READY TO DIE
I think I must be the only person in the world who actually prefers Life After Death. I realise that it's a tiny bit flabby (no pun intended) and a bit too poppy, but it has so much more amazing stuff on it, I think. It's a grander gesture, too, being a double album. I don't think he'd quite found his feet on the first album, you can tell from the higher-pitched rapping. Great stuff though (although I gotta say, I HATE 'Juicy.')
The Chronic's far from flawless. Don't get me wrong, it's a classic slice of g-funk, but there's a reason Snoop's all over that record like a rash and that's that Dre is a great producer, not a great MC. He's not bad by any means, but he's not world class either. Put The Chronic up against Cube's best solo records like Amerikkka's Most Wanted and The Predator and I think Cube looks much stronger. The Chronic just doesn't have anything which can hold up against tracks like We Had To Tear This Mothafucka Up and When Will They Shoot.
Cube was always the better MC, but he's not always had the better production. As far as I'm concerned, like so many others, he was never better than with Dre behind him. Dre's only done two albums, but it's got much higher quality control, I think.
Speaking of NWA, great as Straight Outta Compton is it has the problem of starting out strong and then tailing off towards the end. It's downhill after Express Yourself. And then there was the horrible disappointment of Efil4zaggin. 100 Miles And Running proved that they could cut it without Cube and then they screwed it all up.
Most rap albums have some filler on them. Every rapper seems to think they need to fill the disc to maximum capacity and it means there's a lot of filler. Compton's classic tracks stand up, I think, though. The one I think gets too little appreciation out of the classic ones on there is 'Gangsta, Gangsta.' I love that it spins off in a totally different direction a few minutes in, there aren't many artists who do that in rap these days. They tend to go beat, bass, that'll do.
100 Miles And Runnin', the song, is I think their crowning achievement outside of Cube. It's like a James Bond theme but with the n-word in it. It's so epic and widescreen, you don't get that much in rap and I wish it happened more often. Plus, despite the hilariously unnecessary bits with Eazy, 'Just Don't Bite It' has a really killer beat, a real slinky one that makes me want to dance. And I NEVER dance.
As for Efil4zaggin - I think it gets too much of a bad rap, no pun intended. It is highly flawed, yes, and again, really overlong, but I think it's got enough classic moments to be worth looking at. I think that they were so aware of their own hype that at times they were even sending themselves up, like on 'Automobile' which I long to learn to play for a girlfriend one day. A jazzy piano groove about rape in a car? What's not to love? Plus, I think that the beat on 'Real Niggaz Don't Die' among Dre's most stunning work, especially if you listen to how it collapses from speaker to speaker on headphones. I wish he'd done more stuff like that. Again, it's epic, and I like that!
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Topic: what is your favourite HIP HOP/RAP album? (a picture thread) (Read 12196 times)