Best Hip Hop/R & B/Soul/Funk Albums - Music Diaries

janetjakcson

Age: 21

The best R&B albums (by women since I only really listen to women) are Butterfly, Daydream, and Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey, Baduizm, Live, and Mama's Gun by Erykah Badu, The Velvet Rope, All For You and Control by Janet Jackson. I really love Thriller as well. For Hip Hop I love any of Lil' Kim's albums, Nicki does pretty good work too. U.N.I.T.Y. by Queen Latifah is amazing and some songs off of Left-Eye's Supernova are beautiful. Lauryn Hill does pretty good work. Trick Daddy's WWW.THUG.COM and Usher's Confessions are good as well. Very Happy

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

janetjakcson wrote:

The best R&B albums (by women since I only really listen to women) are Butterfly, Daydream, and Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey, Baduizm, Live, and Mama's Gun by Erykah Badu, The Velvet Rope, All For You and Control by Janet Jackson. I really love Thriller as well. For Hip Hop I love any of Lil' Kim's albums, Nicki does pretty good work too. U.N.I.T.Y. by Queen Latifah is amazing and some songs off of Left-Eye's Supernova are beautiful. Lauryn Hill does pretty good work. Trick Daddy's WWW.THUG.COM and Usher's Confessions are good as well. Very Happy

Thanks

Thank you for reminding me of Erykah Badu. Ill probably add two of her albums. Ill have to revisit Janet Jackson -- Rhythm Nation might be a possibility. Control is solid as well, but this list is pretty strict so it would be a (pleasant) surprise if I added it. Ive heard Queen Latifah's best known songs but never a whole album. Maybe there's potential there (though I would doubt she is on Lauryn Hill's level... ? ). Im not a fan of Mariah Carey for the most part (you might want to check out Original Sin listed near the top) ... the others (Left Eye, Usher...) are just "okay" imo Smile

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rkm

Rock/Jazz
Steely Dan?

Hip-Hop/Soul/Funk/Jazz
Peace Beyond Passion - Me’shell Ndegeocello?

By the way, I have a soft spot for Living Colour’s “Vivid”, but I consider their follow up, “Time’s Up” to be a better and more challenging record.

Also, I love Rickie Lee Jones. I think she is generally underrated. She’s made a lot of interesting and varied albums.

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Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

rkm wrote:

Rock/Jazz
Steely Dan?

Hip-Hop/Soul/Funk/Jazz
Peace Beyond Passion - Me’shell Ndegeocello?

By the way, I have a soft spot for Living Colour’s “Vivid”, but I consider their follow up, “Time’s Up” to be a better and more challenging record.

Not really a list for Rock/Jazz unless it has, first and foremost, a strong bent towards (one or more of) the genres listed. Though, thank you for reminding me of Steely Dan anyway. Countdown to Ecstacy surely needs to be added to the "Pop" list. One of my favorite albums from my teenage years. Few albums are more strange but "familiar". A beguiling melodic minor-masterpiece that I had totally forgotten about. An oddball, infectious cross of synergistic lounge-jazz-pop-rock between Chick Corea's Light as a Feather and, in its vocal climaxes, that of Neil Young's/The Byrd's harmonies (laid back climaxes often halfway between ecstacy and a vigil/requiem mass). If you are a fan of this album, I would strongly recommend Corea's masterpiece (Light as a Feather), perhaps the artistic peak of this peculiar accent of Jazz (more spiritual and cheerful, without the satire and the beguiling melodic refrains), but it is probably the peak of the light, elegant, fleet, transfigured jazz that is fundamentally driving it.

Also, Pretzel Logic needs a revisit...

Been quite awhile since I listened to Me'Shell Ndegeocello. I am not sure what I've heard by her ... will have to look into it. She may have a 7+ hanging around.

Thanks for the tip on Living Colour. I'll try and get around to that.
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AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

Re: Janet Jackson

I revisited Rhythm Nation 1814 last night and may add it to the 7/10 category, but am undecided and will probably need to revisit it one more time to make sure. I am mixed on whether its excellent and impressive production/"new jack swing" (halfway between Michael Jackson's Thriller and Public Enemy's It Takes Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back-Lite) is enough to support Jackson's solid but slick, somewhat neutral/less-impinging/relatively impersonal vocals (this, admittedly, is fairly idiomatic to its militant sound world ... doesn't necessarily hurt nor particularly elevate the material, aside from providing songs and a basic emotional purpose for their existence)...
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rkm

AfterHours wrote:

Re: Janet Jackson

I revisited Rhythm Nation 1814 last night and may add it to the 7/10 category, but am undecided and will probably need to revisit it one more time to make sure. I am mixed on whether its excellent and impressive production/"new jack swing" (halfway between Michael Jackson's Thriller and Public Enemy's It Takes Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back-Lite) is enough to support Jackson's solid but slick, somewhat neutral/less-impinging/relatively impersonal vocals (this, admittedly, is fairly idiomatic to its militant sound world ... doesn't necessarily hurt nor particularly elevate the material, aside from providing songs and a basic emotional purpose for their existence)...

I revisited it recently, too. My 10 year old son discovered Michael Jackson recently, and my daughter was very interested that Michael Jackson had a sister.

I also heard Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” after it, which I think in some ways imitated “Rhythm Nation” with its relentless new jack swing beats and emphasis on rhythm over melody. I think Janet’s album is the stronger out of the two, and it was interesting to me that it would appear that Michael was playing catch-up with Janet at this point.

I don’t know how much weight you put on the cultural importance of an album when it appeared, but I think Janet was an important figure during the 80’s in terms of representing women, and black women in particular, as strong and in control. It’s remarkable that she was able to create that image of strength with such a small voice, contrasted against those big beats. It’s that dynamic that appeals to me about the album, while the ballads are of less interest.

Grace Jones would be an interesting artist to compare, and would fit your category here. They both do this dominant, dead-pan delivery thing, although Grace Jones is the scarier of the two.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

rkm wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

Re: Janet Jackson

I revisited Rhythm Nation 1814 last night and may add it to the 7/10 category, but am undecided and will probably need to revisit it one more time to make sure. I am mixed on whether its excellent and impressive production/"new jack swing" (halfway between Michael Jackson's Thriller and Public Enemy's It Takes Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back-Lite) is enough to support Jackson's solid but slick, somewhat neutral/less-impinging/relatively impersonal vocals (this, admittedly, is fairly idiomatic to its militant sound world ... doesn't necessarily hurt nor particularly elevate the material, aside from providing songs and a basic emotional purpose for their existence)...

I revisited it recently, too. My 10 year old son discovered Michael Jackson recently, and my daughter was very interested that Michael Jackson had a sister.

I also heard Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” after it, which I think in some ways imitated “Rhythm Nation” with its relentless new jack swing beats and emphasis on rhythm over melody. I think Janet’s album is the stronger out of the two, and it was interesting to me that it would appear that Michael was playing catch-up with Janet at this point.

I don’t know how much weight you put on the cultural importance of an album when it appeared, but I think Janet was an important figure during the 80’s in terms of representing women, and black women in particular, as strong and in control. It’s remarkable that she was able to create that image of strength with such a small voice, contrasted against those big beats. It’s that dynamic that appeals to me about the album, while the ballads are of less interest.

Grace Jones would be an interesting artist to compare, and would fit your category here. They both do this dominant, dead-pan delivery thing, although Grace Jones is the scarier of the two.

Thank you for your take and reminding me to check out Grace Jones.

Re: how much weight on cultural importance ... None in and of itself. Only to the degree the phenomenon is represented in and matched by the music/art itself. If the media and fanatics react to a work like it is as powerful as the second coming of Christ, then I would personally consider it matched/representational if the work they were referring to was something on the order of Bach's Mass in B Minor, not Beyonce's Lemonade for example Laughing

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bobbyb5

Gender: Male
Location: New York

Looks like anything qualifies as R&B Soul and Funk.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

bobbyb5 wrote:

Looks like anything qualifies as R&B Soul and Funk.

For instance, R & B and Soul and Funk.
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AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

Recent updates...

ADDED:
Eli And The 13th Confession - Laura Nyro (1968)
More Than a New Discovery (aka "The First Songs") - Laura Nyro (1967)
Baduism - Erykah Badu (1997)
New Amerykah Part One - 4th World War - Erykah Badu (2008)
New York Tendaberry - Laura Nyro (1969)
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