The Most Creative Hip Hop Albums

I’m very passionate when it comes to hip hop. At times I’m its biggest advocate, and others the biggest apologist. Most of the hip hop that is played on the radio embarrasses me. That isn’t true hip hop in my opinion, it is no different than Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus. It’s pop music. Lost in the shuffle of throw-away singles and one-hit wonders are some of the most creative artists, songs, and albums of any genre. I want to discuss some of the most creative hip hop albums of all time. On top of having great production and lyrics, all of them tell a story from beginning to end.

Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030

Deltron

Deltron 3030 was a hip hop supergroup composed of Del the Funkee Homosapien, Dan the Automator, and DJ Kid Koala. The album takes place in a dystopian future, the year 3030 to be exact. The story follows Deltron Zero, the hero, fighting against an oppressive government and gigantic corporations that control everything. The production by Dan the Automator is operatic, while still maintaining the rhythm that makes hip hop great. Del’s rhyming over the eerie, futuristic beats flows like water. Rumors have long circulated of a sequel to this album with updates coming every so often, but it has yet to surface. [Buy Now] Read more

Live Fast, Die Young

13 years ago today, at the age of 25, Tupac Amaru Shakur passed away after being shot six days earlier in Las Vegas. He was a talented musician, poet, and actor and will forever be missed. Rest in peace Tupac.

[audio:http://pieceofshep.com/audio/08-2Pac-So-Many-Tears.mp3]
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Bat for Lashes Saved My Life

The band Bat for Lashes saved my life this morning. No, really. Let me explain. It all started last night while reading Questlove’s tweets. Questlove is the drummer for The Roots. If you don’t know The Roots, they are a fantastic band and also the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Bat for Lashes was a guest last night on Late Night, which is why Questlove was tweeting about them. He said how good they were, so I purchased their album last night.

Fast forward to this morning. I wanted to listen to my newly purchased album on the way to work. Normally I listen to hip hop or 90’s alt-rock on my way to work in the morning, and usually at a fairly high volume. Since I decided to go with Bat for Lashes, a relatively chill band, the volume was not up too high. This is what saved my life. I was driving down highway 94, like I do every morning, and I come to the intersection at Harvester and 94. Shortly before I reach the intersection I notice the car in the left lane was not moving. Normally I would have thought the driver was having car troubles and kept on through the intersection. Normally I would have been listening to the music loud enough that I would not have heard the St. Charles County Sheriff’s sirens going off as he comes speeding through the intersection. But I was listening to Bat for Lashes. So I did hear the sirens, I did stop in time, and I did avoid running directly into a Sheriff’s car at 55 mph. My life was saved because of what was playing in my car this morning.

While I didn’t collide head-on with another car, I did almost get hit from behind. The person behind me was not as observant as I was and almost plowed right into the back of me at 55 mph. Luckily he was able to slow and swerve and avoid hitting me. It was scary seeing him miss me by inches and wind up along side of me. Two catastrophes were avoided this morning and Bat for Lashes saved my life. Nothing like a near-death experience to wake you up in the morning.

Music Goes Viral

We have seen movies and television use the tactic of viral marketing a bunch over the past couple years. The TV show LOST has had commercials for the fictional airline Oceanic and there was even a Mr. Clucks commercial with Hurley. Movies such as the Dark Knight have gone to great lengths to get people interested long before the release of the film. People were sent the Gotham Times newspaper with articles made to look real and even featuring advertising for Gotham businesses. There were websites for the Bank of Gotham and Gotham News Network. There was even an elaborate scavenger hunt in various cities and fans had to keep going to find the next clue. Finally, the use of viral marketing has made its way into music, but not by who you’d think.

Viral marketing has made it’s way to independent hip hop label QN5. They are employing the technique for their release Chico and the Man, a duo composed of emcee Tonedeff and producer Kno (of CunninLynguists fame). What’s interesting is that an independent label would go the viral route first, and not a major label with unlimited supply of resources. This goes to show you the power of the internet and social media sites.

So what do we know about this album? There’s not much. Everything that has been found has been by the dedicated fan base working hard at finding any sort of possible information, making guesses, and taking leaps. Only a few clues have been released, but let’s take a look at the clues that were given, how they were given, and the resulting news. All the clues have appeared on the Chico and the Man Twitter account.

Before we look at the clues given, I should point out that the Twitter account background is a clue in itself. If you look at the background file name you see that it’s called fulgenciobatista01011959. Fulgencio Batista was a Cuban dictator, and 0101959 = January 1st, 1959. On that date, Batista was forced out of the country by Castro’s revolution. Could the History of Cuba be one of the topics. There is also the line catm: work for it. twitter is the key. commented out in the code.

Clue number 1: waiting to breathe
No one is sure what this means quite yet. It may be the title of the album or a title of the track off the album.

Clue number 2: love keeps the stars in the firmament and imposes rhythm on the ocean tides – maya angelou
The rest of the poem is as follows:

“Love builds up the broken wall
and straightens the crooked path.
Love keeps the stars in the firmament
and imposes rhythm on the ocean tides,
each of us is created of it
and I suspect
each of us was created for it!”

It seems that the ocean is a major theme for this album, but what does it all mean?

Clue number 3:_fanned by a _pale mist the heart _flutters
There is a lot of speculation on what this one means, what the underscore means, etc. Far too much for me to reprint here, but read what fans have to say.

Clue number 4:18/5/1/3/8/ 23/8/9/20/5 13/1/18/9/16/15/19/1
This turns out to be code for Reach White Mariposa. What does this mean? Well, fans have found White Mariposa. Again, there’s a lot of clues here. Could the tagline “Su Amigo Para más de 45 Años.” mean anything for the album? What about the image titles. The logo is punto4. Point 4. Also, if you call the number, it is for this fake business described on the page, but the message is in Spanish. So if you want to translate an audio message that would help the fans out a great deal.

Your’s truly found the next bit of information. Commented out in the code is cada punto confirma el último. Translated that means “each point confirms the last.” That takes us to…

Clue number 5: cada punto confirma el último
It seems we are on the right track.

There is a lot of information that I have not posted, from meaning of butterflies to speculation on the initials HCK. It is all very fascinating. If you want to play along and love riddles, someone has made a thread to catch everyone up with what we know so far.

I’m excited about this use of marketing. This is definitely innovative. QN5, like one of their slogans says, is always 5 steps ahead of the game.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

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Today marks the releases of another QN5 gem. I’m talking of Mr. SOS’s How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb album.

From QN5.com, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (named after the Stanley Kubrick film) is an amalgam of every bit of darkness and light in the life of SOS and how he is influenced by the world. The album, released by independent powerhouse label QN5 will feature production by Tonedeff, the UK’s Quincey Tones, The BeatChefs, as well as Mr. SOS himself, continuing the progression of cleverly mixing traditional backbeats with abstract production and pensive content. When asked why he chose the title, he simply states, “because the movie is about the end of the world and so is my album.”

I’ve had this album for a week now and it is fantastic.  QN5’s ability to put out great hip hop, release after release, never ceases to amaze me.  Their albums are always killer with no filler.  Please support the artists who make true hip hop.  Please pick up this album today!

BUY DIGITAL @ [iTUNES] | [AMAZON]

BUY PHYSICAL @ [FAT BEATS] | [UGHH] | [SANDBOXAUTOMATIC]

Listen to Bionic (produced by Tonedeff) below.