Kick-ass Production and Radical Politics: Top 5
JRoot
861 Posts
So I was having a backchannel convo with a palomine about rap records, and he asked me the following question:> if i were to get five hip hop albums with kick-ass production and > radical politics, i would get what?I couldn't think of five that met both criteria (does Paris have "kick-ass production"? don't think so...), but I bet the STRUT can!GO.[/b]Thanks,JRoot
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whaddup jroot! paris has some decent production.
here's another: Tragedy (Khadafi) - he was part of the marley marl camp. mid 80s afrocentric, anti-govt lyrics, fast rap beats. he's put out plenty since then..
Recommend his first album to your friend:
...avoid the late career Thug Matrix bullschitt.
Public Enemy.
The Coup.
Gangstarr.
Brand Nubian.
paris and trag would be way, way, WAY down my list...
Public Enemy: IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK
Public Enemy: FEAR OF A BLACK PLANET
Paris: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT
Paris: SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
Paris: GUERILLA FUNK
BDP: GHETTO MUSIC - THE BLUEPRINT OF HIP HOP
KRS-ONE: RETURN OF THE BOOM-BAP (is this one radical? I don't remember)
I'm not sure that this is the brand of "radical" that J's friend seeks...
Depending on definition, add Amerikkka's Most Wanted to the list.
Couldn't you make a top 5 from Bonb Squad productions alone?
They were the most thorough with God Body politics in the game, maybe short of Lak Shabazz but pretty close.
I mean, I like the breadth of scope that PE and The Coup had, but I think it would do Mr. Root's friend a disservice to eschew Brand Nubian in favor of a 3rd rate PE clone like Paris (who I still have love for, but let's be real).
Dude, do you even listen to Paris? He's obviously a 3rd rate Rakim clone. And on GUERILLA FUNK, a 3rd rate Dr. Dre clone.
I agree... and it's certainly what I would prefer to listen to. It's just that the fact that the guy is even asking the question suggests he's got different aesthetic priorities from you or me and doesn't listen to much rap. Brand Nubian may end up being an accquired taste for him.
I do think that the first Intelligent Hoodlum record is great, though, and doesn't deserve to be lumped in with Paris.
I am willing to venture that when I was actually listening to Paris you were listening to straight edge punk.
You are right though, he is sonically more of a Rakim clone, although politically cut from PE's loincloth.
Actually, when you were listening to Paris, I was laughing at straight edge punk. And probably listening to Paris. But hey, at least we've admitted to listening to Paris. That's the first step to recovery.
Well, there's #327 in my list of "Images I Want Out of My Head Immediately".
I don't sell a lot of my personal hip-hop collection. But those are two records I no longer own.
And how can we forget this classic, which not only boasted excellent production, and radical politics, but some of the most nuanced and subtle rapping of the era:
And allow me to recommend these:
The production on either of these may not qualify as "kick-ass" to all, but I'm mentioning them anyway.
Have you listened to it recently? I liked it a lot around the time it came out. I listened to it again a year or two ago and was shocked at how derivative he was as an MC and how bad some of the beats were, even for the time.
Kam's beats were - to me - pretty solid though very "West Coast" for the era; lot of P-funk styled tracks but pre-Chronic (i.e. no synthesizers, more like Sir Jinx-y type beats).
I was listenting to Death Certificate last week, and put on Kam "Neva Again," for the first time in years. Really like that record, but it is of a time. That said, I would put any of the Cube-Kam-WC-Lench Mob family in this list and not be embarassed. "Bird in the Hand," is as sharp a social commentary as I've ever heard in hip hop, and god knows the production is
Not within the past month...but the LP is pulled out in a stack of records I was planning to do a sped-up set with...so as recently as a few months ago I was revisiting it with glee.
As I remember it, "This Is a Test", "The Hate That Hate Made," and "The Devil Made Me Do It" are all top-notch.
Although my favorite track by him may be "By Night" off of the "Scarface Groove" 12". Then there's "Lights Camera Revolution" off of the "Hate That Hate Made" 12" which is also good.
But you're talking to someone who got a considerable amount of burn out of his most recent "Sonic Jihad" LP.
The lyrics on some of the cuts are pretty laughable, in retrospect.
But a thoroughly enjoyable album...
Agree...see two posts above.
Twentyfive or so posts in, here is the current top five (in no meaningful order):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Unfortunately, my man already has number 2 through 5. Please persuade me to replace any of these with other records that he doesn???t already have.
For the record, I don???t believe any of Gang Starr???s records to contain radical politics.
And oh my god did this album ever suck:
It???s not saying much, but her written output is much better than her recorded output.
In lieu of titles he already has you should recommend more of The Coup.
So are you saying no 5% whatsoever? I find Brand Nubian, Lakim Shabazz, and yes Gang Starr to be a lot more radically political than the kind of pseudo-intellectual post-collegiate pablum found on the Digable record... but that's just me...