(It doesn’t necessarily overlap with Stereogum’s list of the year’s best albums, though I did help compile that, too.) Plenty of great 2020 rap albums aren’t on this list, so here’s where I’ll make my apologies to 21 Savage and Metro Boomin, Sada Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Open Mike Eagle, Megan Thee Stallion, Armand Hammer, Young Dolph, Jay Electroncia, R.A.P. This list is entirely personal and subjective, based on my preferences and mine alone. Not all of those strengths involve full-length albums, but we still got some good ones. Our best rappers are the ones who understand their strengths and know how to play to them. (Some of the rappers on this list are more than twice as old as other artists on this list.) The best rap albums of 2020 didn’t share a whole lot, but all of them have a purity of vision, a sense of self. Many of the best long-players did, in fact, come from rappers oldest enough to feel sentimental connections to the format.įor my money, 2020’s best rap albums came from artists of all different ages and from all different corners of the genre map. Many of this year’s biggest and best rap songs didn’t come from albums, or they came from expanded-edition addenda that merely served to challenge the notion of the album. The entire idea of the album has never been less relevant to young and playlist-savvy rap listeners. Worthy and popular music from younger artists was relegated to lesser categories. The youngest nominee was 35, the oldest 47. This year, the Grammys nominated five different middle-aged rappers for the Best Rap Album award. A lot of the best rap sounded like a commentary on present conditions, whether or not it was formulated that way. Rap music still thrived and resonated this year. 2020 being 2020, that crucial experience has been taken away. Rap music will never sound better than it does when you’re with a whole mob of your friends, at a party or in a club or at a festival, all of you shouting along with the lines you’ve heard hundreds of times. A whole lot has changed since then, but the essence remains. In its earliest days, rap music was built on block parties and on electricity stolen from streetlights. You know the drill: The big line is coming up, so the DJ turns down the volume, and the whole crowd yells it.
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