Top 20 Best Rap Albums Of All Time For True Hip Hop Fans

We list some of the best rap albums of all time. Most of these album are instant classics. It’s crazy to think that some of them dropped nearly 30 years ago and still hold influence up to this day. Dr. Dre, the undisputed godfather of west coast hip-hop gave meaning to the phrase “music for the streets”. From NWA to his solo records, Dre sought to shock his audience. His seamless and undeniably funky production gave life to the most controversial music of its time including his debut album The Chronic. In the east coast, Nas released Illmatic, introducing us to the hard life of growing up in the projects during the aftermath of the 80s crack epidemic. We can’t also forget Outkast, who made a historic moment in hip-hop with the release of Stankonia that redefined Southern rap.

Top 20 Best Rap Albums Of All Time

1. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city

Kendrick Lamar released his second studio album, good kid, m.A.A.d city. The album, a coming-of-age tale of his adolescence on the rough streets of Compton, garnered critical acclaim from many corners of the music world for its complexity in storytelling, coherence, and for its memorable songs. The album also details common life events — such as the realization of substance dependency and the loss of loved ones in “Swimming Pools,” a religious or philosophical epiphany that causes us to change our course in life in “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” and our ultimate maturation into adulthood in “Real.”

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2. 2Pac – All Eyez on Me

2Pac had a booming music career which was cut short. He had a lot of different things he just couldn’t get out because of his over personification. And then the fact that he died at 25, he left a lot of work undone. Be that as it may, All Eyez on Me, was a two-disc paean to the “thug life” that Shakur embodied. After signing with Death Row Records, Tupac released his first double album in 1996. It didn’t take long for the album to go platinum. This album came with another big hit song, “California Love.” Another hit from the album was “How Do You Want It,” which also reached No. 1 in Pop and R&B charts. The album talked about the time he spent incarcerated, his feud with the East Coast, and his love-hate relationship with women.

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3. Run-D.M.C. – Raising Hell

Run-D.M.C. was an American hip hop trio from Hollis, Queens, New York, founded in 1983 by Joseph “Run” Simmons, Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels, and Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell. Released on May 26, 1986, the Queens, New York, the trio’s third album Raising Hell found the group at its creative and commercial peak, and expanding the language of hardcore in obvious and subtle ways. Just a year earlier, LL Cool J, another rapper from Queens, younger than his role models, had released his debut album to great acclaim. Run couldn’t help but notice. “All I saw on TV and all I heard on the radio was LL Cool J,” he recalls, “Oh my god! It was like I was Richard Pryor and he was Eddie Murphy!” Raising Hell is credited with heralding the golden age of hip hop as well as hip hop’s album era, helping the genre achieve an unprecedented level of recognition among critics. But by the end of the decade, Run-DMC were becoming passé. Young rap fans were beginning to go off the gold chain wearing boasters in favor of the more down to earth guys who showed off their black roots and culture, as well as to the more sinister gangsters, and acts such as Public Enemy, De La Soul and NWA quickly gained ground. Slowly, Run-DMC were being dethroned, as they had dethroned the likes of Grandmaster Melle Mel and Kurtis Blow five years earlier.

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4. Nas – Illmatic

On Illmatic, Nas vignettes about day-to-day life in the Queensbridge projects, and are not just paeans to New York City. The songs on his debut album give us a sense of the tastes and smells that defined a generation of urban youth. As Dara Waldon puts it, “…the final song ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell’ is a visceral account of ghetto life (an environment defined by an intersection of illegal drugs, gangs and crime). Indeed, Illmatic has been championed as a realist text: a harrowing account of the projects in the aftermath of a drug epidemic: in the late 80s, crack cocaine infiltrated black working-class communities to an unprecedented degree.” Released in 1994, the rich lyrics and strong production of Illmatic still hold value and continue to influence the genre decades later.

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5. Outkast – Stankonia

OutKast had helped to first put the Atlanta hip-hop scene on the map, and it had grown and flourished in the years that followed. But in 2000, when other Southern rappers were making music for their audience to “bounce” to, OutKast were again expanding its scope and sound, taking its audience on yet another reality-altering journey. But before they released radio singles like “Hey Ya!,” the Atlanta-based hip-hop duo found commercial success with Stankonia. OutKast’s then-current single “Ms. Jackson” debuted on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart thanks to strong airplay ahead of Stankonia‘s release. At the 2001 Grammy Awards, OutKast won Best Rap Album for Stankonia and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for “Ms. Jackson”.

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6. The Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die

The rise of the Notorious B.I.G. brought a significant shift in hip-hop’s mid-90s landscape, setting the stage for so much of how the world would see the genre going forward. The Notorious B.I.G.’s debut album, Ready to Die, was released in 1994 under the name The Notorious B.I.G. Popular singles from that album included “Juicy” and “Big Poppa”—the latter earning him a Grammy nomination for best rap solo performance. Still and all, one could tell that Biggie’s lyricism and storytelling choices were informed by a painful upbringing where money was scarce and desperation led to dangerous lines of work.

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7. Kanye West – The College Dropout

Kanye West survived a car accident that nearly killed him, would play a huge part in his career as a rapper. The College Dropout was a critical and commercial success, but it was a surprise to most of Kanye fans at the time. The Kanye of the mid-90s and early 2000s was well known not as a rapper, but as a producer, the genius behind the beats in Jay-Z’s The Blueprint and other popular hits by singers like Alicia Keys and Ludacris. His debut album became a way for him to fight for recognition and earn respect among rappers. It proved quite a success as it debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200. The album was promoted with singles such as “Through the Wire”, “Jesus Walks”, “All Falls Down”, and “Slow Jamz”, the latter two of which peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, with “Slow Jamz” becoming West’s first number-one single as a lead artist. The album earned the rapper several accolades, including the win for Best Rap Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards.

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8. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP

The Marshall Mathers LP breaks down the dichotomy of a man in the midst of an insanity trip to the finest degree. At the peak of his battle against the overly scrutinizing mainstream media, Eminem acknowledges his critics and fires back at the world with a response that’s stronger than anything ever imaginable. Eminem had a hard life coming up, which was violent and traumatic. He felt abandoned by his single mother, watched a lot of TV, was beaten into a coma by classmates, quit school after three tries at the ninth grade, and flipped burgers for a spell. In between, he paid his MC dues at local contests and on all kinds of stages. The Marshall Mathers LP, released in 2000, showcased Eminem coming to terms with his newfound fame, following the pop culture-disrupting debut, The Slim Shady LP the year earlier. The hard work had finally paid off.

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9. Dr. Dre – The Chronic

At the time, seven of the eight albums he’d produced for Ruthless Records between 1983 and 1991 had gone platinum, including his group N.W.A’s most recent opus, Efil4zaggin, which hit no. 1 on Billboard. But he wanted out, badly: His royalty payouts were too low, and he felt N.W.A founder Eazy-E and manager Jerry Heller were taking advantage of him. Dr. Dre then signed to Death Row records and The Chronic was released on December 15, 1992. The debut album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and spawned three top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. It redefined the West Coast sound, is considered one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time and made gangster rap that was accessible to pop radio and MTV.

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10. A Tribe Called Quest – People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

A Tribe Called Quest created an entirely new form of hip-hop. De la Soul, another group associated with The Native Tongues, were in many ways responsible for the rise of Tribe. Making appearances on tracks raised their profile, and Tribe gained respect and admiration from around the hip-hop community and the record industry. People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm was a critical success, earning the first five ‘mic’ rating in The Source’s history. In a commemorative article for XXL, Michael Blair wrote “What A Tribe Called Quest ultimately became the pioneers of, and was on full display throughout the production on their debut album, was a certain proficiency in illustrating and honoring a diverse array of genres that preceded them. In what is mostly attributed to Q-Tip’s deep appreciation and understanding of those definitive genres, Tribe’s sound was perpetually laced with elements of Jazz, Soul, R&B, and Funk”. Blair concluded that “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm was immensely groundbreaking, and will eternally maintain its relevance within the culture and construction of hip-hop”.

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11. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy(MBDTF) was Kanye West’s much-ballyhooed return to hip-hop following the moody, Auto-Tuned electro-pop of 808s & Heartbreak. On MBDTF, the rapper seems perpetually on the verge of giving in to darkness and anarchy. The album produced four hit singles “Power”, “Runaway”, “Monster”, and the international hit, “All of the Lights” MBDTF was an immediate and widespread critical success, and was named the best album of 2010 in many publications’ year-end lists, including the annual Pazz & Jop poll of American critics nationwide. The album also won Best Rap Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards but was not nominated for Album of the Year, which was viewed as a “snub” by several media outlets. The album’s hit single “All of the Lights” won Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

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12. N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton

N.W.A took gangsta rap and sharpened it into a weapon. On Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A. made up of “Ice Cube”, “Eazy-E”, “MC Ren”, “DJ Yella”, and Dr. Dre” describe the everyday life of the black man in Compton, located in South Central Los Angeles. The album also sheds light on a domestic war that few Americans knew the true story behind: the war against police brutality and black-on-black violence. While other members of the group were known to get into a little trouble, Eazy was a dope dealer that took his ill-gotten gains and funneled it into a record label, Ruthless Records, so that it could release music. The lack of industry polish surely benefitted the release of Straight Outta Compton. Working without a corporate filter, their tracks were as raw and shocking as possible.

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13. Fugees – The Score

The Score is the second and final studio album by the trio Fugees, released in 1996. The album features a wide range of samples and instrumentation, with many aspects of alternative hip hop that would come to dominate the hip hop music scene in the mid-to-late-1990s. When The Fugees began to work on The Score, they were intent on placing their imprint upon the music. Instead of following the trends of the day — such as sampling loops of familiar songs — they would give birth to a sound that was uniquely their own, implementing their own musicianship into the equation. According to Wyclef, The Fugees didn’t just want to make an album, they wanted to launch a movement. In a 2016 interview, he said, “When we went in to do The Score it wasn’t like to do music. We were in the neighborhood and we wanted to create a movement.” Clef envisioned that The Score would have a cultural, era transcending impact that was on par with Pink Floyd’s The Wall. The album received mostly favorable reviews. It become the second rap album to receive a Grammy nomination and the first for a hip hop group; and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, along with Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “Killing Me Softly”.

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14. Jay-Z – The Blueprint

The Blueprint is the sixth studio album by Jay-Z, released in 2001 on Roc-A-Fella Records. Its release was set a week earlier than initially planned in order to fight bootlegging. Contrasting the radio-friendly sound of Jay-Z’s previous work, The Blueprint features soul-based sampling and production handled primarily by Kanye West and Just Blaze. At the time of its recording, Jay-Z was awaiting two criminal trials for gun possession and assault, and had become one of hip hop’s most dissed artists, receiving insults from Nas, Prodigy and Jadakiss. Sonically, The Blueprint was a departure from his previous sounds thanks in part to a willingness to work with then largely unknown producers such as Bink, Just Blaze and Kanye West.

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15. 50 Cent – Get Rich or Die Tryin’

Get Rich or Die Tryin’ was a worldwide success, spawning two US chart-topping singles (In Da Club and 21 Questions) and propelled hip-hop’s place as the most commercially dominant genre of popular music. 50 Cent acknowledged the album’s impact in an interview with The National in 2020. “My core audience were in college in their heyday in 2003, when they used to party at every possible moment,” he said. “And at that point, I had the largest debut album in hip-hop. So they couldn’t party without me. There was no way you could escape me.” The album was supposed to be released on February 11 2003 but due to leakage and heavy bootlegging on the Internet, it was released five days earlier on February 6 2003.

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16. The Roots – Phrenology

The Roots is a hip hop band, formed in 1987 by Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Most hip-hop rhyme crews feature one guy scratching records and a couple of others strutting the stage. The Roots are a fully functioning music sextet. Steve ‘FLASH’ Juon said of the album that “Phrenology is born out of their continuing trials and tribulations. And as the title itself indicates, it’s a study of what goes on inside the skulls of a group put under tremendous pressure. Pressure to please their hardcore fans who have been down since their first live set in Philadelphia. ”

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17. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly

To Pimp a Butterfly is the third studio album by rapper Kendrick Lamar, released in 2015. The album is a follow-up to Lamar’s platinum selling, multi-Grammy Award nominated major-label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city. Due to an error on the part of Interscope Records, the album was released on iTunes and Spotify one week earlier than scheduled. The album received critical acclaim with Steven Molina stating “To Pimp a Butterfly hearkens back to the legendary work of Sly and the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye, and Curtis Mayfield – the greats of 70s protest soul – flowing through Kendrick Lamar’s restless dissection of modern America. This dissection incorporates the anger of black youth placed within the context of the BLM Movement. ” The album earned Kendrick Lamar seven nominations at the 2016 Grammy Awards, including a win for Best Rap Album and an Album of the Year nomination. He received four additional nominations for other collaborations from that year, receiving a total of 11 Grammy nominations, which was the most nominations for any rapper in a single night.

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18. Drake – Scorpion

Scorpion is the fifth studio album by Drake and was released on June 29, 2018. It’s a double album consisting of 25 tracks. Its A-side is primarily hip hop with a succession of angry, honest songs of spite and personal revelation. “Emotionless” uses the church-like melisma of early Mariah Carey to own up to allegations that Drake has a son he never talks about. The B-side has been described as R&B and pop as Drake flips the album into a full-fledged R&B project full of songs that pine for relationships that weren’t built to last. “That’s How You Feel” is convinced that people go on vacation just to throw it in friends’ faces. “Jaded” accuses a young, unnamed star of glomming on for exposure, then balks at the idea that she dated someone less famous afterward. As a whole, the album sees Drake rap about topics that have been common in his discography, including claustrophobia, relationships, and boasting about his rise from underdog to a prominent figure in music. The album received five nominations at the 2019 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and “God’s Plan” won Best Rap Song.

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19. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is the debut studio album of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, released in November 9, 1993. The album’s title originates from the 1978 martial arts film The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. The group’s de facto leader RZA produced the album entirely, utilizing heavy, eerie beats and a sound largely based on martial-arts movie clips and soul music samples. The distinctive sound of Enter the Wu-Tang created a blueprint for hardcore hip hop during the mid-1990s and helped return East Coast hip hop to national prominence, after a recent surge of popularity for West Coast hip hop.

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20. The Game – Jesus Piece

Jesus Piece is the fifth studio album by West Coast hip hop artist The Game, released on December 11, 2012. Game explained the concept of Jesus Piece does not have a spiritual theme, but it would have a “gangster” theme of enjoying life while also having faith in God. The Game repeatedly touches on themes of church and God. This is best realized on the title track (assisted by Kanye and Common) and the hypnotic “Can’t Get Right,” where Game confesses his sins and references his influences—ranging from Jay-Z and Nas to Biggie and Tupac—yet ultimately anoints himself the king of hip-hop. Jesus Piece was Game’s first album since the multi-platinum selling and critically acclaimed The Documentary to feature production from Dr. Dre.

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The Game: Jesus Piece Album Review – Pitchfork

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