So why is PRhyme on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
At a tight nine songs that run under 35 minutes, PRhyme is one of the most striking and unique rap albums I’ve ever heard.
I never get tired of getting that rat-TAT-TAT-TAT drum beat that kicks off the title track, “PRhyme,” which is one of my favorite hip hop songs of this century. The surprisingly slow bass line, wild jazz loop samples, and the electric rap skills of Royce da 5’9” and producer DJ Premier make the track a true standout.
The lyrics definitely run into the R rated throughout PRhyme, but they are as sharp and smart as their delivery. Lines like the following are fantastic but require that you’re well steeped in basketball lore* to get the reference:
Me and Chris we veterans, but when young ‘uns call you vet
You start to feel like Hardaway with that UTEP, two step
* Tim Hardaway was an NBA phenom in the 1990s, but the “UTEP two-step” dates back to Hardaway developing a killer crossover move at the University of Texas at El Paso.
“Dat Sound Good,” featuring Ab-Soul and Mac Miller, has a pulsing, catchy, and darkly mysterious quality. And I’ll note here that the production on this entire album is just exquisite – every note, every syllable just sounds precisely correct.
Much the same things can be said of “To Me, To You,” featuring Jay Electronica, except the tempo slows down even more – in inverse proportion to the tempo of the rapping – creating a darkly hypnotic effect. The organ sound on this track, which is deployed throughout PRhyme, also gives the album a unique and fantastic vibe.
Pop culture stuff that’s somehow related to PRhyme
All of this talk about Prhyme reminds me that another prime has been in the news from the sports world of late. That would be Deion Sanders who, as one of the best and most famous defensive players in NFL history, was known as Prime Time.
Coach Prime these days has caused a sensation by leading the University of Colorado Boulder football team as head coach to a surprising 3-0 as of this writing. The team had gone 1-11 last season and was not expected to do much better this year.
Another important and fun part of the story is that Sanders has not one but two sons playing on the team: quarterback Shedeur Sanders and safety Shilo Sanders.
While I’m a big fan of pro football and basketball, I don’t really follow college sports at all, so this is likely the only best 1,000 albums ever piece where you’ll see a college sports reference, let alone two!
Some stats & info about PRhyme
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rap, Hip Hop, East Coast Rap, Hardcore Rap
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was PRhyme released? 2014
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #362 out of 1,000
PRhyme on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from PRhyme that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
PRhyme, PRhyme, I’m in my permanent prime, I ain’t never falling off.
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 review of 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.