''The Best Part'' is the debut studio album by American hip hop artist

J-Live Jean-Jacques Cadet (born February 22, 1976), better known by his stage name J-Live, is an American rapper, DJ, and record producer. Life and career J-Live released his debut studio album, '' The Best Part'', in 2001. It featured production by ...

. It was released on Triple Threat Productions in 2001.

Background

''The Best Part'' was recorded from 1996 to 1999 and featured production by Prince Paul,

DJ Premier Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He is considered one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. He was half of the hip hop duo ...

, and

Pete Rock Peter O. Phillips (born June 21, 1970), better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapping, rapper. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongs ...

. It was set for a 1999 release, but due to problems with his record label, Raw Shack Records, J-Live left the label and the album was shelved. J-Live moved to Payday Records, but when Payday's parent company

London Records London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...

was bought from

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

WEA The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of the ...

, the album was again shelved. In 2001, copies surfaced as bootlegs and several were of such high quality it was rumored that J-Live himself was behind them. By the fall of 2001, after five years of label problems, ''The Best Part'' was finally officially released on Triple Threat Productions.

Critical reception

Stanton Swihart of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, writing: "It is a truly cataclysmic tour de force, especially when you consider the hoops through which the music was forced to jump before it finally appeared, long overdue, in 2001." In 2015, ''

Fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

'' placed it at number 49 on the "100 Best Indie Hip-Hop Records of All Time" list. In that year, ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group. ...

'' included it on the "30 Best Underground Hip Hop Albums Since 2000" list. In 2020, ''HipHopGoldenAge'' ranked it 3 on their "Top 150 Hip Hop Albums of The Decade" list.

Track listing

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Best Part, The 2001 debut albums J-Live albums Albums produced by DJ Premier Albums produced by DJ Spinna Albums produced by Pete Rock Albums produced by Prince Paul (producer) Albums produced by 88-Keys