Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions to Keep Us Down (1988)
I am getting old and certainly no one's definition of an expert in hip hop, but still almost 35 years later, this still is IMO the greatest rap album ever
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
Although I hold to my opinion re: Public Enemy's Nation of Millions as the greatest hip hop album(and admit much is nostalgia as that album wowed me when I owned it in college), when I hear "Lost in the World" (with Kanye working with Bon Iver) followed by the poetry of Gil Scott-Heron in "Who Will Survive in America", I definitely feel this one is close.
Although I think there's a hesitation to post common, esteemed albums here when we spin them, haven't listened to this one in probably 2 years - so yay! Event listening!
So Although Both Sides of the Sky – the third volume in a vault clearing that began in 2010 with Valleys of Neptune (close to a must hear) and continued with 2013’s People, Hell and Angels (a little less close) – repeats songs and fragments found in more fully developed versions elsewhere, it still offers plenty of thrills, as, time and again, Hendrix pushes solos along the knife-edge that separates this world from another.
I always savor the notion of Jimi jamming in the studio with Stephen Stills. We get not one but two pieces of their work together, including a version of "Woodstock" with Hendrix on bass.