Top 5: Hip Hop Concept Albums

Right, there hasn’t been a Top 5 on ruffhousing for a while and this particular one has always been a subject of lukewarm debate for us middle class white individuals – the Top 5 hip hop concept albums.

Now you could say all hip hop albums are concept albums of sort – the concept being guns and bitches. But then you’d probably be an utter cunt, having a slow, tearful wank whilst listening to The View… Over the years there have been some damn fine hip hop albums that have managed to hold down a ‘thought provoking’ concept over the length of a Long Player… here are my favourite/the best –


1. De La Soul – 3ft high and rising (Tommy Boy, 1989)



Now to be perfectly honest with you this isn’t a concept album at all, but every twat and his brother says it’s the first hip hop concept album. The reason for this is the loose radio station quiz theme that pops up between tracks but there isn’t a theme running through the tracks and not even a presenter to intro them. So basically it isn’t a concept album, right? Good! And anyway, too much as already been written about this album…

Well, what a start eh? I’ve just started a list of hip hop concept albums with an album that I don’t even consider to be one – oh how enigmatic of me…it doesn’t matter though as it forms a lovely link to the next one in the list, which is quite clearly the greatest hip hop concept album of all time…


2. Prince Paul – Prince Among Thieves (Tommy Boy, 1999)



Oh yes peeps! When it comes to ticking boxes of what makes a concept album this one ticks them all – what those boxes are though, I have no idea, but let’s just consider them ticked.

The album tells the story of Tariq (Breezly Brewin) and True (Big Sha). Tariq is trying to get a demo ready to show to the Wu and needs the cash to do it, so True helps him out with a slice of his hustle. But are his good deeds fuelled by a veiled jealousy? Oh the drama! Oh the suspense! Oh the beats! Yes yes, y’all, the beats are fucking killer! Prince Paul is an all time classic-hero-mega-producer in the same vein as Primo, Dr Dre etc, and even he out does himself here. There really isn’t a weak beat on the album. They all bounce like mad with the Prince’s own idiosyncratic style, and couple this with the insane cast he ropes in to assist it really is creamy boxers time (or sticky knickers time if you own a fanny). Notable cameo’s come from Everlast (who lays down as awesome verse as a racist bent cop), Big Daddy Kane (who plays the awesome pimp, Count Mackula, ‘If you got 36 prostitutes and 30 cents in yo pocket, what you got? Proof that ho’s come a-dime-a-dozen, baby’) and De La Soul (as a bunch of crackheads).

If you listen to any album that Prince Paul has been involved in you’ll know his (sometimes very annoying) love of skits and this album is where he gets all those funny little things off his chest in one big ball of absolutely peerless hip hop story telling phlegm – a stone cold certified classic!


3. The Goats – Tricks of the Shade (Ruff House, 1992)



‘The Goats? Who are they?’

‘Exactly!’

Well, for a start they aren’t Accrington bloody Stanley! They’re a quality hip hop group from Philly, comprising of a white boy, Latino and a Negro – and with a political bent to-boot! If you haven’t heard them imagine 3rd Bass spitting Public Enemy lyrics over DJ Muggs’ beats – tasty eh?

Tricks of the Shade is the better of their two albums and fortunately enough, for this list at least, happens to be a concept album. The record tells the story of Hanger Head and his big bro (Chicken Little) and their search for Uncle Scam, via Chris Columbus…basically it’s an allegory of how minorities have been fucked by white America from the country’s inception. The beats are sick and bass line driven with lots of nice horn stabs and live instrumentation and such (typical ’92 fayre). While the lyrics and flows are kept to a high standard throughout. This really is a little slept on classic and worthy of inclusion on any hip hop list.

The individual tracks don’t tell the story of the albums protagonists themselves, this is left to the skits, but most of them do cover the themes touched on in the story. In many ways this is a good thing because it allows individual tracks to function in isolation without feeling like unfinished pieces of a story. While also working as a cracking little concept album.

The album’s also on the Columbia subsidiary, Ruff House, which keeps it close to the hearts of the boys here at Ruffhousing…


4. Mr. Lif – I Phantom (Definitive Jux, 2002)



Hmm, Def Jux eh? The home of annoying, whingeing geek rap? Not so peeps and this album is one of several reasons why not; it’s also Mr. Lif’s best album to date.

Now Mr. Lif is an intelligent man, but you should hold that against him. He’s also got a few issues - modern life being one of them. In I Phantom he plays the role of a struggling MC and want-a-way father with a soulless office job. A role he handles with great aplomb.

The beats duties are mainly handled by El-P with contributions from Insight, Edan and Fakts One. This little cast does a great job of creating a dense yet bouncy atmosphere on the album – just what you’d expect from a Lif and El-P helmed project. The final track, ‘Post Mortem’, is definitely worthy of individual mention as it takes a look at the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, with guest verses from El-P, Jean Grae and Akrobatik.

Even if you don’t generally like Def Jux releases this album is definitely for checking out, as every about it oozes quality and thought.


5. MF Doom – MM Food (Rhymesayers, 2004)



MF Doom – totally surreal and totally badass. The bloke plays by his own roles – more albums a year than most MCs drop in a life time, and under more pseudonyms than there are species of oak (to none arborists, that’s a lot).

This was Mr Dumile’s first album under his MF Doom name since his classic debut, Operation: Doomsday! And although it isn’t in the same league as that it really is a little cracker…oh and if you haven’t already guessed the theme is food…

The first track is called ‘Beef Rapp’ which sets the pace for the rest of the album perfectly…lots of tongue twistingly, bizarre rhymes about food and drink over rugged, banging little beats. Other high lights are ‘One Beer’ and ‘Kon Karne’…mm tasty, oh and the quality single ‘Hoe Cakes’ – ‘Super!’

That is all…

Apart from this…


Honourable Mention: Smut Peddlers – Porn again (Rawkus, 2001)



It does exactly what it says on the tin…


Upon finishing this piece, it has come to my attention that all of these albums also have high quality art work.

That really is all.


STYLEZ OUT