Hip-Hop has spoiled us. Within the 50 years since a bunch of youngsters determined to throw a celebration within the Bronx, the style has grown and blossomed in methods Kool Herc couldn’t have imagined. Hip-hop left New York and moved south to Atlanta, Miami, Memphis, and Houston, and west to Chicago and St. Louis. It took up store out in Los Angeles and The Bay Space and reinvented itself earlier than transferring again throughout the nation. And in that point, because it labored its manner throughout this nation, we’ve been lucky to expertise a seemingly limitless quantity of unbelievable, culture-shifting, delectable, basic albums.
There have been so many superb albums that it’s rattling close to not possible to seize them multi functional checklist. You possibly can level to any nook of the map and discover 50 albums that could possibly be the perfect album ever made. As a matter of truth, you’ve most likely already had this dialog a number of instances at events or over dinner or in your numerous group chats. It’s a troublesome nut to crack. However, it’s a problem we relish.
So, to spherical off Black Music Month, we determined to try the not possible and rank the 100 best rap albums of all time. Yep, of all time — and, yep, from all areas. Just a few members of our workers huddled to provide you with an inventory of albums we consider symbolize the perfect of what the style has given us over the previous 50 years. We had just a few standards when deciding: We solely included full-length tasks that had been commercially launched, so no mixtapes or EPs. We took under consideration the world into which the album was launched: Did it break new floor or was it only a totally different model of a extra standard album? We weighed the album’s influence and the way it’s endured over time: Did it change the sport? Do individuals nonetheless play it? And, in fact, since we’re Billboard, we took under consideration how the albums carried out commercially — although finally, that was a lesser consideration.
To make this extra digestible, we’re going to roll this out over the subsequent 4 weeks, 25 albums at a time. Ensure to verify again every Thursday to see what made the checklist. And bear in mind, each album on that is unbelievable. Regardless that 100 seems like a giant quantity, when in comparison with all of the albums which have dropped through the years, it’s nothing. There are going to be some unbelievable albums that didn’t make it. So it goes. If there are some you strongly believed we missed, tell us.
Get pleasure from.
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100. Lil Child, My Flip
Picture Credit score: Courtesy Picture Yr: 2020
Lil Child secured the solo highlight along with his sophomore album My Flip. It’s simple to mistake his mellow vocals as being devoid of emotion, however his lyricism uncovers the perplexing actuality of what it’s wish to expertise glitz and glamour after popping out of the gutter (“What’s the possibilities that you just run you up a pair mil’?/ And you actually come from sleepin’ out the tasks?” Child wonders on “Hurtin.”). And the turbo-speed supply on songs just like the Future-featuring “Stay Off My Closet” mimics the fast fee of his personal ascension within the rap recreation. However he’s able to change into a dignitary on “The Greater Image,” a modern-day Black Lives Matter protest anthem the place Child’s poignant reflections about racial injustice impress him to guide his group to motion: “I bought energy, now I gotta say somethin’.” Child earned his first Billboard 200 chart chief with My Flip, and on high of manufacturing two Scorching 100 high 10 hits with the deluxe version’s 42 Dugg-assisted “We Paid” and “The Greater Image,” it ended 2020 as the preferred album of the yr within the U.S., in accordance with MRC Knowledge, in addition to the most-streamed album of the yr. — HERAN MAMO
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99. E-40, In a Main Manner
Yr: 1995
E-40’s greatest album, the right synthesis of his swaggering circulation and the Bay Space fashion he pioneered, additionally accommodates a transcendentally candy second. On the socially aware music “It’s All Dangerous,” 40 addresses his then-five-year-old son, who asks “Daddy sprinkle me with some extra recreation,” and even raps bars of his personal. The monitor shouldn’t be the strongest off In a Main Manner, that honor belongs to the silky “Sprinkle Me” or “1-Luv,” a transferring exploration of life behind bars, nevertheless it illustrates why E-40 has endured and grown from a neighborhood stalwart to a world hip-hop drive: for the reason that earliest days of his profession, he’s been molding minds, inventing vocabulary and making music that made the Bay Space’s extremely idiosyncratic fashion really feel welcoming and inclusive, even for his personal preschooler. — GRANT RINDNER
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98. Do or Die, Image This
Yr: 1996
For most individuals, Chicago rap beings when Kanye bought right into a near-fatal automobile accident after which threw on a pink Polo shirt. However the Chi has as deep a rap historical past as any main metropolis. Do or Die, a trio from Chicago’s west aspect, looms giant over that historical past. After the group discovered native success with their single “Po Pimp,” they had been signed to Houston’s Rap-A-Lot Data the place they dropped their gutsy and funky debut. Produced primarily by the Legendary Traxster and that includes a younger Tung Twista, Image This gave Chicago a flag to plant in its residence soil whereas the West and East coasts had been dominating the airwaves. — DAMIEN SCOTT
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97. Geto Boys, We Can’t Be Stopped
Yr: 1991
On the subject of Geto Boys’ third venture, the dialog at all times bends in the direction of “Thoughts Enjoying Tips on Me,” and for good cause. Haunting and morose, the music lower via the noise with an unwavering readability of goal: to focus on simply how f–ked up it’s making an attempt to make it out of a U.S. ghetto when your choices are restricted to gangster s–t. The remainder of the album does effectively in exploring that motif, giving an unfiltered take a look at the south that wasn’t being proven within the standard music movies of the day. To name it groundbreaking feels reductive as a result of in actuality it decimated the bottom it got here in on. — D.S.
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96. Run DMC, Elevating Hell
Yr: 1986
After Run-D.M.C. helped convey rap into the trendy period with their debut album after which used their second LP to assist the style discover new audiences by melding it with rock, Run-D.M.C. was on an unthinkable run. Turned out that they had nowhere to go however up: The group’s third album continues its give attention to sparse, hard-hitting manufacturing as Rick Rubin works his minimalist magic, pulling from all locations to create a sound mattress genuine sufficient for rap purists however accessible and revolutionary sufficient to interrupt via into the mainstream. Run and D.M.C. pen songs that span the gamut of black life within the ’80s, overlaying every part from the footwear individuals wore (“My Adidas”) to the struggles the endured (“Proud to Be Black”). However Elevating Hell‘s actuality is that, thanks for the aforementioned songs and tracks just like the Aerosmith collab “Stroll This Manner,” each rap and Run-D.M.C. started to go mainstream. — D.S.
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95. LL Cool J, Mama Mentioned Knock You Out
Yr: 1990
Practically 40 years after the 1985 launch of his debut album Radio, the women nonetheless love cool James. And that’s because of a canon of seminal albums within the ‘80s and early ‘90s that performed a pivotal function in shaping and proving rap’s mainstream enchantment. With this — his double-platinum, Marley Marl-produced 1990 fourth studio album — LL knocked apart naysayers who thought prior album Strolling With a Panther leaned too pop for the room. Classics just like the hard-hitting title monitor (which nabbed the Grammy for greatest rap solo efficiency) and neighborhood romance romp “Across the Manner Lady” proved his rap gamesmanship hadn’t misplaced any of its authenticity. — GAIL MITCHELL
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94. EPMD, Enterprise as Standard
Yr: 1991
With a catalog filled with classics that resoundingly vibrated via the underground within the ’80s and ’90s, EPMD’s third LP (their first launch on Def Jam) not solely makes this checklist, however will get the crown as their greatest work. This opus (and gorgeous album paintings) was mainly impressed by anger in the direction of haters and their former label Sleeping Bag Data (“I’m Mad” is the actually the primary music on the monitor checklist). Erick and Parrish had been in truth not making the {dollars} they felt they deserved, particularly with two consecutive gold, critically acclaimed albums within the two years previous to Enterprise as Standard.
Undeterred, EPMD targeted. They delivered an adamantium-strong, well-rounded venture smothered in underground funk. It’s replete with seismic bangers, whimsical idea tales, and outlandish storytelling continuation. However, LL Cool J masterfully assaulted “Rampage” with one in all his best visitor verses and Redman made a brilliantly belligerent debut on “Hardcore.” – SHAHEEM REID
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93. B.G., Chopper Metropolis within the Ghetto
Yr: 1999
Earlier than Lil Wayne turned the celebrity of Money Cash Data, B.G. was seen as one of many label’s franchise gamers – and his album Chopper Metropolis within the Ghetto was proof of why. His deep, slinky-voiced avenue tales offered an alluring distinction to Mannie Contemporary’s skittering hi-hats and artificial horns and cymbals, a bouncy late-’90s evolution of the jazz that was such a robust a part of their New Orleans heritage. Whereas Geezy was a lot robust on his personal, as he says on the album’s second-most-notable music, “Money Cash Is an Military.” However the excessive level is “Bling Bling,” a music the place he and his fellow Scorching Boyz compatriots be a part of forces for a glitzy, synth-heavy celebration of jewellery that turned a everlasting staple of hip-hop lingo. — WILLIAM E. KETCHUM
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92. Three Six Mafia, Mystic Stylez
Yr: 1995Three 6 Mafia made historical past profitable an Oscar for his or her musical contribution to the 2005 Memphis rap drama Hustle & Stream, however any monitor pulled from 1995’s Mystic Stylez could possibly be essentially the most memorable music cue in a horror basic. The group didn’t invent horrorcore, however fused it with genuine southern rap in a manner that’s nonetheless influencing teenage artists almost three many years later. Most of the album’s beats (from DJ Paul and Juicy J in fact), transfer with the gradual, however simple tempo of a film killer stalking their prey, and act as an ideal distinction to the nimble flows — which even led to a short beef between the group and Bone Thugs-n-Concord. With Memphis at the moment within the midst of a rap renaissance, the significance of LPs like Mystic Stylez is why Three 6 Mafia’s stamp of approval stays invaluable for town’s rising expertise. — G.R.
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91. Migos, Tradition
Yr: 2017
The beloved Atlanta trio shook up the rap recreation and have become a popular culture phenomenon with its second full-length album Tradition. The primary of the Tradition trilogy, the 13-track set is essentially the most concise showcase of the group’s compelling sonic DNA: a rapid-fire triplet circulation that revolutionized cadences in rap music; memorable ad-libs and slang phrases that’ve entered the hip-hop lexicon; and basic ATL entice manufacturing courtesy of high producers like Zaytoven, DJ Durel and Murda Beatz. Its lead single “Dangerous and Boujee,” that includes Lil Uzi Vert, turned an epochal second in Migos’ profession — primarily because of its iconic “Raindrop, drop-top/ Smokin’ on cookie within the hotbox” refrain that spurred web memes; Donald Glover thanked Migos for making the monitor whereas hailing them as “the Bealtes of this era” on the 2017 Golden Globes. Tradition did cement Migos because the one of the influential acts in rap and reworked the group right into a commercially profitable act: It earned Migos its first Billboard 200-topping album and first set of Grammy nominations in 2018, for greatest rap album and greatest rap efficiency with “Dangerous and Boujee,” which additionally turned the group’s first Scorching 100 No. 1 smash. Given the group’s tragic ending – Takeoff was killed in 2022, Quavo and Offset reportedly had a falling out and Migos formally disbanded in 2023 – Tradition serves as a wonderful remembrance of higher instances. — H.M.
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90. The Pharcyde, Weird Trip II the Pharcyde
Picture Credit score: Courtesy Picture Yr: 1992
Again within the early ’90s when N.W.A was dominating the charts with its model of visceral gangster rap, there didn’t appear to be a lot room for anything. However else the place a motion was brewing. A motion that valued novelty over realism and enjoyable over pathos. A number one venture of that motion was the Pharcyde’s debut — which is stuffed with, effectively, weird tales, which make you nod your head and chuckle out loud. The group went left of what was popping on the radio and made one thing wholly unique. Numerous that may be credited to J-Swift, the eccentric genius producer who helmed the venture. It might be trite, however after Weird Trip II the Pharcyde nothing was the identical. — D.S.
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89. Public Enemy, Worry of a Black Planet
Yr: 1990
Raucous, unsettling, radically heartening, Worry of a Black Planet is a generation-transcending masterpiece, the place P.E. takes us from the revolution warfare room to the frontlines on the street to Black empowerment. “Welcome To The Terrordome” was so alluringly agitating, Mike Tyson used the P.E. catalog staple as his anthem when he walked to the ring en path to decapitating opponents. Chuck D spoke for all younger Blacks who had been combating societal oppression, however who had the rebellious wherewithal to by no means submit, rapping “I bought a lot hassle on my thoughts/ Refuse!/ To Lose!” That inexorable conviction is so omnipresent all through the LP, particularly on the unrelenting “Brothers Gonna Work It Out,” which you’ll be able to contemplate the large brother to Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright.” In the meantime, “Struggle the Energy” is the grandson of James Brown’s “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” as the best hip-hop name to arms for the Black group. — S.R.
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88. Ice-T, O.G. Authentic Gangster
Yr: 1991
Let’s get the plain joke out of the best way: Sure, the man most youngsters know as a cop on the long-running Legislation & Order: SVU was a gangsta rap pioneer. Not solely was he a pioneer, Ice-T made a certifiable basic of the shape along with his fourth album. Sprawling at 24 tracks, O.G. supplied a nuanced tackle avenue life with T questioning loads of the actions he would go on to brag about. However as a substitute of derailing the occasion, the contradictions make for a extra absorbing pay attention, lending humanity to a style many seen as chilly and delinquent. Seems that’s simply need the individuals wished as O.G. debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 and wound up going gold, setting a brand new commonplace for gangster rap in its wake. — D.S.
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87. The Roots, Issues Fall Aside
Yr: 1999
For his or her first few albums collectively, The Roots had been already greater than only a novelty act: They had been often known as the primary “hip-hop band,” bringing the jazzy vitality of jam classes to their music and constructing a status for a singular stay present. However with Issues Fall Aside, they started to forge their creative identification with extra conviction. Named after a seminal novel by famend African writer Chinua Achebe and starting with a skit that stems from disenchanted jazz musicians in Spike Lee’s Mo Betta Blues, the group wished to make a press release about their careers and their place within the hip-hop lexicon. Questlove started to combine the off-kilter hip-hop soul that was perfected by Soulquarian friends like J Dilla, Erykah Badu and D’Angelo, whereas rappers Black Thought, Malik B and Cube Uncooked had been in a zone — dropping sensible verses alongside a roster of all-star MCs like Mos Def, Widespread, a younger Beanie Sigel, and Eve, the latter showing with Badu on the soulful, Grammy-winning love music “You Received Me.” — W.E.Ok.
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86. The Recreation, The Documentary
Yr: 2005
When the West Coast craved a brand new rap face within the 2000s, The Recreation gladly accepted, rejuvenating a complete area. With Dr. Dre and 50 Cent on pace dial, The Recreation leapfrogged his friends on 2005’s The Documentary. Although 50’s songwriting wizardry on “How We Do” and “Hate It Or Love It” gave Recreation mainstream enchantment, it was Chuck Taylor’s grittiness and lyrical finesse on “Desires,” “Begin From Scratch” and “Runnin” that actually solidified his debut album. — CARL LAMARRE
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85. Outkast, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Yr: 1994
It’s sounds boring in 2024, however you possibly can actually divide southern rap into two eras: Earlier than Outkast and After Outkast. Earlier than Outkast most considered southern rap as principally bass booty anthems and occasion songs. Certain, there have been some outliers, however none made a large enough influence to alter the notion. Then got here Antwon “Huge Boi” Patton and André “Andre 3000” Benjamin. Their debut, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, is a heady album, one which works onerous to show that younger black males throughout the nation are going through the identical points — and that gangstas and playas are available all sizes and shapes. It was revelatory on the time, and remains to be efficient three many years later. All of rap — not simply within the south, both — owes a debt of gratitude to Outkast. — D.S.
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84. The D.O.C., No One Can Do It Higher
Yr: 1989
In case you’re of a sure age, you could have no concept who The D.O.C. is. Properly, he was top-of-the-line rappers to come back out of the West Coast, though he was initially from Texas. He co-founded Dying Row information and wrote a gang of hits for N.W.A. He additionally dropped top-of-the-line albums of the ’80s in No One Can Do It Higher. Produced by Dr. Dre, D.O.C.’s debut was stuffed with expertly tailor-made funk riffs and drums that would knock a sub from a ’64 unfastened. Tracks like “Thoughts Blown,” “The Formulation” and “The D.O.C. & The Physician” confirmed a nimble MC who reinvigorated Ruthless Data along with his basic debut. — D.S.
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83. The Diplomats, Diplomatic Immunity
Yr: 2003
By the point The Diplomats launched their double-disc debut underneath Roc-A-Fella Data, their identify had already been ringing bells in New York Metropolis. The group, co-founded by Cam’ron and Jim Jones, was rooted in many years of friendship from rising up collectively in Harlem, they usually’d gone on a historic mixtape run in 2002 the place they’d established their very own slang, sound and USA-inspired iconography. Consequently, Diplomatic Immunity was a fully-formed presentation: Cam, Jim, Juelz and Freaky Zeeky had sensible chemistry with differing rap types, Heatmakerz and Simply Blaze provided them with brilliantly triumphant soul samples, and youngsters across the nation had been strolling round with fitted hats and reversion jerseys three sizes too large. — W.E.Ok.
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82. MC Lyte, Lyte as a Rock
Yr: 1988
As one of many style’s pioneering foremothers, Queens, NY-bred rapper MC Lyte – born Lana Michele Moorer – helped kick down the door for feminine MCs to face toe-to-toe with their male counterparts. The diminutive dynamo launched her critically acclaimed debut album, an Audio Two manufacturing, on the age of 18. On what’s been touted as the primary full album by a feminine rapper as a solo artist, the husky-voiced Lyte fearlessly tackled socially aware and private issues resembling infidelity (“Paper Skinny”), drug dependancy (“I Cram to Perceive U [Sam]”) and beat-stealing (“10% Dis”) — alongside the symbolic title monitor — via deft rhymes that also resonate. — G.M.
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81. Missy Elliott, Miss E… So Addictive
Yr: 2001
Few artists have been in a position to merge the worlds of hip-hop and R&B as inventively as Missy Elliott, and her third album arguably sees her on the peak of her artistic powers. She and Timbaland had already been sizzling since 20 years in the past by then — they usually teamed as much as co-produce one of many spaciest, quirkiest batches of beats you’ll ever hear, which Missy takes on with gorgeous versatility. She calls for males maintain their very own within the bed room on “One Minute Man,” delivers a honest, romantic ballad with “Take Away,” and gives the membership an everlasting staple in “Get Ur Freak On.” Futuristic manufacturing, limber flows and velvety vocals: Missy Elliott has all of it, and there’s by no means been anybody in hip-hop like her. — W.E.Ok.
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80. Roddy Ricch, Please Excuse Me for Being Delinquent
Picture Credit score: Courtesy Picture Yr: 2019
A string of profitable singles, like 2018’s “Die Younger” and 2019’s “Ballin’” with Mustard, and a co-sign from West Coast heavyweight Nipsey Hussle arrange Compton MC Roddy Ricch for his debut album Please Excuse Me for Being Delinquent. His melodic strategy and acoustic-driven hip-hop manufacturing add a clean coating to his gritty rags-to-riches story — however traces like “‘Trigger I ain’t certain why my dawg needed to make the information reel/ Received promethazine in my eyes, I’m cryin’ purple tears” on the “Intro” show a Rolex can’t be a Band-Support for all times’s actual issues. Its fourth single, “The Field,” morphed right into a monster smash, with a swelling orchestral intro, squeaky “eee err” ad-libs and thunderous reverse 808s underlying Ricch’s shape-shifting vocal supply. Please Excuse Me earned Roddy his first Billboard 200-topping album in addition to his first Scorching 100 No. 1 with “The Field,” which spent 11 weeks on the high, snagged three 2021 Grammy nominations (together with music of the yr) and was licensed diamond by the RIAA. — H.M.
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79. Travis $cott, Astroworld
Yr: 2018
Named after the defunct Six Flags AstroWorld in Travis Scott’s Houston hometown, Astroworld invitations listeners into Scott’s custom-built world of pandemonium. His wildly entertaining fusion of psychedelic and entice music makes for Scott’s best manufacturing, inciting his trademark mosh pits with the LP’s mind-boggling predominant attraction, the Drake-assisted “Sicko Mode,” and levitating to a state of euphoria with the assistance of Stevie Surprise’s dizzying harmonica riffs, James Blake’s ghastly moans and Child Cudi’s stirring hums on “Cease Making an attempt to Be God,” or Tame Impala’s kaleidoscopic instrumentals and The Weeknd’s ethereal falsetto on “Skeletons.” Astroworld stays Scott’s strongest venture in his discography in addition to his most adorned: The 17-song set earned the rapper his second Billboard 200-topping album and first greatest rap album nomination on the 2019 Grammys, the place “Sicko Mode” — which turned Scott’s first Scorching 100 No. 1 and first diamond-certified music — was additionally nominated for greatest rap music and greatest rap efficiency. — H.M.
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78. Madvillain, Madvillainy
Yr: 2004
Madlib and MF Doom’s respective legacies as underground rap pillars would nonetheless exist if their 2004 joint LP Madvillainy didn’t exist, however would lack a crystallizing launch that has come to be a seminal gateway document for any followers seeking to discover rap’s extra idiosyncratic realms. It’s a real superhero showdown, with Doom reeling off a few of his most lyrically dense-yet-quotable bars atop Madlib’s collaged beats (“Mad performs the bass just like the race card” stays one of many best mid-track producer shoutouts ever). Songs like “Meat Grinder” and “Figaro” are off-kilter, however menacing, like a Yorgos Lanthimos film, whereas “Raid” and “America’s Most Blunted” honor East and West Coast rap with out compromising the important askewness of Madlib and Doom. — G.R.
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77. 8Ball & MJG, Coming Out Arduous
Yr: 1993
Because of Yo Gotti, GloRilla, and Moneybag Yo, Memphis rap has been within the mainstream highlight for the previous half decade. However lengthy earlier than CMG turned a dominant drive, Suave Home and its premier duo, 8Ball & MJG, put Memphis rap on the map. The duo’s debut album is soulful tour of town often known as the birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Nonetheless, as a substitute of taking listeners to Graceland, they present rap followers the illicit underbelly of town, the place pimps reign supreme and pushers transfer weight prefer it’s authorized. Over manufacturing that mixes blues, soul and funk right into a splendidly dank concoction, the 2 MCs play off one another — 8Ball’s chill, luxurious circulation and MJG’s spitfire strategy — to convey to life a aspect of Memphis most had by no means seen earlier than. — D.S.
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76. Cypress Hill, Cypress Hill
Yr: 1991
Typically Cypress Hill’s discography could be unfairly flattened to only their frat occasion classics (“Insane within the Mind,” “Hits From the Bong”), however listening to any of their first 4 information in full cements why the group stays a uniquely revered a part of L.A.’s storied rap historical past. In some methods, their buck-wild strategy to collaborative rap made them a solution to Beastie Boys or Wu-Tang Clan, however additionally they offered a bridge from the early days of gangsta rap into a brand new part of West Coast rap, one which could possibly be vivid and violent, but in addition playful (“Gap within the Head,” “How I Might Simply Kill a Man”). — G.R.