What's Your Favorite Album From The East Coast?

I'm not trying to start any coastal wars or make this about the coasts, so please nobody start with that shit. I just want to go through each coast respectively and then do a some up.

What is your favorite east coast album and why? And I don't want any bullshit about how an album is important or critically acclaimed or any of that, because none of that shit should matter. This is about your favorite album and why you love it. The days or nights you played it during middle school and high school, the tough times it got you through, the feeling you felt the first time you heard it, etc.

Liquid Swords, I explained this a long time ago, and so I'll just sum it up. Amazing samples, the beats compliment GZA perfect, I went through the samples of each song just to see how the original compared, even the Kung Fu movies. It had my attention that much. Also when I first heard it(when I started listen to hip hop) I thought this was too weird, but as time passed I tried it again and I loved it. Love going out in the winter in the cold and listening to this shit, its just got that feel to it. All in all, I'm a LS stan.

Criminal Minded.

I first heard it when I started going to Amazon; I was downloading a bunch of mid 80's albums, and that one stuck out with the gritty production, and different rhyme schemes. Then, when I started hearing more music, I noticed all of the samples, references, and all that junk from Criminal Minded in the music I heard. That made me appreciate it even more. And, I'm pretty sure it's my most played album ever.

Wu-Tang Clan- Enter the 36 Chambers. Easily the greatest thing that came out of the East to these ears. This album has aged really well, and is easily better than Illmatic.

Mine is It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back... not trying to diss the east, but this was the first east coast record I heard that was about something other than just rapping...just grabbed me from the jump and PE did political rap better than anyone. The production is sick and crazy from start to finish and the message is fierce and clear... taught me rap could have meaning and great power.

Wu-Tang Clan-Enter The Wu-Tang(36 Chambers)-Great, original production. Great lyricism. It's got everything a person could ever want in an album.

Just to be clear on any given day i could have picked Liquid Swords or Criminal Minded

I was having a hard time chosing between the following:

36 Chambers
Naughty By Nature
Blueprint

There were like 2-3 more but I have narrowed it down to these. All 3 are in my top 10 albums of all time.

I'll go with the NBN album just a tad over 36 Chambers. Me and that album go way back and it was one of the first albums to truly blow me away. Plus if I go by which out of the three got the most play up to currently it may be the top pick. Going by that album alone made Treach one of my fav rappers instantly and whole album is classic I do not skip one trk on it.

1 of them anyways...

GANGSTARR- Hard to Earn

circa..95.....I remember my older brother having the 'Mass Appeal' cassette single...i snatched it from his "infamous" shoe box of cassette tapes..he kicked my ass..but in return i was introduced to some of the coolest shit i heard that wasnt west coast gangster rap.

guess he felt bad for kicking my ass, cause he picked up 'Hard to Earn' from Sam Goody the next day..i listened to it non stop..mind you im in the 5th grade....so yeah, sentimental value and definitely a east coast fave

GURU RIP

If I'm keeping it all the way One Trillion............................................

My pick has to be Biggie's Life After Death or Ma$e's Harlem World. Those are the two I've played the most (by FARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR) and those are the two that really got me opened up to East Coast hip hop as a whole (LAD more than Harlem World, probably). Those are the first two east coast album I really remember anticipating, and not feeling let down after I bought. Life After Death just had a crazy edge to it that I really connected with, I was 12 when they dropped and was going through some shit. So Biggie helped me release some anger and Mase helped me see the brighter side. But both encouraged me to peep older stuff and keep looking out for new releases from the east coast (DMX's It's Dark And Hell Is Hot definitely solidified NYC as a place where dope releases where coming from consistently).

well this is my favorite hip-hop album of all-time..not just the east coast:

Public Enemy-It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

Why??

this album is just brilliant that's why...it is perfect IMO...it is hip-hop...this is the way hip-hop music should sound IMO....Da Bomb Squad's production was killer right here...perfectly layered samples which just created some different sounding backdrops....Rebel Without A Pause or Bring The Noise as examples will still break your speakers to this day...and then to top it off you have 2 voices on each track one supplying the treble (Flav) and one supplying the BASS (Chuck).....they complement each other on every track perfectly combined with the cuts and scratches of Terminator X...I've always said that without Flav on this album to even out the serious tone of it that back at that time (1988) they probably would've banned it's release entirely.....I feel it was even more controversial than Straight Outta Compton was with some of the subject matter being discussed on it..I mean Chuck called himself on Don't Believe the Hype "The Follower Of Farrakhan" which was extremely controversial at the time because of who Louis Farrakhan is and Chuck addressed a bunch of other issues as well....the president.....a black man/woman entering the armed forces....crack heads.....the police....the S1W's and Professor Griff....religion....etc

this record was totally rebellious and I remember that there where certain facets of the population that were actually scared of this intelligent approach to revolution.....they had more than a few news programs dedicated to discussing this album and being concerned about the messages it was sending to the impressionable youth at the time....


this album really started the political movement in hip-hop and gave birth to a bunch of emcees and their political styles...(Poor Righteous Teachers...King Sun....dead prez.....Brand Nubian....Gang Starr....Paris......Ice Cube......2Pac.....some of Scarface's solo works...just to name a few...all of these guys and many others have said that once they heard this album it changed their way of thinking and their lives totally)

this album is IMO the greatest hip-hop album ever released and one of the greatest albums ever released in the overall history of music in general.......completely timeless and completely classic!!

Only Built For Cuban Linx...

Why?

i explained it before, but the whole theme/vibe of this album is just ridiculously dope. I still get chills every time i listen to "Striving for Perfection" to kick off the album (one of my favorite intros of all time btw). The production is flawless, the skits are perfect, and the emceeing is just straight raw. 36 Chambers had more impact but this album puts me in a zone that takes me a while to get out of. Besides CREAM and Protect Ya Neck, Ice Cream was one of the Wu songs that got me hooked on them and soon after i went and got the album and its risen to the top ever since.

Nas- Illmatic

It's not only my favorite album from the east, but it's my fav album of all time. Why? Because the songs moved me from the second I spun it. Every track is like a lyrical motion picture.

When I first heard Nas on "Live At The Barbeque" on Main Source's Breakin Atoms LP. I knew right away that he would be a star just from that one verse. Then I heard him again on "Back To The Grill" on MC Serch's album and it had me feenin for his solo album.

Illmatic is simply flawless. Great lyricism, great production, everything a TRUE hip-hop fan could ever want from an album. It Ain't Hard To Tell remains my favorite track of all time....

Deep like The Shinin', sparkle like a diamond
Sneak a uzi on the island in my army jacket linin
Hit the Earth like a comet, invasion
Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazin

Anybody that can't get into a dope line like that can't honestly consider themselves a hip-hop fan. The World Is Yours, One Love, NY State Of Mind, Represent, and Halftime are all time favs as well. He also helped launch AZ's career with Life's A Bitch and AZ then became one of my favs as well.

Illmatic is an instant classic, and it's easy to see why this album has recieved universal acclaim. It's the greatest album of all time IMO, and not many LP's are in it's class.

Well, not trying to go against the rules of this thread, and plus I've mentioned my reasons for this being not only my favorite east coast album and my #1 favorite album of all time, but this cover sums up my choice perfectly (and I also cosign on the majority of things KJ said about it):

It's cool wayne, I want you to express why you love the album - did it come out while you were in high school, get you through some tough times, etc. So it's all good, please feel free to express yourself, I just want to avoid this becoming an argument about which album is better, but it has worked well so far so please post your honest thoughts.

Southern Rap Pro wrote:

It's cool wayne, I want you to express why you love the album - did it come out while you were in high school, get you through some tough times, etc. So it's all good, please feel free to express yourself, I just want to avoid this becoming an argument about which album is better, but it has worked well so far so please post your honest thoughts.

No problem with that. Well, aside from the obvious (great production and lyricism, and things like that), I did initially fall in love with this album upon first listen. I first had it on a "dubbed cassette tape", and from there, I didn't actually buy the CD until August 1997 (believe it or not). Overall, I've bought this album 3 times (and the 10th anniversary edition is included with that). While it didn't get me through any "tough times", it's an album I can still play to this day constantly without getting tired of it.

Cool, I actually was late getting into nas. Some friends from new orleans of all places first put me onto nas... we would trade cassettes for a week at a time and got into new music that way.

Southern Rap Pro wrote:

Cool, I actually was late getting into nas. Some friends from new orleans of all places first put me onto nas... we would trade cassettes for a week at a time and got into new music that way.

I feel you on that. How late were you getting into Nas?

Probably 1997 or 1998. I heard all his radio songs, but never really paid much attention to him on a full album and then we were trading tapes, I would usually just ask for their old bounce tapes, but they bugged out when I wasn't on nas so they lent me illmatic and it was written... didn't really fall in love with either one, but by senior year, they lent me I Am and that was the one I really dug.

Southern Rap Pro wrote:

Probably 1997 or 1998. I heard all his radio songs, but never really paid much attention to him on a full album and then we were trading tapes, I would usually just ask for their old bounce tapes, but they bugged out when I wasn't on nas so they lent me illmatic and it was written... didn't really fall in love with either one, but by senior year, they lent me I Am and that was the one I really dug.

Yeah. You can never get into Nas too late.

"Mecca and the Soul Brother." I still can remember hearing "T.R.O.Y." for the first time on the radio and getting chills, and when I bought the album at Circuit City in eighth grade I played it so much I had to get a new one six months later. For a long time I held that album as the standard to what every other album should sound like, and I still get chills listening to it. I've never heard anyone else flip a sample like Pete on that album, C.L. still gives me chills, and I just really dig the whole vibe with the instrumental interludes and dusty horns.

Well you certainly get into nas at the wrong time...lol...had I heard Nastradamus first I may have never peeped another nas album.

Southern Rap Pro wrote:

Well you certainly get into nas at the wrong time...lol...had I heard Nastradamus first I may have never peeped another nas album.

I wonder if there's anyone out there who got into Nas by hearing Nastradamus first.

Well, Project Window is certainly dope enough to make anyone a Nas fan.

For me it's gonna have to be

BDP "Criminal Minded"


My mom use to ship my sister and I to North Carolina every summer to get a break from us after the school year was over. We had just moved to MD after being in Virginia all of our lives about 2 years before. That summer every one was all over "By All Means Necessary" so I remember walking to the record store from my grandma's house just to pick up the tape and listening to it the whole summer. When I returned home for the school year, some folks that I had just met earlier in the school year, told me that they had a BDP tape, (We were going to play Tecmo Bowl) I said By All Means Necessary? and they said no Criminal Minded. At the time, I thought that By All Means Necessary was the debut because no one else in NC had brought up Criminal Minded. So they put it in and I was just sitting there with the stuck face like WTF, this is even better than By All Means Necessary and I was highly upset that no one had informed me that this was their debut. To me, this was hip hop at its finest. KRS was in rare form.

Good choice.

Enta Da Stage

GZA - Liquid Swords, for a lot of the same reasons that Esco listed. My intro to Wu-Tang by the way.

I think TheHazardous and TheHipster should expound on their choices a little.

Southern Rap Pro wrote:

I think TheHazardous and TheHipster should expound on their choices a little.

I just feel like Liquid Swords was made with the full grasp of the concept of what an album is...every time I listen to one track I feel the urge to listen to the entire thing all the way through. Its consistency is only matched by Aquemini in my opinion. Also I think that the RZA really put his best effort into the production on this album. Yeah, there have been better beats on other albums, but he was on another level with this one. Of course I'm a sucker for dark/atmospheric beats...which could describe the majority of the beats on this album. Finally, GZA was the best lyricist in the Wu-Tang at this time...there are hip-hop quotables on every track of this classic. Ghostface took that title in the 2000s, but the GZA held it down in the 90's and this was his masterpiece lyrically. The best of the Wu-Tang solos, and my favorite east coast album.

Pete Rock & CL Smooth "Mecca & The Soul Brother"

I've been obsessed with the album since the first time I heard it. CL's fluid flow, Pete Rock's groundbreaking production. Perhaps one of the longest albums I've ever heard that's truly worthy of it's time.

(Whispering) Return Of The Mecca

Mine would be a cross between 36 Chambers and It Takes A Nation. Either one could take the number one spot.

I could have easily gone with GZA's "Liquid Swordz" or Killarmy's "Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars", as I totally love both.

But, my favorite (which used to change often) would have to be:

Chino XL - Here To Save You All

Saw the video for "No Complex" on Yo! MTV Raps, then bought the cassette when the album dropped. It's one that I can listen to all the way through without skipping a track.

I thought Chino reped west coast?

I know he's from Jersey...doesn't really seem like he "reps" any particular region though.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VxsG3DoAR3M/SaTvIHXBLPI/AAAAAAAABBE/B8RDWDrDlCE/s400/A%2BTribe%2BCalled%2BQuest%2B-%2BThe%2BLow%2BEnd%2BTheory%2B-%2B1991.jpg" border="0" alt=""/>

This is the album that turned me into a hip hop fanatic. I bought this album when I was 14 after downloading a collection of their songs and immediately fell in love with it. From Excursions to Scenario is just non-stop dopeness...

Xcel wrote:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VxsG3DoAR3M/SaTvIHXBLPI/AAAAAAAABBE/B8RDWDrDlCE/s400/A%2BTribe%2BCalled%2BQuest%2B-%2BThe%2BLow%2BEnd%2BTheory%2B-%2B1991.jpg" border="0" alt=""/>

This is the album that turned me into a hip hop fanatic. I bought this album when I was 14 after downloading a collection of their songs and immediately fell in love with it. From Excursions to Scenario is just non-stop dopeness...

Great pick! The Low End Theory is actually my 2nd favorite album of all time behind Illmatic.

Chino reps the East. At least these days

I could pick OB4CL or really any Wu albums from that era, Mobb Deep - Hell On Earth, Onyx - All We Got Iz Us, Beatnuts - Street Level and plenty more but today i will go with Redman - Dare Iz A Darkside. This took a while to sink in before I knew how dope it was, like many albums that end up having endless replay value.

Having already heard Whut? Thee album & Muddy Waters I was expecting more of the same and was dissapointed when I didn't get it. After repeated listens i realised this was the funk docter spock, notty headed terror, hero of the weirdos, whatever the fuck u wanna call him at his grimiest, funkiest, most hardcore and probably highest judging from his verses.

Part of the appeal is it doesn't follow any formula, it's a perfect mess and his personality shines through because of it. Represents everything i love about hip hop, hella entertainment value and the beats (mostly by reggie) bang. You can tell this is the exact album HE wanted to make in '94. Who else could stop in the middle of a verse to lick some pussy come back on the mic and make it sound dope??

I miss the days when music like this would go gold. Favorite tracks are: Green Island, Bobyahead2dis, Superman Luva 2, Journey Thru Da Darkside, Cosmic Slop, Slide and Rock On, Can't Wait, Rockafella, Neurotic but it plays best as an album

Dare Iz A Darkside, not a bad pick at all.

Midnight Marauders. Perhaps the greatest album of all time. The song that got me into hip hop, Award Tour, makes this album the more special.

Funk Seoul Brother wrote:

Midnight Marauders. Perhaps the greatest album of all time. The song that got me into hip hop, Award Tour, makes this album the more special.

Another great pick.

Wayne wrote:

Funk Seoul Brother wrote:

Midnight Marauders. Perhaps the greatest album of all time. The song that got me into hip hop, Award Tour, makes this album the more special.

Another great pick.

And mine's not great? Now I'm all butt-hurt...

Southern Rap Pro wrote:

I think TheHazardous and TheHipster should expound on their choices a little.

My bad. I can bang it from front to back. The very ambiance of the production was maintained throughout. It is absolutely one of the best underground East Coast efforts. It is a great representative of the 90's East Coast style. It introduces you to the Boot Camp Click. It is still BCC's best album. It has great replay value. It has that grimy basement sound. It set the stage for the dark NY sound that they heralded. They didn't receive the same commercial acclaim as some of their peers but they were still the harbinger of the new style.

Enta Da Stage is a great fucking pick