Yesterday, I was reading Meka Soul's blog on HipHopDX. It's basically about the besmirching of the word classic. Only in Hip Hop do cats throw the word classic around every 5-10 days with albums that are usually worth less then a "blowski" (word to Bol) from a chick with long teeth and gingivitis (sorry female readers of the blog). Here's how Dictionary.com defines a classic "an author or a literary work of the first rank, esp. one of demonstrably enduring quality." Suffice it to say that you can sub out "literary work" and add "album" for this context.
I'm going to go ahead and throw in my own two cents. A classic album is one that 9 out of 10 cats would consider to be damn near flawless--that means like one track that's booty and possibly a few annoying skits, but in all likelihood an album that's perfect. And yea, that one cat who doesn't agree with the other 9 is probably a down syn-baby--sorry to say. One person can't categorize an album a classic and it's just so. The streets have to proclaim it so and it remains so after years and years of bumpage. Also, for good measures the album has to change the way cats make music afterwards and not for a couple of months but for years to come. So, with that said it's time to quiet that talk about how you think so and so's album is a classic. If it ain't 3FeetSupremeReadyIllmatiReasonableChroniCriminal CubanEnterdaPaidinItTakesaMill and a select few others that shit ain't a classic. I hate to be the one who tells you younger guys but there hasn't been a classic in about 10-12 years...Yea, that long.
So here's the list of a few recent albums that are NOT classic.
College Dropout or Late Registration-I like Kanye West. I respect what he does but if you can hear a cat taking breaths in between bars then he's not ready to make a classic yet.
Hip Hop is Dead I haven't listened to this album in months and when I do I skip through alot of the tracks. When it came out, it was deemed a classic. Now, that the excitement has died down...Not so much. Most of yall yokels can agree this one is not a classic; another good album but not a classic. Couldn't hold the weed of Illmatic. Say I'm lyin'.
Lil Wayne-The Carter 1 or 2 I don't think this needs any explanation but okay, I'll go through it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Wayne fan but neither of these albums are classic just based upon the fact the album, persona and motif are a collage of pop culture icons and unhealthy male on male obsessions plus the whole fabled ghostwriting thing.
Food and Liquor I like Lupe's debut and it's certainly dope; possibly a near classic and defintely one of the more creative releases in recent Hip Hop history but not a classic. I get the concept of the album, but I don't think he uses much of that throughout the album. It's difficult deeming whether "I Gotcha" is either or where does "the Instrumental" fit in??? The individual tracks are dope but it just doesn't seem to come together as a whole for me. He should've released the leak but nevertheless, not a classic.
Be This is a hard one for me. I think most Com fans--including myself--just want to give dude his props a la Scorsese but I can't honestly agree that this album is better than Resurrection (a classic) or One Day It All Makes Sense (a near classic). I think alot of times when we hear our favorite emcees get laced with some decent beats we're like "yea, this is it." But, when you look at the subject content of Be, it's not as focused as the albums mentioned above.
Fishscale This is another difficult one for me. This was my favorite album of 06, but would you say it's Supreme Clientele??? Not, if you're smart. This may be as close as you can get to a classic in this era especially in the mainstream. After a couple of years this may be considered a classic but for now, I'm gonna have to say nope.
There's a few others that I can think of i.e. a few Talib albums but I think this should do for now as I know most of yall do not like scrolling down and reading this far down into a blog.
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