Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: Deltron 3030

                                                                    

What's good peoples?! This next twentieth anniversary salute goes out to one of the most unique and original concept albums in all of music, not just hip-hop, but music overall.  When sci-fi meets opera and hip-hop in a triple threat match, this is the album you'll come out with.  Much like the much heralded Dr. Octagon or A Prince Amongst Thieves before it, this album is a virtual movie.  An album that belongs in the realm of old Star Trek easily.  The production, the feel, the aura and the concept as a whole went way beyond the realms of what traditional hip-hop should've been.  Much like the aforementioned efforts, this album was recognized as one of the most innovative and brilliant albums ever delivered, and has since become a cult classic.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is west coast emcee Del The Funky Homosapian and producer Dan The Automator as Deltron 3030 and their self titled album. 

Dan The Automator had been known up to now for his work with the aforementioned Dr. Octagonecologyst, as well as his collaborative project with the legendary Prince Paul, Handsome Boy Modeling School, and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.  Obviously, his name was in tight circles.  Plus later collaborations with Gorillaz would further raise his stock within music.  As for Del, the famed cousin of Ice Cube was known especially for his first two very impressive albums, I Wish My Brother George Was Here and No Need For Alarm, which produced cuts like "Mista Dobalina", "Boo Boo Heads", "Catch A Bad One", "Sleeping On My Couch", and others.  He also delivered a year 2000 release entitled Both Sides Of The Brain, which itself was a pretty good release.  These two together, along with DJ Kid Koala, comprised a group of forward thinkers to create quite the musical and conceptual experience. 

Del plays Deltron, a mech soldier that resides in a world where evil soldiers are out to eliminate human rights, but also want to kill hip-hop as well.  Deltron is pretty jaded and disillusioned, but is out on a mission and ultimately becomes hip-hop's champion and saves the world as well.  The intricate and detailed nature of this story reads like an audio comic book.  Del completely hooks you in to his mission as he presents to us how serious his calling is.  Automator presents him with such a haunting yet engaging soundtrack for Del to have.  Cuts like "Mastermind", "Positive Contact", "Time Keeps On Slipping", and "Battlesong" are very clever and intriguing cuts that display the nature of Deltron's complex yet essential battles.  Also, guests such as the esteemed MC Paul Barman, Prince Paul, Brad Roberts, Mr. Lif, and Sean Lennon all assist in this masterwork as very necessary characters that either help or try to hinder Deltron's progress.  The slick part comes at the album's very end as the song "Memory Loss" throws in a bit of "Catch A Bad One", presumably to help Deltron remember Del somewhere in there. 

What Deltron 3030 managed to pull off was an album that was among the most unconventional rap albums to ever exist, but also a way to show that, if done right, sci-fi rap can be cool.  If Kool Keith as Dr. Octagon didn't show that, this album definitely does.  This has been considered an "Alternative Rap" classic, along with the likes of all the aforementioned along with Madvillainy, The Unseen, Endtroducing, Black Up, and One Word Extinguisher.  They delivered a sequel to the debut entitled Event 2.  Although it was definitely a great sophomoric effort, it would be unfair to compare it to the unmistakable genius of the first effort.  Del, Automater, and Koala presented an epic release that showed thinking outside the box and presenting an album for a specific type of audience can resonate into an album for the ages.  We toast our glasses in salute to this unforgettable album.  Until next time!

Happy 20th Anniversary: The Big Picture

                                                    

                                                            

What's good my folks?!  Hope everyone is straying safe during these unsure times.  It's definitely trying times, but we will get through this like we do everything else, regardless of who our leadership (I use that term loosely) is.  With that being said, let's continue the twentieth anniversary salutes with an album that has been considered among the most underrated albums of the current century.  This was an album from an artist who had among the wittiest punchlines in all of hip-hop.  A lyrical wizard, this Harlem native first blessed our ears with his superb writing ability on his debut, Lifestylez Uv Tha Poor & Dangerous.  It featured heaters such as the Kid Capri-assisted "Put It On", "No Endz, No Skinz,", "Fed Up With The Bullshit", and "MVP" (although quite honestly the remix was the better version).  The talent displayed within thast album was definitely impressive and showed what type of beast he could be on the mic.  Unfortunately, tragedy occurred when he was murdered for mistaken identity in February of '99 in his own city of Harlem.  While the hip-hop world was shaken from the loss of a potential star in the game, he left behind a slew of cuts promising to satisfy the taste buds of his fans plus attract new ones as well. With the help of his business partner from his label, Flamboyant Entertainment, the album that dropped was a collection of some of the best work one could ask for from an emcee of his caliber.  It showed a glimpse into how bananas this young Harlem upstart was and the star he was about to be.  We salute the late, great Big L and his final full-length album, The Big Picture.

The majority of this album was leftover cuts and B-sides, although known mixtape singles were here a lot as well.  Known cuts such as the searing "Ebonics (Criminal Slang)", "The Enemy", and "Size 'Em Up" helped to propel the album from outside NYC, as most of the rest of the nation hadn't heard these dumb dope cuts.  Same with joints like "Casualties Of A Dice Game" and "The Heist".  What was perhaps the best example of his lyrical swordsmanship was his surprising, yet impressive, collaboration with another late hip-hop icon, 2Pac, on "Deadly Combination".  Although there's no definitive story about how the track came together or if they were actually in the studio together, it's still a very strong cut.  Not to mention, the ferocious "'98 Freestyle", in which he blisters the mic, and spits frequently rewindable lines like : "Get mad hoes, ask Beavis, I get nothin, but head (Butthead)".  The commercial single from the album came in the form of the Miss Jones/A.G./Stan Spit-assisted single, "Holdin' It Down",   Over a knocking Pete Rock production, Big L stings and delivers with lines like: "L is rap's most livest cat/I'm making stacks while you asking people 'Do u want fries with that'".  Clearly, dude had a way with the pen game. Plus an incredible Premo-crafted cut with the legendary Big Daddy Kane, "Platinum Plus" made this album that much hotter.

Rumors of him being courted to sign with Roc-A-Fella at the time were heating up, as one could only imagine how crazy his stature would've been as part of the legendary Roc.  Although we will never know, L was definitely an emcee's emcee.  He knew the art of the quotable and the rewindable bars.  Other posthumous efforts such as the acclaimed Return of the Devil's Son, 139 & Lennox, and The Danger Zone all show how ridiculous of an emcee he was and the potential he had to be one of the top stars in the game.  With The Big Picture, this should've been the launching pad for his quest for stardom.  He had all the capabilities for that to happen.  While it's been over two decades since his death, his legacy of being one of the most promising emcees of his generation remains.  Harlem can forever be proud of Lamaont "Big L" Coleman.  Lift your glasses and salute Big L and The Big Picture.

Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: H.N.I.C.

What's going on happy people?! This twentieth anniversary salute goes out to an album that once and for all established this emcee as a seminal artist and mic handler during this time.  He was already one of the most in demand emcees around with his no holds barred, chilling delivery and vivid, tough guy talk rhymes.  Being one half of one of the most compelling and influential duos in all of hip-hop, Mobb Deep, he was fully saturated in acclaim already with prior albums like the unforgettable classic, The Infamous, its insane follow-up, Hell On Earth, and their breakout album, the double-platinum selling, Murda Muzik.  It was finally time for him to step out on his own for a solo effort, and this album reminded people of why he needed to be mentioned again of why he was among the true elite in hip-hop circles.  We salute the late, great Prodigy of Mobb Deep and his solo debut, H.N.I.C.

From the moment we saw that epic image of Albert Johnson on a throne of ice with the letters 'H', 'N', "I', and 'C' carved in to the throne, we knew another quiet storm was coming soon in the form of a solo album.  When the storm came, it dropped more fury with it.  We got a first taste of what we were in for with the thunderous first single, the Alchemist-crafted, hook-less banger, "Keep It Thoro".  P obliterated this single with lines a-plenty and bars that made us put P among the best in the first place.  The second single was "Y.B.E. (Young Black Entrepreneurs)" with Cash Money Millionaire and former Hot Boy, B.G.  The cut, which obviously highlighted being your own boss and making big moves, was heavily sampling Whodini's "One Love", but in all due respect to Whodini, "One Love" never sounded so gangsta.  These cuts set the way for what would be an excellent album for Bandana P.

Folks, P never softened his blow not one bit on this album.  While he was more of a thinking thug on this release, he was also his nihilistic best with tracks like the epic title track, "Infamous Minded", "Gun Play", and the ice-cold "Wanna Be Thugs" with partner in rhyme, Havoc.  These cuts are vintage Mobb and puts you at relative ease if you were wondering if P would loosen the pressure on your neck just because he went solo.  With contributors such as Rockwilder and Just Blaze providing some of the boardwork, some of the sounds on here could be heard on the radio such as the aforementioned "Gun Play", "Diamond", and "Do It", and you could add the knocking Bink-produced "Rock Dat" to the same list.  However, he gets painfully serious on a couple of tracks as well.  On the track, "Veterans Memorial", over a melancholy Alchemist track, he reminisces on those that were gone and how he's handling them all being gone.  Very surreal stuff, especially in retrospect.  It especially got real on the haunting track, "You Can Never Feel My Pain", in which he vividly details his struggles with sickle cell anemia and how the dreaded condition pushed him to depression and tending to drugs and alcohol to cope.  For anyone who either suffered through it themselves or those who knew people who has suffered through it (R.I.P. to my childhood homeboy June!) this was a particularly poignant cut that resonated.

For those that wanted a complete and fluid album from P, they got it.  This was a big time album and it put P as not just a sociopath with a fetish for guns and crime, but it also pulled back some of the covers to realize there was also a method to his madness as well as a source of his anger and pain.  For later solo albums such as H.N.I.C. Pt. 2, H.N.I.C. Pt. 3, The Bumpy Johnson Story, Return Of The Mac, Albert Einstein and his final; album, the much talked about Hegelian Dialectic: Book Of Revelations all demonstrated his profound talent on the mic as well as being quite the storyteller, it was H.N.I.C. that made it all official.  We all wanted to know how it would be like to do an effort without Hav, and we found out, and was very pleasantly pleased.  Nearly three years removed from his untimely (and very questionable) death, the game hasn't been the same without P.  His talent of the pen and his rhymes and knack for telling some of the most thugged out stories known to man are gone.  We lift our glasses, not just to commemorate the greatness of H.N.I.C. and its twentieth year of blessing our ears, but to the memory of the best emcees we've ever had the privilege of hearing.  He taught us what "Shook Ones" were, his put his lifetime in between the paper's lines, and taught us that there was a war going on outside no man was safe from.  We toast to the memory of Albert "Prodigy" Johnson.  Long live P.  Long live the Mobb.  Salute and rest in Him! Until next time folks!

Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: Stankonia

What's good folks?!  This twentieth anniversary salute goes to arguably the greatest hip-hop duo of all-time, definitely the most commercially successful.  These two Atlanta natives transcended hip-hop and made themselves pop phenomenons throughout their careers.  Selling over twenty million units combined. these two redefined how cool hip-hop can really be.  On their fourth album, they capitalized off the momentum of one of the most artistically brilliant hip-hop albums to ever exist in Aquemini, and came back with an album filled with funk, synth, soul, and plenty of hip-hop for dat ass.  This album also experimented with other sounds such as techno, psychedelic, and a bit of salsa to further expand their reach.  This effort also won them a Grammy for Best Hip-Hop Album and Best Rap Performance For a Duo Or Group.  This album still continues to age with grace and you still experience artistic and lyrical mastery from these tow guys.  Ladies and gentlemen, we salute Andre 300 and Big Boi, Outkast, and their stellar album, Stankonia.

According to Dre, "Stankonia" is a (fictional) place where "you can open yourself up and be free to express anything".  You can best believe when it comes to expression, these two do it as good or better than anyone else around, especially musically.  Since their classic debut, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, they've established themselves of wanting to be different, thus their name.  On Stankonia, they continue to separate themselves from the pack starting with their blistering lead single "B.O.B."  The psych-techno,heavy drum cut is as left brain as you could possibly get from them, and it works with the masterful artistic and lyrical abilities of Dre and Big Boi.  Complete with electric guitars, rapid-pounding drums, and deep basslines, this cut is high energy and contains enough juice to pack the floors of the club and still produce tons of sweat.  The second single wasn't as fast-paced, but was nonetheless momentous with "Ms. Jackson", an apology of sorts to what's assumed to be the mothers of their baby mamas, especially the much known mother of Dre's son Seven, Erykah Badu.  However, this obviously isn't where the greatness ends.  It just starts from here.

The next single was prototypical Outkast, "So Fresh, So Clean".  With Big Boi giving himself a lyrical kiss to his own reflection in the mirror, Dre spits about an infatuation with a woman, thus exemplifying their ever-conflicting, yet complimentary styles and visions.  Beyond this was more highly infectious cuts such as "Call Before I Come", "Spaghetti Junction", "Gasoline Dreams", and the excellent "Slum Beautiful".  With every cut, we see the southern charm, yet intriguing complexity between the two emcees, even more than we saw on previous releases of the aforementioned Aquemini and the stunning ATLiens.  Dre and Big Boi perfect their duality with the common thread of bringing entertainment through unbelievable music and at times substantial lyrics and concepts.  From reaching out to suicidal pregnant teens on "Toilet Tisha" to speaking of materialism and flash on "Red Velvet", these two continue to let the music speak for them by continuously pushing the envelope.  With other cuts such as "Snappin' & Trappin'", "Xplosive", and the knocking "Gangsta Shit", it's legit hard to pick out a true favorite, as each track is unique and has a life of its own, with Big Boi and Dre like mad scientists crafted an album that, although this album has unique tastes per track, everything here flows as roughly smooth as only Outkast can do it.

Outkast's string of widely successful and monumental albums would continue with the amazing Speakerboxx/The Love Below commercial and critical monster and the soundtrack to their own excellent movie, Idlewild.  Unfiortunately, Idlewild would be their last album together to this very day.  Big Boi has found solo success with his simply unbelievable debut solo, Sir Lucious Leftfoot, and his follow-ups of  Vicious Lies & Dangerous Rumors, and the intergalactic funk of Boomiverse.  However, Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton created an album as succulent as a fresh pot of ribs with the skin falling off the bone.  With Stankonia, this is what down home dirty south sounds like with some Funkadelic mixed in on occasion.  This was quite the enormous album and still deserves the acclaim it's gotten over the years.  We salute Outkast and Stankonia.  With that, we lift our glasses.  Until next time folks!

Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: Train Of Thought

What's the deal homies?!  This 20th anniversary salute goes to an album that is widely considered among the true great modern hip-hop albums of this new century. This DJ/emcee combo had been known from underground efforts such as Lyricist Lounge Vol. 1, Soundbombing, and Soundbombing II.  The Brooklyn-Cincinnati pairing had quite the anticipation growing, especially once the Black Star project hit.  What resulted was an album that was as fundamentally hip-hop as it was culturally substantial.  We salute Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal, and their debut album, Train Of Thought.

Fresh off the overwhelming critical success of his effort with Mos Def as Black Star, Kweli had the heads ready and open for his debut, and in 2000, it arrived.  He collaborated with longtime partner, DJ Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal, and they brought Train Of Thought.  The album was first powered up by the thumping first single, "Move Something", but it was the infectious second single that put more people open to them.  The cut, "The Blast" was an excellent cut that even highlighted Hi-Tek behind the mic as well.  This was a cut that wasn't just for the fellas, as the ladies were able to do a good two step to it in the club as well. A great mid-tempo beat, along with great lyrics from Kweli and an introspective few bars from Tek made this cut a definite standout.  The majority of this album is fairly introspective, but also relies on Black culture, the community, ancestry, and the human spirit.  Cuts like the simply gorgeous duet with French duo Les Nubiennes, "Love Languages", "Memories Live", "Africa Dream", and the dazzling "Four Women" are so rich with culture and with self introspection that it's impossible not to get completely lost in them.  Kweli's ability to grab you, yet educate you is a gift, and it's vividly displayed all over this effort.

Kweli is also an emcee, and don't ever forget that.  Cuts like the Kool G. Rap-assisted "Ghetto Afterlife", the Mos Def-featured "This Means You", "Name Of The Game" and the lyrical slap-tastic collabo with Rah Digga and Xzibit, "Down For The Count" all highlight Kweli's excellent abilities to hold and control the mic, as a battler just as much as a teacher and poet.  These are more rugged tracks that Hi-Tek crafts more so than the melodic, slow to mid-tempo grooves that he provides on here.  Of course, there is the somber "Good Mourning" that gives the album even more of a reflective vibe as Kweli give a salute to those that have passed on.  Kweli sounds absolutely hand-in-glove over Hi-Tek production, as everything Hi-Tek crafted was seemingly very appropriate for the rhymes and delivery that Kweli was presenting.  This album was much cultural as it was day to day humanity, and these two pulled this off effortlessly.

Talib Kweli later delivered a thunderous solo album with Quality, and from there delivered other tremendous solo efforts such as The Beautiful Struggle, Eardrum, Gravitas, Gutter Rainbows, and Radio Silence.  As for Hi-Tek, he delivered three highly enjoyable self-produced compilation albums, Hi-Teknology , Hi-Teknology 2: The Chip, and Hi-Teknology 3: Underground.  All these albums highlighted the best out of emcees both known and unfamiliar.  As for these two together, they presented one more album in RPM: Revolutions Per Minute, which pretty much just as hard as their debut, but make no mistake about it, Train Of Thought was a diamond in the ruff, with highly thought-provoking rhymes, exceptional and consistent production, and a substantial, yet honest, look at the celebratory nature of the Black experience.  Not to mention, this was also just as much good ol' fashioned hip-hop for both club-goers and backpackers alike.  For this unbelievable album, we give Kweli and Tek a firm salute and raise our glasses! Until next time.

Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: Let's Get Free

What's happening beautiful people?! This twentieth anniversary salute goes to a duo who's debut album invoked images of legendary albums such as It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, Fear Of A Black Planet, Straight Outta Compton, and Steal This Album due to themes of Black empowerment, socio-econimic divisions, the education system, health/wellness, and of course police brutality.  After first making their presence felt on the AWESOME Soul In The Hole soundtrack for their track "Score (Game Of Life)" and the n again the enxt year on the Slam soundtrack with the stellar "Selling D.O.P.E.", it was time these two Tallahassee, Fl-turned-Brooklyn residents to deliver their message to the masses, and did they ever.  It remains one of the most underappreciated debut albums in modern hip-hop.  This salute goes to dead prez and their stunning debut album, Let's Get Free.

From the onset, you see the ever controversial cover art of the OSPAAAL Tricontental Conference, as well as the back cover art of a man who's back was horrifically decimated by getting presumably whipped.  You already have a sense that you know what type pf ride you're about to be on.  The key to m-1 and stic.man is that both emcees present militant and conscious rhymes that aren't overtly preachy.  In fact, they still bring some street elements to them as well, which makes this more relatable to those on the corners or in the prisons that want emcees that they can relate to while getting educated as well.  The intro alone is worth the listen, as it's a monologue by Omali Yeshitela of the Uhuru Movement ( do yourself a favor kids.  Research and Google the Uhuru Movement for a sincere education in African liberation worldwide).  From there, it transitions into "I'm am African", a rallying cry of sorts reminding people (Black people) of their ancestry.  We are pretty familiar with the sickeningly bouncy first single "Hip-Hop" and its message of not allowing these corporations to restructure the culture.  We may also be familiar with the hypnotic and slightly seductive "Mind Sex", which is an ode to loving your mate's mind as well as their body.  The rest of the album is as pro-Black and afro-centric as any album we've ever been blessed to hear.

The uncomfortable realities from cuts such as "Police State", "Psychology", and "They Schools" are unsettling, but they end up being such intriguing listens as they shoot right between the eyes with facts and images of struggle, socio-ecominc inequalities, and oppression.  Also, other topics such as media irresponsibility and mistrust on "Propaganda", the prison system on "Behind Enemy Lines", and how we're look at as savages on "Animal In Mind" are so vital to the central theme of this album of liberation and afro-centric education.  While an album like this would've been more iconic during the conscious rap period of the early nineties, this album is especially relevant in today's times.  This isn't fluff, sugarcoated material, or something to ignore.  What m-1 and stic.man managed to do was to grab you by the throat and knock some sense into your heads about how much further we as a people and a community have to go.  Over mostly ominous yet nonetheless excellent production, DPz presented an essential look at the world we live in and how it still really hasn't changed.

While they presented a couple follow-ups in the slightly more accessible yet still in credible RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta and Information Age, as well as a few mixtapes (especially the Turn Off The Radio series), Let's Get Free remains their holy grail and the main album that presented their message with complete power and vigor to wake the socially and culturally dead.  In this Trump era, this album is even more important than it was when it was released for obvious reasons.  We than stic.man and m-1 for an album explosive enough to cause another red, black, and green movement.  For these things and more, we salute dead prez for an unforgettable job well done.  Until next time!

Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: The Marshall Mathers LP

What's happening peoples?! This 20th anniversary salute goes to a rather landmark album in not just hip-hop history, but music history.  This album is among the best selling hip-hop albums of all-time and made the entire world a believer in the talent this Detroit native possessed.  Following up his already massive debut from '99, The Slim Shady LP, which garnered over six million units in sales, this Aftermath signee knew he had to up the ante in shock value, but also in artistic and lyrical merit.  He did that, and then some.  This album won numerous awards, but also brought along with it tons of controversy from different artists, civil groups, and even the government.  Regardless, this album became a  milestone in mainstream American music and ended up selling over twenty million units worldwide.  Nothing less than historic.  This is the salute to Eminem and his sophomore masterpiece, The Marshall Mathers LP.

Following up the bizarre greatness that was The Slim Shady LP, Marshall Mathers wanted to unfold more layers about him, while completely getting a lot more stuff off his chest.  When he first dropped "The Real Slim Shady", we almost immediately believed this would be another SSLP, with its references to pop figures like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and it being a fairly bubblegum-like Dr. Dre track much like "My Name Is" was.  However, the second single took a much more serious turn, as he dropped "The Way I Am", a venomous middle finger to his critics and detractors that seem to like to comment on everything they didn't like about him and he addresses them and their entitlement.  It was his third single that took his career and artistic abilities to another level.  The ominous Dido-featured "Stan" was a Mark 45 King masterwork describing the story of an obsessed fan that ended up taking his own life.  Playing the roles of both Stan and himself, this cut was as brilliant as it was dark.  It was also nominated for numerous awards, and helped propel the album through stratosphere (not to mention Elton John performed the cut with Em at the Grammys of 2001)  He released two other singles from the album in "I'm Back" and the simply dope "Bitch Please II", which was the sequel to Snoop's classic "Bitch Please".  Now, how was the rest of the album? In a word: CRAZY.

Em definitely had a lot more emotion, anger, and aggravation with this album.  While he was mostly focused on shock elements and bathroom/drug humor with his debut, this album was more serious.  He still kept a lot of elements of his debut, but as evidenced with cuts such as "Kill U", the very disturbing "Kim",  and the surreal "Marshall Mathers", Em wasn't fucking around with this album whatsoever.  He went to the core of his imagination and his pen game to present some of the most compelling music of his career in this release.  With an obsession for drugs, violence, misogyny, and homophobia (many argued), Em with many songs went there, and was unabashed about it all.  If trying to subdue any sophomore slump was his goal, he obliterated it in full.  Every cut here was filled with more intensity and more fearlessness than his first album, which is saying a mouthful.  It's no wonder this album turned him from a superstar to a megastar.

Although he released several subsequent albums that followed, including his almost as excellent follow up The Eminem Show, Encore, Relapse, Recovery, Marshall Mathers LP 2, and his most recent Music To Be Murdered By, The Marshall Mathers LP became the holy grail upon which every album from him would be put with or against.  None have met or even come close to measuring up to the god-level acclaim this album produced and how he asserted himself among the true elite of emcees and overall pop stars of his generation, if not of all-time.  Lyrically this album was head and shoulders above anything in the game during that time and remains one of the greatest albums to ever exist in hip-hop.  We salute you Em.  HELL of a job.  Lift your glasses.  Until next time folks.

Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: Like Water For Chocolate

What's happening folks!  It's that time again.  That time where we salute the twentieth anniversaries of certain albums that made tremendous marks within hip-hop and still sustain and hold up after all these years.  There were a number of albums that fit that mold and they will each be given a salute worthy of their greatness.  We will start with an album that brought this emcee to a new level within mainstream hip-hop.  His '94 epic effort, Resurrection, was a stellar album that really showed the talent of this Chi-town legend.  From there, he delivered One Day It'll All Make Sense, a very reflective yet very underrated album that further showed his knack for battling, as well as storytelling and just overall excellent writing.  He was definitely ready for the next level, and it came in force.  This album became his most acclaimed album up to this point and even brought him his first gold album.  We salute Common and his stunning 2000 effort, Like Water For Chocolate.

Common always tends to start his albums off with excellent first singles that focus in on his superior emceeing abilities.  With Resurrection, it was the title track, while with One Day It'll All Make Sense, it was the funky "Reminding Me (Of Self)".  With LWFC, it was the incredible collab with then- relatively unknown R&B star Bilal, the Premo-powered "The 6th Sense".  This thumping cut was conscious without having to be preachy, and immediately drew people in.  However, it was the second single that proved to be the moment that catapulted his career.  The Dilla-crafted "The Light" didn't just hit, it exploded.  The exceptional love letter on wax to presumably then-girlfriend Erykah Badu was an incredible piece that sampled Bobby Caldwell's "Open Your Eyes" to perfection.  This cut not only garnered him a whole new audience, but gave him his first Grammy nomination along with even more respect within the hip-hop community.  The rest of the album was just as uplifting, positive, reflective, at times emotional, but definitely all hip-hop.  Cuts like "Heat", "Dooinit", and the Bilal/Jill Scott-assisted "Funky For You" are just that: funky.  Instantly movable and able to put you in a good space quickly.  Before long, we get hit with cuts like "Nag Ciampa", "A Song For Assata", "Geto Heaven" featuring D'Angelo, and "Payback Is A Grandmother", in which these are very soulful, afro-centric, and at times moving cuts that exemplify what Common bases himself on: community, family, spirituality, and the ability to be united against prejudice and bigotry through music.

While his previous albums were primarily handled production-wise by fellow Chicago native, No I.D., this album was handled by a collective known as The Soulquarians, which was comprised of producers and musicians such as Dilla, Quest-Love, D'Angelo, James Poyser, and Karreim Riggins.  This album dabbled in live instrumentation more so than any type of sampling with he exception of some such as the aforementioned "The Light".  Lyrically, this was his most focused and most hungry since Resurrection.  Without question, this was his most cohesive and fluid album, and generally is seen as his most soulful even to this day.  We were even blessed with a remix to "Geto Heaven" with Macy Grey that was simply exceptional with different lyrics and a funky piano groove that easily rivaled the original.

This album subsequently became to the success of Common, with later albums like Finding Forever, Nobody's Smiling, The Dreamer, The Believer, his powerful 2017 offering Black America Again, and especially his 2005 masterpiece, BE, showing just how much of a legend he would become.  His obsessive of hip-hop and culture continuously has brought out his best and passionate work, and jut was Like Water For Chocolate that made people who may have previously slept on Lonnie Rashid Lynn before, but then became very familiar and even became fans of him as a person and an emcee.  With Like Water For Chocolate, his knack for consciousness and community was doubled down more than ever before and presented a legit classic that spawned a star.  To Common and LWFC, we salute you!  Until next time.

Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: Supreme Clientele

What's going on ladies and germs?! We have another anniversary salute to present and give props too.  This album has been hailed as one of the single greatest Wu solo albums ever.  Following up his debut, Ironman, wasn't easy by any means.  His debut, which relied heavily on Wu-mates Raekwon and Cappadonna, was a stellar debut that was worthy of being in very heavy rotation and marked the official arrival of Ghostface as his own identity within the group.  Then, this album came.  Complex, yet at times brilliant, and one hundred percent Wu-Tang.Easily rivaling Raekwon's treasured Only Built 4 Cuban Linx as best Wu solo effort, this album made him a star while Ironman had put him on the map.  This salute goes to Ghostface Killah and his sophomore album, Supreme Clientele.

Hoping to capitalize off the success, commercially and critically of Ironman, GFK wanted to have an album that was distinctively him.  At this time, The Wu was going in a downward slump of sorts, and this album was needed to remind cats who still ran the game.  From the onset of the first single, "Mighty Single", we knew this would be a ride.  Was it ever.  While heads were open off of "Mighty Healthy", it was the instantly hypnotic and infectious follow-up, "Cherchez La Ghost" that put him another step up.  Sampling the old disco cut, "Cherchez La Femme", this was an instant club smash that put the ladies AND the fellas on the floor.  Complete with vocalist Madam Majestic, this was became a notable Ghost classic.  The remainder of the album was vintage Wu, but definitely next level Ghost.  Blazers like "Nutmeg", "Buck 50", and the Juju of The Beatnuts-produced "One" encapsulate the star appeal Ghost was shooting for while still staying apologetically true to his origin.  However, there was one cut that remains among the brutal, yet unorthodox, cuts to exist within his discography, and that's the scratched record-looped, "Strokes Of Death", which is as menacing as you could imagine.  Along with Solomon Childs and RZA (who snapped on here), this cut is half rugged, half ingenious, especially in terms of the RZA-laced production.

What Ghost tends to always excel in is his storytelling abilities.  With cuts like "Child's Play", "Saturday Nite", and "Malcolm", he executes his pen game along with his imagination to  excellent craftsmanship, and reaffirms how gifted he is to be mentioned with fellow lehendary stroytellers such as Slick Rick and even his own Wu brethren Raekwon.  While Ironman was clearly a more gutter record, Supreme Clientele was the more star making record, and he achieved it here.  Lyrically on point even more than his debut, plus with less Rae and Cappa influence and co-hosting, Ghost was able to shine on his own for the majority of this album and was able to create for himself a standout album that was able to uphold the tradition of the Wu, yet be able to avoid the sophomore slump that Wu brothers such as Meth, Rae, and GZA had unfortunately endured.

Ghost has been named, by most accounts, the most prolific and consistent member of the Wu.  Later efforts such as his follow-up, Bulletproof Wallets, The Pretty Tony Story, Fishscales, and his collaboration with producer/composer Adrien Younge, Twelve Reasons To Die are all examples of the greatness that is Dennis Coles.  With his mask on or off, GFK officially took off with Supreme Clientele.  One of its most unlikely heroes to truly uphold the Wu flag, Ghost presented a monster album that remains arguably the biggest calling card of his career, and as incredible as his other projects have been, they've never been able to top this knockout of an album.  For that, we salute Ghost and Supreme Clientele.  Glasses up! Until next time.

Happy 20th Anniversary Salute: The Truth

What's happening folks?! This time, we salute an album that has been rightfully considered among the best, and most raw, debut albums in hip-hop history.  Brutally honest and insightful, this album was anchored by the support of Roc-A-Fella and his boss Jay-Z.  First shining through on The Roots' cut from Things Fall Apart, "Adrenaline", this gutter Philly-bred cat had the drawl, Philly swag, and enough authenticity to make him a very checked for emcee on the rise.  After paying his dues on albums from Memphis Bleek and Jay, it was his time to shine and he presented a debut filled with such unapologetic stances and images, it immediately defined him, and he became known from that moment as Roc-A-Fella's "general".  This is the salute to Beanie Sigel and his bananas debut album, The Truth.

With Jay and Bleek already carving a substantial niche within Roc-A-Fella, it was time for others to spread the lane for the Roc.  In comes Beanie, and with aforementioned projects and guest spots notwithstanding, anticipation was fairly high.  The first single to drop was the Kanye West-producer thumping title track.  The knocking two-note smash was just the right cut to introduce the world to how Beanie does it when the spotlight is on him.  From there, the follow-up cut, "Remember Those Days" with fellow Philly spitter, Eve, on the hook was a softer touch as he reminisces about better times in his life growing up including family and friends, those still here and those gone on to Glory.  Folks, this would be the last time on this album you'd hear a cut this non-hard on this album.  One particularly infectious cut is the Pac-Man video game sampled "Mac Man", in which he compares the street and his actions to video game characters in a truly dope moment.

While there were other cuts on here that could've easily resonated onto to radio and still present itself as true street cuts include the Jay-Z assisted "Raw & Uncut", the Memph Bleek-collaborated "Who Want What", and "What A Thug About", that all couple be bumped on the corners while not being ashamed if you heard it on the radio in heavy rotation.  However, we get a little darker and meaner with cuts like "Ride for My" and "Die".  The jewel of the album, on the other hand, lies within a track called "What Ya Life Like", in which Beanie very vividly describes life behind bars and what goes on within prison in such a way that you'll think twice before wanting to do things to put yourself in there.  Beanie unapologetically went for the entire throat for this cut and made you legitimately feel like you're watching an episode of Oz, only on wax.  This is one of the rawest cuts you'll ever hear in your life.  That's the thing about this album: this is a brutally honest album that contains no filters or chasers.  You take it all at one time, and often times the ingest won't be pretty.

While his following efforts such as his fantastic follow-up, The Reason, The B-Coming, The Solution, and This Time, The Truth remains the best album out of anything he's presented, and we saw the makings of a star with this unbelievable album.  Much like other classic debuts such as Get Rich or Die Tryin', Capital Punishment, and Life Story, The Truth brings you into his world, which is often filled with crime, drugs, payback, and hustling with such truthfulness (pun intended) and credibility.  Even the non-hard cuts on here are still filled with material not to go to the club and expect these cuts to play.  This is for the screwface hustlas. Hailed as one of best albums to ever come out of the Roc, Beanie established himself with The Truth as a worthy Roc-A-Fella mainstay and with that, we salute the general and his ridiculous debut.  Glasses up! Until next time.

The Top 100 Albums Of The Decade

What's happening folks! What a hell of a decade.  Definitely a decade to remember.  With every decade, there are releases that help redefine what hip-hop is and can become.  Those are the ones the help revolutionize not just the industry, but the ART of hip-hop.  In the 80s, it was albums like Run-DMC, Long Live The Kane, Strictly Business, and 3 Feet High & Rising.  The ever groundbreaking nineties brought us landmarks like Illmatic, The Low End Theory, Ready To Die, The Chronic, 36 Chambers, and The Diary. The thousands brought us BE, Madvillainy, The College Dropout, Supreme Clientele, and The Fix.  Now with this decade, we present one hundred albums that helped define the decade that was and will give us a blueprint as to possibly what to expect for the upcoming decade.  Let's begin shall we?

100. Drake

If You're Reading This, It's Too Late
Production: Boi-1nda. 40, Vinylz, Wondagurl, PartyNextDoor, !llmind, others

We start off the list with the highest selling emcee of the decade, Aubrey Drake Graham, aka Drake.  Polarizing or not, the dude racked up hits and numbers.  Don't get it twisted, homie has skills.  he may not make your all-time best list, but he's dope with the pen.  One of the best examples is his mixtape, If You're Reading This, It's Too Late.  This album basically came out of nowhere and hit like a bomb.  However, this also is among his best releases just based upon this is his version of Mama Said Knock You Out.  Many called him soft, too R&B-ish, and this was his smack to the face of those that boxed in him that label.  This was his best work since Take Care and it showed on the majority of the album.

99. Chance The Rapper

Coloring Book
Production: Kanye West, KAYTRANADA, The Social Experiment, Francis & The Lights, others

Chicago's Chance The Rapper had a cult-like following already with his mixtapes, especially his acclaimed Acid Rap.  However, he went about a spiritual change and it got heavily reflected with his third effort, Coloring Book.  This God-heavy, without sounding overtly Christian, album was impressive by several feats.  This was a fun album and not incredibly heavy and it relied on his heavily melodic style.  While we slam his debut full-length album The Big Day (and rightfully so), this album showed he had what it took to have construct a very consistent album and it officially Chancellor Bennett on the map.

98. Cyhi The Prince

No Dope On Sundays
Production: Kanye West, S1, Lex Luger, Charlie Heat, Novel, Shawty Redd, others

Atlanta's Cyhi The prince was a secret weapon within G.O.O.D. Music for a good while until he finally cut ties with Kanye and went another route.  His mixtapes of Black Hystori Project and his NAACP follow-up mixtape put him into heads' consciousness as a lyrical problem.  He finally presented his debut full-length album, No Dope On Sundays, to lots of critical praise.  The same energy and promise he showed on his mixtapes and his appearance on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was exhibited here as well and even more so.  Balancing the streets with personal redemption and spiritual discoveries, Cyhi showed his star future on this excellent album.

97. Westside Gunn

FLYGOD Is An Awesome God
Production: Daringer, DJ Muggs, The Alchemist, Madlib, Sahdu Gold, Statik Selektah, Evidence, JR Swiftz, others

What a decade Griselda Records has had.  Consisting of four young Buffalo crooks, the label/crew has become the most in-demand crew in the game.  The leader of it all is Westside Gunn.  In 2019, he delivered his third full-length album, FLYGOD Is An Awesome God, and it was filled the raw grimy nature we had become accustomed to, and we're not complaining.  Bringing a freshness not heard from New York since the nineties, the appeal of Griselda is the authentic nature of their rhymes.  Gunn, known for ad-libs and his rhyme style more than anything else, delivered quite the impressive album here over some of the year's best production from the likes of Alchemist, Muggs, Statik Selektah, Madlib, and in-house beatmaker Daringer.  If throwbacks to nineties grimy NYC hip-hop is your flavor, except no substitutes than from Griselda.

96. Big K.R.I.T.

4eva Is A Mighty Long Time
Production: artist, Cory Mo, Mannie Fresh, Organized Noize, DJ Khalyl, others

Mississippi's own Big K.R.I.T. has to be considered among the true breakout stars of the decade.  His highly talented musicianship and lyricism helped him to bring more of a soulful, authentic nature to the South like we haven't heard in many years.  One of his truly best efforts was in the form of 2017's 4eva Is A Might Long Time, a double disc album that rivals any of the best double albums ever released.  Consistent the entire time, K.R.I.T. blends southern roots with the streets to spirituality in this very highly impressive album.  While K.R.I.T. was never one to shy away from his truth and his honesty, he goes even deeper within this album, and has some of the best music to accompany him on this ride.  Trust me, you'll see more of K.R.I.t. here in this list I assure you.

95. Celph Titled & Buckwild

Nineteen Ninety-Now
Production: Buckwild

The nineties are seen as perhaps the best decade of all time, if not simply for the fact that hip-hop truly found itself within the mainstream and commercial world.  Aiming to bring a nineties NY aesthetic is longtime D.I.T.C. producer Buckwild, and he get assistance from DemiGodz/Army Of The Pharoiahs member, Celph titled for the sincere album, Nineteen Ninety-Now.  This album will put a feelgood warmth within the bodies of anyone that longs for those good times within the nineties, and Celph's baritone delivery and sharp lyrics make for quite the combination.  There isn't a bit of filler here, and is regarded as an underground classic to this day.  The beatmaker responsible for unforgettable efforts with the likes of O.C., Biggie, Black Rob, and many, many others laid a very solid groundwork for Celph, and the result was a damn good piece of work.

94. Skyzoo & Apollo Brown

The Easy Truth
Production: Apollo Brown

Not too many emcees have had a discography as consistent and prolific as Brooklyn emcee, Skyzoo.  He typically drops one to two efforts per year and every one is damn crazy.  One of those efforts is his collaborative effort with unbelievable Detroit beatmaker, Apollo Brown for The Easy Truth.  This is top to bottom nuts, as Sky rips it over some of the juiciest production from Apollo one could ever hear.  Sky has the ability to effortlessly spit over any production and sounds hand-in-glove with it like CL with Pete Rock or Prodigy over Havoc production.  This is no different.  Skyzoo is that talented of an emcee, and his aesthetic of just ol' school lyricism and depth meshes wonderfully with Apollo's sample-heavy production to comprise quite the great album.

93. Damani Nkosi
Thoughtful king
Production: Robert Glasper, Warryn Campbell, Ric Rude

West coast vet Damani Nkosi has been a fixture in west coast underground since '99, and has been featured on cuts with the likes of heavyweights such as Snoop, Kurupt, and KXNG Crooked.  However, in 2014, he released an album titled Thoughtful King that was as refreshing and necessary as sweet tea in the summer.  With majority production provided by Grammy Award-winning producer Warryn Campbell and this has a very grown folk feel to it. There's minimal to no profanity here, plus its just an overall very enjoyable album.  This is a mixture of conscious and somewhat of a vision of life from someone that has traveled the world internationally and has new, fresh perspective on things.  Don't expect any gangsta energy here. Instead, expect a human, down to earth album that is as soul filling as it is the perfect soundtrack to a good road trip on a Sunday afternoon.

92. Lupe Fiasco

DROGAS Wave
Production: Cardiak, Soundtrakk, S1, DJ Dahi, others

The Chi's Lupe Fiasco has been kinda warm and cold this decade.  However, with albums like Tetsuo & Youth, he showed he still knew how to deliver a very quality album and his skills were still above so many of his contemporaries.  Another album that exemplified this was DROGAS Wave.  The second installment of the DROGAS series (the first one was not the best album within his discography) was very intriguing.  Conceptually, it revolved around slaves jumping off a slave ship destined for America and lived underwater to sink other forthcoming ships.  That was the spirit behind it.  Song for song, this was a fantasy lesson in Black historical education the likes of which we don't hear about often in today's hip-hop.  This could easily be considered, conceptually, one of the most fascinating albums of the decade and deserves to not just be listened to, but absorbed.

91. Childish Gambino

Because The Internet
Production: Thundercat, Christian Rich, Pop Levi, others

Donald Glover has emerged as one of the biggest stars in entertainment throughout this decade. His hit show Atlanta has earned a few awards, and his various acting roles has earned him among the elite in Hollywood, including his work with Beyonce on The Lion King.  Musically, he's been no slouch either, as he's won awards and has at least been a multi-time nominee.  One album that put him in the forefront was his very ambitious album, Because The Internet.  A little bit more left-brained than his debut, Camp, this album is a musical adventure.  Blending various influences such as hip-hop, pop, funk, and bits of Electro, this is definitely not a conventional album.  This is that type of album the cool kids would immediately throw away in high school, but the nerds are wondering how many levels are there to adhere to.  Gambino is definitely a lover of hip-hop, but it's clear his view of contemporary hip-hop bores him, thus he has to be the artist he is and push creative and musical boundaries, and with this album, he does just that.  You'll either really love it or really hate it.

90. Brother Ali

All The Beauty In This Whole Life
Production: Ant

Since 2000, Minneapolis' Brother Ali has been one of the most important emcees in the game that goes very much underappreciated.  His second album, Shadows On The Sun, is still widely regarded as one of the most phenomenal albums to ever exist within the underground.  To add to this, other albums such as Champion EP, The Undisputed Truth, and Us are other albums that some of hip-hop's most overlooked, yet prized, possessions.  Enter 2017's All the Beauty In this Whole Life.  he reunites with Atmosphere's production wizard, Ant, and makes an album filled with positivity, hope, and inspiration over some signature Ant production.  It had been four whole years since we had gotten anything from him, but it sounded like he never went anywhere.  Tremendous cuts all over the place, Ali remains one of hip-hop's most needed voices and hopefully one day he'll get way more recognition than he does.

89. Rapsody

The Idea Of Beautiful
Production: 9th Wonder & The Soul Council

Snow Hill, NC's Rapsody has emerged as one of the most lyrically gifted emcees of the decade and quite possibly the heir apparent to overall female lyricist that has held for years by MC Lyte.  Her vulnerability mixed with ol' school hip-hop ethic and straight homegirl appeal to both guys and ladies alike made her one of the true ones to watch, and she's met every expectation.  Aside from mixtapes such as Thank H.E.R. Later, She Got Game, and The Black Mamba, her first full-length album was The Idea Of Beautiful, an excellent album highlighting what beauty represents across society, or the lack thereof in cases.  Different stories of struggle, hope, and pride are all over this album and reminds people of what the human spirit can withstand.  Over delightfully soulful production by friend and mentor 9th Wonder and his Soul Council squad, Rapsody showed she had depth as well as superb talent.

88. Skyzoo & Pete Rock

Retropolitan
Production: Pete Rock

Skyzoo has been among the most spot on emcees this entire decade, just in terms of his discography.  He has been consistent with quality material and fairly prolific in terms of yearly efforts.  In 2019, he collaborated with legendary NY producer Pete Rock for the boom-bap flavored, Retropolitan.  This obvious nod to nineties NY hip-hop was as feel good as it got for those that miss that old nostalgic feel only those like Pete Rock can provide.  A sincere feeling of authenticity comes across with this album and with Sky's excellent ability to tell stories, plus his confident flow and delivery, makes for an album that was, and still needs to be, in constant rotation.

87. J. Cole

K.O.D.
Production: artist, T-Minus, Marc Pelli, others

Jermaine cole presented perhaps his most polarizing piece of work yet with 2018's K.O.D.  Conceptually, Cole aimed to highlight the excesses of today's society and how the youth are getting caught up with them all.  Although a complete change of pace from prior incredible albums like 4 Your Eyez Only and 2014 Forest Hills Drive, this trap-808 sounding album is a lot deeper than its surface.  Once you look past the trap-influence, you'll see a harrowing story that's plaguing so many of today's youth.  Cole is doing his part in staying within hand's reach of today's generation, but is aware that there's an urgency that's there, and that is commendable.  The closing track, "1985", was an excellent summary of how today's young and upcoming emcees need to understand there's levels to this game, and self-respect is paramount.  Cole is one such example of what happens when you do it right.

86. Joey Bada$$

B4. Da. $$
Production: Statik Selektah, ?uest-Love, J-Dilla, DJ Premier, Kirk Knight, Chuck Strangers, others

One of the decade's overall most talented crews was Pro Era, a group of about twelve emcees headed up by Flatbush, Brooklyn representative Joey Bada$$ and his homie, the deceased Capital STEEZ.  Bada$$ had fantastic mixtapes such as 1999 and the just as crazy follow-up, Summer Knights. However, he finally dropped his long-awaited full-length debut, B4. Da. $$, and it met every expectation.  This young dude can spit, and I mean with the best of them within this current generation.  This old school soul is as nineties almost as much as you can get, and this was evidenced by his mixtapes and other previous Pro Era releases (their P.E.E.P. The APROcalypse mixtape SLAPPED like a bitch!), as this felt very late nineties/early 00s, which isn't a bad thing.  Production contributions from the likes of Statik Selektah, a lost beat from Dilla, and Premo on the DOPE cut, "Paper Trails" add to this notion, with Bada$$ ripping the mic as only he can.  While many people and critics ridicule this current generation of emcees under twenty-five, this one is one example of how substance still means so much more than style, and Bada$$' future within the coming decade looks excellent.

85. Shabazz Palaces

Black Up
Production: Knife Knights

Shabazz Palaces is a duo comprised of producer and instrumentalist Baba, and Ishmael, formerly of Digable Planets fame.  This duo delivered their debut, Black Up, in 2011, and this album was, and remains, an acquired taste.  Ishmael, the former Butterfly of DP, showed that he still had it, as he was definitely the shining lyrical star of the trio back in the day, and Baba's live instrumentation was different yet intriguing.  An eclectic array of sounds has Ishmael sounding fairly different and switching up styles over most of the tracks, but he sounded great over all of them.  This is a very progressive and left-brained album, and will not resonate with conventional hip-hop fans.  With track titles such as "The Last Time We Spoke You Said You Were Not Here, I Saw You Though" and "The King's New Clothes Were Made By His Own Hands" show how far into the depth of the mind they were willing to go to make an album not of your limited hip-hop long-term projectory.  Instead they made an album for those that realize that the artform is just that...art.  One can't box it in nor put a label on it to give it an idealistic sub-genre.  This project is truly for the open-minded.  peep it...if you dare to challenge yourself.

84. Little Simz

Grey Area
Production: Inflo, Astronote

The UK has a very slept-on hip-hop scene to those of us here in the U.S.  One particularly standout emcee is Little Simz.  Co-signed by Kendrick Lamar, Simz is quite the talented wordsmith.  Her previous albums of A Curious Tale Of Trials + Persons and Stillness In Wonderland, along with several mixtapes made her slowly catch the eye of many here Stateside.  However, in 2019, she delivered Grey Area, which was the magnum opus we knew she would eventually deliver.  Honest, vulnerable, and opinionated, this album is a well-oiled machine.  She explores heartbreak, self-identity, and growing pains in such an uneasy yet relatable way.  Simz is capable of delivering albums quite possibly even better than this, if that's possible.  Her future is looking brighter and brighter, and with albums like this, we can't wait to see or hear what's next.

83. Oddisee

The Good Fight
Production: artist

DMV representative Oddisee is among the most underappreciated emcee/producers out here.  The Diamond District member has depth and substance to everything he delivers.  With 2015's offering, The Good Fight, he brings forth an honesty about him that relates to any and everyone just trying to make it out here in the world and encountering all the obstacles and perils that come with envisioning and going after success, especially internally.  Musically, this album is his best work (although his follow-up The Iceberg makes a great case for that as well) and is a damn enjoyable album.  Growth, choices, and chasing dreams are big on this album, and Oddisee, he makes it clear that none of us are alone with our struggles.

82. Lupe Fiasco

Tetsuyo & Youth
Production: S1, DJ Dahi, Keyz, Blood Diamonds, others

We had been waiting for Lupe Fiasco to get back to the energy and vision he had with his first two exceptional projects, Food & Liquor and The Cool.  Since that time, he would struggle, and in some cases, a lot.  Enter Tetsuo & Youth.  This album finds him going in between seasons, and each season matches his mood, vigor, and intensity.  This is a very complex album and one that needs some time to swallow and absorb, as nuances and double meanings are vast and broad here.  Lyrically, he's come out as a reborn samurai ninja who shows students that think they've outgrown him that he's still the Sensai.  Fiasco is a master thinker and one who's imagination to convey imagery is more than just a one sip formula.  He's a layered emcee and this is completely a layered album.  One of his most prized career possessions lies in the very long but immaculate, "Mural", and in short, this track is a mirror as to his scope of what is needed in life and culture.  Fiasco reemerged out of his creative cocoon with an album that must be mentioned as great or better than his first two efforts.

81. Sean Price

Imperious Rex
Production: The Alchemist, 4th Disciple, Marco Polo, Harry Fraud, Moss, others

The late Sean Price is revered as not just an underground hero, but a hip-hop hero as a whole.  Among the most respected emcees in the game, the "Brownsville Bully" was an emcee's emcee: words, delivery, witty wordplay and an in-your-face approach to his style.  With his unfortunate and sudden passing in 2015, P-Body left behind some jewels.  One of which was finishing up his Imperious Rex album.  Lead by the Alchemist-laced title track, this album demonstrated P in some of his finest, grittiest moments.  Never a flashy, Lil' Wayne-esque witty emcee, his pen game was super sick, and his passing left a big hole not just within BCC, but for those in hip-hop that give a shit about true lyricism and a gifted pen game that doesn't give a rat's ass about fame or awards.  This album was one of many within his discography (solo or with Rock as Heltah Skeltah) that showed how limitless his potential to be one of the true greatest ever was looking.  Depending upon who you ask, he already accomplished it.

80. Skyzoo

Music For My Friends
Production: !llmind, Apollo Brown, Thelonious Martin, Antman Wonder, Jahlil Beats, others

One thing Skyzoo often likes to do, and do quite often, is reminisce back on his childhood and old memories growing up within his Brooklyn neighborhood.  On Music For My Friends, he enters this album as a thirteen-year-old kid and how he sees the world through his freshly-teened eyes, or at least his block.  He sees drug hustlers that are successful, fine girls, his views of his mother, childhood friends, and others, and this album is very understandable and relatable.  With excellent production provided by the likes of Antman Wonder, !llmind, Apollo Brown, and Jahlil Beats among others, Sky presented a near flawless album that makes you think back to how your childhood was and how it shaped your view of life as a grown person as well.

79. Noname

Telefone
Production: Cam O'bi, Saba, Phoelix

Chi-town native Noname has been a known name among underground hip-hop circles since her appearance on Chance The Rapper's Acid Rap album, plus making appearances on efforts such as Chance's Coloring Book, Mick Jenkins' The Water, and Pro Era's Kirk Knight's debut, Late Knight Special.  Her subdued, almost whimsical delivery yet thought-provoking rhymes made her one to watch and hope for a whole project from.  The answer came in the form of her debut mixtape, Telefon.  This was an astounding debut from such a recluse emcee, but her talented, spoken-word-esque vibe and honesty made for one of the most sonically refreshing yet intriguing projects in a long time.  Noname's unassuming nature and down to earth energy also leaves room for us to dive into her sonic diary with this mixtape release and see that she's just like anyone else with insecurities and questions.  As a precursor for her debut full-length, Room 25, this effort was simply golden.

78. Apathy

Honkey Kong

Production: artist, Statik Selektah, Da Beatminerz, DJ Premier, Evidence, Khrysis, DJ Muggs, others

Connecticut emcee Apathy has a name that's isn't all the time mentioned in terms of tremendous underground wordsmiths.  This DemiGodz/Army Of The Pharoahs member is a verbal slicer, plus has an old school substance before style approach that always feels great to hear in this day and age.  He also has quite the impressive discography.  One of those acclaimed albums is Honkey Kong.  This is classic east coast boom-bap of the highest regard with some of the most perennial producers to emerge from the nineties-plus era that you'll find such as Premo, Statik Selektah, Muggs, Da Beatminerz, and Soul Council member Khrysis and they offer him some of the decade's hardest production.  Apathy, meanwhile, is no holds barred and makes you understand he plays not one single game with you, the listener.  Part battler, part excellent story-teller, Ap is a problem, and you will not keep sleeping on this excellent emcee. 

77. Ka

The Night's Gambit
Production: artist, Preservation

Brownsville representative, Ka, is somewhat of an enigmatic emcee.  Excellent storyteller, good pen game, but beyond that, not a ton is known about him except that he's a firefighter by day in Brooklyn.  The former Natural Elements member delivered his promising debut album, Grief Pedigree, to much acclaim, but it was his sophomore effort, The Night's Gambit, that made more people perk their ears up to him.  The dark atmosphere of this album envisions a foggy winter night at 3:00 AM.  His low-key, almost whisper-like delivery makes for quite the intriguing listen.  Production is murky, dense, and provides the perfect backdrop for Ka's street narratives and insightful lyrics.  Not an intense album by any means, but it is an album that is sonically cold and damp, and with Ka's Scorsese approach to visual lyricism, this album provides quite the quality value.

76. Black Milk

No Poison, No Paradise
Production: artist

Detroit's Black Milk emerged as one of the big prizes this decade.  Seen as Dilla's heir apparent, BM has been busy creating his own lane for the D, and has done a great job at doing so.  One particularly excellent album was No Poison, No Paradise.  This is a conceptual album centered around a young man named Sonny Jr, who transitioned from a good, honest boy to street hustler throughout the course of the album.  Sonically, up to this point, was his darkest sounding album in comparison to other tremendous releases such as Album Of The Year and Tronic.  The boom-bap is here, and in various forms, especially the knocking "Sunday's Best/Monday's Worst", but its his concentration on bringing Sonny Jr to a relatable view that brings us further in on certain cuts such as "Black Sabbath", "Dismal", and "Money bags".  Milk has always been someone that tells stories, whether lyrically or especially musically.  On this album, the two mesh well together, and the result is an album that is among his best work to date.

75. PRhyme

PRhyme 2
Production: DJ Premier

To say that the debut PRhyme album was ridiculous is putting it mildly (see later), but the challenge was to present a follow-up every bit as worthy as the debut.  The result was a heavily satisfying, knocking sophomore album between Rolyce & Premo, PRhyme 2.  Longer than the nine track smorgasbord their debut was, this seventeen track platter is filled with what made these two together one of the most exciting pairs in the game to begin with.  Royce continued to show why his lyrical showmanship is second to none and why Premo is a legit hip-hop legend, especially behind the ones and twos.  With assistance from the likes of Rapsody, Cee-Lo, Dave East, and Roc Marci, Royce is never outshined, but how awesome it was to hear these guests and other over DJ Premier production is at times damn near orgasmic.  Overall more polished than their debut, this album is a top to bottom treat and one that raises the much deserved question, "Will we get a PRhyme 3?"

74. Joe Budden

All Love Lost
Production: DJ Dahi, Vinylz, Boi-1nda, AraabMuzik, Parks, 8 Bars, others

While Jersey City native, and former Slaughterhouse member, Joe Budden has always had a polarizing career on and off the mic, no one can deny he's a talented emcee.  His previous efforts of Padded Room, Escape Route, and Halfway House were showcases of inconsistent production, but great mic abilities.  However, in 2015 (arguably the best year of the decade), he delivered what must be considered his magnum opus and career best with All Love Lost, a collection of painfully honest and vulnerable cuts that bring about memories of albums like Me Against The World and Death Is Certain, or even The Book of Ryan.  Budden lets it all out.  Every single emotion, from paranoid, to depressed to big time pissed, all over this album, but with it released some of the best work of his career.  Emotion-filled production notwithstanding, his issues with women, relationships, and internal strife fill this album and it at times is almost unsettling.  however, it's the bravery of him to be so transparent on this album that, for once, makes one root for Budden to get it together, and with All Love Lost, this is own personal diary for all of us to enjoy, or at least absorb into our consciousness.  We wish Budden was this human all the time.

73. ScHoolboy Q

Oxymoron
Production: The Alchemist, Digi-Phonics, DJ Dahi, Mike WILL Made It, Pharrell Williams, Boi-1nda, Frank Dukes, Tyler The Creator, others

One particular star that had developed this decade was TDE's ScHoolboy Q.  His Habits & Contradictions album was dope and it was enough for Interscope to sign him through TDE.  His first major-label album was Oxymoron, which was definitely a star making album.  The L.A.-native delivered an album suitable for the clubs and the streets alike, and did it in a fashion that wasn't cheesy or forced.  The 52 Hoover Crip doesn't shy away from his vices, nor does he sugarcoat the streets, but also manages to occasionally have fun on here as well, thus the album title.  This is a step up from H&C, but still manages to stay true to the value of his prior work.  After a Grammy nomination and selling over a million units, ScHoolboy was officially here, and it stands among the best TDE albums to date.

72. Benny The Butcher
The Plugs I Met (EP)
Production: Daringer, The Alchemist, Beat Butcha

If there was an MVP of 2019, one has to put Griselda's Benny The Butcher in the conversation.  His menacing bars and no-nonsense delivery made more people take notice to the already bubbling Griselda machine.  In 2018, he dropped an instant classic with Tana Talk 3 (see later), and in 2019, he followed that greatness up with a comparable follow-up with The Plugs I Met.  This seven track EP pretty much picks up where TT3 left off, drugs, hustling, revenge, and more importantly sick bars.  With guests such as Black Thought, Jadakiss, and Pusha T along for the ride, this latest effort from him packs as much punch and hits has hard as TT3.  At this rate, with efforts like The Plugs I Met, The Butcher is poised to become a star in the game, and with his family of Westside Gunn and Conway right beside him, who's gonna stop Griselda?

71. Royce Da 5'9"

The Book Of Ryan
Production: !llmind, S1, Antman Wonder, Frank Dukes, DeNaun Porter, Cool & Dre, DJ Khalyl, others

There's not many that wouldn't consider Ryan Montgomery as one of the complete emcees in all of hip-hop.  The proficiency and technical nature in his rhymes is almost unmatched, not to mention how nuts his pen game is.  With albums like Rock City, Death Is Certain, Street Hop, and the more recent Layers, Royce is the prototypical favorite emcee's favorite emcee.  Storyteller, highly respected penman, good songmaker, and authentic in all ways, Royce is among kings in the game.  We've been seeing more and more of his human, vulnerable side, and with 2018's offering, The Book of Ryan, he presents his most complete body of work since Death Is Certain.  The transparency and honesty he displays within this album is at times damn courageous.  Much like his former Slaughterhouse-mate Joe Budden with All Love Lost, Book Of Ryan is a mirror to what makes him tick, as well as the roots of what got him to his lowest of lows and his need to proceed forward.  His past of rap beefs, drugs and alcohol behind him, Royce has been presenting some of the boldest music of his career, and we are all here for it

70. Ka

Honor Killed The Samurai
Production: artist, Preservation

Earlier, we highlighted The Night's Gambit, and all of its murky decorum on wax.  With Honor Killed The Samurai, he more or less picks up right where The Night's Gambit left off.  This has an even more raw, dark, calculated vibe with it, but with it, Ka shows why he's such an understated stylist and writer.  Cautionary tales, street lessons, and vivid imagery are the noted marks of this excellent album.  Ka is clearly a hood reporter, reporting on the world that is disturbing and methodical, yet like an elder veteran, he gives insight and wisdom just as much as he bring you the raw story.  With Honor Killed The Samurai, Ka's place as an ingenious writer gets raised even more.

69. Drake

Thank Me Later
Production: Boi-1nda, 40, Kanye West, Swizz Beats, Pharrell Williams, No I.D., others

The rise throughout this decade of Drake has been that of legend.  Most sold albums, most downloaded songs, and a number of awards almost makes him, commercially, the Beyonce of hip-hop.  The start of this historic rise happened with his 2010 debut, Thank Me Later.  This was as complete of a debut as you would find during that time, as Drake established his appeal and his knack for the very catchy hook and at least decent lyricism.  Every cut on here was a certified hit,  much like other classic debuts such as Get Rich or Die Tryin' or The College Dropout.  Throughout the decade, this album has aged gracefully and this showed that Drake was definitely the next big thing.  To say mission accomplished would be a gross understatement.

68. Nas & Damien Marley
Distant Relatives
Production: Damian Marley

One thing Nasir Jones tends to be is a visionary.  While he may not had foreseen the impact Illmatic would have on the culture as a whole, he knew he was a special emcee.  Plus, he always looks to not simply expand the culture, for to further enrich it.  Thus comes his collabo album with Damien "Jr. Gong" Marley with Distant Relatives.  An likely pairing, this album ended up being one of the most acclaimed yet underappreciated albums of Nas' career.  This was hood, but mostly spiritual and definitely an album that focused on growth and personal and cultural development.  With Marley channeling the spirit of his iconic father, he assist Nas on this journey, sonically and lyrically to deliver some of the gripping and engaging cuts of either one's respective careers.  This album became a new benchmark for Mr. Jones as well as Mr. Marley, and we can only hope that we will see another unbelievable album between these two again.

67. Brother Ali

Secrets & Escapes
Prodcution: Evidence

Brother Ali has had an overall great discography this decade.  Earlier we covered his tremendous return after a four year absence with All The Beauty In This Whole Life.  However, he followed that up with 2019's surprise offering, Secrets & Escapes.  He went in a different sonic direction, as he didn't get assistance from longtime collaborator Ant of Atmosphere, nor did he get assistance from former collaborator, Jake One (Mourning In America, Living In Color was the truth).  instead he gets a whole album's worth of help from Evidence, and boy does this work.  The albums sounds like an album that's been years in the making, as the chemistry between these two is damn near magical.  Still the same socially conscious and aware brother that spits jewels, but also just a battle-ready emcee ready to give it to someone at a moment's notice, Ali remains focused and determined.  He also brings forth his storytelling abilities on cuts like "They Shot Ricky" while highlighting male role models on "Father Figures".  While Shadows On The Sun remains his sincere genuine article, albums like this once again show why Ali is as important to hip-hop as he is.

66. Ghostface Killah 

Twelve Reasons To Die
Prodcution: Adrien Younge

Leave it to the mighty Ghostface Killah to bring yet another epic piece of work this decade.  The man that brought us instant classics such as Supreme Clientele, Ironman, and Fishscales decided to collaborate with producer/composer Adrien Younge to deliver Twelve Reasons To Die.  This conceptual album is literally a movie on wax, as the story involves an assassin that got killed by his employers because of his rogue tendencies and by falling for the boss' daughter.  His remains are brought back to life within the course of twelve different albums.  The concept is definitely a creative one, as the subtle brilliance of Ghostface demonstrates.  The production here is one of a post-sixties Italian mafioso-type flick only set to hip-hop.  A perfect soundtrack for this story, as Ghost once again shows why out of all nine members, Ghost may be the leader of the acclaimed nature of the team.

65. Black Milk

If There's A Hell Below...
Produciton: artist

Earlier, we reviewed No Poison, No Paradise as Black Milk's excellent work and stated that it was his darkest effort up to that point.  However, in 2014, he delivered an even darker project in If There's A Hell Below..., and folks, this was some of BM's absolute best work.  Where No Poison, No Paradise relies on its brooding, yet snapping production as BM's muse to tell his character's story, If Hell...sounds like he's less reliant upon his mic abilities and allows the production to tell the story here more so than he can verbally.  One can't help but wonder if this darker production is causing ambiguity within Curtis Cross.  It almost feels as if If Hell...is his own personal extension of No Poison...instead of it being a conceptual sequel.  Whatever the case is, Black Milk showed here why he's among the true greats of the boards, and Dilla can truly sleep well.

64. ScHoolboy Q

Habits & Contradictions

Production: Digi-Phonics, The Alchemist, Best Kept Secret, DJ Dahi, others

In 2012, ScHoolboy Q delivered quite the album with Habits & Contradictions, an album that he described as "A prequel to Setbacks (his debut album)".  While his earlier reviewed album, Oxymoron, was more about his imbalances, this album shows more of a deeper personal dichotomy.  Whether it's the streets, church, religion, addictions, or the lack of mental peace, Quincy tackles them all and the paradox of them within him.  This is not an overly accessible album, nor was it meant to be.  No club, radio, or twerking here.  This is raw...as hell.  This was the album that brought Q to Interscope, and by the end of this, you can easily see why.

63. El-P

Cancer 4 Cure

Production: artist

Before he became a part of the most vicious duo this whole decade with Killer Mike as Run The Jewels, he was a solo artist (besides his run with Company Flow and Central Services), and one of his best efforts was his follow-up to I'll Sleep When You're Dead, Cancer 4 Cure.  This album was more personal to him due to the death of friend and former partner-in-rhyme, Camu Tao, who ironically died of lung cancer in '08.  The vibe of the album is that of overcoming darkness and self conquering.  While Run The Jewels brought out an animal in him filled with rage and angst, this album brought out a necessity of wanting to desire more of life and is an example of the saying, "Tough times don't last, tough people do".

62. Pharoahe Monch

W.A.R.
Production: artist, Lee Stone, Exile, M-Phazes, Diamond, Marco Polo, others

When mentioning GOAT emcees, why Pharoahe Monch isn't mentioned as much as others, nobody will truly ever know.  Since his Organized Konfusion days, he's always been seen as next level in terms of lyrics and delivery.  His star potential resonated in his crazy debut solo album, Internal Affairs, which spawned the smash "Simon Says".  He, then, released Desire after nearly a six year abscence and the album was definitely a solid follow-up.. However, he got deeper into his consciousness with his third album, W.A.R. in 2011.  While he continues to show off his brutally lyrical swordsmanship skills and his knack for substantial education is always at the forefront, Monch comes off more of an elder statesman that wants to still show the kiddies of that time that Monch is still a lyrical wrecking ball, and still has a lot to say.  Complete with areas such as poverty, cultural enlightenment, and the somberness of being used by the record business, Monch has transformed into more of a teacher that still identifies with unrest, insecurity, and through it all: wisdom.

61. Sean Price

Mic Tyson
Produciton: The Alchemist, 9th Wonder, Moss, Statik Selektah, Khrysis, Beat Butcha, others

With a discography full of verbal onslaughts and wit, Sean Price was one of the most rewind-worthy emcees you'd ever find.  Whether with BCC or alone, P was hands down among the truly best out there.  His last album that he released while living, Mic Tyson, demonstrated this almost more than any other album he had dropped.  The comical, yet dumb dope, stylings of Monkey Barz and the utterly confident and standoff nature of Jesus Price Supastar led the way for this thunder-clapper.  Over fairly brutal production, P rips the shit outta his mic and commands the listener to soak in his bars.  Slightly darker than most of his solo efforts, including mixtapes, Seaqn P does what he does best: shit talk and sounds damn good doing it 

60. Add-2

Jim Crow: The Musical
Production: Jodah Arrington, Disrupt, Slot-A, others

Former Jamla-affiliate, Chi-town native Add-2, dropped a dope debut album in 2015 with Prey For The Poor.  It was a fairly light-hearted, skills-heavy album that was heavy on feel-good, soulful music.  However, he's now an indie artist, and his first indie project is quite frankly a masterwork in the making.  His sophomore album, Jim Crow: The Musical, is a bold, brave, and outstanding call to action within the Black community in a way we haven't heard in years.  Mixing the conceptual nature of Black unity and awareness of To Pimp A Butterfly with the sobering reminders of how much further we have to go like Genocide & Juice, Jim Crow is an album that will not be just be heard, but felt and examined.  Aside from how excellent this album sounds sonically, Add-2 has a more commanding tone lyrically almost as if he had creatively set free.  There are truly powerful moments on here such as "Hashtag" and "Young Niggaz", but also reassuring moments such as "Nappy hair" and "Soul Searching" that completely bring a sense of fist-in-the-air that both older generations and millennials can identify with.  This album is a true treasure for the decade.

59. Bun B

Trill O.G.
Production: DJ Premier, Boi-1nda, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Drummer Boy, others

One can never question the legend status of the one and only Bun B.  As half of the seminal southern duo, UGK, he's among the most influential emcees to emerge from the south and helped pave a way for a lot of your favorite southern rappers.  Not one person can deny this.  Ever since the unfortunate death of partner-in-rhyme, Pimp C in 2007, Bun has been holding down the legacy of UGK by his lonesome and has been doing a damn admirable job.  the beginning of this decade saw him dropping his final album in the trilogy of Trill albums, appropriately en titled Trill O.G. (loving the double entendre here).  This mixed the soulful sounds of his first one with the bounce of II Trill and also brought some east coast thump with the sounds of a surprising yet way overdue collabo with fellow Texas native, DJ premier on "Let 'Em Know".  This is his most complete album, and we saw Uncle Bun go off on a few tracks here.  With the Pimp looking down on his Trill brother, Bun showed these little whippersnappers, O.G.'s like him ain't done yet

58. Earl Sweatshirt

Doris
Prodcution: artist, Tyler The Creator, RZA, The Neptunes, BADBADNOTGOOD, others

This decade, there was a crew of talented, yet underrated emcees known as OFWGKTA, or Odd Future for short.  Led by Tyler The Creator, they were a smorgasbord of emcees and singers (notably Frank Ocean) that loved shock value and rewind-worthy lines.  The one everyone was talking about the most was the youngest of the crew, Earl Sweatshirt.  A complex young man on and off the mic, Earl was seen as the one that would take Odd Future to the next level.  While Odd Future didn't ultimately pan out, Earl's success has.  His debut mixtape, Earl, showed a glimpse into how ambiguous his manner was, with intriguing yet at times somewhat disturbing, view of the world.  He manifests these ideals into his full-length debut, Doris, named after his deceased grandmother.  This was everything we thought this album would be from him. While not quite a classic (that comes later), this album was a big time debut, and shows how he can be distant, yet very poignant and honest.  Excellent cuts like "Chum", "Burgandy", and "Hoarse" all exemplify the intricate yet highly talented, writing ability of this emcee, and we knew Earl's best days were clearly in front of him.

57. Big K.R.I.T.

Live From The Underground
Production: artist

Mississippi's Big K.R.I.T. had been known for his stellar mixtapes and ever-growing following.  When it was announced he had signed a major label deal with Def Jam, a lot of heads were wondering if he was going to change up anything that made him the critical darling he had become.  With his major label debut, Live From The Underground, he answers these questions profoundly, as this album sounds like a legit extension of a few of his mixtapes.  The soul we absorb on this album is something that we had been longing for within a number of years.  Easily comparable to southern classics such as Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Soul Food, Ridin' Dirty, and On Top Of The World, Live From...is an ode to how hip-hop helped shape K.R.I.T. and how his southern roots are everything to him.  To the mainstream audience, this was their first impression of him, and it was tremendous, but those who had been with him since K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, the mainstream were catching up to what they had already known about the talent of Justin Scott.

56. Dr. Dre
Compton: A Soundtrack By Dr. Dre
Production: artist, Focus, DJ Premier, DJ Khalil, DJ Dahi, Best Kept Secret, others

What's a decade without the almighty D-R-E being involved somehow?  The iconic Dr. Dre hadn't dropped an album since '99 when he dropped 2001.  The creator of the landmark opus, The Chronic, had been putting in work on the much hyped and anticipated Detox nearly twenty years until finally he decided to scrap it altogether.  When the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton dropped, the good Doctor dropped a bomb on us in the form of a new album, appropriately entitled Compton.  This album has Dre sounding hungry and in fight mode for that one last prized fight, and he does so in style.  Along for the ride are guests such as Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Xzibit, Snoop, King Mez, and former NWA-mates Ice Cube and MC Ren, who all sound excellent over at times fiery production, along with classic Dre bounce.  Even the legendary DJ Premier stopped by to contribute behind the boards on the KNOCKING Anderson.Paak-featured "Animals".  Dre has stated this is his final album.  If this in fact his signing off, here's to a historic career and Compton is the best way to go out.

55. Kanye West & Kid Cudi

Kids See Ghosts EP
Production: Kane West

Mental health advocacy has been at an all time high in this current age.  Two artists that know about this area unfortunately all too well are Kanye west and Kid Cudi.  Together, they delivered their first collabo project together, Kids See Ghosts, which is the first time these two have worked with each other since Cudi's second album, Man On The Moon II.  During the summer of G.O.O.D. Music in 2018, Kanye dropped releases from Nas (Nasir), Pusha T (Daytona), Teyana Taylor (K.T.S.E.), and himself ('Ye), but this album was the best of all of them just from a conceptual and human standpoint.  Cudi sounded reinvigorated and Kanye provided him a backdrop of fantastic production the likes of which we hadn't heard consistently in years.  This was a very important album as well.  With the theme being to "keep moving forward", these two artists delivered a magnificent project showing that you can heal and to indeed, keep moving forward.

54. Drake

Take Care
Production: Boi-1nda, 40, Just Blaze, T-Minus, Illangelo, others

After the massive success of his debut album, Thank Me Later, Drake wanted to repeat the same success with his follow-up album, Take Care.  This album was more emphatic on melodic-heavy tunes, a minimalist R&B aspect, and more focus on love, sex, wealth, and fame...aka your typical Drake album.  However, this album was musically more expanded than his debut, and as a result became a monster success, winning Best Rap Album at the 2013 Grammys and selling upwards of a staggering six million units.  Sophomore slump be damned.  If you didn't believe a star was made with Thank Me Later, what else could you say after Take Care?

53. Skyzoo

A Dream Deferred
Production: !llmind, Focus, Best Kept Secret, 9th Wonder, Black Milk, others

We already mentioned how wonderful the discography of Brooklyn's own Skyzoo was throughout this decade.  In 2009, his presented his debut full-length album, The Salvation, to much acclaim.  Only to be followed up with an even crazier follow-up with producer !llmind, Live From The Tape deck (see later), and it was clear Skylar was playing not one single game out here.  In 2012, he dropped his third full-length album, A Dream Deferred, and it was yet another exhibition in lyrical pugilism, as Sky delightfully swings and hits through every excellent track on it.  Arguably a step up from The Salvation, Sky spits with the confidence of a twenty year vet, and the style of someone that legends like Big Daddy Kane or LL could respect and appreciate.  With not a single skippable moment here, A Dream Deferred proved Skyzoo was an emcee to to fully watch within the decade.

52. Isaiah Rashad

Cilvia Demo
Production: Sounwave, Black metaphor, The Antydote, others

TDE went to the south in 2013 and signed Chatanooga, TN native, Isaiah Rashad to the label.  While there wasn't a whole hell of a lot known about this young prospect, we knew that if you were signed to one of the undisputed hottest labels in the game, you were special.We were proven that fact with the release of his debut effort, Cilvia Demo.  Although seen as an EP, this project showed the tremendous talents of young Isaiah.  Influenced by the likes of Scarface, Outkast, and No Limit growing up, you hear bits of them all within this album.  The album is loosely based around his upbringing and his adolescence, and thus there are numerous moments on the project that are quite intriguing.  It was clear by the end of the effort that Isaiah Rashad fit in very well with the home of Kendrick, Ab-Soul, and ScHoolboy.  This was an introspective look at a young up-and-comer that had the world in his hands, and we were excited to go along for the ride, no matter how tumultuous it could be at times.

51. Earl Sweatshirt

I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
Production: artist, Left Brain

Former Odd Future standout, Earl Sweatshirt, had already hit a home run with his debut, Doris.  However, in 2015, he dropped a surprise album with the brooding title, I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside.  if you're expecting an accessible, radio-worthy, crossover-friendly album, look somewhere else.  This is gloomy, dark, and quite frankly depressing-sounding.  Earl, regardless, brings forth honesty and a vivid sense of ambiguity that makes you wonder how much more sanity Earl has left.  Yet, the talent of Earl makes his seeming hopelessness sound great, if there's such a thing.  Earl is methodical on here, more so than on Doris, and makes sure you grasp every rhyme and every word he states within this album, even with the very dark ambiance this album possesses.  Engaging and engrossing, Earl Sweatshirt presented an album that further showed that Earl would remain in this game for years to come.

50. Big K.R.I.T.

Cadillactica
Production: artist, DJ Khalyl, DJ Dahi, Jim Jonsin, Terrace Martin, others

It wasn't easy to follow-up such a great debut from Big K.R.I.T. such as Live From The Underground.  However, he did it, and did it very well with 2014's Cadillactica.  K.R.I.T. stepped everything up with this incredible release.  Aiming to attract more audiences, he expanded his sound slightly to incorporate more elements of soul, jazz, funk, and blues even more than before.  Lyrically, K.R.I.T. was definitely out to prove something.  He handled his business with a vigor we haven't seen up to hat point.  Justin Scott wanted to bring forth a project that we would cement his status in the game with, and folks, this was it.  from the beating-of-the-chest brazenness of "Mt. Olympus" to the self-assured "King Of The South" and the reflective nature of "Soul Food", this album is a prize that many people still regard as K.R.I.T.;'s crowning achievement, and for very good reason.  A definitive album for southern hip-hop in today's times, K.R.I.T. had officially arrived.

49. Danny Brown

XXX
Production: Quelle Chris, House Shoes, Frank Dukes, others

Detroit's Danny brown is among the most unique, yet greatly talented, emcees out there.  While getting people open with his debut mixtape, The Hybrid, it was his second album, XXX, that developed his much deserved cult following.  Quirkiness mixed with raw talent is what Brown displayed on this excellent album on great tracks like "Pac Blood", "Party All The Time", and "Nosebleeds".  Consistent and engaging production from the likes of Paul White, Frank Dukes, and Detroit representatives, Quelle Chris and DJ House Shoes was appropriate with the styling Brown brought to the table.  Half light-hearted, half solemn, Brown constructed an impactful album that officially showed those that are knowledgeable hip-hop heads that Danny brown had next, and that the 'D' had it's next rising star.

48. Westside Gunn

Supreme Blientele
Production: Daringer, The Alchemist, Statik Selektah, 9th Wonder, Pete Rock, Sahdu Gold, others

By 2018, Griselda Records was becoming a force to be reckoned with.  Stunning projects from Conway, Benny, Elcamino, and the head honcho Westside Gunn were being in more and more rotation with each passing effort.  Gunn had already brought forth an underground classic with FLYGOD (see later) in 2016, but he dropped an equally outstanding gutter smash with Supreme Blientele.  An obvious ode to Ghostface Killah's amazing sophomore album, Supreme Clientele, Gunn went for the gusto over some of the most vicious production of the entire year.  Complete with his signature ad-libs and extra screwface-demeanor on wax, Gunn came across as a boss and someone to never fuck with if you're smart.  With appearances from the aofrmentioned Conway and Benny, as well as heavyweights like Jadakiss, Busta Rhymes. and Anderson.Paak, Gunn delivered an album that further showed how dominant Griselda was aiming to become.  

47. Noname

Room 25
Production: Phoelix, artist

Earlier, we mentioned Noname's Telefone as one of the best of the decade due to its vulnerability, honesty, and her breezy, soft-spoken-word delivery.  The Chi-town native dropped her debut full-length album, Room 25, and it was easily seen as Telefone 2, which is a great thing.  Expanding upon prior subject matter such as heartbreak and losing her virginity within a short-lived relationship.  One of the best coming-of-age albums you'll likely hear in this current age of hip-hop, this album sounds like a neo-soul labum dressed up as hip-hop.  Noname presents her story with such assurance, yet bits of melancholy caution as well, but by the end of this masterful effort, we see a girl that was chronicling her life on Telefone blossom into a woman that is exploring more of the world around her with spreading wings on Room 25.  She walked, talked, and breathed within her truth, and Room 25 courageously shows her heart on her arm and we can say we went with her sonically on her journey to self-discovery on one of the most melodic and avant-garde albums in all of hip-hop this decade.

46. J. Cole

Cole World: The Sideline Story
Production: artist, No I.D.

After making a big buzz with his Friday Night Lights and The Warm-Up mixtapes, Fayetteville native J. Cole got signed to Roc Nation, and dropped his anticipated album, Cole World: The Sideline Story.  Jay obviously saw something special in him, and it was exhibited throughout the span of this album.  The album was highly regarded and praised due to its relatability and its down to earth vibe, which is a common thing with Cole among every album.  Addressing issues such as abortions, poverty, education and fatherless child issues, Cole World: The Sideline Story is an album that Cole can be proud of and it showed the world how much of a star Jermaine Cole could be with this very auspicious yet highly enjoyable album.  We knew the best was yet to come, and it was, but this was a hell of a first look at the greatness that would only continue to blossom from here.

45. Skyzoo & !llmind

Live From The Tape Deck

Production: !llmind

After making a splash with his full-length debut, The Salvation, Skyzoo collaborated with highly acclaimed producer !llmind for the 2010 offering, Live From The Tape Deck.  the idea behind it was to make an album that is so crazy, it came from the tape cassette era, which pretty much meant it was to be played from front to back with no fast forwards, just rewinds.  The concept and idea was dope, and the results were even crazier.  Conjuring up a special boom-bap era, !llmind gives Sky his muse for him to spit out hungry lyrics and just good ol' fashioned hip-hop.  Each and every track on here has enough east coast knock to satisfy all traditional NYC fans and those "stuck in the 90s" heads.  The lo-fi analog feel of the production further goes back to a highly cherished, nostalgic time.  Sky and !llmind constructed an absolutely knocking album that is a benchmark in both men's careers.

44. Isaiah Rashad

The Sun's Tirade
Production: Cam O'bi, D. Sanders, Mike WILL Made It, FrancisGotHeat, The Antydote, others

With the critical acclaim his debut effort, Cilvia Demo, received, it was time for Chatanooga native, Isaiah Rashad, to drop his full-length TDE debut, and t say it didn't disappoint is putting it very mildly.  His debut full-length, The Sun's Tirade, is the type of incredible debut we expect from TDE, and with the clear raw talent Rashad possesses, this marked a new level for him.  While his issues of depression, anxiety, drugs, and other personal demons are exhibited throughout this album, thematically and in terms of his delivery at times, Rashad delivered an album that's as powerful as it is unsettling.  However, it must be pointed out that it takes a bit of bravery to unload his demons like this upon the world, and in the process makes it a damn great album.

43. Scarface

Deeply Rooted
Production: artist, N.O. Joe, Mike Dean, Nottz, others

The one and only Brad Jordan is rightfully considered, not just a southern legend, but a general hip-hop legend.  Many call him the "true" King of the South, a distinction he doesn't particularly want.  Whatever the title, Mr. Face has one of the most iconic discographies of all time, and his 2015 offering, Deeply Rooted, reaffirmed this.  The maker of such extraordinary classics such as Mr. Scarface Is Back, The Diary, and The Fix reminded everyone of his powerful presence on wax with tremendous cuts such as "Anything", "Mental Exorcism", and "Steer".  This effort was almost a throwback to at least two of the aforementioned giants mentioned, and damn sure his best project in years at this point.  If this truly was his last album, he went out like the O.G. he really was and remains to this day.

42. Conway The Machine

G.O.A.T.
Production: Daringer, The Alchemist

Griselda's residential sociopath, Conway, has been unloading shells for years under the flag of his label.  With gutter releases like The Devil's Reject,  Reject 2, and Reject On Steroids, it was time for us to get THAT album from him, and boy oh boy did he give us one with G.O.A.T. (Grimiest Of All Time).  This is as vicious and as nihilistic as anything you've heard this entire decade as Conway sadistically goes after every enemy he knows and puts a cold shiver down your spine with his threats and calls for violence.  Aggressive and unrelenting, this became Conway's next level, as Daringer and Alchemist present him some of the grittiest boardwork he's ever rhymed over.  One would be hard pressed to find a more brutal album than this, and if there's one that deserves that distinction of "Grimiest Of All Time", it very well may be The Machine.

41. The Roots

Undun
Production: artist, Sean C & LV

It's generally seen that The Roots are truly one of the greatest acts in hip-hop history.  With a plethora of incredible, ingenious albums under their belt, they added another one to the list in 2011 with the conceptually heavy, Undun.  The album follows a fictional character named  Redford Stevens, who is pretty much a common young Black man growing up in Philly and it chronicles his short and tragic life.  It's not just conceptually heavy, but thematically heavy as well, as this is a pretty gloomy, depressing album that all too many of us can identify with, as we either know someone that is a Redford Stevens, or we have been in fact Redord Stevens.  The production here definitely matches the aura of this project, and although is melancholy in nature,is also beautiful to a degree, much like the album's breathtaking predecessor, How I Got Over (see later).  Definitely among The Roots' best work, Undun further shows how The Roots have managed to be such critical darlings over the past twenety plus year with momentous albums like this.

40. O.C. & Apollo Brown

Trophies
Production: Apollo Brown

Back in '94, Omar Credle delivered to us his debut album, Word...Life, and was it was considered one of the strongest debuts of that time period.  The D.I.T.C. member had laced us with timeless cuts such as the classic "Time's Up", "Born 2 Live", and "Ozone".  He followed that up with a just as hot sophomore album, Jewelz, which was even more cohesive and fluid than his already phenomenal debut.  Since then, he's dropped albums such as Bon Appetit, Starchild, and Smoke & Mirrors that have been fairly good, but not up to the standard set by his first two monster albums.  That all changed in 2012, when he collaborated with sick Detroit producer, Apollo Brown, to bring us Trophies.  This is the hungriest we've heard the veteran in years over the best consistent production he's rhymed over in over twenty years.  This album was practically flawless and was an album we've been longing to hear from O.C. for what seems like forever.  When it comes to Apollo, he has dominated this decade with crazy project after crazy project, and this one may be the best of all of them.

39. August Greene

August Greene
Production: artist

Lonnie Rashid Lynn is a living legend, and an emcee's emcee to the utmost.  In 2016, he dropped the unbelievable Black America Again, which was majority produced by Detroit drummer Karreim Riggins and Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Robert Glasper.  After all the acclaim they had gotten for their work on BAA, they decided to come together as an official group to become August Greene.  They dropped their debut group self-titled album and this was such a culturally beautiful ride.  While it may be missing the call-to-arms vibe BAA presented, this definitely continued the unity aspect BAA was just as much aiming for.  The live instrumentation of this album gives it a fresh feel as well as its lush arrangements.  While cuts like "The Time", "Black Kennedy", and "No Apologies" are very strong and engaging, it's their phenomenal remake of the legendary Sounds Of Blackness cut "Optimistic" with the vocals of Brandy that takes this album into another stratosphere.  This debut is one thousand percent solid and has been mentioned as the best album of 2018.  We need a lot more from this amazing group of artists.

38. Killer Mike

R.A.P. Music
Production: El-P

Before he officially got up with underground emcee/producer extraordinaire El-P to become Run the Jewels, Killer Mike was already flirting with the idea when he dropped perhaps his most ambitious and powerful solo album ever, R.A.P. Music.  Filled with angst, political/social commentary, and enough venom to cause another Public Enemy-esque movement.  In much the same spirit as politically amped classics as Fear Of A Black Planet or Let's Get Free, Killer Mike dropped his own version of AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, as Cube took his gangsta ass to the east coast for an album that would be among the most fiery albums alive, Mike did the same with R.A.P.Music and El-P.  Cuts like "Ghetto Gospel", "Reagen", and the tough title track are examples of Michael Render's revolutionary-leaning aspects of change within hip-hop and Black culture as a whole.  This was the precursor of what would be the most brutal duo this entire decade.

37. Big K.R.I.T.

K.R.I.T. Wuz Here
Production: artist

When the decade began, we hearing noise about a young Mississippi native named Justin Scott, who went by the name Big K.R.I.T.  Pretty known in local and regional sections, K.R.I.T. garnered enough industry buzz to have his sixth mixtape, K.R.I.T. Wuz Here to drop and we were all pleasantly surprised as to what we would hear.  A truly southern album to the core, this effort was almost a throwback to the soulful south days of Goodie Mob, UGK, and Eightball & MJG. Oh yeah some duo called Outkast too.  Impressive is too light of a description to use here.  Transparent, cultured, soulful, and definitely southern, Big K.R.I.T. has as much of a rebellious nature as he does a humility about him on this release, and that blend is refreshing and authentic.  There are plenty of standouts here, but the only fair thing to do is to see how much K.R.I.T. has progressed as a man and as an artist, yet how consistent he is about one key thing: being himself always.  We would see plenty of fantastic other examples later, but this started his decade off with complete attention.

36. Ab-Soul

Control System
Production: Digi-Phonics

Carson, CA's "residential thinking loner" Ab-Soul is indeed a very talented lyricist.  The TDE emcee was known for his Longterm Mentality mixtape series to a lot of acclaim.  We saw how introspective he was and how he was willing to let you inside of his mind and soul if need be.  However, in 2012, he released Control System, which was actually at times an emotional journey through the inside of a young man conflicted and confused about life as he knew it.  Recorded just before the shocking and saddening death of fellow TDE artist, and girlfriend, Alori Joh, the album took on an entire new meaning.  While he tackles subjects such as betrayal, media control, and other important topics while more than likely high off more than just life.  While the album itself is a fascinating listen, it was the truly tear-jerking and heart-wrenching dedication to Alori Joh, "The Book Of Soul" that is the peak, as well as fitting, conclusion to this fantastic album and he became more than just TDE's secret weapon, he became a solid, needed component to the building success of TDE.

35. ScHoolboy Q

The Blank Face LP
Production: The Alchemist, Digi-Phonics, Swizz Beats, Tyler The Creator, Frank Dukes, Metro Boomin, DJ Dahi, others

Staying with TDE, we've reviewed ScHoolboy Q's projects of Oxymoron and Habits & Contradictions and just how excellent these projects were, and still remain to be.  His peak performance to date lies with his sophomore major label effort, The Blank Face LP.  Every bit as hard and as gangsta as his prior efforts, if not more so, this is a trippy ride down his L.A. streets and does so while, once again, caught between reaffirming his loyalty and dedication to the streets, while condemning what the streets made him become along the way as well.  While he doesn't cover or break any new ground here, he also doesn't need to.  The gritty overtones of "Groovy Tony" to the melodic funk of the Dogg pound-assisted "Big Body", Quincy is unapologetic about his need to bring you into his world of pills, drugs, violence and his internal battles of ambiguity.  He scored a clear knockout with this album, and scored another Grammy nod.  if you didn't think he was a star with Oxymoron, any questions were answered with Blank Face.

34. Skyzoo

In Celebration Of Us
Production: Apollo Brown, !llmind, Cardiak, MarcNfinite, others

As you can see, Skyzoo has been quite the stellar artist in this decade.  Sky has delivered jewel after jewel after jewel, and all of them have been repeat-worthy without question.  Every year, he seemingly drops another excellent effort for our ears.  In 2018, Skyzoo dropped In Celebration of Us, which is seen as somewhat of a concept album that reminds us that in spite of trials and our struggles, we should always aim to live and realize how strong we as a culture we really are.  Definitely the most impact album of his career from a thematic stand point, the production here is among the most consistent and high powered of his entire discography as well.  Sky often loves to reminisce and celebrate the high points of life, especially his childhood.  Here, he equates his quest for wanting to be the best emcee with also wanting to see us as a culture succeed no matter what we do in life.  In the end, isn't that what it's all about anyways?  

33. Benny The Butcher

Tana Talk 3
Production: Daringer, The Alchemist

One of the most talked about up-and-coming emcees, especially the latter part of this decade has been Griselda's Benny The Butcher.  The self-professed "shooter" of the Griselda boys, Butcher had been bubbling with efforts such as Butcher On Steroids, My First Brick, and his collab projects with 38 Spesh like Stabbed & Shot and Cocaine Cowboys. However, the buzz for a full-length studio project was getting more and more anticipated.  In comes Tana Talk 3, and the rest is history.  Folks, this is among the revered coke rap albums ever heard on wax, easily rivaling albums such as Hell Hath No Fury, but it also has a lure and aura of the street hustling reminiscent of the likes of Reasonable Doubt or Wanted: Dead Or Alive.  Benny's vivid tales of the drug and hustling game are paramount and his delivery is clear, concise, and intimidating.  With Westside Gunn  and Conway as your cousins and rhyming partners, it's only right he comes as correct as possible, and with Tana Talk 3, he does that and then some.

32. J. Cole

4 Your Eyes Only
Production: artist

J. Cole had the uneasy task of following up an instant classic in 2014 Forest Hills Drive, but he did so with a minimally marketed album, 4 Your Eyez Only.  Although a forty minute video via Tidal was released, and a couple of GREAT cuts of "Everybody Dies" and "False Prophets" were released, not much else was distributed, and this was all very quickly.  Not to worry because this album became his most mature and most well-rounded album to date.  A completely new look with fully grown out dreads and a more subdued outer appearance in terms of clothing, Cole was completely done with the lavishness of fame and just wanted to make even more relatable music.  While some of his longtime fans viewed this album as boring, this was anything but that.  Subjects such as depression, fatherhood, and racism all liter the album and is done with such passion yet intelligence that Cole comes off as an elder statesmen in spite of the fact that at this time he was barely in his thirties.  A very grounded piece of work, Cole became an official leader of this generation with this remarkable album.

31. Danny Brown

Atrocity Exhibition
Production: Frank White, The Alchemist, Black Milk, others

Danny brown is quite the anomaly.  Flourishing his world of drugs and unstable psychological madness and a crazy talented writer and emcee that deserves a place among the best out, if not for anything else due to his intrigue factor.  Previous albums such as the aforementioned XXX, his collabo with fellow Detroit phenom Black Milk, Black & Brown, and his dope follow-up ODB all exhibit his burgeoning mainstream star appeal.  However, he hit pay dirt with the slightly demented and definitely eccentric, Atrocity Exhbition.  This is an album that takes a couple doses to get the full effect of this peculiar, yet highly engrossing, effort.  This is arguably Brown's most ambitious project to date, but also his mostly bleak.  Brown walks a fine line between chaos and systematic precision.  In other words, with all his drug-infested humor and twists into an occasional worrying spiral, there's also a method into the madness of Danny Brown.  With assistance from the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and B-Real, Brown never gets out-shined or misplaced, as its clear Brown is a spotlight all his own.  With Atrocity Exhibition, this is incredible work that asks the question, is Danny Brown crying out for help, or are we just putty in his hands? Only he can decide.

30. Little Brother

May The Lord Watch
Production: Khrysis, Black Milk, Nottz, others

It was like God above answered our collective hip-hop prayers, which was to reunite Little Brother.  It happened...well...sort of.  Although originally founding member, Grammy Award-winning producer 9th Wonder was on board, creative differences made him leave the group and therefore the project, so that left Phonte Coleman and Rapper Big Pooh to do it by themselves, and that's just fine.  They handled Getback and Leftback without 9th at the forefront, so they did it again with their first album in nine years, May The Lord Watch.  Even though 9th was nowhere to be found here, they did have longtime contributor Khrysis handling a lot of the work here, along with the likes of Nottz, Black Milk, and longtime Aftermath producer, Focus.  This feels like LB of old, and they sound as invigorated as they did when they dropped their debut album, The Listening, at the beginning of the century.  their relatable content and down to earth, grown man appeal makes them such a wholesome act.  Although not quite the same excellence of their most revered work, The Minstrel Show, this is definitely not far from it, especially conceptually as they resurrect fictional television network, UBN, as a tribute to commemorate the death of the legendary Phife Dawg.  Funny how tragedies can bring families back together, and in the case of Little Brother, we all benefited from the reunion of one of the single talented acts in all of hip-hop.

29. Roc Marciano

Reloaded
Production: artist, The Alchemist

After obliterating speakers with his solo debut, Marcberg (see later), former U.N. and Flipmode member, Roc Marciano, unleashed the follow-up Marcberg, the appropriately entitled, Reloaded.  Even bleaker and more nihilistic than his debut, this album is to Marcberg what Mobb Deep's Hell On Earth is to The Infamous; An equally thrilling follow-up to a classic album and the argument is there as to which one is better.  The direction is darker, but Roc's focus is even more clear.  From the lush melodic tones of the ominous "Flash Gordon" to the haunting imagery of "We Ill", this is a macabre, yet very potent effort and among his top albums within his discography.  Incredibly vivid and cautionary, Marciano silenced any doubters as far as his want to be among the hottest in the game.  With Reloaded, mission accomplished.

28. Kendrick Lamar
DAMN
Production: Mike WILL Made It, Digi-Phonics, The Alchemist, 9th Wonder, Cardo, DJ Dahi, Terrace Martin, others

What can you say about the genius of Kendrick Lamar within this decade?  He showed his brilliance time after time.  He showed his stance as arguably the most important emcee of his generation, and constructed the most prized albums of this decade, and some of the most revered of any decade ever.  With his third major label album, DAMN, Kung-Fu Kenny goes left again, and completely differs his sound from the orgasmic funk and soul of To Pimp A Butterfly and the lush west coast boom-bap of good kid, M.A.A.D. City.  This dynamite effort has him questioning life, his spirituality, his fame, and his culture as a whole.  Powerful cuts such as "XXX" and especially the gripping "Feel" make you legit feel everything his spits as he exudes his emotion and his mindstate with such conviction you wear it like he does.  Over more expansive production and diversifying his rhymes and delivery, Kendrick takes us through a miriyad of emotions and cycles, but through it all, Lamar strips it all down and brings forth what many has called his masterwork.  Being that this album received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize Of Music, being the first non-jazz album to do so, DAMN is a timeless piece of not just hip-hop, but American music as well.

27. Nas

Life Is Good
Production: No I.D., Salaam Remi, Buckwild, Swizz Beats, Heavy D, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League

After going through a nasty divorce and people wondering if he still had it, Nasir Jones had to remind people who he was with his eleventh album, Life Is Good.  The album was definitely a throwback of sorts to his peak performances post-Illmatic.  While it occasionally appears as though he's bitter and has a lot to get off his chest, he also manages to reaffirm how he keeps his head above water through his lifestyle, as well as personal affirmations.  Although he does tackle subjects such as his divorce with Kelis  ("Bye Baby"), life's struggles and difficulties ("You Wouldn't Understand"), and raising a upper teenage daughter ("Daughters"), he still manages to let people know that Nas is in fact among true hip-hop gods will blistering cuts like "A Queens Story" and the THUMPING "The Don".  While Nas' life and career hasn't been perfect, it's been overall good, thus the title.  Nasir Jones is a living legend, a brilliant storyteller, a genius poet, and a clever wordsmith.  This album was his best since Stillmatic or God's Son, and through it all, representing is still Illmatic.

26. Roc Marciano

Marcberg
Production: artist

Currently, Roc Marci is one of the gods of the underground with some of the best albums this decade and he's not showing any signs of slowing down.  It all began with his solo debut, the KNOCKING Marcberg.  Revered as an underground classic by many in the game to this day, this album was one of the true authentic NYC albums for his generation.  This went back to basics, with tremendous boom-bap and sick production done mostly by himself.  Cuts like "Snow", the thumping-as-fuc n"Panic", and "Ridin' Around" are so unapologetically tough, that these and the rest of the album will harness a legit warm feeling to those that miss that unadulterated east coast knock that we used to have in abundance in the nineties and early new century.  This album set the standard for Marci and a new standard in general for a new east coast movement much like Illmatic, Ready To Die and 36 Chambers did way before it.  You can add this to the list as well.

25. Earl Sweatshirt

Some Rap Songs
Production: artist, Thebe Kgositselle, Denmark Vessey, others

We mentioned earlier how highly talented and stylistic Earl Sweatshirt has become throughout this decade, especially since the demise of Odd Future.  His previous aforementioned albums of Doris and I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside all exhibited his penchant for lyrical dexterity yet intriguing and very honest writing.  Enter 2018, where he dropped Some Rap Songs, out of nowhere.  Folks, this album is complete brilliance, albeit very gloomy and melancholy.  While we're not at all unfamiliar with Earl's knack for at times near-depression filled rhymes for the sake of artistic expression and merit, SRS hits closer to home as death within his family was prevalent by the time this album dropped.  This is packed with emotional courage and an open honesty that shows how he deals with all the trauma and heartbreak in his life in such vivid yet ambiguous fashion.  The production is just as much the story, as its lo-fi, somewhat distorted, analog-esque production is very reminiscent of Madvillainy and is as stripped down and obtuse as you could imagine.  You could call this an hip-hop avant garde classic, or you could call this a left-brained masterpiece.  Either way, Earl has composed an amazing, yet gripping, album that is exemplary of his fantastic writing ability and his willingness to bring us into his darkness while trying to find his own light, no matter how dim it may appear to him.

24. Westside Gunn

FLYGOD

Production: Statik Selektah, Daringer, The Alchemist, Roc Marciano, Tha God Fahim, Camouflage Monk

While the Griselda movement didn't start in 2016, it was Westside Gunn's stellar full-length debut, FLYGOD, where it took off.  A visceral, gritty, and brutal release, Gunn's frequent ad-libs and menacing rhymes were on full display on this instant underground classic.  At a time where truly authentic NYC hip-hop is only relegated to the likes of Roc Marci, Ka, Your Old Droog, Styles P, and maybe Beast Coast, Westside Gunn and the Griselda gang have such a fresh mid-nineties feel and aesthetic to them, and FLYGOD is its mirror.  Complete with haunting production, minimal to no drums at times (although one listen to "Dunks" and the drums in it will pound your eardrums out if out the cut on full ten volume), and excellently used soul samples, this brings up images of past legit classics such as Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Ironman, Hell On Earth just from the aura of the grimy nature of this album.  The cult following didn't start here, but it did start to blossom here, and FLYGOD was indeed the battery Griselda needed, as it's seen as the centerpiece for the next few years of the Griselda discography.  Much like years later, we still regard those aforementioned albums as game changers.  A few more years, we'll be saying the same thing about this one too.

23. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib

Bandana
Production: Madlib

One particularly impressive emcee throughout this decade was Gary, IN's Freddie Gibbs.  His mixtapes of Str8 Killa, Cold Day In Hell, and Babyface Killa are so filled with gangsta vibes and relentless nihilism that you'd swear you were listening to an old Spice 1 album.  However, once got up with producer extraordinaire Madlib for Pinata (see later), his stock rose and rose greatly.  Heads had been waiting for a number of years for the follow-up to such a momentous album.  In 2019, they finally dropped it.  The album, Bandana, is not as visceral as Pinata, but instead is musically more expansive, and that's still a great thing.  Madlib's production is more calculated and more primed for Gibbs with this artistic and lyrical growth Gibbs has undergone in these last few years.  While still leaning on gangsta tough talk on cuts like "Palmolive" and "Flat Tummy Tea", he also aims to go deeper on certain cuts like "Education", "Soul right" and "Situations".  Freddie has definitely evolved as an  artist, but not to the point where he forgets who he is, and Madlib is hip-hop's mad scientist behind the boards.  Together, they make unbelievable music together, and this epic release is another reason why.

22. Kendrick Lamar

Section.80
Production: Digi-Phonics, Terrace Martin, J. Cole

Before Kendrick became "Kung-Fu Kenny" or "King Kendrick", he was simply Kendrick Lamar, a very promising emcee that had a ton of buzz due to his forward thinking lyricism and his knack for storytelling.  In 2011, he dropped Section.80, and it was very well received and for great reason.  This concept album dealt with growing up in the eighties and all the hardships that went along with that time period through the eyes of fictional characters, Tammy and Keisha. Examining topics such as the drug crisis, the crack epidemic, teenage pregnancies, and prostitution, Kendrick blended social commentary with introspection and a sense of subtle urgency.  With overall mellow production and a soundtrack fitting of such a theme, Kendrick got placed among those to keep a close eye on in terms of a future top notched emcee.  Think about that folks; This was the project that got Dr. Dre to sign him to Aftermath and thus the rest became history.  This album has aged like fine wine and we really see the excellent nature of the composition of this album.  The seed was planted with this unforgettable album.

21. Pusha T

DAYTONA
Production: Kanye West

Terrance Thorton is viewed as one of the hottest emcees in the game, as has been for about twenty years, along his brother (No) Malice when they were The Clipse.  Once Pusha T went solo and hooked up with Kanye West to be a part of G.O.O.D. Music, we knew great things were in store for him and we were right.  His albums, My Name Is My Name and King Push: Darkest Before Dawn, were met with tons of critical acclaim, but we also knew there was a classic in his book of rhymes and we just wanted to be around when it happened.  It arrived in 2018 in the form of the seven cut EP, DAYTONA.  With Kanye blessing him with without question the best production of his G.O.O.D. Music career, this album is exactly what we knew Pusha was capable of.  This is vivid, and at times vengeful and sadistic, but all Pusha.  Pusha is as focused as we've ever heard him and over some of Kanye's most minimalist, yet stunning, production and the results are unbelievable.  This is a career album for Mr. Thorton, and now he has the unfortunate challenge of having to live up to the standards he has set with this slap-tastic album

20. Griselda

WWCD
Production: Daringer, Beat Butcha

Much like 36 Chambers, Illmatic, and The Infamous marked the beginning of a new era for the east coast when the west was clearly having the spotlight on them thanks to albums like The Chronic and Doggystyle, Griselda Records has delivered the eponymous album that has marked a shift in how the east is viewed with their debut group album, WWCD, or What Would 'Chinegunn Do.  All the releases from Westside Gunn, Conway, and Benny have led up to this CRAZY album, but it's not like we didn't know they were capable of doing so.  Many thought that just because Griselda inked a deal with Shady Records that shit was gonna be sweet and we would expect more radio/club bangers from them.  Absolutely not.  In fact, this is as gutter and visceral as anything else Griselda has ever done, if not more so.  Much like prior Griselda monuments such as Tana Talk 3, FLYGOD, G.O.A.T., the Hitler Wears Hermes mixtape series, and Reject 2, WWCD isn't for the squeamish nor the weak.  This is vengeful, nihilistic, hustler talk that makes Griselda's form of murda music sound so wonderful.  As evidenced with cuts like "Dr. Birds", "May Store", and "Scotties", these Griselda boys aren't playing with anybody, and with WWCD, not only would Machine Gunn Black (the late brother of Benny and cousin of Gunn) be more than happy with the success of his family, but the new standard of raw street hip-hop has been established.

19. PRhyme

PRhyme
Production: DJ Premier

Royce Da 5'9" and DJ Premier.  On an entire project.  Good Lord! While these two aren't strangers at all together due to working on cuts like "Boom" and "Shake This" on Royce albums Death Is Certain and Rock City, we collectively lost our minds at the thought of a whole effort from them.  Of the strength of their first single "PRhyme", it was obvious this was gonna be a problem. A big one.  Folks...it was.  With Premo as well as Adrien Younge supplying the music for Premo to sample and use, this EP was as fire as you could imagine.  Not a single second was wasted.  in fact, guests on it such as ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, and the late Mac Miller delivered some of their best career bars on this album, and that's just Premo will do to you.  This was all-in-all flawless, and with only nine tracks, this was an immediate classic.  Even the late, great Guru would co-sign this hip-hop union, but don't you dare refer to them as 'the new Gangstarr'.  PRhyme is a movement all by themselves, and this EP was evidenced of that.

18. The Game

The Documentary 2/2.5
Production: Bongo, will.I.am, DJ Premier, Hit-Boy, Jahlil Beats, Mike WILL Made It, The Alchemist, Cool & Dre, DJ Battlecat, DJ Mustard, Fredwreck, others

Mr. Jayceon Taylor may be a known name dropper, but it doesn't take away that he's a very consistently dope emcee.  He has one of the steadiest discographies around and has failed to deliver a subpar album since his G-unit days with his impeccable classic, The Documentary.  Since then, he's dropped other excellent releases such as The Doctor's Advocate, Jesus Piece, and L.A.X., but we've been needing a sequel to the album that pout him on the map.  It happened in 2015 with the double release The Documentary 2/2.5, which one disc was released one week and the other disc released the next week (think how the New Jersey Drive soundtrack was delivered).  Regardless, it's still a double album and truthfully should be considered among the best double albums in hip-hop history, as this was exceptional; the whole ride.  The album definitely appeals to every type of audience, and he covers every base here.  He goes from hard to charming to emotional to wise all throughout the album, and his honesty only adds on the excellence this album provides. Of course he reaches out to numerous friends and comrades such as Dre, Cube, Q-Tip, Kendrick, Scarface, Nas, Drake, and Busta, but Game clearly is still the star here and with Documentary 2/2.5, Game drops a more than worthy sequel to the star-making album he dropped in '05.  The elevation as an emcee and artist and man we've seen from '05 up to now is impressive.  With the death of close friend and emcee, Nipsey Hussle, you know he's smiling proud over him cross color homie, and so are we.

17. Big Boi

Sir Lucious Leftfoot: the Son Of Chico Dusty

Production: artist, Andre 3000, Organized Noize, Salaam Remi, Scott Storch, others

Outkast is an institution.  Arguably the most successful duo in all of hip-hop and most treasured.  When they broke up, you could almost see collective tears from the hip-hop nation as a whole.  Not to fear; While Andre may not be making any music, that didn't stop Antwan Patton, aka Big Boi.  His first official solo project was 2010's Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son Of Chico Dusty.  if you were a big fan of his half of Speakerboxx/The Love Below, you'll not only love this, but you'll revere this as a modern southern classic, and rightfully so.  Containing the same type of funk, hip-hop, and soul that made Speakerboxx so excellent, this contains even more of those same elements, plus Big Boi comes through lyrically re-energized and seemingly reborn.  Fantastic cuts like the infectious "Shutterbug", the hard-hitting "General Patton", and "Tangerine" are some of what makes this album such an incredible album.  Recalling elements of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and Stankonia in some instances, this is a fine sandwich of joy, fun, validation, and getting on the good foot, as only Big Boi can achieve.  In terms of straight southern, with all the funk, electro, bass, and soul one could imagine in one project, this may have been the undisputed southern album of the decade and it's only right that a legend like Big Boi would pull this off.

16. J. Cole

2014 Forest Hills Drive
Production: artist, !llmind, Cardiak, Vinylz, others

After a while, certain artists have become tired and worn out of fame and the extra, unnecessary riff raff that follows and gets attached to it.  One such person has been J. Cole.  After delivering two successful and acclaimed albums that were aforementioned in Cole World and Born Sinner, he underwent a more personal, introspective look at fame and didn't like it.  However, rather than go the underground/indie route, he went with music that was more meaningful to him and even more honest.  With 2014 Forest Hills Drive, he dropped this surprise album and it didn't just hit, it exploded.  Widely acclaimed across the board, Cole delivered an album filled with his truth and sincerity to the utmost.  No guests or friends to assist him on this road, Cole goes for it all himself.  This album is as tailor made Cole as one could expect, as Forest Hills Drive is soaked in personal integrity.  He went from the commercial sounds of his prior two to a more experiential, truthful, and more personal story of this album, and this put him that much closer to being the leader of the generation with his writing and all around exceptional talent.  This album remains his measuring stick of greatness, even with 4 Your Eyez Only coming as close as it gets.  

15. A Tribe Called Quest

We Got It From Here...Thank You For Your Service
Production: Q-Tip

The hip-hop community greatly mourned the loss of Phife Dawg due to complications of Type I Diabetes.  It was a blow that we weren't prepared for and one that resonated not just amongst us, but in music as a whole as A Tribe Called Quest is a part of our collective consciousness.  When the news dropped that there was one final album that was being worked on before his passing, heads were beyond anxious for it.  They finally dropped it in 2016 with We Got It From Here...Thank You For Your Service.  This is as bittersweet as it gets.  Phife recorded his final verses here and sounded good, but to look at this as posthumous is hard to swallow at times.  They were without original member, Ali Shaheed Muhammed for this album due to producing Luke Cage score at this time, but Q-Tip picked the ball up and we were treated to much of the same funky, soulful, jazzy vibes that made them who they were and will always be.  Touching on the Black community issues and socio-political issues, tribe also knows how to have fun sometimes too with excellent cuts like "Conrad Tokyo" and "Space Program", both of which are so vintage Tribe it feels like we're back in '93.  of course the vibe gets turned south with the tear-inducing ode to their late brother on "Lost Somebody", but with honorary Tribe members for the album, Consequence and Busta Rhymes, along with original Jairobi White, this was a fitting going home fort the most impactful trio since Run-DMC.  Easily their best album since Midnight Marauders, We Got It From Here...is a Tribe album that should and will make you feel good knowing that Tribe will forever be one of the greatest groups of all-time.

14. Common

Black America Again

Production: Robert Glasper, Frank Dukes, Karriem Riggins

It's impossible to not put the brother formerly known as Common Sense as one of the GOATs in the game.  just a listen to albums such as Resurrection, Like Water For Chocolate, and his version of Illmatic, BE, and this gets affirmed or reaffirmed.  His overall discography has been totally solid and enjoyable.  In 2017, he delivered another album that should be placed among the upper echelon of his efforts with the powerful, Black America Again.  With the division and racial unrest thanks to our forty-fifth Commander-In-Chief, Common made it an issue to deliver an album that examined our place within this new MAGA era.  The chilling title track alone, with vocals by the iconic Stevie Wonder, was an indication of the direction this album would go, and for the most part it kept up with it.  Unlike his August Greene project and his 2019 offering, Let Love, this album is a little more forceful, more vocally meaningful.  Although he still gives it up to the ladies on cuts like "Red Wine" and the poignant "The Day The Women Took Over", he also demolishes the mic on cuts like "Joy & Peace" and especially "Pyramids".  However, he goes back to matters of the heart on cuts like the simply gorgeous ode to his deceased father "Little Chicago Boy" and the gripping "Letter To The Free", where he tackles the Black incarceration epidemic.  This is one of the most impactful Common albums ever heard, and over stunning production by Grammy Award winners Karreim Riggins and Robert Glasper, they provided the appropriate soundtrack for an album so moving, you'll feel every possible emotion by the end of this truly unforgettable piece of art.

13. Gangstarr

One Of the Best Yet

Production: DJ Premier

As we mentioned the unfortunate feelings surrounding the death of Phife Dawg earlier, the same can be said about the death of Keith "Guru" Elam.  The baritone emcee of the legendary Gangstarr was silenced at the beginning of the decade due to a heart attack brought on by cancer, and the collective world of hip-hop was crushed.  Since then, we've been clamoring for at least one more Gangstarr album but due to ongoing issues between Premo and Guru's partner,Solaar, it was very difficult and at times ugly.  However, the hip-hop heavens heard our prayers and Premo was able to get his hands on lost Guru verses and it was enough to comprise one final Gangstarr album entitled, One Of The Best Yet.  This may legit be the best mixed and mastered album this entire decade, as Premo constructed this album to make it sound as if Guru had just stepped out of the booth.  Their last album, The Ownerz, was a very dope album that we never expected to be their totally done album, so it had been since '03 since we had a Gangstarr album.  This album belongs among their best albums for several reasons.  one being the reunion of Gangstarr Foundation members Group Home and Jeru.  Plus other appearances from J. Cole on the first single, "Family & Loyalty", M.O.P., Big Shug, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, and especially a BLISTERING verse from Royce Da 5'9" on "What's Real" accentuate this completely fire ass album.  Gangstarr was always known for precision greatness within their albums, and this album is not only no exception, it stands among their elite.  If this was the swan song for them, they went out in phenomenal form and delivered a massive effort that Guru, himself, would likely be more than satisfied with.  Indeed, Gangstarr was and remains "one of the best yet".

12. The Roots

How I Got Over
Production: artist

At the beginning of the decade, The Roots were following up a fantastic album, Rising Down, with their most heartfelt and substantial effort ever, How I Got Over.  Delivered during the financial crisis of 2010, when gas was upwards of $8-$10/gallon and layoffs were all over the place and the housing crisis was as bad as it had been in decades, this album felt right on time.  This was a melancholy masterpiece.  An album that represented the every man and woman that knew the hells of day to day struggle and trying to find peace throughout it just to survive another day.  The thoughtfulness and heartfelt nature of cuts like "Dear God 2.0", "The Day" and "Walk Alone" exemplify the human nature of this album of getting through the dark times of life, while cuts like "Doing It Again" and "Right On" are felt as self-motivating cuts to keep you going in the face of all the day to day obstacles.  This is thought-provoking, moving, and by far their most touching album that identifies with more than anything socio-political like in albums past.  With How I Got Over, The Roots presented an album that hasn't been this great since Things Fall Apart, which is saying a mouthful, and is as humanly relatable as it is artistically damn near flawless.

11. Run The Jewels

Run The Jewels
Production: El-P

Earlier, we spoke about Killer Mike and his El-P crafted juggernaut, R.A.P. Music and how this was the undisputed precursor to them fully getting musically together.  Well, in 2013, we saw the official formation of El-P and Mike together as Run The Jewels.  Their self-titled album is hard, aggressive, yet slightly comical in nature, as they're as in your face as it gets.  The lo-fi electro sounds with thumping drums are not cute, in fact they're pretty damn anti-establishment.  Mike sounds like a fiery beast throughout the project and El-P doesn't sound very far from that descritpion himself.  Feeding off each other's energy is what makes a duo sound great together such as EPMD, Mobb Deep, and Outkast.  Their debut self-titled album is a mask off, unfiltered collection of witty yet stone-faced rhymes and intimidating production.  This was when we officially knew El-P and Killer Mike were for real, and they resented one of the most forceful and bare knuckles debuts we've heard perhaps ever.  This was an RTJ decade, and this album helped support this theory.  

10. Rapsody

Eve
Production: 9th Wonder & The Soul Council

Earlier, we reviewed Jamla/Roc Nation's residential b-girl superhero, Rapsody, and the excellence of her album, The Idea Of Beautiful.  As poignant as that album is, she crafted an album garnered to uplift and support the Black woman in the form of Eve.  It wasn't the easiest thing to follow up the masterwork of Leila's Wisdom (see later), but she did it, and did it wonderfully.  In an era of #BlackLivesMatter #SayHerName, and #MeToo, this album serves as one huge hug and crown adjusting for every Black woman out here.  Every title of every song here is an important and vital Black woman figure such as "Ibtihaj", "Oprah", "Cleo", and "Afeni", and all represent the spirits of each of these namesakes.  Rapsody's ability into craft pictures with such vibrancy, confidence, and astuteness is palpable, and is such a needed album of today. A more grounded, less drama-filled companion of Beyonce's prized Lemonade album, Eve is a breath of fresh air to and for all Black women and all those who respect and treasure them.

9. Kendrick Lamar

untitled. unmastered
Production: Ali Shaheed Muhammed, Egypt, Frank Dukes, Terrace Martin, Adrien Younge, Swizz Beats, Cardo, Sounwave, others

When it came to To Pimp A Butterfly (see later), it was seen a sizable shift in the momentum of who was running things in hip-hop, artistically and lyrically.  During this time period or around the time of the recordings for it, there were some cutting room floor cuts and unmixed cuts as one would expect.  Thanks to a tweet from Lebron James, the idea to have unreleased cuts from Kendrick made it into out MP3 players, and boy are we ever so glad for that King James tweet.  With untitled. unmastered, Kendrick provides us with an EP of untitled cuts that weren't mixed right nor were mastered.  The mind-boggling fact about this is that even these unmastered cuts are amazing.  You could put whatever title you prefer for these eight tracks, but any one of these tracks, had they been finished and gone through all post-production and mixing stages would've either fit in just wonderfully on TPAB, or would've made for a DYNAMITE new full-length album.  We're even blessed with a jam session of sorts with Kendrick, Swizz Beats, and his son and producer-in-training Egypt and it's just delightful.  The first four tracks especially are simply unreal and must be heard and heard again.  We will never know if these cuts will ever be mastered or see the finished light of day (BTW, whast ever happened to the opening cut of the "Alright" video?), but if never do, this will do just fine and reminds of the shear special nature that is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth.

8. Run The Jewels

RTJ3
Production: El-P

After introducing us to their world of brazenness and fearlessness with their debut, and delivering the most hard-hitting album of the decade with their sophomore album, RTJ2 (see later), they deliver the trifecta with RTJ3, and folks, they managed to keep up the same momentum and aggression that garnered them such a huge following to begin with.  They blend the wittiness and fun of the first one and the bleak, anti-establishment overthrow of RTJ2, with their own added flavor of empowerment on RTJ3.  Killer Mike and El-P always like to go into even m,opre depth and raise even more stakes, especially within today's syruppy hip-hop.  This is not a melodic piece of art ladies and gentlemen.  This is an all out assault sonically, and even though they collaborate with surprising guests here such as Danny brown and Trina, everything works and works like a charm.  Nothing feels forced or out of place.  Run The Jewels still commands your undivided attention here and will grab you by the throat until they get it, like they've done with each album they've done together.  Other than occasional juvenile humor, there's no smiling going on here with this album, nor is there a need to.  Run The Jewels presented RTJ3 as a message that have become the most feared and respected duo in the game and they're not going away anytime soon.

7. Kanye West

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Production: artist, Mike Dean, Bink!, Swizz Beats, RZA, No I.D., Emile, others

The polarity that is Mr. Kanye West.  Before he called himself wanting to do Gospel music and start his "Sunday Service" concerts, he was a very complex, yet at times brilliant, artist.  After delivering three of the most incredible releases of this new century (The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation), the bottom fell out with the unfortunate passing of his mother, Dr. Donda West.  Once that tragic situation  occurred, he dropped 808s & Heartbreaks, a very divided album that was half experimental, half filled with sadness and grief.  After a needed sabbatical due to grief, as well as public controversies, especially the now infamous Taylor Swift altercation at the MTV Music Awards, he reemerged with arguably his greatest piece of work with 2010's My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy.  Focusing on fame, wealth, and the complexities and struggles with both, Kanye delivered the most lush and layered production of his career.  Filled with guests and friends such as Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Cyhi The prince, Raekwon, Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kid Cudi, this album, this was clearly Kanye at his most grandiose and flamboyant.  While it's clear Kanye was a man that struggled with these notions, he still was not letting his foot off the gas to let you know his worth in the game, and it was done in unbelievable fashion.  He lived up to every expectation that was placed upon him before this project and has one of the best all-around albums hip-hop has ever been a part of.

6. Saba

Care For Me
Production: artist, DaeDaePIVOT

A lot of times, tragedies can bring the best out of an artist.  Often times, the deeper the black hole, the more inspired an artist is to pour their heart and their emotions into their art.  Such was the case with Chi-town native and PIVOT Gang member, Saba.  His second album, Care For Me, is a beautiful yet wrenching look at a young man dealing with loss, anxiety, depression, and self-identity issues. Easily in the same light as emotional powerhouses like Me Against The World, Death Is Certain, and All Love Lost, Care For Me is an amazing look at dealing and coping with loss and the feelings behind it.  Over captivating production, Saba displays clear talent and excellent writing here, but the theme of trying to deal with being in a bad mental place is overwhelming and is touching.  All of it isn't totally gloom and tears, as cuts like "Smile" is a little more upbeat in nature giving props to the South.  Plus his storytelling abilities are quite profound, as displayed by the vivid yet possibly autobiographical "Prom/King", which goes into detail about the day his best friend and cousin, PIVOT Gang member, John Walt, was murdered.  The track, "Heaven All Around Me" has him trying to deal with it in and trying to cope with the loss, while "Fighter" has dealing with three different situations that all involve fighting, whether verbal, physical, or mental.  Saba's Care For Me is a courageous and at times powerful album that will haunt you, touch you, and remind you that in the midst of all this bravado in hip-hop, being human is okay.

5. Kendrick Lamar

good kid, M.A.A.D. City
Production: Digi-Phonics, Just Blaze, Pharrell Williams, Dj Khalyl, DJ Dahi, Hit-Boy, Terrace Martin, Like, Scoop Deville, others

After garnering a tremendous buzz with his aforementioned effort, Section.80, Kendrick Lamar was signed to Aftermath through TDE, and after dropping the buzzworthy "Recipe" with Dr. Dre, the stage was set for his major label debut album, good kid, M.A.A.D. City, and it was a monster.  While there was no Dr. Dre production here, it was made up by plenty of infectious cuts brought by TDE in-house team Digi-Phonics, as well as the likes of Just Blaze, Pharrell, and Terrace Martin.  The lush, yet boom-bap approach of the sounds is only matched by a look at a young man growing in Compton and walking the line between getting caught up in the streets and wanting to be successful and not go the other way.  Very reminiscent of the likes of Illmatic in terms of structure and concept, GKMC is not your typical gangsta west coast album, in the sense that he poetically spits everyday life in Compton but he tries to find himself through the chaos and tries to be his own man.  Lyrically, Lamar shows his power of storytelling as well as quite thought provoking narratives that only someone as advanced as Kendrick could come up with.  This is one of the must consistent and fluid albums ever heard on wax or digitally, and with good kid, M.A.A.D. City, Kendrick Lamar established himself as one of those emcees that could be the leader of his generation, as this is easily one of the best and memorable debuts in hip-hop history.

4. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib

Pinata
Production: Madlib

What happens when you put Madvillainy with Cold Day In Hell? You have Pinata, which is the stunning debut collaborative album between Indiana's Freddie Gibbs and producer extraordinaire Madlib.  Earlier, we reviewed Bandana and stated how calculated and expansive Madlib's board work was with Bandana and how Gibbs was more intricate with that release.  however, with Pinata, this is straight up and down raw.  The soundscapes here aren't as layered, but still provide some of the most unreal Madlib production abilities since the days of Madvillain.  Madlib really knows what type of sounds go with each artist he works with.  The eccentric yet brilliant nature of Madvillainy is a big part of what made that album the underground landmark it became, as it was custom made for MF DOOM.  Same results here, as these are very menacing cuts that are tailor made for the gangsta presence of the ruthless and vengeful Gibbs.  There's a new level of authenticity here that you get from Gibbs' previous works such as Cold Day In Hell, Str8 Killa and ESGN, but only another level, as Madlib seemed to have brought a whole new beast out in Gangsta Gibbs.  He addresses enemies, hustling, and beefs, especially the vicious diss towards former mentor Jeezy on "Real", and never lets his foot off the gas for a second on this album.  Often compared to the likes of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...for various reasons, Pinata is a gangsta-bred masterwork that became an entire new benchmark for both men and officially put Gibbs into the consciousness of hardcore hip-hop aficionados.

3. Rapsody

Laila's Wisdom
Production: 9th Wonder & The Soul Council

As we've done a couple times already with this young lady, Rapsody is on this list and while she's put out some hot efforts such as her aforementioned woks like The Idea Of Beautiful, Eve, and mixtape favorites such as Thank H.E.R. Later and The Black Mamba, it was 2017's Laila's Wisdom that served as her official career benchmark.  While Eve is all celebratory of the Black woman and their much deserved praise, Laila's Wisdom connects with everyone in some sort of fashion.  Not to mention, 9th Wonder and his Soul Council team provide Rap with some of the most outstanding boardwork in recent memory so that Rap could show herself as a tour de force on the mic.  There's such a genuine level of honesty and a passion to be considered among the best of her generation and it spills all over this instant classic.  Her abilities to tell stories from a female point of view yet being able to still hold it down for the brothas is refreshing and enhances her ability to be easily relatable to either gender.  With the closing track, the soulful yet wrenching "Jesus Coming", she plays various roles of this haunting cut and examines what violence in the streets can do and how it affects not just one person but several.  This type of ingenious thinking is what puts Marlena Evans head and shoulders above most in her peer group and makes her among the most in-demand emcees around.  With Laila's Wisdom, Rapsody stamps her excellence and, along with a Grammy nomination, this album is one that will be mentioned among the greatest albums ever to be exposed to in this or any decade.

2. Run The Jewels

RTJ2
Production: El-P

Killer Mike and El-Producto managed to shake the shit out of the world with their insane collaborative effort, and group name, Run The Jewels.  However, they picked it up two notches with their sophomore follow up, RTJ2.  Folks, if you thought the first one was aggressive and filled with enough energy to start a car, you ain't seen nothing yet.  This album was a hard kick to the ass and was as vicious and in your face as anything you've ever heard in your life.  While some bits of wit are still there, especially the crassness of "Love Again", this is a call-to-arms in such a socio-political way, Public Enemy memories will almost immediately kick in.  Bleak, aggressive, paranoid, and downright ugly, RTJ2 is not for the weak and was one of those albums that was not just as great as the debut, but also superseded it in terms of production, lyrics, and overall direction.  From police harassment to government greed, Run The Jewels provide an explosive and power-packed album that must be considered among not just the most hard-punched albums this decade. but within this generation.  You didn't hear anything as no holds barred as this anywhere.

1. Kendrick Lamar

To Pimp A Butterfly
Production: Digi-Phonics, Terrace Martin, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, The Antydote, Pharrell Williams, Boi-1nda, others

Not very often does an album leave this particular reviewer speechless off shear artistry and left-brain brilliance.  There are examples of these types of albums such as Illmatic, De La Soul Is Dead, BE, Madvillainy, and Aquemini.  Albums that are so far ahead of anything contemporary in hip-hop and in some cases music as a whole, you're left stunned and staggered.  Kendrick Lamar delivered this type of artistic landmark excellence with his 2015 offering, To Pimp A Butterfly.  While the aforementioned good kid, M.A.A.D. City was about trying to find success in the hood amongst all the struggles that come with it, TPAB is about someone that has achieved the fame and success but is trying to find his balance between using his newfound fame as power to be bringing his people together as a means of unification, and who he is once the mask of fame is taken off, only to be conflicted with both.  This is just as much a conceptual masterpiece as it is musically, as Kendrick is literally narrating this album per every other song, going into that next track seamlessly in poetic form.  Examining topics such as mental illness ("U"), Black pride ("Alright"), self-love ("I"), financial irresponsibility ("Wesley's Theory"), and giving to the poor ("How Much A Dollar Cost"), this album is substantially rich and will grab you in ways you never thought going into this very highly special masterwork.  With the closing track, "Mortal Man", where he questions fan loyalty, he has an imaginary conversation with the late Tupac Shakur, only to find out he was dreaming the entire time.  The ENTIRE STORY WAS A DREAM.  From his venomous guest verse on Big Sean's "Control", he called himself the "New king of N.Y.", and it was seen as his staking his claim as the ebst emcee in the world.  With To Pimp A Butterfly, he did it.  He accomplished it.  He went against any type of conventional album creation and designed an album that touched you spiritually as much as it made you examine your own worth in the world and your contributions.  This was not an album that you listen to once and you fully grasp it.  You must absorb this over and over and over to realize the very unique and special nature of the work of art that's in your speakers. Kendrick is this era's Nas, in that he's as gifted of a poet as he is an emcee and has an album that fully holds this distinction up.  There wasn't a single other album that matched the brilliance, artistic merit, and musical ambition that TPAB presented.  This album wasn't just meant to change you as a hip-hop head, this may have been meant to change your whole outlook on the world and yourself as well.  Mission accomplished.

Honorable Mentions

J. Cole- Born Sinner
El-P- I'll Sleep When You're Dead
Nas- The Lost Tapes 2

Logic- Under Pressure

Logic- The Incredible True Story

Logic- Everybody

Logic- YSIV

Kid Cudi- Man On The Moon II: Legend Of Mr. Rager

Mobb Deep- The Infamous Mobb Deep

Prodigy- The Hegelian Dialectic

Prodigy & The Alchemist- Albert Einstein

Common- Nobody's Smiling

Common- The Dreamer, The Believer

Sean Price- Songs In the Key Of Price

Ab-Soul- D.W.T.W.

Jay Rock- 90059

Jay Rock- Redemption

De La Soul- And The Anonymous Nobody

Little Brother- Leftback

Random Axe- Random Axe

Mick Jenkins- The Water(s)

Mick Jenkins- THC
Termanology & Statik Selektah as 1982- 1982
MindsOne & Kev Brown- Pillars

Royce Da 5'9"- The Book Of Ryan

Royce Da 5'9"- Success Is Certain

Slaughterhouse- Slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse- House Rules

Joe Budden- Some Love Lost

Big Boi- Boomiverse
Epidemic- Monochrome Skies
Epidemic- 4 Diminsions On A Paper
Hassaan Mackey- That Grit

Meek Mill- Dreams Worth More Than Money

Apollo Brown & Joell Ortiz- Mona Lisa

Apollo Brown- Grandeur

Apollo Brown- Sincerely, Detroit

Apollo Brown & Ras Kass- Blasphemy

Apollo Brown & Hasaan Mackey- Daily Bread

Apollo Brown & Planet Asia- Anchovies
Apollo Brown & boog brown- Brown Study

Ugly Heroes- Ugly Heroes EP

Joell Ortiz- House Slippers

Joell Ortiz & !llmind- Human

Joell Ortiz- Monday

Georgia Anne Maldrow- A Thoughtiverse Unmarred

Brother Ali- Mourning In America, Dreaming In Color

R.A. The Rugged Man- Legends Never Die

Your Old Droog- Your Old Droog

Your Old Droog- Packs

Your Old Droog- It Wasn't Even Close

Your Old Droog- Diamonds

Cunninlynguists- A Piece Of Strange

Cunninlynguists- Oneirology
Cunninlynguists- Dirty Aces
Cunninlynguists- Rose Azura Njano

Ratking- So It Goes

Big Sean- Dark Sky Paradise

EarthGang- MirrorLand

Freddie Gibbs- You Only Live 2wice

Freddie Gibbs- Shadow Of A Doubt

Freddie Gibbs- Freddie

Freddie Gibbs- Cold Day In Hell

Freddie Gibbs- ESGN

Freddie Gibbs & Statik Selektah- Lord Giveth, Lord Taketh Away

J. Cole- Friday Night Lights

J. Cole- The Warm Up

The Game- 1992

Oh No- Ohnomite

Mac Miller- Swimming

Mac Miller- The Devine Feminine

Mac Miller- GO:OD A.M.

J Dilla- The Diary

Mac Miller- Watching TV With The Sound Off

Flatbush Zombies- 3001: A Laced Odyssey

Flatbush Zombies- Vacation In Hell

Flatbush Zombies- BETTAOFFDEAD

The Underachievers- Indigoism

The Underachievers- The Cellar Door
Blu- Her Favorite Colo(u)r
Blu- Jesus
Blu, MED, & Madlib- Bad Neighbor

Blu & Oh No- A Long Red Hot Los Angeles Summer Night

Jonwayne- Album Number Two

Danny Brown- uknowhatimsayin

Danny Brown- ODB

Durag Dynasty- 360 Waves

Aesop Rock- The Impossible Kid

Buddy- Harlan & Alondra

billy woods & Kenny Segal- Hiding Place

Armand Hammer- Rome

Armand Hammer- Paraffin

Tierra Whack- Whack World

billy woods- Today, I Wrote Nothing

billy woods- Known Unknown

Mach Hommy- H.B.O.

Oddisee- The Iceberg
Oddisee- Tanglible Dream

DJ Quik- The Book Of David

Czarface- Czarface

Czarface & MF DOOM- Czarface Meets Metal Face

Czarface- Czarface 2
Czarface- Every Hero Needs A Villain

Czarface & Ghostface Killah- Czarface Meets Ghostface

Drake- More Life

Drake- Nothing Was The Same

Slum Village- Yes!

Slum Village- Villa Manifesto

Open Mike Eagle- Brick Body Kids Still Dreaming

Open Mike Eagle & Paul White- Hella Personal Film Festival

Open Mike Eagle- Dark Comedy

Pharoahe Monch- P.T.S.D.

Roc Marciano- Rosebudd's Revenge

Roc Marciano- RR2: The Bitter Dose

Roc Marciano- Marci Beaucoup

Roc Marciano- Behold A Dark Horse

Skyzoo & Torae- Barrel Brothers

Torae- For The Record

Skyzoo- Peddler Themes (EP)

Talib Kweli- Radio Silence

Talib Kweli- Gutter Rainbows

Reflection Eternal- Revolutions Per Minute

J. Cole & Dreamville- Revenge Of The Dreamers III

Freeway & Jake One- The Stimulus Package

The Alchemist- Russian Roulette

The Alchemist & Evidence are Step brothers- Lord Steppington

Evidence- Weather Or Not

Evidence- Cats & Dogs

Dilated Peoples- Directors Of Photography
The Left- Gas Mask

DJ Premier- DJ Premier Presents...Get Used To Us

MC Eiht- Which Way Iz West

Saigon- The Greatest Story Never Told

Diamond District- March On Washington

T.I.- Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head

T.I.- The Dime Trap

Rick Ross- Port Of Miami

Rick Ross- Teflon Don

YBN Cordae- The Lost Boy

Killer Mike- Pl3dge

Big K.R.I.T.- Return of 4eva

Big K.R.I.T.- 4eva In A Day

Big K.R.I.T.- It's Better This Way

Jay-Z & Kanye West- Watch The Throne

Jay-Z- 4:44

Bumpy Knuckles & DJ Premier- Kolexxion

Bumpy Knuckles & Statik Selektah- Lyrical Workout

Action Bronson- Blue Chips

Action Bronson- Blue Chips 2

Action Bronson & The Alchemist- Rare Chandeliers

Action Bronson- Blue Chips 7000

Tyler The Creator- Flower Boy

Tyler The Creator- IGOR

Tyler The Creator- Wolf

Westside Gunn- Hitler Wears Hermes 2

Westside Gunn- Hitler Wears Hermes 3

Westside Gunn- Hitler Wears Hermes 4

Westside Gunn- Hitler Wears Hermes 5

Westside Gunn- Hitler Wears Hermes 6

Westside Gunn- Hitler Wears Hermes 7

Westside Gunn- Hitler On Steroids

Westside Gunn & The Purist- Roses Are Red...So Is Blood

GXFR- Don't Get Scared Now

Conway the Machine- Blakk Tape

Conway The Machine- Reject 2

Conway The Machine- Reject On Steroids

Conway The Machine- More Steroids

Westside Gunn & Conway- Hall & Nash

Westside Gunn & Conway- Griselda Ghost

Benny The Butcher- Butcher On Steroids

Conway The Machine- Look What I've Become

Conway The Machine- E.I.F. 2

Conway The Machine- E.I.F. 3

38 Spesh & Benny- Stabbed & Shot
38 Spesh & Kool G. Rap- Son Of G. Rap

Benny The Butcher & Smoke DZA- Statue Of Limitations

Skyzoo & Pete Rock- Retropolitan

Black Milk & Danny Brown- Black & Brown

Black Milk- Album Of The Year

Elzhi & Khrysis are Jericho Jackson- Jericho Jackson
Elzhi- Lead Poison

Phonte- Charity Starts At Home

Phonte- No News Is Good News

Raekwon- Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang

Vince Staples- Summertime '06

Vince Staples- Hell Can Wait

Bishop Nehru & MF DOOM- NehruvianDOOM

Bishop Nehru- Elevators I & II

A$AP Rocky- At Long Last A$AP

Tech N9ne- All 6's & 7's

Tech N9ne- Something Else

Various Artists- Black Panther: The Album

Domo Genesis- Genesis

Apathy- Connecticut Casual

Apathy- The Widow's Son

Apathy- Handshakes With Snakes

Demigodz- Killmatic

Apathy & O.C.- Perestroika

Curren$y- Covert Coup

Curren$y- Pilot Talk

Freddie Gibbs & Curren$y- Fetti

Joey Bada$$- All AmeriKKKan Bada$$

Joey Bada$$- 1999

Joey Bada$$- Summer Knights

Denzel Curry- TA13OO

Little Sims- A Curious Tale Of Trials + Persons

Dr. Yen Lo- Days With Dr. Yen Lo

Atmosphere- Southsiders

Milo- Who Told You To Think

Milo- So the Flies Don't Come

YG- My Krazy Life
Dag Savage- E&J

JPEGMafia- Veteran

SOL Development- SOL Of Black Folk

Ghostface Killah & BADBADNOTGOOD- Sour Soul

Damani Nkosi & Ill Camille are HARRIET- HARRIET

Chance The Rapper- Acid Rap

Nippsy Hussle- Victory Lap

Ghostface Killah- Apollo Kids

Wale- The Album About Nothing

J.I.D.- DiCaprio 2

J.I.D.- The Never Story

Black Thought & 9th Wonder- Streams Of Thought Vol. 1

Black Thought & Salaam Remi- Streams Of Thought Vol. 2

Strong Arm Steady- In Search Of Stoney Jackson

Jean Grae & Quelle Chris- Everything's Fine

Quelle Chris- Ghost At The Finish Line

Quelle Chris- Innocent Country

Quelle Chris- Guns

Quelle Chris- Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often

2 Chainz- Pretty Girls Like Trap Music

2 Chainz- Rap Or Go To The League

2 Chainz- Based On A True Story

Pusha T- My Name Is My Name

Pusha T- King Push: Darkest Before Dawn

Fashawn- The Ecology

Tha God Fahim- TGIF

Tha God Fahim- The Tragedy Of Shogunn

Tha God Fahim- Dreams Of Medina

Tha God Fahim & Camouflage Monk- Iron Monkey

Tha God Fahim- Those That Slay Dragon

Tha God Fahim- Tha Ineffable Conflict of Roosevelt Creek

M.O.P. & Snowgoons- Sparta
O.C.- Same Moon, Same Sun

The Roots- And Then You Shoot Your Cousin
Rashad & Confidence- The Element Of Surprise

Havoc & The Alchemist- The Silent Partner

Gangrene- Gutter Water

Gangrene- Vodka & Ayahuasca

Gangrene- You Disgust Me

Roc Marciano & Gangrene as Greneberg- Greneberg EP

Cormega- Mega Philosophy
L'Orange & Jeremiah Jae- The Night Took Us In like Family
L'Orange & Jeremiah Jae- Complicate Your Life With Violence
Thurz- L.A.Riot

Pro Era- P.E.E.P.: The APROcalypse

CJ Fly- Thee Way Eye See it

Kirk Knight- Late Knight Special

Nyck Caution- Disguise The Limit

Chuck Strangers- Consumers Park
Ryu- Tanks For The Memories
Hex One- Words Are Worth A Thousand Pictures
Havoc- 13 Reloaded
Kno- Death Is Silent
Statik Selektah- 100 Proof: the Hangover
Statik Selektah- population Control
Statik Selektah- Extended play
Statik Selektah- What Goes Around
Statik Selektah- Lucky 7
Statik Selektah- 8
KXNG Crooked & Statik Selektah- Statik KXNG
Bun B & Statik Selektah- TrillStatik
Action Bronson & Statik Selektah- Well Done
O.C. & AG- Oasis
Masta Ace & Marco Polo- A Breukelen Story
Injury Reserve- Injury Reserve
Add-2- Prey For The Poor
Epic Beard Men- This Was Supposed To Be Fun

Rashad & Confidence- The Element Of Surprise