Why is Main Source’s Breaking Atoms on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Old school, east coast hip hop flavor with horn riffs and soul music samples for days.
Some stats & info about Main Source – Breaking Atoms
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rap, Hip Hop, Old School Hip Hop, East Coast Rap
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was Breaking Atoms released? 1991
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #914 out of 1,000
Main Source’s Breaking Atoms on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.
What does Main Source’s Breaking Atoms mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
Main Source comprises the Large Professor, Sir Scratch, and K-Cut. Incredible names. For my money, that’s plenty of evidence that they are worth checking out.
Released in 1991, Breaking Atoms is perfectly positioned as an album transitioning 1980s hip hop into what it would become at its best in the 1990s. It’s a great album mixing old school, east coast flavor with horn riffs and soul music samples.
“Snake Eyes” is the kind of song that makes me think, “Why isn’t there more music out there like this?” Answer: because it’s hard to pull off as Main Source has done while making it look easy.
I love the line: once a snake, you stay a snake. Tell ‘em, fellas.
“Large Professor,” presumably introducing us to that instructor who is both large and in charge, brings in a great groove on guitar, organ, and occasional tinkling piano.
“Vamos a Rapiar” has a classic early 1990s hip hop vibe, with outstanding piano riff and record scratches thrown down by Sir Scratch. Also, incredible:
They probably think that as long as they gettin’ paid
They can sleep in the shade, but they’ll fall like a cascade
While I drop skills over drum fills
This album Also sounds like
I’d say Breaking Atoms sits in a really nice spot between A Tribe Called Quest and Gang Starr.