Best and most influential album ever? (Back to The Forum)

paid in full by eric b & rakim, or illmatic by nas, for me

I have to go with Nas’s illmatic cause it actually set up a whole new trend in hip hop…..

Paid in full is easily the most influential album in hip hop.

Here’s how it changed rap forever.

Invented Modern Flow

Prior to this album, most MC’s rhymed the last word in couplets, fit each line within 1 bar, and have little connection in between the couplets. This was known as A,B,C rhyming. Rakim was the first to link lines together

When I’m gone, no one gets on, cause I won’t let-
Nobody press up, and mess up, the scene I set

This is so commonplace now, we don’t even notice it. However, at the time, this was revolutionary. It helped create ‘flow’ as we know it today.

In fact, Rakim was a huge fan of a very common rhyme scheme today, back in 1986.
AABA

Another enemy, not even a friend of me
Cuz you’ll get fried in the end if you pretend to be
-I Ain’t No Joke

You see this echoed in modern MCing all the time, especially in punch rap
. For example:

Excuse my charisma, vodka with a spritzer
Swagger down pat, call my shit Patricia
-Lil Wayne
Turn your tux red, I’m far from broke, got enough bread
And mad hoes, ask Beavis I get nothing Butthead
-Big L

So yeah, Rakim probably invented your favorite rapper’s favorite flow on this record.

Invented Modern Rhyming

Sure, rappers had accidentally rhymed more than 1 word in a bar, but Rakim made them a necessity.

I ain’t no joke, I used to let the mic smoke
-I Ain’t No Joke

He also managed to innovate multi-syllabic rhyming. Instead of just rhyming two 2-syllable words together, he used multiple words.

]I like to stand in the crowd, watch the people wonder-damn
But think about it and you’ll understand](http://rapgenius.com/495859)
-I Ain’t No Joke

Once again, doesn’t seen like a big accomplishment in today’s landscape, but Rakim revolutionized rhyming.

Some ran with the internal rhyming (Kool G Rap, Eminem, Big Pun), others with the long end-rhymes (Canibus, Nas and MF DOOM) still, Rakim probably in the style of your favorite rapper before he did.

Paid in Full

With the title track Rakim became the first rapper to discuss making money from rapping. The first.

So, in at least this way, Rakim has influenced pretty much every rapper ever.

Soul Sampling

Oh yeah, Paid in Full was also the first album to feature primarily James Brown samples.

James Brown is now the most sampled artist in Hip Hop.

In fact, Paid in Full was one of the first albums to really sample in the modern sense-not just rapping over disco records, not bare drum machines, but chopped up and looped segments of songs. That was this album.

So, Eric B (or Rakim and Marley Marl, it’s not 100% certain who produced the album) paved the way for your favorite producer.

TL;DR

Paid In Full revolutionized production, flowing, subject matter, and rhyming more than any other record in the history of hip hop. No question.

But best record? That’s personal preference.

Probably agree, but let’s just all forget Chinese Arithmetic shall we…

Straight outta Compton tbh

If were talking personal influential albums then mine is going to be Madvilliany, Operation: Doomsday,Revolutionary Vol.1-2 and Ghetto Pop Life. Through these albums Ive slowly got interested in hip-hop and its purer sounds in the underground, with the cartoony attributes of the DOOM albums it just reeled me in, With The revolutionary Albums by Immortal Technique i became much aware with the political side in society and Music. Lastly, With Ghetto Pop Life, my Favorite album, it showed many variable works in production when it came to hiphop.

If were talking about Hiphop’s run in history, without a doubt the Illmatic (which showed how to make Raw untapped original perfection.), Fear of a black Planet (which broke barriers in society towards hiphop and political actions), ofcourse Paid in Full (for being just INCREDIBLE), lastly Early Native Tongue albums (introduceda and further enhanced Afrocentric music).

Nation of millions was ten times more influential than fear of a black planet

Ain’t we seen this before

this is why i love this site THANK you for the break down , dang i am cop this album

@SkillyJohnson
That was a Goat comment:Breakdown and even the TL;DR summary .
Your post will be in the category of the Opinion thread etc.
But yeah Paid in full was the most influential album of time.

No particular order

Straight Outta Compton
Schoolly D
Paid in Full
Back To The Old School
The Chronic
Only built 4 Cuban Linx
Entroducing
3 Feet High and Rising
Run-DMC
Sugarhill Gang
Critical Beatdown

One could also argue a James Brown or Bob James LP is influential

^dafuq

Kanye — College Dropout

Kanye changed the style of hip-hop from guys wearin throwback jerseys and and bein “hood” to all of a sudden this guy wearin pink polo’s with a diffrent feel to his music that opened the way for guys like lupe, wiz, and drake

Guess what this influenced?

The Message — Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 (1982)

This album was the first to include social commentary and conscious hip hop, which has influenced so many artists today.

4 months later I’ve come to refine my opinion. SilkyJohnson is easily wrong

99% about rap from the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s and present has at least one of the following; profanity, misogyny, an oppressed & rebellious attitude along with an aim to create a hardcore beat

PSK, What Does It Mean??? embodies everything I just said. Every other MC and producer has been indirectly influenced by Schoolly D. Arguably, the first to create a gangster approach to rap, achieving it nonchalantly.

Before Schoolly D, rappers using a cuss word on wax was something unheard of. It was used rarely at most, and subject matter was kept to a clean standard, as it was perceived unmarketable by most labels

Think about every song you know, from NWA’s Fuck The Police to Chief Keef’s Love Sosa. All contain the elements in Schoolly’s debut record.

It is the raw, blunt approach that Schoolly D did that makes his debut the most influential, primarily indirectly

@Rimmer, Schooly D forever impacted the culture more than Paid in Full, I agree. Butin terms of music: the flow, the rhyme schemes, the instrumentals, no one was even close to Paid in Full

Nice try doe.

This man

These guys brought the hip hop scene to the masses!

(obviously not as influential as the above albums — but worth a mention!)

Illmatic suckers.

i know this sounds crazy but TM101 (or “trap or die”) by jeezy , that album ALONE influenced the WHOLE south in the mid-2000’s. its avg at best but everyone from the south started makin that generic trap-music AFTER that album dropped