Best Hip Hop Albums of All Time
by 
Larcx13 
Like all my charts this is my personal favorites. I am not a big fan of Jay and Kanye and even Snoop and Biggie are quite low on my list. I've heard their music, it just doesn't reach me as much as everything else you'll see here.
Top 10 Hip Hop Artists:
1. Cunninlynguists
2. The Roots
3. A Tribe Called Quest
4. Wu-Tang Clan (+ solo releases)
5. The Pharcyde
6. Digable Planets
7. Outkast
8. Masta Ace
9. Common
10. Mos Def (Black Star)
Runner-ups: Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Gang Starr (+ Guru), CYNE, MF Doom
Tailing albums per decade:
1980s:
1- The Cactus Album - 3rd Bass
2- Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A.
3- It Takes A Nation of Billions to Hold Us Back - Public Enemy
4- It's a Big Daddy Thing - Big Daddy Kane
5- Grip It! On That Other Level - Geto Boys
1990s:
1- No Need for Alarm - Del the Funky Homosapien
2- Daily Operation - Gang Starr
3- The Predator - Ice Cube
4- Step in the Arena - Gang Starr
5- The Chronic - Dr. Dre
6- Soul Food - Goodie Mob
7- Fear of a Black Planet - Public Enemy
8- Check Your Head - Beastie Boys
9- Dr. Octagonecologyst - Dr. Octagon
10- The Miseducation of Ms. Lauryn Hill - Ms. Lauryn Hill
2000s:
1- The Future is Now - Non Phixion
2- Violent By Design - Jedi Mind Tricks
3- Supreme Clientele - Ghostface Killah
4- The Best Part - J-Live
5- Hope - Non-Prophets
2010s:
1: Masta Ace & MF Doom - MA Doom: Son of Yvonne
2- PRhyme - PRhyme
3- Pinata - Freddie Gibbs & Madlib
4- To Thine Own Self Be True - La Coka Nostra
5- Gravitas - KXNG Crooked & Bronze Nazareth
The reason for the lack of classic 80s hip hop on my list is only because of the quality of the recording and song-writing. Look at it as putting Bob Dylan, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones instead of Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf and Little Richard on a list; they're all great classics, but the former evolved in song-writing and production compared to the latter. I also find that underground/independent hip hop from the 2000s is often over-looked. There is a lot of good stuff people are missing out on, but I make it a goal to discover the most I can about a genre.
- Chart updated: 08/18/2021 21:15
- (Created: 03/04/2021 18:29).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
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[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Buy album
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[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
16,406
Rank in 1994:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
10,232
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Year of Release:
2011
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,007
Rank in 2011:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Year of Release:
2005
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,378
Rank in 2005:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Year of Release:
1993
Appears in:
Rank Score:
12,551
Rank in 1993:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
873
Rank in 1994:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Year of Release:
2015
Appears in:
Rank Score:
31,492
Rank in 2015:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 03/04/2021]
Year of Release:
1993
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,097
Rank in 1993:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
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Best Hip Hop Albums of All Time composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1970s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1980s | 3 | 3% | |
| 1990s | 57 | 57% | |
| 2000s | 32 | 32% | |
| 2010s | 8 | 8% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| The Roots | 6 | 6% | |
| CunninLynguists | 6 | 6% | |
| A Tribe Called Quest | 4 | 4% | |
| Cyne | 3 | 3% | |
| Common | 3 | 3% | |
| OutKast | 3 | 3% | |
| Eminem | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Best Hip Hop Albums of All Time chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 17 from 68th to 51st Ready To Die by The Notorious B.I.G. |
| Up 14 from 57th to 43rd People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm by A Tribe Called Quest |
| Up 8 from 66th to 58th AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted by Ice Cube |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 30 from 35th to 65th Home by Spearhead |
| Down 9 from 59th to 68th One Day It'll All Make Sense by Common |
| Down 6 from 50th to 56th Mecca And The Soul Brother by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth |
Best Hip Hop Albums of All Time similar charts
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best of Hip Hop in the 90's | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2021 | |
| 20th Century Hip Hop Revision | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2025 | |
| Hip-Hop Records 1980's-2000's |  tgarritsen | Custom chart | 2021 |  |
| Alternative Hip Hop Timeline | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2021 | |
| Objective 90s | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2021 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | Larcx13 | 1990s decade chart | 2025 | |
| Favourite Hip Hop Albums | conallmalone | Custom chart | 2022 |  |
| My 20th Century Favorites | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2021 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums |  Lachapelle | Overall chart | 2016 |  |
| Genre: East Coast Hip Hop |  zags7000 | Custom chart | 2019 | |
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Other custom charts by Larcx13
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| My Best of Bob Dylan | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2024 | |
| The Beatles + Solo (up to 2002) | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2022 | |
| Best of Cunninlynguists | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2024 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums (objective) | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2021 | |
| Wu-Tang Clan releases | Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2022 | |
Larcx13 has created 76 other custom charts - click here to explore them all.
Best Hip Hop Albums of All Time ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
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.
N.B. The average rating for this chart will not be reliable as it has been rated very few times.
Showing all 2 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/06/2025 15:53 |  pedro1976 | 107 | 85/100 |
| ! | 03/26/2021 00:37 | DJENNY | 4,365 | 100/100 |
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| Best Artists of the 1980s | |
|---|---|
| 1. The Smiths | |
| 2. Prince | |
| 3. Pixies | |
| 4. The Cure | |
| 5. Talking Heads | |
| 6. U2 | |
| 7. Metallica | |
| 8. Kate Bush | |
| 9. R.E.M. | |
| 10. The Stone Roses | |
| 11. Sonic Youth | |
| 12. Michael Jackson | |
| 13. Bruce Springsteen | |
| 14. Iron Maiden | |
| 15. Prince And The Revolution | |
| 16. Tom Waits | |
| 17. Joy Division | |
| 18. New Order | |
| 19. Talk Talk | |
| 20. Rush |
