96. Trick Daddy - Book Of Thugs: Chapter AK Verse 47
(Slip-N-Slide Records/Atlantic, 2000)
One thing I’ve thought about a lot while looking back at the first few years of the decade is that the mainstream Southern rappers that emerged in that era are kind of a lost generation; by which I mean the guys that came after the Dungeon Fams and No Limits blazed the trail, but before the Lil Jons and Jeezys came along and got established in the pop pantheon with aggressively Southern aesthetics. Besides Ludacris, none of them had really sustained major success, and most of them were guys like Pastor Troy or Petey Pablo, who the industry wasn’t quite ready to let be themselves or sound too regional, and just got thrown in the studio with Timbaland or the Neptunes (even T.I.'s Pharrell-assisted debut befell that fate, before he started hitting hard with Toomp and David Banner beats). It’s in that context that I think Trick Daddy is kind of a remarkable figure -- Miami was a relatively untapped market before him, he didn’t need super producers to put him on, and he managed to sell millions and rack up a good number of hits without fully crossing over. Plus he just was, and is, a fucking dope rapper, with a great ear for expressive obscenity and killer flows, and back in 2000 he had a stable of producers and labelmates you’ve never heard of (Trina aside) that are ten times better than the Rick Ross/Plies/Runners-type hacks that have kept Slip-N-Slide a brand name in recent years.

97. Beauty Pill - The Unsustainable Lifestyle
(Dischord Records, 2004)
Chad Clark’s previous band Smart Went Crazy went out leaving me and a lot of people wanting more with the record they broke up immediately after, 1997’s roaring, incredible Con Art, and the seven year wait for his next band’s debut full-length felt like forever. The EPs in between were hearty breadcrumbs, and 2001’s The Cigarette Girl From The Future gave the indication that Beauty Pill was a more stylish, groove-driven affair with co-ed vocals and somewhat arch lyrical conceits. When the album eventually arrived, though, it felt at first underwhelming and then quietly staggering, with a subdued, almost washed out sound, cluttered and lethargic arrangements, and some of the most focused, determined and brilliant lyrics of Clark’s career. There’s so much going on in here, contemplating the third world (“The Mule On The Plane”), the impending collapse of the first world (“The Western Prayer”), race (“Won’t You Be Mine”), and the darkest corners of the human mind (“Terrible Things”) that are all layed out in such subtle, effective ways, never preachy or lecturing, that this album really cemented to me that Clark is one of the great thinkers of our time whose chosen medium is songwriting, imbuing even his sharpest barbs with compassion and humanity. That heart problems nearly killed him a couple years ago, and have kept Beauty Pill from releasing a follow-up yet, were kind of a scary wake up call to appreciate this guy as much as possible while he's still alive and kicking.

98. DJ Quik - Under Tha Influence
(Ark 21 Records, 2002)
Quik is one of those cats that I always knew made good music and heard great things about his records, but where I live you really never get much west coast music other than the big Dre stuff. So I never really delved into his music much until this year, when BlaQKout with Kurupt became one of my favorite albums of late, and it’s still really exciting to have someone with such a big brilliant back catalog to look forward to exploring. “Ev’ryday” is such an awesome beat, but really the whole thing has a great relaxed jam session vibe.

99. 112 - Part III
(Bad Boy Records/Arista/BMG, 2001)
I don’t even remember where I got this CD, I think my freshman year roommate, a kid from D.C. who had tons of Go-Go tapes, had it but didn’t really like it and let me have it. But it’s aged really well, and given the trajectory of both 112 and male vocal R&B groups in general since then, it’s kind of an anachronism now already. But it’s got three killer singles, Tim & Bob and Mario Winans doing their best budget Timbaland, a vicious Twista guest verse, quiet storm ballads beatjacking Mobb Deep’s “Quiet Storm” and written by R. Kelly, and one of the greatest Bad Boy intros of all time, with Diddy talking shit over a gnarly chop of the “Dead Wrong” drums.



100. The Blood Brothers - ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn
(V2 Records, 2003)
What a raving, squealing, brilliant mess this record is. Even though this album was probably the first I ever heard of the Blood Brothers and had heard good things about them and this record in particular for years, I ended up getting into it pretty recently in a kind of backwards way. I ended up loving an album by the post-Blood Brothers offshoot Jaguar Love and then finally working my way through their catalog, going through Young Machetes and Crimes before finally getting to this, which quickly became my favorite. I still haven’t really decoded all the stuff going on in the lyrics but in a way it’s just nice to know there’s all this weird subtext and take it in at once. The way “The Shame” builds up and disappears is probably one of the most riveting ending moments to any album this decade.

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