The Wall

The Wall

Every record I've hung up here, in the order it actually came out — 1988 up to whatever dropped this year. No ranking, no old-school/new-school split, just the wall. Every sleeve here is my own hand-drawn stand-in for the cover, not a scan of the real thing.

Selected records, 1988–2026

1988	N.W.AStraight Outta Compton “Straight outta Compton, crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube” STILL makes the hair on my arms stand up, no cap, doesn't matter how many hundred times I've heard it. This is on the wall because it's the first record where I understood rap could just tell the truth about a place and not ask permission first, kind of ruined every polite rap song for me after that lol.
1990	Ice CubeAmeriKKKa's Most Wanted I put this one up for “The Nigga Ya Love to Hate” — the SHEER nerve of that title, and Cube just owning it for four minutes straight like he dared the label to stop him. This is somebody freshly out of a group and furious, not interested in softening a single word for anybody, and honestly? respect.
1993	Wu-Tang ClanEnter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) Nine guys on one record and somehow every single one of them sounds like your favorite rapper — that should NOT work, and it works completely, i still don't fully understand how. “Bring da motherfucking ruckus” is still the first line that comes to mind when someone asks what my favorite rap album is, and yes i will bring it up unprompted, sorry not sorry.
1994	NasIllmatic Ten tracks, no filler, and “the world is yours” reads like it was carved into stone instead of just written down. I've played this front to back more than anything else on this entire wall and I STILL catch a new detail buried in the drums every single time, it's honestly a little annoying how good this is.
1994	The Notorious B.I.G.Ready to Die “Juicy” is the one song on this whole wall I know every single word to — birthday cards on Christmas, one room shack with moms, the whole negative-to-positive story. It's on my wall because that rags-to-riches thing still hits me right in the chest even after a thousand listens, i'm not crying you're crying.
1995	Mobb DeepThe Infamous “Shook Ones Pt. II” is the coldest-sounding beat I personally own, and I mean that as the HIGHEST compliment I've got, sounds like it was recorded in a stairwell in January. I put this one up for the way Prodigy's verses feel like they were recorded at three in the morning in a room with no heat — this is not a hype-yourself-up record, this is a stare-out-the-window record.
1995	Big LLifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous I found this one later than I should have, and it genuinely made me a little mad on his behalf that more people don't say his name in the same breath as everyone else on this wall, WHERE'S THE RESPECT. “Put It On” and “MVP” are just pure technical showing-off, and I love a record that's somebody being unfairly good at rapping purely for the sake of it, no bigger reason needed.
1996	2PacAll Eyez on Me Two discs and barely a wasted minute — I used to burn this onto an actual CD-R just so I could keep “California Love” and “Ambitionz Az a Ridah” back to back, technology of the gods. It's up here because Pac sounds like he's talking directly to ME and nobody else in the room, every single time, kind of unsettling honestly but in a good way.
2004	Kanye WestThe College Dropout I put this up mostly for “Through the Wire” — the WHOLE thing recorded with his jaw wired shut after the car accident, and somehow that's the version of him that still sounds the most alive to me, insane origin story if you've never looked it up. This is the record that taught me a rap album could be funny, insecure, and gospel-choir sincere all in the same four minutes, and I didn't know that was allowed before this.
2004	Madvillain (MF DOOM & Madlib)Madvillainy This is the one I put on when I want to feel like I'm the only person who's ever heard it, even though obviously I'm not, everyone's heard Madvillainy, I'm not special. DOOM's voice sounds like it's coming through a busted speaker on purpose, and Madlib's loops are weird and warm in a way I genuinely still can't explain, especially on “All Caps.” ALL CAPS when you spell the man's name, it's literally in the lyrics, I'm not just shouting for no reason.
2008	Lil WayneTha Carter III “A Milli” is still the single most unhinged thing I own, sixteen bars of pure association, barely even a hook, and it somehow went NUMBER ONE anyway, how. I keep this on the wall for the density of the wordplay across the whole thing, dude was daring himself to never repeat a punchline twice and mostly won.
2010	Kanye WestMy Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy “Runaway” and that toast to the assholes, the scumbags, the jerkoffs — nine minutes long and it STILL doesn't feel like enough, I've tried to skip it and I physically cannot. This one's up here because it's the most anybody's ever thrown at a single rap record at once, orchestras and all, and somehow none of it feels like too much, which makes no sense but here we are.
2011	Kendrick LamarSection.80 “Keisha's Song” wrecked me the first time I heard it and it still does, every time, I don't make the rules. I keep this one up because it's somebody figuring out what kind of writer they're going to be in real time, before basically anybody else was watching, we were all sleeping on this one and I'm still a little mad about it.
2012	Kendrick Lamargood kid, m.A.A.d city I've driven around at night with “Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst” on more times than I could possibly count, just to sit inside that ending, it's a whole movie in one song. If someone asked me what a rap album can actually DO, structurally, I wouldn't even try to explain it — I'd just press play on this and let them sit there.
2013	A$AP RockyLong.Live.A$AP This one's on the wall purely for the way it SOUNDS, “Fuckin' Problems” and “Wild for the Night” feel built for a car system specifically tuned to play them and nothing else. Rocky's whole move here is texture and swagger over substance, and I'm not even a little embarrassed to admit that's exactly what I wanted that year.
2014	J. Cole2014 Forest Hills Drive No features on the whole thing, not one, and you can feel him daring the record to hold up without any help, bold move honestly. “Love Yourz” is the song I've sent to more friends going through something than literally any other song I own, it's basically my go-to text message at this point.
2015	Kendrick LamarTo Pimp a Butterfly This is the one I had to SIT with instead of just listening to — the first few times through I genuinely did not know what to do with “Mortal Man” and Tupac's voice showing up at the very end, I had to just stop and stare at the wall for a bit. It's on my wall because it made me realize an album could be built like an actual piece of music instead of just a stack of songs thrown in a folder.
2015	Travis ScottRodeo “3500” into “Antidote” is still one of my favorite runs on this entire wall, all warped and underwater-sounding in a way literally nobody else was doing back then. This is the one that got me into him before it turned into a whole genre of its own, I was there before it was cool, humble brag but true.
2016	DrakeViews “Hotline Bling” was inescapable the summer this came out, you could not go anywhere without hearing it, but I put it up here for “Weston Road Flows” instead — the most Toronto he's ever sounded, rain on the window the whole way through. It's on the wall because nobody else has ever made moodiness sound this comfortable, the man turned sulking into an art form.
2017	Kendrick LamarDAMN. I play this one back to front almost as much as front to back because “DUCKWORTH.” rewires EVERYTHING you thought you understood about “BLOOD.” the second it ends, genuinely rewired my brain the first time I noticed it. “HUMBLE.” was blasting out of every single car window the summer it came out and I was there for every second of it, iconic summer honestly.
2018	Travis ScottAstroworld “SICKO MODE” changes beats like three whole songs got stitched into one and somehow every single phase of it still slaps, how does that even work. I put this one up because it was the first time in years a rap album felt like an actual EVENT again, the kind of thing everyone had an opinion on by the weekend, remember when albums used to do that.
2019	Tyler, The CreatorIGOR “EARFQUAKE” is the one I actually cried to the first time, which is not a sentence I EVER expected to type about a Tyler record, but here we are. This is on the wall because it's a full concept album about a breakup told almost entirely through the production choices, and it still ended up being the most emotionally direct thing on this whole wall, wig.
2022	Kendrick LamarMr. Morale & the Big Steppers This one asks a LOT more of you than anything else on this wall and I respect it for that — “Mother I Sober” is genuinely hard to sit through some days, like I have to be in a very specific mood. It's up here because it's somebody using the entire album as therapy instead of a victory lap, and I think that's braver than anything else on this wall honestly.
2026	J. ColeThe Fall-Off Two discs, “Disc 29” and “Disc 39,” Cole going back to his own city at two totally different points in his own life and calling it his LAST album on purpose, bold way to go out. I've had this one on repeat since it dropped back in February and it already feels like it's always belonged up here next to the rest of them, welcome to the wall, Cole.

This page will never really be finished, because the wall never stops growing — thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to sign my guestbook on your way out.