Top 25 Albums
#1 N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton (1988)
N.W.A. is the most influential act of the last thirty years -- bigger than Nirvana, Madonna or the Sex Pistols. Nothing has ever been the same since they came. I remember I was in L.A. when I was a kid, and I brought Straight Outta Compton back to New York. More people were coming over to my house to listen to N.W.A. than were going across the street to the crack house. I had the real shyt. It was kind of like the British Invasion for black people.
#2 Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle (1993)
Doggystyle, to me, is better than Dr. Dre's Chronic. It has held up way better because it's a party album, and its lyrics are better. The Chronic is sonically incredible, but it's hard to drive around singing songs about "Eazy-E can eat a big fat dikk." But I got a feeling I'll be singing "Gin and Juice" when I'm ninety.
#3 2Pac - Rap Phenomenon II (2003) (bootleg/Unauthorized)
You'd have to go to Harlem or a swap meet to get this one. It's done by DJ Green Lantern, DJ Vlad and Dirty Harry. They got tapes of Tupac's vocals and put them over all the newest, baddest beats of the last four years. So you hear Tupac rapping over the "Hate Me Now" beat. It's the best shyt in the world. It's ultimate fighting music. You will kill somebody listening to this shyt.
#4 Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell (1986)
Raising Hell is the first great rap album ever. I like Run, but I love DMC. No one ever sounded like DMC; no one ever looks like DMC. He's like a superhero. Raising Hell is probably Rick Rubin's best record. "It's Tricky" is a weird song because it's so gangsta and pop at the same time. There's a track on there, "Hit It Run", which is just DMC with Run doing the human beatbox: "I leave all suckers in the dust/Those dumb motherfukkers can't mess with us." It was actually the first time I heard a guy curse on a record.
#5 The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde (1992)
Only in rap do you get one-album-wonders. The Pharcyde are like the Boston of rap. I don't know what happened afterward, but the first Pharcyde album is incredible. The rhyming is great, the vocals are great, the production is ridiculous. Everything is just way ahead of its time. It's a shame everybody got overtaken by gangsterism. Everyone wants to be hard, so they don't make records like this anymore. It happens to comedians, too. They want to be cool, but just being funny is cool.
#6 LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out (1990)
The beauty of LL's Mama Said Knock You Out is that it's like the Secret deodorant: strong enough for a man, but made for a woman. It's hard gangsta shyt. But at the same time, I could put the CD on with my mother in the car and drive from New York to Philly. It's also the first comeback in rap. It's the real blueprint: if people think you're done, this is how you come back. It's one of my favorite albums ever. It's LL at his best and Marley Marl at his best. It's LL as Madonna, in the sense of Madonna saying, "Who's the hot producer?
#7 EPMD - Unfinished Business (1989)
The second EPMD album is as good as two guys can get whose names aren't Run and DMC. The production is insanity. Before Eminem made "Lose Yourself", "Please Listen To My Demo" was the best record about wanting to become a rapper ever made.
#8 Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989)
Don't go anywhere without it. It's one of those records that you buy every time you're in a rental car. It's also one of those records that you thought sucked the day you bought it. You were mad because it sounded nothing like Licensed To Ill. Then a month later, you're like, "This is the best shyt ever. High Plains Drifter is the best song ever made."
#9 A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory (1991)
It's really hard to top this album. They made other good records, but they never got to this level again. It is from beginning to end a masterpiece. Phife has got a weird midget-DMC energy. And as much as I love Q-Tip, nobody's bigger than the group. He and Phife together are just incredible.
#10 De La Soul - Buhloone Mind State (1993)
The first two De La Soul albums are two of the greatest albums ever, but Buhloone Mindstate is so grown up. It helped shape me as a comedian. It's the last album Prince Paul produced for them and, as far as I'm concerned, he's a member of De La Soul. If you take Prince Paul out, none of the albums hold up. It's also got that great line "fukk being heard, Posdnuos is complicated." That's some gangsta shyt, because he don't give a fukk.
#11 The D.O.C. - No One Can Do It Better (1989)
Before Dre found Snoop, he had the D.O.C. I was going to school in Brooklyn, and the only time you could see rap videos was on a weekend show with Ralph McDaniels called Video Music Box. D.O.C.'s video for "It's Funky Enough" premiered, and D.O.C. had an L.A. Kings hat on. When I came to school on Monday, half the kids in Brooklyn had L.A. Kings hats on. It was official. The whole album was great, especially the last cut, "The Grand Finale," with The D.O.C. and N.W.A.
#12 Eric B. & Rakim - Follow the Leader (1998)
If I ever have a son, his middle name will be Rakim. "Lyrics Of Fury" is probablly, lyrically, the best rapping anyone's ever done. The line I love most is on "Follow The Leader": "I can take a phrase that's rarely heard/Flip it/Now it's a daily word." That's what every writer aspires to. It's the flyest shyt I've ever heard. I have that on a wall in my office. The coolest thing about Rakim is that he's the only rapper who really has a mystique. He's still to this day the most mysterious guy in rap. He's not quite Sly Stone, but people wonder.
#13 Genius/GZA - Liquid Swords (1995)
For my money, Liquid Swords is the best Wu-Tang Clan album. It's like the Songs in the Key of Life of rap. It's so fukking smart and so hard. Everybody's on there, too. You don't really need a Wu-Tang album; Liquid Swords is all you really need to know. As you grow older, you look for records that hold up. And Liquid Swords holds up.
#14 Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele (2000)
This will go down as the last great Wu-Tang album. "Stroke Of Death" is so gangster it makes you wanna stab your baby sitter. There's a record on there that's just a scratch; Ghostface lets the beat play for four seconds, then keeps bringing it back. My other favorite Wu-Tang albumis Ol' Dirty b*stard's nikka Please. It's so much fun. It's kind of like There's A Riot Goin' On, because he was that high.
#15 Geto Boys - The Resurrection (1996)
The last line of the whole album is "I'm the type of nikka that throws a party when the flag burns/I'm at the point of no return." When I heard that lyric, I was like, "OK, you got me, man." The whole Resurrection album is Scarface, Willie D, and Bushwick Bill getting politically conscious, but in a Geto Boys way. It's gangsta, and it's an incredible record. It's also (Audioslave/Rage Against The Machine guitarist) Tom Morello's favorite album.
#1 N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton (1988)
N.W.A. is the most influential act of the last thirty years -- bigger than Nirvana, Madonna or the Sex Pistols. Nothing has ever been the same since they came. I remember I was in L.A. when I was a kid, and I brought Straight Outta Compton back to New York. More people were coming over to my house to listen to N.W.A. than were going across the street to the crack house. I had the real shyt. It was kind of like the British Invasion for black people.
#2 Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle (1993)
Doggystyle, to me, is better than Dr. Dre's Chronic. It has held up way better because it's a party album, and its lyrics are better. The Chronic is sonically incredible, but it's hard to drive around singing songs about "Eazy-E can eat a big fat dikk." But I got a feeling I'll be singing "Gin and Juice" when I'm ninety.
#3 2Pac - Rap Phenomenon II (2003) (bootleg/Unauthorized)
You'd have to go to Harlem or a swap meet to get this one. It's done by DJ Green Lantern, DJ Vlad and Dirty Harry. They got tapes of Tupac's vocals and put them over all the newest, baddest beats of the last four years. So you hear Tupac rapping over the "Hate Me Now" beat. It's the best shyt in the world. It's ultimate fighting music. You will kill somebody listening to this shyt.
#4 Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell (1986)
Raising Hell is the first great rap album ever. I like Run, but I love DMC. No one ever sounded like DMC; no one ever looks like DMC. He's like a superhero. Raising Hell is probably Rick Rubin's best record. "It's Tricky" is a weird song because it's so gangsta and pop at the same time. There's a track on there, "Hit It Run", which is just DMC with Run doing the human beatbox: "I leave all suckers in the dust/Those dumb motherfukkers can't mess with us." It was actually the first time I heard a guy curse on a record.
#5 The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde (1992)
Only in rap do you get one-album-wonders. The Pharcyde are like the Boston of rap. I don't know what happened afterward, but the first Pharcyde album is incredible. The rhyming is great, the vocals are great, the production is ridiculous. Everything is just way ahead of its time. It's a shame everybody got overtaken by gangsterism. Everyone wants to be hard, so they don't make records like this anymore. It happens to comedians, too. They want to be cool, but just being funny is cool.
#6 LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out (1990)
The beauty of LL's Mama Said Knock You Out is that it's like the Secret deodorant: strong enough for a man, but made for a woman. It's hard gangsta shyt. But at the same time, I could put the CD on with my mother in the car and drive from New York to Philly. It's also the first comeback in rap. It's the real blueprint: if people think you're done, this is how you come back. It's one of my favorite albums ever. It's LL at his best and Marley Marl at his best. It's LL as Madonna, in the sense of Madonna saying, "Who's the hot producer?
#7 EPMD - Unfinished Business (1989)
The second EPMD album is as good as two guys can get whose names aren't Run and DMC. The production is insanity. Before Eminem made "Lose Yourself", "Please Listen To My Demo" was the best record about wanting to become a rapper ever made.
#8 Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989)
Don't go anywhere without it. It's one of those records that you buy every time you're in a rental car. It's also one of those records that you thought sucked the day you bought it. You were mad because it sounded nothing like Licensed To Ill. Then a month later, you're like, "This is the best shyt ever. High Plains Drifter is the best song ever made."
#9 A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory (1991)
It's really hard to top this album. They made other good records, but they never got to this level again. It is from beginning to end a masterpiece. Phife has got a weird midget-DMC energy. And as much as I love Q-Tip, nobody's bigger than the group. He and Phife together are just incredible.
#10 De La Soul - Buhloone Mind State (1993)
The first two De La Soul albums are two of the greatest albums ever, but Buhloone Mindstate is so grown up. It helped shape me as a comedian. It's the last album Prince Paul produced for them and, as far as I'm concerned, he's a member of De La Soul. If you take Prince Paul out, none of the albums hold up. It's also got that great line "fukk being heard, Posdnuos is complicated." That's some gangsta shyt, because he don't give a fukk.
#11 The D.O.C. - No One Can Do It Better (1989)
Before Dre found Snoop, he had the D.O.C. I was going to school in Brooklyn, and the only time you could see rap videos was on a weekend show with Ralph McDaniels called Video Music Box. D.O.C.'s video for "It's Funky Enough" premiered, and D.O.C. had an L.A. Kings hat on. When I came to school on Monday, half the kids in Brooklyn had L.A. Kings hats on. It was official. The whole album was great, especially the last cut, "The Grand Finale," with The D.O.C. and N.W.A.
#12 Eric B. & Rakim - Follow the Leader (1998)
If I ever have a son, his middle name will be Rakim. "Lyrics Of Fury" is probablly, lyrically, the best rapping anyone's ever done. The line I love most is on "Follow The Leader": "I can take a phrase that's rarely heard/Flip it/Now it's a daily word." That's what every writer aspires to. It's the flyest shyt I've ever heard. I have that on a wall in my office. The coolest thing about Rakim is that he's the only rapper who really has a mystique. He's still to this day the most mysterious guy in rap. He's not quite Sly Stone, but people wonder.
#13 Genius/GZA - Liquid Swords (1995)
For my money, Liquid Swords is the best Wu-Tang Clan album. It's like the Songs in the Key of Life of rap. It's so fukking smart and so hard. Everybody's on there, too. You don't really need a Wu-Tang album; Liquid Swords is all you really need to know. As you grow older, you look for records that hold up. And Liquid Swords holds up.
#14 Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele (2000)
This will go down as the last great Wu-Tang album. "Stroke Of Death" is so gangster it makes you wanna stab your baby sitter. There's a record on there that's just a scratch; Ghostface lets the beat play for four seconds, then keeps bringing it back. My other favorite Wu-Tang albumis Ol' Dirty b*stard's nikka Please. It's so much fun. It's kind of like There's A Riot Goin' On, because he was that high.
#15 Geto Boys - The Resurrection (1996)
The last line of the whole album is "I'm the type of nikka that throws a party when the flag burns/I'm at the point of no return." When I heard that lyric, I was like, "OK, you got me, man." The whole Resurrection album is Scarface, Willie D, and Bushwick Bill getting politically conscious, but in a Geto Boys way. It's gangsta, and it's an incredible record. It's also (Audioslave/Rage Against The Machine guitarist) Tom Morello's favorite album.
That tape does go hard tho, he got a Pac album in his top 3 and stay biggin him up so he definitely don't hate him. If anythin he hates B.I.G., he got Beastie Boys a Wyclef album and a nikka no one's ever heard of at 25 but ain't got a Biggie album on his list.
@ wyclef
