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
Kool Moe Dee cover

Kool Moe Dee

Kool Moe Dee
Rhino XXL cover

Rhino XXL

Infinity Knives, Brian Ennals
Paid in Full cover

Paid in Full

Eric B. & Rakim
On the Attack cover

On the Attack

20 Fingers, Gillette
Black Dialogue cover

Black Dialogue

The Perceptionists
Cure for Sanity cover

Cure for Sanity

Pop Will Eat Itself
Exmilitary cover

Exmilitary

Death Grips
Sit Down, Man cover

Sit Down, Man

Das Racist, Heems