#13

Given them a 9. It is great but I have other albums I’d put above it.

#14
2 Likes
#15

For me, it’s a 10. It’s their best album. It’s probably the best Hip Hop album of all-time. When it dropped in the Summer of '88 you felt it change the music landscape like an earthquake. The sound of a world going stir crazy yet PE remain confident and assured throughout. Incredibly intelligent and appealing lyrically, musically a jam like nothing really heard back then. It holds up and sounds just as fresh today, its power will never diminish.

I wrote this some 9 years back, I wouldn’t change much from this write up.

3 Likes
#16

don’t listen to it often as have to be in a specific mood for stuff from this era, almost like listening to a different genre compared to rap from even a couple of years later, but yeah, it’s good. probs go a 7 but they get bonus point for the scene in ghost dog where the guy does cold lampin with flavor, so 8/10

p.s. VOTE ILLMATIC

3 Likes
#17

Clear 10, along with Fear of a Black Planet. Neither album has aged at all, still thrilling and brilliant.

3 Likes
#18

same

#19

I always feel like some sort of contrarian or fake hip-hop fan when I reveal I’ve never been all that fond of PE but I recognise what absolute monoliths Nation and Black Planet are in the landscape.
Also, Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos is simply one of the best tracks ever written. Thanks to Tricky (and Martina Topley-Bird) for opening my ears to that one.

7.

1 Like
#20

9 for me. Fear of a Black Planet being a 10

#21

A true classic in its genre. 9/10.

#22

Not a big hip hop expert but yeah it’s pretty good isn’t it. Haven’t listened to it in a while, She Watch Channel Zero has always been my favourite. I’ve gone 7.

Quite like Yo Bum Rush the Show as well but never listened to Fear of a Black Planet, might check it out in the near future.

#23

I’m still trying to decide between that, Black Steel and Don’t Believe The Hype for the best track

#24

Close call, the album is full of outstanding tracks. I’d go Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos. When that album dropped it stood out. Subtle but oh so smart and for me it hit the right spot. It’s my highlight of a 10/10 album and I wouldn’t throw that score about lightly.

#25

Fair enough. I would disagree about Fear Of A Black Planet, it’s (for me) not their best album. It sees them depart from that cold, stark chaotic sound with drilled precise lyrics. I think FOABP is more a product of its time post De La Soul. PE do hard Hip Hop better than the slight Funk departure of their 3rd album. No right answers but ITANOMTHUB is their real masterpiece. It fits that time superbly whilst also being timeless. The label, the crossover it achieved. Everything about is really - is just perfect.

1 Like
#26

As others have said, it’s pretty much perfect. Maybe the best hip-hop album ever?

  • Best
  • Maybe not best, but top 10 for sure
  • Nah m8

0 voters

#27

Probably top 3 I reckon, definitely top 5

#28

One of those albums that I’ve always admired rather than totally loved. Completely understand the adulation it receives – can only imagine what it must have been like hearing it in 1988. Usually totally hyped when I hear a song from it too, but it’s fairly rare that I’ll ever put the record on. Think most of it is probably to do with the fact that got into hip hop in a big way in the 90s and PE’s star was starting to fade a bit by then, but I do still listen to a decent amount of 80s hip hop and there’s still a couple of albums from the same era that I prefer to Nation. Don’t know why, just never completely clicked with it the way others have seemed to.

All of that said, it’s an unarguably brilliant record. It’s so difficult to make a political record (or even a song) without coming across as corny or hectoring, so making an album that is political enough to make the FBI open a file on you while at the same time sounding like the most exciting thing on earth is quite some feat. Also, the guys at Ego Trip magazine (reckon the most knowledgeable and entertaining music writing I’ve ever read) were unified in thinking this is the greatest album ever made, so what do I know. Very high 9

2 Likes
#29

Um lampin’

(It’s a fucking 10)

2 Likes
#30

It is.

#31

No Moonlight Shadow

0/10

#32

It’s a consistent 8/10 and deservedly one of the defining albums of its era that reinvented the genre but Fear of a Black Planet has more 10/10 incendiary bangers (if more filler)