Hip-Hop Album Survivor
 

Alright, since the March Madness thread never took off, I figured we could give this a shot. There seemed to be a fair bit of willing participants, and I believe this method requires a bit less of an effort so I'm hoping even more will join in.

Go ahead and let me know what albums you feel should be on the list. Not sure what number we should roll with, but there's a lot of ground to cover so I was thinking around 40 or so. I'm already including some of the essentials, as well as albums that most agreed on over at the March Madness thread.

80's
1. N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
2. De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
3. Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
4. Eric B & Rakim - Paid in Full
5. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
6. Slick Rick - The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
7. Run-D.M.C - Raising Hell
8. Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown
9. LL Cool J - Radio
10. Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded
11. Big Daddy Kane - Long Live The Kane
12. EPMD - Strictly Business
13. Grandmaster Flash - The Message


90's
1. Wu-Tang Clan - 36 Chambers
2. A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
3. GZA/Genius - Liquid Swords
4. Big Pun - Capital Punishment
5. Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle
6. 2Pac - Me Against the World
7. Notorious B.I.G - Ready to Die
8. Mos Def & Talib Kweli - Black Star
9. Gang Starr - Moment of Truth
10. Outkast - ATLiens
11. DMX - Dark And Hell Is Hot
12. Doctor Octogon - Dr. Octagonecologyst
13. UGK - Ridin' Dirty
14. Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus
15. MF DOOM - Operation: Doomsday
16. Nas - Illmatic
17. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cubin Linx
18. Mobb Deep - The Infamous


2000's
1. Madvillian - Madvillainy
2. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele
3. Binary Star - MOTU
4. Jedi Mind Tricks - Violent By Design
5. Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow
6. Aesop Rock - Labor Days
7. J Dilla - Donuts
8. dalek - Absence
9. Eyedea and Abilities - First Born
10. Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030
11. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
12. Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
13. CunninLynguists - A Piece of Strange
14. Nujabes - Metaphorical Music
15. El-P - Fantastic Damage


2010's
1. Billy Woods - History Will Absolve Me
2. Killer Mike - RAP Music
3. L'Orange & Kool Keith - Time? Astonishing
4. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
5. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
6. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
7. Death Grips - The Money Store
8. Danny Brown - XXX
9. Lil Ugly Mane - Oblivion Access
10. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
11. Mick Jenkins - The Water[s]
12. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata

So yeah, let me know what you think. I didn't include many modern rappers to start because I feel like we'll need to discuss who is worthy and what album is the best choice, and for some such as Em and Aesop Rock I couldn't decide on an album. If you feel like a different album suits an included artist better, let me know and maybe we'll switch it if others agree as well.

Outkast - ATLiens

Binary Star - MOTU
JMT - Violent By Design
DMX - Dark and Hell is Hot (or whatever)
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow

I'll add more when I have some more time.

For Aesop Rock I say we do Labor Days.

J Dilla - Donuts
dalek - Absence
Doctor Octogon - Dr. Octagonecologyst
Eyedea and Abilities - First Born
Billy Woods - History Will Absolve Me
Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030

All solid recs that I'll add. I was thinking Rap Music by Killer Mike, Entroducing by DJ Shadow, and I'm also trying to decide on a project by L'Orange to include.

Also, @DWV good looking out on DMX, definitely need him on the list.

I'm partial to The Orchid Days and Time? Astonishing for L'Orange.

Yeah, I was leaning towards Time? anyway so that works.

EDIT- I'm also contemplating how to run this, but I'm considering breaking it up into decades once the list is finished. 80's, 90's, 2000's, 2010+ each getting around 10 albums. But obviously that will depend on how the list looks when we're done with recommendations. The other option would be breaking into sub-genres I guess, but that doesn't work all that well with hip-hop in my opinion.

I think decades works well especially with hip hop. I'd say include 70's but there was so little of it and in only the later years of the decade. Maybe split up 80's? Like "late 70's/early 80's" and then "mid to late 80's".

Alright, I added some more albums and broke it down into decades. We're looking pretty even, except for 80's, and considering I'm not all that familiar with 80's hip-hop I'm hoping someone can come through and give some recommendations.

Slick Rick - The Great Adventures of Slick Rick simply has to be on that list, even if it wasn't already lacking in the 80s department.

A nod should go to Run-D.M.C too, with either their self-titled debut or Raising Hell.

Cypress Hill's self titled debut is essential for the 90s list imo.

Anyone have any other albums for this?

Just general albums I like?

I think Super Tight by UGK should be there, as it's not only a personal favorite, but also there isn't much southern hip hop represented - as far as I can tell it's just Outkast

Don't know if I can hype it enough, but The Water[s] by Mick Jenkins would top my '10s list.

There's also some albums that I'd switch for a different one by the same artist (Eric B & Rakim, Mos Def, etc), but I can't really argue with putting the current ones on here.

Thanks for the bump Frown, I forgot about this for awhile. If there's anyone with any recommendations, or arguments that other albums should be here instead of the existing ones, I'm all ears. It'd be nice to get this thing rolling within a week or two if possible.

I'd be up for putting The Water[s] on here, great project. Anyone object/agree?


I added a handful of albums, I think the list is starting to look pretty good. It'd be nice if we could get at least 15 for each decade though.

Well, if there's nothing left to add, would everyone be alright with getting this thing started?

Need Grandmaster Flash - The Message up in here.

Well, if you insist.


I'm thinking of starting this off like the rest of the Survivor threads on the forum, voting off the albums you like the least and whichever gets the most votes is removed. Once we get down to four albums for a decade however, we'll move on to the next one, until we have 4 albums for all 4 decades (that's 16 albums for those of you who can't do math.) I will then throw those 16 albums into a tournament style bracket with random seeding and we'll go through the match-ups until just one album remains.

Alright, time to get started bitches.

2010's

1. Billy Woods - History Will Absolve Me
2. Killer Mike - RAP Music
3. L'Orange & Kool Keith - Time? Astonishing
4. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
5. Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D City
6. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2
7. Death Grips - The Money Store
8. Danny Brown - XXX
9. Lil Ugly Mane - Oblivion Access
10. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
11. Mick Jenkins - The Water[s]
12. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata

Vote 4 off

Voting ends June 26th

Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D City
Lil Ugly Mane - Oblivion Access
Mick Jenkins - The Water[s]
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata

I'll give some thoughts on the other lists at a later date.

Well you gave like two weeks to start off, so that works, but I would've started with something 90s just to get things started easy. But this'll give me an excuse to really listen to that Death Grips album, which I've been too lazy to really check out for months now. No promises on actually participating though.

Yeah but I've been listening to Billy Woods all day so I just felt more in mood for 2010+. Now participate like a good boy and listen to some hip-hop that isn't ICP or strictly about comic books.

All I'm sayin' is that 90's gangsta rap would have been the logical starting point.

Welcome to the world of survivor thread criticism.

I can't wait. After seeing everyone complain about every single decision you make in the Metal Survivor thread I just knew I needed to start my own.

Well with only four categories you're getting off really ****ing easy. Poseur.

This is just practice for my porn star survivor thread anyway, that's the one that really counts.

Only posers take the extra time to spell it correctly.

No, real metalheads spell it right. Only poseurs don't know the difference.

Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye West
Kendrick Lamar
Mick Jenkins
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib
Kanye West

You would like Exmilitary or maybe even Jenny Death better than TMS imo.

All votes for Kanye will be waved but thanks anyway.

If Kanye wins I'm banning the whole forum and taking out all of the vbulletin servers with a sledgehammer.

I'm considering adding the rest of his discography, now that you mention it...

I'd be cool with Yeezus. Not Life of Pablo though, because Kanye clearly forgot how he briefly made interesting music.

Make all of the winners go up against The College Dropout.

Why isn't this just a Kanye album Survivor thread? I clearly wasn't thinking.

You make me sick.

Right back at you, dude.

You make me frown.

Lil Ugly Mane - Oblivion Access
Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
Mick Jenkins - The Water[s]
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata

Wait, are we voting already?