Beginner's Guide to Hip-hop

Nas - Illmatic (1994): In the early 90s, hip-hop was essentially dead in the East Coast because of the overwhelming mediocrity of gangsta rappers. Then a young rapper came along with his debut album and flipped the table on the entire scene. Instead of pretend-threatening cops and holding AK-47s, Nas created a more personal album about growing up in the Queensbridge projects in NYC, opting for slower rhythms and more downbeat tracks, talking about poverty and the sense of futility it instilled in him. Illmatic is important because it influenced a whole generation of artists and acts as inspiration for many great albums even today.

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010): While Kanye may not be the nicest person, all the detractors in the world can't deny the musical talent he backs himself up with. MBDTF is Kanye's first released album after his incident with Taylor Swift and quite fittingly it's about celebrity and excess. With this album, Kanye brings back his more grandiose style of production, especially in songs like "All of the Lights" and "Runaway." Kanye switches between larger topics like consumerism and racial identity to more introspective ones like self-doubt and paranoia and corruption caused by fame and power. Overall it's a look at a complicated mind and its machinations, and Kanye holds nothing back.

The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die: The Notorious B.I.G. or "Biggie" was a prime figure in the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry with famous rapper 2Pac. A song from this album ("Who Shot Ya") started the whole feud between them, which eventually ended in both of them being shot and killed. Biggie's easy and smooth flow and his honesty about his life as a former criminal made his music (alongside 2Pac's) the definitive style of 90's hip-hop. Too bad it was the only album he released before he died. Unlike the other albums on the list, this has historical significance. Go listen to it.

The Roots - Things Fall Apart (1999): Jazz and hip-hop have always made a great pair. Bands like A Tribe Called Quest brought jazz-influenced hip-hop to the mainstream and nowadays jazz samples in hip-hop tracks are commonplace. The best band to come out of this is undoubtedly The Roots. Things Fall Apart is named after the Chinua Achebe novel and is probably their best album. The tracks range from the dark chanting hook of "Step into the Realm" to the funky "Dynamite!" to the love song "You Got Me", with the band somehow managing to put songs so different in theme into one cohesive unit. Smooth, honest and sublime, this album is something worth checking out.

Gorillaz - Demon Days (2005): It's a bit of a stretch calling Demon Days just a hip-hop album because it's so much more. Gorillaz is a virtual band created by Damon Albarn (from Blur) and illustrator Jamie Hewlett, made of up four characters played by numerous guest artists. Meshing hip-hop with electronica, alternative rock and pop gave us songs like "Feel Good Inc" where the upbeat radio-friendly beats are offset by downcast themes of waning resources and destruction of cities. The experimental nature of the band gave Albarn free reign to basically do whatever he wanted and collaborations with De La Soul and MF Doom gave the band a sound both unique and engaging, making it an instant classic.

Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012): It has been more than 20 years since Illmatic was released and only GKMC feels like its true spiritual successor. Like Nas, Kendrick's beats are downbeat and sometimes off-kilter, using multiple voices and reverb to give his songs a more chaotic feel. The highlight of the album and what makes it unique are the skits at the end of each song, which follow around a youth navigating his way around the mean streets of Compton. The songs act as accompaniments to the boy's story which is also chaotic, with one about him trying to get a girl to another about him getting chased by the police for involving himself with the local gangs. All the characters feel real and fleshed-out, even in the short skits, which is no surprise since Kendrick also grew up in Compton. Some even say the whole album is autobiographical.

In case you haven't noticed, these are just six albums. It's literally impossible to choose objectively when you have a million other options, but these albums are still some of the best entry-level albums there are. (Artists like 2Pac and Wu-Tang Clan weren't included because most people have probably heard their work.)

Shuprovo Arko copes with the soul-crushing amount of studying he has to do by trying to be funny. He writes about movies, video games and music normal people don't listen to. This generic blurb was brought to you by facebook.com/shupro.arko