whats your 'high water mark' in hiphop?

[boogers]

a high water mark is basically the highest level the wave/water reached before it receded. in common parlance its used to signify the decline of something. you could say 1967 was the high water mark of the sixties, for example.

with that in mind, what is your personal high water mark in hiphop? whats that one moment, song, album, event, year, whatever, that to you, was the absolute peak of hiphop?

i was thinking about this earlier, and i dont have an answer yet. gonna think on it for a while. but i thought maybe this thread would have some interesting responses, and maybe show me some shyt i've never seen before.

so, what do you think?

 

[Prince.Skeletor]

Nas/Lupe/Papoose/Kendrick/weezy

 

[Knucklehead]

Aquemini album release.
Was extremely excited for it to come out and it lived up to all the anticipation

 

[WIA20XX]

Mid/late 90's - After a show in SW Houston, Common Sense was in the parking lot freestyling with heads. Cipher, just for the fun of it, to get your verses out, to get those in the moment props.

Haven't really seen anything like that, in person, since. Records, radio freestyles, concerts, social media, etc - but nothing like that.

It would be foolish in 2024 for an artist to put themselves in that position today.

 

[RIPODB]

For me it would have to be

When NORE had a body in the trunk and didn’t want to police to smell it if he and Nas got pulled over.

So he lit an incense WHILE IN THE CAR