Outkast - Stankonia

Label: LaFace
Genre: Hip Hop
Year: 2000
Recommended by: Lauren Weidner

his album is so good. Again, the interludes in any album are useless and I hope never come back. If you want to put comedy out you can do it on so many different outlets now I hope that artist just take it to twitter or YouTube.

Nonetheless,  André 3000 and Big Boi bought their own studio and the result is that they have a different sound on each individual track. It keeps the album from having a consistency, but each is unique and wonderful in it's own right. "Ms. Jackson" was the biggest commercial success and "B.O.B." is the biggest critical success. The songs are amazingly different. "Ms. Jackson" sounds like an offspring from Prince and "B.O.B" (Bombs over Baghdad) sounds like Jimi Hendrix entered a rave.

The only issue is the music still seems misogynistic. There are tracks where it seems that they satirical take down the scene and they both have come out and said the impact that Hip Hop and the South have made in their interactions with women. That said, I love the song "We Luv Deez Hoez".  I'm just a hypocrit, so theirs that. 

Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City

Label: Top Dawg, Aftermath, Interscope
Year: 2012
Genre: Hip Hop
Recommending Person: Phillip Henry

Kendrick Lamar is the current hip hop artist that is always pointed to when ignorant people say that Rap is not music and is just 'crap'.

I've always thought that was silly, not because Kendrick Lamar isn't a talented musician, but those people won't look past the fact his biggest single is "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe". 

I love that Kendrick Lamar has a very unique sound that I imagine in 4 years time we will hear a lot of copies of Kendrick Lamar, with a lot of Reggie Watts-ish backing vocals with unique beats and well thought out lyrics and unconventional hooks. Many of the reviews compare this album to Aquemini or ATLiens from Outkast, but it's just too different for that to be true. I think that it will have a similar impact and I look forward to the next release from Lamar.

Childish Gambino - Because the Internet

Label: Glassnote
Year: 2013
Genre: Hip Hop
Recommending Person: Daniel Gould

Watch out for 'dat gif'. I was a bit disappointed by this album. I'm a big fan of Donald Glover's earlier albums and I think he is a very talented lyricist, although a bit overhyped because white kids can understand all the lyrics and can somewhat relate to everything that is said by the middle class raised Glover.

I think is the issue because I loved Royalty. That album is a discussion of the first kids of Black Royalty. There is a great interview with Hot 97's Peter Rosenberg where he talks intelligently about what Royalty meant and his beefs within the business. I'll attach that video down below.

I didn't love the beats created for this album and it was a bit too experimental for me. It seemed to effect the flow that I usually love the most in Childish Gambino records.