![]() ![]() The mythology we’re left with, though, speaks to the brilliance and capital-G genius of Biggie his debut album, Ready to Die, has a legitimate claim to the title of Greatest Rap Album Ever. Tragically, we’ll never see Notorious B.I.G.'s career reach its full potential. Are we proud of it? As proud as we are of this city. And you can listen to the greatest hip-hop songs on our Spotify playlist.ĭid we argue over this list? Of course. Time Out Music writers voted on the list, and we invited some of our all-time favorite hip-hop artists and tastemakers-such luminaries as Big Daddy Kane, De La Soul and Peter Rosenberg-to give us their personal picks. Not only is New York the birthplace of hip-hop, it’s also home to the genre's biggest star today: Jay-Z, whose cultural and fiscal influence is evidenced by his financial investment in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, a venue/basketball team/mass-media enterprise that opened with an eight-night run of sold-out shows from the star.Īssembling this roster, we kept the big-business aspect of hip-hop in mind-so you’ll find such hefty quarterbacks as 50 Cent alongside art-world crazies like Rammellzee. Brooklyn: Busta Rhymes, Big Daddy Kane, Foxy Brown, Biggie. ![]() Queens: LL Cool J, Run-D.M.C., A Tribe Called Quest, Nicki Minaj, Nas. ![]() Namely? The Bronx: KRS-One, Big Pun, Slick Rick. You can argue with us all you like, but we will simply respond with geography and genius-the raw statistics that tell you everything you need to know about the city and its still-unfurling legacy. Though there are highlights throughout, two of the most notable tracks are at the very end: "History," where Talib Kweli joins in over a wistful J Dilla beat, and "Casa Bey," where a playful Mos Def somehow keeps up with Banda Black Rio's deliriously frantic samba funk.New York is the hip-hop music capital of the world. Some of the productions from brothers Madlib and Oh No were pulled from their instrumental releases, including a pair from the India-themed installments of the Beat Konducta series.Īltogether, they provide much of the album's dusty off-centeredness even though "Supermagic" has Mos Def at his most energized and alert, its needling psychedelic guitars and sweeping Bollywood drama are transportive.Ĭombined with backdrops from Georgia Anne Muldrow, Preservation, the Neptunes' Chad Hugo, and the Ed Banger label's Mr.įlash, the album is a gumbo that adds juicy dub thwacks, regal synthetic horns, tangled piano vamps, dashes of spiritual jazz, and rolling Afro-beat, almost all of which is cloaked in light reverb. Oscillating between cerebral gibberish and seemingly nonchalant, off-the-cuff boasts, it's obvious that Mos Def is back to enjoying his trade.įor those who are deeply into the Stones Throw label, the album won't take quite as long to process. It was evident that he was not inspired, no doubt prompting a fair portion of his followers to think, "OK, maybe we should have been more specific: please make a good rap album." On The Ecstatic, it's not as if Mos Def makes a full return to the lucid/bug-eyed rhymes heard on decade-old cuts like "Hater Players" and "Hip Hop." Instead, he comes up with a mind-bending, low-key triumph, the kind of magnetic album that takes around a dozen spins to completely unpack. During the first several years of the 2000s, it wasn't unreasonable to want Mos Def, one of the most dazzling living MCs, to make a rap album.Īfter he released 2006's True Magic, his first all-rap release in seven years - following the back-to-back instant classics Black Star and Black on Both Sides - it was easier to understand why he had been devoting much more time to acting and diversions like The New Danger. ![]()
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