Top 56 Greatest Music Albums by catalam1234 
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Here's some of the most interesting, musically rich, deep and overrall brilliant albums that the genre of hip hop has given.
The music in this list is grimy, jazzy, rock infused, R&B and soul flavoured, experimental, futuristic, organic, funky, spriritual, etc. Also, you'l find here a great variety of styles, sounds, lyricism and characters. Enough to drown yourself into and discover the genre.
When listening to an album you need to dechiper what the MC's is telling, I highly recommend checking the Genius.com page.
- Chart updated: 10/19/2018 22:15
- (Created: 09/09/2016 13:18).
- Chart size: 56 albums.
There are 2 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 56 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 86 out of 100 (from 2 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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It has the most precise flows, memorable verses and remarcable cadences of any rap album. It has some of the most recognizables grimey beats of all time, perfectly flavoured with soul & jazz. It is the most important album of the East Coast hip hop revival of the early to mid 90’s.
It shows that rap as an music is as well rounded, dense and masterful as other genres of music, while topping it all with near perfect poetry.
IT REPRESENTS: The best to come out of the Golden Era of the genre. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
It shows that rap as an music is as well rounded, dense and masterful as other genres of music, while topping it all with near perfect poetry.
IT REPRESENTS: The best to come out of the Golden Era of the genre. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
17,369
Rank in 1994:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
111
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It’s the untouchable masterpiece of the late 80’s, the time when hip hop as an art form exploded with new artists, new sounds and new ground to break. This record took decades of urban struggles, anger & frustration, and transformed them into harsh poetry and profund social commentary. Through the MC's rugged, bark-like voice, the calls to arms are striking, the introspection poignant. A touch of goofy-surrealism is brought by the yawps of Flav, the hypeman of the group and the man in charge of removing some weight from the heady mix.
The music is rich, detailed and exciting, a master class of deconstruction, abstraction and reconstruction from all types of sources, whether they are civil right speeches and interviews, or rock, jazz, soul, metal and funk classics. Through the sampling work, the songs gain the intensity and meaning of the sounds of the past, while also building tension and fraction by using not-yet-duplicated scratching collages. It sounds ugly and angry, but most of all, entrancing.
It enticed the masses with its revolutionary grit, a legacy no other rap album has come close to compete with. At the same time, it expanded the sense of what hip hop can do and offer to the world: political awakening, powerful messages and forward thinking
IT REPRESENTS: The masterpiece that signaled the change of pace of the genre in the late 80's. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
The music is rich, detailed and exciting, a master class of deconstruction, abstraction and reconstruction from all types of sources, whether they are civil right speeches and interviews, or rock, jazz, soul, metal and funk classics. Through the sampling work, the songs gain the intensity and meaning of the sounds of the past, while also building tension and fraction by using not-yet-duplicated scratching collages. It sounds ugly and angry, but most of all, entrancing.
It enticed the masses with its revolutionary grit, a legacy no other rap album has come close to compete with. At the same time, it expanded the sense of what hip hop can do and offer to the world: political awakening, powerful messages and forward thinking
IT REPRESENTS: The masterpiece that signaled the change of pace of the genre in the late 80's. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,144
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
3. (=)
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It’s an opulent and introspective exploration of desire, success, ruination, absolution and love. The music is varied, lavish, expansive and earth shattering. It’s the apotheosis of one of the most brilliant hip hop artist of all time (of all time!!!). The lyricism is revealing, complex, sometimes joyous sometimes remorseful, but, above all, painfully poignant.
Its an album full of sprawling ideas and motifs and grandiose soundscapes, a landmark masterpiece and one of the most dazzling and brilliant albums of the 21 century.
IT REPRESENTS: How hip hop can achive sonic perfection combining it with evocative lyricism and emotional depletion. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Its an album full of sprawling ideas and motifs and grandiose soundscapes, a landmark masterpiece and one of the most dazzling and brilliant albums of the 21 century.
IT REPRESENTS: How hip hop can achive sonic perfection combining it with evocative lyricism and emotional depletion. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
24,164
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It represents a crucial moment of time for black music and civil rights history: LA in the fall of ‘92, after the April riots and the Rodney King trial. It shows how beautiful music can flourish among violence, poverty and frustration. It brought rap to the forefront of music, taking the struggles of predominately black hoods and putting them on the face of white America.
It broke ground musically, creating and mastering a sound branded G Funk. The music is at times slow, at times frentic, showing samples of classic funk records and layered synths.
It drowns the listener in a never heard before mellow groove, in sharp contrast with the well-worn themes and the violent and pessimistic lyrics.
IT REPRESENTS: The ultimate masterpiece of West Coast hip hop. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
It broke ground musically, creating and mastering a sound branded G Funk. The music is at times slow, at times frentic, showing samples of classic funk records and layered synths.
It drowns the listener in a never heard before mellow groove, in sharp contrast with the well-worn themes and the violent and pessimistic lyrics.
IT REPRESENTS: The ultimate masterpiece of West Coast hip hop. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1992
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,890
Rank in 1992:
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Average Rating:
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It’s brilliant from front to back, to the very little detail to the most ambitious rhyme scheme. The most refined yet organic hip hop album of all time, it boasted critical acclaim and commercial success (for underground release standarts). It shows one of the most complexly poetic MC’s of all time rhyming along some of the most dense and layered production out there. It’s a love letter and a compliment to hip hop, to the underground scene and (obviously), drugs.
The straits and peaks are perfectly balanced, and despite being incredibly eclectic and creative, it never loses its grass-roots hip-hop.
IT REPRESENTS: The golden age of the underground scene of the early to mid 2000’s. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
The straits and peaks are perfectly balanced, and despite being incredibly eclectic and creative, it never loses its grass-roots hip-hop.
IT REPRESENTS: The golden age of the underground scene of the early to mid 2000’s. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
2004
Appears in:
Rank Score:
15,118
Rank in 2004:
Rank in 2000s:
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It's the most convention-shattering album in the genre and one of the most influential albums of the '90s, along with Nevermind and The Chronic. This is a work of tremendous variety and consistency that offers an eclectic yet atmospheric production full of kung-fu and obscure jazz samples to match a colorful cast of hugely talented MCs, each one holding their own distinctive style and personality.
From the first song to the last one, each MC submerges the listener in a menacing state of mind full of martial arts metaphors, pop culture references, bizarre threats of violence and a truly twisted sense of humor.
IT REPRESENTS: The groundwork for the rebirth of New York hip-hop in the hardcore age. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
From the first song to the last one, each MC submerges the listener in a menacing state of mind full of martial arts metaphors, pop culture references, bizarre threats of violence and a truly twisted sense of humor.
IT REPRESENTS: The groundwork for the rebirth of New York hip-hop in the hardcore age. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1993
Appears in:
Rank Score:
13,021
Rank in 1993:
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Average Rating:
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Buy album
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It's not only a smooth, entrancing and textured ode to hip hop, but also one of popular's music first entirely sample-based album. With a pretty wide array of source material, this album introduces the listener to a deep, endlessly intriguing world, one full of hypnotic repetitions, headbobbing grooves, cavernous reverb melodies and some of the most wonderful and alluring tones ever put to tape.
Transcending the creator's motives, this is also a meditation on mortality, not a physical one, but an artistic one. It revives lots of forgotten vinyl and obscure artists and gives them a hazy and vital new life.
IT REPRESENTS: THE landmark for instrumental hip hop, electronica and sample culture. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Transcending the creator's motives, this is also a meditation on mortality, not a physical one, but an artistic one. It revives lots of forgotten vinyl and obscure artists and gives them a hazy and vital new life.
IT REPRESENTS: THE landmark for instrumental hip hop, electronica and sample culture. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1996
Appears in:
Rank Score:
9,768
Rank in 1996:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
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It's the most inventive, confident yet childlike and playful debut in hip hop history, expanding both the palette of sampling material to use and the topics to talk about.
The music is kaleidoscopic, a colorful display of pop, soul, disco, funk and even country music that was at the time both reaffirming and sparklingly groundbreaking. The album's atmosphere is surreal and sunny, perfectly matching the MCs positivity and joy as they address issues like hippie philosophy, first love, sex, drug abuse, self-doubt, and, ehem, body odor, all delivered in a not-too-serious style with lots of humor.
On this album, from the psychedelic music, to the chill MCs to the comedy skits that tie it all, everything comes together as pure fun and joy.
IT REPRESENTS: The introducing of Afrocentrism in hip hop and the stylistic beginning of 90's alternative hip hop. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
The music is kaleidoscopic, a colorful display of pop, soul, disco, funk and even country music that was at the time both reaffirming and sparklingly groundbreaking. The album's atmosphere is surreal and sunny, perfectly matching the MCs positivity and joy as they address issues like hippie philosophy, first love, sex, drug abuse, self-doubt, and, ehem, body odor, all delivered in a not-too-serious style with lots of humor.
On this album, from the psychedelic music, to the chill MCs to the comedy skits that tie it all, everything comes together as pure fun and joy.
IT REPRESENTS: The introducing of Afrocentrism in hip hop and the stylistic beginning of 90's alternative hip hop. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,088
Rank in 1989:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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It's one of the most perfect showcases of extensive, innovative use of multi-layered sampling as an art in itself. The songs are buoyed by the razor-sharp interplay of the three MCs and a poetic tornado of imagery, so packed with pop culture references, quotations and obsessions that the listener could spend an entire day unveiling them all.
Musically, the daring eclecticism and well-crafted loops serve as a love letter to the 70's, sampling everything from rock, to metal, soul, experimental, country, folk and funk, being the album's last suite the perfect encapsulation of what makes the album so special and transcendental. The music is so intertwined that it moves beyond psychedelic: it's a painting with sound.
IT REPRESENTS: A masterpiece of hip hop's retrospection and inventiveness. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Musically, the daring eclecticism and well-crafted loops serve as a love letter to the 70's, sampling everything from rock, to metal, soul, experimental, country, folk and funk, being the album's last suite the perfect encapsulation of what makes the album so special and transcendental. The music is so intertwined that it moves beyond psychedelic: it's a painting with sound.
IT REPRESENTS: A masterpiece of hip hop's retrospection and inventiveness. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,925
Rank in 1989:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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It's New York on a windy cold night, where the best MCs of the town reunite in and around clandestine basements to spit gritty story-songs and battle with rhymes built on elaborate metaphors, being martial arts, chess and mysticism the clear favorites. It's a cruel but real depiction of the low lives of New York and the evils that corrupt the very pillars of the city. It's an album that sent MCs into hiding in 1995.
The sonic template of this work masterfully mirrors the MC's dark tinted rhymes: it's grotesque, creepy and eerie, perfectly evoking the calm of the streets during a snowstorm. The beats move up and down, varying between spastic, cerebral and ominous. It's violent.
IT REPRESENTS: The most potent distillation of the Wu-Tang aesthetic and essence. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
The sonic template of this work masterfully mirrors the MC's dark tinted rhymes: it's grotesque, creepy and eerie, perfectly evoking the calm of the streets during a snowstorm. The beats move up and down, varying between spastic, cerebral and ominous. It's violent.
IT REPRESENTS: The most potent distillation of the Wu-Tang aesthetic and essence. [First added to this chart: 09/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1995
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,787
Rank in 1995:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 56. Page 1 of 6
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Top 56 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1970s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1980s | 6 | 11% | |
| 1990s | 26 | 46% | |
| 2000s | 17 | 30% | |
| 2010s | 7 | 13% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Kanye West | 6 | 11% | |
| OutKast | 5 | 9% | |
| A Tribe Called Quest | 3 | 5% | |
| Kendrick Lamar | 3 | 5% | |
| De La Soul | 2 | 4% | |
| Public Enemy | 2 | 4% | |
| Jay-Z | 2 | 4% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 56 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 4 from 25th to 21st Reasonable Doubt by Jay-Z |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 2 from 21st to 23rd The Blueprint by Jay-Z |
| Down 1 from 23rd to 24th The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem |
| Down 1 from 24th to 25th The Money Store by Death Grips |
Top 56 Greatest Music Albums similar charts
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | brundogg | Overall chart | 2011 | |
| The Hip-Hop Essentials |  exileonthehell | Custom chart | 2016 |  |
| Best Hip-Hop | rlang36 | Custom chart | 2017 |  |
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | tgodd2.0 | Overall chart | 2010 | |
| Top 40 Greatest Music Albums | James3000 | Overall chart | 2016 | |
| Top 40 Greatest Music Albums | Ccothron52 | Overall chart | 2010 | |
| The Professor's Nerd Hop |  ProfessorSquid | Custom chart | 2013 | |
| Hip-Hop |  Onater | Custom chart | 2017 |  |
| Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | normshorg | Overall chart | 2018 | |
| Top 48 Greatest Music Albums | RaP/HiP-HoPMusiKCritiC | Overall chart | 2023 | |
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Top 56 Greatest Music Albums ratings
86/100 (from 2 votes)
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| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
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75/100  | 03/27/2025 15:57 | DrewHamster | | 79/100 |
 95/100 | 01/05/2017 01:38 | Seab | | 93/100 |
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corenfro 01/04/2017 02:39
corenfro 01/04/2017 02:39
I liked the list once I realized it was a best 40 hip hop albums of all time.
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From catalam1234 09/09/2016 13:29
Yes, this is a 40 Best Hip Hop albums of all Time, with some mini-reviews of the 5 Very Best. If you're interested in knowing my opinon on certain albums on this list, just PM me.
PS. Could not wait until being allowed to make Custom Charts. When I reach that point, i'll make the Custom chart and modify this to put the best albums of all time, ALL Genres.
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