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Remembering Hip-Hop’s Greatest Release Date

Okay, so it’s Tuesday and it hasn’t even occurred to you to go CD shopping, huh? You probably downloaded the latest T.I. album for free and thought, “Hmm, if this was better I’d think about investing the time to illegally downloading that Big Kuntry album too.” Truth is, hip hop wasn’t always this depressing.

In fact, 10 years ago, on September 29, 1998, members of the Complex staff stood on line at Tower Records because hip hop was sofa king hot that there were 5 highly anticipated albums from marquee acts all dropping at the same time and we had to have them all. It was like Kanye and 50’s totally totally hetero gladiator showdown last year, except even more manly. In honor of the anniversary, we decided to take a look back at the 5 landmark albums and see how they’ve held up a decade later…

#5: Brand Nubian The Foundation

First Week Sales: 24,983
Total Sales To Date: 183,229

What We Thought Then:

What We Think Now:

Okay, to be honest, even in 1998 the Brand Noobs had missed the window on anyone giving a fuck about their reunion with Grand Puba. The successive shit-sandwiches both factions deuced-out in ‘95—2000 and Everything Is Everything (which only holds distinction for featuring “In A Cipher” the sole posse cut Snaggletooth didn’t ruin)—had pretty much soured any of the remaining fans they had under 30. That said, this album was pretty dope. The greater accomplishment—for women, children and all else easily scared—was that his former bandmates managed to convince Grand Puba to put his sunglasses back on!

[Click Here To Buy It]

#4: Mos Def & Talib Kweli Black Star

First Week Sales: 25,974
Total Sales To Date: 326,065

What We Thought Then:

What We Think Now:

Backpack rap’s zeitgeist moment! Three or four years of bubbling NYC counter-culture came to a head in this underground rap masterpiece. We were so psyched, Stretch & Bob all-stars were getting played by Funk Flex. Awesome. Too bad when the full-length came we couldn’t help but compare it to Native Tongue masterpieces like Midnight Marauders and De La Soul Is Dead, and it measured up like Howard Stern next to John Holmes, if ya-da-dig? That said, 10 years of having white collegiate girlfriends and young suburban interns swear by its brilliance has forced us to re-examine Mos & Kweli’s indie opus. Any you know what… We still don’t love it. But we do appreciate its significance and the fact that lots of people do love it. And most importantly, without a Black Star, there never would’ve been a New Danger… (*LOL*)

[Click Here To Buy It]

#3: A Tribe Called Quest The Love Movement

First Week Sales: 174,835
Total Sales To Date: 703,950

What We Thought Then:

What We Think Now:

The swan song from our favorite group of all time. Ah, we can remember it now. Having been thoroughly disappointed by their “mature” fourth album, we were primed for a Tribe comeback. Unfortunately what we got was a hyperbolic expression of everything we hated about it’s predecessor: muted key noted, undistinguishable beats, infantile nursery raps, zero chemistry between band-mates, and unnecessary guests. It should’ve been called The Bowel Movement. Funny thing is, 12 years have cast a new light on Beats, Rhymes & Life as Tribe’s misunderstood moment of maturation, while The Love Movement remains a turd. A true royal flush.

[Click Here To Buy It]

#2: OutKast Aquemini

First Week Sales: 227,201
Total Sales To Date: 2,290,759

What We Thought Then:

What We Think Now:

When this bad boy dropped, OutKast was quietly becoming our new favorite group of all-time (RIP ATCQ), and this album absolutely solidified the transition. Plus, we couldn’t help but think that Andre’s verse on “Rosa Parks,” where he laments his “favorite group not coming with it,” was a direct allusion Q-Tip and band of Quest-ers. Anyhow, Aquemini was an amazing masterpiece and testament to the album format then and it still is today. Part of its brilliance was the transparent personal distance that had grown between Andre and Big Boi, despite their amazing musical synergy, and the stylistic juxtaposition it created. Which is why we wonder today why the fuck they can’t get back in the studio and make some more magic, since they already managed to bang out two classics while hating each other.

[Click Here To Buy It]

#1: Jay-Z In My Lifetime, Vol.2: Hard Knock Life

First Week Sales: 352,219
Total Sales To Date: 5,278,765

What We Thought Then:

What We Think Now:

It may be hard for those of you south of 25 to believe, but prior to this album’s release, Jay-Z was one of many good, but not revered, NY rappers. In fact, after his surprisingly good debut (which, unlike Illmatic, took about 5 years to enter into “top albums of all-time” convos), Jay fell flat with his reaching second LP. But Hov’s no dummy and he brought it back to the block with the Streets Is Watching DVD and soundtrack, and re-ignited the streets in 1998. Long story short, he dropped this synth driven drug-dealer masterpiece and it sounded like “The Best Of…,” yielding hit after hit after hit, vaulting himself to pole position, and basically changing the sound of hip hop beats (until 2001 when he decided to go back to samples with The Blueprint, and changed everyone’s taste in beats… again). It may not be our favorite Jay album, but it remains his highest selling, and it created a new dynamic between mainstream America and hip hop (*takes Jay’s balls out of mouth and returns to magazine editing*).

[Click Here To Buy It]