Transitional, pan-regional, transcendent, pandemonium…
Best way to describe Rap in 1991 – all of the above or with this 50 song list below? A Wonderful 12 months in Rap that I’m still findin’ jams from 30 years later. An annum of last hurrahs, grand entrances, artistic peaks, all-time anthems, and sustained plateaus. Let’s party like it’s 1991 – in a disused Essex warehouse or a Seattle high school gymnasium.
Eric B. & Rakim – Juice (Know The Ledge)
Ice Cube – Steady Mobbin’
N.W.A – Real N*ggaz Don’t Die
Slick Rick – Bond
Mac Dre – Da Gift To Gab
Geto Boys – My Mind’s Playing Tricks On Me
Scarface – Money And The Power
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – Summertime
Digital Underground ft. 2Pac – Same Song
2Pac – Tha Lunatic
Naughty By Nature – O.P.P.
Nice & Smooth – Hip Hop Junkies
Gang Starr – Form Of Intellect
Cypress Hill – Light Another
Black Sheep – Try Counting Sheep
De La Soul – Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)
A Tribe Called Quest – Buggin’ Out
Leaders Of The New School – Case Of The P.T.A
KMD ft. Brand Nubian – Nitty Griity
M.C Breed & DFC – Ain’t No Future In Yo Frontin’
Main Source – Looking At The Front Door
Big Daddy Kane – Nuff Respect
Kool G. Rap & D.J Polo – Bad To The Bone (Street Remix)
Biz Markie – What Goes Around Comes Around
Kid Capri – Don’t Sweat Me
DJ Quik – Tonite
2nd II None – If You Want It
D-Nice – 25 Ta Life
Pete Rock & CL Smooth – All Souled Out
Heavy D ft. Kool G. Rap, Grand Puba, CL Smooth, Big Daddy Kane etc – Don’t Curse
Above The Law – 4 The Funk Of It
MC Lyte – Poor Georgie
Positive K – Night Shift
The Convicts – Free World
Chubb Rock – Just The Two Of Us
Too $hort – So You Want To Be A Gangster
MC Pooh – Sex, Money & Murder
Showbiz & AG – Giant In The Mental
Compton’s Most Wanted – Def Wish
Black A.G. – No Typa Drugdeala
A.Z. Of MobStyle – Don’t Dis Nobody
Freestyle Fellowship – Legal Alien
Organized Konfusion – Prisoners Of War
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien – The Wacky World Of Mass Transit
Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs – I Got To Have It
PHD ft. Cormega – Set It Off
Public Enemy – By The Time I Get To Arizona
39 Posse – Got What It Takes To Make It
The UMC’s – Kraftworks
Bonus thoughts: I’m genuinely jealous of folk who got to grow up listening to those early Mac Dre EPs; O.P.P. has always been my fave song from Naughty By Nature’s first album so I’m happy it’s gone from being overplayed to being not played enough; lots of potential honourable mentions here but the one I’m gonna choose is Easy Star by Poor Righteous Teachers.
