Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"

In the latest episode of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums, Yusuf reflects on his masterpiece "Tea for the Tillerman," and discusses his decision to re-record it last year. His guitarist Alun Davies and longtime producer Paul Samwell-Smith also appear on the podcast. Later in the episode, Rolling Stone staff writer Angie Martoccio and deputy music editor Simon Vozick-Levinson join host Brittany Spanos to discuss the legacy of Tillerman, which ranked as the 205th best album ever made in the all-new version of the 500 Greatest Albums poll.

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In the Nineties, much of the conversation about hip-hop was dominated by the feud between the East and West Coasts. The South was putting out tons of incredible rap records too, but almost nobody was paying any attention to Portsmouth, Virginia. With 1997's "Supa Dupa Fly", Missy Elliott and Tim "Timbaland" Mosley changed that, and gave the world a taste of the future. 

Missy and Timbaland met as teenagers in Virginia and soon found they were musical soulmates. As they explain to  Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield in the episode, that friendship translated into some of the most lasting and adventurous music to come out of the Nineties. Both were content working as behind-the-scenes players, but once Missy was coaxed into making a solo album, the pair created "Supa Dupa Fly" in an incredible two weeks. Missy’s voice and delivery were one of a kind, whether she was singing, rapping, or just yelling, “Beep beep!" In this week's episode of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums, both explain the stories behind the songs, including how Tim created the incredible Southern soul space-funk beat for "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)".

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In this special holiday episode of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums, our new podcast on Amazon Music, we delve into 1963's "A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector", an album that changed the way we look at holiday music. In 2019, Rolling Stone named it the best Christmas album of all time.

A labor of love that pulled together all the top girl groups, including the Crystals and the Ronettes, the album was initially an ill-fated flop, dropping the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated (or so the legend goes). After being reissued in 1972 the record found its place in both the holiday and rock & roll canons, and inspired everyone from the Beach Boys to Bruce Springsteen to take a crack at Christmas standards. There was darkness under that festive tree, however, as the infamous perfectionist Spector directed artists on the record with an iron fist and later took his obsession with guns to a far darker place when he killed actress Lana Clarkson in 2003.

Spector was unable to talk with Rolling Stone's News Editor Brenna Ehrlich for this episode (as he is serving time for second-degree murder), but she did chat with Darlene Love of the Blossoms about the fame of "Christmas Baby Please Come Home," La La Brooks of the Crystals about conditions in the studio, and Brian Wilson about how Spector inspired the Beach Boys. She also checked in with Spector fan, journalist Greil Marcus, to talk about the album's enduring fame. Later in the episode, host Brittany Spanos discusses the history, allure, and occasional ridiculousness of holiday music with Rolling Stone staffers Rob Sheffield and Jon Dolan, as well as comedian, Desus & Mero writer-producer, and podcast host Josh Gondelman.

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In the newest episode of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums, we dive into Lucinda Williams' 1998 masterpiece "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," an album that helped define modern roots music and got Williams' long-overdue recognition as one of America's greatest songwriters. The album took six years, three producers, and some label drama to make, but Williams' perfectionism resulted in an arguably perfect album. 

Williams joins Rolling Stone Country's Joseph Hudak to tell the stories behind songs like "Drunken Angel", and title track "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" that affected Williams' father so much he apologized to Williams when he first heard it. Producers Steve Earle and Ray Kennedy in addition to Waxahatchee help flesh out the story. Later in the episode, Rolling Stone staffers Claire Shaffer and Jon Freeman join host Brittany Spanos to discuss the album's legacy.

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In the first episode of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums, we tackle one of hip-hop’s most important albums: Public Enemy’s 1988 political-rap masterpiece "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back", which landed at Number 15 on the magazine’s all-new 500 Greatest Albums list. In this episode, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D and producer Hank Shocklee tell the story behind the album and break down the sample-layering tricks behind its furious, groundbreaking sound. Rolling Stone’s writers and editors take a fresh look at the political and sonic radicalism of rap's first and greatest concept album and why it still matters so much.

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In 2013, Kanye West released Yeezus, his sixth studio album. It sounded like nothing the rapper had ever produced. Fans recoiled at the album’s experimental sound. Critics began to wonder if Ye, who seemed to be at the height of his career, might finally be losing his touch. But, then, something strange happened. Over time, the world Kanye constructed on Yeezus — full of guttural and chaotic emotion, combined with so much noise — started to feel and sound like the world around us. Kanye’s collaborators on the album, from indie electronic musicians like Arca and Hudson Mohawke to icons like Daft Punk and Rick Rubin, helped him construct a blueprint for where popular music was heading.

In this episode of our Amazon Original podcast Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums, collaborators on Yeezus (including producer Hudson Mohawke), and New York Times critic and Kanye expert Jon Caramanica join RS Senior Editor Jeff Ihaza to tell the story of how Kanye West took a sledgehammer to the norms of rap and pop culture to create one of the most fiercely innovative and prescient records of all time.

Listen to Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums on Amazon Music: amazon.com/RS500.

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At the beginning of 1975, Gerald Ford was president, the United States and Soviet Union were approaching a détente in the space race, and a barber-turned-singer with a wild imagination named George Clinton was redefining the possibilities of funk music with his bands, Parliament and Funkadelic. That year, their iconic album Mothership Connection played off one of Clinton's fantasies, sending Black people to space. Clinton felt it was up to him to paint a new tableau of Afrofuturism. Many of the songs on the album were instant dance-floor anthems — and part of funk's biggest crossover moment to date. In this episode, Clinton and many of his collaborators on Mothership Connection, including bass icon Bootsy Collins and trombonist-arranger Fred Wesley, look back on the drugs, diapers, and free-form camaraderie that fueled this psychedelic masterpiece.

New episodes of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums release every Tuesday, only on Amazon Music.

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In 1975, David Bowie moved to Los Angeles and reinvented himself. As rock's greatest chameleon, he had already achieved success as Ziggy Stardust. But this new character would be his darkest yet: the gaunt, theatrical, slick-haired Thin White Duke. And as the Duke, he created the art-rock odyssey Station to Station. It was a record made on no sleep, a dash of black magic, and an avalanche of cocaine. Bowie rarely did press at the time, but he gave a front-row seat to teenage journalist Cameron Crowe, who captured the definitive Bowie interview of the era for Rolling Stone.

The latest episode of our Amazon Original podcast Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums unpacks the story of Station to Station. RS Associate Editor Angie Martoccio delves into the making of the album, with Cameron Crowe offering a glimpse at what the Thin White Duke was like in the flesh. Co-producer Harry Maslin, guitarists Earl Slick and Carlos Alomar, and pianist Roy Bittan share memories of the sessions, while Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes describes what it was like to have Bowie as a roommate at the time.

New episodes of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums release every Tuesday, only on Amazon Music.

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Back in 1993, a young songwriter named Liz Phair came out of nowhere to drop one of the Nineties’ defining albums: Exile in Guyville. Phair came from the Chicago indie rock scene, but she had a new story to tell: the secret life of an ordinary twentysomething woman, grappling with love and sex and insecurity. The album didn’t get any mainstream airplay, but it changed the stakes for indie rock, musically, culturally, and emotionally.

On this episode of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums, Contributing Editor Rob Sheffield tells the full story of the album, with help from Liz Phair herself, who breaks down how she channeled the "disillusionment and fury" of her twenties into an era-defining musical statement. Exile producer Brad Wood also weighs in with his memories of the time period, and Mannequin Pussy’s Marisa Dabice discusses how Phair’s “fearlessness” helped free up her own writing.

New episodes of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums release every Tuesday, only on Amazon Music.

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With more than 80 million records sold worldwide, Shakira is the best-selling female Latin artist ever. But within her decades-long career, there’s one album that set her up for massive fame and in many ways, predicted it all: 1998’s Donde Estan Los Ladrones?. In this episode, producers and collaborators behind the album open up about working with the Colombian singer with the huge voice, on the cusp of her foray into global fame.

New episodes of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums release every Tuesday, only on Amazon Music.

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