Chuck D used his booming voice to deliver revolutionary slogans. Public Enemy operated like a mobile country: they had a leader, a spokesman, a cabinet, and an army. Public Enemy, Fear Of A Black Planet (1990) Black Thought is a champion all over: “Globe traveling, throwing your verse like a javelin / Things Fall Apart and MC’s unraveling.” 18. ‘Dynamite’ Frankensteined a frenzied Bucky Pizzarelli bebop chord progression into nod-your-head funk.
The Roots took the 215 area code worldwide with Things Fall Apart, a Philadelphia masterpiece of Black Thought metaphorics and Questlove breakbeats. Gang Starr has an origin story in Boston but this record is absolutely the sound of ’90’s New York, with bebop and blues piano and verses featuring Jeru the Damaja and Nice & Smooth.
Guru and DJ Premier put ‘Mass Appeal’ across the East Coast as one of the coolest singles of a heavy year in hip hop, 1994. One year after the release of Nas’ groundbreaking masterpiece Illmatic, the duo of Prodigy and Havoc took their portrayal of Queensbridge street life to its darkest, most haunting extreme. No Dan the Automator record would be complete without a reference to the genius Chris Elliott’s Cabin Boy here it’s a whole song (‘halfsharkalligatorhalfman’).
Artist Pushead keeps the graphics grimy with the cover’s depiction of the good doctor. Dan the Automator plays it spooky and loose on the keyboards and DJ Qbert of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz scratches through it all. Kool Keith’s full-length solo debut combines the sci-fi mystery of Sun Ra with comic book horror stories that stagger to life. Labcabincalifornia, produced by The Pharcyde and J Dilla, is the sound of Pacific hip hop dreaming at the wheel. The land of cool jazz and honey was home to the group, who had already scored big with the romantic anguish of ‘Passin’ Me By’ on their ’92 debut. The Pharcyde positioned themselves as the leaders of the chill sound from – where else – California. De La Soul Is Dead is a group executing their own style: the D.A.I.S.Y. De La Soul, De La Soul Is Dead (1991)ĭe La Soul and Prince Paul put the past, present, and future together like the funkiest chefs. Upright bass walks the title track to greatness and ‘Know the Ledge’, used expertly in the film Juice, is ice cold storytelling.
Don’t Sweat the Technique, their last, still bursts with classics. This dope duo rose to the top of hip hop’s Golden Age with that era’s best record: 1987‘s Paid in Full.