Big Ted's Top 15 Hip Hop Albums Since 2000

[bigted]

First off as I reflect over the years since the turn of the 21st century the quality of hip hop isn't the same but there's still been some classic albums believe it or not, here are my 15 favorites in no order, I have them on cassettes, CDs, my Windows Media, and of course my MP3 player:

EDIT:I redid the list with only 1 album per artist:

Will Smith "Willenium"(Late '99 so I consider it 2000)

Busta Rhymes "The Big Bang"(2006)

LL Cool J "G.O.A.T."(2000)

Kel Spencer "Who Is Kel Spencer? Mixtape"(2006)

Jay-Z "The Blueprint 2"(2002, I know most like Blueprint better but I play this one more, brings back memories of high school)

KRS-ONE "Spiritual Minded"(2002)

Pep Love "Ascension"(2001, that's right Tim I still got that CD you sent me back in the day and I've been hooked)

The Roots "Things Fall Apart"('99/2000)

Public Enemy "Revolvolution"(2002)

Fat Joe "Jealous Ones Still Envy"(2001)

Ja Rule "Pain Is Love"(2001)

Nas "God's Son"(2002)

DMX "The Great Depression"(2001)

Wyclef Jean "The Masquerade"(2002)

Game "The R.E.D. Album"(2011)

Honorable Mentions:

Will Smith "Lost & Found"(2005)

LL Cool J "10"(2002)

LL Cool J "Authentic"(2013)

Kel Spencer "Who Is Kel Spencer? Mixtape"(2006)

Jay-Z "The Blueprint 2"(2002, I know most like Blueprint better but I play this one more, brings back memories of high school)

KRS-ONE "Kristyles"(2003)

KRS-ONE/Marley Marl "Hip Hop Lives"(2007)

Public Enemy "Most Of My Heroes Still Don't Appear On No Stamps"(2012)

Fat Joe "Jealous Ones Still Envy"(2001)

Ja Rule "Pain Is Love"(2001)

Game "The Doctor's Advocate"(2006)

DMX "Year Of The Dog Again..."(2006)

LL Cool J/DJ Kay Slay "Return Of The G.O.A.T." Mixtape(2008)

LL Cool J "Exit 13"(2008)

DJ Jazzy Jeff "The Return Of The Magnificent"(2007)

DJ Jazzy Jeff/Mick Boogie "Summertime Mixtapes"(2010-2014)

DJ Kay Slay "Streetsweeper Vol. 1"(2003)

DJ Kay Slay "Streetsweeper Vol. 2"(2004)

DJ Clue "The Professional Pt. 2"(2001)

Funkmaster Flex "60 Minutes Of Funk Vol. IV"(2000)

Common "Like Water For Chocolate"(2000)

Common "The Dreamer, The Believer"(2011)

Eminem "The Eminem Show"(2002)

Eminem "8 Mile Soundtrack"(2002)

Eminem "Recovery"(2010)

50 Cent "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'"(2003)

Foxy Brown "Broken Silence"(2001)

Eve "Eve-o-lution"(2002)

Guilty Pleasures(albums that only I think are classic, lol):

Will Smith "Born To Reign"(2002)

50 Cent "The Massacre"(2005)

Nelly "Nellyville"(2002)

Lil Kim "Notorious K.I.M."(2000)

Diddy "Press Play"(2005)

LL Cool J "Todd Smith"(2006)

Jay-Z "Kingdom Come"(2006)

I miss having the thorough music discussions on the board, sure facebook and twitter are good time occupiers but there's nothing like coming on here having music discussions with the real heads so feedback would be appreciated, try to come up with ur own list too if possible...

Edited August 7, 2014 by bigted

[KevTastic]

Since 2000. My Top 15 would be, in no particular order

Outkast - Stankonia

Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor

Ugly Duckling - Journey to Anywhere

Jazzy Jeff - TROTM

De La Soul (First Serve)

De La Soul - The Grind Date

Q-Tip - The Renaissance

Will Smith - Lost & Found

Jurassic 5 - Quality Control

Run DMC - Crown Royal (Most people hate it)

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist

Dilated Peoples - Expansion Team

Big Boi - Sir Luciosu Leftfoot...

Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Commitee Part 2

7L & Esoteric and Inspectah Deck - Czarface

Although i probably bought more albums released in the '90s in the '00s than i did post 2000 ones lol.

Edited August 4, 2014 by KevTastic

[bigted]

i feel what you're saying kev, i think ever since i started coming on this board i've been buying more hip hop albums from the 80s and 90s than i did post 2000, the quality of hip hop has gone down considerably but if you notice a trend, most of the best albums in hip hop were released by artists who released classics in the 80s and 90s, btw great list, let's keep em coming! i liked run dmc's crown royal too btw, i also liked rev. run and dmc solo albums too, thinkiing back now being that i live in new jersey i can't forget about naughty by nature, they released a couple great albums in the 2000s like "iicons" and "anthem inc" after their string of 90s classics, i also saw them live in seaside back in 2002 when i was a senior in high school and mtv came there..when it comes to the quality of music even the doctored 2Pac albums like "until the end of time" and "2pac ressurection soundtrack" are better than most of the garbage being put out by today's rappers...an underrated album that came out around the time most people in hip hop were hyped up about 50 cent and kanye west was chamillionaire's "ultimate victory", i thought it was refreshing that he released a profanity free album that was dope at that time when the commercial garbage was stacking up....

[Hero1]

Good post! I'll have to get back to you on this one I need to think about it. There hasn't been too many albums that were up with the quality of the 90s.

[bigted]

it'd be even harder to do a top 15 of the 90s 'cause there was so much quality, '93 alone has more classics than the last 15 years

[bigted]

i found a list of the top 50 albums of the 2000s, it had some good ones on there though that i didn't mention, and obviously with nas' stillmatic being the only 1 in my top 15 that actually made their top 50 it shows that my list is actually the most underrated hip hop of the 2000s, a lot of the great stuff has been slept on:

http://passionweiss.com/2009/08/03/passion-of-the-weiss-top-50-rap-albums-of-the-00s-50-41

[fan 4ever]

Some of my favorites. Not in order.

Will Smith - Lost & Found

Jay-z - The Blueprint

Lupe Fiasco - Food and Liquor

Nas - Stillmatic

Clipse - Lord Willin'

Reflection Eternal - Train Of Thought

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP

Pusha T - My Name Is My Name

Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne

Talib Kweli - Quality

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

Common - Be

I know I'm missing some, but those are the ones that come up right now.

[JumpinJack AJ]

With most lists, I can't take them too seriously, or I'll over think them. So here's a few that come to mine...

JJ+FP - Willennium

DJ Jazzy Jeff - Return of The Magnificent

Will Smith - Lost + Found

LL Cool J - The G.O.A.T.

LL Cool J - 10

LL Cool J - Authentic

Arrested Development - Heroes of The Harvest

Arrested Development - Since The Last Time

Speech - Spiritual People

Speech - The Grown Folks Table

Left Eye - Supernova

Black Eyed Peas - Bridging The Gap

Black Eyed Peas - Elephunk

Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business

Brand Nubian - Fire In The Hole

Fort Minor - The Rising Tide

Common Sense - Be.

Common Sense - Finding Forever

4th Avenue Jones - No Plan B

Gang Starr - The Ownerz

Jurassic 5 - Power In Numbers

MC Lyte - Almost September

Nas - Life Is Good

Gym Class Heroes - The Papercut Chronicles

Gym Class Heroes - As Cruel As School Children

Edited August 7, 2014 by JumpinJack AJ

[bigted]

Thanks for posting those lists guys, some good album choices, it does show that there's still some good albums out there which was the point of me making this thread, I wanted to spark some discussion, I was surprised that you didn't mention 2Pac AJ, now I'm surprised that nobody yet mentioned Ice Cube's comeback album of 2006 "Laugh Now, Cry Later", that song "Why We Thugs" was him coming aggressively at a time much needed in hip hop:

I liked his 2000 album "War & Peace Vol. 2: The Peace Album" featuring "Until We Rich" with Krayzie Bone:

[JumpinJack AJ]

All of 2Pac's albums since 2000 are so heavily doctored that they aren't worth mentioning strictly due to some of the production and/or guest artists. Ice Cube's War & Peace: Vol 2. was a good album, but I don't think any of his recent albums stand close to his 90's stuff.

[bigted]

you're right how most of 2pac's stuff but i'd say the stuff released up until the end of the time holds weight against anything out at the time, now ice cube might not be as great as he used to be as an emcee but his recent albums are still better than what rappers like jay-z and kanye west are doing or ever did for that matter, btw i'm surprised how nobody here mentioned kel spencer's 2014 mixtape, "church" is one of the best songs of hip hop in recent years

[Hero1]

As far as best hip-hop albums post 2000, the first two that pop into my head are Masta Ace's final 2 albums.Disposable Arts and A Long Hot Summer. They highlighted what was wrong with hip hop in this era, they were concept, storytelling albums. You listened to them as an album, and they still had positive uplifting moments. These two albums stand up to the best of hip hop's golden era and they get repeated listens from me. Some classic cuts from these album include:

Another album worth mentioning is Souls of Mischief's Montezuma's Revenge. It was largely slept on but it was produced by Prince Paul and had all the souls lyricism, this track is an example:

Dead Prez's Let's Get Free was released in 2000. This album is a classic to me. It talked about stuff that most hip-hop artists would never touch on. Tracks like "Be Healthy" "Mind Sex" "They Schools" "Animal in Man" are all important and knowledgeable tracks about life. It's a very smart album.

Have a listen to this:

These 4 albums are classics in my opinion. I have other good albums post 2000 but I wouldn't put them up at that status... Yep most of my favs are in the 90s. 1993 is when hip hop peaked as far as I'm concerned. But Hip Hop is still great and I have many classics to listen to... I'm a leave you with this which pretty much sums it up..

[bigted]

great stuff tim! here's some more classic hip hop from the 2000s: gangstarr's final cd "the ownerz" was one of the underrated and underrappreciated albums, may guru rest in peace, i love the single "skills":

talib kweli 2004 "the beautiful struggle" was also another one of my favorite albums, i really liked "i try" featuring mary j. blige:

i also like common's new album "nobody's smiling", it has a chance to be a modern classic:

btw don't sleep on that kel spencer mixtape, that's a modern classic too:

http://www.warriorpoetbk.com/lndnwud-vol-1-where-im-from/

Edited August 7, 2014 by bigted

[10th Prince]

I miss having the thorough music discussions on the board, sure facebook and twitter are good time occupiers but there's nothing like coming on here having music discussions with the real heads so feedback would be appreciated, try to come up with ur own list too if possible...

No frontin'... but are you serious? There's a lot of stuff that don't even deserve to be in a Top 300 list... as you say, Blueprint 2 - can only be the memories, there are mostly filler-tracks, not even close to Blueprint or Black Album! Game's R.E.D. Album is the worst of his LPs... last good album of LL was G.O.A.T., especially Todd Smith and Authentic are horrible! Eve-Olution?? Press Play?? Holy crap... these DJ Kay Slay and Clue albums were good, but never best 100 or 200 albums of the past 14 years... Wyclef, Nelly, Lil Kim, Ja Rule - I even like some of the albums but there's so much better stuff that it seems like a joke to mention it here! The Massacre was pretty bad too, except like 5 tracks or sumthin'! Don't take it personally but it seems like you missed a lot of good stuff if these are your favorite albums after 2000... although I also think that the best rap albums came out in the 90's!

[JumpinJack AJ]

I think we all feel that the best Hip-Hop albums came out in the 90's, but that's no reason to attack someone's opinion. People have different taste and albums speak to different people in different ways.