Top 5 - Lang Whitaker
1) OutKast, Aquemini (LaFace). When OutKast dropped Aquemini to very little advance publicity, critics, fans and artists alike were all shocked at the beauty of it all. But should they have been? Atlanta natives OutKast had already put out two well-received records that had established them as one of the south's most important voices. So why was Aquemini so surprising? Because it's hands down the most progressive, innovative, memorable and above all else cool hip-hop album of 1998. Dre and Big Boi have gone from playas to princes.
2) Alana Davis, Blame It On Me (Elektra). Even if Blame It On Me weren't Alana Davis's debut record, it would be a great record. But the fact that it is her first album makes it even more stunning. Mixing acoustic guitars with sparkling pianos and rich bass, Davis creates a sumptuous, jazzy base over which she lounges her smoky alto. Her cover of Ani DiFranco's "32 Flavors" made a slight dent on alternative radio, angering DiFranco fans upset that someone was able make a DiFranco song sound melodic. Singing her folky songs of promise and joy, Alana Davis may make your head nod and your toe tap, but her voice will break your heart.
3) Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Ruffhouse/Columbia). Suffrage may be over, but still nobody thought a woman would produce the best R&B record of 1998 -- and not only produce but write, arrange and perform too. Temporarily loosed from the constraints of Wyclef and Pras, her Fugee bandmates, Hill steps out and steps up. As she bounces from rap ("Lost Ones") to soul ("Nothing Really Matters") to flamenco ("For Zion") to doo-wop ("That Thing"), Hill's booming voice demonstrates enough versatility to take the point out of Celine Dion's chin.
4) Goodie Mob, Still Standing (LaFace). With Public Enemy, KRS-One and Ice-T fading away, will the conscience of rap music die? Who will play the sheriff of hip-hop if it becomes a soulless, heartless town? Don't look now, but Goodie Mob has already started pinning on their badges. These four rhymers with diverging personalities (Khujo, T-Mo, Cee-Lo, and Big Gipp) hail from the ATL, and team with OutKast to give LaFace Records the best one-two punch in hip-hop. Still Standing, the Mob's second album, gives them a building block to lift them to OutKast-like standards for their next release.
5) U.N.K.L.E., Psyence Fiction (London/MoWax). You know you're cool when you use sample a song from your own record. London/MoWax Records head James Lavelle teams up with American DJ Shadow to sculpt an album that mixes jazz, rock, classical, rap, electronica and pop. Various luminaries turn up (Thom Yorke, Mike D., Richard Ashcroft) to provide vocals, and Shadow demonstrates remarkable skill as a songcrafter, able to beautifully weave together disparity into harmony.
