I didn't super care for the single on this, Tantor. Loved the rest of the album though. Production on this is great, Danny always brings something interesting.

EDIT: Been listening back through. The 3 track run of Dark Sword Angel, Y.B.P. and Jenn's Terrific Vacation is my favorite part of the album. Bruiser Wolf's flow/voice on Y.B.P. cracks me up

This is a point I wish more people understood. People say rap glorifies this street stuff (and it does) and that is why there is so much street violence in some places. But art doesn't create reality, it reflects it. People make art about what they know and what they see, so of course they rap about it.

There are exceptions, dudes who didn't grow up in that life rapping about it, but that is again a reflection of their life. These are guys who were big in to Hip Hop who created art mirroring what they grew up with, which is rap about a violent life style. They are also the exception, not the rule I feel.

This album was an embarrassingly large part of me getting in to Hip Hop. It wasn't my first album, that was The Eminem Show. But I was a little moody for about a year there and the edgy teen I was really identified with a lot of the depression and anger on the album. I still like Eminem now, but I mostly listen to his goofier songs (Real Slim Shady, Without Me, Lock it Up) or anything featuring Swifty McVay. Giving it a re-listen yesterday night I still really liked it, but it is weird to listen to it and not identify with it at all. And some of the lyrics made me kind of uncomfortable knowing I used to rap along with this.

Favorite songs back in the day would have been Kill You, The Way I Am and Kim. Because I was a vaguely poor teenager and I was mad about it. Looking back at it now though, I found myself really getting in to pretty much the whole album, just not identifying with any of it.

The only songs I really didn't enjoy now are Amityville and Kim. Amityville has Bizarre so we all know what went wrong there. Kim is just...too mad. I don't know why I loved that song so much as a kid, because I had a decent childhood, but looking at it now it is weird. It kind of gives me some insight on my kids I think, seeing the sort of stuff I felt "reflected me" at that age. Hormones man.

Went with an undisputed classic this week, the 2005 remaster because that is the earliest version on Spotify. It is hard to pick, but personal favorite tracks are Things Done Changed or Hypnotize. I also have a soft spot for Big Poppa because it makes me think of the Keanu Reeves movie Hardball, which I love despite it being not actually very good. And Who Shot Ya? of course. This album has too many good tracks to make narrowing it down easy honestly.

What is everybody else's favorite tracks?

J Cole coming in hot. I’m not always the biggest fan of his songs, but he always kills the feature.

Glad they gave it B.o.B.

This version is ok but just not quite as good imo. Hayley Williams still slaps on the hook though.

Favorite track for me is 3010. The first beat, the second beat it switches to, the fucking hard-ass guitar riffs at the end, all perfect. Esoteric? Always immaculate. I specifically remember writing the lyrics to this in a notebook because I couldn't find them online. The Life of a Tape is second, I love a good concept track.

What about everybody else, favorite track?

Diddy fucked up a lot of songs in the late 90s with his adlibs and dancing around in people's music videos.

Why would you admit this? haha

I don't know if anybody pulled up his Spotify, but Apollo Brown is one of those artists who releases a ton of music. Producing albums, he always works with different artists. I think of him as a Michigan focused version of Madlib. I have family in Michigan who turned me on to him back in ~2013, with his album Dice Game. I haven't listened to everything he has ever released, but this is my favorite album of everything I've heard.

I wish this album had proper annotations on Genius, as there is a lot going on lyrically in some places and from doing a lot of research there are a lot of references that went over my head as somebody from outside of Michigan. This album is also loaded with Michigan artists. The best known are maybe Trick Trick, Black Milk and Royce Da 5'9". But also included are Ketchphraze, Boldy James, Clear Soul Forces, Slum Village and about a million more. It really is a who's who of Detroit/Michigan Hip Hop.

Personal favorite tracks are God Help Me and Break the Code . Ketchphraze's verse on God Help Me is fantastic and the beat on Break the Code is fantastic. I don't know what he sampled for that beat but he killed it.

Spotify

Amazon Music

Apple Music

Deezer

I've only heard a little bit of this guy but holy shit his Discography is huge. This is his 8th fucking album this year.

That said, this was good. I'm surprised he can put out something of this solid quality with the volume he is putting out. Probably helps he very clearly focuses on the lyrics side of things, though Crazy DJ Bazarro did a good job on the beats. They are solid, but they never take the focus off of the rapping. Lemons might be the only exception to that, I fucking loved that beat. So simple but fun. Favorite tracks besides that were probably Instagram Love and Truth Pill. Nejma went hard.

Dude should consider putting his own lyrics on to Genius. As of now, only 3 songs have lyrics on there currently. When I'm listening to something lyrical I really like being able to read the lyrics along with the song and not being able to do that is a bummer. That said, it just came out today so maybe he does, since every other album of his I checked on Genius, every song had the lyrics on there.

If you hover on the tracklists in bandcamp you’ll see that all songs have the lyrics.

Oh shit, I never knew that! and I'll have to check those other albums out, much appreciated

Agreed. I listened to it a few more times this weekend and I have enjoyed it more with each listen I think

That girl is gonna get a yeast infection

I had to dig to find this and I know the song isn't rap but the verse is. Hell, I don't even know if it counts as a verse. Genius has it listed as an "outro", but Ghostface Killah on Miley Cyrus' song D.R.E.A.M. is ridiculous. It is the last ~20 seconds of the song and what was a pretty alright sort of ethereal pop song suddenly has the music change out of nowhere and Ghostface comes in rapping....just kind of out of nowhere? It almost sounds like a different track got edited on to the end of the song by accident. Except the song is clearly referencing the Wutang song D.R.E.A.M. so clearly it is intentional. Idk.

If we are going to keep it strictly Hip Hop, Soulja Boy fucking ruins Trigger Finger by Lil Wayne. I was re-listening to this album a few weeks ago and while it isn't Wayne's best it has some solid songs on it. This WOULD have been one of them if Wayne hadn't decided to have a fucking Soulja Boy boy feature in 2013.

I always love Freddie. Never heard this mixtape, gonna have to check it out

Excellent choices. I miss album covers. I listen to pretty much everything on Spotify now and my phone is usually in my pocket or on a side-table so I never actually see the artwork anymore. I should make an effort to actually take a look.

You fuck on me wrong, I'ma bake your potato

Wayne please

I keep it rollin' like paraplegics

2 Chainz, why?

Jokes aside, good track. I'm always here for Wayne and 2 Chainz

Not a huge Token fan, but I like trying to post different types of stuff. Hope somebody enjoys this