10 Albums Where Hip Hop Got Real

When hip hop was first coming up in the mid '80s, there weren't too many songs that had a message or anything. Even though Grandmaster Flash had opened the door for songs that had more of a serious slant to them, acts like Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys were getting on the charts for songs that were more about the party atmosphere than anything that you had to take to heart. Chuck D was always about something more than just spitting over the beat though, and It Takes a Nation of Millions was one of the first hip hop albums that made time stand still.

With the rest of the Bomb Squad coming in back of him, Chuck's words on here are still some of the most hard hitting songs in the hip hop canon, using music as a form of resistance on a track like Bring the Noise. Although this is still a hip hop album from skin to core, there's an almost punk rock aesthetic to the songs on here like Don't Believe the Hype and Rebel Without a Pause, using different samples to expose some of the harsh realities that go on right in front of our faces every single day.

And even if Flavor Flav is there to just be the greatest hype man of all time for Chuck, he's still got a lot to say here as well, spitting about his own struggles on songs like Cold Lampin With Flavor. The record might just happen to sound immaculate from cover to cover, but the truth behind every one of these songs is about something much bigger than those big ass clocks that Flav wears.