Illadelph Halflife
by The Roots

Illadelph Halflife by The Roots
Year: 1996
Release date: 1996-09-24
Overall rank: 3,563rd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 105 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1996 (74th)
Award Top albums of of the 1990s (584th)
Award Best albums of all time (3,563rd)

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The Roots bestography

Illadelph Halflife is ranked 6th best out of 15 albums by The Roots on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by The Roots is Things Fall Apart which is ranked number 900 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,927.

The Roots album bestography « Higher ranked (3,163rd)
Game Theory
This album (3,563rd)
Illadelph Halflife
Lower ranked (6,414th) »
Do You Want More?!!!??!

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Illadelph Halflife track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 78 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track
Rating/Comments
8.
Track pick (860 - 26 votes)
Average Rating: 86 (26 votes)Comments: View 0

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Illadelph Halflife rankings

Illadelph Halflife rankings summary
Overall rank: 3,563rd | 1990s rank: 584th | 1996 rank: 74th  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 2 hours ago).

Illadelph Halflife collection

Illadelph Halflife ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 105 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 105 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !
07/23/2026 13:04 Tamthebam  Ratings distribution  23,14669/100
 
75/100
 !
04/21/2026 15:43 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,32770/100
 
75/100
 !
03/24/2026 08:14 Leginlists  Ratings distribution  3,75383/100
 
0/100
 !
02/21/2026 16:19 yotamdude  Ratings distribution  2067/100
 
80/100
 !
02/01/2026 21:30 sweetness  Ratings distribution  1,12779/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.0/100, a mean average of 76.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.6/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.8.


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Illadelph Halflife favourites

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Illadelph Halflife comments

Showing all 4 comments |
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Rating:  
85/100
The best hip hop record of 1996 in my opinion. Took me awhile to decide but this is now a solid stay at the top. As for compared to all Roots albums, I prefer Game Theory to this but it's a close runner-up.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
bizarre site, I've never seen anyone put Illadelph almost in the bottom half of their albums. among fans of the roots and even heads in general, this is commonly lauded as their best album in a really strong discography. huh.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
This is hip hop at its finest. Every song has good vibes, great flows, and catchy hooks with great guest vocals and MCs.

Illadelph Halflife is always worth listening through from start to finish, but there are some standout tracks ('Respond - React', 'Episodes', 'Push Up Ya Lighter', 'What They Do', & 'No Alibi' to name a few).

This is the album where The Roots finally acquired that true hip hop sound that they've been building towards with their previous two full length projects.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
The sound is there, the lyrics are almost there, not quite as memorable as their other releases, but still quality work.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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