Hip Hop Draft: Results and Analysis

[cpwilson80]

MikeLastort :: #9 pick
1. Astmosphere - Seven's Travels
2. Black Star - Black Star
3. King Geedorah - Take Me To Your Leader
4. Outkast - Aquemini
5. Handsome Boy Modeling School - So... How's Your Girl?
6. Common - Resurrection
7. Jedi Mind Tricks - Violent By Design
8. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - I Wish My Brother George Was Here
9. Dangerdoom - The Mouse and the Mask
10. Various Artists - Soundbombing II


Overall, not my tastes. Black Star is a classic, and Aquemini's best stuff is ridiculous. Resurrection is solid, and I dig How's Your Girl. Not a fan of Violent By Design, nor Seven's Travels. If I went with Del, would have gone with Both Sides of the Brain.

Favorite Album: Black Star
Steal: Aquemini at 4
Reach: Seven's Travels at 1
Need to check out: Soundbombing comp

[cpwilson80]

cpwilson80 :: #8 pick
1. Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
2. Dr. Dre - The Chronic
3. Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory
4. Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow
5. Jay-Z - Blueprint
6. Wu-tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever
7. Jurassic 5 - Quality Control
8. 2Pac - Me Against The World
9. Kanye West - Late Registration
10. Dizzee Rascal - Showtime

It's like this person read my mind ;)

Favorite Album: Fear of a Black Planet
Steal: Quality Control at 7
Reach: Wu-Tang Forever at 6 (probably would have slipped another round or two)
Need to check out: N/A

[cpwilson80]

Iceblink's Choices:
1. X Clan - To the East, Blackwards
2. The Roots - Things Fall Apart
3. Slick Rick - The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
4. Eminem - The Eminem Show
5. Liqdzunshine - Audiopleasure
6. Mr. Lif - I Phantom
7. Danger Mouse and Jay-Z - The Grey Album
8. Isis - Rebel Soul
9. P.M. Dawn - Of the Heart, Of the Soul, and Of the Cross: The Utopian Experience
10. Litefoot - Native American Me

I'll profess ignorance to half of these picks. The Grey Album is monumental, and Mr. Lif is a great MC (I prefer Emergency Rations, but it's only an EP.) Eminem isn't my bag, nor is PM Dawn. I like the Roots, but never love them. I know of a hardcore band called Isis, but never the hip hop group.

Favorite Album: Grey Album
Steal: Grey Album at 7
Reach: Things Fall Apart at 2
Need to check out: X Clan

[cpwilson80]

Mel Brennan
1. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back – Public Enemy
2. Live Hardcore Worldwide - Paris, London & NYC – BDP
3. Stakes is High – De La Soul
4. No One Can Do It Better – The D.O.C.
5. EPMD – Strictly Business
6. Be Bop or Be Dead – Umar Bin Hassan
7. Sex Packets – Digital Underground
8. The Sun Rises in the East – Jeru the Damaja
9. Holy Intellect – Poor Righteous Teachers
10.Run-D.M.C. - Run-D.M.C.


Showing my age, I've heard of but never listened to half of these. Nation of Millions is my favorite hip-hop album ever. I aways thought EPMD was underrated. Good or bad, this list shows its age, with I think one CD released past 92/93 (Stakes is High.)

Favorite Album: Nation of Millions
Steal: Nation of Millions with the #4 pick in the draft
Reach: No one can do it better at 4
Need to check out: Sun Rises in the East

[cpwilson80]

Metroweenie
1 – Midnight Marauders - A Tribe Called Quest
2 – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx - Raekwon the Chef featuring Ghostface Killah
3 – The Message - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
4 – Operation Doomsday - MF Doom
5 – Mecca and the Soul Brother - Pete Rock and CL Smooth
6 – Road to the Riches - Kool G Rap and DJ Polo
7 – Bizzare Ride II - The Pharcyde
8 – Lifestylez ov da Poor and Dangerous - Big L
9 - Revolutionary Vol. II - Immortal Technique
10 – The Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera - MF Grimm


An interesting mix. Midnight Marauders and Cuban Linx are classics. Great picks with Mecca and Road to Riches. I'm not a huge Immortal Technique fan. The Message is the only "early years of rap" pick I would have made.

Favorite Album: Cuban Linx
Steal: Bizzare Ride II at 7
Reach: Operation Doomsday at 4
Need to check out: Lifestylez...

[cpwilson80]

Fleck
1. 2Pac - All Eyez On Me
2. Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle
3. Kanye West - The College Dropout
4. Warren G - Regulate... G Funk Era
5. Notorious BIG - Life After Death
6. Jay-z - The Black Album
7. Dr. Dre - 2oo1
8. Nelly - Country Grammar
9. Outkast - SpeakerBoxx/theLoveBelow
10. The Game - The Documentary


Showing age the other way, as I think Doggystyle is the earliest CD on here. I love Doggystyle, All Eyez on Me (though a round early), 2001, College Dropout and SpeakerBoxxx. I like Warren G better as a collaborator, I'm not a huge fan of the Black Album, and the less said about Nelly the better.

Favorite Album: Doggystyle
Steal: SpeakerBoxx at 9
Reach: Warren G at 4/Inclusion of Nelly
Need to check out: Give Life After Death another listen to see how I feel about the pick at 5

[Malaga CF fan]

I can't believe this one didn't get snatched up.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002UUN.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

There were a lot of good picks from everybody, but it seemed like y'all were trying too hard. This one was easy.

This one got passed over too.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000719UL.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I know Beautiful Struggle and Black Star were picked, but this one is better than Beautiful Struggle and on a level with Black Star in my opinion...

Bummed I missed getting in on this draft though.

[Mr. Bee]

I can't believe this one didn't get snatched up.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002UUN.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg.

Me too. I can't believe one Beastie Boys album went and it wasn't this one.

[servotron]

All beastie boys albums would be 1,000% better if someone else were doing the vocals. Their lyrics are fine, their music is fine, but their overblown screaming high-pitched style is a little old.. hell it was annoying in 1986 and has stood the test of time as still being just as annoying almost 20 years later.

[Mel Brennan]

Showing my age, I've heard of but never listened to half of these. Nation of Millions is my favorite hip-hop album ever. I aways thought EPMD was underrated. Good or bad, this list shows its age, with I think one CD released past 92/93 (Stakes is High.)...

Fair enough; while I listen to copious amounts of the newest-latest, I think that we've been in an age of corporatised commentary and co-opted "rap music" for about a decade and a half...hence this list. You'd think that the new-age of "conscious rap" would be at the forefront, then you actualyl talk with some of these folks, and they won't be at a rally or march unless thet A&R dept. clears it...and PE is still at the forefront with releasing material online regardless of what the corporation thinks...

Yeah, I'm certainly old school, but I'm struggling with whether the new school is saying anything at all. Ever. And whether what they say is strictly studio, strictly contrived, or is somethin they are willing to stand for when it's difficult to do so. For me, this is the Jay-Z/Method Man generation; "I used to sell kilos of coke, I'm guessin' I can sell CDs...I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man; let me handle my business, DAMN!"

Lyrical skill? No doubt. Saying something that's worth something to someone outside the commodification of the form and the function and the message (a commodifiction that characterizes the very process OF music creation in this "rap" genre)? Hardly.

Keep in mind, though, that the vast majority of the members of the Furious five were against the inclusion of "The Message" on their albums, or in their live shows; most of them just wanted to make fun music, without the heavy, image-laden lyrics that Mel Glover came up with. Ironically, it wasn't until "The Message" earned the group credibility (and sales) that the enntire group wanted to churn a "message song" with each album (hence the ready acceptance of "Message II?Survival," "White Lines" and "New York New York."

So, in terms of "rap music" being regularly infused with some sort of soul that makes it independent of the dumbing-down of itself towards admittedly authentic ends of simply play/entertainment, and indepedent of a commodified form that makes it impotent towards social uplift and change, my list reflects that hip-hop may in fact be historic, or at least endangered and on its way to being extinct, imv.

Various so-called underground artists give pause, and offer hope, even as they themselves are "Clive Davis-ified" and made impotent in terms of reflecting the current state; I mean, ask yourself this: The CARTER/REAGAN era, inflation, and the condition of the late 70s/early 80s produced "The Message," but what's going on TODAY inspires noone in that way? Where is the imagery that effectively defines and indicts and then inspires us and others in our current historical moment? If hip-hop cannot respond to the condition right now, it stopped being hip-hop.

[MikeLastort2]

Need to check out: Soundbombing comp

If you like Rawkus, check out all three Soundbombing releases. They're all solid, but I think II is the best.

Another complitaion I really like is the "Return Of The DJ" series.

I was tempted to pick one of them, but since there are 6 (that I know of) picking one was just too hard for me.

:)

[Mr. Bee]

My Ten:
1 – Midnight Marauders - A Tribe Called Quest 5/5
2 – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx - Raekwon the Chef featuring Ghostface Killah 2.5/5 (I know, I know... I just never liked Raekwon)
3 – The Message - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five 3/5 (didn't age well)
4 – Operation Doomsday - MF Doom 6/5 I love you
5 – Mecca and the Soul Brother - Pete Rock and CL Smooth 4/5
6 – Road to the Riches - Kool G Rap and DJ Polo [NR]
7 – Bizzare Ride II - The Pharcyde 4.5/5
8 – Lifestylez ov da Poor and Dangerous - Big L 4/5
9 - Revolutionary Vol. II - Immortal Technique 3.5/5
10 – The Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera - MF Grimm 5/5

Like the list, but not a Raekwon fan at all. You were very solid at the end of the draft, that's for sure... certainly came on in the later rounds.

[cpwilson80]

Very well said


Some rep on the way.

In terms of reflecting the times, I would argue that Mr. Lif's "Home of the Brave" was the best. The song has a sick beat, righteous fury, cutting lines, and no compromise.

I also think that the importance of saying something in rap/hip-hop is slightly overstated. Every great MC from Rakim on down has rapped about how great they are on the mic or how other rappers are weak. I'll take great beats and poor lyrics over poor beats and great lyrics. The music HAS to come first.

Actually, I think delivery even comes before content. I hear this problem with Kweli. I love him for always trying to say something, and when he's on, he's trandscendent (such as "Get By" or "Supreme, Supreme".) When he's off, it sounds awkward...as if he couldn't find a more conscise way to express himself. Given the choice between one of those songs or Snoop's 35th song about how he doesn't love hoes, I'll go with the latter.

However, I fully agree that when you get all three, there's nothing better. I also think that with all the cash at the top, some rappers that could be doing more with the content don't (looking at you Jay-Z.)

This combo is the reason I put 2pac above Notorious: I think he hit all three more often.

[quentinc]

Actually, I think delivery even comes before content. I hear this problem with Kweli. I love him for always trying to say something, and when he's on, he's trandscendent (such as "Get By" or "Supreme, Supreme".) When he's off, it sounds awkward...as if he couldn't find a more conscise way to express himself. Given the choice between one of those songs or Snoop's 35th song about how he doesn't love hoes, I'll go with the latter.
Ironically enough, that sums up my sentiments about Mos Def.

[Fleck]

so who won?