The New Jack Hip Hop Awards Album Hall of Fame

The Album Hall of Fame is where we honor our best and our most significant albums. Like all awards in the New Jack Hip Hop Awards, albums are not nominated by committee, but by the voters, who also induct them in. See also The Hall of Fame.

1994
It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
by
Public Enemy
What can I say about this album? There was no question that it would be our first inductee into the Album Hall of Fame.
Released in 1988, It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was Public Enemy's second album. Perhaps the brightest star in what is often seen as Hip Hop's golden era, Nations is regarded by many to be the best Hip Hop effort of all time.
This album featured Rick Rubin as executive producer. Rubin is a name well known to fans of hardish rock. Perhaps with that as partial inspiration, The Bomb Squad produced a hard core sound that has been imitated but never quite matched. It was a sound you "could turn off, but you couldn't tune out."
Aside from its original sound and arrangement, Nations featured hard-hitting and biting lyrics. Public Enemy's in-your-face attitude and no-nonsense message influenced a many of their contemporaries and for a brief time spearheaded a series of Hip Hop albums that were both self-reflective and politically-minded.

1995
Criminal Minded
by
Boogie Down Productions

Criminal Minded was the first release by KRS-ONE's Boogie Down Productions. It is a hip hop standard, with Dj Scott La Rock typifying the sparse beats and lyrical manipulations of the mid-80s New York Hip Hop culture.
This album gave us many classics, including "The Bridge is Over," "South Bronx" and "9mm Goes Bang." Many of these tracks are still sampled. Criminal Minded has been recently re-released (as of this writing) and is again widely available.

1996
Paid in Full
by
Eric B and Rakim
When headz start arguing that It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back is not the best album of all time, it's usually because they have Paid in Full in mind.
Rakim's laid back delivery on Paid in Full has lead many to conclude that he was simply one of the best lyricists to ever grab a mic. In an era where giants strode across the Hip Hop landscape, Paid stands above them. A Hall of Fame that went long without Paid in Full would be an empty one.

I hold the microphone like a grudge
Rakim

1997
The Low End Theory
by
A Tribe Called Quest
When The Low End Theory first hit the shelves way, way, way back in the day, I was ambivalent. It was getting mad props amongst my friends, but I was sure I wouldn't like it. So I let time pass. Eventually, I sat down to give it a listen.
Three listens later, I realized that it was one of the best things I'd ever heard.
There is no doubt that A Tribe Called Quest (made up of Q-Tip, Phife, Ali and Jarobi) are an influential group, and still an active force as of this writing. There is also no doubt that The Low End Theory is the major reason that they've been so influential. They may have grown and changed over the years, but Theory will remain their signature album as much as It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back defines Public Enemy.
The Low End Theory features their characteristic jazzy production style and their easy give-and-go lyrical steak. Both Q-Tip and Phife produce some of their best lyrics for this album, producing classic singles from "Excursions" and "Butter" to "Check The Rhime" and the popular "Scenario."
In short, it's a classic album.

1998
3 Feet High and Rising
by
De La Soul
Now I remember when Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back hit the streets. After a week or so, I just knew that hip hop would never be the same again. It took me a bit longer to realize the importance of De La Soul's debut effort 3 Feet High and Rising but (dare I say it?) it changed everything.
From the liner notes we discovered who they were: Trugouy The Dove (loves yogurt, inventor of the De La Haircut(c), has tendency to speak elizabethan); Posdnuos (eats twizzlers, inventor of the Mad Face(c), needs to take stress tabs); and P.A. Pasemaster Mase (favorite food and beverage is ketchup, believer in safe violence, shoots blanks in gun, utilizes the Spock touch).
3 Feet High and Rising was nothing like the efforts of Public Enemy... or Eric B and Rakim... or certainly not N.W.A and those folks. Their stuff was like, well, nobody's, not even their Native Tongue friends and fellow artists ATCQ and the JBs. The album is riddled with obscure samples, in jokes, odd topics and ridiculous skits.
But it was also riddled with phat sounds and phat rhymes. Even ten years later, the stuff sounds good. I might not have thought that "Daisy Age" or "Me, Myself and I" would have sounded funky this long after college, but they really do.
3 Feet High and Rising is important because of what it helped to usher in, but it remains a classic because, frankly, it's still phat.

Charles Isbell

isbell@isbell.org

Some of you are homeboys, but only I am The Homeboy From hell

1994	It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back by Public Enemy	What can I say about this album? There was no question that it would be our first inductee into the Album Hall of Fame. Released in 1988, It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was Public Enemy's second album. Perhaps the brightest star in what is often seen as Hip Hop's golden era, Nations is regarded by many to be the best Hip Hop effort of all time. This album featured Rick Rubin as executive producer. Rubin is a name well known to fans of hardish rock. Perhaps with that as partial inspiration, The Bomb Squad produced a hard core sound that has been imitated but never quite matched. It was a sound you "could turn off, but you couldn't tune out." Aside from its original sound and arrangement, Nations featured hard-hitting and biting lyrics. Public Enemy's in-your-face attitude and no-nonsense message influenced a many of their contemporaries and for a brief time spearheaded a series of Hip Hop albums that were both self-reflective and politically-minded.

1995	Criminal Minded by Boogie Down Productions	Criminal Minded was the first release by KRS-ONE's Boogie Down Productions. It is a hip hop standard, with Dj Scott La Rock typifying the sparse beats and lyrical manipulations of the mid-80s New York Hip Hop culture. This album gave us many classics, including "The Bridge is Over," "South Bronx" and "9mm Goes Bang." Many of these tracks are still sampled. Criminal Minded has been recently re-released (as of this writing) and is again widely available.

1996	Paid in Full by Eric B and Rakim	When headz start arguing that It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back is not the best album of all time, it's usually because they have Paid in Full in mind. Rakim's laid back delivery on Paid in Full has lead many to conclude that he was simply one of the best lyricists to ever grab a mic. In an era where giants strode across the Hip Hop landscape, Paid stands above them. A Hall of Fame that went long without Paid in Full would be an empty one. I hold the microphone like a grudge Rakim

1997	The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest	When The Low End Theory first hit the shelves way, way, way back in the day, I was ambivalent. It was getting mad props amongst my friends, but I was sure I wouldn't like it. So I let time pass. Eventually, I sat down to give it a listen. Three listens later, I realized that it was one of the best things I'd ever heard. There is no doubt that A Tribe Called Quest (made up of Q-Tip, Phife, Ali and Jarobi) are an influential group, and still an active force as of this writing. There is also no doubt that The Low End Theory is the major reason that they've been so influential. They may have grown and changed over the years, but Theory will remain their signature album as much as It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back defines Public Enemy. The Low End Theory features their characteristic jazzy production style and their easy give-and-go lyrical steak. Both Q-Tip and Phife produce some of their best lyrics for this album, producing classic singles from "Excursions" and "Butter" to "Check The Rhime" and the popular "Scenario." In short, it's a classic album.

1998	3 Feet High and Rising by De La Soul	Now I remember when Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back hit the streets. After a week or so, I just knew that hip hop would never be the same again. It took me a bit longer to realize the importance of De La Soul's debut effort 3 Feet High and Rising but (dare I say it?) it changed everything. From the liner notes we discovered who they were: Trugouy The Dove (loves yogurt, inventor of the De La Haircut(c), has tendency to speak elizabethan); Posdnuos (eats twizzlers, inventor of the Mad Face(c), needs to take stress tabs); and P.A. Pasemaster Mase (favorite food and beverage is ketchup, believer in safe violence, shoots blanks in gun, utilizes the Spock touch). 3 Feet High and Rising was nothing like the efforts of Public Enemy... or Eric B and Rakim... or certainly not N.W.A and those folks. Their stuff was like, well, nobody's, not even their Native Tongue friends and fellow artists ATCQ and the JBs. The album is riddled with obscure samples, in jokes, odd topics and ridiculous skits. But it was also riddled with phat sounds and phat rhymes. Even ten years later, the stuff sounds good. I might not have thought that "Daisy Age" or "Me, Myself and I" would have sounded funky this long after college, but they really do. 3 Feet High and Rising is important because of what it helped to usher in, but it remains a classic because, frankly, it's still phat.