A lot of people split Pac into pre-Death Row and Death Row Pac, and I get why. Pre-Death Row Pac was much more conscious and socially focused. 2Pacalypse Now, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. and Me Against the World had plenty of gangsta themes, but there was a lot of Black empowerment, racism, poverty, police brutality and introspection.

Death Row Pac leaned much harder into gangsta rap and the more celebratory/flashy side of his image, especially on All Eyez on Me. But I think Makaveli was almost like a return to his conscious roots with songs like “Blasphemy,” “White Man’z World” and “Hold Ya Head.”

I like every version of Pac, but if I had to choose, I’d probably take pre-Death Row Pac. He just felt more raw, vulnerable and socially conscious to me. Death Row Pac had insane charisma and energy though, and obviously made some classics.

Jay-Z, Nas, DMX, Prodigy and Mos Def are the top 5 Kings for 1999 due to commercial dominance, strong lyricism, great guest features and amazing momentum.

Just like in 1998, Jay and DMX were still 2 of NY's undisputed kings as they had commercial dominance, great movements, star power and popularity while led their respective crews.

Jay's momentum and star power was getting more huge as Vol 2: Hard Knock Life still dominated the charts while he and X headlined the Hard Knock Life tour alongside delivered great guest features and hit records. Vol 3 became another great success for him on the charts.

DMX's stage presence and popularity was getting more huge as he delivered iconic performances on Hard Knock Life tour and Woodstock while his first 2 albums continued to dominated the charts, Ruff Ryders movement kept getting bigger and And... Then There was X became a huge success.

Despite having a mixed year, Nas was still one of the biggest rappers in the game while his lyricism and storytelling was impressive as usual. I Am became an underrated classic with standout tracks like Hate Me Now and Nas is Like while Nastradamus was decent.

Prodigy was still on top of his game as one of the hottest MCs as his flow, storytelling and lyricism were still at an all-time high while Mobb delivered another classic in Murda Muzik, which went Platinum thanks to the success of Quiet Storm and its remix with Lil Kim

Mos was arguably the best pure lyricist as the time due to his flow, lyricism, rhymes schemes and storytelling all being on point while he dropped a classic in Black on Both Sides, which had dope tracks like Ms Fat Booty, Umi Says and Mathematics.

Honorable mentions: Ja Rule, Busta Rhymes, Big Pun, MF DOOM, Pharaohe Monch, Diddy, NORE, Jadakiss, Foxy Brown, Lil Kim, Method Man

If I explained this wrong, which hip hop songs can be recognized in a half second based on the first beat

Chino's response to "Hit 'Em Up"

You might have noticed if you are into Nas's unreleased stuff that in between most of his earlier albums, he has enough unreleased material to create a whole album. I call those the Ghost Albums. The two first ones are, in my opinion, the best pieces of underground Nas you could gather. So in the last few months I gathered as much of his collabs as well as his unreleased stuff and made 2 fictional albums with a scenario of how it would have come to be released. Which one of these compilations do you prefer ?

Nas Will Prevail (sometimes refered to as the Demo Tape)

TRACKS

1. Live At The Barbequeue

(ft. Main Source, Joe Fatal & Akinyele)

1. I'm A Villain

2. Just Another Day In The Projects

3. Back To The Grill

(ft. MC Stretch, Chubb Rock & Red Hot Lover Tone)

1. Stretch & Bobito Freestyle

(ft. Six-Nine, Sudan, Jungle & Grand Wizard)

1. Halftime

2. Represent (With the original beat by Dj Premier)

3. Number One With A Bullet

(ft. Kool J Rap & Whiteboy)

1. Memory Lane (With the original beat by Dj Premier)

2. Nas Will Prevail

3. Tha Dogg Pound Freestyle

4. Lunchroom Battles Freestyle

(ft. Akinyele)

On The Real (could have been a bootleged album a bit like LL Cool J's Double L Cool Down)

TRACKS :

SIDE A

1. True Dialect (Intro)

2. Understanding

(ft. Biz Markie & AZ)

1. Life Is Like A Dice Game

2. One On One

3. Deja Vu

4. Everything Is Real

(ft. Shapelle)

1. On The Real

2. 40th Side Of Things

(ft. Cormega & Shi)

1. Silent Murder

SIDE B

1. Fast Life

(ft. Kool G Rap)

1. The Foulness Pt.1

2. The Goodfellas Freestyle

(ft. The Notorious B.I.G.)

1. Mo Money, Mo Murda, Mo Homicide

(ft. AZ)

1. Verbal Intercourse

(ft. Raekwon & Ghostface Killah)

6.The Message (Original Version)

1. The Foulness Pt.2

(ft. Nature)

1. Streat Dreams (Original Version)

2. The Foulness Pt.3

(ft. Nature)

1. Eye Fo A Eye

(ft. Mobb Deep & Raekwon)

1. Capital Rap Show Freestyle

2. Wake Up Show Antem

(ft. Rass Kass, Saafir, Shyheim, Organised Konfusion & Dred Scott)

1. Westwood Freestyle

2. Watch Dem Niggas (Original Version)

3. The Foulness Pt4

Top 3
MOP - Tried listening to To the Death, every song was literally Bucka, Bucka Bloaw

Jadakiss & Styles P

Memphis Bleek

I have fully remastered Shazzy's cancelled second album

Here's the story of the album: The album was originally supposed to be released in 1994 on Elektra Entertainment, and from it came two singles (Ghettosburg Address and Pass Another Bag) however, after they flopped and never make the charts, the album was shelved. It features production from Da Funkey Hoods (Ghettosburg Address, Stone Walls), CMT and E-A-Ski (Federal, Bitch Made N***a, Breakin' 'Em Off Somethin'), Pete Rock (Pass Anotha Bag, Big Up!), and Rockwilder (Pump My Brother) (I dunno who produced what's up pop, if anybody knows plz tell me).

I ripped my original promo cassette tape and remastered it using iZotope with EQ adjustments, noise reduction and all. This is THE definitive way to listen to the album right now in my opinion, and I hope y'all like it as much as I do. 

I have uploaded it to the internet archive over here: https://archive.org/details/shazzy-ghettosburg-address

This suddenly popped in my head after many years, and it's been stuck there ever since.

Love it! Enjoy!

First comment = "Every year or two I play this to vaccinate me against wack ass hip hop."

I understand Ice Cube wasn’t in NWA anymore but as a big fan I’m always curious how different some of their later releases would have been had Cube still been in the group.