Albums That Shaped My Taste
Hip-Hop
2Pac — All Eyez On Me (1996)
So this website that I created and own makes it obvious and clear that I love Hip-Hop music. But what was the album that got me here. Well, 2Pac’s fourth studio double album, All Eyez On Me, was the album that started it all. As much as I love, listen and enjoy different genres of music, Hip-Hop will always be my first love. I got into music during my childhood years by watching music channels. There was no deep dive into a genre until I was 11 years old, so 2Pac wasn’t the first rapper I ever heard, but he influenced me to start my Hip-Hop deep dive.
How did it happen? Well, I vividly remember being in my brother’s car and he played me “Ambitionz az a Ridah”. You know those magical musical moments when you hear something and say to yourself, “what is this?”. Those moments are amazing and precious, because they become more rare as you get older. They are potent and powerful when you are young, because you haven’t heard that much music in your life. It’s a little bit sad when you think about it, but it represents an experience or memory you cherish forever. Anyways, sometime later I was with my brother’s friends listening to them as they talked about their favourite rappers, names such as Biggie and DMX among others were thrown around. Then all of a sudden someone started playing “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted”, another song from the album, which features Snoop Dogg, and then from there the journey started.
Naturally, All Eyez On Me is an album that holds a close place to my heart, even though I don’t think it’s a perfect album and there are some skips. It’s not my favourite 2Pac album, that title goes to Me Against the World. On the other hand, it’s the album that opened the door for Hip-Hop to become my favourite genre. Being a West Coast album, I’m sure it influenced my specific love for West Coast music also.
1990s R&B
Aaliyah — One In A Million (1996)
If 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me fully introduced me to Hip-Hop and started the butterfly effect to where I review Hip-Hop music, it’s now time talk about the album that did the same for R&B. Aaliyah’s second studio album, One In A Million helped to curate my interest and love for R&B music, more specifically 90s R&B, the last great decade for the genre. With a storied history of Hip-Hop and R&B collaborations, it was perhaps destined for me to start an R&B journey, as I did with Hip-Hop.
Timbaland is one of my favourite producers, as a child I grew up listening to the songs he produced either through the radio or through music channels. I remember I watched his episode on E! True Hollywood Story and he talked about his time with Aaliyah, so doing some research and seeing that he produced her entire second album, One In A Million, it peeped my interest. I would have many of the album’s songs on repeat, most notably “If Your Girl Only Knew” and Timbaland’s Groove Mix of “Hot Like Fire”. From then on I just started to get more into 90s R&B, specifically Jodeci, D’Angelo, TLC and Mary J. Blige.
Unlike, All Eyez On Me no one played One In A Million for me and no one truly introduced me to 90s R&B, like my brother introduced me to Hip-Hop. However, likewise with 2Pac’s double album, I don’t think One In A Million is my favourite from Aaliyah as I prefer her last album, which was her self-entitled LP. Although, Aaliyah’s second album introduced me to an era of R&B music that I love whole heartedly, an era that I believe should be now given the same amount of respect as 70s Soul music.
