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ABW defines what a classic album is...

AP3.0

AP3.0

Bucket hat Dad
Site Administrator
Shoutout to BOMM podcast

got this idea from them

but the premise is a simple one

often too many times, we get caught up in the weeds about what defines a classic album when, all along, we've been going about it the song way.

On the pod, they had this idea that stemmed from like 3 diff convos. Migos "culture 2", Jayz BP 2, and whats a classic/good album

The convo was basically Culture 2 has TOO many songs, then jumped to, how many songs on an album does it take to be considered...trash, good or classic?

There were a few criteria like if an album has 24 songs, how many songs does it take to be trash, good, classic. Using Culture 2 as an example, the consensus was that the album was mostly trash due to the amount of songs that are good compared to the ones that are bad is HUGE.

So this is part one of the discussion which i dont think should take too many pages, but how many songs do you think make an album good?

Going to use 3 albums as an example as i dont think you can apply a flat percentage.

Culture 2 - 24 songs...how many songs does it have to have out of 24 for it to be trash, good, classic?

4:44 - 10 songs...how many songs does it have to have out of 10 to be trash, good, classic?

StillMatic - 14 songs...how many etc...

I chose these three albums as a gauge b/c nowadays you have albums that either have as few songs as 4:44 or as many songs as Culture 2 or somewhere in between like Stillmatic

WE ARE NOT JUDGING THESE ALBUMS...I REPEAT...WE ARE NOT JUDGING THESE ALBUMS. Im asking you, out of the total amount of songs, how many songs have to be good enough to be considered good or classic. By default, anything less than that, its trash or not good for the PC folk
 
If an album has 2o or more songs like Culture, i rate it like this

19/24 = Classic
15/24 = Good
13 or below = trash/not good

An album like 4:44

8/10 = Classic
6/10 = good
5 or below = trash/not good

Stillmatic

11/14 = Classic
8/14 = Good
7 or below = trash not good
 
The quality of the good tracks an an x factor for me. For example if you gonna keep an album to 10-13 tracks, at least 5 of those songs NEED to be INCREDIBLE.
If you keep the album song total low you leave less room for error/wack songs, but also the majority of the songs NEED to be GREAT. Too many songs on a album tends to hurt the overall quality often. Take Krit's last album. Loved it, good album. however, everytime i hear it now I realize he could've made it a classic if he took off 3-5 songs.
 
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25 tracks. Classic
 
Take off big bank, subestein, 99, the light and you might have a classic track. I wasn't a fan of "keep the devil off" but it fits the theme well. And I'm sorry, but the migos and classic album don' sound right in the same sentence
 
80% of the album should be fire to be classic. I agree with @AP21 .

Also, notice how hard it is to have a classic album with more than 15 tracks. I've always thought that even the notable classic double albums (Pac, BIG, Bone, UGK, etc...) would have been better if they were trimmed down to 15. All those could have have 12 fire tracks, easily and I would view them with more regard if they were shorter.
 
For me its a few things...
Does the artist follow through with the theme of the album?

Are the beats repetitive?

Decent amount of bars? (doesn't have to be super lyrical miracle)

Does the music make me zone out when listening?

Do the featured guest outshine the artist?

How much time do i spend listening to this particular album?
 
If its fast food it cant be classic..classic is at the same time subjective and obvious..it really means nothing

but i do notice niggas be grading on a curve..


people are too invested in this designation instead of just enjoying the shit
 
IMO its an album that you can play over and over again and not get bored with, and you can pick it up years later and still love it... Also if an album has a certain amount of skippable tracks (4+?) I would say it cannot be a classic album, even if it has a classic song on it...
 
Water Ur Seeds said:
IMO its an album that you can play over and over again and not get bored with, and you can pick it up years later and still love it... Also if an album has a certain amount of skippable tracks (4+?) I would say it cannot be a classic album, even if it has a classic song on it...
Click to expand...

ok, so interesting you brought this up

the place where i got the idea basically said, a song can be cool, but if most of the time, you find yourself skipping the song or you are just kinda meh on it, then it goes in the "bad song" category

NOT saying the song is complete trash, but if happened to make a best of playlist, would it be on there, and if its not, then dont count that

I'm going somewhere with this, but i would like a few more responses

great replies everyone
 
AP21 said:
ok, so interesting you brought this up

the place where i got the idea basically said, a song can be cool, but if most of the time, you find yourself skipping the song or you are just kinda meh on it, then it goes in the "bad song" category

NOT saying the song is complete trash, but if happened to make a best of playlist, would it be on there, and if its not, then dont count that

I'm going somewhere with this, but i would like a few more responses

great replies everyone
Click to expand...

Yeah they are plenty of 'cool' or 'good' songs around but I wouldnt put them into the bad category just because they arnt classic (but i see what you mean with the thread)... I give 3 brackets/categories, 'Bad', 'Good/Decent' and 'Classic'...

Take Dre for example... I liked Dre's 'Compton' album but for me wasnt a classic as I havnt played it in moooonths and dont really plan on it, but I enjoyed it when it dropped and sessioned it for a few weeks (the n.w.a movie hyped it for me) but then put it down, I WANTED it to be a classic but for me personally it was just a 'Good' album...

Whereas you look back to '2001' (or The Chronic) I actually still play that album to this day!!! Thats a classic for me... Whilst on the subject of '2001' that for me also impacted and shaped hip hop culture and to a degree saw in new artists, plus made Dre a force as a solo artist again... I think that also is what helps make a classic album (even song), an album that AFFECTED hip hop... I dont think 'Compton' affected hip hop (though i think the n.w.a movie did)...

Im not saying an album/song has to affect hip hop to be a classic, but it helps and is one of many points/factors that you can attribute to an album or song being a classic...
 
well the thing is...using this approach, if we all agree that on a 10 track album that 8 songs are dope, there is a chance that those 8 might not be universally liked by everyone, however, the fact that 8 songs is a consensus for making the album a classic

like on 4:44, i mess with Lala land, but i dont really rock with Bam...Bam is a cool song, but i prefer lala land. But there are people here who said the exact opposite, but we agree that at least 8 songs on the album jam.
 
I think a lot of people have different ideas of what makes a classic album.

Imo the album has to check off most of these boxes.

Impactful
Influential
Classic single


But ofc everybody has their own criteria, how long should an album be out before it can be considered a classic?

Is there a such thing as an instant classic?


Drop your criteria.​
 
Cohesiveness is one of the most important to me. It's sometimes hard to explain but you know when an album flows right.

Shows the essence of an artist. It could be influential, whether lyrically or production wise. Standing the test of time is cool too but there are some dated classics.

Replay Value if you can’t keep going back to that album and play it front to back, no skips, no getting bored with the tracks and not still bumping after playing it hella times, It’s not a classic.
 
Lyrics- don’t have to be canibus on the mic, but shit can’t be wack either.

Production- beats are the first thing that draws someone to a song, so it’s important for the production to be on point.

Impact- there has to be some level of impact whether big or small.
 
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