9th Wonder Wants Mainstream Love?

9th Wonder recently opened up about his new album The Wonder Years. The superproducer says that he hopes hip hop fans delve more into albums as an artform, and he name-dropped some high profile hip hop stars' recent works as example of albums that deserve to be appreciated as albums.

"Your album has to be an event. It just can't be a collection of songs," he says. "If it's just a bunch of songs on a CD, it doesn't flow together [and] no one will [play] it from front to back. I appreciate [projects] like Section 80, Thank Me Later and records like that. I praise records that you can put in, play and it becomes an experience. Records that allow you to find out more about that person. You can't find out nothing about a person that just puts out a bunch of singles ... and maybe that person doesn't want you to, either. I praise those records."

"I praise Deeper Than Rap and Teflon Don," he says. "Records that are experiences. I want the Rick Ross experience ... to go into his world, and when the album's over, I come out of it."