The 25 Best Underground Rap Albums Of All Time (Part 2)

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22. Zion I-True and Livin’

Released in 2005

Label: LiveUp Records

Anybody who listens to Zion I (Pronounced how it looks—Zion Eye) will tell you that they’ve been slept on for years, and you know what? Those people are right. Out of the seven albums they’ve released, at least five of those albums are certified classics. We could have considered any one of them. But we chose the Oakland duo’s third album, True and Livin’, because it’s their most balanced record to date. It’s also the album that was probably the group’s greatest chance of breaking out, as songs like “Soo Tall,” and “Temperature” (Featuring our number 23 hero, Talib Kweli) have serious commercial appeal. But alas, True and Livin’ never reached the audience that it deserved. Oh, well. The world ain’t ready for you, Zion I. Still!

Best track:  One Chance

21. Binary Star-Masters of the Universe

Released in 2000

Label: Subterraneous Records

Pretty much just a remixed version of their debut album, Waterworld, with a few extra tracks, Binary Star’s, Master of the Universe, is all killer and no filler. The rhymes are on point, of course, with “K.G.B” being a true stand-out track, and the beats are all over the place, creating esoteric, and yet, sometimes really smooth production. This Michigan duo sound like they practically LIVE underground, so you know when they come to the surface, they mean business. And this album’s is that business. Speak on it.

The 25 Best Underground Rap Albums Of All Time (Part one)

Hey, y'all. This article was originally supposed to be on Complex's website, but I guess it didn't fit their site. But why waste a good article? So here it is. Do your favorites make the cut?

Some people will tell you that underground rap is impossible to define since there are so many factors that go into it (Do you base it on how socially conscious it is, how independent it is, how unknown it is? What?). Well, we’ll agree that it’s hard to peg what exactly puts an album beneath the surface, but we wouldn’t say that it’s impossible. Really, as true blue fans of the genre, we just seem to know when an album is underground. These were the albums that backpackers used to rave about. They were the stuff of legend.

Today, pretty much all rappers who try to get famous on YouTube or get their music out there without any airplay or promotion could be considered underground, and more power to them. Maybe they too will one day have a classic album that will make a list like this. But these albums right here are the classics that you already know and love. Or maybe, you don’t know and love them. And that’s the great thing about underground music, you’re always hearing something new. So, without further ado…

25. Necro-Gory Days

Released in 2001

Label: Psychological Records

Perhaps the self-proclaimed master of the macabre’s most complete album, Gory Days, is definitely the best solo record Necro has ever released. It has the perfect mixture of hardcore porn and hardcore violence that fans of the rapper came to know and expect after his debut album, I Need Drugs, hit the scene. From its brutal beginning (“Bury You With Satan”) to its fitting end (“Morbid”), Necro covers everything from pimping to stealing a scalpel in a doctor’s office, to how to get rid of a dead body quickly. Necro kills it on every single track. As the rapper would say, “Die!”

Best track: Gory Days

(Image taken from: newsroom.mtv.com) 

24. Killah Priest-Heavy Mental

Released in 1998

Label: Geffen/MCA

Awash with religion and introspection is Wu-tang side member, Killah Priest’s debut album, Heavy Mental. What makes this album such a winner is the consistency and drive of Killah Priest’s purpose, which is to murder it lyrically and to also get his points across. This couldn’t be any clearer than on tracks like “One Step,” “Blessed Are Those,” and “Cross My Heart,” which all come one after the other in succession on this album. “One Step” even made it on MTV a few times. Thus was the power of the Wu-tang Clan back in the late 90s. They even made the underground recognizable to the general public.

 Best track: It's Over

(Image taken from: hip-hopalbum.blogspot.com)

23. Talib Kweli-Quality

Released in 2002

Label: Rawkus

You may think that Talib Kweli skirts the lines of being commercial and underground since he’s done tracks with Kanye West (The song “Get By” was actually a pretty big hit when it was first released), and Jay-Z has name-checked him a few times, but this is where we get back into the whole, backpacker phenomena. The album has generally been forgotten by the public, but fans of the underground still trumpet this decade year-old release for its eclectic track selection (“Shock Body” sounds nothing like the West Coast flavored, “Put it in the Air”), and stellar beats. It’s a certified classic, 

through and through. We still bump this today.

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Review: Wrath of the Titans [Blu-Ray]

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Review: The Stand

The Stand by Stephen King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I don't know if I'd recommend "The Stand." Considered to be the best work by King, from what I've read from him ("The Green Mile," "Carrie," and the entire "Dark Tower" series), I'd tend to disagree. For one thing, the book is far too long. I read the uncut edition, and in paperback form, it clocked in at over 1400 pages. That's ridiculous. And so much of the book seems overwritten. The council committee sections are especially trying. I just wanted the book to get through with those scenes and push on. It was tough to sit through and I feel most of it could have been left out. I was not a fan.

But my biggest problem is probably how it ends. It's very unsatisfying. I won't spoil anything, but after the big event that is the stand itself, it spends about 90 pages winding itself down and in a very unsatisfactory way. It's spent with characters I never really cared for in the first place, so it was a major drag. I hated it.

But for all its problems, it does have some shining moments. I mostly read this book because I was interested in Randall Flagg since he appears in "The Dark Tower" novels, and he didn't disappoint. In fact, there was SO much build-up, that that may have been my biggest complaint. The pay-off wasn't worth it. It would have been so much better if King kept to his promise of a stunning conclusion. But alas, he didn't, and that's what makes it a disappointing book. You read all those pages and get to know all those characters, and it just falls completely flat. What a bummer.

Overall, it's not a bad book, but far from what I would call his best. And that front cover shot of the grim reaper fighting Luke Skywalker (That's what it looks like, right?), just ignore it. Nothing in the book like that ever happens. If you want to get more perspective on "The Dark Tower," pick it up. But if you never even read "The Dark Tower," series, I would advise against it. It's just too long. Read something else.



View all my reviews

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