my summer playlist when I got a job as a website manager for my mother. I loved this album at the time with the stick out tracks The People, Southside, Driving Me Wild, and The Game. The song Southside with Kanye had this funny line at the end that went like “Spice it up,its time to spice it up, spice it uuuuuup” in the funniest way and me and my friend kept repeating it during a fieldtrip to Manhattan one day. For the song The game, I always looked for DJ premiers verse. My knowledge in hiphop obviously lacked, years later I realized I was an idiot because Dj premier produces XD.
"Southside" - YouTube
Lil Wayne
The Carter III (2008)
So I was still dabbling in mostly hip-hop music and I was listening to mostly the radio and hits from the 90s. I listened to a lot of Slick Rick, Gangstarr and Tribe Called Quest hits from the 90s and found one of my all-time favorite songs *”Scenario”* but I wasn’t really listening to full albums too much. Summer was coming close and I finished going on a family trip to Virginia, we went fishing and swimming and I also ran into one of my school friends there randomly. I remember during the whole trip we listened to the mix CD I talked about earlier. Summer came and I was in a basketball league, I got a little better and went into the all-star game for my winter league so I was ready to win this summer. Too bad we lost every game, my team sucked haha. But it was fun, I had lots of barbeques and listened to a lot of music. I came across this album The Carter III, and my 12 year old self swore this was the greatest album ever, I actually used to annoy people with it. I still enjoy this album (The only lil wayne album I actually enjoy) but it is far from my favorites. I loved the stand out tracks A Milli, Dr. Carter, Mrs Officer, Let The Beat Build, and Lala. This album was actually pretty creative. Too bad he fell off. Lil wayne became my favorite rapper for a couple of months and I loved to “Crank that souljah boy” XD how embarresing. I was soon introduced to something else by my friends Harris and Jacob.
Lil Wayne: Let The Beat Build w/ Lyrics - YouTube
Wu-Tang Clan
*Enter the 36 Chambers* (1993)
It’s the beginning of the 8th grade, the beginning of one of my favorite school years, and all I was talking about was Lil Wayne, fried chicken and Barrack Obama. I got a sidekick gecko as a phone and I was finally able to keep in touch with friends and hit up those females. Life was good and I actually became one of the popular kids in school, but not like the ones who are jerks, I was friends with people from all groups, everything from Nerds to Jocks and everything in between. My friends Harris and Jacob kept telling me that Lil Wayne sucked and I told them to prove it, I thought there was no way in hell! So they gave me there ear buds and they put this song on. Once I heard “I smoke on the mic like smoking joe frazure the hell raiser raise hell with the flavor, Terrorize the jam like troops in Pakistan, swinging in the hood like your neighborhood spiderman!” I lost it. I thought that verse right now on Protect Ya Neck was dope. I listened to the album and I loved the songs Wu Tang Clan Aiint Nothing to F*** With, Shame on a N****, Cream, Method Man and Bring Da Rucku. I fell in love with the Wutang and soon after ODB became my favorite rapper. I loved the song *”Brooklyn Zoo”* so much and *”Shimmy Shimmy ya”*. I started to slowly abandon the mainstream rap and went into a 90s phase. R.I.P ODB
Wu Tang Clan- Shame On A Nigga - YouTube
Honorable Mentions
Tribe Called Quest
Slick Rick
Gangstarr
ODB
Busta Rhymes