Kill Your Idols: "It Takes a Nation of Millions"

Calling Rakim the best rapper ever made sense in 1995. At this point, you're ignoring 20-plus years of development. Rakim was incredibly important within the context of his brief era. "Casualties of War" and "The Punisher" are good examples of an exceptional, iconic figure not understanding his genre's movements.

And Straight Outta Compton is by far the most overrated rap album ever. "If It Ain't Ruff," "Something Like That," "I Ain't tha 1" and "Quiet on tha Set" are such fillers. There are a handful (five, by my count: "Straight Outta Compton," "Fuck tha Police," "Gangsta Gangsta," "Parental Discretion Iz Advised" and "Express Yourself") of great songs, sure. But I would take each of Ice Cube's first three solo albums over Straight Outta Compton for their sonic innovations (again, the Bomb Squad was way ahead of its time) and consistency.

 

I like Chronic better than Straight Outta Compton, there is filler on it, no question about it, but probably at least four "classics" as well.

 

The Chronic is miles better than Straight Outta Compton. Every track is great. I don't know what you'd call filler. Certainly nothing sinks as low as the MC Ren solo tracks on Straight Outta Compton.

 

The Master came out in '99 or 2000 and while Rakim's style slowed down a bit he was still dynamic.

What rapper since, let's say 2000, would be in the same stratosphere as Rakim at his height?

 

Jay-Z. And The Master was uneven, with a handful of great songs but mostly a bunch of filler.

 

Chuck D had the best rap voice of all-time. I mean that literally and with what he said.

By Time I Get To Arizona was in major rotation on MTV at the time. Different times.

 

I'll accept your Jay-Z answer but if I'm pitting Jay-Z against Rakim, I'm taking Rakim 7 ways till Sunday and that's not a knock against Jay-Z.

 

That's perfectly understandable as a preference. It's silly if using the term "greatest." Rakim failed to adjust to new standards and never successfully crossed over (despite several attempts throughout the 1990s).

 

I'm not sure I get that. What new standards? (Serious question).

People name Biggie as this great rapper but I just saw him as a mushy mouth. Barely understood him which is why I always gravitated to the guys who enunciated: Chuck D, KRS-1, Rakim, Ice T.

Link something from the last, oh, 8-10 years, to give me an example of what you're talking about.

 

I mean, your tastes skew old school. That's fine, even appreciated. But by the same logic, one could say Ty Cobb was the greatest baseball player ever. He did what he did better than anyone else before or after, right?

Listing Jay-Z tracks seems asinine, but

. He has been the biggest, most respected and most celebrated rapper for close to 15 years now. He has three unquestionable classics and four or five other very good albums. His résumé is unmatched.

Beats and topics have become more complicated. Rakim was the first to push rhyme schemes into the 1990s, and his contributions were as important as any group or rapper from the 1980s. He played a big role in modernizing the genre. But as he tried to keep up, putting out tracks like "What's on Your Mind," he struggled. We all wanted Rakim to stay 1980s Rakim, mostly because he wasn't any good at handling bigger beats and more varied topics. His two biggest hits in the 1990s were "Don't Sweat the Technique" and "Let the Rhythm Hit'em," which both directly drew on his 1980s style.

 

I was thinking about the best rap album ever debate. Here are the albums, listed by year, that are most often mentioned in this debate:

1982
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Message

1984
Run-DMC, Run-DMC

1985
LL Cool J, Radio

1986
Run-DMC, Raising Hell
Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill

1987
Eric B. & Rakim, Paid in Full
Boogie Down Productions, Criminal Minded

1988
Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton
EPMD, Strictly Business
Slick Rick, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
Boogie Down Productions, By All Means Necessary

1989
De La Soul, 3 Feet High & Rising
Beastie Boys, Paul's Boutique

1990
Ice Cube, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet

1991
A Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory
Massive Attack, Blue Lines

1992
Dr. Dre, The Chronic
Gang Starr, Daily Operation
The Pharcyde, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
Arrested Development, 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life of ...

1993
Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers
Snoop Doggy Dogg, DoggyStyle
Souls of Mischief, 93 'til Infinity

1994
Nas, Illmatic
Notorious B.I.G., Ready to Die
Common Sense, Resurrection

1995
2Pac, Me Against the World
Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
GZA, Liquid Swords
Tricky, Maxinquaye

1996
2Pac, All Eyez on Me
Fugees, The Score
Jay-Z, Reasonable Doubt
DJ Shadow, Endtroducing ...

1997
Company Flow, Funcrusher Plus

1998
Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
OutKast, Aquemini

1999
Mos Def, Black on Both Sides
Eminem, The Slim Shady LP
The Roots, Things Fall Apart

2000
Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP
OutKast, Stankonia
Ghostface Killah, Supreme Clientele

2001
Jay-Z, The Blueprint
Aesop Rock, Labor Days

2003
Jay-Z, The Black Album

2004
Madvillain, Madvillainy
Kanye West, College Dropout

2005
Kanye West, Late Registration

2010
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The ones in italics are the front-runners. Keep in mind that these aren't my favorite albums, and in some cases I don't even much care for the album in question. But you could almost guarantee that a respectable list of the greatest rap albums ever will have one of those albums at the top, probably several. Which one would tell you a lot about the preferences of the list-maker.

 

There are six albums on that list I've never heard of.