Top 10: Rap Albums
The ten rap albums that define the form for us, in order, from good kid, m.A.A.d city to Madvillainy.
good kid, m.A.A.d cityA short film about a teenager, a van and one very bad night, and the best constructed rap album of its decade.Read the review
IllmaticTen tracks, no filler, and the blueprint for what a rap album can be. Nothing on it has aged a day.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted FantasyMaximalism as a moral argument: every excess on the record is also its subject, and it never once buckles.
PiñataGangster rap over dusty soul loops, and one of the great pairings of a rapper and a producer in any era.
The DocumentaryMore than half a million copies in its first week and the West Coast back in the national argument.
The BlueprintSoul samples, one rap guest and a man at the height of his confidence. The sound of the decade starts here.
Nothing Was the SameTighter, warmer and more confident than the record before it, and the last time everything was working at once.
The Marshall Mathers LPThe most technically frightening rap album of its era, and one of the very few that earns its own scale.
The College DropoutSped-up soul, a wired jaw and more jokes than any rap debut needs. The myth starts here and mostly earns it.
MadvillainyTwenty two songs in forty six minutes, half-finished on purpose and perfect anyway: the strangest great rap album, and the best thing either man made.
