Prince Paul, who produced some of the earliest skits to appear on rap albums and who delivered one of rap’s first concept albums in 1999 with A Prince Among Thieves, named his Top 5 concept albums during a recent interview with allhiphop.com.
“My #1 would have to be [Marvin Gaye’s] Hear, My Dear,” Prince Paul said during an interview with allhiphop.com. “I just thought that was brilliant, just the whole story behind that album. Super brilliant. That would have to be #1. I have to think of things that more-or-less affected me. Number two would have to be The Amazing Spider-Man [Beyond The Grave] on Buddha Records in 1972-73. The next one would have to be recently [Killer Mike and El-P’s] Run The Jewels. To me that’s a concept record, because they came out with personas of hardcore gangster guys and made songs based on that.”
Although Prince Paul did not name five albums initially, he was asked specifically about Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city.
“I think for a contemporary record that’s a really good concept album, because people don’t really do that no more,” Prince Paul said. “He didn’t really take it literally like some people do. [Public Enemy’s] It Takes A Nation Of Millions [To Hold Us Back] that’s a concept record because it’s all about black revolution. If we were to put that in order, it would be Kendrick Lamar last after It Takes A Nation Of Millions.”
Prince Paul was a member of the rap group Stetsasonic, which was prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s and billed itself as “The Hip Hop Band.” Prince Paul then gained notoriety through his production work with De La Soul. The group’s 1989 album, 3 Feet High And Rising, is often considered the first rap album to feature skits.
In the allhiphop interview, Prince Paul says that he does not like skits. “When I made [those skits] it wasn’t with the intention of like, ‘Yeah, everybody’s going to follow.’ I was just trying to glue 3 Feet High and Rising together. I was thinking all of these records are so awkward let me just find a way to piece them together, and then it became a staple for a second for Hip Hop albums. I’d skip past them like, ‘Oh god. Why did they put that on there?’”
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yeah because he was featured on it?. that album was straight trash.
funny cause last i checked anonymous niccas on the internet opinions dont hold no weight in the real world
dumbass. i’m an a&r in real life so i guess i know more than u.
we dont believe you
a&r for some bum ass label no one ever heard of LOL dont quit ya day job bruh
I’ve honestly never heard a negative opinion about the album. Maybe a lot of people haven’t heard of it, but everyone who has seems to like it.
A&R’s don’t comment on blog sites. Or maybe they do but that’s lame as fuck, if so
great fucking album
Masta Ase has 3 of the top concepts HIP-HOP albums ever done in Sittin on Chrome, Disposable Arts and A Long Hot Summer. All classic shit!!
Chest Rockwell is playing loose with the definition of “concept album”. Run the Jewels is not a concept album by any means.
The underground respects Killer Mike…
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