featured rap albums
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- Kendrick Lamar
- Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City
- The Compton rapper's much-anticipated official delivers and then some, offering an elevated style of gangster rap along with rock-solid beats.
- Pitbull
- Global Warming
- Christina Aguilera, J. Lo, Afrojack, and others join Mr. 305 on this somewhat messy but ultimately satisfying party album.
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- Game
- Jesus Piece
- With a long list of guest artists, the rapper skillfully explores the divine and the devilish, and how they both feed the soul.
- Public Enemy
- The Evil Empire of Everything
- On their second album of 2012, Public Enemy tackle problems of the present while drawing explicit musical ties to the past.
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- Nicki Minaj
- Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,…
- The superstar rapper adds eight tracks to her second album on this worthwhile improvement or "re-up."
- T.I.
- Trouble Man: Heavy Is…
- Inspired by Marvin Gaye's 1972 film soundtrack work, the Atlanta MC's eighth album is a small step forward from his seventh.
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- Wiz Khalifa
- O.N.I.F.C.
- The follow-up to this stoner MC's 2011 breakout Rolling Papers narrowly avoids becoming the dreaded sophomore slump, but still feels uninspired.
- Run-D.M.C.
- The Essential Run-D.M.C.
- This thoughtful two-disc compilation features every necessary Run-D.M.C. track.
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- Machine Gun Kelly /
- Lace Up
- This Cleveland rapper's debut is a beast of an album, a picture of young underground energy couched in glossy mainstream production.
- Paul Wall
- No Sleep Til Houston
- With help from Bun B and others, the rapper celebrates his hometown of Houston on this back-to-basics winner of a mixtape.
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- K'NAAN
- Country, God or the Girl
- Bono, Nas, and Nelly Furtado join the singer/rapper on this well-rounded effort that offers more personal songs along with his usual political material.
- Why?
- Mumps, Etc.
- Returning to the bolder strokes of 2008's Alopecia, the fifth album from Yoni Wolf and company is their most assured work to date.
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- The Coup
- Sorry to Bother You
- Despite a shift to muscular new wave and a diversion into chamber agitprop, Sorry to Bother You contains some of the Coup's most focused output.
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- Karriem Riggins
- Alone Together
- After two decades in the shadows, drummer/producer Karriem Riggins offers Alone Together, a remarkable achievement in magician-MPC interface.
- MellowHype
- Numbers
- Odd Future duo MellowHype offer up a sinister take on club-banging hip-hop with their third effort, Numbers.
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- P.O.S
- We Don't Even Live Here
- On this 2012 release, Minneapolis' leading anarchist underground rapper offers an exciting blast of revolutionary rhymes and infectious beats.
- 9th Wonder / Murs
- The Final Adventure
- Rapper Murs and producer 9th Wonder end their streak of collaborative albums with one of their best.
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- Roc Marciano
- Reloaded
- The plain title and quantity of outside productions notwithstanding, the Long Island MC's second album is nearly the equal of his first.
- Meek Mill
- Dreams and Nightmares
- The former Grand Hustle signee make his debut on Rick Ross' Maybach Music with slick, swaggering results.
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- Brokencyde
- The Best of BC13
- Combining slick beats, screaming vocals, and sleazy lyrics, parents shudder in horror as the crunkcore group offer 17 of their best.
- Macklemore / Ryan Lewi …
- The Heist
- Seattle rapper Macklemore and versatile producer Lewis offer an exciting combination of fresh and familiar on this rich 2012 release.
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about rap
Rap's germination is sometimes attributed to the righteous street poetry of the Last Poets and the Watts Prophets, but it didn't begin to take full shape -- and earn its tag -- until after the Sugarhill Gang released "Rapper's Delight" in 1979. Since then, rap spread from its New York epicenter throughout the remainder of the U.S. (with each region taking on its own specific flavor) and then to countless countries. Rap's core components are beats and rhymes, but that simplicity belies the wide range of sounds that have sprung from them. Instrumentalists, a sampled breakbeat, or a drum machine can form the backbone of a track, while an arrangement can be spaciously spare or chaotically dense, and a chorus can range from atonal shouting to a sweet melody. Detractors were still calling rap a fad in 1985, when LL Cool J released his first single. They were doing the same thing when, roughly 20 years later, the same MC released his tenth album, and they'll probably continue to do so as long as the genre exists. Should rap ever die, which isn't likely, it would be far too late to prevent its effect on most other music forms, from R&B; to rock to jazz.