With songs such as “ Sing About Me/ I’m Dying of Thirst,” “ The Art of Peer Pressure,” and “ m.A.A.d city,” the album hauntingly puts you through the life of K.Dot, aka teenage Kendrick Lamar. For me, Kendrick Lamar is among the first of artists, largely because of this classic piece of work.

When my father thinks of storytelling, legends like Slick Rick automatically come to mind. Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D City - Presently my favorite Kendrick album.

Peep the music video for “Madonna,” featuring the exceptional Nikki Jean to get a taste of what to expect on this album. Not only does the album sound brilliant, but its complexity in and of itself enhances its replay value, as I still have yet to fully grasp the concept as a whole. It’s fitting that the album cover was painted by Lupe himself. The body of work (pun intended) quite literally sounds like an abstract painting, with each track being the next brush stroke before its eventual completion. With arguably the greatest hip-hop song of all time, “ Mural” is only a fraction of the masterpiece. Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth - An album that I proudly own physically via CD form. Projects may include albums, mixtapes, EP’s, etc… Feel free to respond in the comments with your personal favorites! Hopefully the next decade brings just as many classics. the only nigga that always showed love to the south from up there was Jay-Z.As this decade comes to a close, I thought I’d share my top 25 personal favorite projects of the decade., with a few honorable mentions listed at the end. you see, the east coast didn’t fuck with the south until they were forced too. i only heard ATCQ albums by like age 20…and even then, i was the ONLY nigga around who was listening to them.īut trust and believe, everybody CD cases were full of UGK, 8Ball & MJG, Playa Fly, Three 6 Mafia, Outkast, Goodie Mob, Witchdoctor and a whoooole bunch of west coast shit. Ridin Dirty is classic to me, but i’m from atlanta. i remember when lu was like “if i asked you up north niggas about the classic status of Ridin Dirty, most of yall wouldnt even know what it is”. i hope yall niggas paid attention to that. its dope all the way through, 22 min straight, said some very real shit. my favorites are Popular Demand, Say Something (which he did own the original no question), and….iono everything else. and its always so effortless, like the nigga dont even have to think about it. Sometimes i’m surprised lupe can keep up the complexity of them lyrics so consistently…like that National Anthem shit…and Fireman (Yoga Flame) he was just going bananas on those joints.

Lupe fiasco mixtapes