Top Ten Rap Albums of 2006

(Why isn't Ghostface in your Top 5 All-Time list?)

I couldn't even find 10 rap albums I liked in 2005, let alone pull together enough albums to make a Top Ten, so I didn't even bother.

2006 had some signs of a turnaround, especially earlier in the year, although as a whole rap was still pretty shitty. But at least there was enough decent to good shit to throw together a Top 10 without cheating like most people do and adding a mixtape to the list.

You can talk me out of number 9 and 10. Those are my affirmative action picks. In fact please talk me out of them. I like those albums but I'm not married to them.

Before we start, no year should end without Skillz's Rap-Up.

Not as hot as it used to be, but no one else does it.

"Lil Kim came home from doing a bid
Is it me or when she came out she was looking like Big?"

Damn.



Let's go.

10. AZ - The Format



Here is what you are supposed to say about AZ.
He is a very good rapper.
He is underrated.
He keeps putting out solid albums under the radar.
He cures cancer.
Etc.
AZ is a formalist whose albums I respect and like but he doesn't exactly knock my socks off.
He makes the list.

9. Rhymefest - Blue Collar



The thing with joke rappers is that they spit so many punchlines that some are bound not to work and when they don't, it's corny.
Rhymefest is not above this trap. But in another year without a Redman album, I'll take whatever fun rap I can get.

8. J Dilla - Donuts



I approach the albums of the deceased with an extra fine comb. Too many times they get the posthumous praise award while releasing crap.
I gave Donuts a hard time after its initial release but so many songs from this album ended up as great rap songs that I gave it another chance and was able to appreciate it for what it was, a great snapshot into the mind of one of rap's great producers.

7. T.I. - King



T.I. flows with the kind of care free confidence that makes his "King of the South" claim hard to argue with.
He makes Lil Wayne sound like the anxious closet case he is.

The greatest slap against the tirade of shitty southern dance songs came with the line,

"She asked me can I do the Laffy Taffy?
I said I do the 'Make the pussy happy'"

Truer words have never been spoken.
I think.


6. The Coup - Pick a Bigger Weapon



The Coup don't like capitalism.

They want you to applaud shoplifters, tell your boss to go to hell, piss on the graves of the robber barons, sneak into functions you weren't invited to and raise little Marxists.

With the wit of the lyrics and the funk heavy beats you might just do it.

"I Love Boosters" is essential. Sing it during your next trip to Macy's.




5. Lupe Fiasco - Food and Liquor



This may be the worst album cover of the year.
Is that a Nintendo DS on the left?
We get it Lupe, you're Muslim, you skateboard, you watch Pokemon and drink soy milk.

I can forgive some of his forays into that Kanye brand of self righteousness for simple fact that it's his first album and most rappers are so over the top with their studio gangsterism that he's just trying to respond with equal force in the opposite direction.

But the main reason he is forgiven is because he's spitting fire about shit no one else is really kicking.
That's what caught my ear this year, hunger and believable lyrics.
It's getting really old for everyone to act like The Wire was based on their life.


4. Nas - Hip-Hop is Dead



Nas damn near started the Civil War of rap with the title of this album alone.
Southern rappers all caught feelings when Uncle Nas shitted on the what they've done with rap since they became the dominant force in sales. East Coast rappers are far from the flawless embassadors of hip-hop that they would like to be (Ja Rule... ahem) but there is some relevancy to the claim that rap quickly devolved into shit after the South took the reigns.

With Jay-Z stepping out of the CEO booth to drop the dud of the year in "Kingdom Come" and Nas returning to form lyrically with "Hip-Hop is Dead" (bring back DJ Premier) the debate over whom is the better rapper will resume with force this summer at a weed spot near you.

And for the record, I like "Who Killed It."
Fuck the voice, listen to what he's saying.


3. Ghostface - More Fish



His album scraps are killing most people in the game.
A thrown together project that his label pitched to him ended up being fire and he sounds hungrier than most new cats in the game.
What more is there to say?


2. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere



Yea I picked Gnarls Barkley as my number 2.
And what?
I've heard people call this album a gimmick record and then praise MF Doom in the same breath.
That is called hypocrisy.

Gnarls is just catching backlash for getting (way too much) radio play, selling a million and getting that platinum plaque.
The production is some of the best of the year and most artists wish they could have pop melodies as strong as this.


1. Ghostface - Fishscale



No one raps with the intensity, urgency or the creativity of Ghostface.
If you would have told anyone in 1994 that Ghostface would be the most relevant, respected and commercially viable rapper from the Wu-Tang clan you would have quite possibly been slapped.
It's not that he wasn't good. He just wasn't in the forefront like that.

But more than 10 odd years later he put together an MVP performance and people still sit up to hear that new Ghostface.
Remember who started that coke rap kiddies.
A kilo is a thousand grams.

_________________________________________

That's it.

You are a Clipse Stan?
A Game groupie?
Still think Jay-Z can rap?
Let me know.