Bring That Beat Back

Hopefully I'll be able to make a segment like this at least once a week. One thing that a lot of new-school hip hop fans seem to over look are the classics, the albums that essentially made this genre what it is. Even the most learned underground enthusiast could be completely oblivious to the magic of such brilliance as Paid In Full, Criminal Minded, Straight Outta Compton, It Takes A Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back etc. I, personally, was first pulled towards the early 90s-late 80s Gangsta Rap music, starting - naturally - with the aforementioned Straight Outta Compton and using that as a building block to discovering more West Coast acts such as Compton's Most Wanted, Above The Law and The D.O.C. - which then allowed me to follow the paths of the more proficient members of each group, or affiliates and such, until I found myself exploring an endless labyrinth of music, all the way to NYC with the Boot Camp Clik and Wu-Tang and such. I'm going off on a tangent. The point is a long the way I've found myself moving away from the classics I fell in love with and I'm hoping that this series will allow me to go back and explore, and share, the hip hop I once considered to be above all else.

And so...
Paid In Full is an album that should be in every hip hop fan's collection. To dispute it's classic title is to essentially commit hip hop blasphemy, Rakim's rhymes and delivery were so ahead of their time that when you compare the shit he spits in 87 to the stuff you're hearing in 09, you'll wonder how in fuck's name your favorite rapper from the South got his record deal. The production on this album is fucking timless, Marley Marl provides his booming drums and (at the time) vintage sampling with scratches from Eric B to great effect on My Melody and Eric B Is President (although Eric B claims Marley was just in the studio to nod his head and tell him how dope his shit is but I doubt it). While Rakim may not have been as socially conscious as fellow 87-Classic album maker KRS-One (going under the name of Boogie Down Productions with DJ Scott LaRock and to a MUCH lesser extent D-Nice), but he's without a doubt the more talented lyricist of the two, indeed; the man practically invented the rhyme style that most artists even TODAY use, and while the he may not be as outspoken as KRS-One, and while his solo work was received poorly (although I LIKED The 18th Letter) he's still, in my opinion, the best MC of all time.
Oh come on, if you didn't expect this next then your head is either up your arse or lieing 10 ft from your body. As stated before, Boogie Down Productions (BDP) consists of KRS-One, Dj Scott LaRock and D-Nice, KRS was essentially the main man in the crew, both producing and rapping, while Scott LaRock allegedly produced half of the album, (I say allegedly because Ced Gee of the Ultramagnetic MCs claims HE produced more than both KRS and Scott but I'm not sure if that's true and I don't really have the energy to go and check) while D-Nice clocked in for one song on the debut and then went back to bed. BDP as a group is notable as being the instigators of the first proper rap feud, the legendary Bridge Wars. KRS was the first artist to really embrace his heritage, as he repeatedly irritates me throughout his catalog by deciding to rap using a powerful Jamaican accent. However, I'm supposed to be writing about this album in a positive light so I'll get back to that. Criminal Minded is generally considered as one of the finest offerings to hip hop of all time, and while the album as a whole sounds pretty dated when compared to Paid In Full, there is, once again, no denying the classic status that this album has obtained. Most of this album won't appeal to new heads, which you may think defeats the purpose of this post, but how could I mention any classic album without including this? Fortunately my taste DOESN'T lie exclusively to new shit (quite the opposite) so this album is right up my alley. Most appreciators of this time period will have this album anyway, but I would certainly recommend this to those who haven't.

Please comment and tell me what you thought of this, I wanted to wrap this up nicely as my Eastenders starts in 8 minutes, I'll be posting these every week or so with 2-3 summaries at a time, so PLEASE don't tell me I should have posted this album or that album. I'll most likely get to it.