Your favorite’s favorites…right here.

Perhaps this list will help us find out as CES Cru shares their five favorite albums of all time. Ubiquitous and Godemis gave us their respective lists and the results are as wide-ranging as you would expect from artists signed to Strange Music, ranging from rap to R&B to heavy metal and back. In anticipation for Codename: Ego Stripper, we talked to the duo to get a taste of the music that they still can’t get enough of.

Jay-Z – The Blueprint

“A hip hop classic to me. Front to back one of the most listenable albums that there is. You can just throw it on and let it go. It just goes so hard with having some amazing radio hits as well as game-changing songs as well as some underground songs you would never hear pumped but still tight on the record.”

De La Soul – Stakes Is High

“Almost like a shift in the game was happening at that time. It felt like Stakes Is High was a high-point for what would be considered like ‘old school’ hip hop. That’s definitely a vibe that can’t really even be evoked in the game anymore coming out of that record. It sort of encapsulated that era to me in a perfect way. I always liked De La. I felt like they peaked out on that. They still make great records but it’s just an amazing snapshot of the time.”

Weezer – Weezer (Blue Album)

“That’s something that came out when I was like 14 years old–13, 14 years old. It’s a pretty old record these days, almost 20 years old or whatever. That’s a coming of age record and that’s what I was doing was coming of age too at the same time so it just kind of fit my life. And it still goes, you know? You can still throw on that Blue album and it still goes, for those that don’t listen to Weezer.”

 

Metallica – And Justice For All

“And Justice For All, as far as composing music goes, these guys compose amazing music as a band in almost a classical way, like a Bach or a Beethoven but with like a sort of metal feel to it, sometimes even without lyrics. Long songs, big progressions, movements like a classical piece. It’s just amazing songwriting that happened on And Justice For All.”

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill

“This was, you know, unfortunate that it can never be duplicated but it was an excellent mix of hip hop and just beautiful songwriting, all mixed together, that will never happen again. It’s outstanding. That album’s still good 14, 15 years later. It’s crazy.”

 

Michael Jackson – Bad

“Well, I mean, as far as Michael Jackson’s Bad album, I feel that it’s self-explanatory. It’s the Bad album. Even more so than Off The Wall. I mean, I know it’s debatable and that any fan of Michael Jackson would debate that with me but I just feel a certain way about the Bad album so boom, there’s that.”

Prince – Purple Rain

“I think the movie and the album together do something to me in a weird way that Prince is kind of…kind of me and him live the same life in a way. Not to delve too much into it but just the way how he had the shit going on at home, he had a local spot, a local club where he would perform and the only way you could hold that spot was by being ill. You know, just being dope, that’s how he held the spot down and then he was hooking up with this broad or whatever–(interrupts himself) oh no! The movie and the album together, I dunno, I like that a whole lot. It’ll always be good to me.”

Wu-Tang Clan – Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers

“36 Chambers was my first introduction to hip hop in a way that was–it was just so familiar and big. It was all these guys. It messed my head up that there was all these members in the group. Just learning who was who and differentiating them. And then they had the cool symbol. I grew up watching kung fu flicks and that was their whole, they built their whole…swag if you will around kung fu movies. That’s why that’s near and dear to me.”

Royce Da 5’9″ – Death Is Certain

“That album was weird to me because he came really gangster on that album: there’s a portion of that album where he speaks on some real gangster topics and he talks real gangster and there’s a lot of gun talking–but it’s done really well. Royce Da 5’9 is a phenomenal writer and he only gets better. Like honestly, I still listen to a lot of Royce Da 5’9, he only gets better and I love that album.”

Tha Gravediggaz – 6 Feet Deep

“They were doing something called ‘horror core’ hip hop. There was no one doing it at the time that I can recall and no one has duplicated it since and they just really going in on a–I dunno, on a Rob Zombie sort of hip hoppish like–I dunno. They’re just super-dark and they were owning that by making songs like ‘Two Cups Of Blood’ and things of this nature. To all the Odd Future fans that think that’s new, but you know somebody’s already doing it. Gravediggaz did that a long long time ago–did that already.”

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• What did you think of CES Cru’s favorite albums?

• What are your favorites out of the albums they listed?

Let us know in the comments section below!