Cosmo Baker – one of the guys who put together the excellent History of Hip Hop series here on this site – went on record with a long ass facebook post, which sparked some conversation to say the least. It’s just something these favourite lists do, because people keep arguing about taste. Cosmo has strong opinions on why one album made his list and another one doesn’t, so we wanted to give his list some room to breath and the audiovisual help a facebook post lacks.
On the following pages, we revisit his Favourite Rap Albums since 2000 and play three of our favourite tracks of each album… Enjoy!
So with no further adue, enter Cosmo Baker:
WHAT ARE MY FAVORITE RAP ALBUMS SINCE 2000? Glad you asked… This is like my Top Ten, with the honorable mentions at the bottom, and although they’re not in any particular order I’ll tell you why I chose these first ten for my favorites. Bear in mind these are my personal opinions as someone who’s has been listening to rap music their entire life, who understands music pretty well, and who has been an active DJ during this entire era. Also understand that the art of the album is dying so a big consideration to me was looking at these albums for what they were – complete works. There were a lot of other records out there that really could have don it but maybe they were too long meandering along with 22+ songs and shit. Or maybe they were so special guest feature ridden that they felt more like compilations than specific visions of an artist. Also, time changes, sounds change, music changes and tastes changes. A lot of stuff that I swore I would consider classics back in the day just didn’t stand the test of time when I revisited them. So all in all, the records below are the ones that I feel are the high-watermark of rap music in the last 13 years. Again, this is just my opinion, and I am sure that I must have forgotten and would love to add, but this list is something that I am going stick to.
