4/10/’12: My Top 20 Favorite Albums of All-Time

Afternoon WJBX readers,

So I finally buckled down and widdled through my list and came up with a Top 20 List of My Favorite Albums Of All-Time.

My definition of an All-Time Great Album is one that you can listen to cover to cover without gripe or concern, not skipping a track on the way to the back cover.

Please keep in mind, this is a list of MY favorites. Criticism is always welcome. Keep the discussions coming!

Top 20:
20.) 50 Cent-Get Rich Or Die Tryin’
I still remember the day 50 dropped this album. G-Unit was an absolute powerhouse at the time. This album was amazing and by far 50′s best work to date. After this one though, IDK WTF happened.

19.) Joss Stone-Introducing Joss Stone
This woman has a voice like no other. She’s definitely in the same league as Janis Joplin. This album was creative, one of a kind and truly brought a beautiful sound to the world of R&B. It also helps that Raphael Saadiq executively produced this album.

18.) The Roots-Things Fall Apart
The Roots almost got dropped from their label before this album dropped because they weren’t “mainstream.” They proved to themselves and to the entire music industry that they could be an old-school Hip-Hop band and still get it done with record sales AND not “selling out” to the masses.

17.) Black Star (Talib Kweli and Mos Def)
The perfect example of what people call “conscious Rap” and what music fiends call “Real Hip-Hop.” This album fed the masses everything they could ask for and still brings that sensation that hope may still be alive.

16.) OutKast-Stankonia
This album was the first CD I ever owned and I still keep a copy today. The duo from ATL repped the south hard with this album with one of a kind creativty and lyricism matched by none.

15.) Mos Def-Black On Both Sides
Mos Def proved why he’s up there on the list of Hip-Hop greats whenever the conversation is brought up in any circle and rightfully so.

14.) Eminem-Eminem Show
Slim Shady attacked every track on this disc with ferocity and cemented himself as one of the greatest selling Hip-Hop artists ever.

13.) The Fugees-The Score
There’s absolutely nothing to say about this album. It was original, especially given the music stylings of Wyclef and the absolutely mesmerizing voice of Lauryn Hill.

12.) Lauryn Hill-The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill left the game WAAYY too early. Her vocal ability was magical and this album proved it. Along with her ability to flow and sing, no extras were needed to make this complete.

11.) A Tribe Called Quest-Midnight Marauders
ATCQ was classic and still is with their style, flow and creativity. Midnight Marauders brought something different to the Hip-Hop world with the many timeless records.

10.) Common-Be
Common’s best work ever in my opinion. This album was classic, lyrically inclined and Hip-Hop to the heart. Cover to cover, hands down a classic.

9.) Kanye West-College Dropout
Kanye has been the media mogul of the decade and continuously drops album after album that moves records, produces singles and is one for the ages. College Dropout is still his best work, even after Graduation, MBDTF and Watch The Throne.

8.) Eric B. and Rakim-Paid In Full
The beginning of the Golden Age and right in the middle of it. This album helped spring Hip-Hop into full force.

7.) 2Pac-Makavelli
A somewhat controversial point in time within the Hip-Hop community but this album was amazing and definitely one of the bests of All-Time.

6.) Puff Daddy-No Way Out
Living through the music on this album, it seemed like it was single after single. But listening through it in today’s time, it’s an amazing compilation of music.

5.) Nas-Illmatic
A young Nas stepped on the scene and with no collaborations and made the world open it’s eyes to the Queensbridge rapper. This album will forever be immortalized among the greats.

4.) Big Pun-Capital Punishment
This amazing compilation of lyricism from Big Pun, singles and flow is absolutely impecible. No one to date has been able to flow the way that Big Pun has on the mic. Point. Blank. Period.

3.)Jay-Z-Reasonable Doubt
Of the 12 Number 1 albums Jay has released this is by far his best work. Seems like after this album, Jay changed a bit but this is the stuff that made Jay-Z…Jay-Z (Read my post breaking down his discography.)

2.) 2Pac-All Eyez On Me
When starting this list, I tried to stay away from 2 albums from the same artist. However, I had to make this exception. This double disc is second to only one other and unlike Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 2″ Double Disc, it had more quality than filler songs.

And without further adue…

1.) The Notorious B.I.G.-Life After Death
By far. The best album I’ve ever had the pleasure to own and listen to. Complete cover to cover on both discs. Lyricsm. Original beats. Creative. And just simply made of the stuff that made Biggie the best rapper ever.

Now a list of about 10 albums that would get an Honorable Mention in my book…

P.S. These are in NO PARTICULAR ORDER.

Kanye West-My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Musiq Soulchild-Aijuswanaseing
B.o.B-The Adventures Of Bobby Ray
J. Cole- Cole World: The Sideline Story
Lupe Fiasco-Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool
Jay-Z and Kanye West-Watch The Throne
Jay-Z-The Blueprint
The LOX-We Are The Streets
Bad Meets Evil-Hell: The Sequel
Jay-Z-The Black Album

That’s all!
Thanks for reading!
Don’t forget..The Music Never Stops!

Opinions, Questions, Comments, Concerns, Gripes, Fingers or Short Gestures? Hit me up.

-WorldJukeBox

4/8/’12: My Top 10 Albums Of All-Time

Morning everyone!

WorldJukeBox is back! I know it’s been forever since our last encounter but I have returned and I’m here to stay.

Soon enough,I will also being utilizing this blog to display my own creativity and not just my own thoughts but music as well. I’m planning a series of mixtapes to come out in the next couple months so stay tuned. I promise it’ll be worth it.

Now, for as long as I can remember I’ve been attempting to compile a list of my favorite albums of all-time. I will probably separate my lists into two, one being my favorite Hip-Hop Albums of All-Time and the other being R&B/Neo-Soul, etc Albums of All-Time.

But first, I want your opinion. Give me a few of the albums you consider your favorites of all time.

Be back soon!
Thanks for reading
_”WorldJukeBox”_

6/19/’11: Greatest Hip-Hop Duos of All-Time

Good morning to you all and thanks for visiting WorldJukeBox!!

The poll above pretty much sets the foundation for this post. Many hip-hop duos have come and gone in the music world that we have all come to love and appreciate. Some have passed away. (Biggie Smalls, Big Pun, Guru: R.I.P.)

Dare I say, that I shall attempt to single out one duo amongst them all to name the greatest of all time. With so many to choose from, a ton of great ones, new and old it will be extremely difficult.

At the end of the day, if the greatest duo is not crowned here at WorldJukeBox!! my ultimate mission will be fulfilled and either way, I will be satisfied. The fact that I am continuing to educate people on the subject of real hip-hop is the sole purpose of this website. Let me say that again…..REAL Hip-Hop! Not whatever the f*ck you ppl are playing out of your car stereos right now. Back to the days when you didn’t find a rapper without a composition notebook and a pen where ever he went. When you saw that guy on the bus that wore his headphones, blaring music and spoke to no one because he was in his zone.

That’s what Hip-Hop is all about. Those are the roots of it. And that’s what I strive to bring you here at WorldJukeBox!!

With that being said, over the next couple weeks I’ll do an article on each of the Duos up on the poll and continue to educate the masses on the subject of music, making the musically ignorant more musically aware and the musically aware musically superb.

In the mean time, hit the poll and until next time, WorldJukeBox!! out.

Thanks for stopping by.

P.S. You can vote for two choices in the poll above

5/10/’11: Jay-Z Discography Breakdown, Pt. 2

Here we go ladies and gentleman, the rest of Jay-Z’s albums broken down by “WorldJukeBox”

Again, keep in mind, that regardless of what these ratings say, I’ll always be a Jay-Z fan. “Fade To Black” is absolutely one of my favorite movies of all-time and I have nothing but a lifetime of respect for the man, his creative nature and his love and passion for music.

5.) The Dynasty: Roc La Familia-2001
Sales: 2x Platinum
Features: Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel, Freeway
Rating: 3 out of 10: I won’t be listening to that again.
Review: This album almost seemed forced because Jay wanted to show off his team. Nothing extraordinary about this album at all. Besides for one and maybe two songs, this album did me no justice whatsoever.

6.) The Blueprint-2001
Sales:  2x Platinum
Features: Eminem, Kanye West (production)
Rating: 8 out of 10:  Now I’ma go out and buy a real copy.
Review: I loved this album for some odd reason. It had a good feel to it overall. Ontop of this being Kanye’s coming out party, it hit on just about all cylinders and definitely did some good things.

7.) The Best Of Both Worlds (Collaboration album w/ R. Kelly)-2002
Sales: 1x Platinum
Features: Beanie Sigel, Lil’ Kim
Rating: 2 out of 10: Break up the weed on this.
Review: This album didn’t do a damn thing for me. There were a couple songs on here that you stand on the wall and lip sing the lyrics to while you nod your head a little bit. Other than that, it is what it is.

8.) The Blueprint 2-2002
Sales: 3x Platinum
Features: Memphis Bleek, Beyonce, Pharrell, Kanye West
Rating: 1 out of 10: Where’s my coaster?
Review: Hated this album for some reason. Just wasn’t what I expected from a follow up to The 1st Blueprint album. Very, very far by comparison.

9.) The Black Album-2003
Sales: 3x Platinum
Features: N/A
Rating: 9 out of 10: Put that shit on repeat.
Review: Amazing. Hands down one of Jay’s best albums to date. Spectacular from cover to cover. Every track was a hit and definitely could have been the album that he could have retired off of, if that was his intentions from the beginning.

10.) Unfinished Business (Collaboration album w/ R. Kelly)-2004
Sales: 1x Platinum
Features: Memphis Bleek, Twista, Foxy Brown
Rating: 3 out of 10: I won’t be listening to that again.
Review: This album was almost an exact replica of the first one.

11.) Kingdom Come-2006
Sales: 2x Platinum
Features: John Legend, Beyonce, Ne-Yo, Usher
Rating: 7 out of 10: 2 thumbs up.
Review:Not a bad album at all. Couple of good singles and album cuts but other than that, it was a much slower paced album than all the rest.

12.) American Gangster-2007
Sales: 1x Platinum
Features: Nas, Beanie Sigel, Lil’ Wayne
Rating: 8 out of 10: Now I’ma go out and buy a real copy.
Review: Still remember the day this album came out and love it to this day. Plenty of good, quality music on this album.

13.) The Blueprint 3-2009
Sales: 1x Platinum
Features: Kanye West, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Young Jeezy
Rating: 8 out of 10: Now I’ma go out and buy a real copy.
Review: Still remember when this album came out, and played it loud and hard everyday for a couple weeks. Loved it from cover to cover.

Conclusion: Take a listen for yourself if you don’t trust my judgment but as you can see for 13 albums only a select few were top Grade-A material.

#1 Album: Reasonable Doubt-1996
#2: The Black Album
#3: Vol. 2, Hard Knock Life

And with that, this is my review on Jay-Z’s discography. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Anything that you would like me to blog about? Drop me a line.

Thanks again for reading,
“WorldJukeBox”

5/9/’11: Jay-Z Discography Breakdown

So a little while back I was working an overnight job and they were courteous enough to allow us to work with headphones on. So ya’ll know me I put on my Bose headphones (Best $120 I ever spent) and went on my way to do my job for the night. Over 2 consecutive nights I decided to listen to Jay-Z amazingly long discography, in chronological order. In the end, I realized that it’s not really all that it’s hyped up to be. So with this magical post for the night, I will share my views on Jay’s discography and rate all of his albums.

1.) Reasonable Doubt-1996

Sales: 1x Platinum

Features: Notorious B.I.G., Memphis Bleek, Mary J. Blige, Foxy Brown

Rating: 10 out of 10: He/She had a helping hand from God.

Review: This album was classic. Point, blank, period. Everything about this album said, I’m tha f’in man and ain’t nothing you can do about it. There was a tenacity about this album that Jay embodied for this album that I don’t believe he ever found and/or embodied again.

2.) In My Lifetime, Vol. 1-1997

Sales: 1x Platinum

Features: BlackStreet, P. Diddy, Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown

Rating: 6 out of 10: I can bump this while I’m driving.

Review: Didn’t match his last product. It did what it had to do, and at that time it was supplying the fans and supporters with more Jay-Z. But to me, that’s all this album did. Not really a memorable track off this album. “Who You Wit” of course hit hard. “Friend Or Foe” hit decent and to me, wasn’t enough after Reasonable Doubt hit track after track, hands down.

3.) Vol. 2, Hard Knock Life-1998

Sales: 5x Platinum

Features: DMX, Memphis Bleek, Jermaine Dupri, The LOX

Rating: 9 out of 10: Put that shit on repeat.

Review: Jigga was back with a vengeance. Kept coming with hit after hit on this album that still knock to this day. I remember as a kid bumpin’ this album nonstop because I absolutely loved it. Different tracks with different feels to ‘em. All hit perfectly in unison and turned out to be an absolutely classic album.

4.) Vol. 3, Life and Times of S. Carter-1999

Sales: 3x Platinum

Features: Beanie Sigel, UGK

Rating: 7 out of 10: 2 Thumbs Up.

Review: This album had the number one hit summer song for years to come, “Big Pimpin” Feat. UGK. And with a Premo track to open it all up, made it semi worth it to me. Overall this album wasn’t amazing but definitely could have been better.

Here’s four albums for you all to mull over. The rest coming in a later post.

Stay tuned for more blogs!

Thanks for reading,

“WorldJukeBox”

5/7/’11: WorldJukeBox has a bone to pick…

Now before someone tries to curse me out and tell me that I ain’t Hip-Hop, let me put this out there first.

I have absolutely nothing but respect for Jay-Z. The man has been churning out hit after hit since ’96. Album after album. 14 with collaborations and 11 of them #1′s. Single after memorable single. “Reasonable Doubt” is in my list of favorite albums of all time. And that’s exactly the bone that I choose to pick on this night where I am bored beyond belief and have to get this rant off my chest.

Back in November, Jay-Z released his greatest hits compilation album, “Jay-Z: The Hits Collection, Volume One.” The bone that i have to pick for the night is that not one track, not one song or mention on this so-called “Greatest Hits” came from any album before “Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life.”

That makes absolutely no sense to me. I think my ‘sister’ put it best when she said, “It’s his greatest hits…..for white people.” No offense and not to sound racially motivated but…IT’S TRUE!!

I can place at least 3 tracks from “Reasonable Doubt” alone that could have made the so-called greatest hits. Why shy away from what made Jigga…Jigga? “Reasonable Doubt” was a classic album. Cover to cover. B.I.G. features throughout. Songs that play to this day hard as hell like they just dropped last Tuesday. “Reasonable Doubt” was named #248 on the infamous “500 Greatest Albums of all-time” that was

VERY SHORT!!

on hip-hop and rap albums. Rated on every list of compiled albums just because of its demeanor, it’s style and the way Jay was just confident and smooth yet cocky and arrogant at the same time. This album was the beginning of the beginning for Jay-Z and for it not to be represented on the greatest hits album is an absolute shame.

There, ladies and gentleman is my rant for the night.

Just a bone I had to pick.
Agree or disagree?

Thanks for reading,
“WorldJukeBox”

1/7/’11: Correct your ignorance…

What’s good ya’ll? So due to recent events i feel it absolutely necessary to repost this blog. It’s almost a year old but it’s essential for each and every one of you to read this. Correct your musical ignorance!!!

Why do people constantly attempt to defend musical ignorance?

I’m that kid that grew up to music. 24/7 and music has obviously made a big influence on my life. Anyone that knows me personally or even vaguely can see that. If your reading this post, and can see the work I’ve placed into this site you can see that. If your of color and your parents were anything like mine (which most likely they were) you didn’t sleep past 9, maybe 10 o’clock on a Saturday or Sunday morning as a kid. Simply because your mom, dad or both played the oldies every single weekend and that’s what you woke up to. Whether you liked it or not, music was around you in some way.

This gave me a respect for music. You must know the history before you can succeed in the present and henceforth, the future. Every single song on the radio today is taken from an old song, from some time between the early 60′s to mid 90′s.

1.) Kanye West’s Touch The Sky from Late Registration Feat. Lupe Fiasco=> Curtis Mayfield’s Move On Up
2.) P. Diddy’s All About The Benjamins Feat. Lil’ Kim, The LOX and The Notorious B.I.G. from No Way Out => Kool and the Gang, The Jackson 5 and The Love Unlimited Orchestra.

These are simply just two prime examples of knowing your history. I took this info off the top of my head. I take music very seriously. And musical ignorance bothers me. Defending musical ignorance makes you just as guilty as the person your attempting to defend. I bring this up because of a miniscule arguement I recently got into over the passing of Teddy Pendergrass, which if you are following you probably saw the status and tweets on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

An old friend posted as their status, “RIP Teddy Pendergrass.” Someone replied, “Who’s that?”

MUSICAL IGNORANCE.

Jokingly, I replied, “Whoa, Who’s Teddy Pendergrass?!?!? Your goin’ to hell.”

Now, using common sense, your not going to hell nor can it be considered a sin to not know who Teddy Pendergrass is. However, it will be AND is frowned upon by many people I know.

With these things said and keeping these things in mind, don’t be musically ignorant people. Educate yourselves. Musically and otherwise. I do it all the time. Try it, you’ll feel accomplished.

If you are musically ignorant and I catch it, I will put you on blast like ol’ school Hot 97!