As is usually the case for big publications' lists on hip-hop albums, Rolling Stone's picks for the best rap LPs of the 21st century ruffled a lot of feathers within the culture and the art form's community. Let's run through their top ten real quick, in ascending order. It goes like this: Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly (2015), MF DOOM and Madlib's Madvillainy (2004) under the Madvillain moniker, Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III (2008), Drake's Take Care (2011), Missy Elliott's Under Construction (2002), Jay-Z's The Blueprint (2001), Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), K.Dot again (the only artist to repeat with good kid, m.A.A.d. city (2012), and topping the list is Outkast's 2000 classic Stankonia.
It's a pretty solid Rolling Stone list in our opinion, albeit with some glaring omissions, but it's impossible to make a perfect list of the ten best hip-hop albums of the 21st century. Plenty of fans had some hot takes, excuses, and condemnations to make online, especially in the thick of list season a quarter of the way into the century. For example, Drake recently received the title of biggest rapper of the century from Billboard.
Rolling Stone's Ten Best Rap Albums Of The 21st Century
Still, amid all this debate, we wonder if some of the best albums of 2024 will eventually turn into century-defining classics, whether that's huge releases like Tyler, The Creator's CHROMAKOPIA or more obscure yet nonetheless relevant fan favorites like Mach-Hommy's #RICKAXXHAITIAN. Still, without picks like Future's DS2, Ye's earlier 2000s output, Nicki Minaj's dominant run, and many others, fans are filling in the gaps in this Rolling Stone list. But these debates are literally the reason why these lists exist, so can we really express surprise?
Meanwhile, with the Grammys rapidly on the way, this also mirrors the discussion over which rap albums were snubbed this year. Props to Rolling Stone for putting this list together, as it opens up more opportunities for fans to make their case for their favs. Hopefully fans focus on finding and appreciating more rap music from many different corners rather than hyper-fixating on omissions.