What about West Coast Bad Boys vol 1 or Herm's surviving in the ghetto.
Those two albums opened the bay up to me. I didn't know a whole lot back in the day about the bay. After that I started buying up all of the artists albums that were featured on those albums.
But after about 13 years of listening to west coast rap the album that i think is the best is Too Short's - Get In Where You Fit In