Illmatic, Enter The Wu Tang, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, The Infamous, Reasonable Doubt, Ready To Die, Mecca And The Soul Brother, Tical, Lifestyles Ov Da Poor N Dangerous, Doe Or Die, The Low End Theory.

I’m hoping these albums strike some sort of chord with you. They should do. They form part of the 1990’s best hip-hop records ever released, never mind just East Coast. I’ve read countless blogs, Amazon lists, Wikipedia articles, Last.fm pages, magazines and books where these albums feature almost predictably on everyone’s  (mine included) “best of’s”, “albums to listen before you die” and “real hip-hop” playlists and no doubt will continue to as long as hip-hop remains in existence.

My point? What about those undeniable records of genius simply overshadowed by the above? The ones which fell victim not to the quality of the music itself, but merely the timing of its release. In an industry today where even the truly beautiful flowers are unable to rise above the magnitude of towering weeds, how impossible would it have been for such a flower to rise above a 100ft tree full in blossom? Put it this way, I wouldn’t have wanted my release date on April 19th 1994.

This is part one of an assortment of underrated hip-hop records from the 1990’s, carefully handpicked and selected for you by myself. → Continue Reading Sleeping With Open Eyes: Part 1

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