Don't feed the troll. Mine was Eminem's Encore. Although if we want to be technical the genre is Hip-Hop, rapping is just a vocal delivery style.

I think mine was Beats, Rhymes and Life, but it might have been Black Star.

DangerDOOM - The Mouse and the Mask

It practically defines my middle school existence.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

Actually the first CD I ever owned. I still think Will is an under rated rapper when he wasn't doing the corny stuff in the Fresh Prince era. It wasn't til college when I really started listening to rap though and I was introduced to stuff like Nas, Wu, Kool G Rap, etc

Nice, was reading through some of the quality albums people started with and was blown away.... Until I saw Dirty's post, and finally found one I could relate to.

My first album was Will Smith's Willenium. As a white kid in a middle class neighborhood surrounded by lower class minorities in middle school, that was the best I could come up with at the time, and legitimately thought that owning it would give me tons of insight into the world of rap.

Second album bought was Dr. Dre 2001, and so on and so forth... so it really was a matter of exponential growth over time rather than hitting the ground running full speed.

Linkin Park's Reanimation.

Hear me out.

For a starter album, it's ****ing fantastic. All you have to do is look at the lineup.

KutMasta Kurt, Motion Man, The Alchemist, Chali 2Na, Zion-I (Zumbi and Amp Live), Sean C, Roc Raida, Black Thought, Evidence, Pharoahe Monch, DJ Babu, Aceyalone, Cheapshot, Jubacca, Rasco, Planet Asia


Amazing.

Illmatic, first and best album I have ever bought.

it was a cassette

Run DMC's Raisin' Hell

Bone Thugs n Harmony "The Art of War"

My first CD was Snoop Doggy Dog "Doggystyle"

my first rap album though was a cassette of Public Enemy "It Takes a Nation of Millions...." that a kid in my class gave to me when I was 13.