What Do You Want From An Album?

[Digital Pimpin']

I want an artistic vision that's carried through from the first to the last track so the album feels like a listening experience - not a compilation of sounds and features designed to appease everybody or as part of a 'risk-hedging' strategy by the labels.

Think Chronic, Doggystyle, Illmatic, et al.

[3331]

I'd like to see more albums with just one producer taking care of all the production. I'm tired of those compilation sounding album with all the hottest producers and it would dope if it was a in-house producer that actually sits and work with dudes in the studio,not some hired dude that mail his beats.
All the albums out,got the same producers and features,fuck that shit. Cut the shit down to 10 bangin tracks(the old school way),fuck the fillers

word the fuck up. i dont think you can create as much of a mood throughout with a bunch of producers. producers used to do it all the time and look at the albums its created.

i also agree with the 10 track. i just wanna hear the good shit. that's probably why no classic albums come out. people try and make like 70 minute albums. plus 10 tracks is easier to work into my day.

[Chief]

man humour is always good in music... a good mix in an album, serious tracks, fun tracks, ho anthems... a nice mix of shit.

i like fun beats, "another summer", "only way to chill" are just a couple examples of your tracks i want to hear more of.

[Chief]

and yeah, like someone said, sometimes less is more... too many tracks aint too good.

[XL Middleton]

I want an artistic vision that's carried through from the first to the last track so the album feels like a listening experience - not a compilation of sounds and features designed to appease everybody or as part of a 'risk-hedging' strategy by the labels.

Think Chronic, Doggystyle, Illmatic, et al.

nice to see this discussion picking back up. wow homie u said it perfectly - "an artistic vision that's carried through from the first to the last track" - i also like you mentioned the 'risk-hedging' strategy, u dead on with that, let's hear some artists take some risks and do some shit even though he may be well aware that not everyone will like it.

[XL Middleton]

man humour is always good in music... a good mix in an album, serious tracks, fun tracks, ho anthems... a nice mix of shit.

i like fun beats, "another summer", "only way to chill" are just a couple examples of your tracks i want to hear more of.

cool man, gonna start posting samples and downloads from the new album real soon.

[Digital Pimpin']

I want an artistic vision that's carried through from the first to the last track so the album feels like a listening experience - not a compilation of sounds and features designed to appease everybody or as part of a 'risk-hedging' strategy by the labels.

Think Chronic, Doggystyle, Illmatic, et al.

nice to see this discussion picking back up. wow homie u said it perfectly - "an artistic vision that's carried through from the first to the last track" - i also like you mentioned the 'risk-hedging' strategy, u dead on with that, let's hear some artists take some risks and do some shit even though he may be well aware that not everyone will like it.

Props

Too many albums these days with a 'pimpin' track followed by an 'i love u' track followed by a 'gangsta' track followed by 'stop the violence, stay in school'.

[QuietTruth]

Well, I seened everybody mention how they don't want beats e mailed and how ya'll want the producer to work with the artist but I didn't see anyone mention the feature artist actually in the studio also. Unless of course somebody did mention it and I didn't see it.

But I think when there's a feature on the album, you should actually work wit that artist IN the studio. Don't e mail verses, now what's that? I don't even get that. When you have a feature on your work and somebody asked so, 'who did you work on your album' well...that means who did you go in the studio with, sit down and put together an idea for the track with. You could hear the chemistry on a record when two artists work together so why ain't that happening no more? If a rapper don't got time to sit down and create a track than they don't have time to be part of creating Hip Hop. Word??

Just don't be submitting verses ya'll.

[K.Dub]

Well, I seened everybody mention how they don't want beats e mailed and how ya'll want the producer to work with the artist but I didn't see anyone mention the feature artist actually in the studio also. Unless of course somebody did mention it and I didn't see it.

But I think when there's a feature on the album, you should actually work wit that artist IN the studio. Don't e mail verses, now what's that? I don't even get that. When you have a feature on your work and somebody asked so, 'who did you work on your album' well...that means who did you go in the studio with, sit down and put together an idea for the track with. You could hear the chemistry on a record when two artists work together so why ain't that happening no more? If a rapper don't got time to sit down and create a track than they don't have time to be part of creating Hip Hop. Word??

Just don't be submitting verses ya'll.

Word +1

[dloc187]

I think the most important thing for an artist is the following:

Don't follow the trends, SET the trends!!! An artist is usually supposed to bring something new to the table, not redo what has been done already because if they keep redoing stuff then in my opinion it isn't art and therefore the person isn't an artist.

Was 2Pac a follower? How about Biggie? Nas, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, GangStarr, Xzibit, LL Cool J, Ice Cube, Rakim, Eminem, Jay-Z.... the list can go on.

There is a reason why these people are viewed with iconic status today and it wasn't because they just followed the trends and did what was hot at the time. It was because they all brought something new to the table of what we call Hip Hop and that is what I would really like to see happen again in these modern times, something I have never experienced yet in my life with Hip Hop. Some of you say take it back to the glory days or some shit like that but that isn't the answer, we need something new to move us forward because the good old days will never come around again. I want to show the next generation of Hip Hop lovers what our times were like (2000's) and so far we haven't improved on what the 1990's gave us.

Opinions?

[J$crILLa]

i like an album to be like the old days.. when its just certain clicks collabin/// not the same guests and producers on every cd... makes shit sound the same... i miss when it was deathrow on a deathrow cd ruthless on ruthless cds... dangerous crew on dangerous crew cds... hell even no limit was doin no limit... ya know what im sayin

[Realbiggsteele]

Good topic X..What I want from a album is honesty and emotion, without 50,000 different producers ala Pete Rock, CL Smooth, /Guru, DJ Premier etc, etc. I'm tired of hearing thirty year old men gang bangin on records and calling women Bitches on every song . I don't just bump mainstream music, im feeling albums from Klashnekof from London, Sick jack, Q-Unique and Ill Bill, but I also like the energy of the southern shit. I just think people gotta go in the lab and do whats in there heart. Following formulas don't work, but you cant really blame rappers, they just trying to get on, (Ive made the same mistake)

[Al Bundy]

Good topic X..What I want from a album is honesty and emotion, without 50,000 different producers ala Pete Rock, CL Smooth, /Guru, DJ Premier etc, etc. I'm tired of hearing thirty year old men gang bangin on records and calling women Bitches on every song . I don't just bump mainstream music, im feeling albums from Klashnekof from London, Sick jack, Q-Unique and Ill Bill, but I also like the energy of the southern shit. I just think people gotta go in the lab and do whats in there heart. Following formulas don't work, but you cant really blame rappers, they just trying to get on, (Ive made the same mistake)

if i could hear a album produced by only pete rock & dj premier, i'd be pretty happy.

oh yeah, and a good rapper.

[akcranker - The Dangerous Crew Movement]

Okay here's what I would want in an album.

Production: I agree with what most others have said.  Stick to one producer or one group of producers that can bring you a similar sound like how Deathrow, Ruthless etc did it back in the day.

Length: 10-15 quality songs is good with me.  I don't care for skits that much.. 1 or 2 might work if they fit in the album.  But I also agree that you shouldn't put it in the beginning of a song and then we have to fast forward past the skit just to hear the song or go edit the MP3 with a audio editor to edit out the skit and then reburn the CD.

Content: I don't mind if an album does club bangers, chick songs, gangsta songs, political songs etc.. just make sure they all fit within a concept of an album.

One of the main things I want though is songs that tell a story.  Like Joe Budden's "Three Sides To A Story" or Immortal Technique's "Dance Wit The Devil".  Those two are some serious songs right there.  On the Gangsta Tip I think Eazy does good in "Creep N Crawl"

Damn I know there was more shit I wanted to say but I'm drawing a blank right now.

[daggo]

All I want is some G-Funk muzik like take it bacc to 93 !!

word!
i