- Reks - R.E.K.S. (Rhythmatic Eternal King Supreme)
- Mohammad Dangerfield - Mohammad Dangerfield
- Count Bass D & Insight - The Risk Takers
- Deadverse Massive - Takeover
- Bumpy Knuckles & Statik Selektah - Lyrical Workout
- Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Beans & HPrizm - Knives From Heaven
- Co$$ - Before I Awoke
- Action Bronson - Dr. Lecter
- Random Axe - Random Axe
- L*Roneous - Notes of the Righteous Outlaw
- Kay the Aquanaut - Waterloo
- DC the Midi Alien - Avengers Airwaves
- Count Bass D & DJ Pocket - In the Loop Partie Deux
- Raekwon - Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang
- Has-Lo - In Case I Don't Make It
- Def Rhymes Divine - Notes from the Underground
- Atmosphere - The Family Sign
- Blitz the Ambassador - Native Sun
- Meyhem Lauren - Self Induced Illness
- Ohene - I Am Ohene
- CunninLynguists - Oneirology
- The Doppelgangaz - Lone Sharks
- D-Sisive - Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye
- DJ JS-1 - Ground Original 3: No One Cares
- Robot Koch & John Robinson - Robot Robinson
- Edo. G - A Face in the Crowd
- Verbal Kent - Save Yourself
- Pharoahe Monch - W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)
- Hail Mary Mallon - Are You Gonna Eat That?
- Danny! - Where is Danny? 2.0
- Def Rhymes Divine - Mountain High
- Talib Kweli - Gutter Rainbows
- E-40 - Revenue Retrievin': Overtime Shift
- Savage Brothers & Lord Lhus - The Iron Fist
- Beans - End It All
I called this a classic pretty much as soon as I heard it. The production is flawless. Reks is outstanding lyrically. His delivery is nasty. The content is meaningful. It hits on a personal level, a communal level and a global level. It's basically a classic golden era album evolved to 2011.
When most people think of conscious hip hop, they picture a smooth, laid back style. This is that good old aggressive conscious hip hop. P.E.-style. One of the best things about it is that it touches on a wide variety of topics. It's thematically focused, but not at all repetitive.
This is the best produced album of 2011. While it's not one of the best albums lyrically, the contrast in their styles works very well, and it's more sonically focused than lyrically focused anyway.
This is the perfect example of what progressive hip hop production should be. There are too many people right now that think progressive hip hop production means you have someone rapping over music that isn't primarily hip hop based. I fully support progressive hip hop, but keep it hip hop. Rapping alone doesn't make it hip hop.
They've both been hit and miss in 2011, but fortunately they were both in sync for this album. Unfortunately, Bumpy's rhymes are mostly falling on deaf ears because right now we have more faggot hip hop fans complaining that "there's no such thing as real hip hop" than true hip hop fans that are willing to speak out against the wack bullshit that's ruining hip hop.
This might seem contradictory to my current crusade against hip hop that isn't hip hop, but it's done properly. It's a collaboration between hip hop artists and free jazz artists, and it balances perfectly between the two genres, with each artist bringing the flavor from his own genre, while embracing the other genre. It's not just hip hop artists abandoning hip hop.
I never thought Co$$ was that notable on his features, but he made his mark on his debut album. Throughout the whole album, he's rhyming with a purpose over soulful and funky beats.
Let's get it out of the way. He sounds like Ghostface. To his credit, it sounds like he's developed more of his own style in his delivery on Dr. Lecter than on some tracks on Bon Appetit, which I'm guessing contained a few older songs. Also, it's easily more focused and hungrier than anything Ghostface has put out since Fishscale.
This has been one of the most polarizing albums of 2011, with some people thinking it's a huge disappointment and others thinking it's one of the best of the year. I'm part of the latter group. I think it has some of Black Milk's best beats. They have great chemistry and everybody was pretty dope lyrically. The only major flaw is it's very apparent that, despite having good chemistry, they're on three completely different skill levels on the mic.
L*Roneous brings a top-notch lyrical performance, but he doesn't have the beats to match. The production is solid, especially since there are no established producers on the album, but he could still be pumping out classics with better production.
