4. N.W.A – Straight Outta Compton
This was the punk hip hop record of its generation: it changed everything about the way you looked at hip hop. It was anarchy, and the impact it’s had on hip hop in general – the way that rap as a language changed – was unbelievable. It’s a very historically important record in the same way that Never Mind the Bollocks was for what it did for youth culture, the attitude, the image, the production, everything. I first heard it on a bootleg tape and it was one of those records that spread like wildfire.
