2001: Best Rap Albums

Oh label bullshit, the great devil of music as we know it. Your rap crimes alone are staggering. Keeping the entire Wild Pitch catalogue from us until 08', sinking entire careers including those of established veterans, and locking this album out from general circulation. J Live himself is one of the hidden secrets of the early 00's, and one of the time's finest emcees. Black on Both Sides? Things Fall Apart? Like Water for Chocolate? All great second wave east/midwest coast alt rap that this album is entirely level with if not superior to some of them. It's that good. And it's that unavailable as well. The only place legally I've found this is a used copy on Amazon for a massive sum of money. But you must hear it. Not even kidding. Need more hype? Well DJ Premier, Prince Paul and Pete Rock all saw fit to give beats to J Live here, consider that another endorsement. Premo in particular making a slammer with that title track. And those are barely the only fantastic beats on here. few albums with this many producers turn out this wonderful but there you go. J Live himself is one of the best emcees of those days, a true blue lyrical wizard who respects the written word like a true emcee should. He was a teacher so it shouldn't be too surprising how clever and wordy he is. But this ain't no Company Flow, instead he aims for the down to earth approach of Chubb Rock or the guy he most resembles, Posdnuos of De La Soul. And thankfully, though not as great as a physical rerelease, Itunes and several other digital stores have just released this as a set with his other greats (All of the Above and Always Has Been). Cop. Now. If you have any gray matter in that head of yours, cop.

Rating: 5
Highlights: Timeless, R.A.G.E, The Best Part, Epilogue

Well I'll be damned, you never know what gems you can unearth when diggin in the crates eh? I just stumbled into this Cincinatti foursome today and these 01' heights have been shaken by the intrusion of a grand new album. So first off who are the Five Deez? Three emcees and one producer, one helluva producer. Fat Jon is an undersung master of new millennium production if this record is any indication of what he gets up to elsewhere. The beats are in the vein of the almost symphonic sampling you get with DJ Shadow or other such producers, it's lush, full and beautiful stuff that I believe makes use of some live instrumentation. The emcees are all pretty damn good, most notably Pase Rock, the rhymes may at first seem like Asheru or something at first but gradually you realize there's a much quirkier almost Count Bass D side to them. Most of the second side of the record is spent with very pretty instrumentals tracks with a near lack of emceeing but I honestly didn't mind. When the music is this good, bring on the instrumentals! What Fat Jon's work most closely reminds me of is Nujabes actually, and apparently Five Deez is actually very popular among japanese rap fans. I don't know when it occurred exactly but there really is a big market out there in Japan and Europe as well for a lot of dope new millennium hip-hop. I'm almost ashamed really that America treats it's own so poorly in this regard. This is a big gem not to be overlooked when listeing to 01.

Rating: 4.5
Highlights: Lattitude, Omni, Decapitated Orgasms, Instruments of the Trade

Jay was certainly a commercial smash. But his previous two (three if you count Roc la Familia) were basically bad albums. A few fun singles laced throughout a gray mass of amusical beats and generic jiggy claims. Jay had lost his way, had lost track of his identity and any sense of sound. Maybe he was making lots of cash but there's no questioning his pretense of "comeback" here as being an aesthetic one. But on La Familia signs were starting to show that he had found a way to a bright future. And like a bright dawn this began a grand new chapter in Jay's career. He's filled again with energy and momentum, shown through out his rhymes. The biggest stars here though are the two young producers who burst into their careers here with aplomb. Just Blaze establishes himself as a go to guy for bouncy yet hard beats. And the other one? Hmm, just some guy named Kanye West, who steals the album with the spectacular beat of Heart of the City. The coolest thing though is that evidently Jay wrote the thing in two days. Proving yet again, good material isn't so much about time spent on it, as just how driven you are while working. The album was unfortunately released on 9-11 itself, darkening it's coming out party massively. And yet...it was a still a massive success. Proof positive of it's power. There are still a few ugly little moments (Jigga that Nigga) but for the first time since 96' those are the exception, surrounded by great material and a fresh start for a semi-veteran.

Rating: 4.5
Highlights: Takeover, Heart of the City, Never Change, Song Cry

Around 01', the south changed hands, it's personal golden age probably ending after Stankonia. From here on artists like Nelly and Ludacris began paving the way for the Crunk era and all the garbage we associate the south with these days. But like the east coast did during the Jiggy era, a wonderful underground began to appear. A true earning of the title "alternative" rap. And like Black Star before the Cunninlynguists lead the charge for the southern world. Their music at this point is mostly a unique take on the golden south of the Dungeon Family. Wistful often very sobering soulful music. Kno, the producer, is pretty damn fantastic and the emcees continue supporting my theory that the south has the most comically large gap in terms of lyric quality (as in, there are incredible top tier guys, but share the stage with the Ying Yang Twins). Lots of heads have scapegoated hip hop's new millennium woes on the south as a region. And yes the south has been pumping out some of the worst and most dominant garbage. But like hell does that mean it isn't still creating gold. You can't EVER dismiss an entire thing. Exceptions are exceptions because there are no rules. Too many people write off modern hip-hop period, so it's bad enough people will write off anything from south of the mason-dixon line. That's bullshit and you gotta stop whoever you are. And if anything will help you stop it's the Cunninlynguists.

Rating: 4.5
Highlights: Lynguistics, Mic Like a Memory, Missing Children, Halfanimal

Masta Ace has ridden the waves of changing times the best of any rapper around, he made a quintessential 80's album (albeit in 1990), two quintessential 90's albums, and here he firmly implants his foot in the new century. Long past the point where all his Juice Crew affiliates vanished into the history books, Masta Ace stands alone, bitter, and still capable of great stuff. After releasing "Sittin on Chrome" Ace fell into something of a dillusioned depression with the rap game. And who could blame him? Post 95 were hard dark times regarding pretty much everything in the genre. But eventually he regained his mental footing and came back with Disposable Arts. For the first time since 90' he has an album that doesn't attempt any musical concept or specific sound pallet. Though there is a running comedic skit that follows the course of the album it has nothing to do with the songs. The songs instead reflect various little thoughts and feelings Ace had at the time, most of them jaded. This may be overrated as hell, but it's still pretty damn strong, and very admirable.

Rating: 4
Highlights: Too Long, Take a Walk, Acknowledge, No Regrets

Something of a concept album I suppose, aimed at talking about everyday people and the toils and stuff they put up with, but like many hip-hop concept albums not called A Book of Human Language this is pretty loose all things considered. Creating more of a feeling then a literal lyric by lyric construction of a concept. Like anything Aesop Rock the lyrics are dense and the music heavy and oppressive. But unlike most Aesop Rock albums he actually doesn't come off as blabbing nonsense. Here you can actually discern what he's going on about. And you get to see that there really is a great lyricist under all that garbled wording. On the whole I didn't find the production all that wowing, especially next to those on Float. Some was great, none were bad, but most left no real impression on me. So this is really a "4" based more on his mic ability than the beats. And it's pretty refreshing as something without constant brag rapping, some real substance instead.

Rating: 4
Highlights: Daylight, No Regrets, Coma, 9-5er's Anthem

Nas's double shitstains of 99' confirmed what people had been saying since Illmatic, that he was losing it. It was important that he reassert his position. And so that's the hubbub surrounding this album, his supposed "comeback" smash. A veritable Rocky movie finale the way people hype it up. I don't consider this to be the great comeback album everyone else seems to. But I do see it as Nas returning to making good albums, this is a reawakening, a reaffirming. And that makes it every bit a valuable part of his discography as a grand comeback. And in terms of triumphs he pretty much flattens Jay Z with "Ether". But the hype of this as one of his best are entirely unwarranted. The production is too weak and too many of Nas' topics are too overdone. "One Mic' may be amazing but it's the exception here not the rule.

Rating: 3.5
Highlights: Stillmatic, You're Da Man, One Mic, Rule

Immortal Technique came in on the very minor wave of Dead Prez style early 00's political hip hop, and quickly joined Atmosphere in being an underground sensation of sorts, he then went on to be a sensation among rebellious teenage boys who understood maybe 10% of what he was talking about. From there he became attacked as overrated and people turned on him somewhat. But here so many years later I found most of these beats to be serviceable, and while his technique is only so so, his energy (important part of delivery) is actually very satisfactory and my main factor of enjoyment. He really grabs your ear with his relentless lesson dropping, it's actually pretty satisfactory the way his rhymes sound. It's a very raw sort of delivery, no polish done to cover breath control and douse his voice in many takes, and it makes the politics seem that much more clear ironically. Forget what varying sides have said about him over the years and give this a try with a fresh mindset. You might really end up liking what you hear.

Rating: 3.5
Highlights: Creation and Destruction, Positive Balance, Revolutionary, The Prophecy