Rappers With Only One Good Album

Image via Complex Original

Other album(s) released: MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002)

Lauryn Hill had a lot to prove when she was recording her solo debut: that she could thrive outside the Fugees, that Wyclef Jean wasn’t the sole genius pulling all the strings, that she was a great rapper as well as an impressive singer. And after 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill sold millions and won the Grammy for Album of the Year, there was nothing left to prove, and perhaps that’s the problem. Other than a poorly received live album, 2002’s MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, on which she sang and played guitar, Hill has spent most of the ensuing years out of the spotlight, raising six children and serving prison time for tax evasion.

The recent events in Ferguson, Mo., however, spurred Hill to release a demo, “Black Rage,” that shows promise that she’s still got something to say through music.

Other album(s) released: Double Up (1999), Welcome Back (2004)

Mason Betha had it all in 1997, rising quickly from his role as Puff Daddy’s right hand man to a marquee star at the peak of Bad Boy’s powers with the multi-platinum Harlem World, an album that has aged surprisingly well with its shiny suit glitz and mush-mouthed charm. But when the future pastor announced his rap retirement just two years later, the follow-up album released soon after seemed to confirm that the game wouldn’t be missing too much. He’s since staged a couple of comeback attempts, but it feels clear that Ma$e can never recapture that moment he had in ’97.

Other album(s) released: Helter Skelter (1996), Deuce (2003)

A rapper from Dallas who became an unlikely legend of West Coast hip-hop, Tracy “The D.O.C.” Curry wrote lyrics for N.W.A classics before making his thunderous voice heard on the Dr. Dre-produced No One Can Do It Better. Sadly, a car crash shortly thereafter crushed his larynx, and when he eventually regained the use of his voice it was never quite the same. The raspier D.O.C. took seven years to record a follow-up, without Dre, and then another seven years to record a 2003 album that has dated poorly with its appearances by Jazze Pha and Birdman.

We’ll never know what kind of career the D.O.C. could’ve had rapping at the peak of his abilities during the Death Row years, but we’ll always have all the classics he worked on such as The Chronic, 2001, and Doggystyle.

Other album(s) released: A Tear for the Ghetto (1999), Where Back (2008)

Hip-hop fans remain divided on the virtues of Group Home’s Lil Dap and Melachi the Nutcracker as rappers, but can agree that they received some of the finest beats DJ Premier ever produced for their 1995 debut, Livin’ Proof. But, as often happens when an act gets key support from a big-name producer and then ventures out from his shadow, the subsequent albums with little or no Primo involvement had no hope of recapturing their momentum. Nas shouted Group Home out on the 2006 rap vet roll call “Where Are They Now,” but the 2010 album Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal did little to answer his question.

Other album(s) released: The Pick, the Sickle, and the Shovel (1997), Nightmare in A-Minor (2002)

The Gravediggaz was one of the more unlikely and audacious supergroups in hip-hop history, bringing together De La Soul production genius Prince Paul, one of his Stetsasonic groupmates Frukwan, and Wu-Tang Clan mastermind the RZA for a morbid experiment in the nascent horrorcore subgenre. Horrorcore ended up not being the blockbuster successor to the gangsta rap craze that some in the industry hoped for, but the 1994 debut 6 Feet Deep retained a singular appeal as a cult classic. The group continued on for more albums with Prince Paul, but the spark that ignited the first album was, well, dead.

In 2004, Frukwan cobbled later Gravediggaz material together with solo tracks for a compilation with the knockoff title 6 Feet Under, as kind of a perverse tribute to how large the album looms over the group’s legacy.

Other album(s) released: The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book (2000), Masquerade (2002), The Preacher's Son (2003), Welcome to Haiti: Creole 101 (2004), Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant (2007), From the Hut, to the Projects, to the Mansion (2009)

Like Fugees groupmate and occasional creative rival Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean released a blockbuster solo debut, The Carnival, that he’d never be able to equal. Unlike Hill, however, Clef had no difficulty releasing a series of follow-up albums, all of them so mediocre that we began to question how much talent he really had to begin with. The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II A Book traded all too eagerly on Wyclef’s genre-hopping versatility and collaborative nature with a garish guest list that included Bono, Kenny Rogers, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

From there, the albums just got even dodgier, until eventually Wyclef Jean’s focus seemed to drift toward political activism and television appearances on Celebrity Apprentice and Nashville.

Other album(s) released: Sporty Thievz (2000)

Yonkers trio Sporty Thievz made a mercenary grab for fame in 1999 with a satirical rebuttal to one of the biggest hits of the year, “No Scrubs” by TLC. “No Pigeons” was a battle-of-the-sexes response song that probably could’ve done Roxanne Shante proud, but it was also a shameless novelty song that did little justice to the quality of its parent album, the Ski-produced Street Cinema. Unfortunately, the band kept chasing the tail of its Top 40 claim to fame, parodying Destiny’s Child songs. And in 2001, Marlon Bryant Brando was hit by a car, leaving the other two members of the group to pick up the pieces with a long- delayed sequel to Street Cinema.

Other album(s) released: Love, Peace & Nappiness (1997), LB IV Life (1999)

Queens crew the Lost Boyz had a remarkable run of singles with their 1996 debut album, Legal Drug Money, with five hits that made the group a near constant presence on the rap singles charts for almost two years straight. They had anthems like “Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz & Benz,” the narrative depth of the tragic tale in “Renee,” and an album that lived up to those hits. But their sophomore album, Love, Peace & Nappiness, arrived quickly and demonstrated none of its predecessor’s staying power, and 1999’s LB IV Life wound up being a sad swan song, released mere months after member Freaky Tah’s murder.

Mr. Cheeks went solo and continued proving his ability to make hits, but never made an album equal to Legal Drug Money.

Other album(s) released: Blade of the Ronin (2014)

Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein became an instant touchstone of a burgeoning new underground hip-hop movement in 2001, a signature release for Definitive Jux that would help make the label an indie powerhouse and burnish El-P’s reputation as a producer. But the duo of Vast Aire and Vordul Mega never seemed to get even close to following it up, denying breakup rumors while issuing a live album and the occasional single. Since 2012, Can Ox has been trumpeting a reunion and their long-awaited second album, but without El-P’s distinctive production, it’s hard to imagine the group recapturing the appeal of their debut.

Other album(s) released: The Rude Awakening (1998), Smif 'n' Wessun: Reloaded (2005), Smif-n-Wessun: The Album (2007), Monumental (2011)

With 1994’s Dah Shinin’ and its classic single, “Bucktown,” Tek and Steele of Smif-n-Wessun became breakout stars of Brooklyn’s grimy Boot Camp Clik. But looming legal threats from the real Smith & Wesson spurred the duo to rebrand as the Cocoa Brovaz, and teasing at an album with 2Pac that never saw the light of day, the Boot Camp Clik soon found themselves on the decline. Ruck of Heltah Skeltah eventually made a major comeback from Boot Camp’s heyday with his solo career as Sean Price, but Tek and Steele have mostly toiled in obscurity, even when collaborating with Pete Rock or venturing into experiments with reggae.

Other album(s) released: Planet of da Apes (1994)

First introduced vaguely as Ice Cube’s supporting crew on “Rollin’ Wit’ the Lench Mob” from his classic album AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, Da Lench Mob soon cohered into a trio of Crenshaw rappers, J-Dee, Shorty, and T-Bone. Their 1992 debut, Guerillas in tha Mist, and its single of the same name featured contributes from Cube himself and captured the crackling energy and righteous anger of Los Angeles just after the Rodney King trial and ensuing riots. Ice Cube used the name once again for his new label, but after J-Dee was locked up for murder, Da Lench Mob suffered the indignity of actually being dropped from Lench Mob Records, and never recovered.

Other album(s) released: Tical 2000: Judgement Day (1998), Tical 0: The Prequel (2004), 4:21… The Day After (2006)

In 1994, Method Man was a natural choice to lead the coming charge of Wu-Tang Clan solo projects, his effortless charisma and ear for hooks giving him wider appeal even as he kept it grimy over RZA beats. But even as the Mary J. Blige duet “I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By” made Meth into a sex symbol, he seemed more comfortable palling around with Redman or the rest of Wu-Tang than staying in the solo spotlight. Tical 2000: Judgement Day was a big-budget, sci-fi flop, and every solo album thereafter seemed to affirm that the first Tical was something of a fluke from a rapper who works better as a team player.

Other album(s) released: Fuck What You Think (1994)

Canadians Sir Scratch and K-Cut made perhaps Toronto’s greatest pre-Drake contribution to hip-hop history when they co-founded Main Source and released the 1991 debut Breaking Atoms, a landmark album both for its masterful production and its vaunted status as the on-record debut of a young MC named Nas. But the third member of the group, legendary Queens MC/producer Large Professor, was not exactly a minor component of that album’s success. And when the group squabbled over business, Sir Scratch and K-Cut replaced Extra P, and the follow-up, Fuck What You Think, went down in history as one of hip-hop’s most disappointing sophomore slumps.

Other album(s) released: Street Boss (2005), Grand Capo (2014)

It’s the same dismaying story that hip-hop fans have watched play out time and time again: A rapper releases an acclaimed debut that doesn’t quite launch him into the mainstream, and he proceeds to spend years and years just clawing his way back to release a second album, long after the industry has moved on. Flushing rapper Royal Flush suffered that fate after Ghetto Millionaire, powered by impressive production from Buckwild and Da Beatminerz, failed to make him a real millionaire, and it took him eight years to get together a follow-up.

In the meantime, he remained a fixture on the New York scene, collaborating with stars like Big L and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, although many of those tracks only ended up being released posthumously.

Other album(s) released: Kiss of Death (2004), The Last Kiss (2009)

Jadakiss once boasted after 2001’s Kiss tha Game Goodbye that he was “top five dead or alive, and that’s just off one LP.” But even he would readily admit that much of his reputation as one of rap’s most skilled lyricists was established in his work as a member of the Lox and on countless guest verses. And subsequent attempts to cement Kiss as a viable solo artist have had mixed results—2004’s Kiss of Death hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and captured a bona fide crossover hit in the entertaining, high-concept track “Why.”

But Kiss tha Game Goodbye remains the moment when he truly felt like a contender for New York’s crown.

Other album(s) released: N/A

Anthony Peaks kept it humble with the self-deprecating title of his 1992 solo debut, Apache Ain’t Shit. But for a while in the '90s, when the Flavor Unit frontman was riding high on the hit “Gangsta Bitch” and holding his own on posse cuts like 2Pac’s “Five Deadly Venoms” and Naughty By Nature’s “1, 2, 3,” Apache was the shit. But Apache reportedly didn’t love performing, and by the end of the '90s had withdrawn completely from the rap game to go back to school and rededicate himself to the church. And when he died unexpectedly in 2010, at only 45 years old, it was suddenly a certainty that we’d never get a chance to hear Apache make a second album.

Other album(s) released: N/A

Cru was a key piece of the Bronx resurgence that New York hip-hop enjoyed in the mid-late '90s, alongside Big Punisher and Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz. But the trio of Chadio, Mighty Ha, and Yogi were just getting started with singles like “Bubblin’” and “Just Another Case” when they began to split, with Yogi focusing on his career as a producer. The only album they left behind, Da Dirty 30, is a minor classic that featured everyone from Slick Rick to a pre-pre-pre-fame Anthony Hamilton.

Other album(s) released: N/A

The Firm had already been the name of one short-lived supergroup, featuring members of Led Zeppelin and Bad Company, in the ’80s. But that didn’t stop Nas from starting his own Firm off the strength of “Affirmative Action,” an It Was Written standout featuring Foxy Brown, AZ, and Cormega. By the time the group’s full-length debut, The Album, came around in 1997, Cormega had been replaced by Nature, while the involvement of Dr. Dre and the Trackmasters sent the commercial expectations sky high.

The classic single “Phone Tap” and lots of peak-era Nas verses made the album worth hearing, but the anticlimactic air around the project ensured that there’d never be a follow-up album.

Other album(s) released: Take a Look Over Your Shoulder (1997), I Want It All (1999), The Return of the Regulator (2001), In the Mid-Nite Hour (2005), The G Files (2009)

Warren G formed the group 213 with his Long Beach buddies Snoop Doggy Dogg and Nate Dogg well before Death Row Records made Snoop a superstar. And Snoop brought his homies along for the ride, as they made contributions to Dr. Dre’s The Chronic. Warren G and Nate Dogg became stars in their own right when “Regulate” from Above the Rim soundtrack turned into an enormous crossover hit. And while the song kicked off Nate’s long career as one of rap’s greatest hook singers, it was Warren who got to capitalize on the song with a similarly titled album, Regulate…G Funk Era, which skated to triple-platinum status.

Warren’s vision and production carried the album, but as a rapper he was perhaps a little bland and plainspoken, and once the buzz of the G Funk Era wore off he never captured the same kind of success again.

Other album(s) released: Brothers From Another (2005)

Young Chris and Neef Buck played a key role in the peak days of the Roc-A-Fella era, acting as the most accessible subgroup of the rough-and-tumble State Property crew while Chris’ whisper flow became a significant influence on label boss Jay Z’s rapping. By the time the Young Gunz released their debut album, they already had a couple radio hits under their belt, but the tide was beginning to turn—the split between Jay and Dame Dash had been set in motion, and Tough Luv was handily overshadowed by a little album called The College Dropout that the label had released a couple of weeks earlier.

The duo squeezed out a rushed sophomore album in the waning days of the Roc before they lost their major label connection. And soon, Young Chris would reboot his career as a solo artist, without ever quite working his way back to the commercial heights of his Roc-A-Fella days.