Good ass albums that black folk made.
I just felt like compiling a list of great music across the aural spectrum that black people put their ankles in in no particular order. These albums are made wholly or at least in part by black men and women. I'm trying to get a decent amount of stuff outside of typically "black" genres and touch on some obvious stuff, but not too much of it. Edit: To preface this, I AM A BLACK MAN so I can call black people black folk. It's a goal of mine to make weird music sometime in the future after I graduate and a lot of the people on this list make me feel validated. |
| 1 |  | John Coltrane
A Love Supreme
An obvious avant-garde jazz classic. Pro-tip: Listen to Elvin Jones' drum solo on track 3 if you literally want to melt away. |
| 2 |  | Bad Brains
Bad Brains
Still the single most musical and complete old school hardcore punk band to ever play. |
| 3 |  | Miles Davis
Porgy and Bess
Coolest, saddest trumpet this side of forever. |
| 4 |  | Childish Gambino
"Awaken, My Love!"
Super smooth soul/funk/r&b revival type shit with some modern flavors. California is objectively a bad song, though. |
| 5 |  | Death (MI)
...For the Whole World to See
D'you like your intense, kinetic proto-punk with electric blues on top? |
| 6 |  | OutKast
Aquemini
Conscious hip hop perfection. |
| 7 |  | Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Watch that nigga invent rock n roll. |
| 8 |  | The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Are You Experienced
What do you even say? All you folks that think Jimmy Page was better can suck eggs. |
| 9 |  | Ten Grand
This Is The Way To Rule
Super emotional skramz/post-hardcore fronted by a man who goes by the name of Matt Davis. If you want more of this sound from basically the same exact band, check out The Vidablue as well. Found out about these guys when I watched the Afropunk documentary for the first time. That doc is a really good time if you want some varying perspectives on what it is to be alternative/punk and black. |
| 10 |  | Terry Callier
What Color is Love?
Elements of soul, folk, funk, and jazz marry in a beautiful way. Perfect arrangements on every single track. The man's voice is butter churned in the rich suburbs of Heaven. |
| 11 |  | Marvin Gaye
What's Going On
The ever relevant opus of brotherly love and understanding. Butter smooth chord progressions. The album really feels like a massive composition with recurring themes. If American's bumped this regularly, we wouldn't have to indulge in public services like hitler youth haircut, Pepe wearing Nazi punching. Come together, y'all. |
| 12 |  | Zeal and Ardor
Devil is Fine
Who's wacky idea was it to fuse black metal and negro spirituals into some weird ultrablack amalgamation that calls to mind chain gangs singing of Satan instead of God? It's lit, but extremely niche. There's a few cheesy parts that somehow just signal to you that the man watches anime. |
| 13 |  | Curtis Mayfield
Curtis
Genius soul and funk writer extraordinaire Curtis Mayfield at it for the first time with his debut. Move On Up is the feel good song of the millennia. |
| 14 |  | Thundercat
The Golden Age of Apocalypse
The man is a modern 6 string bass extraordinaire with a killer falsetto to boot. Dive into his ethereal blend of jazz and spacey synths. |
| 15 |  | Robert Glasper
Canvas
Smart, stripped back trio work from one of the greatest jazz pianists of the the 21st century. Jelly's Da Beaner grooves like no other. |
| 16 |  | Gucci Mane
Everybody Looking
Guwop! Gucci's back and he's fit, flossin', coherent and sober. What's not to have fun with? |
| 17 |  | Viktor Vaughn
Vaudeville Villain
DOOM's greatest hits. Let Me Watch is perhaps one of the more vulnerable and touching songs he's ever done. |
| 18 |  | Void
Condensed Flesh
The guitarist was black and instrumental in creating this jagged heavy metal tinged hardcore punk that sounds much more punk than any blend of metal and hardcore that came after. It's not thrash, crust, metalcore, or anything else. It's just Void. |
| 19 |  | Yaphet Kotto
The Killer Was in the Government Blankets
The bassist was black and held it down amidst this depressive frenzy. Powerful and emotive skramz with whiney cleans that don't feel too whiney. |
| 20 |  | Kenny G
Breathless
lol not really |
| 21 |  | Prince
Purple Rain
R.I.P. to one of the greatest to ever do it. Who even comes up with vocal melodies like the title track's? |
| 22 |  | Maxwell
Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite |
| 23 |  | Kanye West
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye after classic Kanye, but before all that Hollywood and silicone booty turned him to mush. Debated putting Late Registration here or College Dropout, too. Man, old Kanye was genius. Blame Game is a magical song. lol The damn Chris Rock sample rips me in half. "Yeezy taught me." |
| 24 |  | Death Grips
The Money Store
This album is antisocial as fuck. Perhaps their following is bloated with hipsters, but it doesn't stop what they're doing from being some of the most original "hip hop" around at it's conception. |
| 25 |  | Little Women
Throat
Head splitting and harsh experimental free jazz. |
| 26 |  | Sun Ra
The Antique Blacks
THE experimental jazz opus. Of Sun Ra's many hundreds of releases, this may be the most complete, from the very first modded key arpeggios to all the strange noise and feedback, modular synths extensive meditative vocals touting an Afrocentric narrative. |
| 27 |  | Flying Lotus
Cosmogramma
Steve Ellison's dark and experimental dirge propelled by the disease and death of his mother. Covers an extraordinary amount of musical ground. Jazz, idm, sound art, etc. It's an amazing experience. |
| 28 |  | Stevie Wonder
Songs in the Key of Life
The height of Stevie's career. He spent years crafting this double album and it shows. |
| 29 |  | Lauryn Hill
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Just listen to X Factor. Goddamn. |
| 30 |  | Clipping.
CLPPNG
Who knew hip hop and noise went so well together? Daveed Diggs is a human machine gun. |
| 31 |  | Dalek
From Filthy Tongue Of Gods And Griots
Dark and cold, with many an avant garde touch. If you like excessive helpings of weird in your hip hop, look no further. |
| 32 |  | Pure Hell
Noise Addiction
Raw, blazing, all black punk rock born in the 70's. |
| 33 |  | Suffocation
Effigy of the Forgotten
Brutal, brutal death metal at the turn of the nineties that reaches Cryptopsy levels of extremity. Drummer Mike Smith remarked when first meeting guitarist Terrance Hobbs "Wow, I can't believe their's another black guy playing this kind of stuff." It'll peel the skin from your forehead. |
| 34 |  | Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Tom Morello is probably one of the most creative guitarists to ever be in the alt rock sphere. You know every one of these songs grooves like a son of a bitch. |
| 35 |  | Primitive Man
Scorn
Easily one of the most abrasive, misanthropic, and suffocating sludge metal releases of the 2010's. Tell me the first real groove in Rags doesn't make you want to fuck around and eat somebody. |
| 36 |  | The Mars Volta
De-Loused in the Comatorium
Jon Theodore and Ikey Owens (R.I.P.) hold it down on their respective drums and keys, backing post-hardcore turned prog legends Cedric Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez on what is one of the best prog releases of the 2000's. |
| 37 |  | Animals as Leaders
Animals as Leaders
Tosin Abasi at his brightest and hungriest on his debut, premiering his particularly hyper technical brand of jazzy prog metal. |
| 38 |  | T.R.A.M.
Lingua Franca
A startlingly fresh achievement in straight ahead jazz fusion by Tosin Abasi, clinician and gospel drummer Eric Moore, and the reed player of The Mars Volta. |
| 39 |  | Howlin Wolf
The Howlin' Wolf Album
That motherfuckin Back Door Man. Perhaps the most iconic and charismatic voice in all of blues. |
| 40 |  | Buddy Guy
Stone Crazy!
Said by Eric Clapton to be his favorite bluesman, it isn't hard to see why. The grooves are infections and the voice is more delicate and young than many other voices of the day. Guy has an unmatchable character all his own. |
| 41 |  | Kendrick Lamar
To Pimp a Butterfly
Unabashed Kendrick stan here. Not ashamed. The songwriting here is some of the most inspired that rap music has seen in the last 15 years. Adventurous and epic compositions that range from hip hop to jazz and soul and funk and beyond. |
| 42 |  | Thin Lizzy
Vagabonds of the Western World
Irish born frontman and principal songwriter Phil Lynott leads the charge in this bands meteoric rise to greatness in the 70's. |
| 43 |  | D'Angelo
Black Messiah
The glorious return of probably the greatest living R&B artist. So inspired and left field. It almost seems like "post-r&b". Plus Really Love makes is probably one of the most effective, sexy love songs to grace anyone's ears in recent times. |
| 44 |  | Parliament
Mothership Connection
The timeless space funk release, seminal in music as a whole. It's influence has reverberated across the realms of jazz, rock, and dance music. |
| 45 |  | Funkadelic
Maggot Brain
Experimental funk explorations with abstract, class conscious musings. The Parliament-Funkadelic collective prove themselves to be one of the most compositionally adept bands music has ever seen |
| 46 |  | Taylor McFerrin
Early Riser
This thing is pure ear candy to the tenth degree. Jazzy downtempo to sooth your soul. |
| 47 |  | Blackalicious
Blazing Arrow
Quirky, nerdy, conscious hip hop that manages to subvert conventions and be fun all the while. |
| 48 |  | Gil Scott-Heron
Small Talk At 125th And Lennox
The artful, lyrically acrobatic, & percussive beat musings of seminal black figure Gil Scott-Heron. His poetic developments laid the foundation for soul to come and later hip hop.
"Back goes pale face to basics
Does Little Orphan Annie have a natural?
Do Sluggo's kinks make him a refugee from Mandingo?
What does Webster's say about soul?
I say you silly chipe motherfucker, your great grandfather
Tied a ball and chain to my balls
And bounced me through a cotton field
While I lived in an unflushable toilet bowl
And now you want me to help you overthrow what? |
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