Albums that surprised you

Royce Da 5'9"- Street Hop. After the delays, I figured it would not be as good as I wanted it to be.

50 Cent's Before I Self Destruct comes to mind, since I recently bumped that album. I was expecting "just another 50 album", however, that album was his best since Get Rich or Die Tryin. Another pick, which I'm going to cop, is Fat Joe's The Darkside Volume 1. I downloaded that joint the other day, and objectively listened to it, and I was instantly surprised at how good that album is, probably his best in a LONG time.

Rooftop Soundcheck comes to mind. That's generally not my comfort zone, but i took a chance because of the praise it got(also it was cheap). I was more than pleased with it.

Hey Wayne, i bet you would be surprised with Still Standing. LOL!

Living Proof - I was surprised to see how mediocre someone can sound over a Premier beat...

but on the real... The only thing that comes to mind is Hell's Winter by Cage. I was expected something like movies for the blind, but it was really a different direction. A better direction indeed as I liked it even more than MFTB.

Co sign Before I Self Destruct also.

Rick Ross- Teflon Don
Cube- Laugh Now Cry Later
Royce- Street Hop
Blu- Below The Heavens
Alex King- Reincarnated
Bro Ali- Undisputed Truth
The Roots- Tipping Point
Game- The Documentary
Cee-Lo- The Soul Machine
Kayne West- College Dropout
Public Enemy- How To Sell Soul

Just a few. Honestly when I leave the hype and/or hate out I find myself surprised by a lot of albums.

Nas-Stillmatic

I really expected to be let down yet again by Nas but honestly it's a nearly classic album (it is a personal classic to me, but I definitely got the wack version with "Braveheart Party").

T. Myers wrote:

Rooftop Soundcheck comes to mind. That's generally not my comfort zone, but i took a chance because of the praise it got(also it was cheap). I was more than pleased with it.

Hey Wayne, i bet you would be surprised with Still Standing. LOL!

Still Standing. Still Standing, lol. Once I cop this joint, I'm going to start a thread on it!

Esco wrote:

Living Proof - I was surprised to see how mediocre someone can sound over a Premier beat...

but on the real... The only thing that comes to mind is Hell's Winter by Cage. I was expected something like movies for the blind, but it was really a different direction. A better direction indeed as I liked it even more than MFTB.

And everyone still says that Premier essentially made that Livin Proof album. Can't disagree with that though.

KRob TheRapGod wrote:

Co sign Before I Self Destruct also.

Rick Ross- Teflon Don
Cube- Laugh Now Cry Later
Royce- Street Hop
Blu- Below The Heavens
Alex King- Reincarnated
Bro Ali- Undisputed Truth
The Roots- Tipping Point
Game- The Documentary
Cee-Lo- The Soul Machine
Kayne West- College Dropout
Public Enemy- How To Sell Soul

Just a few. Honestly when I leave the hype and/or hate out I find myself surprised by a lot of albums.

Cosign on Teflon Don.

Freeway- The Stimulus Package

I didn't think he was capable of droppin an almost flawless album, but Jake One laced him with some masterful beats and the end result is FIRE!! It smashes his previous efforts easily IMO.

Big Daddy Kool wrote:

Freeway- The Stimulus Package

I didn't think he was capable of droppin an almost flawless album, but Jake One laced him with some masterful beats and the end result is FIRE!! It smashes his previous efforts easily IMO.

Good choice here.

I think I'd go with 'Blueprint 3'. I thought it was going to be straight trash, and it turned out to be pretty good, not great, but not nearly as bad as I expected.

thelundquist wrote:

I think I'd go with 'Blueprint 3'. I thought it was going to be straight trash, and it turned out to be pretty good, not great, but not nearly as bad as I expected.

I've always liked Blueprint 3. 4 star album here.

Wayne wrote:

thelundquist wrote:

I think I'd go with 'Blueprint 3'. I thought it was going to be straight trash, and it turned out to be pretty good, not great, but not nearly as bad as I expected.

I've always liked Blueprint 3. 4 star album here.

I got it at 3.5 or so. I wasn't expecting much because I wasn't very impressed by 'DOA' or 'Run This Town', and then when 'Hate' and the song with Drake leaked I really wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised when I heard it. Most of the other songs were cool.

Hate might be the worst song of Jay's career.

Shaun wrote:

Hate might be the worst song of Jay's career.

Couldn't agree more.

Shaun wrote:

Hate might be the worst song of Jay's career.

Have to cosign here.

Mack 10--soft white
The Product--Scarface presents The Product

Venus vs Mars is worse than Hate, although both are bad.

Nah, Venus vs. Mars is Illmatic compared to Hate

Big Shug-Who's Hard... knew id feel the beats by Premo but didnt expect it to be a personal all-time classic.

MC Ren - Renincarnated

Venus vs.Mars is a pretty dope concept song IMO

that whole Blueprint 3 was waaay better than I expected it would be...I have that one in the top 5 of Jay'z discography...the production, lyrics, flow and concepts on it were pretty damn good...


some others include:

Rick Ross-Teflon Don
De La Soul-The Grind Date
Jean Grae-Jeanius
50 Cent-Before I Self Destruct
CL Smooth-American Me
eMC-The Show
KRS-One-Adventures In Emceeing
Mobb Deep-The Safe Is Cracked


all of the above were very pleasant surprises

Blu & Exile "Below The Heavens"
La Coka Nostra "A Brand You Can Trust"
Freeway & Jake One "The Stimulus Package"
De la Soul "The Grind Date"
DJ Quik "Quik Is The Name", "Safe & Sound", "Rhythmalism" & "Balance And Options"

What surprised you about the LCN record?

I hadn't heard of either Ill Bill or Slaine other than what you all talked about here in the forum.
However, everytime somebody talked about this album, you all said good things about it. I copped it about 2 months ago and this is definitely a nice album.

Do the same for K Rino.

And Haystak

I see that Itunes has the new K Rino for 9.99 29 songs at 9.99 sounds good to me. I'll grab it when I get my gift cards along with the J-Ro and the Vakill I never got. I guess the first $50 card I get, I will use it on your recs. So K-Rino's new one, J-Ro, Vakill and 3 Day Theory from Killah Priest. I need one more. (and not Haystak Jeff)..lol

Term and Statik Selektah? Or Statik Selektah on his own if you never peeped any of his.

I have 100 Proof and that is a good one.

1982 is really dope... you ever peep Term before?

I have seen you all say that this Term & Statik is a good album but I never checked out any Term before.

the production is top notch on the entire CD. I dig term, but some people don't, peep him yourself.

Indeed. I only skip one track on 1982, the rest is straight fire.

Term is good at what he does, but 1982 is a showcase for Statik Selektah. That's why you should buy the album. It's as simple as that.

"1982" is good, but "Spell My Name Right" is even better.

Highsmith wrote:

I see that Itunes has the new K Rino for 9.99 29 songs at 9.99 sounds good to me. I'll grab it when I get my gift cards along with the J-Ro and the Vakill I never got. I guess the first $50 card I get, I will use it on your recs. So K-Rino's new one, J-Ro, Vakill and 3 Day Theory from Killah Priest. I need one more. (and not Haystak Jeff)..lol

White Man Is The Devil Vol 2 or Hour Of Reprisal

Here are a few that surprised me..

Jake One - White Van music
Cradle - Velvet Orchestra
Hezekiah - Hurry up and wait
One be Lo - Sonogram

Peace

This track is pretty good. I may have to add this one as well.

Edo G & Pete Rock - My Own Worst Enemy

Cosign that Jake One, a very pleasant surprise.
Also...
BK One - Radio Do Canibal
Andre Nickatina - Khan! The Me Generation
88 Keys - The Death Of Adam
Flobots - Fight With Tools
Curren$y - Pilot Talk II
Wacka Flocka Flame - Flockavelli.............lol, jk. I did peep it, tho, just to see how bad it is and it is truly triceratops poop. There a at least two songs where an entire verse consists of him saying. "wacka flocka, wacka flocka, wacka wacka wacka flocka, flocka flocka flocka wacka". SMMFH!

Wanduras wrote:

Wacka Flocka Flame - Flockavelli.............lol, jk. I did peep it, tho, just to see how bad it is and it is truly triceratops poop. There a at least two songs where an entire verse consists of him saying. "wacka flocka, wacka flocka, wacka wacka wacka flocka, flocka flocka flocka wacka". SMMFH!

That's platnum material right there....LOL

ha... I peeped a wacka mixtape once... nothing I plan to do again.. at least gucci and oj da jumane provide some entertainment...

you a Nickatina fan or was that a first time peep?

It was a first time peep for me but I was def diggin it. I got it just because of the album title, it sounded interesting. It was absolutely nothing like what I was expecting but I was happy with it. What else is good by him?

waka has some charisma but a lot of apparent brain damage

""1982" is good, but "Spell My Name Right" is even better."

And, 100 Proof is better than both.

Wanduras wrote:

It was a first time peep for me but I was def diggin it. I got it just because of the album title, it sounded interesting. It was absolutely nothing like what I was expecting but I was happy with it. What else is good by him?

Hmmmm... it's hard to say, the production on Khan is way different than anything he's ever done... you peep The Jacka - Tear Gas? He has a killer song with Andre on there. Tale of II Andres is cool too, but I usually recommend people go old school with Nicky and peep his Dre Dog CDs.