What are some essential discographies?

[It is a mystery]

Isaac Hayes.
His discography isn't too long and is very good

 

[SteelCitySoldier]

Who is Jill Scott

Alicia Keys Unplugged

 

[Kyle C. Barker]

I wouldn't recommend getting these artists entire discography, just the albums when they were in their most creative period.

Tribe (First 3)
MJ (Off The Wall - Dangerous)
Prince (1978 - 1988)
Parliament/Funkadelic (everything)
Stevie Wonder (Music of my Mind - Hotter Than July)
Portishead (All 3)
De La Soul (First 4)
Gangstarr (Daily Operation - Moment of Truth)
UGK (Too Hard 2 Swallow - Riding Dirty)
Outkast (First 4)
Ghostface (Iron Man - Fishscale)
The Beatles (Rubber Soul - Let It Be)
Led Zeppelin (everything)
Alice Coltrane (everything)
D'Angelo (everything)
The Roots (Do You Want More - Game Theory)
Common (Resurrection - Finding Forever)
Erykah Badu (Baduizm - New Amerykah pt 1)
Ice Cube (Amerikkka's Most Wanted - Laugh Now, Cry Later)
Public Enemy (It Takes A Nation... - Apocalypse '91)
Jimi Hendrix (First 3)
Bob Marley (Catch A Fire - Uprising)
Anita Baker (The Songstress - Giving You The Best That I Got)
R. Kelly (12 Play - Chocolate Factory)
Eric B & Rakim (All 4)
EPMD (Strictly Business - Business Never Personal)
Mary J. Blige (What's the 411 - Share My World)
Aaliyah (everything)
Beanie Sigel (everything)

I like this list a lot. I'd change up the roots selection to illadelph Half-Life and things fall apart.

Also add nas's first two albums

 

[Kyle C. Barker]

As for white music I'll add in

Portishead, bjork, and jamieoquai

 

[Dontay Flaco]

Madlib
Fela Kuti
Jamiroquai
D'angelo

 

[str8up]

Another personal favorite of mine is Deerhunter; all their albums are really good

 

[Piff Perkins]

Michael Jackson
Stevie Wonder
David Bowie
Prince
Marvin Gaye
John Coltrane

Having a general familiarity with those catalogs will up your musical IQ significantly. They're some of the most influential artists, post James Brown. You might be able to argue Jackson, Bowie, and Prince are the top 3 most influential post James Brown.

 

[tuckgod]

I like this list a lot. I'd change up the roots selection to illadelph Half-Life and things fall apart.

Also add nas's first two albums

I appreciate it, breh. Do You Want More?! is one of my favorite albums ever. It did come out when I was in 11th grade though, so I may be a little biased about that one. I didn't add Nas, Jay, Big, etc. because I figured homey already knew those ones. I also tried to limit the list to artists that had more than a two album run of greatness.

Add: Marvin Gaye (how the fukk did I forget him?!) (What's Going On - In Our Lifetime)

 

[Yoda]

Another personal favorite of mine is Deerhunter; all their albums are really good

pure piff, breh. i am a proud bradford cox stan.

 

[Apex]

Michael Jackson
Stevie Wonder
David Bowie
Prince
Marvin Gaye
John Coltrane

Having a general familiarity with those catalogs will up your musical IQ significantly. They're some of the most influential artists, post James Brown. You might be able to argue Jackson, Bowie, and Prince are the top 3 most influential post James Brown.

Can I ask you a question as a young dude out here who's trying to get into older music?

Do you enjoy these artists just as much as, say, Drake, Future, the Weeknd, J. Cole, Kendrick, and all these young cats? Like, genuinely?

 

[Piff Perkins]

Can I ask you a question as a young dude out here who's trying to get into older music?

Do you enjoy these artists just as much as, say, Drake, Future, the Weeknd, J. Cole, Kendrick, and all these young cats? Like, genuinely?

Definitely. I grew up listening to all types of music. My parents would play every genre. Motown, The Police, Miles Davis, Tina Turner, Hall & Oates, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Clark Sisters, etc. They weren't really Prince fans tho.

I like what Q-Tip said: there was no such thing as "black" or "white" music to his family growing up, good music was good music. I love Kendrick, Weeknd, and all types of new stuff but also love the classics. Can't Feel My Face is dope as fukk but I'm gonna rock out to All I Do more.


IMO everyone should have a diverse taste. Just open yourself up to different things. For instance today I've listened to Prince, Nas, Black Milk, Elucid, Mobb Deep, Kendrick, and John Coltrane. Right now I'm trying to get my cat to call the fukk down cuz it's raining/lightning outside while listening to this



When I got into hip hop I'd always be interested in the samples. It was like solving a puzzle, listening to my mom's music and saying "oh shyt, Pete Rock sampled this part!" That was always cool me and expanded my musical tastes too. I'd imagine you could listen to Drake and kinda be curious to find the Hotline Bling sample, for instance.

 

[Rice N Beans]

Off the top, I think:

Placebo
Sigur Ros
Caravan Palace
The Sounds
Mew
Radiohead
Florence + the Machine
Stereophonics
The Verve
Blur
Oasis
NIN
Blink 182
Queen

Are pretty solid discographies. All subjective though.

I'd paste more but these are what I usually can go to for a good album spin. I don't normally just do singles. My childhood was in the tape end and disc era so I listen to albums rather than singles.

 

[Jack Skellington]

all these albums are 10/10

 

[Apex]

Bump.

 

[Apex]

Michael Jackson
Stevie Wonder
David Bowie
Prince
Marvin Gaye
John Coltrane

Having a general familiarity with those catalogs will up your musical IQ significantly. They're some of the most influential artists, post James Brown. You might be able to argue Jackson, Bowie, and Prince are the top 3 most influential post James Brown.

Can you elaborate on their influence? What did they do to influence artists? How so in terms of the sonics? If so, who? I've never heard even one project from these artists, but I definitely will.