The fifth entry for The Rolling Stone and the follow up to ‘Beggars Banquet’ (#185). As noted on that review, group founder, Brian Jones was increasingly absent due to his heavy drug use. In fact, on this record, his only contributions were congas on ‘Midnight Rambler’ and autoharp on ‘You Got The Silver.’ He was fired during these sessions and died a month later and thus the new era of The Rolling Stones had begun. Like its predecessor, this album was a back-to-basics sound, a return to their Bluesy roots.

‘OK Computer,’ Radiohead’s third release, was a creative breakthrough for the band, and a turning point in ‘90s alternative music. Like Pink Floyd for Generation X, Radiohead pushed the boundaries of production. It was the start of a professional partnership with producer, Nigel Godrich, with whom they had recorded a charity single (‘Lucky’) at the behest of Brian Eno.

“If there's one thing this challenge has taught me, it's how to appreciate good hip hop. I'm disappointed that I've gone so long without listening to this album.” That was my review of this album the last time around. A Tribe Called Quest taught me to appreciate Hip Hop. This was the key that unlocked Hip Hop for me. The group’s second release was a departure in sound from their debut. It was more minimalistic, with more of a focus on bass (some of my favourite bass sounds on record), drum breaks and a heavy Jazz influence. Group member, Q-Tip, mostly handled production duties and pushed the boundaries in terms of what had been done before.

Nas had been kicking around since he was a teenager. Along with his best mate and DJ, Will “Ill Will” Graham, he worked his way through the underground Hip Hop scene, drawing comparison to Rakim due to the multi-syllabic internal rhymes in his rapping, although he struggled to gain a record deal. In 1992, when Nas was 18, Graham was murdered by a gunman. The same night Nas’s brother was shot but survived. This was a major wakeup call for Nas. He was finally signed and ‘Illmatic,’ his debut album was released in 1994.

True to form, in 1986 Prince was working on multiple projects at the same time; ‘Dream Factory,’ an album with his band, the Revolution, and ‘Camille,’ a solo project that saw Prince take on an androgynous character, which had him singing the songs in a higher, female-sounding voice. And once again, true to form, Prince decided to spontaneously disband The Revolution. He consolidated the two projects into one album, threw in some new songs and decided to call the triple album ‘Crystal Ball.’ The label were not keen on the idea of trying to sell a triple album, and so they comprised. Prince cut some songs, rejigged the tracklisting and the final result was ‘Sign O’ The Times.’

Following the deterioration of his friendship with Garfunkel, the dissolution of his marriage to Carrie Fisher and the commercial failure of his album, ‘Hearts and Bones,’ Paul Simon suffered a bout of depression. During this time, he managed to get hold of the South African compilation, 'The Indestructible Beat of Soweto’ (#497), a collection of Mbaqanga songs that fascinated Simon. He hopped on a plane and visited Johannesburg, where he spent two weeks recording with some of the very best South African musicians, the likes of Bakithi Khumalo, Ray Phiri, Isaac Mtshali and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, amongst others.

“Hey Ho! Let’s Go!,’ begins the debut album by Ramones. One of the most iconic and recognisable lyrics of all time was inspired by the Rolling Stones lyrics “High hose, tippy toes” on ‘Walking The Dog,’ the last track on their debut record. Taken from the song ‘Blitzkrieg Bop,’ the title was inspired by Nazi “lightning war” tactic and was written by Tommy and Dee Dee Ramone. Interestingly, Tommy was the son of Jewish Holocaust survivors who were saved by friends. Dee Dee grew up in Berlin, before moving to NYC at the age of 15. Growing up in post WWII Germany, he had a fascination with Nazi relics.

I’m going to completely contradict myself and my opinion throughout the challenge on Greatest Hits collections. ‘Legend,’ released in May 1984 on the third anniversary of Marley’s untimely death at 36-years-old, collects all 10 of Marley’s Top 40 singles, plus three singles from the early Wailers days. This was the first Bob Marley “album” that I ever heard, and for many years it was the only one. The Summer camp that I used to go to was obsessed with playing this record. At least once or twice a day every day for 3 weeks, we’d hear the sounds of these 13 songs. As far as teenager me was concerned, ‘Legend’ was THE Bob Marley record.

The album that started it all for me… on this journey, I mean. The very first record that I listened to when I started the original Rolling Stone 500 Albums challenge 8 years ago. I’m going to boldly say that this record will be the biggest jump. From last on the list to Top 50, that’s a pretty major feat. So is it deserving? Well, I enjoyed it more that ‘Stankonia,’ and ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’ was always my favourite OutKast album. But it’s unfair to compare them as they’re completely different records.

It amazes me how many albums on this list were released on September 11 2001. But despite the number of albums released on that fateful day, only one of them went to #1, and that was this one. #1 is where it stayed for 3 weeks and despite what was going on around its release, it still managed to sell 427k in its first week. Flexing his lyrical prowess, Jay-Z wrote the words that would accompany the tight production is just 2 days. The tracks on the record were crafted using samples of vintage Soul songs and saw a renaissance in sample-based songs in Hip Hop.