Rolling Stone's 40 Best Rap Albums of 2016

Rolling Stone's 40 Best Rap Albums of 2016

Original Source →

40.

Yo Gotti - The Art of Hustle
February 19, 2016
Critic Score
71
6 reviews

39.

VIC MENSA - There's Alot Going On
June 3, 2016
Critic Score
70
4 reviews

37.

2 Chainz - COLLEGROVE
March 4, 2016
Critic Score
65
8 reviews
Two brash Southern word-hogs meet for a hit-or-miss summit.

36.

De La Soul - and the Anonymous Nobody...
August 26, 2016
Critic Score
74
35 reviews

Their greatest strength has always been not caring what hip-hop is supposed to sound like.

35.

J. Cole - 4 Your Eyez Only
December 9, 2016
Critic Score
69
16 reviews

34.

Common - Black America Again
November 4, 2016
Critic Score
80
14 reviews

33.

Vince Staples - Prima Donna
August 25, 2016
Critic Score
81
13 reviews

The music is as bleep-y as it is banging (James Blake produces on two tracks) and touchstones include Andre 3000, James Joyce, Leonardo DiVinci and Jay Gatsby.

32.

A Boogie wit da Hoodie - TBA
October 28, 2016
Critic Score
65
2 reviews

31.

Joey Purp - iiiDrops
May 27, 2016
Critic Score
76
4 reviews

Following in the wake of Chance the Rapper's critical smash Coloring Book, his Savemoney crewmate Joey Purp debuts with the bright iiiDrops, another Chicago dispatch full of soaring horns and impassioned deliveries.

30.

March 25, 2016
Critic Score
72
13 reviews

27.

Shy Glizzy - Young Jefe 2
July 15, 2016
Critic Score
71
1 review

24.

Swet Shop Boys - Cashmere
October 14, 2016
Critic Score
79
8 reviews

22.

D.R.A.M. - Big Baby D.R.A.M.
October 21, 2016
Critic Score
75
14 reviews

His lovestruck, singing-in-the-shower style – imagine a cross between Ol' Dirty Bastard, Chance the Rapper and a private-press R&B record from the Seventies – is bent, delirious and totally intoxicating.

21.

Lil Uzi Vert - The Perfect Luv Tape®️
July 31, 2016
Critic Score
55
4 reviews

20.

Tink - Winter’s Diary 4
August 25, 2016

17.

Kamaiyah - A Good Night in the Ghetto
March 14, 2016
Critic Score
87
3 reviews

16.

Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered.
March 4, 2016
Critic Score
84
32 reviews

There's brilliance in even Lamar's cast-offs, and an intimacy here that makes this more than just a gift for his ravenous fans --it's an illuminating look at a red-hot rapper's craft.

14.

Rae Sremmurd - SremmLife 2
August 12, 2016
Critic Score
73
16 reviews

They call themselves the "Black Beatles," and even if they've somewhat abandoned their hook-y bubblegum melodies, at least they've embraced the Fab Four's experimental mindset.

13.

ScHoolboy Q - Blank Face LP
July 8, 2016
Critic Score
75
22 reviews

Schoolboy Q's 2014 major-label debut, Oxymoron, marked him as the most street MC in L.A.'s Black Hippy rap collective. No less stressed or conflicted than that crew's breakout star, Kendrick Lamar, he's reporting from deeper within the fog of war on his follow-up.

12.

Saba - Bucket List Project
October 27, 2016
Critic Score
75
5 reviews

11.

Kevin Gates - Islah
January 29, 2016
Critic Score
77
7 reviews
He's a rapper's rapper, a lyrical Evel Knievel without any desire for a cloying pop crossover; it should be mentioned that he works with no guest appearance safety nets, save one track on the deluxe edition – ultimately resulting in a cohesive, satisfying, fat-free full-length.

10.

Noname - Telefone
July 31, 2016
Critic Score
80
9 reviews

Noname unfurls thoughts about a life where love and freedom are in the distance and too many friends are "casket-pretty." It's some of the year's most thought-provoking hip-hop.

9.

YG - Still Brazy
June 17, 2016
Critic Score
81
13 reviews

8.

Death Grips - Bottomless Pit
May 6, 2016
Critic Score
80
12 reviews

For all the different genres it consumes and spits back, it sounds like no other band on earth.

7.

Future - EVOL
February 6, 2016
Critic Score
70
18 reviews

6.

Drake - Views
April 29, 2016
Critic Score
67
36 reviews
Drake has tilled this soil on several albums, with little new insight or complexity unearthed here; the result is an occasionally excellent LP that feels, naggingly, like a missed opportunity.

5.

A Tribe Called Quest - We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service
November 11, 2016
Critic Score
87
32 reviews

One of the most timeless rap groups ever has returned with a record that doesn't sound like 1996, but doesn't sound like 2016 either. It's imbued with the same feeling of "Push It Along" that they've had from the beginning. 

4.

Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition
September 27, 2016
Critic Score
84
36 reviews

While Atrocity Exhibition is stuffed like a piñata with colorful addictions ... its also teeming with the isolation, paranoia and regrets you could expect from a rap album named after a Joy Division song. 

3.

Young Thug - JEFFERY
August 26, 2016
Critic Score
77
11 reviews

As usual it's Thug's own sound that predominates: the heroic howls, rasps, mumbles and wheezes of a man who is as captivating a vocalist as any in pop.

2.

February 14, 2016
Critic Score
77
36 reviews

It's a labored-over opus that wishes it were a mixtape, trying hard to curate the vibe of a sprawling mess, and that's because it's made by an artist who feels like a mess and doesn't care to hide it.

1.

Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
May 13, 2016
Critic Score
86
27 reviews

Reaching back to the very beginning of black music in America, Chance recontextualizes one of the most enduring African-American art forms for 2016's most urgent one.

Original Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/40-best-rap-albums-of-2016-w455769
Comments
Sign in to comment
No one has said anything yet.
Connect with AOTY
Like Us
Follow Us

February Playlist