The Smarks Hip Hop Album of the Week Club

[Jimmy King]

I’m a big fan of Lupe ever since the first time I heard Food & Liquor, and The Cool. Lasers is another one of his albums I like a lot.

This one is one I hadn’t heard before but I really dug it and vibed with it. It’s got a bit of different sound from his other works but I liked it a lot and it’s something I could see myself going back to. Like Booty, I don’t know what else to say really and put it eloquently like Hoss does with his reviews but yeah I dug this one a lot.

 

[Professor Booty]

Been a few days so I’ll throw this one out there. Gonna go classic here with the debut of Cypress Hill. Their second album was their breakout with Insane in the Brain but this is for me their best album.

 

[Tommy MBE]

If you want someone who's on the rise amd done it without any big label finance. Check out Ren.

His Album is Called Sick Boi. Man's a genius and deserves his flowers. Can do it all Sing, Rap, Play own instruments, makes own music. His rawness is something I've never heard since the first first Slim Shady Lp and that's it with the comparison with Eminem.

 

[Hosferatu]

Aight so I just checked out Cypress Hill's self-titled album. Of course, very familiar with Cypress Hill and a pretty big fan. They're easily some of the recognizable counterculture icons of the 90s and it's quite apparent from their music why they were so successful during such an edgy time. On this album, almost every song has something to do with smoking weed and/or putting cops on blast, as is their usual approach.

The only songs I knew from this album already were How I Can Just Kill A Man and Hand On The Pump which honestly are probably my favorite Cypress Hill songs already. Not a whole lot of notable things to say about the album that won't be apparent to anyone who's heard Cypress Hill. It's a very Cypress Hill album, no songs sounding out of place or breaking from their usual vibe.

As for singling out particular songs, Real Estate was very infectious and my favorite song that I hadn't heard before. The production on Psycobetabuckdown was the most interesting by far. Had to see who was behind the production and it was still DJ Muggs, but I guess the particular Parliament sample gave it a very unique vibe to the rest of the album. Something For The Blunted I also loved, even if it was just an interlude. It samples the same Curtis Mayfield track that UGK sampled on Pinky Ring.



All in all, though I don't have too many specifics to say about this album, it's definitely the album that I would be most likely to listen to on my own time out of all the albums recommended so far. I'd probably go with like a 7.5 for the grade.

 

[Professor Booty]

Yeah Real Estate is probably my favorite Cypress Hill song tbh

 

[Jimmy King]

I was familiar with How I Could Just Kill A Man from GTA San Andreas. I had never heard anything else from here and this is where they started their signature sound. This is classic Cypress Hill and if you go in on this for the first time while having heard their later stuff you’re pretty much getting what you’d expect from them. Not that it’s a bad thing either, and it’s a super solid first effort from them.

 

[Chris]

Y'all can listen to this

 

[Professor Booty]

this looks interesting

 

[Hosferatu]

I know this album quite well, will say ahead of time that it was kind of a slump in my Flatbush Zombies fandom. I was a really big fan of the mixtape BetterOffDead and I also really liked the album that cane after this, Vacation In Hell. This was their first actual album I'm pretty sure, released in a similar time frame where other rising artists of that period like Action Bronson, Chance and Joey Bada$$ were dropping their debut albums... a very memorable time period for me. Anyways, haven't actually listened to the whole album in many years, so we'll see how it hits in 2025.

 

[Chris]

this looks interesting

I thought you knew it but now I'm guessing I was confusing you with Hoss lol

 

[Professor Booty]

I thought you knew it but now I'm guessing I was confusing you with Hoss lol

Yup never heard them before

 

[Chris]

I know this album quite well, will say ahead of time that it was kind of a slump in my Flatbush Zombies fandom. I was a really big fan of the mixtape BetterOffDead and I also really liked the album that cane after this, Vacation In Hell. This was their first actual album I'm pretty sure, released in a similar time frame where other rising artists of that period like Action Bronson, Chance and Joey Bada$$ were dropping their debut albums... a very memorable time period for me. Anyways, haven't actually listened to the whole album in many years, so we'll see how it hits in 2025.

It didn't actually hold up as well as I hoped over time but I feel like it's a great soundtrack to the few months of my life around when it came out lol also I thought the name was hilarious so that drew me in

 

[Professor Booty]

Kind of a 90s NYC rap crew vibe to them So far. I thought one of the dudes was from Onyx for a minute

 

[Hosferatu]

Yeah I was able to pretty quickly remember why I was let down by this album. Honestly, it mostly comes down to the sound. Their previous work was so chaotic and blended a lot of different sounds. Their content was also more dark and rebellious earlier on. This album just fell flat for me because the production doesn't move me (and I rate Erick The Architect pretty well as a producer). Being a Flatbush Zombies album, and having the name 3001: A Laced Odyssey gave me a lot of hope for something that would sound unlike anything else in rap, but truly, the beats are so straightforward and really blur together. This album didn't have the intesity I craved from them, and probably even more offensively, I don't even think it sounds trippy They're psychedelic rappers and most of the lyrical content on this album is about drugs and just being kinda mentally unstable, but these beats are just so plain that it doesn't invoke any of that for me. Also, with such a title, I'd be expecting maybe a thematic album or something with a narrative playing out throughout, but that's not really the case either. I guess my general feeling is that this was playing to too wide of an audience, and lacked the punch of the earlier work. In a vacuum, if I didn't already know FBZ, I probably wouldn't be very critical of it. It would just be an album that I heard, thought little of, and never revisited. There's nothing bad about it, it was just a big whiff for me as a fan of theirs. I think Meechy Darko carried the hell out of this album. Ascension was my favorite song and the most in line with the vibe that I think they should have leaned into more with this album. Probably like a 7 album without the context, but for me it feels worse than that because of the standard I expected Still, glad to have revisited it and concluded decisively that it just doesn't tickle my fancy.

 

[Chris]

I think you just made me realize why I liked it so much more at the time. I thought it was a trippy psychedelic album but really that's just what a kid from a rural town would think when it's pretty plain lol also it was the first thing I'd heard from them too so I didn't have any previous work to compare to