TOP FIVE RAWKUS RECORDS RELEASES

For those that follow college sports, you’ll know that the Mountain West Conference, at least for basketball and football, is that one conference that isn’t considered Power Five but is consistently much more competitive than the other low- and mid-major conferences. For a time in the world of hip-hop labels, Rawkus Records was the Mountain West Conference, and can rightly be cited as the most influential label in underground hip-hop in the late-90s and early-2000s, as well as credited for breaking "backpack" rap into the mainstream. Here, we’ll reflect on this crucial juncture in hip-hop history by looking at the top five albums to be released on Rawkus during its late-90s and early-2000s heyday.

5. Company Flow-Funcrusher Plus (1997)

Edging out Pharoahe Monch’s Internal Affairs (1999), we have what is commonly-cited as one of the most important underground hip-hop releases of the 1990s in Funcrusher Plus. Featuring El-P (Run the Jewels, the Def Jux label), Bigg Jus, and Mr. Len, it’s an often off-kilter and unorthodox, lyrically proficient ride that in terms of production actually reminds me a lot of vintage Wu Tang with that kind of murky menace. Very influential on what came next in alternative, backpack, and underground hip-hop.

4. Talib Kweli-Quality (2002)

Buoyed by what became a pretty big breakout hit in 2003 in "Get By," produced by Kanye West, Quality was the long-delayed debut record from Talib Kweli. West also produced two other tracks on the album, as did perhaps my favorite producer of all time in J Dilla. "Shock Body" is probably my favorite cut on the record with Kweli spitting fire, that soaring almost movie-score-like beat by DJ Scratch, and the sweet counterpoint of the female vocals. One of the definitive backpack records of the era.

3. Mos Def-Black on Both Sides (1999)

In a lot of ways, this is Mos’s solo extension of Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star that had come out the year prior, dealing with many similar themes and featuring similar excellent production. "Ms Fat Booty" is humorous and masterful storytelling, and a song like "Mathematics" really showcases an MC at the peak of his powers. Another foundational album for the backpack scene.

2. Big L-The Big Picture (2000)

If not for the untimely death of Big L at the age of 24 in a drive-by shooting robbing rap of one of the most promising MCs of all time, Big L is probably Jay-Z. As Nas stated after hearing Big L, "He scared me to death. When I heard that on tape, I was scared to death. I said, 'Yo, it's no way I can compete if this is what I gotta compete with.'" Indeed, as Adam Fleischer writes, "His punchline-driven, multisyllabic rhyme style laid a blueprint for many that would come after L." You can hear that on this posthumous sophomore album on a song like "Ebonics," where he lyrically rips the track to pieces in the most seemingly effortless fashion. Jay-Z himself raved about Big L’s ability to write "big records, and big choruses" and was poised to sign L to Roc-a-Fella before his death. Killer album showcasing the elite talents of an underrated MC who, if you couldn’t tell, is also one of my all-times favorites.

1. Black Star-Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star (1998)

Not only did this record have a seismic impact on hip-hop, it is packed with first-rate lyricism, great beats, and brother-like chemistry between Mos Def and Talib Kweli. In stark contrast to the glorification of violence and "that life" in mainstream rap, while not as militantly as Dead Prez, the duo instead took a much more socially- and identity-conscious approach to their material, as the name "Black Star" after Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line would also indicate. Very much rooted in the tradition of KRS-One/Boogie Down Productions, it was a seminal record that paid homage to hip-hop’s roots while also looking forward. I regard Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star as a classic and one of the best hip-hop albums of the 90s, in a lot of ways the underground hip-hop analog to Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill from that same year.