Last year was the 50th anniversary of hip hop, And in honor of this anniversary, the idea bloomed in my mind that I should review the top 50 albums of that 50 years. As I crunched together a list from various sources, 50 proved to be too restrictive- many of the classics were getting squeezed out. So, to make a little more room, I opted for 100 albums, two for each of hip hop’s 50 years.
For its formative years, hip hop was a live entertainment form, with the first recorded songs not emerging until 1979, and the first albums in 1980. So my review will cover 1980-2023, with 50 posts of two albums each. The only ground rule I made for myself (besides looking for 2×50, aka 100, albums that were widely well-regarded) was that I had to have at least one from each year. As you’ll see by and by, some years get multiple albums, but since we have 100 spots for 43 years, it tends to all work out.
And with that, let’s embark on our next installment!
The Sugarhill Gang, 8th Wonder (1981)– The critics were not too kind to this album. So what, you might ask, is it doing here? One thing to keep in mind is just how in its infancy the genre was at this point. In 1980-82 there were a total of eight hip hop albums released. Just eight! So we’ve actually reviewed half of all the hip hop albums then in existence in this post and the previous one. The other relevant fact is that the critics are blue meanies who can kiss my tuchus. I find the sound here to be wall to wall fun! As with their debut album which we reviewed last time, there’s a lot here that isn’t exactly hip hop. On the other hand, it’s not exactly not. The funk/soul/disco sounds here have much more sizzle compared to last time, and are freely combined with rap, instruments and mixing and drum machines blending back and forth track by track. This is the electro genre being born. And , while there are some cringy things about “Apache” from a modern cultural sensitivity point of view, sonically it’s brilliant sampling of the classic 60s instrumental, and the album contains maybe the first honest to goodness rap battle, “Showdown” which has Sugarhill facing off with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. All-in-all, a worthy time capsule of hip hop in its early days.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, The Message (1982)- If the Sugarhill Gang was a bit of a pre-fab group, Grandmaster Flash was the real deal- he was a leading DJ, foundational in creating cutting and scratching and had his own group going before signing on to Sugarhill Records. That being said, the opening track, “She’s Fresh” has a lot in common with 8th Wonder, in the sense that it’s a song that could serve as an early 80s soul/funk number, but is also rap- once again, it’s the electro style being born. And this carries through several subsequent tracks. There is of course the masterful “The Message”, which is often considered the birth of the genre’s capacity for social realism and political consciousness. The standard story is that the group was reluctant to include it on the album because of the serious turn, but I observe that “It’s a Shame” has a social focus as well, and “You Are” does a straight-up religious theme, so they don’t seem to have been shy about tackling substance. There’s also some great sampling of “Genius of Love” and “It’s A Shame” along the way, brilliant cutting and mixing of a dozen records on “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheel of Steel” (from the UK version of the album) and a track that’s a touching tribute to Stevie Wonder. All the way around, this album well deserves its classic status.
If you’re curious about the sources I used to compile my list, you can check them out here:
While still plugging along on rounding up the 23 best albums of 2023, I’m beginning a new review this year. Last year was the 50th anniversary of hip hop! The legend goes that on August 11, 1973 DJ Kool Herc was DJing a party for his sister at a rented community room in an apartment block in the Bronx. He tried out a new style he’d been working on, where he would use multiple turntables to extend and mix the drum breaks of songs, with he and his fellow DJ Coke La Rock talking over the beats.
In honor of this anniversary, the idea bloomed in my mind that I should review the top 50 albums of that 50 years. As I crunched together a list from various sources, 50 proved to be too restrictive- many of the classics were getting squeezed out. So, to make a little more room, I opted for 100 albums, two for each of hip hop’s 50 years.
For its formative years, hip hop was a live entertainment form, with the first recorded songs not emerging until 1979, and the first albums in 1980. So my review will cover 1980-2023, with 50 posts of two albums each. The only ground rule I made for myself (besides looking for 2×50, aka 100, albums that were widely well-regarded) was that I had to have at least one from each year. As you’ll see by and by, some years get multiple albums, but since we have 100 spots for 43 years, it tends to all work out.
And with that, let’s embark!
The Sugarhill Gang, Sugarhill Gang (1980)– I’ll open by noting that this album didn’t make many “best” lists. But I’ve included it here for the simple reason that when it came out in February 1980 it was the first hip hop album ever. Sort of. The “sort of” being that while the Sugarhill Gang released one of the first commercial rap recordings with “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979 (and scored the first top 40 song for the genre), this album is only half hip-hop. Sugar Hill records founder and hip hop recording pioneer Sylvia Robinson wasn’t sure the market would support an entirely rap album, so three of the tracks are competent, albeit not historically significant, soul/disco outings. Still, this was hip-hop’s first foray, and the three tracks that are on the album- “Rapper’s Delight” with it’s classic “Good Times” sample from Chic (it even starts with the first recorded use of the name that the genre would bear: “Hip-hop, hippie to the hippie, to the hip-hip-hop and you don’t stop”), “Rapper’s Reprise” (which, mysteriously, is the first track despite the title), and the dynamic “Sugarhill Groove”- are delightful. While the group was assembled by Robinson for the express purpose of recording hip hop and founding her record label, there’s no denying the founding importance of Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank, and Master Gee.
Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow (1980)- This album did make many lists. And is also not purely a hip hop album! There’s the yearning and simple soul song “All I Want in the World (Is to Find That Girl)”, and a somewhat out of place but rocking and fun cover of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Taking Care of Business”. But the balance is shifted from Sugarhill Gang‘s 3:3 to 5:2, so hip hop is winning! This also represents the first major label recording for the genre, as it was released by Mercury Records. It wasn’t really a huge stretch for them, as they had a large soul, funk, and disco roster, but still worth noting. Kurtis Blow himself hailed from Harlem, and was only 20 when his breakout single “The Breaks” was released in 1980. That’s worth keeping in mind, because even at that young age he was influential- listening to the five hip hop tracks here, I was struck by just how sampled and lyric-checked they were by the Def Jam crew later in the 80s.
I know what you’re thinking- we’re almost done with December and you’re only finishing your review of September. Aren’t you hosed? Well, you do have a point, but boldly onward we go on our quest to find the 23 best albums of 2023!
For those just joining, what happened so far: To familiarize myself with newer music after a new music drought of a decade or so, in 2021 I listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked my favorites based on their choices. I did the same for 2020, picking my top 20 from the critics lists. And I started listening to new releases each month, eventually arriving at my picks for the 21 best albums of 2021. One good year deserves another, so I decided to do it again in 2022, listening to all the new releases and discovering the 22 best albums of 2022. And now I’m doing it again for 2023!
There are links to the 2020, 2021, and 2022 albums in the posts above, but if you’d like an all-in playlist for each year, I have that set up on Spotify:
Each month is divided into “yes” and “maybe” categories as follows:
Yes– This represents the albums that, upon first listen, could definitely be in the running for best of the year. That’s no guarantee for these intrepid albums- as of this review there are 109 “yeses”, and only 23 spots. Heads will roll!
Maybe– These albums have a lot to recommend them, but also some factor that gives me pause. I put them in their own category, because “maybes” sometimes linger and eventually become “yeses”. As of this post, there are 118 “maybe” albums, so more heads will roll!
Got it? Good. Now let’s get on with my top picks from 112 September new releases!
Alan Palomo, World of Hassle– Originally from Mexico, composer, producer, and songwriter Alan Palomo has apparently been making beautiful and catchy genre-bending music since the late 00s but has remained off my radar until now. The loss is mine! This lush, catchy, and smart amalgam of electro and 80s soul had me smiling and bopping my head along the whole time!
Corinne Bailey Rae, Black Rainbows– At times smokey R&B, at times on the experimental side of EDM, at times more like noise rock. At all times well done, and stronger for the mix. I have questions about the pacing, but the content is superb. As has been true since her debut, this English singer-songwriter remains the real deal!
Earl Sweatshirt /The Alchemist, Voir Dire– I so consistently enjoy the Alchemist’s work, and Earl Sweatshirt has also put out some of my more favorite hip-hop of the last few years. And indeed, what results here is nuanced, complex, and layered. I am sold on it!
Ed Sheeran, Autumn Variations– Ed Sheeran as a phenomenon is so international megastar pretty boy that I wanted to dislike this. But this album just so knows how to work pop tune chords that I can’t resist its charms!
Eli Escobar, The Beach Album– Nice classic hip hop and electronic sounds (think electro, house, early techno) and a smart varied mix. This album knows (as one track says) that it is “taking us back.” And leans into it full force, to excellent effect! Escobar is an Upper West Side kid who began playing records, throwing parties, and making beats as a late-’80s/early-’90s teen, his love for a familiarity with the evolving NY dance scene shows up here in the best kind of way.
Lydia Loveless, Nothing’s Going to Stand in My Way Again– A little bit country, a little bit indie rock, torchy, and plenty sassy! This Ohio native singer-songwriter musical influences put her right in the middle of a good space, and she inhabits the sound in a welcome way.
MJ Nebreda, Arepa Mixtape– MJ Nebreda is a Venezuelan-born, Miami-based artist, producer, and DJ. Her latest project, Arepa Mixtape, draws inspiration from reggaeton, dembow, and raptor house—an electronic genre hailing from Caracas. I may not be able to understand much lyrically, but the mix makes me feel bouncy and intrigued.
No-No Boy, Electric Empire– You may find other indie rock albums with peerless chamber pop melodic instincts. You may find other musical efforts that mix in aspects of Asian musical traditions with integrity and without appeal to novelty or fetishization. You may find other nuanced and thoughtful explorations of identity and history. But I would propose that you will rarely find all those things together and done at such a high level. No-No Boy is the project of Asian-American singer, songwriter, and scholar Julian Saporiti, and this is his third album. It was a slow burn, but it really got me.
Olivia Rodrigo, GUTS– I like Olivia Rodrigo for her knack for combining chart-worthy dance/pop hooks and rocking breaks, with lyrics that are somehow simultaneously bubblegum and yet acidly sharp and searing. There are a host of young female artists in this space now, but even among them she is a standout, and her plaintive and sometimes almost unearthly purity of voice adds another whole level to it. This is a worthy follow-up to her debut level, and an inspiring down payment on more to come.
Sarah Mary Chadwick, Messages to God– Her searing album Me and Ennui Are Friends, Baby was on my top 21 list for 2021. This outing has many of the same strengths of that album- spare musical arrangements, emotionally complex and literate lyrics, and a raw vulnerability that is equal parts bitterness and desperation. And she goes even further here- witness the amazing turn “Angry and Violent” does from unapologetic ugliness to self-doubt and a plea to stay, or the upbeat arrangements of certain songs (“Drinkin’ on a Tuesday” and “Shitty Town” for example) even as they paint a vivid picture of life’s ills. It feels funny to love this, in the sense of the kind of bleakness on display. But insisting on honestly making art to illuminate from within the pain transforms it.
Sextile, Push– Dance instincts, a stuttering electronic beat, and a punk heart. All Music Guide tells me this LA band is “Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Electronic, New Wave/Post-Punk Revival”. Whatever they are, I like it!
Sparklehorse, Bird Machine– When the family of Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous discovered his uncompleted fifth album in the archive of recordings he left behind after his death in 2010, they took some time to decide what to do with it. They decided to bring a producer to finish it, and the results bear out that decision- the perfect harmonies, bursts of noisy low fi rock and slower fuzzed-out patches, 60s pop instincts, and mix of effects recall the best of what Sparklehorse did. it is a fitting final testament to Linkous, and reminder of all that was lost through his suicide.
Stephen Marley, Old Soul– I remember when Ziggy Marley first came out and I thought he was okay, but maybe not a totally suitable vessel for all the Marleymania nostalgia he inspired. Then I heard Damian and thought he was the real deal. Stephen is on a whole other level though! The musical approaches here are varied, and the quality peerless. The album does certainly invoke the family legacy, but it feels honest and deep in its approach.
Subsonic Eye, All Around You– This is the fourth Singaporean band I’ve run into in these lists in the last few years, and I love them all! It feels very jangly 90s, with a propulsive melodic energy. There is apparently a scene there I need to check out!
Tha Retail Simps, Live on Cool Street– It starts like blistering punk with lo fi crackle that would sound in fine company in 1978 and ends not unlike psychedelic flavored garage rock a la 1969. In between, this Montreal band delivers good banging fun with every track.
Tirzah, trip9love…???– I like the stripped down EDM beats and lush layered synths behind the warm rich vocals and emotionally intelligent lyrics. This feels like a folk singer or even a torch singer who’s somehow ended up in an electronic production universe. This English singer-songwriter has in fact been plying iterations of electronic music for several albums now, and each feel like a fresh exploration.
Tyler Childers, Rustin in the Rain– You could be forgiven for thinking that you had fallen into some kind of country music historical review here, with hints of the outlaws, the Burrito Brothers, and the 70s and 80s Nashville Sound. But you’ll get hints along the way of a modern sensibility animating things- references to e-mail, tips of the hat to electronic music, a country ballad cast as an ode to a same sex partnership. Six albums in, this 32-year-old singer songwriter remains a vital sign that a country that embraces both the old and the new is possible.
Various Artists, A Song for Leon: A Tribute to Leon Russell– I do love a good various artists covers album, but it’s hard for one of these to totally succeed as an album. Among other things, there are the potential traps of too exactly reproducing the original, and wildly varying quality to overcome. All that said, this works! Leon Russell’s influence looms large over 70s music, combining soul, funk, country and rock influences. That very breadth comes in handy here- it powers great covers by obvious fellow travelers like Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Orville Peck. But it also supports surprising interpretations, like the Bootsy Collins/U.S. Girls collaboration, and a cover by the Pixies. Darned if this isn’t both a classic and contemporary listen!
Maybe
Helena Hauff, Fabric Presents Helena Hauff– Hauff is a Hamburg-based DJ and producer of stripped-down analog techno and electro. And dammit I love it! I’m a little leery due to the over an hour length, but this is the kind of dynamic interesting electronica that really gets me on board.
Jeff Rosenstock, Hellmode– It starts off with an anthemic punky power-pop query about whether love will outlast finding out the singer has fucked up. From there, sometimes it goes emo-earnest, sometimes punky overdrive, (and often snarky). It reminds me of a space somewhere between early Green Day, your 00s emo de jour, and Harvey Danger. Sometimes it’s a little too toward the emo side, but is so high energy and emotionally literate lyrically that I don’t mind it. I am told that he, “is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from Long Island, New York. He is known for his former bands Bomb the Music Industry! and The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, as well as for his work as a solo artist and as a composer for Craig of the Creek. He is the founder of Quote Unquote Records, the first donation-based record label.” Well all right!
Kristin Hersh, Clear Pond Road– Not her sharpest album ever, but man can that woman write and raggedly sing a song that sinks its emotional hooks in!
Maxo, Debbie’s Son– This LA hip-hop artist has created a hazy echoy lurching soundscape that shows how much space is still left in hip-hop outside of its tropes and sonic straightjackets. It feels a little unfocused, which is what lands it on my “maybe” list, but the sounds and emotional and lyrical depth they back are well worth revisiting.
Octo Octa, Dreams of a Dancefloor EP– It’s an EP, but a practically album length one (albeit with only three songs), and from a New Hampshire DJ. So I had to check it out on behalf of my almost-home team! It is a little light for full album status, but as fine a set of electronic music as one might wish to find.
Pretenders, Relentless– The album opens with a bruising start almost at home in grunge. At other times it feels like an old blueswoman holding court. Or punk returning. Or 80s hard rock radio. But Chrissie Hynde’s voice is unmistakable, and her chords still chime like bells. It ends on an oddly muted note, but this darkly textured album commanded my attention.
Prewn, Through the Window– This seems constantly on the edge of being too narrow-band in sound, but also hits so many notes I like- anguished vocals, minor chords, feedback, distortion, and reverb. It can be difficult to penetrate to the dark heart of what is going on here, but the fact that there is a song about literally killing and frying every fish in the sea gives you some indication. I’m not entirely sure what Izzy Hagerup of Massachusetts is up to, but I dig it!
Saoirse, Fabric Presents Saoirse– I don’t know why Fabric insists on making their showcases for luminaries of club electronic music over an hour long. Presumably they don’t want us to feel shortchanged? So I’m not quite sure it works at this length, but I love the short sharp punch effects-laden mixes from this Irish-born DJ.
The Handsome Family, Hollow– Folk, Americana, sometimes something more indie, sometimes sounding straight-up primeval spooky. It felt a little lulled out at times, but also achingly authentic. This New Mexico by way of Chicago married duo knows their craft!
And there we are for September! Will I finish October-December in the next five days? No, no I will not. But I will continue post-haste!
Chris LaMay-West 