2021 Rap Up (Top 25 Albums)

There is little introduction necessary for most of the artists and even the albums in the top 25 this year, so I see no reason to delay. Let’s start with 50, so that you can the list in its totality.

50. Lil Yachty – Michigan Boat Boy

49. Rx Papi – 100 Miles & Running

48. Ol’ Burger Beats & Vuyo – Dialogue.

47. Drake – Certified Lover Boy

46. YG & Mozzy – Kommunity Service

45. Pi’erre Bourne – The Life of Pi’erre 5

44. Saweetie – Pretty Summer Playlist: Season 1

43. Kanye West – DONDA

42. Baby Keem – The Melodic Blue

41. YUNGMORPHEUS & ewonee – Thumbing Thru Foliage

40. Pooh Shiesty – Shiesty Season

39. AJ Tracey – Flu Game

38. DMX – Exodus

37. Common – A Beautiful Revolution (Pt. 2)

36. Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats – Unlocked 1.5

35. Moneybagg Yo – A Gangsta’s Pain

34. CZARFACE & MF DOOM – Super What?

33. Ransom & Rome Streetz – Coup De Grace

32. Nas – King’s Disease II

31. Aesop Rock & Blockhead – Garbology

30. Atmosphere – WORD?

29. J. Cole – The Off-Season

28. Mick Jenkins – Elephant in the Room

27. Guilty Simpson & Gensu Dean – EGO

26. Rome Streetz & Futurewave – Razor’s Edge

Now onto the top 25.

25. Jim Jones & Harry Fraud – The Fraud Department

That Jim Jones is still coming this hard this late into his career is impressive. Songs like “Barry White” exemplify just what makes his appeal so enduring too: no part of the song overstays its welcome, the verses feed into the hook, and the hook cements all that came before it.

24. Rome Streetz & ANKHLEJOHN – Genesis 1:27

There’s something about hearing Rome Streetz just go. Give him a beat and watch what he does. “Kings” is my personal favorite on this record, but I think that formula is when he’s at his best.

23. Solemn Brigham – South Sinner Street

You may know Brigham from his collaborations with L’Orange as Marlowe (the two released records in 2018 and 2020). Here he is on his own and it’s quickly clear that just how good those two records with L’Orange are were just the start.

22. Wale – Folarin II

Between Wale and J. Cole, early 2010’s Zach was incredibly happy this year. For years, Wale sounded detached from not just the lifestyle and fame that came with his rise, but the act of continuing to make music for a growing audience and not for himself. Now, it’s different. He’s doing what he wants, and he’s starting to excel once again. It’s a wonderful thing to see.

21. Maxo Kream – WEIGHT OF THE WORLD

Absolutely one of my personal favorite rappers making music. While I didn’t think this album is as good as either Punken or Brandon Banks, Maxo Kream is as captivating as ever. There are so few rappers that have command of a beat like he does, a skill of his on full display on tracks like “THEY SAY.”

20. Mykki Blanco – Broken Hearts & Beauty Sleep

Somehow managing to consistently slip under-the-radar while consistently putting how some real great work, Mykki is at it again with Broken Hearts & Beauty Sleep. An artist that is never afraid to push themselves into new sounds, Blanco is guaranteed to keep you on your toes track over track (for a primer on the record, listen to either “Free Ride” or “It’s Not My Choice”).

19. Westside Gunn – Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Sincerely Adolf

Look at that feature list: Stove God Cook$, Mach-Hommy, Rome Streetz, Conway the Machine, Boldy James, and Benny the Butcher. Yeah, I don’t feel the need to elaborate on this one.

18. Big Ghost Ltd & Conway the Machine – If It Bleeds It Can Be Killed

For my money, Big Ghost Ltd is the only producer whose output has even begin to rival The Alchemist’s the last few years (okay, don’t sleep on Harry Fraud either). His best has come with Conway and perhaps none better than this. Griselda records (Conway the Machine, Benny the Butcher, Westside Gunn, etc.) is known for rapping over dark beats, but Bit Ghost Ltd outdoes himself on this one.

17. Benny the Butcher – The Plugs I Met 2

It is telling that I am ranking Benny’s 2021 LP, The Plugs I Met 2 at 17, and thinking, “I am just waiting on the project from him where he realizes his full potential.” Because here’s the thing: when he does? It’s over for everybody else. Y’all are going to have to wrap up your end of year awards and send all of them to him immediately.

16. McKinley Dixon – For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her

Another record that excels best when listened to in full, McKinley Dixon’s For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her is an album that just does not settle. It does not settle into a single feeling, a single style, or even a single sound necessarily. It’s a record that demands your attention and rewards you when you pay attention. One that is worth all 48 minutes of its runtime.

15. Pink Siifu – GUMBO’!

Pink Siifu might be the artist, on this list full of artists playing with sounds, form, and style, refuses to be boxed in the most. GUMBO’! carries the torch from his frenetic, rage-filled and rage-inducing 2020 record, NEGRO, and spins it into something new. As the album settles into its second half, it really shows just why Pink Siifu should be an artist whom you listen to whenever something new drops.

14. Rome Streetz & DJ Muggs – Death & The Magician

I told y’all that Rome Streetz was going to be all over this list and here he settles in with his fourth and highest-ranking record, Death & The Magician. I always try to figure best to quantitatively measure these albums, and sometimes you just have to rely on gut feeling. Sometimes you just have to recognize when a verse makes you stop what you’re doing to listen, you better recognize. “High Explosive” was that song for me off this record. Just absolutely filthy.

13. Vince Staples – Vince Staples

I’ll be honest with you; this album took me a minute to come around on. When I did though, it really starts to pick up. For the large part, it doesn’t sound too much like Vince’s other work. It’s also quite a bit shorter than some of his previous albums. But he’s just as clever as ever, his lyricism is biting, and the production suits his approach to the record exactly.

12. Injury Reserve – By the Time I Get to Phoenix

An improvement on the style honed on their 2018 record, Injury Reserve, the group turns a corner on By the Time I Get to Phoenix. Nothing is ever the same. Each track pushes their own abilities, as well as you as the listener. It is ambitious, which means it can veer into messy, but it is nonetheless a marvelous and at times delirious album.

11. Boldy James & The Alchemist – Bo Jackson

I don’t think I have ever heard an Alchemist beat that I didn’t like. The last few years though as he has collaborated with almost all of Griselda, he has absolutely found his wheelhouse. It is almost unbelievable that this guy continues to put together this level of work. For his part, Boldy James continues to get better with each passing record. Once who I might have considered the weakest rapper on his label (again, the bar is real high over there though), he is now consistently competing for the top spot. “Turpentine” may not be the best track on the album, but it exemplifies what makes these two so special in their own ways.

10. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Haram

Well, look who it is again! The sonic, thematic, and lyrical cohesiveness is the biggest factor for me sliding this record with The Alchemist over his other record. The rest of this list is marvelous, but as I listen back to Haram as I write this, it almost starts to feel wrong to not rank this higher.

9. JPEGMAFIA – LP!

There’s only song on this record that runs longer than 4 minutes, in case you wondered about the pace of this 18-track record. JPEGMAFIA hits the throttle and largely never looks back. Which makes it such a feat that for all the kinetic energy, he has such control over it. In part, all you can do is marvel as he speeds past.

8. Skyzoo – All the Brilliant Things

I am not waiting for retrospectives or deep dives on underrated 2000s rap records to give this man his flowers. The time is now to recognize that there are few artists that have been as consistent as Skyzoo has since his 2009 record, The Salvation. The wildest part of all of it? I firmly believe this is his best record.

7. Dave – We’re All Alone in This Together

There’s a surprisingly level of emotional honesty and vulnerability on this record that has tracks that slap the way “In the Fire” does. Dave is doing it all on We’re All Alone in This Together. He doesn’t just dig deeper on his songwriting but how he approaches rapping. From a conceptual perspective, it is an album that doesn’t just reflect him digging deep, but in the throes of a worldwide pandemic, it hits the listener deeper too. It feels like Dave is discovering things about himself at the same time he raps them to us. It’s an uncommonly intimate experience and a genuinely beautiful record.

6. MIKE – Disco!

Yet another record where only one song clocks in over 4 minutes. What’s interesting about Disco! Though is that it doesn’t move at the speed of something like LP! necessarily. MIKE just absolutely refuses to waste a single second. Each track on the record feels like MIKE hopped in the booth, rapped for as long as he could without stopping, then wrapped it up to get a drink of water. Despite often feeling that way too, MIKE is another rapper who has a remarkably cohesive vision of what he wants to convey in each verse. He leaves you just wanting to hear more and before you know it, you’ll rolled through the whole record once again.

5. Wiki – Half God

I’ve always known Wiki was a talented rapper from his solo work and his features. But I didn’t know he could put together a whole album like this. Each song seems to build on the last, leaving the listener grabbing for more, diving further into his psyche, taking the ride with him. That may make it seem like a bit of a drag, but this is fun as hell. If there’s one thing you can count on Wiki for, it is never being boring. This is the kind of record that you put to listen to one or two tracks and end up listening to the whole damn thing. I’d also like to acknowledge how much I love his crooning on “Never Fall Off.”

4. Ka – A Martyr’s Reward

Can this guy make a bad record? Hell, even just average? It shouldn’t be possible to be this great all the time. Ka records, no matter who the collaborator, are like movies. That’s not just because of their albums, but they have a cinematic quality. I truly wish I was better with my words to be able to effectively describe what I mean by that. But go and listen to “Peace Peace Peace” and let it roll into “Sad to Say,” and you’ll feel it. The editing is seamless, he orchestrates his raps as an auteur might work from behind a camera, and ultimately, you know the best way to understand what is happening is to just shut up and listen.

3. Mach-Hommy – Pray for Haiti

That opening track, “The 26th Letter,” is as good a track as you’ll find on many of the records on this list and it’s literally just the beginning of Pray for Haiti. Effectively the straddling the line between “saying something” with your album and making songs that work on their own is a damn near impossible task. Mach-Hommy does it as good as anybody on this record. Not only that, but there isn’t a moment where his voice falters. On a song-to-song basis, the record is magnificent, but taken start to finish? This is an album that we could talk about being one of the best of the 2020s by the end of the decade.

2. Little Simz – Sometime I Might Be Introvert

Every part of this makes me happy. Little Simz consistently blows me away largely because I am always so certain that there is no way she could top herself. GREY Area (from 2019) is an album that most artist dream of making. But she wasn’t done. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is the simultaneously the most ambitious and most unified of any of her records to date. Where GREY Area was largely just straight rapping, Little Simz decided to expand her horizons on this record, and it all works. The interludes, the features, the production, the changes in her flow, her songwriting. It’s such a personal record for her that never feels inaccessible to the listener. Just the opposite. As the chorus on “I See You” reverberates through its outro, “With you, I’ll never be alone…I hope I never wake up.”

1. Tyler, the Creator – CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

From the beginning of his career, really, you have never known what you were going to get from Tyler, the Creator. It is an exercise in futility trying to fit him and his work in a neat box. In 2019, I ended up deciding against including him in my Rap Up and slotted his record, IGOR, in one of my overall top records of the year. He’s back and this time with a record that is undoubtedly rap. It is also an album that is indebted to Tyler’s growth (transformation?) on IGOR from a few years back. There might be no song that illustrates that better than “WUSYANAME.” A track that sounds like it was leftover production from IGOR for Charlie Wilson, it somehow seamlessly melds together Tyler’s smoothness and YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s bouncy flow over a terrific sample of H-Town’s “Back Seat (Wit No Sheets).” This is what he does though. Takes what he has always done, where he’s been, and elevates it.

Here’s another somehow underrated component of Tyler’s work: he absolutely knows how to tap into the very best parts of his featured guests. Take YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Lil Uzi Vert, or Lil Wayne. It’s no secret how abundantly talented all these rappers are, especially the latter legend. But how Tyler bobs and weaves out of these tracks taking advantage of what each of these cats does best is effortless to say the least. It never feels out of character for the record either. Granted, Pharrell certainly played a role on “JUGGERNAUT” and how that track takes advantage of Lil Uzi Vert’s dynamism, but he and Tyler, the Creator are cut from the same cloth. Or rather, Tyler is assuredly cut from Pharrell’s cloth (especially his work with The Neptunes). None of this talk about how exceptionally good the production is all over the record in very different ways even starts to touch how good the songwriting is. “WILSHIRE” and “MASSA” stand as testaments to that. (Lil Wayne may have also given the guest verse of the year on “HOT WIND BLOWS.”) I’d love to find something I don’t like about this record, but I honestly don’t think it’s there. There’s nothing about the record necessarily that’s groundbreaking, not even for Tyler. He’s been proving himself in this space for years now. He’s one of the best. But I’ll be damned if this record doesn’t just make you want to immediately re-listen to every part of it as soon as each part is done. Sometimes that’s all I want. I just want to keep listening, keep finding new things to love, keep hearing new things. Since at least Flower Boy, Tyler, the Creator has established himself as an artist whose work you listen to the very day it releases. That hasn’t changed with this year’s addition of CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST. In fact, it is clearer than ever.

Out of this whole list, I genuinely hope you find something new to listen to this holiday season, or perhaps even give a record you weren’t sure about another chance! Either way, it’s been my pleasure to recap so many great albums from a lot of great artists. I look forward to this every year, and this year in particular, it feels like sort of a balm for me. I hope the overall Albums of the Year posts in the next few days are the same way.

Until then, stay safe.