janet. (Virgin, 1993) by Janet Jackson

As the title suggests, this is Janet declaring her independence from the rest of her family (read Janet, period).  The album also continues to show growth in Janet as far as the sexual content of her music.  Control had "Let's Wait a While."  Rhythm Nation had "Someday is Tonight."  And janet has "Throb."  Personal developments aside, Ms. Jackson also covers serious social issues- most notably on "New Agenda" with Public Enemy frontman Chuck D.  The two most popular cuts, "Again" and "That's the Way Love Goes," are both very good.  The former is a great record that also worked well with the promotion of Janet's film Poetic Justice with Tupac and the latter is a chill mellow song that not surprisingly topped the Billboard charts for two months.

Raising Hell (Profile, 1986) by Run-D.M.C.

I wish I was older so that I could have been around when this album came out.  This was the album that legitimized hip-hop in the mainstream.  And the records are timeless, which is not surprising because Rick Rubin produced the album.  Yet, the leaps and bounds that this album took for an entire culture continue to be recognized and grow in appreciation to this day.  The first three cuts on the album are some of the best music hip-hop has to offer and "Walk This Way" is absolutely iconic.  My favorite line on the album, however, is in the title track where they say, " Kings from Queens from Queens come kings/ We're raising Hell like a class when the lunch bell rings."  In Chuck D's book Fight the Power, he identifies Raising Hell as his favorite album.  It's very easy to understand why.