Best Ever Albums

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

Skinny — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 04:15:41 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 02/23/2021 09:15

1993 wins, 14-3.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

baystateoftheart — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 16:14:47 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 02/14/2021 21:14

Midnight Marauders: 4.5/5
SlaughtaHouse: 3.5/5
Passin' Me By: 4/5
Le Dernier Empereur: 4/5

1993 Total: 16/20

Brick Body Kids Still Daydream: 4/5
Due Rent: 3.5/5
Ain't It Funny: 4.5/5
Biking: 4/5

2017 Total: 16/20

Really great, close match. Tie goes to 1993 for slightly better albums.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

kokkinos — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:16:47 GMT

Author: kokkinos

Posted: 02/14/2021 17:16

Skinny wrote:

I've got to say that I preferred both of these years' respective Gameweek One teams, even taking into account my love of Midnight Marauders. That 2017 albums selection in Gameweek One was one of my favourite pairings of the tournament, and the margin of defeat was way too large. (Oddly enough, I prefer my team in this round to my team from last round, but may be alone in that judgement.) As much as I like Brick Body Kids..., I certainly preferred the Roc Marci and Quelle selections from last time, and this lojii & Swarvy album is... OK, I guess. I'm not entirely sure what it does that many other albums don't do better, or at least with more personality. It's a pleasant listen, but it certainly didn't grab my attention, or really carve out a distinctive style for itself. Similarly, I find that Masta Ace album super heavy-handed, and very inconsistent, with high highs but too many moments that just feel clumsy. Each team contains one single that I consider a masterpiece, and one that I'm relatively indifferent towards, but the one-two punch of Midnight Marauders + 'Passin' Me By' beats the Brick Body Kids... + 'Ain't It Funny' combo, and is enough to get my vote here.

I also rank 2017's first round team a tiny bit ahead of its second round team. On the other hand, it was up againist a 1999 team I really liked (Mos Def's album is top-notch and ODB's single is top-top-top notch - by the way, did you at any point consider nominating his album instead? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that one.) and would have voted it myself weren't it for that Eminem single, something I can't say about this 1993 team despite its undeniable quality. That's why this time around the margin felt more disappointing.

Hayden wrote:

(I haven't actually decided my team yet... I've got an album and a single locked, and I'm having a hard time what route to go for the other two 🤣 there's a lot I want to pick...)

Yeah, I've also reached a crossroad. Without revealing too much, I'm thinking it might be about time the whole "team chemistry" business goes out of the window as otherwise I will have to severely compromise individual quality, but I'm still trying to figure it out.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

Skinny — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 11:03:34 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 02/14/2021 16:03

I've got to say that I preferred both of these years' respective Gameweek One teams, even taking into account my love of Midnight Marauders. That 2017 albums selection in Gameweek One was one of my favourite pairings of the tournament, and the margin of defeat was way too large. (Oddly enough, I prefer my team in this round to my team from last round, but may be alone in that judgement.) As much as I like Brick Body Kids..., I certainly preferred the Roc Marci and Quelle selections from last time, and this lojii & Swarvy album is... OK, I guess. I'm not entirely sure what it does that many other albums don't do better, or at least with more personality. It's a pleasant listen, but it certainly didn't grab my attention, or really carve out a distinctive style for itself. Similarly, I find that Masta Ace album super heavy-handed, and very inconsistent, with high highs but too many moments that just feel clumsy. Each team contains one single that I consider a masterpiece, and one that I'm relatively indifferent towards, but the one-two punch of Midnight Marauders + 'Passin' Me By' beats the Brick Body Kids... + 'Ain't It Funny' combo, and is enough to get my vote here.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

Hayden — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 10:54:41 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 02/14/2021 15:54

kokkinos wrote:

I have to say I'll try my best for the pattern to continue in the third round as well. :twisted:

My team's prepping 😎

(I haven't actually decided my team yet... I've got an album and a single locked, and I'm having a hard time what route to go for the other two 🤣 there's a lot I want to pick...)

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

kokkinos — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 04:15:58 GMT

Author: kokkinos

Posted: 02/14/2021 09:15

Hayden wrote:

Hopefully a third vote comes through eventually 🤣

Yeah, sure, I had already mentioned a few posts back that I'm voting 2017, it's just that I have this annoying tendency of delaying my votes for dramatic effect - well, not in this particular matchup, but you get the point. Anyway, this is almost an exact deja vu of the first round, where I also voted in favor of 2017, but this time the margin feels even more disappointing, your team was all-around great, though I have to say I'll try my best for the pattern to continue in the third round as well. 😈

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

Hayden — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 10:51:16 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 02/13/2021 15:51

Purplepash wrote:

Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is my favourite album in the whole of round 2, and Ain't It Funny is my favourite single in the whole of round 2 (both even over my own picks), so I'm bucking the trend here and voting 2017. Worth mentioning that the 1993 team is also great and I probably would have voted for it over most of the other teams this round.

Appreciate it Purplepash. Hopefully a third vote comes through eventually 🤣

Good game Cestuneblague.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

Purplepash — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 17:57:34 GMT

Author: Purplepash

Posted: 02/12/2021 22:57

Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is my favourite album in the whole of round 2, and Ain't It Funny is my favourite single in the whole of round 2 (both even over my own picks), so I'm bucking the trend here and voting 2017. Worth mentioning that the 1993 team is also great and I probably would have voted for it over most of the other teams this round.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

travelful — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 16:02:36 GMT

Author: travelful

Posted: 02/11/2021 21:02

Yeah this 1993 team would be tough for anyone to go up against. I gotta admit the IAM track is whatever, but everything else is elite. 2017 has great singles but the albums just cant compete with the 1993 selections imo.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

LedZep — Sun, 7 Feb 2021 18:50:51 GMT

Author: LedZep

Posted: 02/07/2021 23:50

While I love Brick Body Kids as much as Midnight Marauders (or almost as much), that Masta Ace album is waaay better than Swarvy and Lojii's Due Rent. And I like that one quite a bit, I'm always up for some trippy Earl Sweatshirt worship and Lojii does that the best. It's just that... Masta Ace is so good. As for the singles, I like Passin' Me By about as much as Ain't It Funny, distant third is Bicycle and then IAM. Also, I'm sure I've already said it, but Ain't It Funny video is a goddamn masterpiece.

It's 1993 for me, despite both teams being very good. Sorry Hayden!

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

cestuneblague — Sun, 7 Feb 2021 04:09:03 GMT

Author: cestuneblague

Posted: 02/07/2021 09:09

I have to admit I actually put together this team pretty hastily as I had the urgent warning from sr Nezzle about getting it in, and I forgot to include a Menace II Society connection that I wanted for every collection.

But anyways since I went out west last go-around with the albums I decided to take it back to NYC, though after using "Come Clean" previously I wanted a couple of albums that contrasted with the distinctly DITC or colder, more menacing sound that's often associated with mid-90s new york hip-hop. Midnight Marauders is an album that often gets left off a lot of all-timer lists in comparison to Low End Theory, despite how much it's loved among hardcore hip-hop heads and most music nerds of all strife, donno I guess "canon" obsession. I don't think it fits a more particular niche as their previous couple of albums but really just builds on both of them in a way that can both feel aggressive and yet chill, and this is where the band really started to feel incomparable. Kind of an album you just need to listen to than one that can be easily described with my favorite BAWP descriptors, so yeah. And Slaughtahouse seemed like an intresting choice for '93 specifically since at the time rap was not only expanding it's reach across the globe, but where there were more specific attempts at self-mythologizing and (more so in this case) self-analyzing. I think it's sometimes misinterpreted as a specifically anti-gangsta rap album, but more so it's kind of examining the cliques that were starting to pop up at the time and often playing them straight, than literalizing and showing outright what was often bragged about, and if it's taken with the intended pinch of salt or completely at face value it sounds great either way. It's not so much talking down to the genre as just turning different formulas inside and out and than back again, it may be less distinctly NYC than other Masta Ace albums which in may turn may not have some of the more expected latter-day charms of him, but it shows a different side of the younger genius at work and a fascinating contrast to the master storyteller and mood-setter of his early 2000s-era works. It's loose by design and very try-this here/try-that there, but I always think consistency especially in hip hop albums can be overrated and the whole is even greater than the sum of all it's indiviual moments. Underrated in the greater scheme of things, too.

With singles obviously "Passin' me by" doesn't need much introduction, it was a moment in time when hip-hop was calling back very specifically to the more romantic early-70s soul influences (Rock and CL Smooth's "Lot's of Lovin" is a good east-coast comparison) even if this definitely felt distinctly 90s sadboy in tone. One thing I loved about Bizzare Ride is how well all the rappers constantly played and bounced off each other but here they really get an individual moment to shine, but man What Up Fatlip he just always knows how to break your heart and really gives the perfect finishing touch. For the next I think the selection of Shurik'n for 98 kind of made this track feel obselete, as mainly I just really wanted to get at least some french hip hop into the tournament, but I think it's useful in the context of '93 as french hip-hop was really starting to mature and move past it's more blatant american influences. And since most of the hip hop was coming from the outskirts of Paris, IAM really put Marseilles on the map and started off France's own version of the east-west coast rivalry (but far less bloody), and they definitely had a more theatrical flair than the jazzier and more straight-talking hip hop that was going on up north, playing much heavier into thier north african influences and this particular track if a bit odd as an indiviual single probably one of the best representives of their early sound. Ill see if I can get a translation soon.

But no really strong matchup all around. I've surpsingly never really heard much Open Mike Eagle before so this was a good a time as any to start, and I just really love "Ain't it Funny" and "Passin' me By" going up side-by-side- two absolutely monster hip hop songs but for nearly polar opposite moods.

And I did think for a second about whipping out "Informer" just to see what would happen, but I came to my senses pretty quickly. Fun karaoke jam, though.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

RoundTheBend — Sat, 6 Feb 2021 21:47:27 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 02/07/2021 02:47

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

You are right - Kale is delish with some garlic/made right... actually even when it's made wrong. Brussels sprouts too.

My likeness idiocy abounds. But I suppose the analogy stands pending on how well you care for yourself. Or have the maturity of a toddler like myself.

But I'm super glad Hayden's response exists... best bit on BEA in a long time.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

PossiblyMichigan — Sat, 6 Feb 2021 15:58:30 GMT

Author: PossiblyMichigan

Posted: 02/06/2021 20:58

Hayden wrote:

And I'm hoping PossiblyMichigan gets a slight kick out of my message I sent to him.

I did friend! I like getting your dms a lot because you're always delineating your thought processes and your predictions for what you're up against and you're always right or uncannily close.

Anyway contrary to almost all of the takes here. I'm leaning slightlyyyy towards '17. Midnight Marauders is truly one of the greatest records ever made and that pharcyde single is also just greatness (though not my favorite era of theirs). But while good, this isn't Masta Ace at peak form and I don't really like that IAM single.

17 on the other hand, you have Open Mike Eagle at his height and one of Danny Brown's greatest songs. You probably have Frank Ocean's greatest single, though I don't think it's that cut and dry Gabe. I generally think the solo single version of this is better, while this version has one of the first tyler features that doesn't just straight drag the quality of the song the solo version has this really nice skippy flow Frank does plus it doesn't have a minute of Jay-Z going look how cool my bike is which I feel drags it down (also the wordplay on chanel I think I generallyyyyy prefer).

Plus that lojii and swarvy record was a pleasant surprise. When listening to it my first impression was like ohhhh this feels like a sonic link between madlib and sLUms collective. But then I was like oh maybe I'm off base, these guys are both based in philly and slums are based in NYC and didnt really get super popular until after Earl dropped Some Rap Songs and Mike started releasing seminal mix tapes but lo and behold it turns out they're part of the collective. Which, I'm not sure if that means anything anymore, there's like 30 members and they're all in the same sonic world and they have so many affiliates that even I've gotten to mix for like a half a dozen of them.

But yeah good stuff. It's honestly still close. A relisten of the masta ace record (and maybe some context around it too) will be the decider

RoundTheBend wrote:

Same reason why kale vs ice cream - ice cream wins every time. Higher quality [nutritional] value doesn't always win. That's probably a nicer way to say what I mean.

I'm team kale. You gotta massage it with salt and olive oil and then let it wilt for 15 minutes to an hour before you make your salads

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

Hayden — Sat, 6 Feb 2021 10:53:02 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 02/06/2021 15:53

RoundTheBend wrote:

.
Same reason why kale vs ice cream - ice cream wins every time. That's probably a nicer way to say what I mean.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

#TeamKale17

#FreshBeets

#VegetableWraps

#17sofirethat93icecreammelts

Eat your vegetables kids *puts Open Mike Eagle on the record player*

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

RoundTheBend — Sat, 6 Feb 2021 01:18:26 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 02/06/2021 06:18

Hayden wrote:

RoundTheBend wrote:

Hayden wrote:

(I think this might be the gist for most users...)

What's weird is odd enough your stuff is higher quality. It's just it didn't get my jones' somehow.

Higher quality? Cestuneblague's got Passin' Me By and a whole ass Tribe album on the board. That's heavyweight stuff. There's a chance IAM might throw some people, but I'm still not sure if my team can overcome that 14+ years of airplay on a couple of classics. I'm happy with my team, and I think the overall team stacks up pretty well against '93, but that Pharcyde/Tribe combo Cestuneblague threw is pretty hard to vote against 🤣

If I factored out the fact I'm in the match, I'm not really sure how I'd swing. The teams weight out really even.

I'd rank the albums like this—

1. Midnight Marauders
2. Brick Body Kids Still Daydream
3. Due Rent
4. SlaughtaHouse

And the singles like this—

1. Passin' Me By = 1. Ain't It Funny (I can't pick, just can't)
2. Biking
3. Le dernier empereur

So... maybe I'd pick 2017 because it would literally boil down to the fact I prefer Biking to Le dernier empereur, but it's still a crazy thin decision.

(Fun fact, I set up both Passin' Me By and (a clean version of) Award Tour on my high school's PA system)

Oh sorry - I suppose I mean production quality/music quality. There's this jazzy cool vibe on your pics alongside modern production and I see jazz as a slightly higher quality art form than hip-hop (ok now I've just put myself in a grave with half of you if you didn't already think I was a dingus because all art is created equal along with participation trophies). That's all I mean.

I mean after I say that, I'm voting 1993 for sure 🤣 .

Same reason why kale vs ice cream - ice cream wins every time. Higher quality [nutritional] value doesn't always win. That's probably a nicer way to say what I mean.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

Hayden — Sat, 6 Feb 2021 00:13:25 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 02/06/2021 05:13

RoundTheBend wrote:

Hayden wrote:

(I think this might be the gist for most users...)

What's weird is odd enough your stuff is higher quality. It's just it didn't get my jones' somehow.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

RoundTheBend — Fri, 5 Feb 2021 21:28:45 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 02/06/2021 02:28

Hayden wrote:

(I think this might be the gist for most users...)

What's weird is odd enough your stuff is higher quality. It's just it didn't get my jones' somehow.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

babyBlueSedan — Fri, 5 Feb 2021 11:41:06 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 02/05/2021 16:41

Hayden wrote:

(I think this might be the gist for most users...)

I know the feeling, my team is facing the same fate right now.

I can't say there's really been a team in this tourney that I dislike, really enjoying the choices so far. A lot of these decisions have been really hard.

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

Hayden — Thu, 4 Feb 2021 23:18:49 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 02/05/2021 04:18

babyBlueSedan wrote:

It would be really difficult to vote against that 2017 team.

😁 😁 😁 😁

laterinthatpost wrote:

But I'm voting for the '93 team, because it's even better.

😢

(I think this might be the gist for most users...)

Re: BYHH GW2: Group C - 1993 vs. 2017

babyBlueSedan — Thu, 4 Feb 2021 22:14:34 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 02/05/2021 03:14

It would be really difficult to vote against that 2017 team. "Ain't it Funny" is of course terrific, one of my favorite rap songs. But Broken Body Kids is also incredible, one of the best hip hop albums of the 10's. OME has always been great at mixing humor and melancholy but this is probably his most insightful project, delivered in a careful, thoughtful voice that frequently blends into singing. There's a lot of sadness in the story he tells here but it's mixed with some nostalgia on moments like the chorus of "95 Radios" that helps to balance that and make it beautifully bittersweet.

But I'm voting for the '93 team, because it's even better. Of course there's Midnight Marauders, which is Tribe's best. And there's "Passing Me By," which is an absolute classic. But I also really enjoyed Slaughtahouse. I'm a big fan of A Long Hot Summer, the only other Masta Ace album I've heard, but I was worried at first because the intro is a really heavy handed satire of gangsta rap and I was worried the whole album would be just as obvious. But the rest of the album is more measured and not as overt in the social commentary it's making, and as others have mentioned the horn samples give the production a really great feel. I'm still not a huge fan of this kind of conscious hip hop; someone on RYM called it "conscious gangsta rap" and I think something like Vince Staples's "Norf Norf" does a much better job at silently shining a light on the struggle of Black communities than this does. But it it doesn't get in the way of the album being great.

Thoughts on the rest of the entries:

- The IAM was fine, though I understand no French so it kind of...passed me by. Though I've heard a few French hip hop songs now and I do think the language sounds great when rapped, I just wished I could follow the words.

- I really like the production of DUE RENT but the whole package didn't do it for me. Felt that the rapping got in the way of the production a bit.

- "Biking" is a song I listened to once when it was released and never went back to, like most of those Frank Ocean singles after Blonde. After listening again I think it's a decent song but I'm not surprised it didn't make the album, though that might just be because it doesn't really fit the sound he was going for on Blonde.