11 Biggest Urban Legend Albums In Hip Hop
11 Biggest Urban Legend Albums In Hip Hop
Hip hop has this nasty trait of announcing albums that will get fans super duper hyped up and then never releasing them. To make matters worse, they will tease you with new release dates and pictures of the artist in the studio (like the picture above with Dr. Dre and Jay-Z) only to get your hopes up before shooting them down and laughing at you like the annoying dog on "Duck Hunt." StreetLevel offers you a list of our 11 biggest urban legend albums that we will more than likely never see or hear. Detox anyone?
Black Thought – Masterpiece Theater
The Roots’ rhyme animal and front man announced that he would release a solo album in 2001 titled Masterpiece Theater. Hip Hop heads got really hyped to hear Thought solo – although The Roots’ albums are really Black Thought with The Roots backing him . . . but whatever. The album was scrapped and the remains ended up on Phrenology. Dah well.
Dr. Dre & Ice Cube – Heltah Skeltah
After Dre and Cube made nice after Cube roasted the entire N.W.A. crew on “No Vaseline” many wondered if they’d manage to rekindle the good ol’ days in the 90′s. When it was announced that Dre and Cube were in the studio working on a collaborative album titled Heltah Skeltah, the west coast rejoiced. But just like anything Dr. Dre works on, we waited, and waited, and waited. It’s 2010 and we’re still waiting. We lost.
Lupe Fiasco, Pharrell & Kanye West – Child Rebel Soldiers
Nerdy hip hop kids must have thanked the intellectual hip hop Gods when the word hit the net that Lupe, Kanye and Pharrell were forming a rap group. The trio gave us a taste of what they would have given the masses with the Lupe produced “Us Placers.” But after that, we never heard anything else about the project ever again. Lupe officially dismissed the project a few months ago. Sucks to be a nerd.
Dr. Dre – Detox
Dre announced this album back in 2000. Folks, it is now 2010 and we are still hearing that this album is coming out. Every single year it is announced as the most anticipated album. Frankly, we’re tired of hearing about it. All we want to know when it’s coming out. No more leaks, no more pictures, no more interviews. Just give us the damn album!
Lauryn Hill – ???
The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill will forever go down as one of the most remarkable works of art in music. The extremely talented Ms. Hill floored us with her beautiful voice, tremendous songwriting abilities and talent as a rapper that puts most male rappers to shame. She was the epitome of excellence. Then she married a Marley and went all weirdo on us. Clown wigs, weird make up and some strange tunes later and we’re wondering if L-Boogie will ever come back down to earth and give us the album we’ve been begging for.
Nas & DJ Premier – ???
Nas has often been considered “beat retarded” since Illmatic. All of his projects since then have lacked the production punch that his initial foray into hip hop had. The cure came in the form of DJ Premier and the duo announced that they would be working on an album together in 2006. If you were a fan of hip hop, then this was like seeing Jordan and Magic on the court together during their heyday. Unfortunately, we still haven’t seen or heard about this album again. Rats.
Rakim – Oh My God!
When Dr. Dre announced that he had signed the legendary Rakim to Aftermath in 2000 and that the album titled Oh My God! would be on its way, many of us slapped ourselves to see if we were dreaming. Apparently we slapped ourselves into reality as the album would be shut down due to the fact that neither Dre nor Rakim could get on the same page creatively to complete this hugely anticipated album. Damn shame.
Ol’ Dirty Bastard – A Son Unique
Recorded prior to his death in 2004, Ol Dirty Bastard’s A Son Unique was originally planned to be released by the Dame Dash Music Group in 2005. It was delayed but rescheduled to be released on November 7, 2006 to commemorate the anniversary of ODB’s death. On the day it was supposed to be released, the album showed up for download on iTunes but would never be officially released.
Ras Kass – Van Gogh
Ras Kass was long heralded as one of the greatest lyricists the west coast ever produced. A monster on the microphone, the only thing he ever lacked was strong enough production to back up his ridiculous lyricism. Van Gogh was announced with production courtesy of Dr. Dre, Hi Tek and DJ Premier. Hip hop fans hugged each other and cried tears of joy after the announcement. Then we cried when Priority merged with Capitol and beefed with Ras over budget restrictions and album promotion. Ras would soon be arrested on a D.U.I. charge, became a fugitive and turned himself in. This would be the end of Van Gogh (as well as the renamed album Golden Chyld) as we knew it.
Saigon – The Greatest Story Never Told
It’s the perfect name for an album we may never get to hear. When Atlantic Records inked Saigon and announced The Greatest Story Never Told in 2005, it appeared that the next big thing was on its way. Unfortunately, Atlantic second guessed themselves and royally screwed up any momentum Sai had going into the heavily hyped The Greatest Story Never Told project – even with superproducer Just Blaze behind it. They tested “Pain In My Life” featuring Trey Songz and stalled the album out. They tried again in 2007 with “C’mon Baby” but somehow figured the single wasn’t hot enough – even though many thought it was. We’re still waiting for the story to be told.
Outkast – ???
This one is so damn frustrating. Arguably the greatest duo in history, Outkast has been on hiatus as a group since 2000′s Stankonia. They have still been recording, but not as a duo. With Idlewild and Speakerboxx/The Love Below albums being released since then, it was even more maddening to know that they’d record one or two songs together but just wouldn’t knock out an entire album. It’s been a decade and we’re just tired of being teased dammit! Give us the album now!