what was the best year in hip hop and why. ie albums that came out that year.

Without a doubt... 1984!

Run-D.M.C. debut album
Whodini - Escape
Fatboys - Fatboys
Man Parrish - Boogie Down Bronx
Chris "The Glove" Taylor & David Storrs - Reckless / Tibetan Jam
Newcleus - Jam On Revenge
Beat Street Soundtrack
G.L.O.B.E. & Whiz Kid - Play That Beat
Kurtis Blow - Ego Trip
Egyptian Lover - On the Nile

And many, many, many more 12" singles too numerous to mention.

1988

it takes a nation - public enemy
tougher than leather - run dmc
by all means necessary - bdp
critical beat down - ultra magnetic
long live the kane - big daddy kane
straight out the jungle - jungle bros
follow the leader - eric b and rakim
stritly business - EPMD
eazy duz it - easy e
straight outta compton - N.W.A.


and a whole lot more

That's a serious question that'll take a day or two to come up with a more solid answer...

1987...

ALBUMS... In no particular order:
1. ERIC B. & RAKIM - Paid In Full
2. PUBLIC ENEMY - Yo! Bum Rush The Show
3. BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS - Criminal Minded
4. ICE-T - Rhyme Pays
5. L.L. COOL J - Bigger And Deffer
6. T LA ROCK - Lyrical King
7. MC SHAN - Down By Law
8. STEADY B - What's My Name

^ All of those albums are 5-star classics and most of them changed the game.

New artists hit the scene:
1. BIG DADDY KANE - highly influential... everybody bit his style ("I'll attend and then begin - descend a speech to reach and teach so just say when") a year or so later.
2. EPMD - first to really use funk samples like Parliament/Funkadelic and Zapp.
3. N.W.A - first to take cursing to a whole 'nother level.

as well as various others who might not have lasted to make more than a single or two but put out classic material regardless.

Everybody who came out had their own style, unlike today 'cause almost everybody who's out now sounds exactly the same. Back then, you could never get one rapper confused with another. Also, almost nothing that came out that year was wack!

Again, that's a big question, SIN.

quote:

Without a doubt... 1984!

Run-D.M.C. debut album
Whodini - Escape
Fatboys - Fatboys
Man Parrish - Boogie Down Bronx
Chris "The Glove" Taylor & David Storrs - Reckless / Tibetan Jam
Newcleus - Jam On Revenge
Beat Street Soundtrack
G.L.O.B.E. & Whiz Kid - Play That Beat
Kurtis Blow - Ego Trip
Egyptian Lover - On the Nile

ALL excellent years, but I gotta agree with Bobby on this one I was at my BreakDancing Best -and had the best time with these songs.

1988

born too mack too short
hes the dj im the rapper dj jazzy jeff and the fresh prince
goin off biz markie
power ice T
LYTE AS A ROCK!!! MC LYTE what!??!?!?!?!? one of the best albums of all time!!!!!

great adventures of slick rick
in full gear stetasonic

bring it!!!!

1979, the year Sugarhill gang released "rappers delight". I think that really brought "RAP/Hip-hop" to the mainstream.

I go by era....I think the 89-94 era is by far the best. The "new school" era. Took the rawness and finessed it to such commercial success. Offically crossed over to the white folks and then onward to the whole world. YO!MTV Rap. Pump It UP, tv shows. Video Music Box. So much creativity came out in these five years. Best of each year ...1989- Beasties Paul's Boutique. Way ahead of its time. 1990- BDP Edutainment. Conscious hip hop perfected. Love's Gonna Get Cha was probally the best story tellign track ever. 1991- ATCQ's Low End Theory. Is there really a better album from start to finish? Jazz samples, rediculous lyrics, and What Is The Scenerio? 1992- The Chronic. Dr. Dre just unloaded a classic on all of us. Inspiring the P-Funk Gansta Rap. Catchiest beats ever collected on one album. And the introduction of Snoop Dogg. Hottest album of that year. 1993-Wu Tang Clan- Enter The 36 Chambers. Do I need to even explain how this album changed the face of hip hop and rap as we knew it? 1994- Now this is the year you all should examine closely. I have have to give it to Biggie Smalls 1st album. Let me make a list of what came out thsi year.

Outkast's Debut
Nas- Illmatic
Jeru- The Sun Rises..
Common- Resurrection
Pete Rock CL Smooth- The main Ingredient
The Beatnuts
Gangstarr- Hard To Earn
Digable Planets- Blowout Comb
Gravediggers -6 Feet Deep
Method Man- Tical
Artifacts- Between a Rock and A Hard Place
Warren G- Regulate
Redman- Dare IS a Darkside
BBoys- Ill Communication
Craig Mack- Funk Da World
Fugees- Blunted On Reality
House OF Pain- Same As It Ever Was

I love it all man , starting to current , gotta say tho , i agree with petey on this . . with the 90's hip hop

mobb deep - tha infamous
nine wit smooth the hustler - make or take
channel live - madizm
souls of mischief -93 till infinty

Who da hypest in New York City???????!!!!!!?????

This guy doesnt get half the props he should get. (semi thread hijack)

Hi I totally agree with Fatdog-1984'-It was the best for Hip-Hop.Especially with that Nucleus album that came out on Sunnyview records that spring!!
Bobby-I have almost all of those singles!
The best pop years are without a doubt-1983' first,2nd-1985',then the most and best dance year is 1988'!!
Thanks everyone-Ghettoboom777.

Pety A, I'm with you on that era, the rappers were just mad hungry then. Even the weaker rappers then would eat up any new jack today.

It all changed right around 97-98. Everything began to get too comercialized, more shiny suits and sequins, too much puffy. It was a bad time, but nothing compared to right now in hip hop. Dont get me wrong there still is alot of good stuff out there but when people nominate lil wayne as greatest rapper alive, something is seriously wrong. The kid is wack!

As for picking one year as best, it's too hard a decision
Golden Era forever!
Peace
Paul Z.

Whats killed and is still killing hip hop is the "club bangers". The songs that designed for you to grind your crotch into some floozy's ass. Long gone is the art of story telling. The expression of dance. The DJ. And the art culture that followed hip hop off the street corners. (Graffiti).

Puffy did start that all with the style of music he was producing. While it was good then, however, everyone just followed suit and originality went out the window.

Only place to go is thru the underground channels. People who dont have 200,000 dollar videos and scores of people promoting albums and tracks they have done.

IMHO, hip hop is currently lying in state & has been since the early 90s. All of the 80s were wonderful times for hip-hop & rap during it's times of development & innovation. Unfortunately, I just don't like what it finally developed into.
The slow, r&b driven beats with "look at my gold & my benz & my guns & my b1tches" raps is just hip-hop by numbers to me. No inspiration, just a money-making machine...

...all IMHO, of course.

quote:

Originally posted by Petey Awol:
Whats killed and is still killing hip hop is the "club bangers". The songs that designed for you to grind your crotch into some floozy's ass.

There´s nothing wrong with "club bangers" like 2LiveCrew and 69Boyz for example!
About the year: Early Ninetees like Wu Tang Clan, KRS One, Mobb Deep, Pete Rock and C.L.Smooth, Poor Righteous Teachers, Black Sheep, Bush Babees, Native Tongues...

Im refering to club bangers such as...50 Cents In The Club. Puffy's entire production catalouge post-Ready To Die. Chamillionaire's Ridin Dirty. Young Jeezy's Go Getta.

Prime examples of music made for club play and out right commericalism. No contribution to the creative future of hip hop. "Cookie Cutter" music if you will. Its comparable to the pop culture music of boy bands. Only a select few make lasting contribution to this ideology of hip hop these days. Best example is something like...The Roots. Illest rhymes over organic band music.

Trust me....you know what I mean here....theres good, and bad......no real middle ground anymore.

Yes, I see your point, petey. But when some years are gone nothing is that black and white anymore.
For example: Notorious B.I.G´s "hypnotize" or puffy&mase "can´t nobody hold me down". I hated this tracks when they came out for their commercialism, their bad video clips... When I hear them now, I must confess, I like them in a way. Some funky stuff. Not scared to play this on a party now, because the massive likes to dance to it. But maybe people in germany are not so involved in the whole topic and care less for the lyrics because they are not native english speaking? I think it´s the same phenomenon like with 80´s pop. Things you can´t hear in your youth (because it runs on the radio all day) gets some sentimental quality now.

Yeah, I'm surprised to find that there is the odd good hip hop track out there, such as Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones Pt II".

The trouble is those gems are hidden in the piles of dross & I only ever happen across them by accident. I discovered Shook Ones from the movie 8 Mile...