A$AP Yams' 42 Favorite Albums

A$AP Yams is one of the masterminds behind the A$AP empire, which also includes notable figures like current Complex cover star A$AP Rocky, and fashion maven A$AP Bari. One of Yams' most valued contributions to the clique is his input on their music, and with the type of knowledge and love for hip-hop that Yams has, it's easy to see why his opinion matters so much.

Last week, we spoke to Yams about his favorite albums. Over a two-hour conversation, his list ballooned to 42 significant rap releases, and he had epic stories to go with each assessment of every chosen record's impact on his life. From Ice Cube to Lil Boosie, these are the LPs that A$AP Yams considers the cream of the crop.

As told to Ernest Baker (@newbornrodeo)

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Label: Priority

A$AP Yams: “It really just opened my mind to the whole revolutionary rap. I wasn’t really big on that shit back in the day, but I really fuck with it, and the way Cube did it like with the gangster shit, and it sounded right, you feel me? It was just, like that shit make me want to go the police station after that, you feel me? It just gets you hyped up. It was really just going off on that whole album. Like, ‘Fuck it. I’m young, I’m getting money, I’m out here. Fuck America.’ 

“On top of that, it really opens your eyes to the problems we really have in America with white folks and the minorities as well. All that shit. He was just touching on a lot of stuff motherfuckers weren’t touching at that time.”

Label: Loud/RCA/BMG Records

A$AP Yams: “That was just... It was dope to me, cause with Raekwon and Jay and AZ and Nas, they was giving you that mafioso music that you could bump in your Lexus, Mobb Deep was giving you that music that you could bump in your Saab. I mean that shit was stick up kid music for real, like when I first listened to it, I was dead broke. It made me appreciate—it makes you appreciate the little things in life, you know what I’m saying? You don’t have to drink a Cristal bottle to listen to this kind of music. You could get your little pint of Henny, you know what I’m saying? Get right with your little army jacket on, you know what I’m saying? The corner one time.

“That type of shit, you feel me? The little hood shit that made New York it’s culture. Like everything is rapped about, you know what I’m saying? Motherfuckers ain’t really know about, and Mobb Deep gave you that slang. Like early 2000s, like I was calling everybody ‘son’ back in the day. Like, ‘Yo what up son,  what up kicko?’ Like, I really took a license to all the Queensbridge slang and shit. You know, everybody did at that time. That’s what made The Infamous one of the dopest albums.”

Label: Loud/RCA/BMG

A$AP Yams: “I was too young to really appreciate that motherfucker—that was 95. I remember 36 Chambers in 95—that shit scared the shit out of me. My perception of Wu-Tang at first, the motherfuckers that I looked up to, that was the stars to me, my personal favorites growing up, was Old Dirty and Meth. So I actually really studied the motherfucker, and went through the catalog, and found Ghost and Rae.

“On Cuban Linx, Rae was just painting such a vivid picture of just whatever was going on in his head at the time. He was the first drug-lord rapper. He set the standard for guys like Ross—nah, fuck Ross, fuck Ross. Nevermind that. He set the standard for Jay with Reasonable Doubt, for Big with Life After Death, and Nas It Was Written. Rae came out with that shit, and everybody was on their mafioso shit after that, and everybody was doing their little suits and shit like that. Rae was really the first one to really do it like that.

“That whole album was just, you really—I still listen to that album to this day, and there’s shit that goes over my head, that I didn’t catch like the first 100 times I listen to it. Cause it’s just like back-to-back. Jam after jam. You really got to sit down and play that motherfucker. You really have to sit down and grasp the shit. People think that Wu-Tang be talking this crazy slang, this crazy karate shit, with samurai warriors and all this shit, but they’re talking that cold from church, that street shit! You know what I’m saying? Nah mean? This wasn’t some shit that scientists could figure out, you can’t sit there and try and decode the motherfucker. It was slang and street shit. Talking about ravioli bags and shit like that. It ain’t that hard to figure out.

“He just made it ill. That whole New York. To me, he gave New York that whole style as far as fashion shit. The rugged Timb boots and Carhart shit. The Wallabees with the Cuban on. He was a big dude walking around with a silk shirt on un-buttoned, with a headband on. With the windbreaker pants all the way up and shit. Like, ‘Woah, hold up. You out here doing it. It’s 88 right now, you gotta chill.’ That shit is just ill and shit.”

Label: Def Jam, Jam Master Jay

A$AP Yams: “That album was like, every time I listen to that album I be getting so turnt up, it make me want to get a bally. I be wanting to get a bally after I listen to that album. It was just such a—same thing applies to Flockaveli—it was just necessary at that time to have that. Like that aggressive content. Even during that time, if I’m being serious, everybody was on they smooth like, ‘Oh, whatever, get money, we need elections and all that shit,’ and them motherfuckers coming through slam-dancing all crazy and all types of crazy shit. Feel me? That album was very important for that time, and I definitely put it up there.”

Label: Jive

A$AP Yams: “Ridin' Dirty made me fucking appreciate southern rap. Cause they was rapping about some real shit. And real shit, you know what I mean, no matter where you from, you always going to appreciate some real shit coming from somebody’s mouth, pause. You know what I’m saying? I think Jay-Z even made a reference to it on The Blueprint album. On top of that, he was the first motherfucker to throw them on a record—a New York motherfucker— that I know of. I may be wrong about that. If a motherfucker like Jay could appreciate what UGK did, then who is a serious rap to say different?

“He pays attention to lyrics, like one of Jay-Z’s favorites is ‘Out of This World’. Which a lot of people, a lot of people, I think goes over their heads and shit like that, when it comes to Rocky. On, ‘Rocky can’t rap.’ Listen to ‘Out of This World,’ cause Jay definitely appreciates that motherfucker too. Shout out to Pharrell too, that’s for real.

“UGK, that was definitely a dope ass album. I think Pimp C, one of the most greatest producers, but he could sing his ass off too. I think he can sing better than all of these motherfuckers out right now.”

Label: Death Row, Interscope

A$AP Yams: “That album was so ill cause everything on it, he wasn’t just rapping. He was making a point, and he was making a point at somebody, and he was rapping about real shit on it. Throwing shots. That shit was like, ‘Okay, this is no longer rap.’ You got to chill now. This is that real street shit you got going on. That whole album was a letter—a very angry letter—to a lot of people. I think Johnny Jin, from Death Row Records, to me is one of the dopest producers, like that whole album sounds timeless. You can throw that whole album on at any point in time, and it’ll sound indistinguishable from what’s out at that point in time. I’ll definitely throw at up as my favorite Pac album.”

Label: Bad Boy

A$AP Yams: “It took, you know, post-Big’s and post-Pac’s death, it took everything to the next level as far as the east coast. It was kind of a void to be filled in and shit like that. And nobody knew where it was going, and nobody expected Puff to be the one to take it to the next level as well. Just the whole cohesiveness between Diddy, Black Rob—pardon me—Puffy, Black Rob, The Lox, Ma$e and shit. It was just constantly coming right after the next one, and constant bangers, and it was always on the radio. It was all we heard on the radio. You know what I’m saying?

“And the fact that Puff took joints from the 80s, and made them super-fly—some super-fly, ghetto fabulous shit out of it, where it wasn’t too pop, but it was good enough to be on the pop stations, but it was still some, you know, fly hard shit.”

Label: Aftermath/Interscope/MCA

A$AP Yams: “Oh man, I’m going to come clean. I love, even back then, I love the The Firm for some reason. That was my shit back in the day. Actually, it was what, November '97 or some shit like that. I remember that, you know I couldn’t buy parental advisory at the time. My momma was up on game and shit like that, she wasn’t playing with that shit.

“I used to be in after school back in the days, and for Christmas, my counselor—he was a dope motherfucker, shout-out to the homie one time—he bought me The Firm album for Christmas. I used to hide that motherfucker under my bed and shit like that.

“The Firm, to me, man they got so much swag back in the days man, it’s so fucked up. Listening to it now, I think besides like two records: besides like the Foxy record and fucking somebody else, pause, and this other record, I think it’s called ‘Firm All-Stars,’ every record on that album is raw as fuck. It was jiggy rapping, but they had motherfuckers really spitting they ass off. You had Nas, you had AZ, you had Half-A-Mill, you know what I’m saying? They was raw, you know, they was about dropping the fight on the tracks, and the fact that they mixed it up with the jiggy rap and you know what I mean, they gave you the fly music with Dre’s beats and shit like that. I think it was a dope ass combination, and in retrospect, I think a lot of people be able to appreciate the album more than they did back in the day.”

Label: Draper Inc. Records

A$AP Yams: “I think a slept on album that everybody should listen to is MJG debut solo album called No More Glory. It came out in 97. The only reason I remember that motherfucker is he had a video with Stacey Dash, and Stacey Dash was his love interest in that motherfucker. I’m like, ‘Oh, MJG is out here!’ But that album is just so dope, cause he went away from his normal 808s and samples and soul music and 70s and some black exploitation films, and rapping about the pimp shit. That kind sits on the Organized Noize sound a little bit more, where he was a little more self-conscious and shit like that. I think MJG is one of the most slept on rappers of all time. For real, like.

“I didn’t listen to that album till like, I would say 2004, cause I still remember the songs from back in the day, he had that, he had the Stacey Dash video, and I think they remade the cameo joint, where they was riding around in the Cadillac, just like ‘Candy’ joint. That was my early memories of 8Ball and MJG. But that was definitely a dope ass album as far as southern far albums are concerned.”

Label: Bad Boy Records

A$AP Yams: “As far as impact, yeah. But Harlem World, you know it has it’s whole... Harlem World it has just as good bad records as it has good records. It wasn’t no balance in it. It was really cheesy fucking records or really, really good records.

“It was everything. Not only that, but we used to see him around the way. That’s what’s up about it. He’ll be at the park, or a BBQ or something like that, and then you’ll see him on TV and shit like that, or the radio. It just molded the whole soundscape uptown. Uptown definitely had the sound back then, as far as like, digging in the crates and shit, you know what I’m saying? You was either in the buckwild beat, or some kind of new jack swing. It kind of really elevated the sound for what, you know, uptown, the Bronx, and Harlem was supposed to sound like. And it really broadened the jiggy era of rap music too.”

Label: Bad Boy

A$AP Yams: “I started getting into rap right after Life After Death came out. One of the first records I heard was on the radio was 112 ‘Only You’ with Big, and ‘Hypnotized.’ That motivated me to buy the album. It was cool when I first heard it—it was good, but then the retro standards years later, that album sounds so ill. It took him two discs to do—he did two discs—not only that, but he was experimental with different producers, doing boom-bap.

“The way you set trends, the trendsetter is always going to have a good quality product. When motherfuckers follow that product, they probably won’t be as successful as the trendsetter, you feel me? It’s not going to work for them, but thankfully it worked for Big. The fact that he was rapping like Bone Thugs. I ain’t going to say he smashed them, he did but on the low. It would be a lot of New York bias. A lot of motherfuckers say they cut the record off after Big’s verse and shit, but I’m like, ‘Hold up, my man Bizzy went in too, chill.’

“The ‘Going Back To Cali’ record like, that album was just a really great body of work that’s timeless. It’s going to be just as timeless as any of Tupac’s records and shit like that. I still listen to that shit to this day. There’s a record on that album for every mood and every occasion, you feel me?”

Label: Flipmode Records/Elektra Records

A$AP Yams: “When Disaster Strikes was ill because Busta was animated as fuck. You couldn’t hate Busta. All his videos are just entertaining as fuck. He dressed up as an old Asian dude or white dude. Anything to keep the crowd’s attention, and keep them at awe. Nah saying? ‘Where My Eyes Could See’ and ‘Dangerous’ and shit like that, those were just all really dope singles and shit. Like Busta’s not only underappreciated albums, but I think he belongs there. He has enough quality albums and one of the best live shows in hip-hop ever.”

Label: Cash Money

A$AP Yams: “I think growing up, everybody fucked with Cash Money. Everybody especially in my age bracket, they fuck with Wayne the most, because he was the youngest, and they would relate to him the most. I remember he dropped this shit, and it was on some whole, like next level shit, cause aside from that, everybody knew him from his very on ‘Back That Ass Up.’ Like the general population, you know what I’m saying? Not the hardcore fans. They knew him for the, ‘drop it like it’s hot, drop it like it’s hot.’

“But when he dropped his album, he dropped a full body of work, and it really just captivated a lot of people. It did it’s numbers and got it’s fans. That’s one album that was definitely the best for a good five months. Straight, I was in 6th grade, and I jammed that motherfucker like a motherfucker.”

Label: No Limit, Priority

A$AP Yams: “That was really like my first introduction to like southern rap and shit like that. I thought it was just so dope. What really caught my attention was P, he remixed Aayliah’s ‘If Your Girl Only Knew,’ remade the beat, and had Mia x singing on that motherfucker on some gangsta shit. Like, that shit was so crazy to me like, you’re making R&B songs off some real dope-boy shit, and just hearing that was like, ‘Woah, hold up. This shit is crazy right now.’ That was the first No Limit album I ever listened to in my life, surprisingly not Ghetto D and shit like that.”

Label: Def Jam

A$AP Yams: “N.O.R.E. is probably my memory of the summer of '98. Cause it was the whole album was... Forget that, he was the first motherfucker fucking with The Neptunes. I heard stories about that whole situation, cause Rocky’s manager, Geno Cash, used to actually work, work on that album. I know the whole story behind ‘Superthug,’ I know all that shit. It’ll fuck your mind.

“That album was the whole soundtrack in '98. Everybody fucked with that album. I think Nore was so—to me, I look at Nore, as like the East Coast Young Jeezy, if that makes sense. He came at a time where motherfuckers were rapping they ass off, and Nore would just come and say some like, whatever, ‘I put a bogey out in your face.’ Nah mean? He rapping about selling drugs and shit like that, but from a more simple standpoint, where he wasn’t rapping his ass off or crazy, but it was still dope, cause he was saying some of the illest shit.

“That was Nore’s best quality, was he knew his style so well, he knew his style so personally well, that he didn’t have to worry about being the best rapper, you know what I’m saying? He chose the perfect beats, the perfect beat features to compliment his style the best, and make his product sound just great. To where nobody even complained about him not being the rapper out, or being super-lyrical, which was a really important quality to have back in the days of rapping.”

Label: Terror Squad/Loud Records

A$AP Yams: “Capital Punishment, aw man. I swear, that shit, I’ma come clean like. I’ma come so clean, I had never told nobody this shit. When Pun dropped, I’ma come clean, I’m half-Dominican and Puerto Rican. When Pun dropped, I was so proud to be Puerto Rican, I ain’t even tell motherfuckers that I was Domincan. I would just come up, ‘Yeah, I’m full Puerto Rican. For real, for real.’

“What made Pun so ill was, I don’t give a fuck about what nobody say, every Pun record—this was 98, so everybody was on a record with each other—every Pun song, he shitted on everybody! Every great you could think of. Every great. Nah saying? Nas, Jada—he bodied everybody. He bodied everybody on records. This is just personal opinion. I ain’t going nah mean, not trying to rattle the cage or nothing like that, but had Pun been on a track with Jay and Big, I put my money on Pun.

“He definitely like wanted to get his point across. I’m not saying, people have twisted it sometimes—I’m not saying that Pun would’ve gotten as big. Motherfuckers try and move that side of me, like, ‘Hold up. Nah, you’re wylin’ right now.’ Pun was not fucking with Big. I’m not talking about who was fucking with who. I was just saying, Pun would’ve got big on the record. I’m just saying that.”

Label: Ruff Ryders, Def Jam

A$AP Yams: “That shit—as good as the jiggy era was, that shit came through and smashed all of that shit. Like, I’m out here, for real, with the hardcore street shit. I’ma come clean: when I heard that shit, I was like, 7, 8. Fucking ‘Damien’? That shit fucked my head up. I wasn’t deep to hearing shit like that, cause everything was so you know, happy sounding in my head. Everything was happy, you know? We out here having a good time and shit, and then you hear ‘Damien,’ and you’re like, ‘What the fuck is this shit?’ Like, that shit scared the shit out of middle America.

“In fact, he was performing that shit in arenas, and they even scared. Bugged out arenas on that shit. Fucking crazy.”

“We always watched that. I used to watch that shit everyday, before anything ever happened. That’s my motivation everyday. And fucking, that was really the inspiration for like what’s on with ASAP. We was on like coolest and most wittiest artists out right now. We want to put them on tour, and just fuck they head up off that.”

Label: Ruff Ryders/Interscope

A$AP Yams: “Cause fucking it was just so crazy to hear, you know what I mean? Eve was the first female rapper I could listen to and not feel completely uncomfortable and questionable about. She was really just rapping. That shit was swag. She had the—what’s that one joint where she was in the club with the spanish motherfucker getting crazy and all of that? On the four wheel, that was a crazy record. Even with Drag-On. When Drag-On was getting played on the radio, he didn’t even have a video out. Nobody knew what he looked like.

“Swizz is like—I always say this—the only way artists, any artists is going to be timeless, and really stand the test of time, is not going on and paying producers and ‘Let me get this beat right here, let me get this beat right here.’ Like, you actually go to sit down with your producer, and build your entire sound from scratch. Like DMX with Swizz, or Dre with NWA. Fucking Jay with Kanye West and Just Blaze. That’s the only way to me you can really prosper in the rap game. Is to develop your own sound from scratch with a brand new producer, instead of looking for what’s hot and shit like that. He did that for the entire Ruff Ryders camp.”

Label: Loud/Columbia

A$AP Yams: “Murda Muzik, it was just... Shit. Like Murda Muzik was such a crazy record, cause it was like, it was all like hardcore shit. It was like—my pops was listening to ‘It’s Mine’ in the car, in the whip and all that. Even he was listening to that shit, and Murda Muzik was like, after I heard ‘Quiet Song’ for the first time, back in 99, that’s when I was set on Prodigy being my favorite rapper, like, ‘That’s my Number One right there. Fuck everybody else. That’s Number One right there. ‘Quiet Storm.’” And on that album, every P verse is just so memorable, and he was really in rare form on that album.

“It was just so crazy. On top of that, it reminded me of The Tunnel. Just the whole coaster of 99, and The Tunnel of New York and all of that like, how New York sounded back in the day. Like I feel nostalgic listening to Murda Muzik. I be in the crib like fucking listening to like ‘Quiet Storm,’ like my cousins would come over, and they would be expecting to do it cause that shit’s too hardcore. Like, ‘Shorty, what you know about Mobb Deep? What you listening to right now? What is that?’ They probably listening to Jay-Z’s girl’s best friend or something like that, feel me?

“That album really set the appreciation for hardcore, dark rap. That dark shit.”

Label: Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam

A$AP Yams: “I’ll put The Dynasty over a few Hov albums a matter of fact. I would put The Dynasty over a lot of his albums a matter of fact, besides like The Blueprint, cause The Dynasty was really like—it kind of, how can I put it? It kind of set the bar for how rap crews were supposed to look and sound like. You know. Everybody loved how the Roc was so together and shit like that, and that album proved it, you know what I’m saying?

“What’s that one beat that Flex always played? That record right there, that makes you want to be a part of rap. That makes you think together and shit like that, you know what I’m saying? That makes the young motherfuckers be like, ‘Damn, I want rap to be what it once was.’ It was ill. That album right there was just—when that shit dropped, it was so dope. I remember he was going head-to-head with OutKast that week, and he beat OutKast, you know what I’m saying? That was a big record right there.”

Label: Epic

A$AP Yams: “S.D.E. is my favorite Cam album cause I think Dipset has a lot more fans now, especially with the internet and shit like that, and I think they all appreciate the Purple Haze and Come Home With Me, and the Diplomatic Immunity, but they never really appreciate S.D.E., cause Cam was really rapping on that motherfucker. People love the work he did with The Heatmakers, but I love what he did with Digga and Dame Grease. All them Dame Grease beats in the late-90s, with the violins and fucking the rocking horns and all that shit, like that was what Harlem sounded like in the late-90s. It was that whole streetness, you know what I’m saying? From T-Rex to Black Rob, you know what I’m saying? To Ma$e, even DMX. Cam was really, you could tell he was pissed off with what was going on with the ladies, and he rapped his ass off that whole fucking album.

Label: Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam

A$AP Yams: “Motherfucker I cut school to get The Blueprint. I cut school the day, September 11th, I cut school to go buy The Blueprint. Then the fucking Towers got hit, and my mama went to school, and I wasn’t there. She was flipping. That was my whole memory behind The Blueprint. I was grounded for a good three weeks and shit. I listened to that motherfucker the whole time. I knew every motherfucking word by time I was off punishment.

“It made me appreciate music overall more. Cause kind of like before The Blueprint, I’m not going to lie, I was just listening to rap music. I was just listening, ‘Oh this shit sounds good, this shit sounds crazy right there.’ I wasn’t like digesting them motherfuckers. Then when The Blueprint dropped, the one bar he said on ‘Renegade’ it was like, ‘Do y’all listen to music or do you just skim through it.’ I was like, ‘Oh, shit.’ I started listening to lyrics more after it, and on top off that, I started an appreciation for soul samples more after that, cause I wasn’t really on it like that.

“What’s crazy is, I went back to school after the whole shit dropped, and motherfuckers were like, ‘The Blueprint was whack.’ Motherfuckers in my school like, ‘The Blueprint whack.’ Ghetto Fabolous was hotter than that. They were fucking with Fab’s shit. That shows you, you know what I’m saying? Motherfuckers in my school weren’t ready for that level for music yet. They were still on the whole shit from 2001. Whatever that shit was. That club shit with the jewelry, and the paper-towel bandana shit, you feel me? The Blueprint is definitely there for me.”

Label: Legal Hustle/LandSpeed Records

A$AP Yams: “Cormega to me, is like—I remember it was one time, when I was like 13, I went QB and took the train out there, and I was just walking around and shit. I was ignorant to everything. I’m like, ‘Fuck it, I’m out here. I don’t give a fuck.’ I know I’m a whole nother hood and shit, a whole nother borough. Cormega just painted such a vivid picture of Queensbridge and it’s surroundings, that you felt like you lived there, you know what I’m saying? You knew everybody that he shouted out on records like Lil Spic and Yam-bo, nah saying? Killa Black. Like all these motherfuckers on records, and you feel like you knew these motherfuckers personally.

“He paints such a vivid picture of not just his story, but their story, and the Queensbridge story. You feel like you really know what was going down in Queensbridge in the late 80s, early 90s and shit. I think he’s definitely one of the most slept-on ever in my opinion, and he was giving Nas a run for his money at one point.”

Label: Ill Will, Columbia

A$AP Yams: “This is always my argument for people. I always argue this shit right here. I always prefer Stillmatic over Illmatic for one specific reason. I lived through Stillmatic. I lived through that era to actually appreciate it, as opposed to Illmatic, because I wasn’t able to feel the impact that it had, because I was in fucking kindergarten or 1st grade or some shit like that. I ain’t know what was going on.

“Stillmatic, that was right after the fucking Towers fell, the whole shit, the city was divided. You were either a Jay fan or you was a Nas fan, and like that time was so crazy. And when he dropped this shit, like I remember, it was December 17th. I got that shit for Christmas, with the Sean Jean velour and all of that. I remember that like a motherfucker. That shit changed my whole—that album made me appreciate lyrics more. That was the album that made me go back. Like I got Stillmatic, I got to buy Illmatic now. Okay, I got to buy, you know, all the other classic albums.

“That was when I started listening to more conscious rappers like that, because I didn’t know nothing about that. A lot of people did drawback and start appreciate lyrics more for a like, a little short period of time that it was.. I definitely put Stillmatic over Illmatic any day. Oh, and that’s ‘Ether’ over ‘Takeover’ any day.

“The city made a decision, the fans put their vote into Hot 97. You can’t reverse a decision to fight five years later.

“He was smart too—he did it right before his album dropped.”

Label: Def Jam South, Island Def Jam,Universal Records

A$AP Yams: “The Fix is just so dope to me cause it was the first—that was the first southern rap album I saw get Five Mics. At that time, I took Five Mics very seriously, you know what I’m saying? Like, yo, Nas didn’t even get Five Mics. Did Nas get Five Mics? I’m not sure if Nas got Five Mics. He got it for Stillmatic? You know what I’m saying?

“But that was the first southern rap artist that they deemed Five Mics, and when I seen that shit, I went like, ‘Yo, I got to buy this fucking album.’ The fact that he had both Nas and Jig on his album, during the whole mess of that shit. And not only that, he fucking, to me, I wish he would’ve gotten fucking Jay, Beans, and Scarface album. I’d kill for that. I would’ve definitely listened to a whole Jay, Beans, and fucking Face album. They would’ve banged out so many classics together, it’s incredible.”

Label: Aftermath, Interscope, Shady

A$AP Yams: “Man, what can I say? I was so happy when that shit dropped. I was so happy. I was so happy just to see 50 winning, cause I was a 50 fan way before that. I listened to the Whoo Kid tapes. I was going to the Harlem Music Cut–that was a little spot uptown that sold mixtapes and shit, that supplied mixtapes. That shit was the shit back in the day.

“I was just fucking tired of Ja Rule breh like. No offense to Ja Rule. Much respect to him—that nigga’s very experienced, very good, but back then? At 12, I did not fucking like Ja Rule breh. That shit was terrible. I was like, ‘Aw, this shit’s got to stop.’I wasn’t even a fan of Nelly either. I was definitely in KRS-One’s corner when that whole shit went down. Like for real breh.

“Then when 50 dropped, I was like, ‘Thank god, this shit’s really about to change.’ I remember I couldn’t even get the album when it first dropped. That shit took me a good three weeks to find it, cause that shit was sold out everywhere. I was trying to get the one with the DVD and all that. I think it was a blizzard the day that shit dropped too. That shit, I couldn’t even find that motherfucker.

“50 just definitely made one of the biggest impacts, and he was the one of the only artists to have a record label where everybody, everybody was exceptional for that time. Like everybody got a plaque off that shit. Ain’t nobody was a shy kid. Yayo got his. For him to do that, that was a big look right there.”

“They was good albums, but I couldn’t say they were classics. I haven’t listened to Lloyd Banks in fucking five years breh. But it was good for that era though, it was definitely good for that era though.”

Label: Roc-A-Fella Records, Diplomat Records, Def Jam Recordings

A$AP Yams: “First of all, for a good six months, I hated the motherfucker. I hated the motherfucker, cause I remember the day Diplomatic Immunity dropped, they had an in-store at I think a Power Records on 125th—it was some music shop on 125th. FYE or some shit. I literally skipped school, waited the whole fucking day, these motherfuckers ride by on top of the tour bus waving they arms like, ‘Yo, what’s up?!’ and just completely passed by. Everybody in line like, ‘Yo, so are they coming back? Are they chilling on the block right now? We just waited a fucking hour.’ Motherfuckers did not come back breh. I was broken on that shit for a good six months breh. I wouldn’t listen to the motherfuckers.

“But Diplomatic Immunity man, Dipset just influenced this middle America and culture in so many ways. A lot of people don’t realize that a lot of those trends that people were rocking with at the time was influenced by Dipset. You know what I’m saying? Motherfuckers wear True Religions like Jim Jones wasn’t wearing that shit like seven years ago. In the ‘We Fly High’ video I think—it’s been a long time—but they influenced everybody.

“From having earrings squared, to having grown men wear pink in public, and not being questioned about it at all, you know what I’m saying? Before, you wear a pink polo, and motherfuckers would be like, ‘Fuck out of here with that shit.’ Cam wore a pink polo, and they were like, ‘Okay, I see you. Get me the good pink tee, and the pink fitted to go with it.’

“There was gangs called Dipset! There was dudes and crews calling themselves Dipset, acting like they were affiliated through Cam’s second brother uncle’s father-in-law or some shit like that. They really thought like, and really wanted to be a part of that movement in anyway whatsoever. You see motherfuckers throwing up East Side. Not Young Money. You be like, ‘You Young Money?’ and motherfuckers be throwing shit up like, ‘Nah breh, that’s East Side.’ You feel me? Like what?

 “Dipset, like c’mon, let’s keep it real now. Wayne didn’t really across over all crazy until he started fucking with Harlem. The True Religions with the schooled jewelry on and all that shit, like...

“Jim is one of my favorite rappers if I’m coming clean. Cause Jim, he knew he wasn’t the best rapper, but he had that drunken master flow, and then like he had the best verse on the album on ‘I’m Ready.’ They all had a certain quality and connection. Like Cam was really on his Ghostface Supreme Clientele shit. He be rapping but you didn’t know what the fuck he was rapping about, but it made sense though, and was entertaining as fuck. Like his fucking pop culture references was off the charts. ‘Coke only thing whiter dog is Brooke Shields.’ He was rapping, talking about Brooke Shields and fucking Dale Earnhardt and shit like that. What? That shit is crazy.

“Then you know Jim with his ad-libs. Jim’s ad-libs, it makes you get hyped. That shit made it so dope, you know what I’m saying?

“And Juelz, Juelz was off the fucking charts breh. ‘Yeah the whole Byrd gang's in here, like Kurt Cobain’ breh. Like what? You feel me? Then the beats, the beats made it more infectious, cause they kind of took Jay-Z’s blueprint with the soul samples, and took it to the next level, where they had the chipmunk soul samples, and it was just everybody was copying those beats at that time. Everybody wanted one. Man, The Heatmakers breh. Shout out to The Heatmakers. That’s all I’m going to say breh. Shout out to The Heatmakers.”

Label: Cash Money, Universal

A$AP Yams: “I was just listening to that shit this morning breh. Tha Carter, I was a fan of Wayne before that for his lyrics and shit like that, cause we have the Sqad Up mixtapes and shit like that. I had cousins in Miami, and they were putting me on to what they was listening to and what not. That’s how I got put onto the whole screw shit and shit.

“But Tha Carter, number one, I didn’t even buy that album cause of a single. I bought that album off word of mouth. When it first dropped, they were like, ‘Yo, Wayne is on some Hov shit now. You got to listen to this shit.’ And I had dial-up at the time, so I couldn’t download albums or nothing like that. The struggle was very real for me back then. I had to still go buy albums and shit. I think the day I bought that album, I zoned out to that shit.

“Wayne really just like, he had something to prove after everybody left Cash Money, and he really like showed off on that whole album. That’s one album I could listen to front to back, no problem. The way he elevated his whole delivery, and rhyme scheme, and flow—of course it was Hov’s doing, but he needed that. To be great, you got to take something from all the greats. Like, you know what I’m saying? He took something from fucking Hov, Pac, fucking, you know he matured from a fucking kid and all that shit. He emulsified all the greats, and that’s what caused Wayne being one of the greats as well.”

Label: Grand Hustle, Atlantic

A$AP Yams: “You know what’s funny about that, back in the days on the MySpace page, that was all of our MySpace. Our MySpace song was that ‘ASAP.’ When we first started, Rocky came out to that instrumental, when we first started doing shows and shit.

“At that time, T.I. came at a time where everybody was on they crunk shit, you know what I’m saying? It was all just real hype shit. Yelling, calling response records and shit like that. Our standard, it made people, it made it hard for the rest of the world to really appreciate southern rap. Not appreciate it, period, cause there was just too much party rap. And T.I. kind of just came—they crowned him Jay-Z of the south. He called himself the king, and Scarface, who was supposed to take offense to that, said, ‘Nah, you can have that.’ On top of that, he killed—oh man I wish, I really fucked with, you know I fuck with the intro hardbody.

“T.I. really like, what’s that one record called? That one record on Urban Legend that was... It was a real serious record. I think it’s called ‘Tryin For Help’ or some shit like that... ‘Prayin For Help,’ there you go, ‘Prayin For Help.’ That’s the record called, ‘Prayin For Help.’ Like, he was really providing real content in his music that people could relate to from all walks of life, and that’s what made it ill, and that album, that was really like The World Is Yours. That was his, you know what I mean, his holy grail right there.

“On top of that, he was the one that started the whole—I don’t want to say he started that, but he brought the whole trap music, he brought the whole trap reference to the spotlight. I think it kind of fucked it up, cause it’s like, people’s whole outlook on trap music is Young Jeezy over a Shawty Redd beat or Gucci Mane over a Zaytoven beat, and that’s not what trap music is. Trap music is like southern rap music that talks about the stuff about dopeboy shit, about hustling, you know what I’m saying? That’s what his second album, Trap Muzik, you feel me?

“That shit [techno trap remix DJs] I hope they all crawl up in a hole and die. Like the whole LA scene and shit needs to just die, please. That shit is just so insulting. All the records, I don’t care. All the trap beat days on soundcloud, they got to go. They’re really the worst. They took a music that was so beautiful and so great, and they just took that shit to hell. Trap is always going to be the trap, but that shit is just—they making a mockery of that shit.”

Label: Diplomat/Koch

A$AP Yams: “What’s dope about Jim, is Jim was working with motherfuckers that a lot of motherfuckers wasn’t working with, just like us. He was the first motherfucking to fuck with—he threw Bun B on his album at a time when people still really didn’t appreciate the whole UGK collection, their whole discography. He had Bun B, he had fucking Bizzy Bone on his album, and I think I read somewhere his main influence is Eazy-E and Bone Thugs. That’s the same as us.

“On top of that, Jim was really the first one that was really going down bottom with it. He was playing music from other regions. He remade ‘Certified Gangstas.’ He was playing with music from other regions, and he catching people flat-footed, just like we did. But he was cashing out on that motherfucker, and he made it sound good, cause he knew what the fuck he was doing. That album was the most slept on Dipset album to me. It was just a good body of work. Great body of work, from the beats to the features. Everything made sense on that album.”

Label: Aftermath, Interscope, Shady

“The Massacre was a good album. It has some tracks on there, but I can’t really throw it up there. It was cool. The impact—what was really fucked up was ‘Piggy Bank.’ I remember Flex was on the radio, just gassing the shit up like he was about to play it, and not play it for a good two weeks. Building anticipation, and then when we heard it, it was like, ‘Eh, I’m good.’ You know what I’m saying? It’s whatever.”

Label: Trill, Asylum

A$AP Yams: “That was the album that really made it good for the south to me. If you listen to that album, you got to understand at that time, there was some bulllshit coming out. I’m going to come clean. It was a lot snapping and popping and a lot of that shit, but if you listen to Boosie, he really put his whole life on music. You could feel his words, you know what I’m saying? When I first listened to the album, I was fucked up at the time. I was really going through it, you know what I’m saying? I didn’t have no place to live—none of that shit. That album I listened to it every night while drinking like a half pint of Georgi or something like that. Like real shit. We got some shit going through some real things, like that’s one of the realest songs I heard in my fucking life.

“He gave you, and  the guys like fucking Jeezy, the other side of the south that Pimp C will flirt with his country rap tunes, as opposed to you know, the other shit that I think people really didn’t get to explore like that. Cause all they heard or see was what was on the radio. All that weird shit. It really gave you that other side that I think people needed to see at that time to really just appreciate southern rap in general.”

Label: 1017 Brick Squad, Asylum, Warner Bros.

A$AP Yams: “Flockaveli is just to me, I look at it as—I got caught flat-footed too. I look at it as, I put it up there with DMX’s It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot, because of the impact. Flockaveli I think is such an important album, I think the world needed that, cause it was just aggressive content, like the rap game wasn’t aggressive anymore. Like everything was just like, ‘You know, we’re stoners, we’re high, you know?’ Everybody was a weed smoker now, and everybody was on their little shorty shit, rapping over chill beats and like that and not being fly. Flocka came out, like.

“What’s that shit? He said with someone, was it, fuck. He said someone was talking about Eazy-E, he’s like, ‘I’m with Eazy, I’m bringing gangster rap back. I let the guns go.’ He really brought that aggressive content back in rap, and we really needed it, you know what I’m saying? And it was up there with Onyx, and fucking DMX, before everybody started to get off that soft shit, and really kind of like get a little more aggressive with it.

“On top of that, he came in the game with a new sound as well. That’s what makes him successful you know what I mean? He came through the south with a sound and a movement going on in his beats. He had his own, different style, you know what I mean? Motherfucker was all of the place, ad-libs like a motherfucker. On top of that, you listen to the motherfucker like he’s really got confidence in that motherfucker. Like, ‘Fuck this Industry’ is some real shit.”

Label: Top Dawg Entertainment

A$AP Yams: “That shit, that was the first time I heard ScHoolboy and shit. I actually saw the video, I heard it, and he’s so dope to me. ScHoolboy’s my favorite rapper right now. Hands down. Right now, my favorite rapper, honestly. I swear by that. I think ScHoolboy's so dope, cause he’s the perfect mixture of the consciousness that Kendrick brings to the table, and that gangsta-ass LA shit, and you just put it in one melting pot, and created a whole new sound that works well for him.

“It’s just, he could do a song about getting fucked up and taking Oxycontin and shit like that, and then the next song he’ll rap about some conscious shit. The way he performed the song [‘Blessed’], he made it catchy too. Like nothing goes over your head. You don’t have to listen to it more than once. It sticks to your lips on the first listen.

“After I heard his album, that’s how that whole shit came about, I put Rocky on it, like, ‘Yo you got to listen to this shit.’ From January, 2011 to when A$AP came out, that’s all we listen to. We be in the crib watching ‘Druggys With Hoes’ video everyday on the flat-screen and shit.”

Label: Young Money, Cash Money,Universal Republic

A$AP Yams: “That’s probably the wildcard of the list right now. I’m probably going to catch slack over that. But Drake Take Care. It’s such a well put-together album, way better than the first one. Everything flows so well on that album. I think it was dope that he had like Kendrick on the skit, you know and Abel on interludes and shit like that, like he really put all his thoughts into that album perfectly.

“On top of that, you know, we’re inspired by the same thing. You know what I’m saying, the whole Houston shit. You could really sense that more in the album than the first album. On top of that, motherfuckers, I could see that motherfucker take Drake and shit, you know what I’m saying? They can rate him at times, but like, that actually came out right when we popped off. I swear to god, everything on that album, motherfuckers could relate. Every fucking thing. Like, I get it. Like it makes sense. A lot of that shit on that album really hit home. On top of that, I knew every fucking lyric after that tour and shit.”