Hostile Reconnaissance

After a discussion about the Fugees’ The Score as a classic album, we started to consider what other albums released afterwards could be deemed as classics. So this is the first in a mini-series we are calling ‘the last great hip hop album’.

When Mos Def and Talib Kweli first appeared on some early Rawkus releases, you could see the talent both held, but ‘Fortified Live’ and the freestyle on Soundbombing didn’t compare with what was to come 29 September, 1998, when their eponymous first (and to this date, only – c’mon Madlib) album dropped. Starting with a weirdly chilled out intro, with the sample: “We feel that we have a responsibility… to shine a light… into the darkness”, we already knew that this was the antithesis to the Bad Boy pop-rap or the Gangsta aesthetic. By the time the thesis was laid out in ‘Astronomy (8th Light)’, we were prepared for what came next…

We then witnessed an aural, pan-African tour de force. Seamlessly blending a complex message, delivered accessibly through some of the most intricate and precise delivery you could hear. Backed up by production from Ge-ology, Shaun J. Period, Da Beatminerz, 88-Keys, J. Rawls, and Hi-Tek (who delivers six of the 13 tracks, including most of the big ones), this is an education, a call to action, and a celebration of blackness.

Is Mos Def and Talib Kweli are… the last classic hip-hop album? We’d love to hear your views, so hit us up on at @HostileRecon via Twitter or Instagram, or via the comments section.

As usual, here are our playlist, and your playlist.

Dear Lord, I know I don’t pray, and I don’t really believe, but I’m invoking Pascal’s Wager and asking you to get rid of crappy skits and pointless introductions to hip hop albums, and give us something awesome straight off the bat. Amen.

For far too long, artists don’t seem to have a clue about how to start their albums (a few notable artists aside who build albums like castles), so this is an episode dedicated to those who hit hard from track 1. Be it a bona fide classic (like Straight Outta Compton – NWA), to an album that begins creating the mood (like Be – Common, and to be fair, NWA did create a mood right there…).

As usual, hit us up in the comments below, via Twitter (@HostileRecon) or Insta (@HostileRecon).

Don’t want to hear our conversations? Then enjoy (most of) the tracks we discuss on our Spotify shortlist. And if you want to add your suggestions, then check out our collaborative longlist.

So what does it mean to be underrated in hip-hop? Is it a lack of commercial success, widespread notoriety, or a lack of respect from your peers? In this episode we discuss some of the artists who we feel failed to get the recognition their talents probably deserved.

From individuals as part of a collective, e.g. Posdnous from De La Soul or Treach from Naughty by Nature, who are somewhat hidden by the brilliance of their groups, to solo artists who never quite made it – whatever ‘making it’ is.

Basically, we just wanted to talk about some of our favourite artists who never get close to making it onto various ‘greatest ever’ lists.

Want to continue the conversation, we’re @hostilerecon on twitter and Instagram.

And check out our playlists – disagree with our list, then add to the collaborative list.

Who is the best MC? Who has the best bars? Best tracks? As fans of hip-hop, these are often the questions we ask each other. And everyone has an opinion. In this episode, we consider the most consistent – a subtly different question altogether.

Throughout artists’ careers there defining moments (see Common’s Resurrection) and huge drop-offs (see Common’s Universal Mind Control). Over long careers and multiple releases, we often see a fluctuation in quality, whether this is because of loss of hunger, not landing a reinvention of the artist’s style, or something else. As fans, we are invested in our favourite artists delivering the music we love.

Sunny and Marcus walk through some of our thoughts about who is the most consistent artist in hip-hop, and I’m afraid we’ve got the answer. Apologies to everyone else who wants to debate this subject, it’s already been decided.

If you disagree (but why would you), you can join in the discussion on twitter or instagram.

As always, we’ve pulled together some playlists too. One of our choices, and another where you can add your favourite tracks.

We’ve all been there, listening along to a track, when BOOM, on comes a guest artist and blows the track away. In this episode, Sunny and Marcus look at ten great guest verses (although we aren’t great at counting) and pass comment.

Guest spots are often variable in quality, especially where an established artist takes their cheque for their appearance on the track to boost sales. However, some MCs really shine as guests, often beyond what they may achieve on their own work. Whether it is the lack of pressure, or the competition, or just that their solo work may lack the consistency across a project, whereas the guest spots stand out as beacons. It’s often also a chance for great MCs to collaborate with the hope of something truly extraordinary occurring.

We have tried to steer clear of the ‘usual suspects’ you always see in the listicles and of course we had our own set of arbitrary and esoteric rules. Naturally the conversation comes back to some of the greatest MCs of all time, such as Pharaohe Monch, but we also include some of the less well known (at least in the mainstream) such as RA the Rugged Man and Percee P. Common may also get a mention.

As always, if you disagree, let us know via Twitter or Instagram. We’ve also put together a Spotify playlist of the tracks we discuss, and also another where you can add your own suggestions.

Hip-hop is littered with basslines and melodies that shakes you out of your seat or have you nodding until your head nearly falls off. It also contains some of the most imaginative, intellectual and socially-interrogative lyrics and the ability to fuse words with the rhythm like nothing else.

When all these things work together, it is heaven. When they don’t, well… they make their way into this episode of our podcast.

In this episode, we look at examples of where great beats are wasted by inadequate or inferior rhyming.

Disagree with what we think? Let us know on Twitter or Instagram or in the comments below. On reflection, you’re probably right!

As always, we have got a Spotify playlist of tracks we mention in the episode, and also an open playlist that you can add to if you think of some even better examples.

On this episode we are joined by a special guest, Andy, who posed us a tough question:

While I have no doubt that Andy didn’t come up with this question on her own, it is an intriguing one. Marcus and Sunny each suggested three different tracks that we shared with Andy beforehand, and all three discussed the relative merits of each before choosing one track to play to an alien.

Hope you enjoy – as always, have a look at our website hostilerecon.com or get in touch via twitter @hostilerecon or Insta @hostilerecon

It’s fair to say that women rappers haven’t had the opportunities that male rappers have, and given the misogynistic nature of a lot of hip-hop, the female MC is a rarefied beast.

In this episode, we look at some of the most influential and talented women rappers in a vain attempt to rank our top 5. We look at the superstars, like Lauren Hill, and some of the underrated or unnoticed MCs, like Sa-Roc.

What becomes clear is that there are some stand-out performers who could hold their own regardless of gender, and some who occupy a narrow lane but do it really well.

Hope you enjoy – as always, have a look at our website hostilerecon.com or get in touch via twitter @hostilerecon

Enjoy

{Sorry, there’s some weird distortion on the track – I’ve switched from Audacity to Audition to try and fix it, but my talent with either software is limited. Not sure if it is an artefact of the recording (maybe mobile phone interference) or caused by the various filters I randomly selected. Anyway, hopefully it doesn’t spoil your listening pleasure}

Who doesn’t love a posse cut? If you’re not sure what they are, they’re when a group of MCs come together to trade rhymes, normally over an extended beat. Normally you get the best rhymes and best interplays as the MCs compete for the best verses. Sometimes you get a little skulduggery (great word yet underused in hip-hop).

In this episode, we each discuss our top 5 posse cuts and some of the others that didn’t quite make the list.

If you want to ignore us and just listen to the tracks we selected, then here is a YouTube playlist of our top 10 posse cuts (and here are the tracks if Spotify is your thing) and if you fancy seeing our entire long list of posse cuts on YouTube then have at it – enjoy