Worst list you've ever seen?

http://www.complex.com/music/2011/08/the-50-worst-rap-album-fails3

Seriously, look at some of those picks. Even read some of their explanations. Worst list I've seen in a long time.

Wow, once I saw Bone's Ressurection I was done.

Wayne wrote:

Ok, I've taken a look at this list, and it's rather interesting for the most part. I just had this feeling that Nastradamus was going to be the #1 choice on this list, but whatever. In my opinion......

The albums that shouldn't have made the list
Nas - Nastradamus (I know me listing this will create a discussion, but I'm admittedly biased towards Nas, so it's all good with me.)
Jay-Z - Kingdom Come (Yep, I'm biased towards Jay-Z too, but still, this album shouldn't have made this list.)
Eric B. & Rakim - Don't Sweat The Technique
Bone Thugs N Harmony - BTNHResurrection
Das Efx - Straight Up Sewaside
Ice Cube - Lethal Injection (IMO, the most underrated album in Cube's discog.)
Raekwon - Immobilarity

5 albums that rightfully made this list were Dr. Dre Presents The Aftermath, Mase's Welcome Back, Lil Jon's Crunk Rock, LL Cool J's 14 Shots To The Dome, and Lil Wayne's Rebirth.

I was also offended by BR&L, Everything Is Everything, T.I.M.E., and how they sucked Lil B's dick even though they said his album was a fail.

Even though yeah, you're biased, at least you admit it. And to a true fan, I can see why Nastradamus wasn't a "fail". Just like Encore, Kingdom Come, Beats, Rhymes & Life and some others. Walking With A Panther pissed me off to be honest, and I'm not even an LL Cool J fan but I know a dozen that would say that's their favorite album of his.

Wayne wrote:

Which choices did you agree with Half?

Well, I haven't heard every album on the list, but I have to think there are bigger fails they completely forgot. I think they just threw that together to get attention. I guess I could see the Nas, Jay and The Firm albums as failures, maybe the Canibus album too. But there are way more albums I disagree with than I agree with. There are some big fails from this year alone (Goblin, Lasers) that they didn't have on there... unless they liked those albums... which wouldn't be surprising considering this list.

WHOA It's On made the fucking list? Some people shouldn't be allowed to get the internet.

And Best Of Both Worlds is dope.

Doggfather???

A Guest wrote:

Even though yeah, you're biased, at least you admit it. And to a true fan, I can see why Nastradamus wasn't a "fail". Just like Encore, Kingdom Come, Beats, Rhymes & Life and some others. Walking With A Panther pissed me off to be honest, and I'm not even an LL Cool J fan but I know a dozen that would say that's their favorite album of his.

A dozen +1.

"...this album fell just short of living up to the duo's usual standard."

That says everything that needs to be said about the list. They misinterpreted what a FAIL is. Should have just called it "Disappointing Albums/Follow Ups".

I hate this list. The criteria they use to determine whether an album was a fail or not are totally fucked.

"We're willing to bet if Nas had never made Nastradamus, Jay-Z would have never had the balls to diss him on “Takeover.” It's just too bad Nas couldn't have predicted this album would suck"

lmao...

Tha Doggfather was BS, that's one of my favorite Snoop albums.

Wayne wrote:

Myestro wrote:

"They misinterpreted what a FAIL is. Should have just called it "Disappointing Albums/Follow Ups".

Cosign.

I concur.

As soon as I saw Don't Sweat The Technique I closed the tab. What a travesty.

I get what they are saying. I haven't looked at all of the list but from the ones you guys mentioned they were fails. They are not saying the albums were whack but failed to do what they were anticipated to do.

Taste Of Chocolate was one of them, Kev...

And that was a fail. The list is not saying anyone should not like those albums. They are saying compared to the bar they set with other albums and movements these albums are the weak links.

I just don't like that their main criteria are commercial success, hit songs, and staying the exact same as their previous work.

thelundquist wrote:

I just don't like that their main criteria are commercial success, hit songs, and staying the exact same as their previous work.

Well they are coming from a mainstream point of view and back then a lot of those artist were mainstream rappers. So what else do you judge their "failure" off of? And I don't get they want them to stay the same as previous efforts they are just saying these albums did nothing positive for their career's.

But why is commercial success the end all be all? When sales are the main goal the music just becomes homogenous and then the art is lost. I prefer it when artists take risks, and it bothers me when the only reason people say it failed was because it didn't sell. Why not judge it on the quality of the music first. That's all I'm saying. Using whether or not it was a good career move is exactly what I don't like about the list. I do understand that this is what is relevant to Complex, and that I'm not exactly the target audience of such a list, but still, just throwing out how I feel about it.

And yes some of those albums are legitimately bad, and I understand what the list is getting at as far as the albums not matching their "hype" or the artists reputation or whatever. I just disagree with it's message.

I understand where you are coming from. Most of us feel the same way, but we are rap nerds. Your average listener was not feeling these albums. Trust me.

Also Lund never 4get in your (our)nerdom that this is a business just as much as it is art. Most artist 1st album are the true art anything after that has multiple motivations for it still being art or a product.

I'm also not getting a commerical success as the only measuring stick for these picks. I see other reasons like failed experimentation, lazy lyrics, bad timing, etc etc.

Yeah, you're right. It just bums me out that artists with real messages can't reach the masses anymore because the labels basically won't let them.

I know they had other reasons on there (and some of them were fair/accurate), but almost every description I read (I didn't read them all) had some mention of commercial failure.

I bet there are noKanye albums on there, and that's why Kev gets it

I bet there are noKanye albums on there, and that's why Kev gets it

What albums really pissed you off because they were on this list? Cause so far I am on number 27 and I agree with every single one.

Ye hasn't had any "failures" yet in the mainstream eyes. But 808's was a biiiiig fucking failure in my book. Later MBDTF may be considerd a failure due to it not being on the level commerically as his previous albums.

But the production was more varied. That makes it better

Shaun wrote:

But the production was more varied. That makes it better

Humor and smart assism attempts? Grow up. Join the convo with some real talk or shut the Fizzy Womack up.

TicNitty706 wrote:

What albums really pissed you off because they were on this list? Cause so far I am on number 27 and I agree with every single one.

Kingdom Come
Don't Sweat the Technique
Time
Everything Is Everything
The New Danger
It's On
The Doggfather
The Firm

They didn't really piss me off, but I think these are good albums. I guess, in fairness, I didn't hear some of them in context due to my age. It's mainly just the general idea of the list that I have a problem with.

thelundquist wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

What albums really pissed you off because they were on this list? Cause so far I am on number 27 and I agree with every single one.

Kingdom Come
Don't Sweat the Technique
Time
Everything Is Everything
The New Danger
It's On
The Doggfather
The Firm

They didn't really piss me off, but I think these are good albums. I guess, in fairness, I didn't hear them in context due to my age. It's mainly just the general idea of the list that I have a problem with.

Well like I keep saying. If this was the 50 worst or whack albums in rap history I would have a big problem with this list. But since the rule of thumb was clearly stated that this is a list of career faliures pretty much, they hit this one head on.

And out of your list 4 of those I really like also.

TicNitty706 wrote:

Ye hasn't had any "failures" yet in the mainstream eyes. But 808's was a biiiiig fucking failure in my book. Later MBDTF may be considerd a failure due to it not being on the level commerically as his previous albums.

That kind of encapsulates my problem. 808s sucked, but it sold well so it avoided the list. Same thing with Encore and Relapse (I personally love Relapse, but everyone likes to shit on it, and the hate increased tenfold after Em did too). And MBDTF is actually a good album (one of the highest reviewed of all time actually, though some critics went overboard imo), but because it only went 1x platinum people will call it a flop (how a plat plaque is a flop is beyond me, relative or not). BISD (though not listed) was 50's best work since GRODT imo, but it barely went gold so everyone says it sucks. That's the mindset I hate.

...Curtis definitely should have been on the list though. That shit sucked and it was a relative "flop".

TicNitty706 wrote:

thelundquist wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

What albums really pissed you off because they were on this list? Cause so far I am on number 27 and I agree with every single one.

Kingdom Come
Don't Sweat the Technique
Time
Everything Is Everything
The New Danger
It's On
The Doggfather
The Firm

They didn't really piss me off, but I think these are good albums. I guess, in fairness, I didn't hear them in context due to my age. It's mainly just the general idea of the list that I have a problem with.

Well like I keep saying. If this was the 50 worst or whack albums in rap history I would have a big problem with this list. But since the rule of thumb was clearly stated that this is a list of career faliures pretty much, they hit this one head on.

And out of your list 4 of those I really like also.

I mean, I understand what the list is. I just don't agree with the idea of most of the list.

thelundquist wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

thelundquist wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

What albums really pissed you off because they were on this list? Cause so far I am on number 27 and I agree with every single one.

Kingdom Come
Don't Sweat the Technique
Time
Everything Is Everything
The New Danger
It's On
The Doggfather
The Firm

They didn't really piss me off, but I think these are good albums. I guess, in fairness, I didn't hear them in context due to my age. It's mainly just the general idea of the list that I have a problem with.

Well like I keep saying. If this was the 50 worst or whack albums in rap history I would have a big problem with this list. But since the rule of thumb was clearly stated that this is a list of career faliures pretty much, they hit this one head on.

And out of your list 4 of those I really like also.

I mean, I understand what the list is. I just don't agree with the idea of most of the list.

Fair enough. I enoyed the convo.

thelundquist wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

Ye hasn't had any "failures" yet in the mainstream eyes. But 808's was a biiiiig fucking failure in my book. Later MBDTF may be considerd a failure due to it not being on the level commerically as his previous albums.

That kind of encapsulates my problem. 808s sucked, but it sold well so it avoided the list. Same thing with Encore and Relapse (I personally love Relapse, but everyone likes to shit on it, and the hate increased tenfold after Em did too). And MBDTF is actually a good album (one of the highest reviewed of all time actually, though some critics went overboard imo), but because it only went 1x platinum people will call it a flop (how a plat plaque is a flop is beyond me, relative or not). BISD (though not listed) was 50's best work since GRODT imo, but it barely went gold so everyone says it sucks. That's the mindset I hate.

...Curtis definitely should have been on the list though. That shit sucked and it was a relative "flop".

Encore should be on this list. Well is it? I still have 2 more albums left...lol.

And I agree with you about BISD being pretty good and 50 taking it back to his hardcore witty roots. And since MBDTF went plat it may not make the list.

TicNitty706 wrote:

thelundquist wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

Ye hasn't had any "failures" yet in the mainstream eyes. But 808's was a biiiiig fucking failure in my book. Later MBDTF may be considerd a failure due to it not being on the level commerically as his previous albums.

That kind of encapsulates my problem. 808s sucked, but it sold well so it avoided the list. Same thing with Encore and Relapse (I personally love Relapse, but everyone likes to shit on it, and the hate increased tenfold after Em did too). And MBDTF is actually a good album (one of the highest reviewed of all time actually, though some critics went overboard imo), but because it only went 1x platinum people will call it a flop (how a plat plaque is a flop is beyond me, relative or not). BISD (though not listed) was 50's best work since GRODT imo, but it barely went gold so everyone says it sucks. That's the mindset I hate.

...Curtis definitely should have been on the list though. That shit sucked and it was a relative "flop".

Encore should be on this list. Well is it? I still have 2 more albums left...lol.

And I agree with you about BISD being pretty good and 50 taking it back to his hardcore witty roots. And since MBDTF went plat it may not make the list.

Lol didn't mean to spoil the ending

From the intro:

"This is a list of when great rappers make terrible fucking albums."

So yeah, this list is garbage to me.

Half wrote:

From the intro:

"This is a list of when great rappers make terrible fucking albums."

So yeah, this list is garbage to me.

Great way to take one part of the story to prove your shallow point. You should work for the media.

TicNitty706 wrote:

Half wrote:

From the intro:

"This is a list of when great rappers make terrible fucking albums."

So yeah, this list is garbage to me.

Great way to take one part of the story to prove your shallow point. You should work for the media.

Lol, I read their explanations too. The article was full of contradictions. Like I said I haven't heard every album on the list, but from what I did hear, they really fucked up in my opinion. Speaking of working for the media, do you work for Complex?

Half wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

Half wrote:

From the intro:

"This is a list of when great rappers make terrible fucking albums."

So yeah, this list is garbage to me.

Great way to take one part of the story to prove your shallow point. You should work for the media.

Lol, I read their explanations too. The article was full of contradictions. Like I said I haven't heard every album on the list, but from what I did hear, they really fucked up in my opinion. Speaking of working for the media, do you work for Complex?

Lol......well if I did I would have tried to make the point of the list even more simple for folks that could not follow it. On the real Half try to learn how to step out your personal views for a second and look at the bigger point. I like a lot of those albums on that list and that list will not chcange how I feel about some of those pretty dope albums. But every album on that list was a failure. They did a pretty good job with it.

Now the part you quoted about "terrible fucking albums" that was their or his personal opinion but not the main subject of the list.

And let me ask you guys this to ask yourselves honestly. What album on that list ranks in your top 20 or even 50 of all time? And even if one of them do you may be hard pressed to find multiple picks from that list to rank that high. Also where do some of those albums rank in said artist discog for you?

TicNitty706 wrote:

Half wrote:

From the intro:

"This is a list of when great rappers make terrible fucking albums."

So yeah, this list is garbage to me.

Great way to take one part of the story to prove your shallow point. You should work for the media.

Seeing as the very next sentence was...

"Take a look through the discography of just about any great rapper and you're bound to find at least one album that just doesn't belong."

I fail to follow their logic. Don't Sweat The Technique, Straight Up Sewaside, T.I.M.E., Non-Fiction, Walking With A Panther (there's more on there too), all might not have lived up to any hype or preconceived notions of what they should be, but they aren't terrible albums.

The people that came up with this list took one part of the story to prove their own shallow point also. That's how debates work.

Myestro wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

Half wrote:

From the intro:

"This is a list of when great rappers make terrible fucking albums."

So yeah, this list is garbage to me.

Great way to take one part of the story to prove your shallow point. You should work for the media.

Seeing as the very next sentence was...

"Take a look through the discography of just about any great rapper and you're bound to find at least one album that just doesn't belong."

I fail to follow their logic. Don't Sweat The Technique, Straight Up Sewaside, T.I.M.E., Non-Fiction, Walking With A Panther (there's more on there too), all might not have lived up to any hype or preconceived notions of what they should be, but they aren't terrible albums.

The people that came up with this list took one part of the story to prove their own shallow point also. That's how debates work.

No they just did not take into consideration the opinion of rap nerds like us. They are looking at the bigger picture of your casual rap fans who out number us nerds by a lot.

Let me ask you this. How often do you hear someone really discuss the dopeness of TIME? Non Fiction? Don't Sweat? and etc etc. These albums rarely get brought up and have been forgetten. Not by us the ones who go deeper with the music. But I know for a fact not opinon that fans of Non Fiction or not the same amount of fans for Woldf In Sheep Clothing. I know the fans of Straight Up Sewaside or no where near the amount of fans of Dead Serious. And TIME? LMFAO!!!!!! No one talks about that fucking album. Look at the level their 1st album took them too then look where TIME falls into that. This is not a hard list to understand at all.

TicNitty706 wrote:

Half wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

Half wrote:

From the intro:

"This is a list of when great rappers make terrible fucking albums."

So yeah, this list is garbage to me.

Great way to take one part of the story to prove your shallow point. You should work for the media.

Lol, I read their explanations too. The article was full of contradictions. Like I said I haven't heard every album on the list, but from what I did hear, they really fucked up in my opinion. Speaking of working for the media, do you work for Complex?

Lol......well if I did I would have tried to make the point of the list even more simple for folks that could not follow it. On the real Half try to learn how to step out your personal views for a second and look at the bigger point. I like a lot of those albums on that list and that list will not chcange how I feel about some of those pretty dope albums. But every album on that list was a failure. They did a pretty good job with it.

Now the part you quoted about "terrible fucking albums" that was their or his personal opinion but not the main subject of the list.

And let me ask you guys this to ask yourselves honestly. What album on that list ranks in your top 20 or even 50 of all time? And even if one of them do you may be hard pressed to find multiple picks from that list to rank that high. Also where do some of those albums rank in said artist discog for you?

So step out of my personal views and submit to theirs? Half of the albums were on there because they thought they sucked. Their personal views. The other half, they said they were there because they had lower sales or were the beginning of the group falling off.

And speaking of general hip hop fans, is everyone and their mother jocking Lil B? I haven't heard the album so I can't diss it, but they are really being stans with putting him in. I'm definitely on lundquist's side, they are using some weak and inconsistent criteria to determine what a failure is.