Runny-Ray's 40 Most Essential Hip-Hop Albums Of All-Time

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

All Eyes on name was the album that was out when all the fukkery was going on.
Makaveli was a posthumous album as you noted. The beef was dead at that point.
Plus All Eyes was so dominant for so long.

we gonna act like makaveli didnt come out right after pac died? that was the true height of it all.
we gonna act like makaveli didnt detail the beef better? as well as his multiple other beefs on & off wax?

if you want to go back and listen to an album that best illustrates all the controversies going on at the time, then makaveli is the album of choice. hell, i'd prolly throw on that westside connection joint before AEOM.

also, makaveli was like the grand finale album of the mid-90s, which imo is the goat era.

What classic album was birthed by We are the streets?
And sure you can leave X out - depends on how deep the convo goes. If someone asked me to rattle off the essential rappers or albums - X wouldn't come to mind.

classic albums were darn near extinct by that point, but theres tons of classic mixtapes that were spawned by it.

how can you leave X out if you rattle off essential rappers?

RTD was the better and more influential album too.

nah. makaveli was better.

you can say that RTD was more influential, in terms of showing east coast rappers how to copy what pac and other west dudes were doing with their singles.

If PAC gets two - you gotta go two for big too. And RTD is probably the best out of the 4.

what is this? a trade-off?

i dont even see big as pac's equal either.

 

[ISO]

i dont recall any dissappointment with makaveli. i remember that chit being more raw and hard as nails. pause. thats his best album. but yea, i was hesitant to put it up there because i tried to stay away from listing him twice. i had no choice but to list run dmc twice.

big pun? nah. not even a contender. no classics. his impact wasnt all that great. and his whole style came from kool g rap, who is listed.

Yeah there were some disappointments with Makaveli read some of it's reviews from '96 all in all I ain't saying it's a bad album or anything. I don't think anyone should be listed twice. All Eyez On Me is the more essential album.

son Makaveli is not better than Ready to Die. Why do you think it's better?

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

Yeah there were some disappointments with Makaveli read some of it's reviews from '96 all in all I ain't saying it's a bad album or anything. I don't think anyone should be listed twice. All Eyez On Me is the more essential album.

son Makaveli is not better than Ready to Die. Why do you think it's better?

thats what he was talking about? reviews? i stopped taking reviews seriously by like 5th grade.

ready to die is overrated. a classic but still a bit overrated.

i didnt want to list anybody twice. you cant deny those 2 run dmc albums, so i had to do it. i didnt want to list makaveli either, but i kind of look at that as a pick for multiple rappers in a way. its more of a sign-of-the-times type of pick.

 

[ISO]

thats what he was talking about? reviews? i stopped taking reviews seriously by like 5th grade.

ready to die is overrated. a classic but still a bit overrated.

i didnt want to list anybody twice. you cant deny those 2 run dmc albums, so i had to do it. i didnt want to list makaveli either, but i kind of look at that as a pick for multiple rappers in a way. its more of a sign-of-the-times type of pick.

It's not overrated on here, it's actually disrespected. I'm sorry but from a production standpoint and MC/storytelling standpoint I'm going BIG here with Ready to Die. I can't say an album with Suicidal Thoughts, Everyday Struggle, Me & My Bytch, Warning, Ready to Die, Unbelievable, Juicy arguably the G.O.A.T. single is overrated.

Ready to Die was a bomb b nothing is more sign of the times than Ready to Die '94 with Bad Boy bubbling.

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

THIS THREAD SMELLS LIKE FINE VINYL

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

It's not overrated on here, it's actually disrespected. I'm sorry but from a production standpoint and MC/storytelling standpoint I'm going BIG here with Ready to Die. I can't say an album with Suicidal Thoughts, Everyday Struggle, Me & My Bytch, Warning, Ready to Die, Unbelievable, Juicy arguably the G.O.A.T. single is overrated.

Ready to Die was a bomb b nothing is more sign of the times than Ready to Die '94 with Bad Boy bubbling.

i didnt know it was disrespected in here.

juicy is a goat single now? its a classic, but a goat single? HELL NO. thats puff propaganda.

sign of the times in '94? nah. that would be moreso wutang, illmatic, BCC, etc and back-end stuff from '93 like onyx. and thats just outta new york rap. RTD didnt really-really take off all like that until '95, iirc.

 

[ISO]

i didnt know it was disrespected in here.

juicy is a goat single now? its a classic, but a goat single? HELL NO. thats puff propaganda.

sign of the times in '94? nah. that would be moreso wutang, illmatic, BCC, etc and back-end stuff from '93 like onyx. and thats just outta new york rap. RTD didnt really-really take off all like that until '95, iirc.

Hell yeah, Juicy has a case for G.O.A.T. single they be playing this shyt at weddings and stuff. When they play this shyt I hear nikkas rapping the words this song just changes the vibe of wherever you at. It's one of the most recognized songs in rap even nikkas that don't fukk with rap like that know Juicy.

Yeah, RTD was late 94/95 either way it's def a sign of the times. And it's a great album that ranks very high among major publications and hip hop heads. On the Coli nikkas mostly Pac stans bash Ready to Die talking about it's a west coast album, Biggie stole the concept, Biggie said he'd suck a girl's daddy's dikk and a bunch of other shyt instead of how looking at how great the album really is.

shyt would have been damn near flawless without Respect and Friend of Mine.

 

[mobbinfms]

not exactly putting quality on the backburner. its a mixture of both.

regardless of that, 400 degreez and ghetto d are not lower quality inclusions dog. those are legit classics.

jeezy was a non-classic inclusion. his impact & influence more than made up for it tho.........but lol @ the "he needs to be shot in the back" comment.

lox is the same as jeezy. both hood classics but not classic-classics(for the lack of a better term), with the lox album being a bit better. but how can you dispute the impact & influence of that lox album? the lox birthed the vast majority of east coast rappers that followed them, to this very day.

Ghetto D is like 3 mics maybe. It may have been a good No Limit album, but even McDonalds can make an exceptionally good Big Mac from time to time. It's still a Big Mac.
All that early Cash Money stuff was meh.
Jeezy is alright. I like Jeezy. Just nothing near classic or essential about that album. Go Crazy was great actually.
The lox album had its little moment. Then that sound died. And 50 came out and buried everything.
What classic album or crazy talented rapper is a direct descendant of We Are The Streets?

 

[mobbinfms]

I

I don't see the Lox being essential to anything. Nothing would change if they weren't around. Other artists have better and more essential mixtapes. I would put Diplomatic Immunity before I put any Lox album

I don't know about that. The sound of DI may hold up better. But Jimmy and Juelz were blah on that album and Cam was coasting.

 

[mobbinfms]

diplomatic immunity is better but certainly not as impactful & influential. dipset would most likely tell you that themselves.

hell, alot of the roster at diplomat records was influenced by the lox.
dam near the whole state property, re-up gang, you name it.

theyre the main influence over whats been happening on the east coast stylistically for the past 16 years and counting.

if the lox werent around, chit would be entirely different up top.

Not saying that I agree with this influence argument, but so what? They are the main influence on the worst period of NY rap? That's not a good thing...

 

[mobbinfms]

i dont recall any dissappointment with makaveli. i remember that chit being more raw and hard as nails. pause. thats his best album. but yea, i was hesitant to put it up there because i tried to stay away from listing him twice. i had no choice but to list run dmc twice.

big pun? nah. not even a contender. no classics. his impact wasnt all that great. and his whole style came from kool g rap, who is listed.

There was definitely disappointment with Makaveli. And I'm not talking magazine reviews, I don't even remember any reviews of Makaveli.

AEOM was this slickly produced, star studded album where PAc was having fun. For the most part. Makaveli was such a dramatic departure from that. At the time, people just wanted another AEOM, instead they got this dark album with little to no famous guest appearances that was produced by a bunch of nobodies. At first people didn't know what to make of the album.

I hear you on Pun. I wouldn't have brought him up, but then you listed P, Juve and Jeezy. Pun and his album shyt on anything they've done.

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

Hell yeah, Juicy has a case for G.O.A.T. single they be playing this shyt at weddings and stuff. When they play this shyt I hear nikkas rapping the words this song just changes the vibe of wherever you at. It's one of the most recognized songs in rap even nikkas that don't fukk with rap like that know Juicy.

Yeah, RTD was late 94/95 either way it's def a sign of the times. And it's a great album that ranks very high among major publications and hip hop heads. On the Coli nikkas mostly Pac stans bash Ready to Die talking about it's a west coast album, Biggie stole the concept, Biggie said he'd suck a girl's daddy's dikk and a bunch of other shyt instead of how looking at how great the album really is.

shyt would have been damn near flawless without Respect and Friend of Mine.

this whole idea of juicy being a goat single is just some propaganda that puff started peddling on "making the band".

the bolded can be said about a ton of other songs.

as far as the biggie bashing on here goes, stuff like that really isnt meant to be taken seriously, altho the examples you give arent exactly incorrect statements either.

RTD was great no doubt, but alot of its east coast counterparts were better and/or more influential. sure, you can make a strong case for it being on the list. i prolly wouldve put it on the list if LAD wasnt already on there. this album and its impact isnt quite strong enough for me to give him 2 bids. unless youre saying that i should give it LAD's spot?

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

There was definitely disappointment with Makaveli. And I'm not talking magazine reviews, I don't even remember any reviews of Makaveli.

AEOM was this slickly produced, star studded album where PAc was having fun. For the most part. Makaveli was such a dramatic departure from that. At the time, people just wanted another AEOM, instead they got this dark album with little to no famous guest appearances that was produced by a bunch of nobodies. At first people didn't know what to make of the album.

I hear you on Pun. I wouldn't have brought him up, but then you listed P, Juve and Jeezy. Pun and his album shyt on anything they've done.

pun's album is better than jeezy's. thats about it. but it didnt have half the impact of influence on jeezy. that pun album isnt seeing ghetto d or 400 degreez at all buddy.

the stuff youre saying about makaveli is some personal preference type stuff depending on who you ask.

for starters, i dont recall anybody being dissappointed at this not being a "fun" album. especially seeing that he just got killed. and if you go to the east coast or somehwere like that, nobody cared about most of the guests on AEOM, and nobody really bumps half of that album.

makaveli hit like a bomb str8 thru. basically giving off the feeling that pac went out in a blaze of glory.

if it wasnt for makaveli, pac wouldnt be #1 on my all-time list. he needed that album.

Not saying that I agree with this influence argument, but so what? They are the main influence on the worst period of NY rap? That's not a good thing...

thats not their fault tho.

that '01-06 timeframe where they had their most influence couldve been a better time period than the late '90s if the industry didnt screw it up.

Ghetto D is like 3 mics maybe. It may have been a good No Limit album, but even McDonalds can make an exceptionally good Big Mac from time to time. It's still a Big Mac.
All that early Cash Money stuff was meh.
Jeezy is alright. I like Jeezy. Just nothing near classic or essential about that album. Go Crazy was great actually.
The lox album had its little moment. Then that sound died. And 50 came out and buried everything.
What classic album or crazy talented rapper is a direct descendant of We Are The Streets?

lol @ ghetto d being 3 mics. its 5 mics jack.

you just dont like southern rap. you just like jeezy's "go crazy" because it was a pandering record.

the lox influence isnt about the "sound". you just dont get it.

what did 50 bury? if anything, THE LOX BURIED 50. you talk about little moments, but if anybody had their "little moment", it was 50.

i already answered the last question at least twice already.

 

[mobbinfms]

we gonna act like makaveli didnt come out right after pac died? that was the true height of it all.
we gonna act like makaveli didnt detail the beef better? as well as his multiple other beefs on & off wax?

if you want to go back and listen to an album that best illustrates all the controversies going on at the time, then makaveli is the album of choice. hell, i'd prolly throw on that westside connection joint before AEOM.

also, makaveli was like the grand finale album of the mid-90s, which imo is the goat era.



classic albums were darn near extinct by that point, but theres tons of classic mixtapes that were spawned by it.

how can you leave X out if you rattle off essential rappers?



nah. makaveli was better.

you can say that RTD was more influential, in terms of showing east coast rappers how to copy what pac and other west dudes were doing with their singles.



what is this? a trade-off?

i dont even see big as pac's equal either.

Big was better than Pac to me. I guess I'm saying if you feel Pac was great enough to be on the list twice - that opens the door for Big (and some others).

Not in response to anything you said - but Redman or EPMD should have been on the list.

RTD was better to me. Beats, rhymes concepts and the overall concept of the album. But that doesn't really matter much when were talking "essential". Both are amazing.
And Juicy was a Pete Rock record. And One More chance didn't sound west coast. I guess you're talking about Big Poppa?

Classic mix tapes?

X is second tier for essential rappers. Go make a list. You'll see what I mean.

The record that best detailed the beef was Hit Em up. Which isn't on either record. But was released during AEOM's run. you make a great argument for Makaveli. Personally I much prefer it to AEOM.

 

[mobbinfms]

thats what he was talking about? reviews? i stopped taking reviews seriously by like 5th grade.

ready to die is overrated. a classic but still a bit overrated.

i didnt want to list anybody twice. you cant deny those 2 run dmc albums, so i had to do it. i didnt want to list makaveli either, but i kind of look at that as a pick for multiple rappers in a way. its more of a sign-of-the-times type of pick.

Lol at the fifth grade reference. You were born in 85 right? So you would have been in the fifth grade in 95-96?
How is Makaveli a pick for multiple rappers?