If you'll pardon the pun, Hip-Hop gets a bad rap these days. It is such a rich, varied genre, but most of what filters to the mainstream is utter dross. The trite motifs of guns, bitches, money and bling are the only things people typically associate with Hip-Hop, and it seems like barely being able to string a sentence together, having a weak flow and no sense of wordplay are what's needed to make it big. As such, so much quality Hip-Hop gets completely overlooked.
When I first heard Black Star, it was already 7 years old, and I hadn't even heard of it before then. It was on constant rotation on my mp3 player when I visited Japan in the summer of 2005 and to this day, its songs bring back memories of that particular holiday.
But of course, as well as being a soundtrack to some great memories, it is also one of the best Hip-Hop albums I've ever heard. The rhymes are on point and delivered with effortless abandon, and in 2016, it still sounds fresh. The track I've chosen to include below is the very last one of the album and features a selection of guest emcees, ALL of whom deliver phenomenal verses. There's no way I could do an all time favourite album list and not include this masterpiece.
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