The Return of Album Relevancy

In the ever-changing music landscape one of the recent trends has been artists releasing albums that are much shorter than the standard length and are more like EPs as they clock in somewhere around 30 minutes. Whether it’s the run of G.O.O.D. Music releases, the Beyoncé and Jay-Z project, Black Thought’s solo debut or the last two projects from Freddie Gibbs, these albums have shown us that you don’t need to have 25 songs to get people to listen and, in fact, you might be better off giving fans a small serving of quality rather than an overstuffed meal that just leaves you feeling exhausted. Aside from the tightness of these releases helping lend to their critical acclaim, the idea of albums being important again may be an unintended yet much welcomed byproduct of this movement.

In the last decade or so, first with the rise of iTunes and then with the introduction of streaming services, the album has somewhat fallen into irrelevancy as listeners can just shuffle through single songs now easier than they ever could previously. iTunes let people purchase only the songs they really wanted from an artist and with streaming services you don’t even have to put up that dollar for a track so you’re even more free to just skim through an album and “favorite” the songs you want to hear again. This has resulted in people claiming to be huge “fans” of an artist without knowing anything outside of that artist’s hit singles and it’s allowed for artists to just toss records up on Soundcloud or one of the major services without having to release an actual album. Cardi B blew up off the success of singles such that people didn’t even really care if they got an album from her so long as she kept giving us heat. Meanwhile due to the way streaming numbers are calculated some artists saw a way to take advantage of the system by releasing enormous projects that mostly contained filler but since they included the hits the project still did numbers (look no further than the Migos second album which has something like 25 songs and clocks in at around 2 hours).

All of this has been brutal to witness for people who value the album format for its ability to capture a theme, tell a story, or just to represent a complete body of work from a well-respected artist. A hit single is fine, but that full length project is what used to really define an artist’s skill as it could elevate them from one-hit-wonder status to established veteran. But in the number-driven industry the album was starting to feel like a dead artform as people don’t have time for a whole project, especially with the subscription model of streaming services allowing for access to every new album it’s like everyone is competing for the same group of listeners.

Two things have come out of all of this. The first is the surprise album as there is not much of a need to promote an album for months when as long as it’s on the home screen of Tidal or Spotify then the people will know about it. The second though, at least in recent months (and last year with Gibbs’ “You Only Live 2wice”) has been these short albums. What’s especially worth noting is how in recent years you saw the discussions of artists be about their hits whether it was Cardi, the Migos (who admittedly did drop a fire album with “Culture”), Young MA, Fetty Wap (his debut album was basically just a greatest hits) and countless other artists who were known off the strength of some hit singles but who most fans couldn’t point to deep cuts on an album (if they even had one) to further solidify that artist’s talent. Now what’s happening is you’re seeing the discussion be about the full albums we’ve gotten recently from Pusha T and Jay Rock and Nas. It’s not that we wouldn’t have reviewed these albums or dissected them if they were 14 songs and 50 minutes but snap judgments would have dominated rather than attentive assessments. In some ways it really just comes down to a time thing. With everyone so busy in this fast-paced social media world you’re more likely to give an hour-long album only one listen before moving on to the next one but if it’s only 25 minutes then it’s easier to let it ride out a couple times since even that still won’t even be a full hour’s worth of time dedicated. Even just that second listen can change the way you hear a record as you might go in with certain expectations and your initial reaction might be based off those expectations whereas if you go back and listen again knowing what you have then you might just listen for what is there rather than what you might have hoped would be there.

What this has also been great for is being able to discover the hidden gems on an album as there’s nowhere to hide them on such a short release. If an album is 18 tracks deep then you might get exhausted around track 11 and just listen to the first few seconds of a song before hitting next and in doing so you might miss the overall message of the album through some necessary transitions just like if you skipped some scenes in a movie because the film was over 2 hours long. But with these more concise releases you’re now seeing every track get equal acknowledgment and while that makes bad tracks really stand out it also ensures that you won’t miss a highlight simply because it wasn’t promoted as a single and it falls 45 minutes into the album that still has 25 minutes to go.

Hopefully this trend continues as quality has always withstood the test of time moreso than quantity. People still claim Illmatic as the best rap album of all time and it’s only 39 minutes. None of this is to say that you can’t make a classic that tops the hour mark as there are plenty of classic records that are closer to 70 minutes in length (one of the best albums so far this year, Victory Lap, clocks in at 65 minutes), but if these shorter releases are what it takes to get people to care about albums again and if it forces artists to focus on making the best music they can rather than just filling up time to get their streaming numbers (the Migos reportedly only spent a few minutes on many tracks on their last album, and it shows) then we’ll continue to enjoy the amazing output that we’ve gotten thus far.

The Black Album is the Greatest Rap Album of All-Time

Hip hop is approaching a 40 year life span. What some thought would die early has gone on to get bigger and more diverse than anyone ever expected. And in those almost 40 years the general consensus among numerous rap fans has been that Illmatic is one of if not the greatest album in the genre’s history. At ten songs in 39 minutes, all practically flawless it’s an easy selection for the highest honor and anyone over the age of 25 has to remember playing it endlessly back in the days of tims and hoodies. But just because it’s always been the best album does that mean it always will be? Or has another release come along in recent years that at this point should surpass Illmatic and grab the title for best rap album of all time? The answer is yes and it’s The Black Album.

Back in 2003 one of the most well known and perhaps the best MC we’ll ever see in our lifetime announced his retirement. His swan song was an album with no guest features but with a powerhouse production team and the perfect sequencing of tracks. Lyrically Jay had never been better and his confidence in releasing the best material possible before retiring made the record only that much better. From the opening song about his childhood to the shoutouts at the end of “My First Song” (a joint which saw him return to his fast flow roots) every minute of the album was on point. It had its highlights, like “Encore”, “What More Can I Say” and the Timbaland banger “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” but every single song was solid, a rare feat especially in today’s rap world. 

Perception and timing is everything, which is why Illmatic was so monumental as it was released at a time when the West Coast was still dominating the charts. It made New York rap relevant again (Wu-Tang might have a little more responsibility for that but whatever) and it fully encompassed the time in which it was released. The Black Album was a retirement record, and so part of the greatness of it was the knowledge that this would be the last time we would ever hear a Jay-Z album and what we got was perfection. It was sad and epic at the same time.

So why is The Black Album better? Well for starters it better reflects hip hop as a whole than Illmatic. When Nas dropped his debut the genre was still in its infancy and was trying to find its identity. Nas truly represented rap on that album in the rawest form possible with street tales and observations along with just flat out rap skills. But The Black Album was more diverse in its topics, in its production, in its representation of what hip hop has come to be over the years. You had the Rick Rubin rock-influenced song, a tribute to the old days of Def Jam. You had the song for females which has become a staple in every rapper’s repertoire. You had the club banger from Timbo, the pure skills raps of “What More Can I Say” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” and especially “Public Service Announcement”. But you also had the reflective tracks like “Lucifer” and “Moment of Clarity”. And in all of its diverseness The Black Album was still very cohesive and flowed together flawlessly. Again, a perfectly sequenced album.

Not to take anything away from Illmatic but we can’t keep hanging on to the same perception that the almost 20 year old album from Nas is still the best thing rap has ever blessed our ears with. Sure it’s a great record but by today’s standards it’s really one-dimensional whereas The Black Album offers a wide variety of music, all put together properly with lyrical gems sprinkled all over. Putting a track like “Encore” at the beginning of a retirement album might seem wrong but for some reason it worked brilliantly, again attesting to the masterful sequencing on what is now most definitely the greatest rap album of all time.

Top 10 Albums of 2009

As we reach the end of 2009 it is clear that we have just finished arguably the greatest year in hip hop this decade, if not in the entire history of hip hop. While it’s difficult to compare this year to those of past decades due to the immense expansion of hip hop, specifically in the mainstream, the sheer volume of quality releases is still worth noting. This year is highlighted by big name artists dropping some of their best releases, past artists proving that they still have heat, and new talents giving hope to the next generation of rap. Whether it was Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 3”, Raekwon’s “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. II”, or Wale’s “Attention Deficit”, just about every fan of hip hop had something to be happy about this year. In recent years it’s been sometimes difficult to even construct a top 10 list, this year went above and beyond that and because of that it’s only fitting that the top 10 getting expanded to a top 15. These 15 albums are certainly not the only quality releases of this year but after much consideration it’s clear that these 15 stood out as going way beyond expectations, for a variety of reasons. This list is in no particular order as it was difficult enough to keep it to 15, ranking these would only cause more debate. With that said debate is always welcome and encouraged as at the end of the day, we are a culture of opinion, and have been that way ever since battles began to take place on street corners in New York. I present to you the greatest rap albums of 2009.

The Blueprint for Immobilarity

Ever present in hip hop lyrics are tales of street dealings, mostly in drugs, sometimes in women, and sometimes pure violence. In fact tales of drugs have gone as far back as the famous “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. As rap grew, so did the stories, providing more and more detail and giving more and more insight to the world of street dreams and realities. While many songs touched on various aspects of this underworld, there were two complete albums that play through like movies, life stories, biographies, entire pictures of the drug world. Each album played the role separately, one giving the rawest description, the cook up of sorts, the drugs on the table, ready to go, and the day-to-day bullshit that goes on to move that product. The other showcased the high life, the riches, the nice clothes and cars, the upside of the hustle, the kingpin’s manual for poppin’ bottles. One album looked at it from the kitchen, the other looked at it from the club. One from the work, one from the payoff. Together these albums make for the perfect combination of the drug life, both extremes with which one involved sees. With both artists on the verge of releasing new albums, both going back to old formulas of sorts, it seems fitting to take a look at the albums that defined and influenced one of the biggest aspects of hip hop, the drug dealer. The first to do it was Raekwon the Chef from legendary group Wu-Tang Clan with Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… in 1995. One year later up and coming Brooklyn rapper Jay-Z gave us Reasonable Doubt. There are many other albums that contributed to the Mafioso movement in rap, Nas’ It Was Written, Mobb Deep’s The Infamous and AZ’s Doe or Die, but the genre was rooted in and flawlessly done with Rae and Jay’s masterpieces.