Best 2007 Hip-Hop Albums, and the godfather of Rap (not JB).

Both the NYT and Boston Globe spent the weekend trashing the state of hip-hop, which like the recent coverage of the music industry’s decline purports that as the larger business model flails to survive the digital era, the quality of music suffers. Sorry, I don’t buy that the absence of Puffy like superstars damn the future of hip-hop. In fact this year, several albums stand out, and are included below.  The artists themselves offer some compelling reasons as to why major label efforts fail, and why tycoon rappers like Puffy may have ruined the game. 

Lupe, The Cool. Innovative, irreverent lyrics coupled with solid production. More in line with the native tongue artists of early 90s fame and in-line with Gil Scott-Heron, the poet and funk musician who many credit for fathering political hip-hop, and who once served as a clarion call for progressive intellectuals, pushing for environmental and social conciseness.

Best Line: “and im mouthless which means im soundless, now as far as the hearing i found it, it was as far as the distance from the earing to the ground is”

Jay – Z, American Gangster. Five years ago, I could have cared less to pick up a jay-z album – but he has grown as an artist and I eagerly await each new album, mostly because he is one of the few artists creating releases where tracks contextually build a whole greater than a series of singles. Who else would prevent Itunes from selling the album track-by-track and force listeners to discover hidden gems like “Ignorant Shit”.

Best Line: “there all actors looking at themselves in ther mirror backwards cant even face themselves, don’t fear no rappers they’re all wierdoes Diniro’s in practice, so dont believe everything your earlobes capture it’s mostly backwards.”

 

  

GhostFace, Fishscale.  Artists like P-funk, Outkast and Sun-ra  have all pushed their respective genres into the area of science fiction and outer-space towards the end of their careers.  As people long for the return of the Wu-Tang, Ghostface breaks new ground by turning inward, instead of outward, focusing on the crack game in such a militant fashion that it’s code, habits and culture become lampooned and ludicrous, framed in a comic book style. Skits refer to Tony’s girl as Mrs. Sweetwater in a Dick Tracy radio show from the 30s. It feels like a later p-funk album with its own unique obscure terminology. 

Best Lines: “Paranoid as a motherfucker right now, who the fuck?
Close the blinds and shit! Who that? Captain Kirk?
The stark…enterprise, enterprise I was on and some shit?
..I need some, though I’m ready for a catwoman or something”

 

Here is a good example of Scott-Heron.