Stillmatic December 18, Nas heard the whispers. More than a decade into his legendary career, Scarface showed the world was still his. The Brooklynite was headed to prison on a perjury charge as the LP arrived and blasted her former crew Junior M. Trill OG August 4, Nearly 20 years into his career, the UGK member showed that his extensive vocabulary, wild wordplay, and beat selection was as potent as ever on his third album.
Remember Me. View detailed profile Advanced or search site with. Search Forums Advanced. Page 1 of 3. Location: Philly 1, posts, read 3,, times Reputation: Advertisements What albums below deserve Classic Status?
Quote: From Wikipedia:. The "Record Report" is a special feature in the publication in which journalists rate albums. Ratings range from one to five mics paralleling a typical five-star rating scale. An album that is rated at four-and-a-half or five "mics" is considered by The Source to be a superior hip hop album[ citation needed ].
Over the first ten years or so, the heralded "five mic" rating only applied to albums that were universally lauded hip hop albums.
A total of 47 albums have been awarded five mics; a complete, chronological list is below. Grip It! What they actually meant at the time, how able the editorial staff and the particular critics assigned with the impossible task of evaluating these masterpieces were — and sadly, but appropriately, how the institution began to trade its hard earned integrity for immediate bursts of oxygen and clout. Rankings are dumb and lame, but just consider it a framing method to tell the story of a magazine, an ascendant artform, and a place and time.
The mics, the 5 mic honor, was not just an arbitrary ranking. It was a declaration of taste, of values, what the editorial staff wanted from these artists and this culture, the rap they wanted to make the world. And generally through , their taste was impeccable. If anything they were too discerning. Too afraid of the passions of the moment, and wary of who they would induct into eternity.
A judiciousness all too rare in these impassioned, hyperbolic times. A quality that, looking back, demands respect and sets an example for us all.
I apologize to anyone who is currently eating over there, but the modern-day interface for The Source looks like a place where you could catch malware if you click the wrong link.
Their precious archives are largely inaccessible. For all the bullshit phallic purchases these media conglomerates make for the pub, I just really need someone to pump money into a Source. What the five mic distinction meant to some of you was exactly nothing. But at least for me, no medal or statue or recognition on Earth will ever amount to what it meant to get those 5 gripped XLR microphones stood up in a row on top of your review.
For a time, it was as close as rap music, and the rappers that made it, came to deification. Where to start. Some of these rankings were difficult, but this one was incredibly easy. There were allegations her manager at the time was dating then owner Dave Mays. This was a time when The Source was struggling, with ownership and editorial staff in flux, and they clearly were reaching for a headline by giving this album 5 mics. To gild the lily, he fucks up the quote! At this point I will tread incredibly lightly but just say my personal, unreported impression is that connections began to hold sway over the rating system.
They badly reached for an album they could elevate to spark controversial headlines, and settled on a weak late contribution from a New York rapper making shit New York rap well past its prime. What makes it worse is, in the very same Record Report, in fact, the very next review, they had a legitimate 5 mic album contender. They gave it 4 stars. This was my personal funeral for the once August publication of my generation.
Once again, this smacked of a publicity stunt. Five years after the Kim debacle, Bun B, an all time great rapper who spent most of his career in regional obscurity, spent the first decade of this century getting his overdue recognition, but it was far from a victory lap.
But his third solo is a far from perfect album. Still, perhaps by default, better than The Naked Truth. In my intro I spoke to the difficulty of really seeing a moment, being able to see through the noise and smoke and properly contextualize an album, separating quality from hype. Or was it? It once again makes a great deal of narrative sense.
This is Nas, their golden child, coming off Nastradamus , which caused even many of his devout followers to leave him for dead. It was an early 5 mic review that anointed Nas, and solidified the magazine as a vital tastemaker.
That he was able to do this while dethroning his fellow New York City rival, made it more than an album, it was a cultural event. And on this point, I agree. When I spoke to Ms. Osorio, she helped me understand a specific quality that came to dominate The Source in their consideration of what was deemed worthy of 5 mics: The resume of the individual. Certain rappers were worthy of deification, and certain rappers, regardless of the bells and whistles of a major label budget, blue chip production, and street hype, simply would have to do more to prove themselves worthy of the rating.
In theory, this serves as a logical and a natural vetting process: Only the best deserve enshrinement and entry to an exclusive club. But it also is a slow erasure of objectivity, and a story of how institutions calcify. At one point with Ms. Osorio, we discussed her regrets. She said, of Good Kid, m. It is the product of an understandable and unenviable position. And this is how you move from doing the work of unearthing and elevating new and exciting talent, to safely coronating known entities and telling everyone what they already know to be true.
To be fair, Stillmatic may actually be a tad underrated in If it simply ended with track 10 as Illmatic did , it might have even been worthy of its rating.
Classic albums. Albums that change the world. Three 5 mic albums were released within three months in There are a number of angles to consider this from. The first is, it was an unprecedented glut of classic music. One for All was only a few months behind. They are all important, iconic records. But this means over a quarter of all the 5 mic albums ever made came out in a year. My theory is, at least initially, The Source , launched as a trade paper, did not recognize what a precious commodity a 5-mic rating was.
It was given to classics, but also very very great albums, like this one from Rakim, winding down his peak run from the mid to late 80s. A young Large Pro stepped in for the legend Paul C after he was gunned down at the age of The album is possibly the most cohesive Rakim and Eric B. Perhaps too easy.
The editorial staff seemed to tighten up and get much stingier with their mics soon after. Every outlet on Earth was practically required to award this a perfect ranking. I believe The Source made the right call. But this was also basically a bunny in its moment.
They are the rap equivalent of the Black Panthers Free Lunch Program, a marriage of high minded political philosophy and grounded civic duty that produces real, tangible results. The trio produced an album that flexed brain and bottom, freeing political diatribe from the throbbing production of the Mind Squad and grounding it in the everyday, making it danceable and cool.
And The Source was quick to jump on it, declaring itself as a publication that highly valued Brand Nubian and The Native Tongues brand of scholarly, racially informed, politically aware lyricism that maintained its funk at all times. The rapping, and most of the politics hold up, but the simplistic James Brown loops, with its monotone discursive verses and non existent hooks, kind of run together.
Note Here — Ed. It is the direct codification of an understanding of what the Ivory Tower critic class wanted from its New York album rap in the 90s, made by its absolute best marketer and saviest son.
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