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Jay Z's The Blueprint is very good and reminds me of Gang Star's Hard To Earn with its deep, jazzy and soulful beats and heartfelt lyrics (well, there's still a bit of bragging and dissing but its confined to a couple of tracks and his lines are quite smart anyway). It's consistent: every song is strong, and its certainly not what I expected
Otherwise I just like the obvious ones though Alias's The Other Side Of The Looking Glass is worth a mention, its the best Anticon release that I've heard: the production is very full and 'musical' (violins, flutes, and electronic flourishes) which are underpinned by really crisp-sounding, hard beats which you would think would be incongrous but compliment it well.
Does anyone else think Fear Of A Black Planet, Apocalypse 91 and Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age (underrated!) are better than It Takes A Nation, which sounds tepid and weak (not the collage of sound that I like) and uses the same samples as loads of albums from that age (EMPD, etc)?
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