BEST RAP ALBUM OF 2009.

There has been a lot of arguments, and a lot of list made concerning who had the best rap album for the year 2009. It might be a touchy subject to deal with because a lot of people want their favourite rapper to have the best album of any year it was dropped, but being objective, and basing your arguments on some facts, i think we can all reach a justifiable conclusion of who had the best rap album for the year 2009.

Let us first of all view all the rap albums that dropped this year, or rather, the major rap albums that dropped this year. In no particular other; BUSTA RHMYES- BACK ON MY B.S, EMINEM- RELAPSE, JADAKISS- THE LAST KISS, RICK ROSS- DEEPER THAN RAP, RED AND METH- BLACKOUT2, JAY-Z- BLUEPRINT 3, 50 CENT- BEFORE I SELF DESTRUCT, RAEKWON- ONLY BUILT FOR CUBAN LINX 2. These are the list of rap albums that i feel are notable enough to be mentioned on this list, and from this list, i want to touch on all the weakness greatness of each album.

Jadakiss- the last kiss
I have to commend jada on this one. I am a jadakiss fan, and i have followed his career from when he was with puff, in the group, the lox, to when he did his first solo album(kiss the game goodbye), and the second(kiss of death), and i can say that this is his must rounded album till date. I can say this album is the must complete. Unlike his fellow lox members, sheek louch and styes p, jadakiss has always been known to try the cross over appeal but still keeping it gangster, and it has not always come out well in the past, but i can say he pulled it off with this one. Another reason why this album is a great album, compared to his first two; he had a lot of lyrical display on his first album, but he also had like 4-5 songs that he tried to get the mass appeal, and it didn't come out well. Personally, i think if not for this, it would have been a better album, although it might not have sold as much as it did. Moving to the second album; he had a really nice intro, nice lyrical wordplay, then the next 2 songs, which i consider the worst songs on the entire album, drag the album back. It does not make it a good listen. But with this album, his third album, i think he mastered the formula, and it is great. The first track is fire, the second track is more fire, and even when he gets to the tracks where he tries the mass appeal formula, it clicked well for him. Other than one or two songs, i think this album is a masterpiece. He particularly impressed me on the pharell track; i thought he was going to do dumb down for the verses, but they are so appealing, and still on point.

RICK ROSS- DEEPER THAN RAP:

Rick ross is another rapper that impressed me, because i was thinking what he would have to rap about after just dropping an album(thriller) last year, but he pulled it off with this one, and had a lot of people, even his enemies, saying it was a wonderful album. I have a harsh rule for judging albums from their first three tracks, if you do not show me what you got, and i have to skip, then you are out of my list, but he came hard. The beats are point, the production is killer, and he does well on the verses. Before i heard this album, i didn't believe that rick ross hard the skill to flow continuous, over 32 bars without a hook, and still have me hooked. He killed it on the intro. I think this a very good album.


RAEKWON:

Before i heard this album, i heard it did better, in its first week in the itunes store, than jay-z's blueprint 3; this made me really interested in getting this album. I have always been a WU-TANG fan, and my personally favourites were GHOSTFACE, RAEKWON, METHODMAN and GZA, so i have always followed their career, but i was really surprised that rae's album was moving units. For one, the lead single was not on heavy rotation on radio, and the video was not being shown every 5 minutes on MTV, "so what made this album sell?", the answer was the quality. When you make good music, word of mouth would be your marketing tool, and before you know, your album would be flying off the rack. I finally got to listen to it, and i have to say it had that element, that rawness that rap has been missing; and good production as well. Rae has always been lyrical, so there is no contest on that part. I think is album is a genuine classic.


RED AND METH: BALCK OUT 2

I have to confess, this is the first sequel album that i would prefer to the first installation. I am a die-hard red man fan, and i have followed his career from the MALPRACTICE Album (i know you would say that is not far back enough), and the duo are just dynamite together, so i loved listening to their songs. With the first album, they had bigger singles "rockwilder".....and the album was cantered around that, the hit singles over shadowed the other tracks, but this one, every song is a hit. I put the cd in the player, and i didn't use the remote till the end. I was scared before i heard the album, that maybe meth would disappoint me, but he really surprised me, after all these years, these guys can still spit fire, i was really impressed.


50 cent- before i self destruct.

I do not know why 50 named this album "before i self destruct", i think that alone killed the potentials of the album becoming a hit. This album is seeing 50 at a nose dive in sales; but i do not really judge an album by record sales, in fact, after i heard "baby by me", i started having a good feeling about the album. The other single, "ok/all right", was nice too, even though he burrowed the style that eminem used on some songs on the relapse album, the song is still a good song. Over all, i think this album didn't really have a focus that was the weakness; he just tried all his old formulas, and put in some new tricks, hoping it would make the album move more units. I guess if you are in it just for the money, it would tell sooner or later; i guess that is the case with 50's fourth album.


RELAPSE.

I heard a lot of bad reviews about this album before i heard it, and when i did listen i was impressed, although it took me a while to listen, because i didn't like the new style/accent that eminem picked up. I was thinking he would get serious at this stage in his life, but he still goes comical. Asides from that, he is still one of the best, if not the best, with wordplay, lyrical manipulation. When you listen to his lyrics, you wonder how he thinks then up, and you always wonder where he gets the passion to deliver them the way he does. I think the album had good production all through.


JAY-Z- BLUEPRINT 3:

Before i talk about this album, i would like you to know that i am a nas fan, and even though he and nas have reconciled, i still have not taking likeness for jay, but i can't but like this album. This is the album that took jay the longest time in recording, and it came out well, very well infact. He killed it on the intro; that is a criteria for me, for a good album, and he showed that he can still rap. I think every single song on this album was recorded to perfection. Every song is a potential single. I think, asides from his first two albums, this one might be my best jay album. The first blueprint was cool, but "that nigga jigga", and "hola hovito" spoilt the tempo of the album for me. But with this one, every song is where it is supposed to be. For you to be more than 12 years in the game, and still spit like he did one the album, then he should be applauded. And you know producers, the finest producers, always have their best beats ready for jay, so you can say this album didn't lack good production. Infact, it had one of the best production, alongside rick ross's deeper than rap, in 2009.


BUSTA RHYMES- BACK ON MY B.S

I think your album is as good as your weakest song, and i think that is what killed busta on this one. He had a couple of songs that pulled the album down. He had great songs like "respect my conglomerate", and the song with ESTELLE, but i he tried to do too many things on this album, an it looked or sounded like a cd with a couple of busta songs just thrown together. It was not coherent.



THE BEST RAP ALBUM OF 2009:

Based on lyrical content, production, sales, over all delivery, i would give it to jay-z’s blueprint3. And trust me that was a hard one, because you know I am not particularly found of the guy, but you just have to give it to the man. His album is, as of the last week in December, has sold in excess of 1.4million in the u.s, coming behind eminem’s relapse(1.6mill) as the second highest selling rap album of 2009. I think that is impressive for the climate of hiphop, and for an artist dropping his 11th studio album. And even though eminem beat him out with about 200k, his album had more popularity; hit after hit, with ground breaking singles. I think it is only right we give it to him.