I was 16 years old growing up in Atlanta when I bought Doggystyle the day it came out. I never new this album without the Isaac Hayes track.
Just wanted to sneak in a few before we get to 1994, as I didn't see them mentioned. This is a 3 part post... RBL Posse - Lessoned to be Learned. This is one of those sleeper albums from Oakland that someone left in your tape deck in 1992, and you ended up listening to it for a week. It samples Steve Miller Band "Fly Like and Eagle" (25:00). Still one of my favorite funk raps from the west coast, the more vulgar the better (ever more than Too $short!!!)
Body Count - Body Count. This crossover album has Ice-T going heavy metal. It's amazing that he shed his street image and embraced the heavy metal scene, which frankly had neo-Nazi connotations to my teenage brain, all the way back in 1992. Check out the album cover then click through to the Jimi Hendrix "Foxy Lady" sample (48:25)...
Guru - Jazzmatazz Vol 1. Live jazz mixed with hip-hop begins in 1993. Enough said. Could it be that Berklee Music scene in Boston rubbed off on the better half of Gang Starr? Thank you sir.
King Tee - Tha Triflin' Album (1992) is brilliant as well. Not to mention Diamond D... Pretty hard to top that one! Definitely one of the best hip hop albums of all time. Lots of interesting clips and mentions in this thread. Must check some of them out soon...
alright guys - I'm cooking up a 93 playlist. I've made it collaborative, so feel free to add any tunes. absolute bangers only please! 93 - The Golden Age, a playlist by silkyskillz on Spotify
Remember Damon Dash? He's just released his directorial debut on Blu-ray. Cam'ron is one of the actors in it. There's not as much Hip-Hop music in it as I imagined, but a Raekwon song among others does appear. Honor Up Blu-ray Review - DoBlu.com
Huge fan of both Cam and Damon Dash — thank you for the tip on this! Have always dug Cam’ron as an actor in Paid in Full, Killa Season, his music videos, viral videos, basically anything he’s done on camera.
Anyone mention the Leaders of the New School LP that came out in 93? A young Busta. Both their albums are worth checking out.
It was a great year in hip-hop music. I was still buying a lot of albums on the day of release, but for many of them, I wouldn't fully appreciate them until years later. What are your favorite hip-h0p albums from 1994? Here's my list: 5. Digable Planets Blowout Comb 4. Jeru The Damaja The Sun Rises In The East 3. Notorious B.I.G. Ready To Die 2. Outkast Southernplayalisiccadillacmuzik 1. Nas Illmatic
1. Common Sense - Resurrection 2. The Beatnuts - The Beatnuts: Street Level 3. Nas - Illmatic 4. Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die 5. Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
This is around the year that I started to really appreciate hip hop. I was loving that Beasties and Public Enemy. Since then I've gone back and discovered quite a few gems from that year. A few that I still listen to... Beastie Boys - Ill Communication Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik Warren G - Regulate... G Funk Era Digable Planets - Blowout Comb Public Enemy - Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age Fugees - Blunted on Reality KMD - Bl_ck B_st_rds
Favorites from 1994: Beastie Boys- Ill Communication Keith Murray- The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World Gang Starr- Hard To Earn Biggie- Ready To Die Jeru- The Sun Rises In The East
Also some of my favorite singles: The Lady Of Rage – Afro Puffs Label: Death Row Records (2) – 95841-0, Interscope Records – 95841-0 Format: Vinyl, 12" Country: US Released: 1994 Genre: Hip Hop Style: Gangsta Craig Mack – Flava In Ya Ear Label: Bad Boy Entertainment – 78612-79002-1 Format: Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM Country: US Released: 1994 Genre: Hip Hop Style:
The first couple months of '94 were a little weak on new releases, but I suppose that was to be expected. Just a couple months prior, at the end of '93, we got Midnight Marauders, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and Doggystyle all back-to-back. In early February, it seemed like we might be getting an exciting new Beastie Boys album, but it turned out Some Old Bulls**t lived up to its title--a bunch of early '80s punk rock tracks and not the excellent Ill Communication that would come out in the summer. IMO, the first great album from '94 came out in March when Gang Starr dropped Hard To Earn. Even if there were no other reason for me to pick this up, I would've anyway to finally have the track "DWYCK." Anyone know why this was left off Daily Operation? As it turns out, there are a lot of great tracks on Hard To Earn, so this one stayed in heavy rotation in my cassette player for a while. "Mass Appeal" by Gang Starr
April 19, 1994 I remember buying this cassette the same week it came out, but it would take several years for me to fully appreciate just how good this album is. I definitely liked it right away, but it's one of those albums that never really gets tired and only gets better each time. Do you remember the first time you heard Illmatic, and if so, what were your first impressions? What do you think of it now?
If you've never heard the demo mix of "It Ain't Hard To Tell," you are missing out on hip hop greatness! Why has this not been released officially on one of the album reissues?!?
How Nas' "Illmatic" Ruined Hip-Hop A good read. The article points out that Illmatic was the first hip hop album to use multiple producers, a tactic that not only changed hip hop but also "ruined" it. Do you agree or not?
Crazy year. 94-96 was insanity. 1. Organized Konfusion 2. Nas 3. Pete Rock & CL Smooth 4. OC 5. Common 6. Redman 7. Biggie 8. Gravediggaz (How is this not in the pic??) 9. Gang Starr 10. Scarface Hard to leave a lot of this other stuff out. Also I don't really think of the KMD as a 94 album.
Great choices! Those album cover collages are things I found online. If I had put them together, the Gravediggaz album would most certainly have been included. I had never heard that album until about 10 years ago. I have no idea how I missed it when it came out, but possibly it was because none of the songs received much, if any, airplay. Did Yo! play any of the videos?
I think it was two things that really drove that trend and made it widespread. First, Puff Daddy and Bad Boy Records heavily used multiple producers for many of that label's big records. Secondly, Master P started having massive success with an in-house group of producers called Beats By the Pound around the same time. Their commercial success made it far more prevalent and many labels started copying it. I think it was inevitable because Hip-Hop moved from a singles-oriented market to an album-oriented market in the 1990s. The demands on one producer to come up with an entire "hit" album wore out even legends like Dr. Dre and Rza after a while.