2002: Best Rap Albums

"Hey wait isn't this that same guy you gave top honors to on the LAST list??" Damn right kid. J Live tops a list again, and if this seems ridiculous you probably haven't heard the man and his excellent beat choices in action. Because there's a reason for two no.1's and it isn't fanboyism. His debut was more about a variety of sounds and producers, but here he opts for a more cohesive soundscape with a large amount of beats coming from the Polyrhythm Addict's own DJ Spinna. The sound is more modern sounding take on the lost art of great NY Jazz Rap. It's a refreshing return to the much neglected sub-genre and results in some amazing music. The only flaw here that puts it a bit below his debut is there are a few songs here that bog down the listening by being downright forgettable. But overall there's no getting around the brilliance on display, the highlights here are downright unsung classics of 00's alt rap that easily vault the album ahead of most of the pack. J Live never drops his wordy intellectual angle and does a troubled genre a huge favor in reminding us all of what this thing called hip-hop is supposed to sound like. But most of all, thankfully, unlike The Best Part, this one can be actually pretty easy to find. Hell I found my copy in a Best Buy of all places. It's arguable which of the two is better, both are amazing and I have my mind made up. But the two first albums are a genuine twin peaks for a very underrated artist. It's too bad he would never touch these heights again.

Rating: 4.5
Highlights: Like This Anna, Nights Like This, Traveling Music, All of the Above

I think this is his best album personally. Though sadly it's also his last real hurrah to this day. He plays around with the persona of his last two discs well, creating a truly quintessential Eminem experience, with a real variety in tone, topic, and guests. This is the first time he really gets extremely meta on himself too, he had been self referential before, but now he's able to comment on his fame and career rather then just some controversy he caused. Because by this album he was somewhat amusingly accepted by mainstream america. In a way he had even become America's media darling. People stopped venomizing him so much as respecting him. And frankly I ain't sure Em liked that, it might have contributed to his semi-drop after this. He hits back with some more antics and venom, namely at his mom this time. But there's a number of songs in the vein of his big non-album hit "Lose Yourself". Inspirational songs like "Sing for the Moment" and "Hailie's Song". Pretty great stuff that has the most replay value of any of his first three, unlike those this isn't just about singles. And for one more year or so it solidified Eminem as the leading force in mainstream rap. But this was the end of his reign as well, 50 Cent and the Crunk scourge were next up to bat.

Rating: 4.5
Highlights: Say Goodbye Hollywood, Without Me, Sing for the Moment, Hailie's Song

Diminished returns were starting to seem like the pattern for the titans of the west's second wave of alt rap releases, both Jurassic 5 and the People Under the Stairs didn't exactly wow with their 02' albums, and the exciting west coast renaissance seemed to be already running low on fumes. But Blackalicious, thank god, sidestepped the curse and comes out with what I feel is their best album without question. Mostly the success is from what I can gather as an achievement of a cohesive sound to the LP that the debut lacked for all it's inventiveness. Everything the debut was great about this has, except unified as a wonderful tuneful soul rap slammer. The sense of melodicness hasn't changed, but on the debut you kind of lost sight of it here and there, the melody tended to sort of get lost. Here instead it soars and rises with massive power. And Gift of Gab the emcee is much more assertive and exciting, brazenly rhyming up a storm rather then the almost calm delivery he sported on the debut. It's probably the highest they could take their style and sound, beautiful interesting, engaging, and even catchy here and there. A real highlight of the West Coast Renaissance. And again, I highly recommend them as a tool for easing any hip-hop weary rock fans into the genre, the melodic edge is strong as ever and should smooth over inter genre diplomacy.

Rating: 4.5
Highlights: First in Flight, Brain Washers, Passion, Release

So Pete Nice helped prop up and discover Cage so long back, and we already know MC Serch was central is the nuturing of a young Nas. But MC Serch (as still seen today) is more then a one flower gardener. And this hand-full of dudes who came to form this group, Non Phixion, are yet another of his finds. Odds are you haven't heard of them and that's sadly true of a lot of the best works made in the 00's. So bear with me as I try to describe them. They strongly resemble both a Wu-Affiliate group like Killarmy, and also the likes of Company Flow and Jedi Mind Tricks. Which should give you a good sense of the sort of music they make. There's more then a little political paranoia and plenty of weird beats. The production is pretty good but I would have expected better given Large Professor, Pete Rock, and Premo all contributed to this in some form or another. And while Rock was starting to lose it, Large Pro and Premo definitely still had what it took around this time. But no grumbling, though not exactly a trail-blazing release it's strong enough to stand on it's own rather then just be a interest point for fans of the aforementioned groups. And of course it's overlooked as so many of these things tend to be.

Rating: 4
Highlights: Drug Music, It's Us, We Are the Future, The C.I.A is Still Trying to Kill Me

The Roots were riding high following the popularity and acclaim gained from Things Fall Apart, so I guess they felt they could comfortably challenge themselves and their audience with some vaguely rock inflected soul-rap. For some reason this results in album that is strangely the Roots at their simultaneously poppiest and most experimental, this is one hell of a bi-polar listen. On the experimental side of things you get a bracing half drug-warning story half-noise collage with "Water", and the insanely catchy and rockin' "The Seed 2.0". On the poppy side of things things are hit or miss. The giant waste of money and time they made with the attempt at recapturing the success of the already boring "You Got Me", in "Break You Off". But also the nice Nelly Futardo guest spot with "Sacrifice".Ultimately though both types warrant their gems and their snores, the album suffers from this feeling of internal conflict. That said, there is really some hella awesome music on this thing. It also has their best ending spoken word piece of any of their albums for what that matters. Still, this was the start of a confused aimless period for The Roots that would seemingly signal the downward slope for their career...

Rating: 4
Highlights: Sacrifice, Thought @ Work, The Seed 2.0, Water

A famed collection of outtakes from both the I Am/Nastradamus and Stillmatic sessions, this is one of the more baffling releases made by a hip-hop artist. Here we have the man responsible for possibly the best rap album of all time, a lyrcist of great potency. And yet a man who in releasing duds like both I Am and Nastradamus, and passed up on adding some of these great tracks to them? Is it even his fault? What's the deal? I really can't wrap my head around it. None of these are amazing per say, no NY State of Minds or Nas Is Likes, but they're pretty much all very nice. Is Nas really so clueless about when he drops a bomb or a dud? Really? I'd like to think not, I mean lately he's made better moves. But seriously, this absolutely kicks the ass of God's Son. So weird. These aren't even like Illmatic outtakes either! For anyone who considers themselves a Nas fan you can't not listen to this or even get it. It's essential.

Rating: 3.5
Highlights: Doo Rags, My Way, Purple, Black Zombie

Talib had the benefit on his solo debut of still being teamed up with Hi-Tek as the group Reflection Eternal, so there might have been some worry about whether he would work well on his own. After all it's hard to beat a good emcee/producer team up y'know? But of course he does just fine on his own. It might not be as grandiose as Train of Thought was, but it's concise and has a great pace. Some truly excellent songs here. "Rush" is true to the name and hits you with a bracing adrenaline pump of hectic keyboards and guitar. "Get By" is another great struggle type song, and "Joy" is uplifting as hell. The Soulaquarians would basically be irrelevant/gone after 02', but thankfully albums like this let you know the individual members will be alright alone.

Rating: 3.5
Highlights: Rush, Get By, Joy, The Proud

Overrated central right here. A crazy high average on this site. Scarface's discography as a whole feels a little overrated to me, his classic stuff, within the golden age, definitely got pretty fucking dope at it's best. But his after that period works.....have ranged from alright...to downright blah. People claim him as having a consistent discography, he really really does not. This album though I must admit is part of that reason as it's a clear upswing in comparison to his past three albums. Half the songs here have him near the top of his game, some really fine moments and some real passion that he has lacked for a awhile now. But the other half is more of that forgettable mediocrity he's made his name on recently.

Rating: 3.5
Highlights: Safe, On My Block, What Can I Do, In Between Us

Jean, I love ya but I really wish you put more energy into your delivery! Thats my only complaint but boy is it bothersome, because this could be downright amazing than. In any case she's a great emcee and the beats are good as well, so it's still at least a pretty good album. I especially love her sense of dry wit, she should be made an honorary english citizen. I might even say you should add a half point here if you don't mind really unengaging (though not unpassionate *cough* Mase) emceeing, because that's what this is. Guru and Bahamadia? They have a sort of energy to their low keyness. Jean isn't about that. Doep though she is this is a real hurdle to get over in enjoying her work.

Rating: 3.5
Highlights: God's Gift, Thank Ya, Love Song, Live For You