#3d bass cactus album series#

Building on the work of Afrika Bambaataa and proving that rap could grow beyond its boundaries, the group that started as a punk rap band became the genre’s most sophisticated composers. The album that changed hip hop–and the world. N.W.A – Straight Outta Compton (1988).There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said about this seminal, foundational rap album. Public Enemy-It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988).I lean to East Coast because that’s where I grew up when I lot of these albums were coming out. I’d love to hear about yours, and why you might disagree with me, but this all comes down to taste and preference. Here’s my favorite albums from the early years of rap. (Note: Because the decade contains far fewer releases than the ones that follow, this is a “top 50” list. In just half a decade, the creativity in 1980s hip hop was unlike anything seen before, or since. KRS-One urged black power by all means necessary but then quickly shifted to found the Stop the Violence movement. Public Enemy pushed a radical and incendiary political agenda. a few years, Blondie and the East Village glitterati adopted rap, and artists quickly moved to the equivalent of late 1960s rock and roll and ’70s metal: Scholly D kickstarted gangsta rap for the outlaws. They were like the Little Richards and Chuck Berrys of their time–breaking in on existing terms, trying not to sound incendiary, and creating foundational songs. We started with artists like Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, and Melle Mel. Or, like in the case with Sugar Hill Gang, one good song and a bunch of filler around it.īut once we hit 1985, rap, as a genre, morphed and exploded more quickly than any other style of popular music. I credit Kurtis Blow with the first rap album–his 1980 eponymous debut–but mostly it was singles until mid-’84. Technically, rap started in 1979 with Rapper’s Delight (or a little earlier if you want to go back to King Tim III), but really recorded rap albums started up in ’84. My first list, today, recognizes the best hip hop albums from the era of its birth: The 1980s. So for the sake of not making my readers crazy, we’ll stick to the 00-09 decade configuration.

But also, I know that’s just technically true. And because we’re coming to the true end of the decade: 2020 is the last year of the decade, as the period is marked by the first year, 2001, and goes for 10 years.

#3d bass cactus album series#

Today, I’m starting a series of rap album lists.