Game changing albums

[Bruce LeRoy]

Freestyle Fellowship - Innercity
Griots... The song "Mary" alone birthed Bone Thugs entire style.

Big L - The Big Picture... pretty much every punchline rapper that came out after this album in the 00s was doing a cheap imitation of big l.

 

[Polofresh4]

Since most stuff is already said

Not even my bag...

but I think Cudi's Man on the Moon should be mentioned for the emo rap crowd

I also feel Mood Music 2 should be mentioned but NOT for a sound change. I honestly think this was the first "fukk it, my label wont put out my album so I will make my mixtape an album" release.

House of Balloons needs a mention

Also, Its NOT DS2 (just because it was already here by then), but someone who is closer to that particular scene needs to mention the album that got us from the TI/Jeezy/Gucci trap sound to the Future/Young Thug/Migos more melodic trap sound. Maybe No Label 2?

 

[BmoreGorilla]

I keep seeing y'all saying Jay's Blueprint but Ghostface Supreme Clientele gave birth to the Blueprint

agreed

 

[The True HD]

For me Joey's 1999 brought back that boom bap rap feeling, thought that's the direction rap was getting back to before the trap sound.

Kush & OJ/How Fly with Wiz & Spitta ushered in the current era of weed rappers.

All of these mentioned are mixtapes though, not albums

 

[KnowledgeOfSelf17]

back to illmatic, this was the first hiphop album ever with multiple producers with the rapper. Everyone album we know as now. Have multiple producers. Like all the hot producers at the time, were on. One album..

 

[jackson35]

public enemy's it takes a nation and fear of a black planet

 

[ineedsleep212]

*expected to see The Game "changing" albums*

 

[mobbinfms]

Whats the albums that changed the course of hip hop? These three from 3 different decades undoubtedly did






add on

I need to see receipts on Trap Muzik
I mean...what the fukk is a trap muzik?
We make Murda Muzik :prodigylol:

 

[mobbinfms]

As much as I love Illmatic I cant really agree that it changed the game. It might be the best album ever but it didn't really change anything

I think Illmatic changed the game...in a subtle way.

I think it was the one album that shifted NY hip hop from the styles era (Jay rapping like the Fu Shnickens) to the straight spitting flow.

Also, many rappers have cited that album as forcing them to step their pen game up. Ghost (look at Ghost/Rae on 36 as compared to OBFCL), Jay (I don't think he ever admitted it, but it's obvious...if it weren't for Illmatic, RD would have just been Jay going "bam biggedy bam biggedy bam biggedy bam bam" for an hour straight :prodigylol Common spoke on hearing Nas on Stretch and Bob and realizing he needed to step up (plus the style change from Can I Borrow a Dollar?) and Prodigy. :pdahellclean:

 

[eastsideTT]

Weeknd house of balloons

underrated post.

When this dropped in 2011 no one had heard anything like it before. That's a fact

 

[mobbinfms]

^^^ sealed the marriage between Hip Hop and R&B and changed the soundscape of Hip Hop, which opened up the door for the new wave of producers.

In terms of the marriage between Hip Hop & R&B, I would give that to Lauryn Hill with the Killing Me Softly record the year prior.
This was the definitely the album that introduced Timbaland as a hip hop producer, but I don't think this album opened doors for the Neptunes or Swizz. Not sure who else you meant by the new wave of producers.

^^^ kind of helped open up the lane for the whole Bad Boy dominance by taking Pop loops, applying sing, songy hooks (check "Street Dreams") and turning them into platinum successes

Unless I'm forgetting something, there are no pop loops on this album.

^^^ Pretty much did what Nas's IWW did, but was more of a commercial success

This album definitely changed the game - this is where NY hip hop lost its identity and every rapper tried to craft an album that checked all the boxes.

 

[mobbinfms]

I agree with both of those. After AEOM it almost became mandatory for the top rappers to release a double album

And they were all classics

 

[mobbinfms]

TI coined a term that now is considered to be a whole sub genre of hip hop. That has to count for something. Even tho it didn't have what we consider the now to be the trap sound none of it would be possible without that album

This is true, although other rappers were using the term "trap" before him. But the album itself didn't change hip hop.

 

[mobbinfms]

ill give you the coin...but TM101 musically more impactful. Lil Jon' Kings of Crunk tooo

Lil Jon definitely changed the game for a minute with his sound.

 

[mobbinfms]

Nah, LAD is a pop glossy mafioso rap album.

Shiny Suit Era started with Mase and Puff and their shiny suits and colorful rap videos shot through fish eye lenses.

That's true. We never did see BIG in a shiny suit.