[The Tens] Torae’s Top 10 Hip Hop Debut Albums Of All Time

“In no particular order these are 10 of my personal favorites. From Nas’ wordplay & delivery to B.I.G’s wit to Rick’s story telling these album shaped me into the MC I am today. I wore all of these albums out & still have 6 of them on cassette tape (all on CD). It was hard as hell to narrow it down to just 10, I mean Ice Cube’s “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted”, “Doggystyle” by Snoop, Mase’s “Harlem World” (yes I went there!) And what about “It’s Dark & Hell Is Hot” by DMX. There were really too many dope ass album to choose from but these are my 10 love it or hate it. With my official debut “For The Record” on deck I felt this was an appropriate 10′s for me. I chose half my production based on some of the albums on this list. Hopefully in a few years it’ll be on someones list of great freshman efforts. Only time will tell.” – Torae

Illmatic – Nas

The mind of this 19 year old was light years ahead of what I was thinking & doing at that age. Illmatic is not only timeless, but was ahead of it’s time. Nas changed the way heads rhymed, like Rakim had done some years before him. This is one of my all time favorite LP’s in any genre.

The Great Adventures of Slick Rick – Slick Rick

Rick was the coolest motherfucker walking the planet in ’88 & this album is the proof. I think heads were waiting to see what he could do without Doug E. Fresh & the GFC and boy did he deliver. Sorry Hov, Rick invented #swag

Reasonable Doubt – Jay Z

I feel like this is one of the most honest debut albums ever. This almost feels like he didn’t want to do it, but was more so getting it over with so he could get back to “that life”. I remember in interviews Jay saying he was doing this one & he was out. Clearly he reneged on that, but I feel like that was really his intention at the time. Reasonable Doubt makes me feel like I’m watching a gangster movie filmed in my own back yard.

College Dropout – Kanye West

Yo, talk about having the odds stacked against you. Kanye was a producer rapper from Chicago that rapped about loving his mom & Jesus, no way that’s gonna work…wrong! Wrong! Yeezy did the virtually impossible with his debut LP & carved out what would become his place in hip-hop history with College Dropout.

Monkey Bars – Sean Price

This record just came outta no where didn’t it? Just when you thought Duck Down was dead and gone Ruck resurrected the label and his career by going government name and rapping about the harsh reality of being almost famous. His approach on beats, his delivery, his writing style on this particular project was so all unorthodox it worked perfectly. Definitely one of my favorite albums ever.

The Coming – Busta Rhymes

Man, back in them 90′s you could be certain of two things: Giuliani was hellbent on ruining NY and a Busta Rhymes album was gone be the shit!!! I didn’t know that before The Coming dropped, but when this record touched down you knew Busta was gone be here for a minute & Dinco D wasn’t. The music was just as colorful as the videos & Busta showed you why he was a standout not only in LONS but in music period.

Ready To Die – The Notorious B.I.G

This album was damn near perfect. It was street yet commercial, lyrical yet relatable, hardcore and mainstream all at the same time. BIG is my all time favorite MC & Ready To Die is a large reason for that. I wouldn’t even say this project had the best production, but B.I. made every record memorable with his style of MC’ing definitely one of the best ever.

Get Rich Or Die Trying – 50 Cent

Although not his 1st album recorded (Power Of The Dollar was a beast as well) GRODT is 50′s official debut & probably one of the last major label classic LP’s in my opinion. What Fif, Banks & Yayo did to these streets in the early 2000′s was nothing short of brilliant. There wasn’t a car, jeep, truck, iPod or discman that wasn’t bumping one of the many G-Unit mixtapes, so when this album dropped not only did it sell ridiculously, but it catapulted 50 into super stardom almost instantly. This joint had banger after banger after banger on it and still gets a monthly spin from me off GP.

Black On Both Sides – Mos Def

Aww man this right here is when Rawkus could do no wrong & to me Black Dante was Christ-like on the mic. I remember getting up on the indie scene late but kept hearing about this guy Mos Def. I finally gave Black Star a listen and it was a wrap from there. BOBS was what I used to call “first day coppage” so when this joint hit the stores in ’99 I was all about it. Shit didn’t disappoint either “Ms. Fat Booty”, “Mathematics”, “Do It Now” wheeeeew I’m bout to go find that CD right now!!

Whut? Thee Album – Redman

I can’t think of another artist that I imitated more than Redman. I’m not only talking musically I was all carhartt vest, skully, timbs, tissue in the nostril with it. Oh, and the music wasn’t bad either. I loved the fuck outta this album and the next 3 as well. This was the essence of gritty tri-state hip-hop at it’s finest and it didn’t hurt that he was a member of EPMD’s (my favorite group) Hitsquad crew one bit. I borrowed so much of this album’s format when creating my first demo.

* The Salvation (Honorable Mention) – Skyzoo *

You know I wasn’t gonna talk classic debuts without mentioning this one right? My brother Skyzoo created a musical & lyrical masterpiece with The Salvation. It’s crazy hearing how it came out and seeing the response to it knowing how long he’s been formulating it in his mind. Neither the title nor concept ever changed from the moment he told me about it back in 2005 to it’s release in 2009. This was definitely inspiring to me to say the least. Much success to my Barrel Brother Sky until forever.

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