Rolling Stone is ranking the 200 greatest rap albums of all time.
The list spans across the late ’80s and ’90s with legends like 2Pac, Biggie, Public Enemy, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre, and includes the genre’s biggest stars today including Drake, Nicki Minaj, Future, and Tyler, the Creator.
Cardi B’s debut album Invasion of Privacy makes the list at No. 16, followed by Lil’ Kim’s 1996 debut Hard Core at No. 19. Other placements include Nas’ Illmatic at No. 24, Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP at No. 25, and Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday at No. 31.
Kanye West earns multiple entries with Late Registration (No. 41), Yeezus (No. 17), and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (No. 6).
The top 10 includes Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (No. 10), Missy Elliott’s Miss E… So Addictive (No. 7), Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly (No. 5), JAY-Z’s The Blueprint (No. 3), and Outkast’s 2000 album Stankonia (No. 2).
The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die takes top honors. “The album remains a grim, groundbreaking classic that stared death in the eye and became larger than life,” writes RS.
See the top 10 below and the full list here.
Rolling Stone’s Greatest Rap Albums of All Time
1. The Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die
2. Outkast – Stankonia
3. Jay-Z – The Blueprint
4. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
5. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
6. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
7. Missy Elliott – Miss E… So Addictive
8. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
9. A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory
10. Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
11. Drake – Take Care
12. Clipse – Lord Willin
13. Dr. Dre – 2001
14. Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele
15. Eric B. and Rakim – Paid in Full
16. Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy
17. Kanye West – Yeezus
18. Madvillain – Madvillainy
19. Lil Kim – Hard Core
20. Future – DS2
