So I thought Cypress Hill were East Coast, which tells you everything you need to know about my knowledge about hip hop and Cypress Hill in particular.
Tag: West Coast Hip Hop
All Eyez on Me (1996) by 2Pac
When I was young, I would eat up everything I thought I should like and this included double albums which, in the LP days, meant a maximum approximately 90 minutes of music. (Usually 88 or less, but often much less, such as Exile on Main St.), which is not much more than an hour.) But …
Gangsta’s Paradise (1995) by Coolio
Coolio’s debut pleasantly surprise me if only because all I knew of him were the hits from this album, and I was surprised by sense of humour and his self-awareness, things that I didn’t know he had. But that very thing that I found really endearing on his debut – which I otherwise found too …
Me Against the World (1995) by 2Pac
So I guess the first thing I have to talk about with this record is expectations, which is often a problem for me when I first encounter someone about which an absolute ton of ink (both literal and proverbial) has been spilt. 2Pac is one of the most lionized rappers in history as far as …
Sex Packets (1990) by Digital Underground
What can I possible say about this insane album? It’s a concept album about a sex drug but, like most concept albums, that concept isn’t evident on many of the tracks. And it features the main rapper rapping both as himself and, infamously, in character, something I don’t know how often I’ve encountered before (and …
Please Hammer Don’t Hurt’Em (1990) by MC Hammer
This record has a 1.81/5 rating on Rate Your Music as of March 2020, one of the lowest ratings I’ve ever seen on the site, and a particularly low one for a record that sold 20 million copies. I am not about to argue that this record is good but it’s far from the worst …
It Takes a Thief (1994) by Coolio
I guess serious hip hop fans have strong feelings about Coolio, like he got too famous or something, or he’s not as talented as less famous rappers, or something. I don’t know anything about this and, frankly, I couldn’t care less. I hate arguments about whether or not someone is more authentic than someone else …
Regulate… G Funk Era (1994) by Warren G
Of all the hip hop I’ve managed to listen to to date, I’d say virtually all of it tries to at least partially match the music to the lyrics. What I mean by that is that, if the lyrics are about being a criminal, the music underlying the verses (not the choruses) is usually rough-edged, …
Power (1988) by Ice-T
Something seems to have happened within hip hop, between this record and the music that was everywhere during the 1990s (and everything that’s come since). To me, someone who doesn’t know hip hop at all, this sounds considerably older to me than N.W.A or Wu Tang, and even significantly older than Public Enemy. I think …
Eazy-Duz-It (1988) by Eazy-E
When I was younger and more of a music snob than I am now (still a snob, though), I used to dismiss singers who didn’t write their own songs as lacking talent. I’ve come to realize that’s pretty dumb, as most singers are not great songwriters and many if not most great songwriters are not …
Straight Outta Compton (1988) by N.W.A
Though I do not generally enjoy listening to Hip Hop, and still lack a frame of reference for most of it, if not all of it, I vowed to myself a few months ago that I would listen to more of it, at least to give myself some frame of reference – both for my …
AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990) by Ice Cube
What the hell do I do with this? Well, here goes…