The Infamous in no shape, form, or fashion is better than Illmatic or Only Built For Cuban Linx
Meccapolis Top 100 NY Hip Hop Albums List (Full List In OP)
- Thread starter Don Jesus
- Start date
Why because Complex magazine said so?
Newark88
Superstar
Yea now why that’s not on the list, I don’t understand. Biz first album is probably the most sampled album in Hip Hop history. Also, it’s the first album I remember where all the songs were club bangers
So you don’t have a reason and are just regurgitating an entry level standard hip hop opinion
Ill give you my reason tho
Illmatic was a carefully curated album put together by Faith Newman who attached Nas to the best producers in the game and they made a classic album together.
Infamous was Havoc and P’s whole vision that Q Tip subtly helped him materialized. Havoc and P’s vision had a long lasting domino effect that inspired a lot of people from 50 to Griselda. It even inspired Nas. He’ll never admit it but he borrowed a lot from Prodigy
As legendary as Illmatic was, Infamous was unapologetically raw. And it went up a notch on Hell On Earth. It Was Written was a disassociation from Illmatic. Mobb Deep graduated into themselves. Nas went from place to place to find himself
Terrible list 
If you gonna mention Faith Newman at Sony, or Serch, then you got to mention the A&R team that was at Loud, who was the best in the business for the grimy New York acts. They got those EP credits on The Infamous for a reason. And Tip was a lot more involved than what you are saying.
Piff Perkins
Veteran
I'm not mad at the IDEA of The Infamous being the #1 NY rap album, given that everything we think about what New York sounds like (grimy, boom bap, winter, menacing, etc) is perhaps best illustrated on that album. But...Illmatic led to The Infamous.
End of the day these lists are impossible and someone will always be mad. I'm sure there are older people who might think you can't put Illmatic at #1 because other albums led to that. Which is why in my mind, lists should be dominated by albums that had clear and definitive influence over music/genre. If I'm making a jazz list I don't care how many people say it's a boring choice...Kind Of Blue is going in the top 5. A Love Supreme is going in the top 5. By that same logic, I don't care if it's a boring choice...Illmatic is going in the top 5 (and should be #1 in my opinion). Surprises and "subverting expectations" shouldn't be the point of this.
Also weird to go with two Mobb albums in the top ten, but only one Biggie album. I get why major publications shy away from putting multiple albums from the same artist in a top ten but I don't care lol. Going back to jazz, you can easily put 3 or more Miles Davis albums in a top ten. Kind Of Blue, In A Silent Way, bytch's Brew, Sketches Of Spain...I'd have zero issue with that, but I understand why it's not the best idea. I PERSONALLY wouldn't put LAD in a top ten but I'm not from New York. The way NYers talk about that album given the circumstances of its release and it being a blueprint for shyt that came after to this day...I'm not mad at it being in the top ten. As long as Ready To Die is there too.
End of the day these lists are impossible and someone will always be mad. I'm sure there are older people who might think you can't put Illmatic at #1 because other albums led to that. Which is why in my mind, lists should be dominated by albums that had clear and definitive influence over music/genre. If I'm making a jazz list I don't care how many people say it's a boring choice...Kind Of Blue is going in the top 5. A Love Supreme is going in the top 5. By that same logic, I don't care if it's a boring choice...Illmatic is going in the top 5 (and should be #1 in my opinion). Surprises and "subverting expectations" shouldn't be the point of this.
Also weird to go with two Mobb albums in the top ten, but only one Biggie album. I get why major publications shy away from putting multiple albums from the same artist in a top ten but I don't care lol. Going back to jazz, you can easily put 3 or more Miles Davis albums in a top ten. Kind Of Blue, In A Silent Way, bytch's Brew, Sketches Of Spain...I'd have zero issue with that, but I understand why it's not the best idea. I PERSONALLY wouldn't put LAD in a top ten but I'm not from New York. The way NYers talk about that album given the circumstances of its release and it being a blueprint for shyt that came after to this day...I'm not mad at it being in the top ten. As long as Ready To Die is there too.
Faith Newman polished and crafted his project by knowing who to hire as producers
Theres a reason why his beat selection was questionable after she left the picture
What her and Q Tip did is a false equivalence
Q Tip helped Mobb Deep not become another Illegal or Da Youngsta’z or Kris Kross but helping them mature their sound. Q Tip did not craft their project on some “yall be the artist and let me do everything else” shyt. He took what Havoc and Prodigy was already doing (Shook Ones Part 1 showed they were already distancing themselves from that teenage rap lane but it was way too dark) and helped them add some textured elements to it using his extensive jazz and musical knowledge. When Q Tip left the picture, Mobb Deep became Mobb Deep as Hell On Earth was them growing into who they are becoming the quintessential rap duo of NYC and creating a sound that got dubbed as the “winter” sound.
When Faith Newman left Nas, Nas was finding himself and chased radio hits and etc and had hits and had misses. It Was Written’s direction was greatly influenced by OB4CL (another Loud Records album).
It’s not the same. Both acts are legends tho
Also Faith Newman and Steve Rifkind didn’t do the same thing. Rifkind’s talent was being smart enough to let the rappers do what they wanted to do. So we not gonna act like he was the genius behind the musicality of the album. Faith Newman wasn’t the genius behind the musicality of Illmatic but she organized the right producers to bring the best out of him. Steve Rifkind did not need to do that. infamous is solely self produced with 3 beats from Q Tip who was practically a third unofficial member of Mobb Deep (for just that album) the way Trag was to Capone N Noreaga if you wanna get technical. It’s not like it’s a random Pete Rock beat in the middle of the album. The q Tip beats on Infamous were not Tribe Called Quest-ish at all
These are my top three albums all time. Not just NY. They are all perfect masterpieces. Ultimately it comes down to personal preference. On most lists, Illmatic is in the top spot. This one has Infamous. No point in trying to tear down one or the other. Let’s just appreciate the finest hip hop has to offer and not get bogged down in semantics and personal preference.
1). Faith Evans didn’t put Illmatic together. Nas and MC Serch did. Do your history
2). Nas NEVER ran “away” from Ilmatic. He couldn’t and wouldn’t do the same thing twice, especially as he’d already mastered the rugged street poet style. He’s said this himself numerous times.
3). Prodigy borrowed from Nas not vice versa. And both Prodigy and Hav were influenced by Illmatic when making The Infamous. And you don’t have to take my word for it.
“While we were on our promo tour for the album, Nas dropped the Illmatic album; that really overshadowed our feeble attempt at rap music. Illmatic was and still is one of the best rap albums ever. Nas was an incredible songwriter, and the beats he chose were just as good. “Halftime,” produced by Large Professor, was the best song out. During an in-store appearance in Washington, D.C., they were playing that song. “When I attack there ain’t an army that could strike back, so I react never calmly on a hype track… Whenever I freestyle I see trial nikkas say I’m wow, I hate a rhyme biter’s rhyme, stay tuned, Nas, soon the real rap comes at halftime….” It made us want to hurry home and start working on a new album.”
Excerpt From
My Infamous Life
Albert "Prodigy" Johnson
“The whole projects is playing his music. I mean he's like a God at this point. Here we come, trying to come after that and get the approval of our projects, our friends and.... It just fizzled. It's a dud. You know what I mean? So it's like, "Damn, we want to make something that everybody in the projects is playing Yo, along what Nas is doing." So when we got that second shot, it was like, "We can't fukk this up. We got to really put our heart and soul into this."- Havoc
There is no Infamous without Illmatic. But besides that Illmatic lyrically and thematically head and shoulders above The Infamous
