As you'll notice, I gave most of these albums a 3.5/5 rating. In my book, 3.5 means that its better than good/worse than great. It's not to say that my #7 is equal to my #1, but that these albums fall into that categorie. So which album was the most better than goodest?
I gave this album a 3.5 when I reviewed it initially but it wore of quickly so I dropped it to a 3. It has a great guest lineup and some decent production by Statik, an even though I got tired of it, its definitely worth a listen.
Though it fell short of Sean P's comical and brilliant Monkey Bars, his follow up release was still one of the years best. The album had its ups and downs mostly due to boring Justice League beats but was solid overall.
No one is putting this next to 36 Chambers, but this album was far from 'shit' or whatever Ghostface called it. The beats are grimey for the most part and the Clan, though they lack the edge of when they were making classics (its been a decade), do their part on the mic.
Talib Kweli bounced back from a series of botched solo albums with one of the most lyrical albums of the year. The production was a dissapointment given the lineup, but there were about 4-5 great songs on this album.
19 years since winning the first rap Grammy award, DJ Jazzy Jeff is still pushing real hip hop. This album features a mix of random kids and legendary vets over soulful and, well, jazzy instrumentals.
Kanye bodied 50 Cent in the dramatic 9/11 sales feud with his most creative release yet. Setting the tone with the Daft Punk sampling "Stronger", the album is full of that synth, techno, disco shit, aided by Atlanta's DJ Toomp. Kanye probably should've utilized more guests as he did on the first two albums, but this is quality nonetheless.
After fuming over the Wu-Tang album which he was hardly on, Ghost put out his 3rd album in 2 years. While the soul and R&B samples have always suited Ghost well, many of the beats are borderline boring, others straight jacked from old rap songs. In any case, big Ghost steps off laughin.
As I mentioned in my bit about "Wonderful," the group's producer, DJ Kno, is way ahead of the game musically. I have listened to heads raving about him for years now but I was never sold until this album when he went for the more mellow, soulful approach. I'm not sure if I could recite a lyric from this album but it deserves such high praise just for the musical achievements.
Another one of the game's outstanding producers, Marco Polo recruited some of the all-time greats to help him form the second best album of the year. This album is hard and grimey all the way through and of course featured the years best song, Masta Ace's "Nostalgia".
Finally the #1 album, Jay-Z's real comeback, American Gangster. This album is difficult to evaluate because it had a few garbage tracks ("Hello Brooklyn", "Party Life", "American Gangster"), but its standout moments outshined anything else in '07. Three songs off it made my top 16 of the year, while "I Know", the drug metaphor over a flashy Neptunes beat, and "No Hook", Puffy and the Hitmen's best contribution, were tough to leave off the top 25. While Jay-Z can't rap like he could in 1996, he shows in 2007 that he can still make great hip hop.
1 comment:
Jay-Z ain't number 1ne, pussy!
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