Paradise Don’t Come Cheap cover

Paradise Don’t Come Cheap

Released

One of the heaviest hip-hop albums ever made, the second and final statement from this New York duo (and producer Scotty Hard) sounds like Westbound-era Funkadelic laid over slow-and-low beats hard enough to crack the sidewalk. Rappers Nosaj and Sebastian are hoarse and out of breath, shouting their lines in an old-school style like Run-DMC crossed with thick-necked hardcore punk. Samples sound warped, like they’re being played underwater or like the tape is coming unspooled as you listen, which gives many of the tracks a woozy, head-spinning quality that suits the lyrics’ imagery of alienation, disorientation, and doom (“Gonna ride a charger into Armageddon/When I get there, Satan gonna be there waitin’”).

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
The Coming cover

The Coming

Busta Rhymes
The Mouse and the Mask cover

The Mouse and the Mask

Danger Mouse, MF DOOM, Danger Doom
F.Y.I. cover

F.Y.I.

Mach-Hommy
Return of the Mac cover

Return of the Mac

Prodigy, The Alchemist
Welcome To Our World cover

Welcome To Our World

Magoo, Timbaland
Jazz Codes cover

Jazz Codes

Moor Mother
One for All cover

One for All

Brand Nubian
Radio Free Brooklyn cover

Radio Free Brooklyn

Pete Miser
Dos Dedos Mis Amigos cover

Dos Dedos Mis Amigos

Pop Will Eat Itself
Smoke Some Kill cover

Smoke Some Kill

Schoolly D
Done by the Forces of Nature cover

Done by the Forces of Nature

Jungle Brothers
Later That Day… cover

Later That Day…

Lyrics Born