best 1994 rap album besides Illmatic and Ready To Die

THIS IS CRAZY HARD

wonder if deej or somebody can explain how the hell 2 rappers from the same city dropped albums called "resurrection" like a week apart (and in both cases only their second album!)

― some dude, Monday, July 16, 2012 1:01 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i find this almost as O_o as two albums having "comb" in the title

the most 1994 title ever: Funky Resurrection Comb

Huh I just had this high school memory come back about how there was this girl in my school who was considered something of a hip-hop talent, and I was vaguely friendly with her in the way that a high schooler can be with someone who is popular and well-liked and not a jerk. Anyway she was all into biggie at the time and I really didn't *get* biggie yet at all. But I was listening to Blowout Comb all the time, and I gave her my walkman to listen to it once, and she said it was "cute." I was kind of bummed but in retrospect yeah of course biggie is way better than blowout comb what the fuck are you even talking about shakey?!

lol

After looking at this list, it's striking just how regionally divided hip-hop was in '94. Tical aside, I think rankings will generally fluctuate wildly based on one's location in 1994. At least for that subjective part of your evaluation based on nostalgia. I mean, how many New York/Boston folks were listening to the Odd Squad, UGK, or even Outkast at the time?

NYC and Boston radio certainly wasn't giving these artists any burn. You had to be a pretty die-hard Source reader and/or have a fairly large music budget to gamble on some of these quite excellent regional releases. Most of these were not Tower/HMV listening booth material either. I realize that now we've all heard these records, but I feel like these polls are not just an objective evaluation of the best albums in a given year, but also which albums have that essential "1994-ness", or whatever the year which comes from listening to the albums in the context of their respective release year.

That said, I am not a super-frequent poster, so what do I know?

My picks:
Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Method Man - Tical
Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep
Artifacts - Between a Rock & A Hard Place
The Coup - Genocide & Juice
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony - Creepin On Ah Come Up EP
Jeru the Damaja - The Sun Rises In The East
MC Eiht - We Come Strapped

goddamn

what a year

I'm only 19 years old but music was definitely better back then, not like the crap they play on the radio now

shrugs

my top ten in no order

Big Mike - Somethin' Serious
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony - Creepin On Ah Come Up EP
Gang Starr - Hard To Earn
O.C. - Word...Life
Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda
Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Redman - Dare Iz A Darkside
Scarface - The Diary
Spice 1 - AmeriKKKa's Nightmare
UGK - Super Tight

my #1 is a very tough choice between gang starr & scarface

also really wanted to put the beatnuts & common in there but what can you do

might switch big mike out for common idk

im kind of an o.c. stan, i feel like there's no reason that it should be ahead of a few of the records i left off but i think its a great lp & underrated

Gravediggaz, Method Man and Organized Konfusion basically impossible to choose.

The Diary

I like the beats on Blowout Comb a lot but there really isn't a whole lot going on lyrically.

Jeru is a classic too imo

organized konfusion, outkast, tical, or jeru

gonna throw a vote to o.k. cuz i'm afraid no on else will

creepin on ah come up is great too

this is all great! we used to have it so good

Ah, it's not just me weighing up Jeru then. Love that album. In fact my top four are the same as strongo's.

control the mic like Fidel Castro IMO

Casual - Fear Itself was a good Heiro album....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svGt7XeBwkw

Close call between Scarface and Jeru The Damaja. Gang Starr and Gravediggaz would be up there too.

jt the bigga figga was good too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RZVNOfylBU

Organized Konfusion

Weak spot for jeru, brand nubian, and Scarface, but I've always loved 6ft Deep.

I Didn't Mean To Remix is so hard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5Enh-_ZpHQ

damn paris on the list too

gotta go Hard to Earn

^^

actually no im going w/ tical but hard to earn gets more listens these days

top 10 (not in order) would be .... Hard to Earn, Tical, Beatnuts, Blowout Comb, Brand Nubian, Gravediggaz, Jeru, Organized Konfusion, OC Word...Life, Outkast

would also stan for:

Tical
Don't Fight the Feelin'
The Main Ingredient
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
AmeriKKKa's Nightmare

don't think I've ever heard the Mailman

― the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, July 16, 2012 2:08 PM (3 hours ago)

shakey you've heard the coup right?

what a year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TNXoH7EYWY

was disappointed to find out Kam's records were '93 and '95, i love both those

ha yes speaking of shakeybait

just listened to neva again this morning

I don't think I've heard that particular Coup album, no

Kam was underrated!

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf68J5iqK6g

O.C. had a lot more depth than just 'times up'

also dunno why I left Hard to Earn off my list, just an oversight

Close call between Jeru/Method Man/Gravediggaz for me.

im surpried to hear tical is so acclaimed round here i never liked it much past the singles & a few select traxxx.

maybe that's an overstatement. but its def a kind of low-key record to me idk

i like jeru & always will altho i def feel like his rap style has aged kinda poorly. the guys he inspired were so much worse than him. i still remember ethan calling afu ra "jeru's jeru" lol

well you DO remember how absurdly wu-centric that all-time rap albums poll we did was, right? this is how it ranked 94:

84. Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda [4 votes, 134 points, 1994]
51. Jeru the Damaja - The Sun Rises In The East [8 votes, 204 points, 1994]
47. Method Man - Tical [8 votes, 208 points, 1994]
25. Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep / Niggamortis [10 votes, 317 points, 1994]
5. The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die [21 votes, 749 points, 1994]
2. Nas - Illmatic [24 votes, 3 #1 votes, 901 points, 5 mics, 1994]

xpost

ha wow. alrighthen

still pissed about that poll

yeah deej i feel you, i think it's weird that ppl are acting like OH OF COURSE tical is the runaway winner...

tbh at the time it seemed like it was perceived as a relative dud compared to the rest of the first round of Wu Tang solo albums

i guess i've always thought of it as underrated, but maybe it's overrated.

fuckin a that keith murray album is fucking great too i listened to that so much

i think i'm gonna vote for keith so it gets one vote

Just realized my two favorite albums on this list both start with weird, angular horn blasts

xp you're more like a foie gras

not allowed in california

struggling to form some kind of Whiney:suggest-banned/foie gras:California joke

Surprised Super Tight didn't get a vote.

what is whineys fav album

― lag∞n, Wednesday, July 25, 2012 3:56 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

like ever or of 1994 or rap album or on this list or

idk just wondering re the nme v source zing upthread

Gravediggaz

iirc whiney prefers the Grave Ferris mashup album

hoping this is the point of the clusterfuck where we all start making puns

but before it devolves into accusations of custos

Surprised Super Tight didn't get a vote.

― n00bs on my damn chain (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Wednesday, 25 July 2012 21:55 (Yesterday) Bookmark

i wavered

idk just wondering re the nme v source zing upthread

― lag∞n, Wednesday, July 25, 2012 5:22 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

lol i was referencing the list of Gravediggaz reviews YOU posted upthread

oh hah

I wouldn't take Source reviews as damning, they've been wrong about a lot of things.

oh obv their word doesn't really mean anything and anyway they gave it 3 1/2 stars. i just thought the "white european max tundra fans calling deltron 3030 the truth" line was bullshit coming from someone who picked a UK critical darling like Gravediggaz over Gang Starr/UGK/Scarface/etc.

3 1/2 stars was a good review score back then

lol stars

haha mics sorry

what u do w/half a mic

all i need is one half mic

lol