July 31, 2007 | Tags: none

I’m big chilling. By the end of the week, I’ll have my Rock the Bells money, my hotel money for that day, and my alcohol money also. I go back to the regular working world at the end of the week, and I have next weekend already taken off. I spent last night and this morning listening to music. See, I can’t argue too much with MTV’s list of “The 10 hottest emcees” list, it was about being “hot” (while I don’t really think Game has a lot of Buzz going on right now…but whatever). I decided since I’m feeling so good, to make a list us real hip hop heads can debate. I wanted to do the “10 dopest emcees” but that was gonna be a little too hard to do that quick. So I went the easy route and decided to do the “10 dopest albums of the last year”. Now, since I started this yesterday, I decided to leave “Finding Forever” out of the mix, since it wasn’t released yet. This has nothing to do with "swag", or "buzz".

"Dope beats, Dope Rhymes, this hop hop shit ain't really that hard"
-Phonte

First I’m gonna go over some albums that barely missed the list:

a. “Kingdom Come” Jay Z-No matter what people try and say, we all know this was a dope album. Not up to the “Jay-Z standard” but it was definitely dope

b. “Second Rounds on Me” Obie Trice-I really expected a lot from Obie when he first came out, but I wasn’t big on “Cheers”. He definitely brought it second time around. With standout songs like “Cry Now” and “Wanna Know” if it wasn’t for the abundance of throwaway tracks it would’ve made the top 10.

c. “Hi-Teknology vol. 2, the Chip” Hi-Tek- when you have a compilation with some of the best rappers in the game with all the beats done by one of the best producers in the game, you know it’s gonna be dope. The fact of the matter is though, this compilation lacks the cohesiveness (come on, it’s a compilation) to make the top 10 dopest list.

d. “Full Circle” Xzibit- I’m pretty sure most people didn’t even hear this album. It was executive produced by Keith Shocklee of the Bomb Squad (of Public Enemy Fame) and with tracks like “Rampart District” you can feel his influence. Xzibit has been consistently dropping overlooked dope albums since he signed up for Pimp my Ride. (except Man Vs Machine)

e. “Liberation” Talib Kweli and Madlib- A Talib Kweli Madlib album is dopeness just off the people working on it. However this 10 track album was probably the farthest from the top 10 dopest list, but it was still a good CD. (especially for the price of Free.99)

f. “Hip Hop is Dead” Nas- Two legends didn’t make the top 10, one did. This album was dope, it had it’s good songs, but like “Black Republican” it just didn’t live up to the hype. If this was the dopest album of the year like most said it was, hip hop would have truly been dead.

g. “The Medicine” Planet Asia-Another underrated cat from out west. Planet Asia brought the lyrics, Evidence brought the beats. The album had a lot of dope tracks, but the filler joints kept this off the top 10 lists.

So those were the cat’s that almost made the list. If Nas and Jay didn’t make the list, who was the legend that did? Who’s number 1? Let’s get into it

10. “4:21, the Day After” Method Man- Wu Tang is for the children! It feels good to have someone drop an album from Wu that’s dope besides Ghostface. Method Man brought the real back to Def Jam, dope beats, dope lyrics, no hype, just realness. If you were afraid of picking this one up, and didn’t hear the rave reviews, check it out.

9. “Jesus Price Supastar” Sean Price-I’ll admit I didn’t hear “Monkey Bars”, but after “Jesus Price…” I have to go back and check that out. I was never a big BCC fan, but Sean brings it on this album. It gives that old early 90’s grimy NY feel, even though a lot of the production was done by NC based Justus League. The BCC/Justus League collabo tracks are dope, but when Sean goes at it on his own he holds it down.

8. ”Hip Hop Lives” KRS-One and Marley Marl- Get this album. I’m not huge on Kris’ rants all the time about what hip hop is and what it isn’t, I wasn’t cool with him dissing Nelly (come on, that’s a bully move), but this album is great. I know your probably tired of KRS saying he IS hip hop, but this album IS hip hop. Dope rhymes, coupled with flash backs to times I wasn’t there for but now wish I was, this album is amazing.

7. “School Was My Hustle” Kidz in the Hall-When I realized Rawkus was back, I had to see what they were bringing. The first act to drop since the return of Rawkus, they represented the label well. Screw the gimmick, yea these dudes are Ivy League graduates, that doesn’t matter, what matters is this is a good album. Double O handles all the production and Knowledge handles all the lyrics, with no features, it’s apparent that features aren’t really needed. Subtract some of the weaker punchlines and the album would have found itself higher on this list.

6.”The Weatherman LP” Evidence- I wasn’t too excited when I heard Evidence of Dilated Peoples was doing a solo album. I didn’t know what to expect. I do know what I got. This is definitely a great “debut” (it’s really not, he’s done several Dilated albums) album. While Evidence handled the majority of the production on two albums this year (Planet Asia’s “The Medicine” and Defari’s “Street Music) he got some assistance on his own album from Alchemist, Dj Khalil, Babu and others. Evidence brings the lyrics as usual, but with his solo album he’s able to get more personal. The only real surprise on the features is Slug of Atmosphere on “Line of Scrimmage” but it definitely turned out right.

5. “I’ll Sleep When Your Dead” El-P

A breath of fresh air. That’s the only way I could begin speaking on this album. I never heard “Fantastic Damage”, the only way I heard El-P was on a Murs feature, but this album was definitely worth trying out. El-P raps in an abstract manner, but the sly/cynical/arrogant/sarcastic gems hidden in his lyrics are definitely worth listening to. The production….it’s either absolutely love it, or can’t stand it. If you like me, you love it. This is definitely one of the best albums of the past year, and one of the best albums in the awhile period.

4.”Food and Liquor” Lupe Fiasco

Declared by many as one of the best debut albums ever, a classic, and the best album of last year, Lupe definitely set the bar high for himself with “Food and Liquor. While most would agree that the leaked copy of the album was better, no one can say that the retail copy wasn’t good. It’s too bad he didn’t realease the leaked copy, cuz I believe without “He say, She Say” and with “Hustlaz Song” and “Real Recognize Real” it might have been able to compete with my #3

3.”Desire” Pharoahe Monch

Perfect timing. While everyone was listening to the bootleg copy of Talib Kweli’s “Ear Drum” Pharoahe dropped greatness. This album alone was the reason I had to listen to music overnight to decide where it belonged. Originally I had Food and Liquor above “Desire”, but after listening to the albums over and over, Pharoahe wins it out. After the sample issues from “Internal Affairs”, ghost writing for Puffy, I really didn’t know what to expect from Pharoahe. I ignored his mixtape, and figured I’ll just wait till the album drops. WOW. With enough social commentary, enough sick puchlines, enough dope metaphors, this album is definitely ill. In fact, if it wasn’t for “Body Baby” I might have had to put it above my #2.

2. “Game Theory” The Roots

The Roots have become synonymous with good music. Black Thought is one of the best lyricist in the history of the rap game (yea, I said it, one of the best ever. Best name ever too), and the whole “hip hop band” thing keeps them from sounding too much like anyone else in the game. When I got these album, I couldn’t stay away. It had tracks to fit all my moods, to go along with my whole day, it inspired me, it kept me up to speed during my workouts, it helped me to reflect on shit I’ve been through, it did everything you could expect from a hip hop album and more. While this site has another Roots album ranked above it, to me, this is the best Roots albums ever, and one of the best albums ever. Add in a Dilla tribute done the right way, and this album is good enough to listen to on cassette. Put it on, and let it play.

1. “The Undisputed Truth” Brother Ali

If you’ve been reading my blogs, you might have seen this coming. People say the term classic get’s thrown around too much…well I guess I’m gonna have to Peyton Manning that shit around a little more. This album was great, start to finish, no filler. Brother Ali never slacks anywhere on this album lyrically. With several quotable verses…yeah, verses, while his lines are dope, he actually has whole quotable verses, something not too many emcees do anymore. Ant doesn’t slack on the production either. I fuck with Atmosphere heavy, but I know Slug has to be a little bitter that Ant brought the production on this album better than he ever has for their Atmosphere albums. Ant’s beats fit every track Ali spits on, and Ali switches back and forth between spitting about how fucked up the game is now, the government, and just the struggle in general. Not too many have covered life as completely as Ali has with this album. It wasn’t hyped, it wasn’t expected to vault the emcee behind it to the best ever spot, it wasn’t done with a big name million dollar producer, however, at the end of the day “The Undisputed Truth” delivered what it said it would, the undisputed truth. I can’t debate with you whether or not Brother Ali belonged on that MTV list, because I know he didn’t, nonetheless, he brought the dopest album of the past year, whether he’s “hot” or not.

That’s the list fam, debate it, diss it, agree with it, whatever, but definitely go pick these albums up, you won’t be disappointed.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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