10. Nas - Stillmatic Ill Will (2001)
Nasir Jones created a monster. In releasing his debut, Illmatic, the 19-year-old Queens Bridge native emerged as one of the best lyricists, but all the while posing the question, "What's next?" Although his second album, It Was Written, was ahead of its time, it wasn't until the release of Stillmatic, nearly five years later, when Esco dropped another classic.
Fueled by his beef with Jay-Z, God Son pinned what is now remembered as the second greatest diss song of all time, "Ether," (right behind Pac's "Hit 'Em Up"), not to mention some of the most creative songs in recent memory plus the heart-pumping hit single "One Mic."
Nasty Nas summed it up best, "They thought I'll make another Illmatic, but it's always forward I'm moving, never backwards stupid/here's another classic/I am the truest, name a rapper that I ain't influenced."
- Jerod Couch
09. The Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death Bad Boy (1997)
What if Biggie Smalls had lived to enjoy the fruits of his labor and not been tragically gunned down in California weeks before Death dropped? Hip-hop would've surely benefitted from the genre's most powerful voice via influential, highly successful successive releases. Chris Wallace had at least four more classics in him.
But 2Pac would in turn stand alone atop the immortal plane of existence, the decade-long debates having never occurred. And truthfully, Life After Death is a bloated, Puff Daddy-heavy R&B dance party with undeniable filler manifested through R. Kelly and Lil' Kim guest spots. Instead, we remember Biggie's second offering as the ultimate embodiment of life imitating art, a timeless and epic gangster opus.
Either way, put "Kick in the Door," "Niggas Bleed" and "What's Beef?" on an Enya album, that joint makes the top 10.
- Ramon Ramirez
08. Scarface - The Fix Def Jam (2002)
In many ways The Fix is a companion piece to Nas' legendary debut, Illmatic. Both records are incredibly heartfelt at times, ruthlessly gangster at others. The thing that separates the two is that Scarface is speaking as a hip-hop legend, whereas Nas was a just staking his claim in the rap world.
By the turn of the century, the Geto Boys standout was a coveted collaborator; an underground Texas icon so respected he could host feuding rappers on one album and evoke no political reaction from either camp.
Before the magazine became a joke, The Source dropped three of the coveted "5-Mic Classic" labels on Face's albums, more than any other rapper. Fix was Scarface's last foray into solo releases, and he went out as a champion at the top of his game, a la John Elway.
- Eddie Strait
07. Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt EMI (1996)
In 1996, an up-and-coming rapper by the name of Jay-Z was trying to get a record deal. Unfortunately for him, most everyone simply knew him as that "that skinny dude in Hawaiian shirts who raps real fast."
Fast forward to today, where Jay-Z runs shit. The turning point? His debut album, the first release on his (at the time) brand-spanking-new label, Roc-A-Fella records.
The beats are some of the nicest of the period, and Jay-Z's consistent spit makes its flawless debut on Reasonable Doubt. But most importantly, the work is held together by a certain hood feeling - everybody say it with me, "Marcy," - that adds both coherence as well as a since-unequalled authenticity. Plus, the one Biggie duet was billions of times more enjoyable than all of last year's exploitative Biggie Duets.
- Cass 'Money' Luskin
06. Makaveli - The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory Death Row (1996)
The first of his innumerable posthumous releases, 7 Day Theory is probably Pac's single strongest album.
It is a tough listen, as 2pac - now recording under the alias Makaveli - is brimming with the type of anger that everyone heard on "Hit 'Em Up." In prison, Pac began studying the tenets of Niccolo Machiavelli and Sun Tzu. Once he was bailed out by Suge Knight, it wasn't long before he began living principally by their teachings. His beef was at its peak with Nas, Jay-Z, Mobb Deep and even "California Love" accomplice, Dr. Dre. Gone is any trace of the affable charm of his early sides and the good-time G-Funk of All Eyez on Me, replaced here with the sort of atonal, uneasy beats that the RZA pioneered.
In spite of the somber and defeatist tones that haunt the album's dozen tracks, "Hail Mary," "Toss It Up" and "Me & My Girlfriend" are radio classics. The latter features some of the cleverest verses ever laid to wax.
The realest shit he ever wrote? Without a doubt.
- Zach Ernst
Coming tomorrow: Albums 5 - 1
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