a thousand times this.
So true.
The Roots. Especially their incredible live album, The Roots Come Alive. All of their best hits and amazing performances all around.
Great suggestions already. I’d like to throw in there “Handsome Boy Modeling School”
HBMS is really two hip-hop producers (Dan the Automator & Prince Paul) with a ton of guest rappers and singers. There may be a few songs you really don’t like, but the beats are generally smooth, and it’ll give a nice sampling of a lot of hip-hop artists.
What a shitty piece. Is that supposed to be funny ? Well I don’t get the joke, you know, I only laugh at REAL OLD SCHOOL jokes.
And the skits aren’t totally awful. Or were they? They were at least better than the average hip hop record.
The skits are definitely forgettable. Which is a good thing.
Also, while I’m thinking about it, Deltron 3030 might be up the OPs alley too. Dan the Automator producing with Del the Funky Homosapien and his sci-fi inspired raps.
Maybe this is due to my unfamiliarity with the genre but what’s the deal with skits? A lot of hip-hop albums seem to have them. I could see them being funny once maybe but I can’t imagine willingly listening to them after that. Is it just filler?
Note: I feel the same way about the extraneous stuff on Tool’s albums.
i think it’s just filler
it was a huge problem in the 90s when CDs really started to become big and there was some weird notion that every last minute of a CD had to be filled
i, personally, blame prince paul
Despite my undying love of De La Soul’s “…Is Dead” and “Buhloone Mindstate” (which are both noticably better than “3 Feet…” IMHO), they have so much to answer for because of the goddamned skits.
Also, Jurassic 5’s lyrics are too bland (some good beats here and there, though) and Digable Planet’s “Blowout Comb” is a thousand kinds of amazing.
Also also, can’t believe I forgot about The D.O.C. His debut “No One Can Do It Better” is an all-time classic, boasting great rhymes and arguably Dr. Dre’s best work before he went solo in '91. I’d ignore what D.O.C. did afterwards because it’s just painful to listen to. Partially because it’s simply not very good, and partially because hearing him after his throat surgery is too painful a reminder of what a superior MC he was.
I always liked Wu-Tang’s skits.
ETA:
[M] Is he dead? [word up]
[G] Is he fuckin dead, what the fuck you mean is he fuckin dead god
What kind of question is that B, what the fuck you think?
The nigga layin there with this fuckin all types of fuckin blood
Comin out of his–
[U] Easy, easy, easy, easy, kid
[G] Yo God, whats up God, it’s the God, god, word is bond
I’m waitin to fuckin late, i’m ready to get busy
[R] Let’s go do- let’s go do what we gotta do right fuck it
[U] What’s up yo, yo we out or what?
[G] It’s the god ya, fuck that
We out, got a problem man
What the fuck
[U] Nigga still sweatin
[G] What the fuck is you talkin about man, get the fuck outta here
[R] Corn
The Torture skit off of M.E.T.H.O.D. Man was goofily funny.
Prince Paul’s first two solo albums are pretty great. He also did the production on the new Souls of Mischief, which is pretty good too, although I find myself listening to the instrumental version more often.
The last time I had a question like this, I started a pandora station with the band in question and let it find things that were similar - which turned up 4 other bands I liked. So that’d be my suggestion, start a pandora station with your favorite ATCQ song and see what it does.