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list Dec 23 2020 Written by

The Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

The Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

For this The Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2020 list we have listened to hundreds of projects – well over 500 to be more precise. 2020 was a bad, bad year in a lot of ways, but it was a GREAT year for Hip Hop. Sure, there’s still plenty of terrible rap music out there, but it’s becoming easier and easier to ignore the output of mumblers and trappers because of the breadth and depth in quality Hip Hop that’s on offer these days – in the mainstream as well as in the underground. Hip Hop has never been more diverse than as it is today, and this list will reflect that diversity. Limiting this list to 60 titles does a disservice to lots of great albums that had to be relegated to the honorable mentions section (which admittedly is ridiculously long, but all the albums there are worth checking out).

Not included here are instrumental albums, compilations, and EP’s. Some artists bill barely 30-minute-long projects as albums – HHGA sees projects that clock in at under 30 minutes as EP’s however, and we do not rank them on our album (= LP) list. Creating an LP is an art in itself, releasing a couple of songs as an EP or dropping a 20-minute ‘album’ with a bunch of 1 and 2-minute songs is not enough to make it on our best albums list. But having said that, there are lots of dope EP’s out there, so we will not completely ignore them – scroll all the way down for a section with some of the best EP’s released in 2020, as well as a listing of 2020’s best instrumental and best Hip Hop adjacent projects.

Let’s get into it, check out what we think are the best Hip Hop albums of 2020.

Also check: Greatest Hip Hop Albums 1980 – 2020 & Top 150 Hip Hop Albums Of The 2010s

And: Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2020 – The Honorable Mentions & The Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2021

1. Run The Jewels - RTJ4

The Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

In 2012 El-P produced Killer Mike’s album, R.A.P. Music – one of our favorite albums of 2012  which was soon followed by Killer Mike’s appearance on the track “Tougher Colder Killer” from El-P’s Cancer 4 Cure. When R.A.P. Music and Cancer 4 Cure were released within weeks of each other, the two decided to tour together. The success of the tour eventually led to the decision to form Run The Jewels.

Run The Jewels (2013), Run The Jewels 2 (2014), and Run The Jewels 3 (2016) all are among the best Hip Hop albums of the 2010s, three important albums for Hip Hop as a genre. Because of its predecessors, Run The Jewels 4 was one of the most-anticipated albums of the year – and it delivered on all fronts.

As El-P promised: RTJ4 is a punch in the face – and in a good way. This is an album the world needs right now. RTJ4 is a near-perfect presentation of fresh, exciting, banging beats and politically potent lyrics. Given their track record with the first three RTJ albums it was hard to imagine Killer Mike and El-P disappointing – but even equalling the level of quality of especially RTJ2 and RTJ3 was ever going to be a tall order. RTJ4 is on par with its predecessors though.

Killer Mike and El-P sound as powerful and as hungry as ever before, and with this album, they prove that Hip Hop can still be entertaining as well as meaningful. There can be no higher praise than comparing an album to Public Enemy’s monumental 1988 classic It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, but in this case, the comparison is totally justified. El-P’s top-notch production is like a perfect evolution of the famed Bomb Squad sound and the politically-charged lyrical content is intelligent, hard-hitting and thought-provoking in the best Public Enemy tradition.

RTJ4 is a confirmation – at this point, we can start calling Run The Jewels one of the best duos in Hip Hop history. Four phenomenal albums in a row, it’s undeniable. Throw in Killer Mike and El-P’s respective solo work and they’re all-timers.

Timely and timeless – RTJ4 goes HARD.

Download RTJ4

2. Aesop Rock – Spirit World Field Guide

Aesop Rock - Spirit World Field Guide | Review

Owing to the lyrical and sonic intricacies in his music, Aesop Rock has always been a hate-him or love-him kind of artist. Like him or not, there’s no denying he has a couple of classic projects on his name – especially his third album and Definite Jux debut Labor Days (2001) is a monumental album, followed by the equally excellent Bazooka Tooth (2003) and None Shall Pass (2007).

After the folding of Def Jux, Aesop Rock signed with Rhymesayers EntertainmentSpirit World Field Guide is Aesop Rock’s eighth full-length solo album and his third one released on Rhymesayers, following the great Skelethon (2012) and The Impossible Kid (2016), one of the best albums released that year.

Spirit World Field Guide arguably is even less easily accessible than some of the other Aesop Rock albums because of its concept: the album acts as a “guide” to a fictional world, following a narrator through an alternate world.

“Be not afraid! Whether you’re simply sightseeing, enjoying temporary flights of fancy, or considering a more permanent relocation, the all-new Spirit World Field Guide offers twenty-one insightful chapters of firsthand know-how into the terrain, wildlife, and social customs of our parallel universe. The narrator’s vast expertise of multiple global entry points and various modes of inter-dimensional transport informs a rich tapestry of tips, tricks, and tools to unfailingly aid in your ultimate survival. If you are among the countless individuals who find themselves feeling both dead and alive at the same time, the information contained within may serve as an invaluable asset to your journey. Godspeed and good luck.”

Those are the words of the album’s narrator — an attempt to prepare listeners, both old and new, for a safe entry into the Spirit World.”

Enough has been said about the extensiveness of Aesop Rock’s vocabulary, but having an extensive vocabulary means nothing if you can’t write. Aesop Rock is an incredible writer though – the quality levels of Aesop Rock’s lyrics, bar structures, rhyme patterns, and flows are essentially a given at this point. His production skills can not be in doubt either. Both on lyrical and musical levels Spirit World Field Guide is top-tier work, even by Aesop Rock standards. The beats here are unbelievably dynamic and immersive – giving a kind of unsettling vibe and setting the perfect mood as the record progresses. The lyrics are there to dissect and study, but this album can be enjoyed just as easily without diving in that deep – the beats and flows alone are enough to lose yourself in Spirit World Field Guide, the lyrical depth just adds an extra dimension.

Spirit World Field Guide is Aesop Rock STILL at the peak of his game, an incredible feat after 25 years in the game. This album proves it is still possible to create a one-hour album, without features, that manages to captivate from start to finish AND that has lots of replay value. For the short attention span crowd it may all be too much, but those who can deal with lengthy immersive listening experiences will LOVE Spirit World Field Guide.

Download Spirit World Field Guide

3. Marlowe – Marlowe 2

Seattle-based producer L’Orange and North Carolina rapper Solemn Brigham reunite as Marlowe for a second album, straightforwardly titled Marlowe 2. The first Marlowe album was one of the best (and most underappreciated) albums of 2018Marlowe 2 is just as good, if not better.

L’Orange’s trademark psychedelic, dusty, lo-fi, boom-bap instrumentals laced with obscure samples are as strong as ever, and Solemn Brigham has something distinctive that sets him apart from other emcees – an erratic one-of-a-kind type flow that perfectly matches the strange atmosphere set by L’Orange’s production. There was nothing wrong with Brigham’s performance on Marlowe 1, but he managed to step up his lyrical game for this one, once again coming with tight bars and complex rhyme patterns to go with his unique flow and delivery.

Even more than the first album, Marlowe 2 isn’t easy or straightforward. It may take a few spins to truly appreciate, but those willing and able to give this album the attention it deserves will find that Marlowe 2 is one of the best Hip Hop albums of the year.

Download Marlowe 2

4. Apollo Brown & Che’ Noir – As God Intended

best hip hop albums of 2020

Apollo Brown’s signature style of soulful, boom-bap production has become a staple in the 2010s. The number of top-quality projects he has put his stamp on in this decade is amazing. His best work of the 2010s includes (but is not limited to) Gas Mask (with DJ Soko & Journalist 103 as The Left) and Brown Study (with Boog Brown) in 2010Trophies (with O.C.) in 2012Ugly Heroes (with Red Pill & Verbal Kent as Ugly Heroes) in 2013Blasphemy (with Ras Kass) in 2014Grandeur in 2015The Easy Truth (with Skyzoo) in 2016Mona Lisa (with Joell Ortiz) in 2018, and of course what is arguably his best work of the 2010sSincerely, Detroit in 2019.

As God Intended is Apollo Brown’s first major project of the 2020s, for which he teamed up with Che’ Noir. 26-year old Buffalo emcee Che’ Noir has been making a name for herself in recent years, having worked alongside the likes of Benny The Butcher, 38 Spesh, Kool G Rap, and Fred The Godson – she has emerged as one of the most extraordinary and exciting New York talents heard in a while. Following a couple of dope EP’s and collaborations, As God Intended is her full-length debut album.

Apollo Brown really never misses, but what raises some of his albums to the next level is when there is palpable chemistry between himself and the artist he collaborates with. Trophies with O.C. is the best example, another winning combo was Brown Study with Boog Brown.

And now we have As God Intended.

The synergy between Apollo Brown’s majestic boom-bap instrumentals and Che’ Noir’s engaging flow and lyrics make As God Intended a total winner – on par even with Trophies. Che’ Noir is incredible. Her voice, her diction, her flow, her personality – she really is an emcee’s emcee, who has the skill to seemingly effortlessly carry an album, and who has something to say too. Che’ Noir’s views on topical societal issues and her personal stories are unfiltered and no-holds-barred – her pen game is as powerful as her delivery.

As God Intended comes equipped with14 tracks, with no interludes or other filler. As God Intended features collaborations with Black Thought, Skyzoo, Planet Asia, Ty Farris, and Blakk Soul – definite proof of Che’ Noir’s power is that their presence is hardly noticeable (even if especially Black Thought shines with a killer verse on “Hustle Don’t Give). There are no weak tracks on this album, but a couple of standouts nevertheless – including “Daddy’s Girl” (a poignant account about growing up without a stable father figure), “’94” (a trip down memory lane about Che’ Noir’s Hip Hop influences), the Skyzoo-assisted “Follow The Money” (check what Apollo Brown does with Scarface’s “My Block” on the hook), and “Money Orientated” (which brilliantly incorporates part of AZ’s classic verse on Nas’ “Life’s A B****”).

As God Intended is another jewel in Apollo Brown’s crown and the official arrival of Che’ Noir to the Hip Hop Majors. In this day and age of forgettable bubble-gum rap, As God Intended is the clear exception – no doubt this is an album people will keep in rotation for years to come.

Download As God Intended

5. Ka - Descendants Of Cain

Best Left-Field Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

Descendants Of Cain is Brownsville, NYC emcee/producer Ka’s seventh studio album, following 2018’s Orpheus vs. The Sirens, which he made with producer Animoss. Descendants Of Cain is his first album under the name Ka since 2016’s Honor Killed The Samurai. He has been responsible for a couple of the best Hip Hop albums released in the 2010s, especially his last two albums as Ka are low-key classics that have gained him a host of loyal fans.

Following the solid Grief Pedigree (2012), Ka’s The Night’s Gambit (2013) proved to be a creative step ahead for Ka, evidencing his abilities as a gifted rapper, with beautifully crafted poetic lyrics and clever metaphors – and with the album’s narrative centered around chess. Musically more stripped down and minimalistic than Chief Pedigree was, The Night’s Gambit was an atmospheric delight that may not have been for everybody, but that was rightfully recognized and appreciated by Hip Hop connoisseurs. The Night’s Gambit‘s follow-up Honor Killed The Samurai (2016) was another chilling barrage of aesthetic metaphors, brooding imagery, and incredible rhyme schemes. Like its predecessor, the conceptual Honor Killed The Samurai was another beautiful project consisting of minimalistic, understated instrumentals that served to give room to Ka’s narrative and intricate wordplay.

In 2020 Ka returns with Descendants Of Cain, going for a biblical theme this time around, as is evidenced by the album’s title and cover art, and by most of the song titles. Just like on his previous efforts, on Descendants Of Cain there’s a strong focus on ambiance and sound, and it may take many listens to really pick up on all Ka’s lyrical subtleties and hidden meanings – there’s a lot to unpack here. Descendants Of Cain is a delightful hypnotic Hip Hop meditation, with Ka excelling in his own brand of poetical lyricism – his hushed and hoarse tone gelling perfectly with the atmospheric instrumentals (produced by Preservation, Animoss, Roc Marciano, and Ka himself).

Ka is one of those artists who clearly REALLY knows what he’s doing, with a perfectly-tuned awareness of how his music works from every angle. Descendants Of Cain is put together and sequenced just RIGHT, and the cover art is gorgeous too. Ka’s style is of the take-it-or-leave-it kind, an acquired taste to be sure – but for those with an appreciation of not-run-off-the-mill kind of Hip Hop, Descendants Of Cain will be a treasure.

Download Descendants Of Cain

6. Sa-Roc - The Sharecropper's Daughter

Sa-Roc - The Sharecropper's Daughter | Review

The Sharecropper’s Daughter is Sa-Roc’s long-awaited debut album for Rhymesayers since signing with the label in 2015. Washington DC-born and Atlanta-based Sa-Roc has been of the most interesting artists out in the past decade, with a bunch of great but underappreciated projects on her name before signing with Rhymesayers (especially Nebuchadnezzar (2014) is an awesome album). The Sharecropper’s Daughter was led by the singles “Deliverance”, the self-love anthem “Forever”, and “Goddess Gang” – enough to raise anticipation levels to the max. Does the album live up to expectations? The answer is an unreserved yes. No doubt this is Sa-Roc’s highest-profile project yet and the album that should be her real breakthrough to wider audiences.

From Sa-Roc’s Bandcamp page: “Speaking on the meaning of the album’s title and inspiration, Sa-Roc shares, “The Sharecropper’s Daughter speaks to my father’s actual beginnings on a Virginia tobacco farm where his family sharecropped. The title is meant to signify that both my father’s and my upbringing, though so different, are linked by a shared history that informs the way I move through the world. Although his formative years were spent in the Jim Crow era of the south, where he suffered through poverty and racial oppression, and mine were shaped in the heart of DC, amidst the war on drugs and the effects of its fallout, the album finds points of connection in two very different yet tragically familiar stories of Blackness in America. It’s a sonic reflection of the things we inherit. About the emotional weight that we unknowingly bestow upon the next generation; the genetic transfer of both trauma and triumph that we, both donors and beneficiaries, are tasked with reshaping into a future of our own.”

The Sharecropper’s Daughter album is entirely produced by a veteran renaissance man from the Atlanta Hip Hop scene, Sol Messiah, with the exception of “Deliverance” produced by Evidence and co-produced by Al B Smoov. And, while Sa-Roc’s crafty wordplay, razor-sharp delivery, and exceptional writing are the prominent highlight, this undeniable quality is only further enhanced by stellar guest performances from a small, but formidable, all-star cast of guests, including Saul Williams, Styles P, Ledisi, Chronixx, and Black Thought.”

The Sharecropper’s Daughter is an excellent album, one of the best of the year. Refined production, with soulful and musical boom-bap beats, serves as the perfect backdrop for Sa-Roc’s powerful vocals – she once again proves she’s an elite emcee and a great singer as well. Her lyrics are intelligent and thought-provoking – The Sharecropper’s Daughter is just one of the 2020 albums that mark the return of consciousness to the forefront of Hip Hop – fitting right in with the latest projects from Arrested Development, Public Enemy, Paris, Run The Jewels, and others.

15 tracks and 50 minutes of music on The Sharecropper’s Daughter and not a moment is wasted. No weak tracks on this album, but a special mention goes out to the timely “The Black Renaissance” which is a SOTY contender – Sa-Roc and Black Thought both kill it, and their back and forth on the last verse is great. The Sharecropper’s Daughter is grown-people Hip Hop of the highest order – it doesn’t get much better than this.

Download The Sharecropper’s Daughter 

7. Blu & Exile - Miles

2020 marks eight years since Blu & Exile’s last full-length album Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them, and 13 years since their classic collaborative debut Below The Heavens, one of the best albums released in 2007. Now the duo is back with double album Miles: From An Interlude Called Life (Miles for short), Blu & Exile third full-length collaboration. The title references jazz-legend Miles Davis, who gets multiple mentions/shout-outs throughout the album, as do lots of other jazz and other music legends. It’s clear Blu and Exile know and appreciate their musical history – this album is their tribute to that history and its legends, and a study of Blu’s origins, his influences, and his personal life experiences.

When Blu is in top form, there are not a lot of artists out there better than him. Unfortunately, with a series of decent-at-best projects he hasn’t been in top form for large parts of his career. Most of his projects have been underwhelming, excepting of course Below The Heavens, and albums like Johnson&Jonson (2008, with Mainframe as Johnson&Jonson) which was pretty great, as were Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them (2012) and last year‘s Oh No-produced A Long Red Hot Los Angeles Summer Night. 

Where Blu has never been able to approach the level of awesomeness he reached with his monumental debut Below the HeavensBTH arguably is Exile’s best production work too – even if he is responsible for a couple of more (near)classics, Boy Meets World (2009) with Fashawn and the underappreciated E&J (2014) with Johaz as Dag Savage most notable among them.

So, what bout MilesMiles may not be quite as good as Below The Heavens is, but it’s definitely better than Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them. At 95 minutes the album is very long, but unlike most artists who try their luck on lengthy projects such as this one, Blu & Exile succeed in keeping things mostly fresh from start to finish – there’s little filler (some songs go on for a bit too long, maybe) to be found on Miles, which is kind of unique for a double album. Standout tracks include “When The Gods Meet”, “True & Livin’”, “Miles Davis”. “To The Fall, But Not Forgotten”, “Spread Sunshine”, and “The End”.

Aloe Blacc, Fashawn, Miguel, Dag Savage, Cashus King, Ishe, Jacinto Rhines, Choosey, Jimetta Rose, Aceyalone, Iman Omari, C.S. Armstrong, Gappy Ranks, Jacinto Rhines, The Last Artful, Dodgr, and Adad make appearances to provide some welcome vocal variation – but Blu easily carries this album with his intelligent and conscious lyricism, helped by Exile’s elegant instrumentals.

Despite its length and laidback vibes Miles is a powerful album and another testament to Blu & Exile’s undeniable chemistry.

Download Miles

8. Elzhi – Seven Times Down Eight Times Up

Elzhi - Seven Times Down Eight Times Up | Review

With over 20 years in the game, Detroit’s 42-year old ‘syllable sensei’ Elzhi can rightfully be called a veteran at this point. He joined Slum Village shortly after J Dilla’s departure, and the projects he has done with Slum Village starting with 2002’s Trinity: Past, Present And Future are all solid enough. But it is his solo catalog that is truly exceptional.

His solo debut The Preface is a top 5 album of 2008 Hip Hop. In 2011 he cemented his reputation as a top-class emcee with the Elmatic mixtape, his brilliant re-working of Nas’ Illmatic. In 2016 he continued he run of excellent releases with Lead Poison, the most personal album he has released to date. Two years later he teamed up with Khrysis to form Jericho Jackson, under that name they released a critically acclaimed self-titled banger, one of the best albums released in 2018. In 2020 Elzhi returns with his third full-length studio album: Seven Times Down Eight Times Up.

Seven Times Down Eight Times Up continues Elzhi’s streak of excellence. Up-and-coming producer and Griselda affiliate JR Swiftz kills it on the production side of things, sonically this is one of the most cohesive albums you’ll hear this year – cohesive without sounding repetitive. Detroit comedian and “Real Hip Hop Advocate” Foolish provides commentary throughout the album, providing sort of a common thread. But it’s Elzhi’s lyricism that elevates this album above most others released this year.

Elzhi is one of the best lyricists of the past two decades, and this album is yet another confirmation. Elzhi is sharp as always, his flows are smooth, and his rhyme schemes are on another level. Seven Times Down Eight Times Up is filled with meaningful concepts and vivid imagery – Elzhi is one of those emcees whose bars demand full attention and reward repeated listenings. Seven Times Down Eight Times Up gets better with each and every spin and offers 45 minutes of grown-man rap of the highest quality – this is one of the best Hip Hop albums released this year.

Download Seven Times Down Eight Times Up

9. Jorun Bombay & Phill Most Chill - Jorun PMC

the best hip hop albums of 2020

There have been a lot of great albums released in the wave of Golden Age revivalist boom-bap we’ve been experiencing in recent years, but NONE as good as Jorun PMC.

The whole album is packed with nods to classic songs and styles from acts like Run DMC, EPMD, Eric B & Rakim, UTFO, LL Cool J, Roxanne Shante, Mantronix, Cold Crush Brothers, Melle Mel, and many more of the 1980s legends – from the title of the album, to the cover art, to the beats, to the samples, to the turntablism, to the lyrics – this project is the best kind of trip down memory lane any old-school Hip Hop fan could wish for. Jorun Bombay’s 80s-centric beats and scratches are crisp and fresh, and Phill Most Chill’s raps are dope as f. His flow, his delivery, his cadences, his lyrics – what he did here is simply brilliant.

This is not Phill Most Chill’s first excellent throwback project, but it is his very best to date. The self-proclaimed torchbearer of traditional Hip Hop really outdid himself on this one, and his match-up with Jorun Bombay proves to be golden – Jorun PMC is a Hip Hop traditionalist dream. It will most likely go way over the head of this generation’s trap-crowd, but those who grew up with 80s Hip Hop and younger Hip Hop listeners who know their classics will LOVE this one.

Download Jorun PMC

10. Moor Mother & billy woods - BRASS

BRASS is a collaborative album from experimental musician and poet Moor Mother and the rapper billy woods (½ of Armand Hammer). After working together on Armand Hammer’s critically acclaimed 2020 LP Shrines, Moor Mother and woods released the song “Furies” for the Adult Swim single series in July. A whirl of interweaving allegories spun over producer Willie Green’s hypnotic flip of a Sons of Kmet sample, “Furies” was the burning arrow that both artists followed, the first crack of thunder in a blackening sky.

BRASS sees both artists joined by an eclectic array of friends, family, and legends- in some cases all three. John Forte, ELUCID, Amirtha Kidambi, Franklin James Fisher (Algiers), Mach Hommy, Imani Robinson, Wolf Weston (Saint Mela), Navy Blue, and Fielded all lend their voices to the project. Production by The Alchemist, Preservation, Moor Mother, Olof Melander, Child Actor, Navy Blue, Messiah Muzik, Steel Tipped Dove, and Willie Green.

BRASS is a moment where two great artists in their own right tap into a new frequency together. Even for those familiar with both it’s an unexpected sound that, once heard, could never have been otherwise. It is both ethereal and utilitarian, timeless and timeworn. A cast-iron pot propped over a fire in the dark. A tropical beach shimmering with broken glass.”

This Bandcamp blurb tells the story of this project. BRASS is one of the most unique and intriguing listens of the year, a great feat in a year with A LOT of excellent ‘left-field’ Hip Hop albums. Moor Mother and billy woods have great chemistry together, and they recruited exactly the right artists for the guest spots on this project.

For people who like their Hip Hop experimental, dense, and challenging, the genre-boundaries pushing BRASS will be a quick favorite. For others, BRASS may be somewhat of a slow-burner, a project though that will reward multiple listenings. BRASS is a great album.

Download BRASS

11. R.A. The Rugged Man - All My Heroes Are Dead

Review RA The Rugged Man 2020 All My Heroes Are Dead

R.A. The Rugged Man is one of our favorite personalities in the Hip Hop game: he is totally authentic and says what he thinks, no matter what other people think about his opinions. But R.A. is not just one of our favorite personalities, he is one of our favorite emcees as well. Few, if any emcees can go bar-for-bar with R.A. The Rugged Man. His technical skill, his incredible flow, his breath control, and his bar-building skills are second to none. Due to all kinds of label woes and a strong-minded personality with an unwillingness to compromise, he only released two albums in the close to three decades he’s been active in the game – but on those two albums, and on numerous guest appearances on other people’s songs (where he usually bodies everybody else involved), R.A. has consistently shown an unbeatable lyrical ability. Anyone who saw him performing live knows he can rock a crowd too – as a real emcee should be able to.

So now here we have his third album, All My Heroes Are Dead. Is it on par with his previous work? Well, yes it is. All My Heroes Are Dead is a LONG album, at 22 tracks and 1 hour and 16 minutes, but there’s a lot more killer more than filler. For those unfamiliar with R.A. The Rugged Man, the album may seem a bit schizophrenic. Some songs are personal or emotional, about family and fatherhood and such, other songs have some conscious and political tendencies, some are about Hip Hop (history) and some songs have that typical R.A. vulgarity (always with plenty of tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating humor).

What all songs have in common though is R.A. The Rugged Man’s unparalleled wordplay and lyrical skill. All My Heroes Are Dead has a host of guest artists, and unlike a lot of other rappers R.A. The Rugged Man really doesn’t need any features to help carry his albums, but the feature list here is CRAZY.

Ice T. Chuck D. Kool G Rap. DJ jazzy Jeff. Brand Nubian. Ghostface Killah. Inspectah Deck. Masta Killa. Chino XL. M.O.P. Onyx. Immortal Technique. Vinnie Paz. Atmosphere. A-F-R-O. And others besides – this has to be one of the most impressive guest lists ever. Despite all these guests, this is very much a Rugged Man album, though – he is never outshined and nowhere overcrowded.

Legends Never Die was one of our favorite albums of 2013, this is one of 2020’s best. Awesome rhyming, amazing features, and fire production too. Fans of mainstream pop-rap will likely not like this album, older heads and those in tune with Hip Hop history will. This is a perfect album for the HHGA demographic.

Some say I’m a troll and a grumpy old a-hole / ‘Cause I prefer Kool Moe Dee and Melle Mel over J. Cole“. Ha!

Stand-out tracks: “Gotta Be Dope”, with incredible rhyming by R.A. and his protege A-F-R-O, and with cuts by the legendary DJ Jazzy Jeff, “The Slayers Club”, the best posse cut you will hear this year (featuring Ice T, M.O.P., Onyx, Brand Nubian, Vinnie Paz, Chris Rivers, and Chino XL), “Dragon Fire”, the other posse cut (with Ghostface Killah, Masta Killa, and Kool G Rap) that’s almost as dope, “Golden Oldies” (with Atmosphere and Eamon) with all its nods to classic Hip Hop, “Who Do We Trust” featuring Immortal Technique, with its eery beat and thought-provoking lyrics, and the deep and emotional single “Wondering”.

Download All My Heroes Are Dead

12. Boldy James & Sterling Toles - Manger On McNichols

Best Left-Field Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

With Manger On McNichols, Detroit emcee Boldy James continued his 2020 winning streak. Only a few months after his collaborative album with top-producer The Alchemist, the excellent The Price Of Tea In China, Boldy James dropped this completely different but equally captivating project.

Manger On McNichols is a release that has been a long time coming, a result of a collaboration with fellow Detroiter and veteran producer Sterling Toles that started over 10 years ago. Much of the lyrics on Manger On McNichols were recorded between 2007 and 2010, with some new lyrics added to a couple of tracks to finish the album for its 2020 release. Sterling Toles provides Boldy James vocals with a selection of experimental jazz instrumentals that make this album much more left-field in sound than James’ albums with The Alchemist. Because of its experimental vibe, Manger On McNichols probably is more of an acquired taste and less likely to appeal to wider audiences than TPOTIC and other Boldy James projects do, but it is an intriguing listening experience that deserves attention.

Download Manger On McNichols

13. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo review

Gary, Indiana phenomenon Freddie Gibbs is like a modern-day Ice-T in a way: maybe not the best rapper ever, but the leader of the pack anyway. Similar to Ice-T, it’s Freddie Gibbs’ charisma and power of personality that sets him apart from most others – that and his ability to develop synergetic collaborations with Hip Hop’s top producers that results in projects that are greater than the sum of their parts.

Freddie Gibbs has had enough solid releases in the past decade, but his stand-outs are the two albums he did with Madlib – Pinata (2014) and Bandana (2019) both are modern classics. If Alfredo will eventually be considered to be on that Pinata and Bandana level remains to be seen, but most ingredients are there. Most, because Alfredo feels more ‘light-weight’ due to its length – where Pinata runs for little over an hour and Bandana for a solid 45 minutes, Alfredo is barely over EP-length at 35 minutes. On such a short project EVERYTHING has to hit, no misses can be afforded.

Fortunately, there are not a lot of misses, if any. Freddie Gibbs is on top of his game here. His recognizable voice, flow, delivery, and cadences sound as good as ever, and his connection with The Alchemist is as strong as it is with Madlib. The Alchemist already had one of the best albums of 2020 on his name with his Boldy James collabo The Price Of Tea In ChinaAlfredo tops even that one. Luckily Alfredo is not cluttered with guests and features are limited to appearances by Rick Ross, Benny the Butcher, Tyler The Creator, and Conway the Machine – who all come through with great verses. The album is very much Freddie Gibbs’s show though. Normally someone like Benny outshines anybody else with his features, on Alfredo the guests very much are guests – it’s Freddie Gibbs who rules here.

Freddie Gibbs comes with organic and vivid lyricism from beginning to end, supported by The Alchemist’s flawless instrumentals. Alfredo is paced and sequenced perfectly, and is over before you know it – which leads to the only complaint and the only reason it is not ranked even higher here: Alfredo is just too short. Other than that: Alfredo is a continuation of Freddie Gibbs’ winning streak and another rap-noir masterpiece, a project that deserves to mentioned in the same breath as Pinata and Bandana.

Alfredo is short, sharp, and punchy, with top-tier lyricism and songwriting from Freddie Gibbs, and a perfect collection of instrumentals from The Alchemist – 10 tracks, no filler, all killer. Alfredo is a keeper.

Download Alfredo

14. Arrested Development – Don’t Fight Your Demons

Arrested Development - Don't Fight Your Demons | Review

Arrested Development debuted in 1992 with the now-classic 3 Years, 5 Months, and 2 Days in the Life Of... (4x times platinum!) – a masterpiece of conscious Hip Hop, and because of its positive thinking and positive imagery a breath of fresh air in the era dominated by gangsta rap – celebrating life instead of death.

Ever since that monumental debut (except for a 4-year break between 1996 and 2000), Arrested Development has continued to create quality music in ever-changing line-ups (frontman Speech is the only AD-member who has always in the group since its inception in 1988). Despite Arrested Development’s long history, Don’t Fight Your Demons arguably is the group’s best album since 3 Years, 5 Months, and 2 Days in the Life Of...

Don’t Fight Your Demons really is a GREAT album. Speech’s lyrical imagery is as sharp and thought-provoking as ever, and extremely topical in this year of unreal political and societal turmoil. The album is as musical as you’d expect an Arrested Development record to be – but the work on the boards from British producer Configa gives this album an authentic Hip Hop vibe at the same time. Only the poppy “Journey On” could have been left off, but on a 14-song tracklist one small misstep can be forgiven (there are 16 tracks actually, but two are remixes of the anthemic “Amazing” – which IS an amazing track by the way).

Next to “Amazing”, standouts include “Back Down”, “Moses”, “The Same People”, “Play With Fire”, the soulful single “Becoming”, and the awesome “Sunset In Ghana” – besides the one mentioned there are no weaker tracks on Don’t Fight Your Demons really.

With Public Enemy, Paris, and Arrested Development all dropping new quality albums, September 25 2020 truly proved to be a memorable day for conscious Hip Hop, showing that Hip Hop as an art form still is perfectly suited to bring a meaningful message the people. Both Public Enemy and Paris dropped albums that are among their best since their work in the 1990s, and the same can be said unreservedly about this Arrested Development project.

Download Don’t Fight Your Demons

15. Armand Hammer - Shrines

Best Left-Field Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

Between RTJ4 and Shrines, the 1st week of June was a great week for political rap and forward-thinking music. Where RTJ4 is hard-hitting and in-your-face, Shrines is more subtle and layered – but no less intelligent and thought-provoking.

Masterfully produced left-field instrumentals serve as claustrophobic backdrops for a barrage of dense and dizzying lyrics. By now we know what to expect from Armand Hammer. There’s never anything straightforward in the messages ELUCID and billy woods come with, and on Shrines, their lyrics are as fogged in metaphors and hidden meanings as always – it’s going to take a while to dissect these bars.

Shrines has vocal contributions from Quelle Chris, Earl Sweatshirt, Akai Solo, Curly Castro, Pink Siifu, and R.A.P. Ferreira – among others. A stacked features list, but a carefully curated one – none of these artists feel out of place here. They were invited because they are all perfectly in tune with the Armand Hammer aesthetic, and not for marketing purposes as we so often see in more mainstream rap releases (think Wale showing up on a Westside Gunn album, or Ed Sheeran appearing on Eminem’s latest).

Shrines is singularly attuned to the grim political and societal realities of 2020. The cover art of the album (which is a real news photo of the subduing of a 425-pound Siberian-Bengal tiger reared and living in a Harlem apartment) is like a micro snapshot of the crazy world we live in, and the image reflects the album’s content. This is not a casual listen by any means, but an album that demands – and rewards – close attention and engagement. Shrines is another Armand Hammer master class in left-field Hip Hop, and a superlative continuation of their hot streak.

Download Shrines

16. Killah Priest - Rocket To Nebula

Wu-Tang Clan affiliate and Sunz Of Man member Killah Priest is one of the most prolific artists in Hip Hop. Artists like Kool Keith, Tech N9Ne, and K-Rino may have more releases on their names, but it’s not easy to keep up with Killah Priest’s release schedule either, taking into account all his solo-projects, group and collaboration efforts, and his endless list of feature appearances.

Heavy Mental (1998), Elizabeth (2009), The Psychic World of Walter Reed (2013), and Planet Of The Gods (2015) are the standouts in Killah Priest’s catalog, and Rocket To Nebula rivals these titles in terms of quality – even if it’s even more of an acquired taste than most of his other releases, a perfect example of a hate it or love it kind of project.

On Rocket To Nebula we get the same kind of stream-of-consciousness type lyricism we know from Killah Priest, filled with his characteristic abstract metaphysical musings and slick subliminals. Musically, this album is totally different from his best works though – there are no bass-heavy beats to be found here, in fact, the whole album is practically drumless. The instrumentals on Rocket To Nebula are very low-key, offering dream-like backdrops to Killah Priest’s lyrics and his conversational-style delivery, which makes listening to this album something akin to a meditative experience.

This may not be an easy album to get into, and it certainly demands real attention – but if you’re willing to take an hour and 15 minutes to tune out everything else going on around you Rocket To Nebula will be sure to satisfy.

Download Rocket To Nebula

17. Roc Marciano - Mt. Marci

Roc Marciano - Mt. Marci | Review

In the neo-mafioso subgenre of Hip Hop, there’s NO ONE who can touch Roc Marciano (with the possible exception of Freddie Gibbs that is, these two really should do a full-length project together). Roc Marciano is one of the indisputable Hip Hop MVPs of the past decade. After being part of Busta Rhymes’ Flipmode Squad and a quarter of underground crew The U.N. around the turn of the millennium, he reinvented himself to become the main player responsible for revitalizing the mafioso subgenre, and the originator of the atmospheric, gritty lo-fi beats he rhymes over – setting the trend for lots of newcomers who would go and build on this style (think Griselda and all their affiliates and copy-cats).

Marcberg (2010), Reloaded (2012), Marci Beaucou (2013), Rosebudd’s Revenge (2017), RR2: The Bitter Dose (2018), Behold A Dark Horse (2018), Kaos (with DJ Muggs, 2018), and Marcielogo (2019) are all excellent projects, and at least the first two or three are subgenre classics.

Mt. Marci is Roc Marciano’s eighth full-length studio album, and it offers another dose of that raw but soulful NYC street Hip Hop – building on the sound and style of last year’s Marcielogo, with a continuation of that album’s aesthetic and production. Mt. Marci is expertly put together, sequenced just right, with well-placed guest appearances from ScHoolboy Q, Action Bronson, Stove God Cook$, Kool Keith, and Trent Truce, and with production from Roc Marciano himself (with some input from Chuck Strangers and Jake One).

Highlights on Mt. Marci include the album opener “Downtown 81”, “Spirit Cookin” (with Action Bronson), “Butterfly Effect”, SOTY-contender “Broadway Billy”, with a terrifying musical backdrop and a dope feature by the legendary Kool Keith, “Trenchcoat Wars” with its sinister beat, and “The Eye Of Whorus” with some show-stealing bars from Stove God Cook$ – but there are no real weak spots, which is pretty impressive considering the album runs for close to an hour.

LOTS of albums similar to Mt. Marci out this year, but NONE like Mt. Marci. The atmospheric instrumentals on this one are really something else, unlike anything you’ve heard this year – more experimental and left-field than what is generally on offer in this niche, and incredibly dark and eerie. Add pristine lyricism to the pristine production and what you get is another Roc Marci winner, and one of the top albums of the year.

18. Boldy James & The Alchemist - The Price Of Tea In China

best hip hop albums 2020

Following their supremely underrated debut collaboration My 1st Chemistry Set (2013), Detroit emcee Boldy James and top-tier producer The Alchemist team up again for the long-awaited The Price Of Tea In China, their second collaborative full-length project. Like My 1st Chemistry SetThe Price Of Tea In China delivers on all fronts. Their Boldface EP from late 2019 proved to be a great appetizer for this project – we get powerful Detroit style lyrics from Boldy James and elegantly understated boom-bap beats from The Alchemist, and the synergy between the two is as tangible as ever.

The work and attention that went into the making of The Price Of Tea In China is evident. The album holds 12 tracks, all masterfully produced and expertly sequenced, with just the right amount of features. Lots of artists today tend to clutter their projects with guests, on The Price Of Tea In China Boldy James avoided that trap and went the exact right route. Only 4 of the 12 tracks feature guest appearances, and the guests Boldy James recruited – Freddie Gibbs, Benny The Butcher, Vince Staples, and Evidence – all are A-listers who add their own distinct flavor to the album. Boldy James’ pen game remains razor-sharp, and The Alchemist’s excellent soundscapes are perfectly suited for Boldy’s lyrical finesse. In this day and age of short hype circles, The Price Of Tea In China is one of the exceptions – an album that will prove to have staying power.

Download The Price Of Tea In China

19. Killah Priest & Jordan River Banks - The Third Eye In Technicolor

Killah Priest had a great year in 2020. Rocket To Nebula is a left-field masterpiece, and The Third Eye In Technicolor is not far behind. Like Rocket To NebulaThe Third Eye In Technicolor feels a bit dreamy and spacey – but to a lesser extent. There are more drums here, masterfully crafted by Dutch producer Jordan River Banks – the instrumentals on this album are amazing, perfectly suited for Killah Priest’s style and lyrical content which is as complex and abstract as ever. Killah Priest is an acquired taste, but those with the patience and capacity to surrender to his stream-of-consciousness philosophizing will find a lot to unpack and enjoy here.

Download The Third Eye In Technicolor

20. clipping. – Visions Of Bodies Being Burned

Best Left-Field Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

Visions Of Bodies Being Burned is a sequel of sorts to Los Angeles trio clipping.’s horrorcore-inspired 2019 album There Existed an Addiction to Blood. Unlike most horror-movie sequels, the second part of this clipping diptych is even better than (the already formidable) first part. More immersive, more intense, more bloodcurdling. The intro Visions of Bodies Being Burned opens with heavy drums and eerie background noises – perfectly setting the tone for the rest of the album: it’s clear from the jump this is going to be some heavy sh*t. Even more than Hamilton -star Daveed Diggs’ abstract lyrical imagery, it’s the haunting soundscapes created by Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson that turn Visions of Bodies Being Burned into the unsettling experience it is.

Like There Existed an Addiction to BloodVisions of Bodies Being Burned is far from a casual listen, with its genre-bending and its boundary-pushing blend of ambient, industrial, techno, noise, and Hip Hop – the horror-theme adding to the uncanny and hallucinatory vibe that is consistently maintained from start to finish. It’s an album to immerse yourself in – the dark and ominous atmosphere is intense to the point it’s truly chilling. Listen to this album on good headphones, in the dark, and you’ll be in for a disturbing and resonating meditative experience – Visions of Bodies Being Burned will make you feel anxious and uncomfortable but excited and delighted at the same time.

Download Visions Of Bodies Being Burned

21. Quelle Chris & Chris Keys - Innocent Country 2

rap albums 2020

If there’s one constant in Quelle Chris’ body of work it’s that he never does the same thing twice. Unlike many other artists who make the same album over and over again, this eclectic Detroit rapper never takes the easy way out, instead, he is always looking for new directions. Innocent Country 2 is sort of a sequel to 2015’s Innocent Country. A sequel, but a direct opposite as well – where the initial Innocent Country focused on isolation, pessimism, and the notion of finding peace within pain, this one offers soothing light in a bleak timeline: a hopeful record in a hopeless moment, precisely when it’s needed most.

Innocent Country 2 is a jazzy and warm listening experience with smooth synth loops over dusty drums crafted by Chris Keys, but it’s not breezy – there’s always depth to Quelle Chris’s lyrical musings. And although this album is not as deep or important as last year’s Guns (on which Quelle Chris addressed the impact of gun violence on American society in particular and the uncertainties of living in modern America in general), Innocent Country 2 is an album with substance as well.

Standout tracks include “Living Happy”, “Graphic Bleeds Out”, “Black Twitter”, “Grease From The Elbows” (featuring billy woods and Pink Siifu), “Sacred Safe”, with a show-stealing verse from Homeboy Sandman – but Innocent Country 2‘s strength is its consistency, it’s a perfect album to keep on rotation in the summertime (and in other seasons too, for that matter).

Download Innocent Country 2

22. One Be Lo - Baby (Being A Black Youth)

the best hip hop albums of 2020

BABY (Being a Black Youth) is One Be Lo’s best project since his magnum opus S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M. (2005). One Be Lo has always been a fan of acronyms, evident here not just in the album’s title but in the tracklist as well: all song titles are composed of the four letters in BABY too.

BABY packs 16 tracks and runs for close to an hour, but it’s not a minute too long. All 16 tracks were produced by Seattle-based producer Eric G (together with One Be Lo himself), and all tracks have scratches by DJ Abilities – this synergistic cooperation ensures an entirely cohesive sound throughout. One Be Lo recruited a bunch of interesting guests to add some extra flavor – the likes of Freeway, Guilty Simpson, Black Milk, Royce Da 5’9″, Jean Grae, and Phonte make appearances, among others.

BABY is a beautiful Hip Hop album filled with soulful boom-bap beats and meaningful lyrics. Don’t sleep on One Be Lo and BABY.

Download BABY

23. Third Root – Passion Of The Poets

best hiphop 2020

Third Root is a trio that consists of Charles Peters (Easy Lee), Marco Cervantes (Mexican StepGrandfather), and DJ Chicken George (DJCG). Peters is an accomplished poet/author/MC & educator, Cervantes is a producer/MC/Ph.D. who teaches at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and DJCG is a world-renowned DJ, musicologist, designer, and Jazztronica! Peddler. Passion Of The Poets is their fourth full-length album. The album is produced by Grammy-winner Adrian Quesada, nu-cumbia legend El Dusty, and veteran beatsmith Illfudge, and has features from Black Pumas, Kam Franklin, Grupo Fantasma, Bavu Blakes, and Mad1ne.

Passion Of The Poets is a soundtrack to the time we live in now, with clever and thought-provoking lyrics from Easy Lee and MexStep. Both are educators and their backgrounds show in their lyrical content. Without becoming preachy anywhere, they succeed in being educational and entertaining at the same time, perfectly balancing sh*ttalking with insightful socio-political commentaries.

Musically, Passion Of The Poets offers a potent blend of 90s-centric boom-bap, Southern Hip Hop, and Latin sounds. The album’s 12 tracks are perfectly sequenced, and every song hits, no skips are necessary. Even the cover art is done exactly right. Passion Of The Poets will probably fly way below most people’s radars, but those who take note will discover one of this year’s best projects.

Download Passion Of The Poets

24. Conway The Machine – From King To A GOD

Conway The Machine has already put his mark on 2020 with two collaborative EP’s – one with Alchemist (LULU), the other with Big Ghost Ltd (No One Mourns The Wicked). From King To A GOD is Conway’s third release of the year, and his first proper full-length.

From King To A GOD‘s cover strikes a resemblance to Reject 2 (2015), Conway’s debut mixtape on Griselda. On the Reject 2 cover, Conway is facing fully away from the camera with his naked torso showcasing his bullet wounds, one on the back of his head and one on his shoulder. On FKTG, he’s adopted more or less the same pose, but this time with a shirt on, plus expensive glasses, a gold chain, and a shining crown made of the letters in the album’s title. With the bullet wounds hidden, this cover (along with the album’s title) represents how far he has come.

From King To A GOD is Conway’s most diverse project to date and it includes the previously released tracks “Fear of God” featuring Dej Loaf, “Front Lines, “Seen Everything But Jesus” with Freddie Gibbs, and the Method Man-assisted “Lemon.” Conway’s fellow Griselda members Benny the Butcher and Westside Gunn also make an appearance, along with Lloyd Banks, El Camino, Armani Caesar, Flee Lord, and Mobb Deep’s Havoc, and the album features production from The Alchemist, Beat Butcha, Daringer, DJ Premier, Erick Sermon, Havoc, Hit-Boy, Khrysis, and others.

Westside Gunn may be the most flamboyant personality from the Griselda camp, and Benny The Butcher the best emcee when it strictly comes to bars and storytelling and such, but Conway is the one with the ATTITUDE. He is one the hardest rappers out, but on this album he comes off vulnerable at times too, making FKTG one of his best-rounded projects yet – his growth as an artist and as a person throughout the years evident.

The album contains 14 tracks, with a few monologues from DJ Shay, the something of a mentor figure to Griselda who passed away recently. Of the actual songs, there’s only one or two that could have been left off (the El Camino-assisted “Forever Droppin Tears” stands out negatively, not because of its heartfelt lyrics but because of its sugary sweet instrumental and hook), but overall the atmospheric and powerful From King To A GOD certainly lives up to expectations.

In short: From King To A GOD is a GREAT Conway project – the best to come out of the Griselda camp this year.

Download From King To A GOD

25. Cambatta - LSD: Lunar Solar Duality

From the album’s Bandcamp blurb:

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), is a hallucinogenic chemical compound, first synthesized in 1938. Upon its introduction into popular culture in the 1960’s it quickly shifted not only the mind of the artist but also the person experiencing the art.
Hip Hop artist Cambatta is known for his thought-provoking and psychedelic-inspired rhyme techniques. His newest album entitled, “LSD”, is just as the title insinuates- mind-bending and consciousness-shifting. This album was created throughout four years of psychedelic usage and reality-based life-changing events. This process has made the album a duality of both real and surreal interpretations. The album’s title is also an acronym for “Lunar Solar Duality,” alluding to the album’s dichotomy of light and dark conceptualizations and countless other polarizing and multi-entendre-latent compositions. Whether you have ever experienced LSD or not, this album is sure to impact anyone receptive and perceptive enough to take a dose.

The album sure is a trip, a total mindf*ck. LSD offers well over an hour of dense lyricism, full of Cambata’s musings on subjects like life, history, science, religion, spirituality, mythology, existentialism, culture, and drug(ab)use. The beats on LSD are fine, and Cambatta’s voice and flow are a pleasure to listen to – but what makes this album something truly special are Cambatta’s deep lyrics. His varied lyrical approaches and themes are fascinating – this album can’t really be compared with anything you have heard before. In sound, style, and content Cambatta is like an amalgamation of Killah Priest, Kool Keith, Canibus, Cage, and Immortal Technique – making Lunar Solar Duality a truly unique experience, an album that invites multiple listenings to really try to appreciate what’s going on. This is another Mello Music Group winner.

Download Lunar Solar Duality

26. Royce Da 5'9'' - The Allegory

the best hip hop albums of 2020

The Allegory is another great Royce Da 5’9″ album. Royce is one of the rare emcees that gets better with age. Nobody will dispute the fact that Royce is one of the most complete emcees in the game, and has been ever since he debuted on Eminem’s Slim Shady LP in 1999. But even though he dropped decent solo albums with Rock City (2002), Death Is Certain (2004), Independent’s Day (2005), Street Hop (2009), and Success Is Certain (2011), as well as solid albums as part of Slaughterhouse and with Eminem as Bad Meets Evil, he was never really able to parlay his reputation as a deadly emcee into a classic album befitting his status.

That changed in 2014 when he released PRhyme, an excellent collaborative record with DJ Premier, and later with his next two solo’s Layers (2016) and Book of Ryan (2018) – which can both be counted among the best albums of the 2010s decade. So in 2020 Royce Da 5’9″ returns with The Allegory. Does it continue the upward trajectory in terms of quality and substance? Is it on par with Layers and Book of Ryan? The answer is YES. At a sprawling 22 tracks and 1 hour and 8 minutes of playing time, The Allegory is a LONG album, but there’s little filler here.

The Allegory offers fire production mostly done by Royce himself, grade A wordplay, thought-provoking content, well-placed guest spots (from Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine, Benny The Butcher, Vince Staples, KXNG Crooked, DJ Premier, and others), and expert sequencing – this album was put together JUST RIGHT. Some skits could have been left off, and some of the messages are questionable (the anti-vaccination sentiments are controversial, to say the least) – but these are minor niggles. Stand out tracks include “I Don’t Age”, “Tricked”, “FUBU”, “Thou Shall”, Upside Down”, “Pendulum”, “On The Block”, “Young World”, and “Hero” – but most of the album slaps.

Forget aging gracefully and fading out of Hip Hop slowly or simply staying semi-relevant by regularly releasing luke-warm placeholder albums – Royce Da 5’9″ has legitimately gotten better and better each and every year and with The Allegory, he cements his status as a top-tier emcee. After Layers and Book Of Ryan, The Allegory stands as one of Royce’s best albums.

Download The Allegory

27. Jamo Gang - Walking With Lions

review Jamo Gang Walking With Lions

Jamo Gang consists of LA legend Ras Kass, NYC veteran emcee El Gant, and J57 on production. The album features DJ Premier, Slug from Atmosphere, Sid Wilson from Slipknot, Sick Jacken from Psycho Realm & Slaine from La Coka Nostra. Walking with Lions embodies head-nodder boom-bap infused with big sounding, lush soundscapes as Ras Kass & El Gant command the listener’s attention speaking on subject matter ranging from school shootings to what life would be like with a nuke arriving in 38 minutes.

Walking With Lions is a textbook example of how it should be done. In this era of unlimited music streaming and short hype circles, a lot of artists seem to more concerned with producing quantity instead of quality. Staying in the public’s eye with a new project every few months is being given higher priority than the actual quality of the music that is released. Ras Kass, El Gant, and J57 clearly went the other way. It’s evident a lot of time and attention went into the creation of Walking With Lions – resulting in a well-thought-out and well-executed album.

Everything is done right here – from the razor-sharp lyricism to the flawless production to the sequencing of the songs to the cover-art – the total package is dope as f. Starting with the booming RTJ-flavored album opener “Belushi & Aykroyd” straight through to the last track “Lighters Up” – this album is FIRE. J57 produced the whole album except for “The 1st Time” which was produced by legendary DJ Premier. “The 1st Time” is one of the stand-outs, along with cuts like “Stephen”, “Francis Scott Key”, “Walking With Lions”, “38 Minutes”, and “Belushi & Aykroyd”

This is an excellent blend of traditional and avant-garde Hip Hop – hopefully Walking With Lions is not a one-off, if they can keep this up Jamo Gang will give Run The Jewels a run for their money.

Download Walking With Lions

28. KRS-One – Between Da Protests

KRS-One - Between Da Protests | Review

KRS-One is one of the Hip Hop GOATs, anybody willing to dispute that claim doesn’t know Hip Hop, it’s as simple as that. A new KRS-One album should be a big event in Hip Hop, but it hasn’t been for a long time. Why is that? It’s not just that Hip Hop has changed, and the focus of the public with it. It’s also that KRS-One has never been particularly good at marketing and promotion – and maybe the truth is he’s never been really concerned with it.

Between Da Protest is KRS-One’s 23rd album, and the release of it could hardly have been more underhyped. Dropping an album in the last two weeks of December (even KRS One has his own reasons for this specific release date) is not the best move to make from a marketing and promotion point of view. Considering the total lack of pre-hype and the timing of this release it’s almost like KRS-One is asking for not being noticed.

From KRS-One’s own website:

“By now it is clear, KRS-One is indeed THE GREATEST RAPPER/EMCEE OF ALL TIME! 22 dope albums over a 35-year period? No rapper/emcee has ever reached this legitimate level of excellence and skill. NO ONE! Already proclaimed “a classic”, KRS-One returns with his 23rd album project Between Da Protests which balances revolutionary themes with raw street-poetry over what KRS-One calls “boom-bap beats”. With songs like “Don’t Fall For It”, “Black Black Black”, “Free (The Book Song)” and “Boom Bye Bye”, KRS-One addresses the concerns of average people, working people, thinking people. And while the revolutionary-minded will find much in Between Da Protests to be excited about, it is songs like “Opening Remarks”, “Tight” and “Medu Neter” that remind us just how dope KRS-One actually is on the mic (in the studio or live). Between Da Protests—another authentic Hip Hop album project by KRS-One.”

Calling Between A Protests a classic is a bold statement – in truth this album is not on par with KRS’s best albums – all the albums he did with/as Boogie Down Productions in the 1980s and early 1990s, and albums like Return Of The Boom Bap (1993) and KRS One (1995). But even if Between The Protests will not be considered a KRS-One classic way down the line, it IS a thoroughly solid album.

As always, it’s all about KRS-One’s rhymes. His voice is unique and still as powerful as it has ever been. His eloquence and articulateness are unparalleled. His rhyme-structuring is one of a kind and his lyrical content is always relevant and thought-provoking. Lyrically, few have ever been able to touch KRS One. Just listen to tracks like “Murder We Just Saw” and “Don’t Fall For It” – classic KRS.

The beats on Between Da Protests could (and should) have been better, though. The fact that a KRS-One album is always more about the rhymes than it is about the beats, doesn’t mean a little more attention could not be given to the musical backdrops. Imagine KRS-One getting with DJ Premier or Apollo Brown for a full album, plus releasing it on a label that understands how to market and promote an album in a way befitting the status of an industry icon – that would be something.

For HHGA, KRS-One is one of the most prominent and most important figures in Hip Hop, ever. A top 3 emcee of all time too, anyone who has ever seen KRS-One perform live knows he’s the best to ever do it. A KRS-One album should automatically be in AOTY discussions, the fact that his work hasn’t been talked about in that way in a long time has everything to do with his unconcern for marketing and promotion, and his lack of focus on the beats that support his rhymes.

All that said, an understated KRS-One album like Between Da Protests is still better than most other artists’ work this year (a strong pro-KRS-One bias freely admitted here). For HHGA, any KRS-One album IS a big event, even if it isn’t for KRS-One himself. Owing to the lack of hype and promotion most other Hip Hop listeners outside KRS-One fans will most likely sleep on Between Da Protest, unfortunately.

Maybe KRS-One can go for a collaboration with a top-producer and opt for a release on a strong Hip Hop label for album number 24?

Download Between Da Protests

29. Serengeti - With Greg From Deerhoof

Best Left-Field Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

Bandcamp blurb: “Two of rap and indie-rock’s most bountiful imaginations team up: Serengeti (AKA David Cohn) and Greg Saunier first met when Serengeti opened for Deerhoof at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge in May 2009. That September, Deerhoof brought WHY? and Serengeti on an east coast tour. In the summer of 2018, Cohn and Saunier were surprised to see each other at the PEOPLE residency in Berlin. One day they coincidentally signed up for the same slot in one of the recording studios facilitated by PEOPLE organizers. Despite having no practice or prearranged plans for the session, they performed the 17-minute “I Got Your Password” to an audience of recording engineer Jonas Verwijnen and a few other PEOPLE musicians sitting in the control room.

In April 2020, Greg asked Jonas for the audio from the session. When Greg sent Serengeti the completed track a few weeks later, they liked it and decided to make a full-length album. While Serengeti wrote lyrics, Greg produced some classical-and-Broadway-inspired tracks. Each time Serengeti received a new track in his inbox, instead of listening to it first, he would immediately press record and record his verses. All the lead vocals for the tracks on this album were done this way.”

With Greg From Deerhoof definitely is a piece of music unlike anything else you’ll hear this year. It’s pretty awesome, though. Not for everybody maybe, but those with an appreciation for live drums, funky and jazzy vibes, and stream-of-consciousness type flows are in for a treat. While the 17-minute improvisation “I Got Your Password” is the inspiration and obvious centerpiece, the compositions Serengeti and Greg Saunier created to turn their synergistic improv piece into a full-length project are all great.

Recommend for musically adventurous Hip Hop fans.

Download With Greg From Deerhoof

30. Homeboy Sandman - Don't Feed The Monster

Best Left-Field Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

Don’t Feed The Monster is the tenth studio album by Queens, New York emcee Homeboy Sandman – his second one on the Mello Music Group label, following the short but sweet Dusty LP (2019). Homeboy Sandman is a well-respected underground emcee, who has been building an impressive body of work ever since he debuted with his Nourishment EP in 2007. His conversational style of rapping is an acquired taste – Homeboy Sandman firmly belongs to a left-field corner of Hip Hop, the same niche contemporaries like Open Mike Eagle and Quelle Chris occupy.

It’s Quelle Chris who is responsible for all the production on Don’t Feed The Monster, his quirky beats the perfect foil for Homeboy Sandman’s intricate thoughts and observations. Don’t Feed The Monster offers close to an hour of music: 15 tracks, no useless skits, no filler, and only one guest appearance – by Quelle Chris, of course.

Lots of highlights on Don’t Feed The Monster – from the painful memories of the intensely open and personal opening track “Trauma” to the humorous (and for some of us very relatable) “Waiting For My Girl” to cuts like “Extinction”, “Stress”, “Don’t Look Down”, “Monument”, and “Alone Again” – with this album Homeboy Sandman opens a window to his world to offer a view on his state of being, showing a wide range of emotions and insights on what obviously is a cathartic album for him.

Don’t Feed The Monster is a confirmation, and one of Homeboy Sandman’s best albums to date.

Download Don’t Feed The Monster

31. Spillage Village – Spilligion

Spillage Village - Spilligion | Review

Spilligion is the major-label (Dreamville/Interscope) debut album by Hip Hop collective Spillage Village. The collective consists of EarthGang, JID, Hollywood JB, Jurdan Bryant, Mereba, 6LACK & Benji. The album features guest appearances from Ant Clemons, Ari Lennox, Buddy, Chance the Rapper, Masego, Lucky Daye, and Big Rube.

Spilligion follows and builds on Spillage Village’s Bears Like This trilogy. Because of the hype surrounding Earthgang and especially JID in recent times, this project has the potential to be a mainstream success, even if it sounds different from most things these artists have done before, individually or together. Spilligion is more eclectic, more atmospheric, more mature. Spilligion‘s overall feel is contemplative and melancholic but somehow upbeat at the same time. It offers positive, uplifting vibes in a troubled world, with clever use of religious imagery in order to critique things like today’s America and organized religion. It really is a perfect album for the dark times we are living through right now.

For Hip Hop purists there probably is too much singing on Spilligion, but all the harmonic ensemble choruses and background vocals work out beautifully for the most part. Also, the sublime chilled-out instrumentation, with smooth soulful beats and some great guitar and bass work to add flavor, make the genre-defying Spilligion a totally enjoyable listening experience.

Spilligion is a beautiful album. Even Hip Hop traditionalists who usually avoid the artists involved would do well to go and check out this project.

Download Spilligion

32. ShrapKnel - ShrapKnel

best hip hop 2020

Curly Castro and PremRock are ShrapKnel, the formal pairing of two longtime friends and artistic collaborators. It was a shared affinity for emcee/producer ELUCID’s beats that sparked the ShrapKnel project. Curly Castro and PremRock debuted as a duo with Cobalt, their 2019 debut EP. Just like on Cobalt, the chemistry between Curly Castro and PremRock is evident and the instrumentals here are awesome – all beats were crafted by ELUCID, in conjunction with Backwoodz-affiliated producer Willie Green. ShrapKnel is more accessible than most of his ELUCID’s projects are, but the beats are still unorthodox enough to set this project apart from most other Hip Hop releases.

ShrapKnel features guest appearances from Castle, Zilla Rocca, Googie, Henry Canyons, and billy woods, adding to the lyrical variety brought on by PremRock’s smooth delivery and Castro’s more aggressive growl. The way they trade rhymes is dope as f, the boom-bap rhythms and deliveries fit with ELUCID’s more industrial/experimental touches. ShrapKnel‘s all-around vibe is reminiscent of the best releases in the heyday of DefJux around the turn of the millennium, a great recommendation of course. The album starts off strong with the brilliantly titled “Ghostface Targaryean” and doesn’t let up. Don’t sleep on ShrapKnel – another gem out of Backwoodz Studioz, one of the most interesting record labels out there today.

Download ShrapKnel

33. Busta Rhymes - Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath Of God

Busta Rhymes - Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God | Review

Eight years after his last album – the disappointing Year Of The Dragon – Busta Rhymes returns with the long-awaited Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God, his tenth solo album. The 22-track project includes features from acts like Pete Rock, Rakim, Rapsody, Q-Tip, Kendrick Lamar, M.O.P., Rick Ross, Anderson Paak, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Bell Biv Devoe, and others – there even is a posthumous appearance by Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and vocal contributions from Chris Rock and Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Extinction Level Event 2 serves as the sequel to 1998’s E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front, That project, Busta’s third album, was certified Platinum and his last truly great release. Until this one that is. Extinction Level Event 2 signifies a return to form for Busta Rhymes, this easily is his best album since the 1990s – on par even with his classics The Coming (1996), When Disaster Strikes… (1997), and E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front (1998). On Extinction Level Event 2 Busta Rhymes manages to strike the exact right balance between raw underground power and smooth mainstream appeal – just like he did so successfully on his first three solo albums.

Extinction Level Event 2 runs for 77 minutes, but it doesn’t feel too long – a good sign. Busta Rhymes went all-in with his star-studded features roster, and on the production side, it’s no different. There’s a J Dilla/Pete Rock instrumental, one from DJ Premier, one from DJ Scratch, and one from 9th Wonder. Busta Rhymes produced some beats himself, and the likes of Rockwilder, Nottz, Hi-Tek, Terrace Martin, Swizz Beatz (and others) did work on the boards too. Despite the album’s length and the input of so many different artists and producers, Extinction Level Event 2 sounds entirely cohesive, and the album is sequenced just right too.

Standout tracks include “Czar” (with M.O.P.), “Don’t Go” (with Q-Tip), “Boomp!”, “True Indeed” (with a DJ Premier instrumental), “Deep Thought”, and “Look Over Your Shoulder” (with an (old) Kendrick Lamar verse, and dope Jackson 5 samples). There are no real duds on the tracklist though – the singles “YUUUU” (with Anderson .Paak) and “The Don & The Boss” ironically are the weakest tracks of the album.

Busta Rhymes is a Hip Hop icon with nothing left to prove, but with Extinction Level Event 2 he shows veterans like himself can still be relevant and come with fire anyway.

Download Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God

34. Public Enemy – What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?

Public Enemy - What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? | Review

Public Enemy’s return to the legendary Def Jam label (their last Def Jam album was the He Got Game soundtrack in 1998) results in one of their best albums since the mid-90s. On What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? the urgency that characterized P.E.’s absolute classics It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (1988), Fear Of A Black Planet (1990), and Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black (1991) is back in full force – obviously fueled by today’s incendiary political climate.

It has to be said though that not all tracks on What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? are new, about half of the tracks on the album are recycled from their 2017 Nothing Is Quick In The Desert album. Even the cover art is more than a little bit similar. But OK – the tracks that were revamped from Nothing… are all pretty strong, so it does in no way hurt the cohesiveness of this (semi)new album.

Even if the songs lifted from Nothing…, all are good enough, the 2020 singles from What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? are the strongest tracks. The powerful statement “State Of The Union (STFU)” with DJ Premier can be counted among the best tracks Public Enemy ever did, the same goes for the updated “Fight The Power”. “Fight The Power (2020 Remix)” is awesome and as vital as the first “Fight The Power” was back in 1989 – perhaps even more so in this year of almost unprecedented political idiocy and extreme societal unrest. Contributions from Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, Jahi, YG, and Questlove complete this juggernaut of a track – one of the best and most important songs of the year.

Another standout new track is “Public Enemy Number Won”, which has Beastie Boys Adrock and Mike D doing a similar intro as Flavor Flav did on the original “Public Enemy No. 1” song from 1987, while Flavor Flav raps Chuck D’s original first verse and Run & DMC show up to leach do a verse too. Even if DMC’s voice is far from the powerful hardy baritone it once was, it’s good to hear Run and DMC on a track together with Chuck D, Flavor Flav, and the two remaining Beastie Boys in 2020. DJ Lord finished the song with a dope beat switch and good old-fashioned scratching.

Other icons that appear on the album include Ice-T, EPMD’s PMD, Stetsasonic’s Daddy-O, Cypress Hill’s B-Real, and of course the legendary George Clinton – the last two on “GRID”, another album highlight. The fact that What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? does not contain all new material is a bit of a disappointment, but the 45-minute record we have here is great nonetheless – this album shows and proves that after almost 35 years since their debut Public Enemy STILL is at the forefront of consciousness in Hip Hop. From start to finish, What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down is a powerful record that can almost stand alongside Public Enemy’s strongest efforts.

Download What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?

35. Cut Beetlez - What Beetlez?

The Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2020

Cut Beetlez is a DJ/producer duo from Finland, consisting of HP Lovescratch and J-MAN. In recent years they dropped a couple of dope EP’s for which they teamed up with Hip Hop traditionalists like The Good People and Nice Guys. What Beetlez? is a real full-length at 44 minutes, and it arguably is Cut Beetlez’s best project yet. For this album, the duo recruited a bunch of great emcees like Guilty Simpson, Rah Digga, El da Sensei, J-Live, Reks, and The Good People (among others) to take care of the vocals.

What we get here is a selection of dope boom-bap beats, a lot of good old-fashioned turntablism, and nostalgia-inducing sampling – Cut Beetlez is one more example of the fact it is European producers who are carrying the torch for traditional-sounding Hip Hop right now. Due to its 100% throwback vibe What Beetlez? may not be for everybody – but for Hip Hop purists stuck in the late 1980s and early 1990s, this album is GOLD.

Download What Beetlez?

36. Preservation - Eastern Medicine, Western Illness

best hip hop albums 2020

DJ Preservation’s Eastern Medicine, Western Illness was produced and arranged in Hong Kong, and you can sense the oriental influences in the music – because of Preservation’s s intricate sampling there’s definitely a Chinese vibe going on. Preservation recruited an impressive roster of emcees to do justice to his beats, most of whom he did production work for in the past – including Roc Marciano, Your Old Droog, Ka, A.G. (of D.I.T.C.), Mach-Hommy, Quelle Chris, Navy Blue, and billy woods – all names to get excited about of course.

“Dragon Town” the album’s first track with YoungQueenz turns out to be an unlucky choice for an album opener because it’s the weakest track by far (due to YoungQueenz’s ‘unconventional’ style) – after that one, it’s all pretty great, especially the second half of the tracklist is AWESOME. Standouts include “Children Of Never” with A.G., “Medicine Drawer” with Roc Marci, “Correspondence” with Your Old Droog and Mach-Hommy, “Lemon Rinds” with billy woods, and the superlative “A Cure For The Common” with Ka.

Eastern Medicine, Western Illness is a fantastic album (despite its shaky start), an album that deserves attention – and a must for people already familiar with Preservation’s production work or with the featured artists’ music.

Download Eastern Medicine, Western Illness

37. Recognize Ali - Recognition

hip hop august 2020

Recognize Ali is one of the most prolific emcees in the game these days. He is one everybody’s album as a featured artist, and Recognition is his third full-length release of the year – following the solid Duelling Experts project (as Duelling Experts, with Verbal Kent), and the boom-bap banger Guerilla Dynasty, a collaborative project with producer Stu Bangas.

Recognition arguably is the best of the three, better than the decent but kind of one-note Duelling Experts album, and musically and lyrically deeper and more interesting than the excellent but more straightforwardly boom-bap content of Guerilla Dynasty. At 55 minutes Recognition is also Recognize Ali’s longest album of the year so far, refreshing in an era where a lot of artists are happy to release a string of barely 30-minute long projects and call them albums.

Recognition has production from the likes of Brisk Fingaz, C-Lance, B-Sun, Sultan Mir, Karnate, Hobgoblin Beats, Brian Burns, Crystal Camino, Vago, Bar Code, JBL The Titan, K. Sluggah, and Tone Spliff – but despite the number of different people crafting the beats, the album manages to sound entirely cohesive. Recognize Ali holds down about half of the songs on the tracklist by himself, for the rest he recruited a who’s who of underground rap – Vinnie Paz, Verbal Kent, Planet Asia, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Ill Bill, Tragedy Khadafi, Ruste Juxx, Reef The Lost Cauze, King Magnetic, Bronze Nazareth, Napoleon Da Legend, and others, make appearances to give some extra weight to this album.

Recognize Ali is an excellent emcee who’s got bars for days, and with this album, he solidifies his status as one of the MVPs in today’s underground Hip Hop scene. Recognition is one of the best underground Hip Hop albums of the year.

Download Recognize

38. R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages

best hip hop 2020

Purple Moonlight Pages is the first album by R.A.P. Ferreira, the new moniker of the artist formerly known as Milo. Little over a year ago Milo officially retired that stage name to continue as R.A.P. Ferreira – which is a play on his real-life name: Rory Allen Phillip Ferreira (and on Rhythm And Poetry Ferreira). The name-change also seems to come with a bit of an artistic change, and whether that change works for you or not is – as always – a matter of taste.

Purple Moonlight Pages offers a slice of delicious poetic jazz-rap, produced and expertly engineered by The Jefferson Park Boys (the production team consisting of beatmaker Kenny Segal, and musicians Mike Parvizi and Aaron Carmack). The album feels more accessible than R.A.P. Ferreira’s work when he was still operating as Milo. Milo’s best work who told you to think​?​?​!​!​?​!​?​!​?​!, was sonically denser and more abstract – but that’s not to say Purple Moonlight Pages is a straightforward or an easy listen.

Just like R.A.P. Ferreira’s earlier work Purple Moonlight Pages definitely is different than the general rap fare – R.A.P. Ferreira’s slam-poetry/spoken-word type flow and stream-of-consciousness type lyrics demand full attention. Musically Purple Moonlight Pages is a delight – with songs full of live instrumentation, obviously heavily jazz-inspired. Involvement of Kenny Segal is a mark of quality, everything he has touched recently has turned to proverbial gold – most notably (but not limited to) his collaboration with NYC underground giant billy woods on Hiding Placesone of the best albums of 2019.

With the assistance of The Jefferson Park Boys, R.A.P. Ferreira reinvented his sound and turned it into a new type of excellence. Purple Moonlight Pages is a rich and rewarding listening experience, at the least for those willing to invest the time and attention this great album deserves.

Download Purple Moonlight Pages

39. Felt - Felt 4 U

18 years after A Tribute to Christina Ricci and 11 years after the third and last Felt album Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez, Slug and Murs are back with Felt 4 U, this time around with production from Slug’s Atmosphere partner Ant. Ant’s production for Felt 4 U is excellent, it’s among the best work best he has ever done.

“Hologram” with The Grouch and Aesop Rock is an obvious highlight, but there are few if any weak spots on this album. It’s Ant’s smooth instrumentals that steal the show, but Slug and Murs both deliver too with confident displays of mature lyricism. These two are veterans by now, both with more than a few top-quality albums on their respective names, and Felt 4 U is a new jewel in both artist’s crowns.

Download Felt 4 U

40. ANKHLEJOHN - The Face Of Jason

ANKHLEJOHN has been very prolific with a slew of LP and EP releases since his debut in 2017, some better than others of course, but overall his output has been pretty consistent. Even so, The Face Of Jason is one of his better projects – second only to Van Ghost (2018), his best work up to now.

So, in 2020 we have two distinctly different brands of boom-bap flooding the market: the more traditional, 90s-centric kind, and The Face Of Jason kind of neo-boom-bap with dark, dirty, and dusty instrumentals. There are A LOT of albums similar to The Face Of Jason out right now, but few as good (only Boldy James’ The Price Of Tea in China is in the same league). The Face Of Jason is much better than West Side Gunn’s Pray For Paris for instance, the album that can be kind of considered this year’s standard for this niche.

ANKHLEJOHN’s lyrics are fun and interesting, with clever and crazy punchlines all the way through. And even if he sometimes does the same kind of gun adlibs most of these neo-boom-bap guys are using now, ANKHLEJOHN is much more subtle about it than WSG and most of his copycats are – this album has everything we love about Griselda without everything we don’t. Lots of replay value here, The Face Of Jason is a keeper.

Download The Face Of Jason

41. The Koreatown Oddity - Little Dominiques Nosebleed

The Koreatown Oddity - Little Dominiques Nosebleed

The Koreatown Oddity (Los Angeles-based producer/emcee Dominique Purdy) dropped one of the most idiosyncratic albums of the year with Little Dominiques Nosebleed– where there is a lot of genericness in Hip Hop, there’s really no album like this one. Little Dominiques Nosebleed is a captivating autobiography that vividly portrays Dominique Purdy growing up in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles. It relates how two car accidents he experienced as a youth causes him to have constant nosebleeds, and how it shaped his life – it’s (dealing with) trauma that is this album’s common thread.

While The Koreatown Oddity’s sharp, sometimes surreal, and often humorous content, together with his quirky lyrical style, are enough of an attraction (echoes of emcees like MF DOOM, Quelle Chris, Homeboy Sandman, and even Kool Keith in his style), it’s the unconventional production on Little Dominiques Nosebleed that makes this album such a unique experience. With a crazy amount of samples and sound effects, The Koreatown Oddity’s creative brilliance is evidenced even more through the instrumentals he crafted to back up his vocals, than the vocals themselves – good as they are.

Little Dominiques Nosebleed brims with personality and charm and is one of 2020’s hidden gems.

Download Little Dominiques Nosebleed

42. Benny The Butcher - Burden Of Proof

the best hip hop albums of 2020

The Griselda work-ethic is incredible. But oversaturation is a thing, and Griselda is oversaturating the market right now – risking Griselda-fatigue with what feels like a new album, EP, mixtape, or prominent feature appearance every single week. That said: Benny The Butcher is Griselda’s least prolific member, so a new Benny project still is an event. Where Griselda head-honcho Westside Gunn has the flair and Conway has the attitude, Benny The Butcher is the crew’s best writer and best all-around emcee – so anticipation for a new Benny The Butcher album will always be high.

Burden Of Proof is kind of a surprise sonically – gone are the gritty neo-boom-bap beats and dirty piano-loops we’ve come to know from Griselda, and in are smooth soulful instrumentals. Hit-Boy takes care of production duties, and like on Nas’ latest album he leaves his mark. The polished sounds are definitely unlike anything we have heard on a Benny project before this one, and surprisingly, it works. Benny proves he can flow to any kind of beat, and even if not all of Hit-Boy’s beats on this album are equally memorable (they do sound mid-2000s kind of dated here and there), overall Burden Of Proofs musical backdrops gel well with Benny’s lyrics.

“One Way Flight” with Freddie Gibbs is the absolute standout song of the album – these two should do a whole album together: when it comes to coke/street raps, Benny The Butcher and Freddie Gibbs are the two top-dogs of this subgenre, and they have the right chemistry. Involve Roc Marciano too, and all the ingredients for a classic are there.

Even if it’s not on par with Tana Talk 3 (2018) and The Plugs I Met (2019), Burden Of Proof is the best Griselda release of the year, along with Conway’s From King To A God.

Download Burden Of Proof

43. The Leonard Simpson Duo (Guilty Simpson & Leonard Charles) - LSD

The Leonard Simpson Duo (Guilty Simpson & Leonard Charles) LSD

Detroit emcee Guilty Simpson & New Zealand producer Leonard Charles team up as The Leonard Simpson Duo to provide a one of a kind 70’s inspired, psychedelic & acid influenced album. Guilty Simpson is one of the finest emcees ever to come out of Detroit (that’s saying something), and his distinctive and uncompromising lyrical style meshes really well with Leonard Simpson’s trippy boom-bap instrumentals, resulting in something truly unique. Guilty Simpson and Leonard Charles make a formidable duo and LSD is a formidable album.

Download LSD

44. Quakers II - The Next Wave

quakers

Quakers is a collective consisting of three veteran producers: UK-based Fuzzface (Geoff Barrow), and 7-Stu-7, with Australian Katalyst. Eight years after their self-titled debut on Stones Throw, Quakers are back with Quakers II: The Next Wave. 50 minutes, 33 tracks, 31 rappers, 3 producers, one album. Among the host of emcees appearing on the album are the likes of Guilty Simpson, Jeremiah Jae, Sampa the Great, Denmark Vessey, Jeru the Damaja, Jonwayne, Nolan the Ninja, Boog Brown, The Koreatown Oddity, and Phat Kat – definitely some interesting names in the roster.

The length of the 33 tracks on this project is less than 2 minutes on average, so The Next Wave is more like a collection of punchy vignettes than an album composed of ‘traditional’ songs – but it works beautifully here. The instrumentals on The Next Wave are simple and complex at the same time – it’s clear this is a producer’s album, where the lyrics take a backseat to the music. That’s not to say the vocals on this album are forgettable, there’s lots of talent and lyrical depth on display. This time around a lot of the lyrics are socio-politically focussed, making this album a product of the times – 2020 is a crazy year, and this album aims to reflect that craziness.

Quakers II: The Next Wave is an interesting album, remarkedly consistent and cohesive – despite the input of so many different collaborators. This is another Stones Throw winner.

Download Quakers II: The Next Wave

45. Stove God Cook$ & Roc Marciano - Reasonable Drought

best hip hop 2020

Syracuse rapper Stove God Crooks’ debut LP Reasonable Drought is produced entirely by Roc Marciano – whose name is featured prominently here of course, as it’s a mark of quality that will draw listeners to Stove God Cooks he might have not had without Roc Marci’s involvement. Roc Marci re-pioneered and rejuvenated the ‘mafioso’ subgenre: tough-guy coke-rap street rhymes over dirty minimalistic beats. Griselda helped make this sound a whole new subgenre of itself, so now we get a whole bunch of the same kind of projects by different artists. Stove God Cooks is a fine emcee with an eccentric style of his own, even if he is copycatting Westside Gunn’s whiny delivery and adlibs here and there (but thankfully not overmuch). The subject matter here fits the genre mold exactly: tough-guy coke-rap street rhymes is what’s to be expected and tough-guy coke-rap street rhymes is what we get. It’s Roc Marci’s soulful loops and beats that steal the show though, it’s the instrumentals that elevate Reasonable Drought a few pegs above average.

Download Reasonable Drought

46. Jahi & Configa - Forward Future

best hip hop albums 2020

Jahi (aka Public Enemy 2.0) is a member of Enemy Radio (along with Chuck D, DJ Lord and the S1W’s). For Forward Future Jahi has teamed up with Configa, a producer hailing from the UK who you may know from his album Configaration Volume 1 which was released via Chuck D’s SLAMjamz Records.

Forward Future is unique in today’s Hip Hop landscape in that it has no outside features or production – simply put: all rhymes are done by Jahi, all beats are supplied by Configa. “Collaborating with one producer allowed us both to focus, concentrate and build a full narrative of boom-bap, consciousness, and creative expression,” Jahi states in the YouTube video description of the “Future Forward” single.

Configa’s lush boom-bap tapestries combined with Jahi’s throwback flow and delivery make Forward Future a blueprint for how to execute Golden Age flavored Hip Hop for the 2020s – no surprise that a project like this is an easy HHGA favorite.

Download Forward Future

47. The Four Owls - Nocturnal Instinct

hip hop 2020

The Four Owls is a supergroup consisting of 4 of the UK’s finest Hip Hop artists, who can all boast strong solo careers: Fliptrix, Leaf Dog, BVA & Verb T. Nocturnal Instinct is not their first excellent album together (especially Natural Order (2015) is a must-listen), but this 2020 album may be their best yet. Smart thing they did is recruiting a couple of heavy hitters from the US to get that cross-the-Atlantic appeal – appearances by Kool G Rap, Roc Marciano, R.A. The Rugged Man, and Masta Killa help to give Nocturnal Instinct extra allure. Also, DJ Premier shows up, supplying his signature scratches for one of the stand-out tracks, “100%”. But there are no weak tracks here. Nocturnal Instinct consists of 14 songs, all strong, with no interludes or other useless filler. Nocturnal Instinct is a masterclass in pure Hip Hop.

Download Nocturnal Instinct

48. Kid Abstrakt & Emapea - Jazzy Vibes

Jazzy Vibes is a 10-track project by Polish beatmaker Emapea and Kid Abstrakt, a member of the group Revolutionary Rhythm from Los Angeles, CA with Predominance & DJ Million Faces. This album is a throwback to ’90s Golden Age Hip Hop with a 2020 spin, with mellow, jazz-infused production and boom-bap style beats, rhymes, and cuts & scratches.

At 32 minutes, Jazzy Vibes is as breezy and lightweight as the title suggests, but the ten tracks we get here all are pretty dope. If jazzy Hip Hop or 90s-centric boom-bap is your thing, Jazzy Vibes is a must-listen.

Download Jazzy Vibes

49. Small Bills - Don't Play It Straight

Small Bills Don't Play It Straight

Don’t Play It Straight is the debut LP from Small Bills, a collaboration between NY rapper ELUCID and Michigan producer/multi-instrumentalist The Lasso. Created over the course of a year between Detroit and NY, the duo creates a singular fusion of art rap and punk-funk. Don’t Play It Straight features contributions from ELUCID’s Armand Hammer partner billy woods, as well as from Koncept Jack$on, Moor Mother, Fielded, .k, and Nosaj.

Those familiar with ELUCID’s other work will know there’s never anything standard or run-off-the-mill about his approach to Hip Hop, the involvement of The Lasso pretty much ensures Don’t Play It Straight is a project for a niche-audience. Bold and daring in its musicality, Don’t Play It Straight may bear some similarities in its experimentalism with what ELUCID’s been doing with billy woods as Armand Hammer, but ultimately it’s very much its own beast. The Lasso’s instrumentals create an even more psychedelic vibe than what we are used to with ELUCID’s other works, the sounds are more disordered too – but it works.

Not a typical release for the label, Don’t Play It Straight is another Mello Music Group winner nonetheless. It also is the second winner for ELUCID this year, on par with the Armand Hammer Shrines album. Let’s hope this collaborative project is not a one-off, and that we will see more Small Bills music in the future.

Download Don’t Play It Straight

50. Nas - King's Disease

Nas King's Disease review

Every new Nas album has to be greeted with a certain amount of reticence – Nas is one of those artists who has become notorious for his bad ear for beats (similar to other elite emcees like Eminem and Canibus, just to name two). On King’s Disease, there’s a synergy between Nas’ lyricism and the instrumentals that is missing on a lot of his other albums. King’s Disease is not perfect, but it definitely is Nas’ best effort since Life Is Good (2012), way superior to the disappointing Nasir (2018) and the mediocre-at-best The Lost Tapes 2 (2019). His pen game and lyrical performance on King’s Disease are as strong as ever and Hit Boy’s easy-listening beats, for the most part, do justice to Nas’s introspective rhymes.

Almost every Nas album since his classic debut Illmatic (1994) has been marred by inconsistency – usually because of weak beats, sometimes because of questionable songwriting. King’s Disease is no different, unfortunately. King’s Disease starts out really strong with the titular intro “King’s Disease” and “Blue Benz” – two short but dope cuts. The middle of the tracklist has a few low points, though – the album definitely could have done without “Replace Me” which has some terrible autotune crooning by Don Tolliver, and it would also have been better without a feature of Lil Durk on the otherwise fine “Til The War Is Won” – apparently Nas decided to reach out to the new school crowd by including a couple of popular autotuning quasi-rappers.

The tracks with Don Tolliver (and pop rapper Big Sean), Lil Durk, and also the one with neo-soul king Anderson .Paak (“All Bad”) will most likely not appeal to fans who were there with Nas from the beginning, these songs are clearly meant to give Nas an in with new audiences. A big risk, especially because King’s Disease is such a short album – at a mere 38 minutes, there’s really no room for misses. So it has to be said that the inclusion of a bunch of poppy tracks results in King’s Disease being a bit of a mixed bag. Those who don’t think autotune is f*cking awful will be alright, others will have to skip a couple of tracks.

“King’s Disease”, “Blue Benz”, “27 Summers”, the smooth “Full Circle” (with AZ, Cormega, and Foxy Brown (and an uncredited appearance by Dr. Dre who does the outro), “The Definition” (with the intro and outro done by old-school legend Brucie B), and especially “10 Points” and “The Cure” are all excellent Nas tracks though – so there’s plenty to enjoy if you look past the rap-singing songs.

Nas is one of the biggest names in the Hip Hop game ever, and he has nothing left to prove – but with King’s Disease Nas shows he has his finger on the pulse on the culture, that he is still relevant and able to appeal to old an new audiences both. King’s Disease represents somewhat of a return to form for the Queensbridge legend, even if it will eventually prove to be a little bit too lightweight and forgettable to be mentioned in the same breath as Nas’ best works such as IllmaticIt Was Written (1996), Stillmatic (2001), The Lost Tapes (2002), God’s Son (2002), Distant Relatives (with Damian Marley, 2010), and Life Is Good.

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51. Eto - The Beauty Of It

Eto has been extremely prolific in recent years, dropping EP after mini-project after mixtape – most of them with a playing time of 30 minutes or less – keeping up with the trend that has artists release short projects as frequently as possible to stay in the public’s eye continuously. The Beauty Of It, at 40 minutes, can be considered his first proper full-length in a long time, and it’s his best project since 2018’s Hells Roof (with DJ Muggs).

With features from Willie the Kid, Rome Streetz, Vinnie Paz, Goretex, Ill Bill, Sha Hef, Flee Lord, Grafh, Jai Black, Watts, Nyticka Hemingway and production from The Alchemist, Daringer, DJ Green Lantern, Large Professor, Marco Polo, V-Don, and Statik Selektah (among others), The Beauty Of It is a well-rounded project in the best Griselda tradition.

The Beauty Of It is in the same lane as Westside Gunn’s Pray For Paris, but better. Despite the fact that every track was produced by a different producer, the album sounds entirely cohesive. The Beauty Of It is one of this year’s best albums in the neo-boom-bap / noir niche, together with Boldy James’ The Price Of Tea In China and ANKHLEJOHN’s The Face Of Jason.

Download The Beauty Of It

52. D Smoke - Black Habits

2020 best hip hop albums

Black Habits is the second album from D Smoke (he debuted in 2006 with Producer of the Year), the winner of Netflix’s Hip Hop competition series Rhythm & Flow in 2019. The album is the follow-up to his Inglewood High EP, which was released in October of 2019. The Inglewood, Los Angeles emcee managed to recruit Snoop Dogg, Jill Scott, Ari Lennox, and his brother SiR (among others) for this project, which clocks in at 16 tracks and over an hour of playing time. A long album, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome at all, Black Habits stays entertaining for the whole duration.

D Smoke (real name Daniel Farris) is a UCLA graduate who worked as a Spanish and music theory teacher in Inglewood. His background is evident on the album – D Smoke’s incorporation of Spanish in lyrics gives Black Habits a unique kind of twist. The album is eminently musical too – the funky bass-heavy beats and smooth jazzy loops make for an easy listening experience. Kendrick fans should love this one, the GKMC/TPAB influence is palpable in the music and in D Smoke’s flow – but D Smoke has enough of an own sound to be sufficiently authentic and not merely a K-dot copy cat. Black Habits is a real treat.

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53. CJ Fly - RUDEBWOY

best hip hop albums of 2020

Brooklyn emcee and Pro Era member CJ Fly’s official debut studio album RUDEBWOY offers a fantastic blend of contemporary rap and old school boom bap flavor. Elite beat smith Statik Selektah handles all of the production, guests include Griselda’s Conway The Machine and CJ Fly’s fellow members of Pro Era like Joey Bada$$, Kirk Knight, Chuck Strangers, Nyck Caution, and others.

Everything clicks on this album: Statik Selektah’s instrumentals are excellent throughout, all guests deliver, CJ Fly’s rhymes are masterful, and even the hooks work. The record’s title, as well as its content, nod to CJ Fly’s Caribbean heritage – RUDEBWOY is full of energy, summertime vibes, and good old fun. CJ Fly balances his Jamaican and NY influences perfectly, sounding entirely authentic. CJ Fly and Statik Selektah prove to be a perfect combination – giving us that classic Pro Era sound combined with modern vibes. RUDEBWOY is a winner – Hip Hop for the 2020s, an album that will stay in rotation without a doubt.

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54. Vinnie Paz - As Above So Below

best hip hop albums 2020

As Above So Below is Jedi Mind Tricks and Army Of The Pharaohs frontman Vinnie Paz’s fifth solo album and his twenty-second (!) studio album in total – in addition to five the solo albums, he has released nine albums with Jedi Mind Tricks, five with Army Of The Pharaohs, two with Ill Bill as Heavy Metal Kings, and one with Tragedy Khadafi, plus a bunch of mixtapes and EP’s. In Vinnie Paz’s catalog of solo albums, As Above So Below follows Season Of The Assassin (2010), God Of The Serengeti (2012), The Cornerstone Of The Corner Store (2016) and The Pain Collector (2018). If there’s one word that would best typify VP’s body of work – solo and group efforts – it is CONSISTENCY.

With instrumentals from renowned boom-bap beat crafters such as Giallo Point, Stu Bangas, Vic Grimes, and Bronze Nazareth and guest appearances from Block Mccloud, Nowaah The Flood, Eamon, Vast Aire, Recognize Ali and others, As Above So Below fits right in with the rest of Vinnie Paz’s discography. Gritty, hard-edged lyrics and boom-bap beats are what we have come to expect from Vinnie Paz, and gritty, hard-edged lyrics and boom-bap beats are what we get. Stand-out cuts include the rock-infused first single “I Am The Chaos“, the hardbody boom-bap gem “Silician Bull”, and the emotional tribute to his father “Spilled Milk”, but there are a lot more dope tracks on offer. A couple of the hooks and some of the features could’ve been better, but at 18 tracks and almost an hour of playing time a few weaker moments are to be expected.

As Above So Below is a more than solid addition to Vinnie Paz’s catalog, and if you enjoyed his earlier work you will also enjoy this one.

Download As Above So Below

55. Ankhlejohn - As Above, So Below

As Above, So Below is Ankhlejohn’s fifth 2020 project, his second full-length after the excellent The Face Of Jason.

Ankhlejohn released a benchmark album with VAN Ghost, his 2018 collaboration with unsung producer Big Ghost LTD – one of the best Hip Hop albums released that yearAs Above, So Below is produced in its entirety by Odd Future affiliated rapper/producer Navy Blue. Like Big Ghost LTD’s beats did on VAN Ghost, Navy Blue’s instrumentals bring out Ankhlejohn’s best on As Above, So Below. In typical Odd Future fashion, Navy Blue’s mostly drumless instrumentals are dreamy and unhurried, filled with lo-fi samples and smooth piano & horn snippets, all of it backed by laid-back basslines (and drums on only a couple of tracks).

As Above, So Below once again proves that Ankhlejohn’s menacing, raspy-voiced delivery is suited to go with any production style. He is able to lean into the sound of the producer he is working with, without losing his own signature style. Vocal contributions from Da$h, Al.Divino, Fly Anakin, Wifi Gawd, Pink Siifu, Wiki, and from Navy Blue himself add extra spice – making As Above, So Below a well-rounded album with lots of replay value.

While VAN Ghost remains Ankhlejohn’s best album, his 2020 run is impressive too. The Face Of Jason is up there with the best albums of 2020, As Above, So Below is not far behind.

56. Paris – Safe Space Invader

Paris - Safe Space Invader | Review

About Safe Space Invader from Paris’ own website:

“In this era of reckoning for American policing, increases of instances racism fostered by the most incompetent president in modern times, and a global pandemic that has affected all areas of life as we once knew it, voices of dissent in entertainment have become more relevant than ever. Enter Paris, arguably one of the most politically outspoken artists in Hip Hop history, with his latest album, Safe Space Invader. Entirely self-produced and without guest features, Safe Space Invader is a brutal commentary on Black life in 2020 America, touching on the topics of police brutality, racism, gentrification, economic inequality and cancel culture, among others.”

30 years after his classic debut The Devil Made Me Do It, it is a sad truth that activist rappers like Paris are still needed to address wrongs in the world we live in. Safe Space Invaders is a strong album and deserves to be mentioned alongside Paris’ best albums The Devil Made Me Do It (1990), Sleeping With The Enemy (1992), and Sonic Jihad (2003).

The lyrics on Safe Space Invaders are as vital and fiery as they are on all his other albums, arguably even more so. The beats on the album could have been better here and there, but Safe Space Invaders is all about Paris’ hard rhymes. In this year of extreme political discord and social unrest, the militant Safe Space Invaders is an incendiary but genuine statement. Whether you agree with the blistering condemnations made by Paris on Safe Space Invaders or not, there is no denying the power and urgency of this album.

Download Safe Space Invader

57. Open Mike Eagle - Anime, Trauma & Divorce

“It’s October, and I’m tired.”

Anime, Trauma & Divorce is Los Angeles artist Open Mike Eagle’s most personal project to date. The album details what Open Mike Eagle referred to as the worst year of his life. The album tackles a range of Mike’s struggles in life such as divorcing his wife, and the discomfort and trauma he experienced while trying to deal with these upheavals in his life.

Anime, Trauma & Divorce is not on par with Open Mike Eagle’s best albums Dark Comedy (2014) and Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (2017), but it’s an interesting album nonetheless. Enjoyability will largely depend on relatability, especially people who find themselves in similar states of being will feel this one, on others it may have less impact. Seeing as 2020 has been a rough year for humanity as a whole, Anime, Trauma & Divorce feels like an album for today, even if personal experiences of individual listeners may not correlate exactly with Open Mike Eagle’s struggles. One of Open Mike Eagle’s strengths has always been being introspective while simultaneously keeping the vibe light-hearted in a way – Anime, Trauma & Divorce is a typical Open Mike Eagle album in that regard, even if his usual sense of humor does not coat up the sadness of some of these lyrics so easily.

At 34 minutes the album is on the short side, somehow it feels like the dense subject matter warranted further exploration. Also, a couple of weaker songs (like “Headass” and “Fifteen Twenty Feet Ocean Nah”) bring down the album some, on a 34-minute record no duds are allowed. Lots of strong songs though to offset the weak spots – “Bucciarati”, “Asa’s Bop”, “The Edge Of New Clothes”, “The Black Mirror Episode”, “WTF Is Self Care” – all great.

Long-time Open Mike Eagle fans will no doubt love this project, but Anime, Trauma & Divorce will most likely not gain him many new followers – people new to Open Mike Eagle should probably start with Dark Comedy. Even if it is not his best, Anime, Trauma & Divorce is an entertaining record and a solid addition to Open Mike Eagle’s body of work.

Download Anime, Trauma & Divorce

58. Westside Gunn - Pray For Paris

best hip hop 2020

Pray For Paris features WSG’s Griselda family Conway The Machine and Benny The Butcher along with Grammy-winner Tyler, the Creator, Wale, Joey Bada$$, Freddie Gibbs, Roc Marciano, Boldy James, Billie Essco, Joyce Wrice, Keisha Plum and Cartier A Williams. Pray For Paris also marks WSG’s first-time collaboration with DJ Premier (for “Shawn vs Flair”, arguably the best track on the album), with additional production-work from Tyler, the Creator, Alchemist, Daringer, DJ Muggs, Jay Versace, and others. Westside Gunn obviously knows he needs other voices on his album to keep his own presence from getting too tiresome, and you can’t go wrong with Conway and Benny (who has an epic verse on “George Bondo”), nor with Freddie Gibbs, Roc Marciano, and Joey Bada$$. Wale and Tyler, The Creator are more ‘surprising’ guests but they also deliver – it’s not a stretch to say the features are the strongest part of the album (along with the stellar production).

What WSG lacks in emcee skill he makes up in personality and style – he’s charisma and flashy-ness are part of his success. His penchant for blending obscure fashion and wrestling references with the more standard coke raps is another part of the appeal. And even if WSG is still overdoing these annoying gun adlibs, thankfully they sound more muted here than on his previous projects, the blending of these adlibs into the background makes them a little bit easier to endure. As always on Griselda projects, it’s the instrumentals that make the album. The production and aesthetics here are top-notch. Pray For Paris offers some of the best soulful street boom-bap you’ll ever hear, the beats fit WSG’s style perfectly.

West Side Gunn is an acquired taste to be sure, for those who can get past his voice, his delivery, and his gun adlibs schtick, Pray For Paris will be gold. (Full review here.)

Download Pray For Paris

59. Common - A Beautiful Revolution (Pt 1)

A Beautiful Revolution (Pt 1) is a surprise release by Common. Common is one of Hip Hop’s elite, so a Common release always is an event. A Beautiful Revolution (Pt 1) is a fine project, but it feels a bit lightweight and breezy due to its brevity and its loungy vibes. Lyrically Common does what he’s been doing, coming with thoughtful socio-political insights that fit the times we live in. Black Thought shows up for a feature, and he kills it as he always does. The other guests Lenny Kravitz and singer PJ also go well with Common’s sound. A little more substance to the tracklist would have given this project a bit more weight needed to count it among the better half of Common’s catalog – but as far as mature, soulful Hip Hop goes few (if any) do it better than Common does.

Download A Beautiful Revolution (Pt 1)

60. Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony

best hip hop 2020

Jay Electronica is one of the most intriguing – almost mythical – figures in post-millennium Hip Hop, building immense hype and expectation around himself after the release on MySpace of his debut mixtape Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) in 2007. That fantastic debut project was followed by several collaboration appearances and solo songs but never with a follow-up project – until the long-long-awaited A Written Testimony, Jay Electronica’s full-length solo debut album.

What has to be said though is that A Written Testimony really isn’t the Jay Electronic solo album the word has been waiting over 10 years for – the (uncredited) Jay-Z is featured on 8 of the 10 tracks (the two non-Jay-Z tracks are the intro and an interlude), making A Written Testimony effectively more of a Jay-E/Jay-Z collaborative album than a Jay Electronica solo joint. Having featured Jay-Z so heavily (and he kills most of his verses here), is like the student getting help from his favorite professor to get his project out – after all that anticipation and hype it does feel kind of anticlimactic and disappointing not to finally get that real Jay Electronica album. In fact, it’s safe to say Jay Electronica STILL doesn’t have a solo album.

But OK – let’s take A Written Testimony not for what it is billed like (a Jay Electronica album), but for what it is: a collaborative album from Jay Electronica and Jay-Z. So, now we know what A Written Testimony really is – is it any good? Well, it’s OK.

It’s 2020, and Jay-Z is a 50-year old billionaire who could be forgiven not to have the hunger or ambition anymore to lay down bars (especially on somebody else’s record), but he still has something to say and the skill to do it – addressing among other things the criticism directed at him for his NFL-deal on “Flux Capacitor” – one of the best tracks of the album. Even Travis Scott auto-tune crooning the bridge on “The Blinding”, does not bring down another one of the stand-outs. Most of the other tracks are fine too, from the first song “Ghost Of Soulja Slim”, an ode to fallen New Orleans legend Soulja Slim, to “Shiny Suit Theory” and “Ezekiel’s Wheel”, both with vocals from R&B singer The-Dream, to “Universal Soldier”, to “A.P.I.T.D.A”, a track with real emotional resonance – a Song Of The Year contender – the best song here that closes the album out on a perfect note.

Production, mostly done by Jay Electronica himself, on this album is abstract and creative – a good sound system is needed for optimal enjoyment though (or maybe it’s just the mixing and mastering that’s a little of here and there). The album is a mostly chill listening experience, with a conscious/religious side to it – lyrically Jay Electronica and Jay-Z bring their A-game, both of them dropping more lyrical nuggets and Quotables here than most modern-day rappers do in their whole career. At 8 real songs and 39 minutes of playing time, A Written Testimony is on the short side – but short albums like this one are not unusual these days.

A Written Testimony is a fine collaboration between two of the game’s most interesting lyricists – Hov complements Jay Electronica like Ghostface Killah complemented Raekwon on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx or Snoop Dogg did Dr. Dre on The Chronic. Ultimately though A Written Testimony is too underwhelming to be considered on par with those two classics.

Download A Written Testimony

Honorable Mentions

  • Eminem – Music To Be Murdered By – Side B
  • Eminem – Music To Be Murdered By
  • Navy Blue – Song of Sage: Post Panic!
  • Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon III: The Chosen
  • Milano Constantine & Body Bag Ben – Write It In Blood
  • Vic Spencer – Rather Be a Real One
  • Raashan Ahmad & Rita J – Black Koala
  • K-Rino – A Long Short Way
  • Mayhem of EMS & Soulslicers – Soul It May Seem
  • Murs & DJ.Fresh – Love & Rockets Vol. 2: The Declaration
  • Too Short & E-40 – Ain’t Gone Do It / Terms and Conditions
  • Boldy James – Real Bad Boldy
  • Kokane & Clint Dogg – International Ganxtaz
  • Planet Asia & The Musalini – Pharoah Chain
  • Moka Only – Martian 2020
  • Sleep Sinatra & August Fanon – Routes
  • Freestar Rigz & Futurewave – Substance Abuse
  • Stay Tuned – Remote Control
  • Verb T & Illinformed – The Land With The Foggy Skies
  • Mickey Factz – Warped Collages
  • Black Knights Of The NorthStar – Northstar On The Blackest Night
  • T. Calmese – Time And Time Again
  • Your Old Droog – Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition
  • Statik Selektah – The Balancing Act
  • Optimystic – Salty Waterz 2
  • Apokalips The Archangel – 1137Q
  • PxRo – Great Adventures of Piro
  • Poet On Drugs – Junkie Nation
  • iMAGiNARY FRiENDS – THE STEM OF A SHROOM
  • C.Shreve the Professor & ILe Flottante – ILE.Pro
  • A-Plus & The Architect – Blvck Switzerlvnd
  • MeRCY – Everything Under The Sun
  • Flee Lord – No More Humble Fashion
  • The Visionaries – V
  • Fla$h – I’ma Die A King
  • Rasheed Chappell & Buckwild – Sinners & Saints
  • Context & Figarate – Grand Schemes
  • Goodie Mob – Survival Kit
  • Philmore Greene – The Survival Scroll
  • Pink Siifu & Fly Anakin – FlySiifu’s
  • Jeezy – The Recession 2
  • Chokeules – Nepotism
  • Sareem Poems & Newselph – The Art Of Living
  • Ty Farris & Bozack Morris – Wired Different
  • Deuce Ellis – Midnight Ouroboros
  • Meeco – We Out Here
  • Billy Danze & TooBusy – The Listening Session
  • J. Sands – ABORVFT
  • Eastern Sunz – Fuel For A Fool’s Errand
  • King Magnetic & Tone Spliff – Nobody’s Safe
  • Skanks – Out Of Nowhere
  • More Or Les – The Human Condition
  • Verbz & Mr Slipz – Radio Waves
  • Mr. Lif & Stu Bangas – Vangarde
  • Elementree & Major Briggz – The Midlife Crisis
  • N.B.S. And SnowGoons – Still Trapped In America
  • Zilla Rocca & Chong Wizard – Midnight Sons
  • Vel The Wonder – Trophy Wife
  • MC Whiteowl – Oldies But Hoodies
  • Ill Bill – La Bella Medusa
  • Dizzee Rascal – E3 AF
  • JR Writer – I Really Rap Too
  • Westside Gunn – Who Made The Sunshine
  • 21 Savage & Metro Boomin – Savage Mode II
  • Blaq Poet – Cultural Revolution
  • Mark Ski – Catch-REC
  • Juga-Naut X Micall Parknsun – Twelve Bricks
  • Fliptrix – Light Work
  • Supreme Cerebral – Ultimate Mind
  • Nolan The Ninja – Talk Soon
  • Cyrus Malachi – The Blind Watchmaker
  • Nappy Roots – 40RTY
  • Iron Wigs – Your Birthday’s Cancelled
  • Murs & Dee-1 – He’s The Christian I’m The Rapper
  • Reks – T.H.I.N.G.S.
  • Eleven & Jason D – Strike Back
  • MC Eiht – Lessons
  • MC Eiht – Official
  • Andy Cooper – L.I.S.T.E.N
  • bRavenous – Between The Lines
  • Saipher Soze, Futurewave & Finn – Eat What You Kill
  • Unstable Components – Subjective Illness
  • Googie & Henry Canyons – Hijinx
  • Dray Yard – Rugged Gems Made By Rusty Razors
  • Action Bronson – Only For Dolphins
  • Bub Rock – The Rock Period
  • Bub Rock – A Piece Of Mine
  • Agallah & Sadat X – The Gods Have Arrived
  • Giant Gorilla Dog Thing – Baths With Geese
  • AMANI + KING VISION ULTRA – An Unknown Infinite
  • J. Sands – VFBOYAB
  • DRE Colombian Raw – Dre’s Corner 2
  • Artisin (ST. Da Squad) – Sinamatik
  • Playwright Performer – Playwright’s Den
  • Marvalyss – Where The Sidewalk Ends
  • The Xav – Black Duke
  • LuGhz & Kheyzine – High Pressure Tactics
  • Mistah F.A.B. & The Mekanix – Amerikkka Dont Love Us
  • Grafh – Good Energy
  • BoFaatBeatz – The BoFaat Way
  • Flee Lord & Mephux – Pray For The Evil 2
  • Pounds448 – There Is No Mafia
  • Realio Sparkzwell – Bloody Luciano
  • Touch & DJ Matto – Electric Sheep
  • Drunken Arseholes – Strength
  • Ray Swoope – Thou Shall Not Kill
  • Moemaw Naedon – Dr. Deadhorse
  • D Strong & Giallo Point – Suitcase Full Of Gunz
  • OC From NC & D.R.U.G.S. Beats – Crown Royal
  • Big Sean – Detroit 2
  • The LOX – Living Off Xperience
  • Fred The Godson – GodSon
  • UnLearn The World – Light Years
  • The Musalini – Return Of The Oro
  • Vic Spencer & SonnyJim – Spencer For Higher 3
  • MAD1ONE – King Leo Green
  • Buckwild – Music Is My Religion
  • Barbaydose – Future Reminiscent
  • Bossolo – No Mercy
  • Jay Royale – The Baltimore Housing Project
  • UnLearn The World – Light Years
  • Gawds – The Other Side
  • Heron & Serum – Heron & Serum
  • Napoleon Da Legend & Giallo Point – Street Universe
  • D-Cypha – The Special Ingredient
  • Sankofa – Glyde Drexler
  • MC Shinobi – The Revenge Of Shinobi
  • K.A.A.N. & Big Ghost Ltd – All Praise Is Due
  • Logic – No Pressure
  • Daddy-O – G.O.A.T. Antidote
  • Grand Daddy I.U. – The Essence
  • Bishop Nehru – Nehruvia: My Disregarded Thoughts
  • Kool Keith & Thetan – Space Goretex
  • Pruven – Asiatic African Arts
  • Pruven – Clandestine Rituals
  • Enemy Radio – Loud Is Not Enough
  • Sons Of Yusuf – Shaykh The World
  • Shabaam Sahdeeq & J57 – Precious Stones
  • Taiyamo Denku & Bofaatbeatz – Den-Bo-Wu
  • M.A.V. & Rob Gates – The Dark Side Of Nature
  • Nohokai – Mixed Emotions
  • Stoney Kev- The New World
  • Sir Veterano – The Gathering
  • Jungle Brothers – Keep It Jungle
  • MH The Verb – Space Ninja
  • Leaf Dog – Live From The Balrog Chamber
  • Senseless – Franklin Park
  • Bowery Bruisers – Bowery Bruisers
  • Odd Squad Family – The Flamingo Complex
  • Supreme Cerebral & D.Mar – Soul Trained
  • Wisecrvcker & Kyo Itachi – The Nth Degree (Supreme Paradigm Act II)
  • HDBeenDope – BrokeN Dreams
  • Wrecking Crew – Raheem’s Lament
  • Curly Castro & Small Professor – BLUu Edwards
  • Westside Gunn – Flygod Is An Awesome God 2
  • George Fields – Tomorrow’s Sun
  • Rome Streetz – Noise Kandy 4
  • Blame One & Preed One – Sacred Ground Sound
  • Treazon – I Shouldn’t Be Alive
  • MC Therapist – Socialized Anxiety
  • C-Nature – Back From Nowhere
  • MIKE – weight of the world
  • Hus Kingpin – Gunpowder
  • Eclyse – Royal Essence
  • IAlive – I’ll Wait Forever
  • Ardamus & Height Keech – Astro Blocks
  • People Without Shoes & Inkswel – Plasma Platter
  • The Professionals – The Professionals
  • Pro The Leader – Aspirational Regret
  • Skanks – New World Order
  • Killarmy – Full Metal Jackets
  • Dueling Experts (Verbal Kent & Recognize Ali) – Dueling Experts
  • Medhane – Cold Water
  • Kota The Friend – EVERYTHING
  • John Jigg$ – Jigganometry
  • MOAR – Boom Bap Mentality
  • RoyKinsey – KINSEY: A Memoir
  • Jon Connor – SOS
  • Styles P – Styles David: Ghost Your Enthusiasm
  • Ill Bill & Nems – Gorilla Twins
  • E-Fluent & Reckonize – Real Broken Kings
  • Markis Precise – No Wings Without Scars
  • The Bad Seed & Team Demo – Kill Switch
  • Elaquent – Forever Is A Pretty Long Time
  • Pugs Atomz & Inkswell – The Moon
  • Roccwell – Still Lovin’ Boombap
  • Taiyamo Denku – The Darker Side Of Light
  • Awful P & Conflikt – The BoomBaptism
  • Protektahz – Protektahz Of Da Lost Art
  • Iceberg Theory & August Fanon – Rinpoche
  • Serengeti & Kenny Segal – Ajai
  • Estee Nack & Superior – BALADAS
  • Casual – Big Head Science
  • Shabazz Palaces – The Don Of Diamond Dreams
  • Dug & Happy Tooth – The Signal Glittering Inside The Storm
  • Tha God Fahim – After Every Day Day Comes Sunshine
  • Slik Jack & Statik Selektah – Dicey Business
  • Tech N9ne – ENTERFEAR
  • Jadakiss – Ignatius
  • Tahir Jahi – the loST ART
  • Blaq Poet – Simon Phoenix
  • DJ M-1 – Habit Of A Lifetime
  • Pink Siifu – NEGRO
  • Taiyamo Denku & Bo Faat – Kollab Kong
  • DJ Beanz – Deadly Venoms
  • Illah Dayz – Coby
  • Sean Doe The Sucio Gringo – Sean Doe Da Bastard Sun
  • Monday Night & Henny L.O. – Battle Scar Decorated
  • Ty Farris – No Cosign Just Cocaine 3
  • All Hail Y.T. & GeneralBackPain – Classic Villains
  • Blaksmif – Platforms x Trophies
  • Factor Chandelier – First Storm
  • Dedicated Servers – Freshmen 15
  • Squeegie O – F​.​N​.​T​.​G (From N*****z To Godz)
  • Rhys Langston – Language Arts Unit
  • Stevie Crooks – Street Elegance
  • Tha God Fahim, Jay Nice & Left Lane Didon – Dump Life
  • Damu The Fudgemunk & Raw Poetic – Moment Of Change
  • Chuck Chan & Pad Scientist – Polly By The Powder Keg
  • Big Ghost Ltd – Carpe Noctem
  • June Marx – Sophisticated Weaponry
  • Observe Since 98 – Royaume Du Sauvage
  • Jahn Dough – Obsidian
  • K.A.A.N. – Twenty Nine
  • TooBusy – Red Tape
  • Extra Prolific – Like It’s Supposed To Be
  • TrumpCard – Sellout
  • Cotardz Matthew – A Shot In The Dark
  • Billion Man Rebellion – The Static Files
  • Senica Da Misfit – Poetic Ruckus 2
  • Lord Goat – Coffin Syrup
  • Ruste Juxx & Zealot Of FWM – Sulfuric Acid
  • Vic Spencer – Psychological Cheat Sheet
  • AK 9ine – Therapy
  • Lojii – lo&behold
  • Ruby Watson – Carry Me
  • Big Kahuna OG & Monday Night – Thug Tear
  • Grafh & Dj Green Lantern – The Oracle III
  • Paul Wall – Mind Over Matter
  • Chris Skillz & Zain – Olvido
  • Valhalla Cartel – Valhalla Cartel
  • Kut One – Live Wires
  • King Iso – World War Me
  • Thorough – King Articulate
  • Lync Lone – We Don’t Know Sh*t
  • Celus Da Nomad – Based On Sum Real
  • The Palmer Squares – With Or Without It
  • Awol One – Tony The Walrus
  • All Hail Y.T. & Tone Beatz – The Spoils Of Babylon
  • Hus Kingpin – End Of A Decade
  • Cardo, Payroll Giovanni & Larry June – Game Related
  • Versetti & Boomz – Take The Good With the Bad…
  • Kingikeem – Blast For Me
  • Mic Gutz – World War G
  • Psypiritual & The Lasso – Kirlian
  • Akai Solo – Ride Alone, Fly Together
  • Akai Solo & BSTFRND – Like Hajime
  • King B.A.V. – 20/20 Vision
  • Dawhud & Da Beatminerz – Crown Jewels
  • Blak Prophet – Make East Coast Boom Bap Great Again
  • Dialect & YuckNasty – Will Be Done
  • Stylz & Wells – Vibes
  • Raze The Ratchet – Regal
  • Sidewalk Tha Villain – Tha Villain Is Back
  • Flash (N.B.S.) & Lightfoot – Flashlight
  • Esham – She Loves Me
  • Esham – She Loves Me Not
  • Fly Anakin – At The End Of The Day
  • Dirt Platoon – Get Ya Handz Dirty
  • Uptown X.O. – Culture Over Corporate
  • C.I.A. (Shogun Assason & Kinetic) – Criminals In The Army
  • Jaz-O – The Warm Up
  • Rebel Rodomez – Boston Ave
  • Cage – Death Miracles
  • Clbrks & Morriarchi – Microwave Cooking 2000
  • Asun Eastwood & Vago – Sewer Science
  • Insideus – Black Mesa
  • J Hus – Big Conspiracy
  • Onoe Caponoe – Invisible War

Best EPs Of 2020

Some of the projects listed here were actually billed as albums/LPs, but HHGA categorizes projects with a playing time of 30 minutes or less as EPs.

  • Che Noir – After 12
  • Black Thought – Streams Of Thought, Vol. 3
  • Crimeapple – Mátalos Con Más Éxitos
  • Tank Gawd – Microphone Deflection
  • Ransom & Nicholas Craven – Crime Scenes
  • DJ Muggs – Winter
  • Dueling Experts – DE2: Sand The Floor
  • Elcamino & 38 Spesh – Sacred Psalms
  • Anthony Maintain – Ghost Pipes
  • Chief & TheDoomsdayDevice – The Reclamation Project
  • Willie The Kid & V Don – Deutsche Marks 2
  • Curren$y & Harry Fraud – Bonus Footage
  • Neak – INNENSTAD
  • Lyric Jones – Closer Than They Appear
  • Atmosphere – The Day Before Halloween
  • Jason Griff & Scorcese – Midnight Express
  • Reef The Lost Cauze & Haj of Dumhi – The Airing Of Grievances
  • Futurewave & Raz Fresco – Gorgeous Polo Sportsmen
  • White Horse – White Horse
  • Myka 9 & Factor Chandelier – People Into Making Progress
  • Southpaw Chop – Far East Quality
  • RJ Payne – Beautiful Payne
  • Flee Lord – Lord Talk Trilogy
  • Lord Goat & Stu Bangas – Final Expenses
  • Larry June & Harry Fraud – Keep Going
  • Big Kahuna OG & Foisey – Flee Tape
  • Hus Kingpin & Roc C – The Hidden Painting
  • J-Live – Drawn Up
  • Ransom – Directors Cut Scene 3
  • Wise Intelligent & Snowgoons – Omnicide
  • GQ & 9th Wonder – A Midsummer’s Nightmare
  • Tom G – The Grand Architect
  • Cut Beetlez vs Nice Guys – CBNG
  • Kamaiyah & Capolow – Oakland Nights
  • Cookin Soul & Larry June – Orange Season
  • Craig G – Fragile Ego
  • Phro – Ambition
  • Crimeapple – If I Don’t See You In Paradise
  • Lord Apex & V Don – Supply & Demand
  • Saigon – 777: The Resurrection
  • Ghost Of The Machine & Weapon E.S.P – Juice Headz
  • Uptown X.O. – Culture over Corporate Vol. 2
  • Napoleon Da Legend – The Stuff of Legend
  • Stik Figa & Conductor Williams – Tomorrow Is Forgotten
  • Boldy James – The Versace Tape
  • Sg603 – Glitching The Matrix
  • Fat Tony & Taydex – Wake Up
  • Mach-Hommy – Mach’s Hard Lemonade
  • Benny The Butcher & DJ Drama – The Respected Sopranos
  • M.A.V. & Giallo Point – Hoodlum
  • Wu-Syndicate – Underworld Kings
  • V Don, Sauce Heist, Ankhlejohn & Da$H – Too Late 4 Tears
  • A-Plus & The Architect – Chamber Games
  • Ruste Juxx & Amadeus 360 The Beat King – James Brown Of Tha Underground
  • UFO Fev & Termanology – From El Barrio, With Love
  • DJ Lord Jazz & Tru Trilla – Lord Trilla
  • Oddisee – Odd Cure
  • Eto – Eto Brigante
  • Buckwild – Fully Loaded
  • Skyzoo – Milestones
  • Flee Lord – Alter Ego Fleeigo Delgado
  • Sankofa – Weird Summer
  • Napoleon Da Legend – Chikara
  • Ankhlejohn – The New Militia
  • Black Geez & Eto – Flour City Street Bible Chapter 2
  • Marlon Craft – Work From Home
  • Joell Ortiz & KXNG Crooked – H.A.R.D.
  • Flee Lord & Buckwild – Hand Me My Flowers
  • Conway The Machine – No One Mourns The Wicked
  • Bobby J From Rockaway – Endless Summer
  • RIM & Vinyl Villain – Poetic Substance
  • Skyzoo & Dumbo Station – The Bluest Note EP
  • Dope Knife – Breakbeats N’ Vandalism
  • Cormega – Mega
  • Tanya Morgan – Be Right Back
  • Count Bass D – CBD
  • Conway The Machine & Alchemist – LULU
  • Weapon E.S.P – Savageland
  • 38 Spesh – 1000Words
  • Uncommon Nasa – Ornate
  • Tha Soloist & Tone Spliff – Mettamology
  • Clear Soul Forces – ForcesWithYou
  • Pawz One & DJ Dister – Watch & Learn
  • Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats – UNLOCKED
  • D. Lanham – Ikarus Rising
  • UFO Fev & Statik Selektah – Fresh Air
  • Planet Asia & 38 Spesh – Trust The Chain
  • Black Geez & Eto – Flower City Street Bible
  • John Creasy – The Omen
  • Ca$ablanca & The Pad Scientist – The Darker $ide
  • Pep Love (Hieroglyphics) – Magnam Ostium
  • Damone Tyrell – Numbers Don’t Lie
  • V Don – Black Mass
  • Sean Strange – No Hermano
  • Che Noir & 38 Spesh – Juno
  • Hus Kingpin – King Of The Underworld
  • Stu Bangas – Beats And Blood
  • Mick Jenkins – The Circus
  • Ovrkast. – Try Again
  • Kota The Friend – Lyrics To Go Vol 1
  • Spectacular Diagnostics – Raw Unknown
  • Curren$y & DJ Fresh – The Tonite Show With Curren$Y
  • Tha God Fahim – Lost Kingz
  • Navy Blue – Àdá Irin
  • Stu Bangas & Blacastan – Watson and Holmes 3: The Case of the BPM Killer

Best Instrumental Hip Hip Albums Of 2020

  • 9th Wonder – Zion V: The Ballad Of Charles Douthit
  • Pete Rock & The Soul Brothers – PeteStrumentals 3
  • Mix Master Mike & Steve Jordan – Beat Odyssey 2020
  • Mac McRaw – 60 Raw Ones
  • Shrimpnose – Before Its Too Late
  • Dirty Art Club – Gardens
  • Smoke DZA x Pete Rock – Don’t Smoke Rock Instrumentals
  • Buckwild – Essential Beats
  • Roc Marciano – Pimpstrumentals
  • RJD2 – The Fun Ones
  • Knxwledge – 1988
  • Phoniks – Time Goes By
  • C-Lance – The Ghosts of Mount Fuji
  • EPMD – The Instrumentals

Best Hip Hop Adjacent Albums Of 2020

  • Salaam Remi – Black On Purpose
  • The Allergies – Say The Word
  • B. Squid – Movie Night
  • Damu the Fudgemunk, Archie Shepp & Raw Poetic – Ocean Bridges
  • Mourning [A] BLKstar – The Cycle
  • Esh & The Isolations – Idiot Fingerz
  • TOBi – STILL
  • The Weeknd – After Hours
  • Childish Gambino – 3.15.20
  • Mac Miller – Circles
  • 070 Shake – Modus Vivendi
  • Afu-Ra – Urban Chemistry
  • Watsky – PLACEMENT
  • LEX the Lexicon Artist – Alter Ego

The Worst Rap Albums Of 2020

Click here or on the image for the full list.

the worst rap albums of 2020

Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2019

Click here or on the image for the full list.

best rap 2019

Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2021

Click here or on the image for the full list.

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29 responses to “The Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2020”

  1. Bantû says:

    2020 has been excellent so far

  2. Rene says:

    Good to see/hear that there is still a lot of nice boom-bap material coming out!!

  3. AJ says:

    Listened to just over half of the albums on this list. Liked 90% of what i have heard so far. Obviously some more than others. Anyway Because of the current virus situation, i have a lot more time to check for new music. Every Cloud.
    Take Care and
    Stay Safe

    PS
    Great Site

  4. 33rap says:

    I LIKE THIS POST

  5. Mike p says:

    I dont know if it was over looked or just your not feeling it, but the four owls album, is really nice. Check it out

  6. I can’t be the only one who thinks MH the Verb sounds just like Tupac sometimes. I had to make sure it was not samples. Especially on the first two songs of Space Ninja. Am I crazy?

  7. AJ says:

    Ka and R.A albums both fire for completely different reasons……
    Love both these albums…Muchly.

  8. AJ says:

    Really strong list of albums…..Dunno what i was expecting re..Jungle Brothers..but first 3 listens, i am a little disappointed. Been a fan from jump ( Showing my age here ) But this album felt a little forced in delivery and lyrically….Im gonna give it a few more listens tho and see how i feel.

    Anyway…Once again…
    Keep up the great work…
    and
    Stay Safe…S*** is crazy out here…

  9. J.Gemz says:

    Honorable Mention
    J.Gemz -Interstellar
    J.Gemz- Source Code
    J.Gemz- Matrix: 20/20

    3 projects written and recorded in 2019
    Source Code & Interstellar Mixtapes released in 2019
    Matrix :20/20 album released Jan 8 2020

    From Oakland. Ca

    Slept on…😴

  10. AJ says:

    Looks like i need to listen to some J.Gemz 🙂

  11. AJ says:

    Hmmm…Had a listen….Mos Def… Not Slept on….Just alright….nothing more….Nothing less…….

  12. AJ says:

    My Personal Best HipHop Albums of 2020…So Far.
    Majority are on the HHGA List, some of which are new discoveries…so props for the heads up…on some Fire Sonics.

    In no particular order

    The Four Owls -Nocturnal Instinct
    R.A. The Rugged Man – All my heros are dead. ( Just a bit too long )
    KA – Descendents of Cain
    Jamo Gang – Walking with Lions
    Pink Sifu – Negro ( Not exactly Hip Hop per se.But Dope )
    D Smoke – Black Habits
    Onoe Caponoe – Invisible War
    Denzel Curry – Unlocked
    Medhane – Cold Water
    Zeroh – BLQLYTTE ( Again not hip hop as we know it, but dope still )
    CY Fly – Rudebwoy
    Jay Electronica – A Written Testimony
    Casual – Big Head Science
    Jahi & Configa – Forward Future
    R,A,P. Ferreira – Purple midnight pages
    Psypiritual & The lasso – Kirlian
    Boldy James/Alchemist – The price of tea in China
    Duelling Experts – Duelling Experts
    Protektahz – Protektahz of the Lost Art
    The Leonard Simpson Duo – LSD

    Peace EveryTime
    AJ

  13. AJ says:

    Gotta add The Odd Squad and Bombay & Phil Most Chill albums to my list above. Fire albums.

  14. AJ says:

    And these…DOPE AF!!

    Preservation – Eastern Medicine, Western Illness
    K.A.A.N. – Twenty Nine

  15. AJ says:

    Run The Jewels – RTJ4

    Best album of the year so far…ANY GENRE!!

  16. Tātere says:

    Loving the site. Findings new gems for my collection. Biggest surprise so far is, Sons of Yusef. So happy I found HHGA because all this other stuff out now was just crap.

  17. Nicolas says:

    Great site! Great job bringing attention to underground releases that may otherwise go tragically unnoticed. One suggestion; in the case of albums that are not available through streaming services (Jorun PMC, Ankhlejohn, Suitcase Full of Gunz etc.) post a link where they may be found.

  18. Alonzo+Darrow says:

    Reks is better than an honorable mention.

  19. Jason Moore says:

    Where are the Director’s cuts by Ransom!! The third installment is the best music I’ve heard this Year by far.

  20. Jason Moore says:

    I agree!

  21. haz says:

    I like it, but Negro by pinksiifu is a hardcore punk album containing no rapping. It should be on the hip-hop adjacent list, if included at all.

  22. Nukem says:

    Elzhi never disappoints.

  23. Andrew AJ Jones says:

    Just added
    Marlowe – Marlowe 2
    Iron Wigs – Your Birthday is Cancelled
    Apollo Brown & Che Noir – As God Intended
    Sons of Usef – Shayah the World
    Cambatta – LSD

    To my Best of 2020 so far list.

  24. Jenich says:

    Which way is west was mostly produced by Brenk Sinatra. DJ Premier has only tree . #justsayin

  25. STL_Mayne says:

    DAMN!!!!
    shitting all over “Prey For Paris” when its THE BEST ALBUM OF 2020?!?!?!?!

    anyway….no love for Daniel Son either???
    or CRIMEAPPLE???? <——when he put out TWO BANGERS!!!

    but still a decent list.

  26. Mutty Ranks says:

    First things first… I love this site. I visit multiple times a day and have gotten acquainted & reacquainted with so much dope s*** because of it. So thank you to everyone involved and responsible, from the bottom of my heart.

    That said, I have to strongly disagree with many of the rankings on this list (and I’ve listened to the majority of them believe it or not). For example, RTJ4 is not the AOTY. Not being a hater, because I loved their first 3… But that distinction belongs to Blu & Exile for Miles, with Boldy James & The Alchemist’s TPOTIC not far behind it. Alfredo, Mt Marci & Ahnklejohn (AASB) should all be higher… And I’d move Fly Siifu’s, Medhane Cold Water, MIKE weight of the world, Stevie Crooks Street Elegance, lojii lo&behold and Marvalyss Where the Sidewalk Ends out of the Honorable Mentions and into the top 30 minimum.

    Just one man’s opinion anyway. Keep up the great work guys. We appreciate you!

  27. E.J. says:

    Nice list. I didn’t know One.Be.Lo had a new album out. My only gripe is that your Honorable Mention list is really long. All of those albums can’t possibly be worth an honorable mention!

  28. Peter Vejlø Johannsen says:

    Flee Lord owned 2020 with a new album each of the years 12 months and all he gets is an honourable mention on a list soon long u guys kinda made sure to mention everybody. 2 Body James albums?? Nah that dude ONLY sounds remotely interesting if it’s on an Alc beat. A Roc Marci and Freddie Gibbs album? Book please what a horrible thought. No double time rap to ruin any Roc album, please…. That being said, with 50+ albums on the list of course there’s fire as well. Ka killed it w Descendents. Pray for Paris was the best Griselda release All year. Benny’s album, well the less said about it the better.

  29. Bruno says:

    I would put the Liz Tape by Armani Caesar in there but dope list nonetheless.

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