Greatest Rap Album of all Time?

BTW, I think Run DMC's Raising Hell has been mentioned far too few times in this thread.

But 'Low End Theory' would make my top 5.

_Fear Of A Black Planet_ is the best PE album, although _Nation of Millions..._ is very, very, very, very, very good (if only for "Night Of The Living Baseheads").

Why do you think so? I like 'em both about the same. Only thing is the first Chronic is easier to listen to since it has all its great tracks loaded up for the first half of the album, while 2001 has them scattered about. (more skipping around, see?) But it doesn't really matter since I just listen to a mix-cd of both of them anyway.

Capital Punishment is good, yes.

But rap/hip-hop is not an album genre, so this list is not representative of my taste in Roxannes.

...oh, and LIQUID SWORDS!!!

but also:
master p - ghetto d
gangstarr - daily operations
ugk - riding dirty
black moon enta da stage
big l - lifestyles ov da poor and dangerous
8ball and mjg - in our lifetime
might be on the list, aside from stuff already mentioned.

Death Certificate is mentioned in this thread, but how come no one's said AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted? I hadn't been listening to that record in years (I only had it on tape), but then I spotted and bought the reissue which also adds the Kill at Will ("Dead Homiez"!) EP to the package, and damn what a package! Even though it's produced by the Bomb Squad it's better than anything made PE (this is a highly personal opinion, I know, I just happen to like Ice Cube's flow and delivery a lot more than Chuck D's). I'd completely forgotten how good Cube was before he became a Hollywood star; I guess I should by the the Death Certificate reissue next.

and now that I've said that, let's all salute the genius that is L.L. Cool J's Walking With a Panther, which decimates Frank Kogan's non-argument about hip-hop not being an album genre.

Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Mecca And The Soul Brother. Not one bad track. No instrumental interludes. NO FUCKING SKITS. Just flow, flow, flow for 75 minutes.

Other nominations from me:

New Kingdom, Paradise Don't Come Cheap (Funkadelic circa 1970 meets Godflesh)

Schoolly D, Smoke Some Kill

Genius/GZA, Liquid Swords

Sensational, Loaded With Power

Ol' Dirty Bastard, Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version

Wonderful album. Did they only have the two releases?

1. Outkast - Aquemini (so much better than Stankonia, total definition of an aesthetic)
2. Brand Nubian - One for All (why hasn't anyone mentioned this one? It's so goddam good!)
3. Eminem - Slim Shady LP
4. Ol Dirty Bastard - N****a Please
5. Ghostface - Supreme Clientele

Oh. I guess Cube doesn't make the list after all. Fuck. Never mind. He's like #7 maybe behind the Blueprint.

Um, yes there are.

I know I mentioned Breaking Atoms upthread, but I don't know what I'd place as the first now. AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted? Fear of a Black Planet? Liquid Swords? Live and Let Die? The Blueprint? Supreme Clientele?

Does anyone actually think Common now is anywhere near as interesting an MC as he was at Resurrection?

I've never even heard two of the things I listed. (Gangstarr, Black Moon.) And I don't like All Eyez on Me. I don't understand why I would lie about that. I wanted to seem worldly or something, I guess.

The thing about picking "greatest" things and just making canons in general is that there's always these albums that, while you'd never want to put them in that Greatest position, they'd always win if you listened to them end-to-end with any of the albums one would want to canonize. Like Dead Prez's "Let's Get Free".

Yeah, I don't understand the the Dead Prez hate I've been seeing here; are they becoming the new PE? In my opinion, "Let's Get Free" is one of the best rap albums of recent years, and it would definitely make into my canon.

My choices are all fairly typical, I suppose...Illmatic as #1, followed by Liquid Swords, 36 Chambers, Nation of Millions...and the first Gold Chains EP as the darkhorse.

or, yeah, clouddead