What is a Perfect Album? 

In my opinion, a 'Perfect Album' must have at minimum 3-5 timeless songs and ZERO skips, every song can be revisited and enjoyed and the timeless songs can always be put in rotation. Also the songs must fit together chronologically for me and either keep a theme or take you through multiple different theme segments.

To Pimp A Butterfly is a perfect album for me. There’s literally nothing wrong with that record. Also for me personally the first 4 songs of an album gotta be timeless and there gotta be 0 skips for me to consider it as a perfect album.

TPAB is the definition of a perfect album

Kids See Ghosts might not be in many top 10 lists but it's the best example for a flawless piece of art I can think of. Too bad it's only 7 tracks.

Nas - Illmatic is a perfect album for me. The personification of 90's hip hop and he was only 19 years old.

Food for thought - I'm pretty convinced that there can never be a consensus perfect album. It's kind of paradoxical. The albums that are "perfect" are labeled that by a particular subset of listeners, and get that distinction because they "perfectly" fit what that subset is looking for. But the wider that subset expands, naturally it gets harder for consensus to be reached on what that perfect fit entails. In that sense, I think that at a certain point the best we can do in finding a "perfect" album is one that is universally considered a classic...

A perfect album has a central concept it’s trying to convey, no skips, multiple iconic songs, and the best writing and production the genre has to offer.

For me, a perfect album is not necessarily a 10/10 album, but one that successfully achieves it goal to its full potential. Take Mac Millers swimming for example, one of my favourite albums of all time. It’s not a 10/10 album, more of a 8-9. However, I do think that it’s a perfect album. The opening and closing tracks are perfect in the sense that the open and close the album in the best way possible. There are 0 skips, (Obviously), and the atmosphere/mood is just right throughout. There are no flaws in the production, and the vocal performances are to the best of his ability. A 10/10 album, on the other hand, would be something like TPAB. Perfect in every way possible, and in my opinion the best album of all time. Swimming is no To Pimp a Butterfly, but they are both perfect album in their own ways.

A perfect album should be personal to the listener. If the album gives the individual everything you wanted and asked for or maybe even succeed expectations is perfect.

No skips, massive replay value, flawless execution of what it set out to do sonically/conceptually. Enjoyable on both a surface level and a deeper level lyrically Holds up to or betters previous albums in that genre/sub genre. But most importantly if I FUCKING LOVE IT.

Love this conversation! Keep it up guys

You guys should make a video on what makes a perfect song, and give examples and go over the song structure and what makes the production, content, performance, & replay value Perfect.

I think a perfect album that doesn't get enough talk is little simz 'GREY area'. Such a nice, short tracklist with a lot of variety. Amazing lyricism, amazing production, amazing flows, amazing feature singers. Just everything hits.

Hey guys, love the videos, always make my day a bit better. Just asking if it would be possible to get an office tour in the future. Love the channel. Road to a mil 🙏

I think a lot of it has to do with nostalgia and the memories connected to that album. It’s so hard to call an album perfect on first listen because music grows and takes on new meaning as you continue to listen.

THE FEATURES AND PRODUCTION IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR ME for example ASTROWORLD, Heroes and villains or even if your reading this it late

the word perfect goes hand and hand with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

so many great points made in this video. I have a small handful of albums I deem perfect. Overall for me the what stands out the most is simply how much the album resonates w you and how much you enjoy it. some rap songs to me is a perfect album and an album I will listen to til the day I die.

A perfect album. Everything is flawless. Execution. Theme. Vision. Game changing. Timeless. last 20 years? TPAB and MBDTF ever: those 2 and Illmatic (and some others)... like Dark Side of the Moon

College dropout is the closest possible album to perfect for me

I love videos like this from you guys… LETS GO

A perfect album is one that has replay value to last a lifetime.

An album that I think is perfect: Man On The Moon 1 by Kid Cudi, all bangers, no skips.

I appreciated the nuance in this conversation, especially when addressing the criteria for what we may consider a perfect record. There are many angles to tackle this topic. Still, no one can genuinely define these criteria to a T, especially when discussing two albums with no sense of being compared. You won't judge Future's DS2 as you would billy woods' Hiding Places. That's what's so fantastic about music and the conversation surrounding it; that 10/10 can be something profoundly personal to the listener. I feel that way, especially about Mac Miller's Circles and Nirvana's In Utero. These two projects may have inherent annoyances that are personal to me; however, the listening experience goes far beyond trivial gripes.

For me, the best example of a perfect album is Madvillainy. ALL tracks are of the highest level in production and lyrics, and all have great value, both for replay and for album content. I would say it's the best album ever, because I've never heard such special production and lyrics like this album has!

I feel like a perfect album consist of a theme the whole time, with songs that time into each other or have deep meanings with the lyrics being meaningful…something that fans can real understand and feel in their soul.

An album that captivates the listener and makes you think "wow that was incredible" after listening to it in full

4 rules for perfection you need at least 2 for a classic: 1.hits and rememberable songs 2. Groundbreaking sounds or styles 3. Good or entertaining substance or theme or vibe 4. Low amount of bad or mid songs (0-3)

My modern day perfect albums would be: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West After Hours - The Weeknd Yeezus - Kanye West

A perfect album for me has got to have a some kind of mental worth, like it has to make me feel something or think somethingas well as just “oh yeah this is a banger”. Like on the Eminem show you’ve something like Sing for the Moment but you’ve also got Without Me. It has to have a balance of mental worth and personal enjoyment. If I’m looking at it in a critical way like I’m looking for lyrical prowess and really deep production it’s kinda self explanatory, meaningful and advanced lyrics, pin point flows, layered production. Job done.

Not related to rap at all, but taking into account, the coherent nature of each song, cohesive instrumentals which literally fit into each other like puzzle pieces, aswell as dark and exuberant lyrics that paint a certain atmosphere, I'd have to go for Red by King Crimson. My personal favourite track from the album would be starless; the sax interpolation is timeless and Fripp's playing of the guitar is just masterful.

This was a really good discussion, i agree that "perfect" is a lot more subjective than "classic" and theres so much that can go into a perfect score including personal reasons and contexts, but i think the no-skip point is a good criteria for having a perfect album anyways, like an A is a great score but its not a perfect score like an A+. Some albums definitely stratal the line between perfect and classic like Kids See Ghosts and TPAB since they both have that much acclaim in all rap circles.

Idk about “perfect”, but being great and transcendent thru time is even more of an accomplishment. No matter how much time goes by, people will listen to Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, The Velvet Underground and Nico, Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division, Ys by Joanna Newsome, Fever to Tell by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc.

A perfect album for me is just an album with zero skips and something so good that I can't even choose a favorite song from it. Also, I have to have an emotional attachment or good memories associated with either the album or a couple of songs from it. The only albums like that for me are Folklore, Good Kid Maad City, After Hours, Damn, Swimming, Red TV, 1989, and Midnights.

I have a suggestion Yall can do old album reviews,like 2001,444,It was written, Good Kid

you guys are so awesome keep it up❤

Aquemini 💯. Be and Finding Forever both by Common are also perfectly balanced.

Illmatic is a perfect album

2014 Forest Hill drive is the perfect rap album imo

Forrest hill drive hands down ☝🏾 front to back just the personal feelings the swag the storytelling and relatable tracks intro literally asks something personal do you wanna happy Cole just really take it deep

I think the best example of a perfect album is Enter the wu tang (36 chambers) -pioneer -impact -track list -concept -variety -performance It has everything and for a big rap group for it to work was incredible. And the amount of impact that album has had. The amount of rappers who have quoted wu tang.

To me personally without making it overly complicated, a perfect album is a non-skip album to where I LOVE (not just like) every single song. Now because I love every single song, I can’t even pick a favorite song from the album because they change, months even years after the album dropped.

TPAB is the definition of a perfect album for me

great video! really feel like perfect just comes down to firing to the max on all categories. concept is fully thought out if there is one. prod & mixing is arranged perfectly setting the mood for the album. the writing and performances are perfectly executed and there’s not one wack bar etc etc. that’s why even skip less albums aren’t always perfect imo bc it can just be consistently good. a perfect album shouldn’t have a single nit pick or anything that takes away from the album in its context.

I think something underrated for deciding if an album is perfect is it's accessibility. With super complex and concept records like TPAB I think their deep topics take away from their accessibility and make them quite difficult listens. You have to be really in a specific mood to hear it from top to bottom. For Kendrick I'd say DAMN would be his perfect album in that it covers deep topics, is unique, has a concise tracklist, still brings the bangers and just packs it all in an accessible listen

I feel like a for an album to be perfect it should be amazing-perfect in musics core traits and include decent to great-perfect in extra details to add icing on the cake. Core traits being(imo) production, flow(the two most important because its the foundation of every song) lyricism, delivery, etc. then details being theme and/or mood(extra points if done well), transitions, adlibs, sequences etc. I put themes as a detail because there are some albums with no real themes I consider perfect eg Culture

Another thing i would like to point out is what genre it is. Like for example rodeo is not lyrical like TPAB, but it doesnt need to be. You listen to rodeo for the vibe.

For me personally, I determine a perfect album based on a few different factors. The most heavily weighted factor for me is track for track enjoyability, and the overall enjoyability of the album as a whole. For me if an album has perfect and enjoyable production/soundscape for the entire tracklist I’d consider it perfect even if it doesn’t have the impact, status writing, or storyline/concept that other albums might have. I do still weigh in these other factors, but I don’t have it as criteria that a perfect album must meet

a few perfect albums in my opinion(last 5 years) cheat codes - black thought 4:44 - jay z piñata - freddie gibbs call me if you get lost - tyler oxnard - anderson paak

Swimming is truly perfect

The marathon was kinda perfect

MBDTF is probably a perfect album for me.

Not a hip hop album but an album that I'm confident to say is a perfect album is the new album from Weyes Blood called "And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow"

tpab is like literally perfect no debate either from head to toe I am captured reeled in

A perfect album for me has to, of course, have 0 skips and it has to stand the test of time, and the album has to flow perfectly. Not a must, but I do feel like the album can't sound basic. They can't just sound like every other album in the artist's discography. To me, a couple perfect albums are: KIDS SEE GHOSTS Good kid maad city Where Have All The Flowers Gone? - Deb Never TPAB iridescence - BROCKHAMPTON

A perfect album takes you to a world with 0 skips.

Just wanted to ask what stopped The Forever Story from being perfect?

I’ve got the obvious perfect albums, Illmatic’s, Ready to Dies, TPAB,Madvillainy, Miseducation, Me against the world, 36 chambers, etc, you know the type. But ones that I reckon some people won’t have, Jurassic 5 by Jurassic 5, don’t know how many people know them but it’s because even after 24 every song on their hasn’t got old for me, that’s one of the only seven albums ever that’s done that for me and from such an under appreciated group it’s such a great album. And they’re the only group on the planet who have better chemistry than Wu tang Great Adventures of Slick Rick Liquid Swordz Hot cool and viscous, by Slat n Pepa. Long Live the Kane And finally 3 feet high and rising

I think a perfect album has to be enjoyable in EVERY SINGLE second of it without counting the skits

Albums that are 10/10 for me are: To Pimp A Butterfly, Hamilton Broadway soundtrack, Thriller, Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, 21 by Adele

To me the perfect album is like the perfect multi-course meal. Just the right portion, extremely delicious but you feel overstuffed after, and it has a number surprises sprinkled throughout

Forever story had no skips

One example could be drunk and hot girls off Graduation. I know it's not a skip for y'all (I skip it every time personally) but it is a highly contested song that many fans don't like. And that's probably like the only song on the album with that level of divide among the fans. & At that point, wouldn't it mean the album is not perfect? I know you guys have both said it is but if an album has a skip that's a tough call lol either way much love to you guys and the content 👊🏽👊🏽

Illmatic. Purple Tape. A Piece of Strange. Drogas Wave.

a perfect album is an album i enjoy and connect with the most, plain simple. donda is my favorite album of all time cuz i love how it's a trap album (my favorite genre), yet it also has my favorite themes of self-growth, forgiveness, peace, love, etc. . there is 1 track i really don't like on it (heaven and hell), but it's still my favorite album because that 1 song is so miniscule in the grander scheme of the album for me--*everything else* is perfect *for me*

I feel like an album is perfect when you plan on playing a single track, and you just end up listening to the whole rest of the album because you just can't help yourself. This isn't a hip-hop or rap album, but a recent example is "De Todas Las Flores". The second Laforcade starts singing in "Vine solita" I knew this wasn't going to be like anything I'd ever heard before, and that record is one of one. My god, what a masterpiece.

A "perfect album" is massively subjective to the listener which is why this question is hard to answer objectively. I do agree that an album that's deemed "perfect" needs to have no skips and have some clear standout songs, but even then how do you judge that metric? I think I've Cube's "Death Certificate" is a perfect rap album from start to finish, but somebody may listen to it and think it's heavily outdated and the production is subpar. I have my own list of perfect albums, and I know there will be those who just don't agree but that's why this is more of a subjective than objective question. Here's a few of them: The Weeknd - After Hours Michael Jackson - Thriller Jay Z - The Black Album Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition Freddie Gibbs - Pinata and Bandana Kanye - The Life of Pablo Eminem - The Eminem Show FKA Twigs - Magdalene Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters Miley Cyrus - Plastic Hearts Benny the Butcher - Burden of Proof D'Angelo - Black Messiah Kendrick Lamar - GKMC, TPAB, and DAMN Rihanna - ANTI Boldy James - Manger at McNichols Drake - Nothing Was the Same Taylor Swift - Folklore Nirvana - Nevermind JPEGMAFIA - All My Heroes Are Cornballs Ka - Descendants of Cain Tierra Whack - Whack World Anderson. Paak - Oxnard There's more, but this is it for now.

albums i consider perfect (no specific criteria, but when you know an albums perfect it’s perfect. music is subjective): 1999, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, DAMN, Circles, GKMC, Graduation, MBDTF, Aquemini, Goodbye & Good Riddance (besides the skits), and Kids See Ghosts

I have a long list of my perfect albums that are based on enjoyability, the flow of the album, the production and the "all hits, no skips" criteria. (i don't really dive that much into lyrics but i do take into consideration the theme of the album, what and how it talks about it) Marvin Gaye - What's Going On The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds Radiohead - OK Computer, Kid A, In Rainbows, A Moon Shaped Pool Led Zeppelin I, II, III, IV, Houses of The Holy Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals King Crimson - In The Court of The Crimson King Michael Jackson - Thriller Kanye West - MBDTF, Yeezus Kendrick Lamar - good kid, M.A.A.D. City, To Pimp A Butterfly Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out Dr. Dre - The Chronic Tame Impala - Currents, InnerSpeaker, The Slow Rush Nina Simone - Pastel Blues Gorillaz - Plastic Beach Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures Daft Punk - Discovery Ms. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Death Grips - The Money Store N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton, Efil4zaggin Silk Sonic - An Evening With Silk Sonic A Tribe Called Quest - PITATPR, The Low End Theory Eric B. & Rakim - Don't Sweat The Technique edit: Nas - Illmatic The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die

Give me 5 years and I’ll try to make one🤞still need work tho

Mac Miller- Watching Movies, Faces, Good A:M

Idk, it’s kinda hard cause even if an album isn’t perfect, there are some that I hold in similar regards to a perfect album. Damn by Kendrick for example, there’s a couple skips for me, but the songs that I do love are perfect tracks and I feel like those perfect tracks make up for the ones that I don’t particularly care for

For me it’s Mr morale. There are some skips but those songs have a deep meaning or stylistically impressive performance so I can still enjoy them when really listening to it.

A perfect album for me just has to have 0 skips and feel like one solo free transition through the whole album. The off season by J Cole for one and kings disease 2 by Nas

Gord Downie, A Secret Path, my first ever prefect album, it is sad, beautiful, amazing, all that, please go give it a listen

For me it's when the album is cohesive Flows like one big track from Start to finish Obviously innovative production/ content matter that that's ahead of the curve is what separates a great listening experience ans 'perfect ' album for me . Liquid swords (Gza) .I want you ( Marvin Gaye ) . Stronger than pride ( sade ) . Hounds of love ( Kate bush ) Just to name a few ......

Excellent discussion. I personally mean it as "essentially perfect" because technically the YOU THINK HE TOUCHED THEN KIDS?! On tpab is a bit out of pocket but bro I'm not gonna snub it over about a second moment

For me, the two of the perfect albums of all time are Illmatic by Nas and To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. Both of those albums have really great conceptual base and I get lost everytime I hear them❤️‍🔥

Total Xanarchy > Illmatic

Off the dome, my recent perfect albums: The forever story Simbi Care for me

MME is timeless

perfect albums for me is probably is like Late Registration, The View from Here by Futility and like Anti

Two albums that I don't see coming up that often on the perfect conversation but I absolutely think they are, Igor by Tyler and Taboo by Denzel... I'd die on a hill saying those are two of the greatest albums ever made

Nas - Illmatic MF DOOM - Madvilliany Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Kendrick Lamar - TPAB Weezer - The Blue Album Childish Gambino - Because The Internet There are more, but I don’t want to be typing for an hour

To pimp a butterfly and the college dropout are the only perfect albums ik, the rest are super close Edit: I’d now swap the college dropout for Yeezus (ik it sounds weird but that shit is perfect)

A perfect album in my opinion, is when you can't play a song without wanting to listen to the entire album. In terms of "playing without no skips"

"MBDTF" & "TPAB" the only perfect albums to have come out of the mainstream medium the past 15 years. (from a Hip-Hop standpoint)

My perfect albums: To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Aethiopes - billy woods Some Rap Songs - Earl Sweatshirt Madvillainy - MF DOOM Those are probably my only perfect albums tbh

If you made what makes a perfect video it would be an NFR video

Daytona, Alfredo, Piñata = Perfect Albums 💯

To me it's more expressive, sometimes a less than stellar album will speak to me and sometimes a classic record will do nothing for me.

Is this a repost? I swear they done a video like this like twice already

thriller is the perfect example

My beautiful dark twisted fantasy is the only one I can think of

In the Hot 97 Tyler the creator 2021 interview he talks about reference point. For example, If ARTV doesn't think Kanye has any good albums, he's not wrong because his referance point is consumed of mostly rock & metal bands. As NFR Podcast consuming mostly rap music think Kanye has a perfect album, they're not wrong either. This is why people who consume mostly jazz might think tpab is Kendricks perfect album when most rap fans would choose Good Kid Maad City. This is also why fantano reviewing a wide variety of albums via different genres makes him the most popular music review channel. Or why Shawn Cee gets into his R&B bag Everytime mentioning anything in his top 10. It's all subjective & Referance Point.

Perfect is pretty dependent on the listener. I would love an album,listen to it over and over,know all the songs word for word? Then I'd consider it perfect. Then some one else might pat attention to the beat switches,hidden meanings,flow,etc and consider it perfect.

what is so difficult about this discussion is the word perfect is a difficult definition to describe for music. I'll give two artists that are completely different though are in the same genre: Lil Uzi and J Cole. *im bias in this instance because i don't listen to Uzi but respect he has an audience his music is not for me* J Cole drops lyrical, harmonic, soul-influence typa albums that take time to digest and sit with. Uzi drops albums that are punk-rock/psychedelic rap, hype/loud , and more geared toward concerts imo. I think its difficult for Uzi to drop an album that is deemed as "perfect" when Cole is dropping more introspective music. I think when making this type of music, albums need to be shorter though i'm not the artist making it so who tf am I to say that.

The production is not always the secret of classic album... What you think about. "Original pirate material" By the "streets".

What version are you guys listening to call KIDS SEE GHOST a perfect album?

Number one