'Success' and 10 great rap albums
(according to me)
Around eight years ago I wrote an article for the now deceased men’s magazine Shortlist (RIP) which focused on how my friendships seemed to be dwindling and how (yes) that was obviously a huge problem for me. In the piece I lamented my lack of numbers. I’d had loads of mates once, I wept, back when I was a kid, but now I probably couldn’t even fill a small wigwam with them (which, when you think about it, is just a teepee with a different name). My worry stemmed from having to throw a party on account of turning 40 (at the time) and feeling embarrassed about my lack of numbers - because I figured (very correctly) that numbers, particularly in recent times, have become everything. The key component of anything that requires an element of validation, whether it’s political parties reliant on your votes or movies needing your stamp of quantifiablility (which is a word, don’t look that up), or TV shows, or music videos. But also social media feeds belonging to normal everyday folk, the ‘likes’ you get, the amount of ‘followers’ you have, thumbs up emojis, your bank account, how many people come to your 40th birthday party. Numbers everywhere. Numbers offering up accurate statistical evidence of how much you matter. How well you’re doing. Numbers letting you know how the world feels about you.
Only, on reflection, do they do that? Like, actually?
As people (or ‘human beings’ as I tend to call us), we’re like a city skyline - never fully formed, in constant flux. We’re repeatedly rejigging what’s of value, what matters and what constitutes a successful life. It used to be serving your country/god, or making it to retirement unscathed (with a horseshoe of remaining hair, regardless of gender, and a nice carriage clock), but then it morphed into something far more showy, more ostentatious, a little more infatuated with totems of fruitfulness - flash cars, big belt buckles, huge houses, hot spouses, new tits, the coffee you’re about to drink, the snazzy sauna you just got out of. Things that ultimately don’t matter, not quite the modern equivalent of sporting a necklace made of your enemy’s teeth, but not far off. A little braggadocious. Proof that you’re ‘better’ than other people - when filtered through an overindulged and very specific societal lens. The one that insists your true worth as a person can be measured by how good you are at your job/attaining money/attaining people. The one that shows how impressive your numbers are.
But for me, as I’m sure is the same for loads of us, success isn’t about the numbers because it can’t be. I’ve not thrived professionally, I’ve not smashed it in the boardroom, my stash of cash isn’t creaking any floorboards. I’m no good with massive groups of people, my sports of choice are running (solitary), swimming (solitary), and tennis (solitary, mostly), the restaurants I go to aren’t worth instagramming, my hotel bedrooms would need some camera wizardry with a fish-eye lens to deserve a look. But on a micro scale, in smaller pockets, in a space where there’s literally no professional jeopardy whatsoever, no simmering need for elevated status, on my own manufactured/imagined barometer of success, I’m absolutely nailing it. I’m a decent dad (my most important role by far), my husbandry (the art of being a husband, not animal husbandry, though I suspect I’d also be wonderful at that) is pretty good. As a son/brother, I’m mostly okay. And in the right configuration with the right people, I’m an excellent friend. That’ll just about do for me.
Anyway, speaking of numbers, please now enjoy a list of TEN great rap albums that mightn’t make any actual TEN BEST lists, but that I think are spectacularly great anyway...
Ten Great Rap Albums You Should (Re)Listen To RIGHT NOW
Main Source - Breaking Atoms (1991)
The record that introduced the world to Nas but it shouldn’t just be remembered for that - it should also be remembered as my favourite hip hop album of all time.
Camp Lo - Uptown Saturday Night (1997)
1997’s greatest rap duo (and that includes Kid ‘n Play, riding high on the back of House Party 3), this found Sonny Cheeba and Geechi Suede rapping, mostly I think, about drinking Amaretto.
Bahamadia - Kollage (1996)
If you were a certain kind of student in the mid-1990s boasting a very specific kind of hip hop pedigree, you knew all about Bahamadia and her impressive collage (spelled Kollage) of muzik.
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Wanted: Dead or Alive (1990)
Is Kool G Rap the greatest kool g rapper of all time? According to the track Streets of New York, yes he is.
De La Soul – Buhloone Mindstate (1993)
Everyone’s on about Three Feet High etc etc, Stakes is High and De La Soul is Dead (all incredible), but for me, this is the one.
Common - Be (2005)
Insanely, this album is 20 years old next year. Primarily produced by Kanye West - who, thankfully, had yet to transition into the new messiah.
Various - Soundbombing II (1999)
Essentially a mixtape that’s like a who’s who of noughties hip hop - you’ve got your Mos Def, your Pharoahe Monch, you’ve even got some weird newbie called Eminem.
Digable Planets - Blowout Comb (1994)
Conscious rap for hard working students. It can even been used as dinner party music, because nothing says “please enjoy your moussaka” like jazz-infused hip hop beats.
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggy Style (1993)
Okay this one slightly contradicts the notion of these albums not making any other TEN BEST lists. At the very least, it’s one of Snoop’s ten best ever.
Hieroglyphics - Third Eye Vision (1998)
It’s become worryingly clear that these albums almost exclusively hail from the 1990s, which either means I’m getting old or rap music has gotten worse. I’m not sure which fact is true. Anyway, this is a great record from one of rap’s finest collectives.