The Best Hip-Hop Concept Albums of 2003

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Explore the best hip-hop concept albums of 2003 featuring standout releases with unique themes and narratives. Covering everything from personal stories and fictional worlds to cultural commentary and deeper explorations of society, these are the albums that stood out among the year's conceptual releases.

4.5-Star Albums

King Geedorah

King Geedorah – Take Me To Your Leader

Citizens of Earth! A three-headed monster from outer space named King Geedorah has landed on our planet and he’s taking over! His weapons? Mad rap skills and a nasty habit for telling the truth as he sees it. MF DOOM uses this project to rap in the third person as this alien monster from outer space under the Godzilla-inspired alias ‘King Geedorah’. DOOM utilizes this outsider to give another perspective on hip hop itself.  “Geedorah is a space monster. He’s not from the Earth. I made it different on purpose. A blend of ill lyrics and instrumentals. To me its way iller than any of the wack shit out now… This whole album is Geedorah’s alien perspective on humans. This is done intentionally to show the listener a mirror image of his/herself and the way we see each other” – MF DOOM

Vaudeville Villain

Viktor Vaughn – Vaudeville Villain

Vaudeville Villain‘s storyline follows the everyday life of super-villain/beat scientist/drug dealer/stick-up kid Vik Vaughn. Viktor, a time-travelling, drug-dealing MC voyages between the various eras of hip-hop, with one of the final songs revealing how his journey began.

4-Star Albums

The Listening

Little Brother – The Listening

The Listening, the debut album by Little Brother, revolves around a fictional radio station: WJLR – Justus League Radio (complete with features like a interview with 9th Wonder), which also contributes to tying all the songs more together. The underlying theme of The Listening concerns the group’s effort to engage their listeners on a deeper level, and their frustration at casual listeners who pay little attention to lyrics and content and simply want to hear a “hot song”. The interludes are performed by the members of a fictional radio station called WJLR (Justus League Radio). On the last song, “The Listening”, the group addresses the album’s main theme directly: they abruptly stop the song, exchange dialogue, then restart. Keep it locked on WJLR Justus League Radio!

Speakerboxx/The Love Below

OutKast – Speakerboxx/The Love Below

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is such a curious concept: splitting up a team that works so well together and having them record two seperate albums. The Love Below has the added narrative concept where Andre 3000 meets a woman, falls in love, eventually breaks up with her because of his realization that she isn’t the one, marries another woman, and loses her too because of his weakness.  “It was a concept album, completing the whole thought. Being in a group, it’s all about compromising,” he said of the pair’s decision to listen to no one but themselves. “We play a lot off of each other. But that record right there was, ‘OK, this is Big’s train of thought, and this is Dre’s train of thought.’ Two sides to the same coin, but tell it in different ways.” – Big Boi

Politics of the Business

Prince Paul – Politics of the Business

The concept for Politics of the Business is following-up a concept album that did not sell too well (that album being A Prince Among Thieves). Prince Paul deals with the fallout of terrible record sales of his concept album and tries to pull himself back up by the bootstraps and make a comeback.

3.5-Star Albums

Bazooka Tooth

Aesop Rock – Bazooka Tooth

A bazooka tooth is a put-down for someone with braces. But Aesop Rock has taken this insult and re-imagined it as his superhero/alter-ego: Bazooka Tooth. Far from spineless, his spine can cut diamonds. He is armored and hefty – his feet are like bricks in his timbs, and the character having bazooka in his tooth could be implying that he’s got lethal rap skills.

Rip the Jacker

Canibus – Rip the Jacker

Rip the Jacker is a conceptual album. As the alter-ego of Canibus, Rip the Jacker sees the world through the eyes of a modern-day lyricist and poet. As a concept album, the record represents the third “personality” of the rapper: “Prof. Emeritus Rip The Jacker”, the others being “Dr. PhD Canibus” and “Germaine Williams” (his real name).  Canibus explained the alter-egos: “Germaine created Canibus and Canibus had to deal with things in the industry that he had no idea existed. I didn’t know that the competition was unfair, that the competitive nature of the music was cut-throat. Then when I had the chance to experience that, Canibus had to create another level. Rip the Jacker is like a foot side of Jack the Ripper”.

Electric Garden of Delights

DJ Frane – Electric Garden of Delights

Electric Garden of Delights is set in a blissful garden, enchanted with exotic creatures and psychotropic plants. Take a magically enthralling ride through the garden of your dreams. Beware the dark seeds you plant in the garden of your mind in this instrumental concept album.

sin-a-matic

Louis Logic – Sin-A-Matic

Sin-A-Matic is a “cinematic” look at sin. Often offensive for the sake of being offensive shock rap that glorifies sin. Louis Logic says that the album is supposed to be a “visual ride that presents itself the way a movie would without pictures.”

Soul Position – 8,000,000 Stories

Eight Million Stories seems to be a bit of a concept album about inner city life, as Blueprint leads us from bedrooms to alleyways to dead-end jobs as each song tells a different story. There are only 16 stories though, not 8 million. “Listen while we make our mark on the art (Eight million stories to tell…)”

The Saturday Nite Agenda

Soul Supreme – The Saturday Nite Agenda

On The Saturday Nite Agenda, Soul Supreme folds contemporary subject matter into “a seventies black exploitation movie storyline tied together by various movie excerpts and interludes.”

The Lost Children Of Egypt – Words From The Duat: The Book of Anubis

Words From The Duat: The Book of Anubis is focused on Egyptian philosophy and mythology. The Lost Children Of Babylon changed their name for the album to “The Lost Children of Egypt” on request of Dr. Malachi Z. York. This name change reflects a concept change on the album, which is more focused on Egyptian philosophy and mythology.  

Taste the Secret

Ugly Duckling – Taste the Secret

“MeatShake” is a fictitious chain of restaurants offering meat-based thick shakes. The story involves working at the fast-food chain and its inter-business war with the new age crystal-loving psychos Veggie Hut, an all-vegetarian fast-food stand. The track MeatShake is styled like an advertisement for the fictitious fast food outlet. It’s even got customer appraisals, a catchy jingle, and some shade for Veggie Hut, the sworn enemy of MeatShake. The stories in this concept album range from sitting in the MeatShake drive-thru to dealing with unruly customers upset that their TurkeyShake tasted like a HamShake, or navigating picketing line of protestors in front of the store.   Don’t forget to get a side of Meat Fries! I Wanna Go Home Turn It Up – Refried MeatShake   Ugly Duckling – Taste the SecretBeatsLyricsConceptReader Rating0 Votes3.5

Honorable Mentions