1. Goodie MobSoul Food
To this day I’d be tempted to argue that it’s one of the five best rap albums of all time. It might be in the running for my favourite rap album of all the time. It came out when I was in college. I was already a fan of OutKast since Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik came out, and Goodie Mob had features on that. And when ‘Cell Therapy’ came out; huge song. The way I was living at that time, I was mostly getting my music off of the show Rap City. That would be my lead into finding out about records. Soul Food came out around when [OutKast’s] ATLiens came out, and I was kind of turned off by some of the differences in how ATLiens sounded initially, compared to Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, so I was listening to Goodie Mob a little bit more.
Although OutKast is without a doubt the better group, given their discography and everything that they achieved, Soul Food, might be better than any OutKast album. Production-wise, it’s incredible, it might be one of Organized Noize’s most complete albums, but the rappers rose to the occasion and there’s really no weak points at all. I feel as though Goodie Mob are underrated as MCs, outside CeeLo Green. There is lots of really good, creative rapping, and storytelling, and abstract rap. Everything that anybody thinks is good? It’s there. And I think not really credited a lot of the time. But yeah, I just felt like the album, from cover to cover, was just so strong. Outstanding peaks. No weak songs. Emotionally compelling. Definitely a powerful impact on me as a writer, as a listener, as a fan. It’s all incredible, okay? That’s really what I have to say.
