Wayback 95 - the 'Phlip gotta job' edition
That's right, folks... 1995, I spent the first half of the year in 10th grade and age 15, and the second half 16, gainfully employed at Winn Dixie which would provide me with the sneaker money I had never had and fuel for my addiction to music.
Thanks to my exhaustive google, Amazon and Wikipedia abilities, we will now discuss 1995 in hip hop, just as I have 1998, 1996, 1997, 1999, 1991, 1993 and 1990 before this... Yes, all seven of those were links, but perhaps both of you have already read those?
January saw Smif-N-Wessun's "Dah Shinin'" as well as The Roots release "Do You Want More?!!?" and Too Short's "Cocktails"
February gave us DJ Quik GOING IN on MC Eiht for the better part of "Safe & Sound," an album I LOVE by the way. This must have been a West Coast kinda month, as Tha Alkaholiks dropped "Coast to Coast" here too.
March E-40 gave us "In a Major Way" and 2Pac with "Me Against the World," Big L with "Lifestylez Ov Da Poor And Dangerous," and Ol Dirty's "Return to the 36 Chambers" which gives us 3 albums from dead rappers I would trade any one of for the one who is not departed in this post. "New Jersey Drive, Vol. 1" came out this month, and was a pretty damned good soundtrack and Nine's "Nine Livez" was tolerable enough to warrant a download last month.
April Mobb Deep's "The Infamous" is it, unless you count Montell Jordan's "This is How We Do it," which I do not. Well, "New Jersey Drive Vol. 2" came out this month too, but it was shorter and not as good as Vol. 1 was.
May gave us Masta Ace Inc. with "Sittin on Chrome" and we do not NEED another album this month... In fact, I will ride out to that tomorrow and let the speaker exercise. Showbiz & AG gave a valiant showing, though, with "Goodfellas," which I have had before but do not now for some reason and Miilkbone's "Da Miilkrate," which I have only heard twice in my life and then Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones showed up to my house and told me to look at their pen, word to Roswell New Mexico.
June came with Lost Boyz' "Legal Drug Money," which my brother liked and I just couldn't feel, still can't... Same applies to Mack 10 and his self-titled. What we could agree on, though, was Grand Puba's "2000," which many people slept on HARD.
July gave us Buju Banton's CLASSIC "'Til Shiloh" Bone Thugs N Harmony's "E1999 Eternal," both of which albums have seen updates, so I own 4 copies of 2 albums, aint that some SHIT?!!? Tru also came in early days of No Limit Records with "True," which no one I know has ever even heard, myself included. Bushwick Bill chimed in with "Phantom of the Rapra" as well
August now I would SWEAR that it didn't feel like 95, but I have not yet done 94's list, but this is when Raekwon's "Only Built For Cuban Linx" came out, an album that would FOREVER change my life... "The Show" soundtrack came out this month and is still the benchmark for what a hip hop movie soundtrack WISHES it could be.
Oh, Junior Mafia released "Conspiracy" this month as well.
September Kool G Rap steps away from Polo and makes "4,5,6"
October Insane Clown Posse gave us "Riddle Box" on the same day as KRS-One gave us a self-titled, then Fat Joe gave us "Jealous Ones Envy" the same day as "All We Got is Us."
Cypress Hill and Tha Dogg Pound would double us up with "III: The Temple of Boom" and "Dogg Food," respectively on the same day later in the month... This was a 2-for-1 month if you bought more than one each of the 6 above mentioned albums I just named, which I did not. I DID get AZ's "Doe or Die" though. Mystikal's "Mind of Mystikal" came out this month too, but was re-released sometime in 96 because no one west of Houston or North of St Louis was ready to listen to that shit.
November GZA Gave us "Liquid Swords"--... WAIT, that is why Cuban Linx felt like it was so far ahead of this, it is ALL I listened to for those months! Mic Geronimo gave us "The Natural," which I slept on until like 98 at least, and Group Home's "Livin Proof," which I could not find around here until like 2001 or so.
Oh yeah, LL Cool J released "Mr. Smith" as well. I have a question... Did this motherfucker make ANY good albums after he crossed the age of 18?
Eazy E gave us "Str8 of Da Streetz of Muthaphuckin Compton" that day too, as did Coolio with "Gangsta's Paradise" and the only other first-week purchase I would have from this month's releases were The Pharcyde's "Labcabincalinfornia," 8ball & MJG's "On Top of the World" and Goodie Mob's "Soul Food"
December JESUS, another Spice 1 album?!!? "1990-Sick" for the record, and this motherfucker has been on every list in this series, shit!
For some reason, I had to explore more corners in my searches to compile this list, coming to a grand total of 44 releases, of which I do or have owned 34, for a very nice 77.27% score... As I looked over the list as I wrote it, I was preparing my chops to bitch about the low quality of some of the non-purchases, and hell I had some words for the low quality of the ones I DID purchase. What happened, though, was "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx," "Liquid Swords," "Operation Stackola," "Labcabincalifornia," "Safe & Sound," "Soul Food," "The Show" Soundtrack, "Sittin on Chrome," "Do You Want More?!!?" "'Til Shiloh," "E1999..." "Return to the 36 Chambers..." and "The Infamous" and we begin to realize that this year churned out some shit that most of us can STILL listen to RIGHT NOW without an ounce of shame...
What I did notice, as you should too, that New York was shifting toward the mobster/gangster thing and hip hop was shifting to the West and Midwest for a large part. They maintained that grip for the next couple of years, relented it and NO ONE had it until the south started to bubble after 2000. As it were, making these lists I see where the whole thing was built up and began to fall apart. I will save my final assessments for the last post of the series.
I think 92 is next.
Thanks to my exhaustive google, Amazon and Wikipedia abilities, we will now discuss 1995 in hip hop, just as I have 1998, 1996, 1997, 1999, 1991, 1993 and 1990 before this... Yes, all seven of those were links, but perhaps both of you have already read those?
January saw Smif-N-Wessun's "Dah Shinin'" as well as The Roots release "Do You Want More?!!?" and Too Short's "Cocktails"
February gave us DJ Quik GOING IN on MC Eiht for the better part of "Safe & Sound," an album I LOVE by the way. This must have been a West Coast kinda month, as Tha Alkaholiks dropped "Coast to Coast" here too.
March E-40 gave us "In a Major Way" and 2Pac with "Me Against the World," Big L with "Lifestylez Ov Da Poor And Dangerous," and Ol Dirty's "Return to the 36 Chambers" which gives us 3 albums from dead rappers I would trade any one of for the one who is not departed in this post. "New Jersey Drive, Vol. 1" came out this month, and was a pretty damned good soundtrack and Nine's "Nine Livez" was tolerable enough to warrant a download last month.
April Mobb Deep's "The Infamous" is it, unless you count Montell Jordan's "This is How We Do it," which I do not. Well, "New Jersey Drive Vol. 2" came out this month too, but it was shorter and not as good as Vol. 1 was.
May gave us Masta Ace Inc. with "Sittin on Chrome" and we do not NEED another album this month... In fact, I will ride out to that tomorrow and let the speaker exercise. Showbiz & AG gave a valiant showing, though, with "Goodfellas," which I have had before but do not now for some reason and Miilkbone's "Da Miilkrate," which I have only heard twice in my life and then Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones showed up to my house and told me to look at their pen, word to Roswell New Mexico.
June came with Lost Boyz' "Legal Drug Money," which my brother liked and I just couldn't feel, still can't... Same applies to Mack 10 and his self-titled. What we could agree on, though, was Grand Puba's "2000," which many people slept on HARD.
July gave us Buju Banton's CLASSIC "'Til Shiloh" Bone Thugs N Harmony's "E1999 Eternal," both of which albums have seen updates, so I own 4 copies of 2 albums, aint that some SHIT?!!? Tru also came in early days of No Limit Records with "True," which no one I know has ever even heard, myself included. Bushwick Bill chimed in with "Phantom of the Rapra" as well
August now I would SWEAR that it didn't feel like 95, but I have not yet done 94's list, but this is when Raekwon's "Only Built For Cuban Linx" came out, an album that would FOREVER change my life... "The Show" soundtrack came out this month and is still the benchmark for what a hip hop movie soundtrack WISHES it could be.
Oh, Junior Mafia released "Conspiracy" this month as well.
September Kool G Rap steps away from Polo and makes "4,5,6"
October Insane Clown Posse gave us "Riddle Box" on the same day as KRS-One gave us a self-titled, then Fat Joe gave us "Jealous Ones Envy" the same day as "All We Got is Us."
Cypress Hill and Tha Dogg Pound would double us up with "III: The Temple of Boom" and "Dogg Food," respectively on the same day later in the month... This was a 2-for-1 month if you bought more than one each of the 6 above mentioned albums I just named, which I did not. I DID get AZ's "Doe or Die" though. Mystikal's "Mind of Mystikal" came out this month too, but was re-released sometime in 96 because no one west of Houston or North of St Louis was ready to listen to that shit.
November GZA Gave us "Liquid Swords"--... WAIT, that is why Cuban Linx felt like it was so far ahead of this, it is ALL I listened to for those months! Mic Geronimo gave us "The Natural," which I slept on until like 98 at least, and Group Home's "Livin Proof," which I could not find around here until like 2001 or so.
Oh yeah, LL Cool J released "Mr. Smith" as well. I have a question... Did this motherfucker make ANY good albums after he crossed the age of 18?
Eazy E gave us "Str8 of Da Streetz of Muthaphuckin Compton" that day too, as did Coolio with "Gangsta's Paradise" and the only other first-week purchase I would have from this month's releases were The Pharcyde's "Labcabincalinfornia," 8ball & MJG's "On Top of the World" and Goodie Mob's "Soul Food"
December JESUS, another Spice 1 album?!!? "1990-Sick" for the record, and this motherfucker has been on every list in this series, shit!
For some reason, I had to explore more corners in my searches to compile this list, coming to a grand total of 44 releases, of which I do or have owned 34, for a very nice 77.27% score... As I looked over the list as I wrote it, I was preparing my chops to bitch about the low quality of some of the non-purchases, and hell I had some words for the low quality of the ones I DID purchase. What happened, though, was "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx," "Liquid Swords," "Operation Stackola," "Labcabincalifornia," "Safe & Sound," "Soul Food," "The Show" Soundtrack, "Sittin on Chrome," "Do You Want More?!!?" "'Til Shiloh," "E1999..." "Return to the 36 Chambers..." and "The Infamous" and we begin to realize that this year churned out some shit that most of us can STILL listen to RIGHT NOW without an ounce of shame...
What I did notice, as you should too, that New York was shifting toward the mobster/gangster thing and hip hop was shifting to the West and Midwest for a large part. They maintained that grip for the next couple of years, relented it and NO ONE had it until the south started to bubble after 2000. As it were, making these lists I see where the whole thing was built up and began to fall apart. I will save my final assessments for the last post of the series.
I think 92 is next.
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