Best Ever Albums

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Repo — Sun, 24 Jan 2021 07:06:34 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 01/24/2021 12:06

baystateoftheart wrote:

Another match I didn't finish in time, but going to vote late for kicks.

Innercity Griots: 3.5/5
187 He Wrote: 3/5
Come Clean: 3/5
Ship Ahoy: 2.5/5

1993 Total: 12/20

A Grand Don't Come For Free: 2.5/5
The Sagas Of...: 3.5/5
Stand Up Tall: 4/5
Wot Do U Call It?: 4/5

2004 Total: 14/20

Proof in the pudding that analytics don't work! 🫵 😜

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

baystateoftheart — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 21:54:39 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 01/24/2021 02:54

Another match I didn't finish in time, but going to vote late for kicks.

Innercity Griots: 3.5/5
187 He Wrote: 3/5
Come Clean: 3/5
Ship Ahoy: 2.5/5

1993 Total: 12/20

A Grand Don't Come For Free: 2.5/5
The Sagas Of...: 3.5/5
Stand Up Tall: 4/5
Wot Do U Call It?: 4/5

2004 Total: 14/20

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Skinny — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 11:21:08 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 01/22/2021 16:21

1993 wins, 8-3.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Purplepash — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 21:20:18 GMT

Author: Purplepash

Posted: 01/22/2021 02:20

I'm one of the 2004 votes. That The Streets/Dizzee/Wiley combo is great. Klashnekoff was new to me, and while it didn't excite me much it felt right in context and didn't stop this being my favourite team of the first round.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

RoundTheBend — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 20:33:24 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/22/2021 01:33

kokkinos wrote:

Not regretting my picks, but it seems 1993 wins fair and square and it's not even close, good job cestuneblague.

I appreciated your picks. Dug looking more into that period/UK and Kalashnikov was the best out of the pick for me, even if in the end cestuneblague's team was fantastic.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

kokkinos — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 17:09:33 GMT

Author: kokkinos

Posted: 01/21/2021 22:09

Not regretting my picks, but it seems 1993 wins fair and square and it's not even close, good job cestuneblague.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Repo — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 20:39:14 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 01/14/2021 01:39

KitchenSink wrote:

anyway, both teams are ace (and for completely different reasons). 2004 has a more consistent overall selection with good to great (if not legendary) songs and albums all the way through, but I'm still gonna have to lean '93, and that's even with me being really only mildly into the 2 singles. 187 He Wrote and especially Innercity Griots are both among my favorite records in any genre, and while I hate to vote against some really solid UK rap representation I'm gonna have to go 1993. Both excellent teams though

Pretty much this for me. Innercity Griots & 187 He Wrote are two of my favorite albums in this entire tourney with 187 perhaps being my favorite discovery. I really like The Streets debut. Used to play it all the time back in the day. This sophomore release never did as much for me. And that Klashnikoff album is cool too. BUT, those 93 albums are just too damn good. Would consider both to be essential whereas 2004's r good/great.

1993

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

cestuneblague — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 07:56:42 GMT

Author: cestuneblague

Posted: 01/12/2021 12:56

Yeah I think with '93 I'm finding it impossible to whittle down the singles to just 6-10, there were at least a handful of great singles from every style and region of hip hop that was active at the time, but albums I would call front-to-back masterpieces- less so. But the two albums are probably the best reminders from the year that constiency can be wildly overrated. Given, Innercity Griots is either going to the root of what you love or don't love about hip-hop, kinda depends on the listener, and 187 he wrote is just a great mixture of what seemed like atm wildly different sounds of the denser, darker Oakland-to-Sacramento scene (which really had it's moment in '93) and the more slow-burning vibe coming out of southern california at the time, and it just goes in some really odd directions that at least to moi felt really rewarding. For the singles, yes "Come Clean" was a major if perhaps on first glance modest-sounding gamechanger from DJ Premier, mainly getting that really distinctive, drip-drop New York sound but one that doesn't overwhelm Jeru at all but really just augments the rapping instead. Fantastic. And yeah for "Ships Ahoy" I think I just felt liking going for a rather strange curio at the time, a bristol band (via mostly Ireland and Jamaica) but not really aligning with the Bristol scene at the time, nor closer to the New York-inspired straight hip hop acts that were going on in London (if anything this was an interesting cruise through early British hip hop). Given it's one that really is more about the full-sound experience more so than the comparitevely sedate rapping, but it still works much better than it perhaps sounds on paper. Though that clip is kind of shite, the full version really has the massive, breaking-the-barricades feel.

Link

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Skinny — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 01:42:08 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 01/12/2021 06:42

Would deffo agree this album feels, structurally and even spiritually, much more like an extension of jazz than Tribe.

EDIT: Do I enjoy it more? No. Again, probably says more about me than them.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

KitchenSink — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 17:34:12 GMT

Author: KitchenSink

Posted: 01/11/2021 22:34

Skinny wrote:

On my favourite free jazz recordings, there's a unpredictability and playfulness, changes in volume and tempo. That's evident here in the rapping, but over this nondescript boom-bap it creates this sludgy, grey clutter. (This is hyperbole to better emphasise a point, though. I like the album.)

weirdly enough I find that mostly straightforward jazzy boom bap here (disagree that it’s nondescript but I get what you mean) to be to the album’s ultimate benefit. I feel like the record does a great job at capturing this kind of live block party open mic with shitty speakers and creative weirdos vibe. In a way to me it feels like the furthest extreme of one of the things that I love about rap music in its setting a perfect 4/4 stage for the human voice to dance and explore until 4/4 barely even sounds like 4/4. Not that rhythmic intricacy is necessarily the calling card of a good rap album (can often be the indicator of an extremely boring technical one) but at least here I feel like the combination of the unmistakable off-beat personalities of the fellowship, the “friends just hanging out and partying” vibe, and the penchant for abstract and absurdist imagery, allows for the technical prowess displayed to be in service of something much more important than the ability to just string complex patterns together. There’s something just bizarrely idiosyncratic here that I find endlessly engaging. Not just in the surreal imagery but in the unpredictability of flow; I feel like I never have any idea where anyone (Myka or Acey in particular) are going at any given time whether it’s via weird vocal tricks, quick changes in tempo, punctuating words and splitting syllables in uncommon ways, hell suddenly shifting into scat singing mode... I just like being caught off guard by that shit, and I feel like the relative mundanity of the beats (with a couple of transcendent exceptions) just helps all of this shine more profoundly, almost like these bizarre personalities need that space to go sufficiently nuts. Relating that to the free jazz comparison, I genuinely think what’s going on here vocally is a far more direct extension of jazz and representation of the jazz-hip hop connection than any say ATCQ joint where they sample a double bass or two (not to dis Tribe I love them too just for different reasons). The fact that they all sound like they’re having that much unembarrassed fun all over this just ties it all together for me, (way too much left-field hip hop is overly self-serious imo, I like how this album isn’t afraid to get a bit silly).

To each his own of course, and no shade your way or anything, I guess just rather than “sludgy grey clutter” this album has always felt like a rainbow to me (albeit one occasionally obscured by a kush cloud)

(FWIW I think their previous effort is even better, recommended to anyone reading this)

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Skinny — Fri, 8 Jan 2021 12:19:15 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 01/08/2021 17:19

KitchenSink wrote:

I think the free jazz comparison is pretty apt but unless you and I have very different definitions of dynamics I'm not sure I get what you're getting at with that bit

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

KitchenSink — Wed, 6 Jan 2021 23:30:57 GMT

Author: KitchenSink

Posted: 01/07/2021 04:30

Skinny wrote:

Maybe closer to dense, chaotic free jazz, but without the dynamic variation necessary to keep me engaged.

I think the free jazz comparison is pretty apt but unless you and I have very different definitions of dynamics I'm not sure I get what you're getting at with that bit

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Skinny — Wed, 6 Jan 2021 10:57:32 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 01/06/2021 15:57

Gonna have to vote for 2004 out of sheer nostalgia, but here's how the numbers stack up after relistens:

1993:

Innercity Griots - 3.5
187 He Wrote - 4.5
Come Clean - 6
Ship Ahoy - 1.5 (their flows are just so, so awful)

2004:

A Grand Don't Come for Free - 3.5
The Sagas of... - 4 (not as good as I'd remembered, deffo a major nostalgia hit though, and 'Murda', 'ALL I Got' ["I keep a 'chete by the door, by law, that's not a metaphor"], 'Son of Niya', and his use of the long-lost insult "fassyhole" are all irresistible, pure UK rap catnip)
Stand Up Tall - 4.5
Wot Do U Call It? - 6

I'm still gutted that Council Estate of Mind wasn't nominated, but looking back it feels like those years were something of a UK rap golden age, at exactly the right time in my life. Scores aside, I was never voting against this 2004 team. Slightly nervous as to what both users are going to use in their matchups against me, though.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Streams — Wed, 6 Jan 2021 09:38:02 GMT

Author: Streams

Posted: 01/06/2021 14:38

'93. Tried to scope out some Spice 1 for my team too. And of course Sinhead got into the tourny somehow

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

RoundTheBend — Tue, 5 Jan 2021 22:08:31 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/06/2021 03:08

Skinny wrote:

Is RoundTheBend not doing an 'out of 3' rating system? If so, 2.5 is pretty high.

I am.

Sorry should've clarified given all the things.

I figured:

1=meh or crap
2=worthy of my time to good, but not great
3=great, I totally dig/already a favorite of mine.

2.5's totally have a potential to become 3's.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

mickilennial — Tue, 5 Jan 2021 14:24:34 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 01/05/2021 19:24

Skinny wrote:

Is RoundTheBend not doing an 'out of 3' rating system? If so, 2.5 is pretty high.

I may have not caught that. 😜

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Skinny — Tue, 5 Jan 2021 14:21:46 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 01/05/2021 19:21

Gowi wrote:

Quote:

Maybe closer to dense, chaotic free jazz, but without the dynamic variation necessary to keep me engaged.

Maybe that's why I love it? idk. I think they are deserving of a 3 at minimum for anybody who respects hip hop as a medium and genre, though.

Is RoundTheBend not doing an 'out of 3' rating system? If so, 2.5 is pretty high.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

mickilennial — Tue, 5 Jan 2021 14:20:29 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 01/05/2021 19:20

Quote:

Maybe closer to dense, chaotic free jazz, but without the dynamic variation necessary to keep me engaged.

Maybe that's why I love it? idk. I think they are deserving of a 3 at minimum for anybody who respects hip hop as a medium and genre, though.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

Skinny — Tue, 5 Jan 2021 14:15:20 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 01/05/2021 19:15

Gonna put it out there and say that Freestyle Fellowship never totally did it for me, and don't particularly upon relisten either. Innercity Griots is a record I appreciate more than I actually enjoy, and overall I just find that a side-effect of their densely layered, constantly changing flows is that it's pretty exhausting. This is probably a weird thing to say given that I love E-40, who I see as very similar structurally (though obviously also very, very different content-wise) to Aceyalone, but it's just too much: they don't give the beats room to breathe, and it ends up being overwhelming. I was gonna compare them to showy guitarists, but it's not quite right. Maybe closer to dense, chaotic free jazz, but without the dynamic variation necessary to keep me engaged. I dunno. Like, I get the importance of them as artists, and particularly within that weirdo West Coast scene, but whenever I listen to them I always feel like I'd rather be hearing The Pharcyde or Souls of Mischief, or even just a solo Acey album (which are generally more polished affairs). I feel like this is some sort of blasphemy, but I've tried many times over the years and have just ever felt an emotional connection to them as a group. Ah well, it's undoubtedly my loss.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group C - 1993 vs. 2004

mickilennial — Tue, 5 Jan 2021 13:43:07 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 01/05/2021 18:43

RoundTheBend wrote:

Freestyle Fellowship

2.5