The Best (and Worst) Rap Albums of 2016

By Trevor Durham on January 7, 2017

2016 has been a crucial year for hip-hop albums: seeing the rise of trap in the mainstream following 2015’s Fetty Wap and Future boom, the come up of mumble rap, and the crash of long time titans. There aren’t many living performers who didn’t stick their heads up, from Eminem’s Campaign Speech to Jay Z’s strange verse on Pop Style. This write up features the top of the charts, the worst let downs, and the projects that were only worth one listen before setting on the shelf. Let’s take our lists in the inverse order, so you can get angry at my choices before you see what topped my playlists.

 

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2016

 

  • Views, by Drake

 

Long ago, Drake fans could hold onto the seminal classic Nothing was The Same to show that the singing rapper had some talent. You can flash back to HYFR and Best I Ever Had, look at Thank Me Later or Take Care, and hope his career continued to rise. But instead, we’re given the cop-out that is Views, an album without much soul. The 20 tracks all blend together, never varying much (except for Grammys perhaps). You’ve got One Dance, Hotline Bling, and Pop Style, but is this the Drake we signed up for? It may not be Meek Mill, but he took this L (quality, not sales- we know how well he sells).

  • Lil Boat, by Lil Yachty

 

I hate mumble rap. Let it be known. There’s no merit to this trap mixtape to me, and I doubt my love for Yachty will ever move after hearing his horrible interviews and consideration of hip hop culture. Hard pass.

  • Blank Face, by Schoolboy Q

 

TDE has been waiting a long while for Q’s fourth album, a follow up to his junior slam Oxymoron. Everybody is still bumping Collard Greens and Studio, so when word came of Blank Face, hype was an understatement. Instead the album we got was just okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

  • 4 Your Eyez Only, by J. Cole

 

Sorry, Jermaine. As someone who goes back to Friday Night Lights and The Warm Up, I feel betrayed that your newest work is weaker than your mixtapes, 2016 being almost ten years after you started putting out music. While trademark Cole lyrics and hooks are still here, the project feels less cohesive than 2014 Forest Hills Drive, with less of an odyssey, less tracks to ride out to, and less of what has chronicled his evolution. It isn’t the worst album, and the final track may be the most powerful thing Cole has ever dropped, but the rest of the album is mediocre at best, his weakest at the worst.

 

MIXED BAGS AND DIRTY RAGS OF 2016

 

  • Lil Big Pac, by Kodak Black

 

Not a huge fan of Kodak Black, especially as a person, but the Floridian has gotten some strong music out of this project. Some songs hit, many miss, and the ambitious title/cover suggest that it will be a masterpiece- oh well.

  • Splendor & Misery, by clipping.

 

I love clipping. The lyrics are experimental, the sounds are invigorating. The strange is turned musical, as their debut album CLPPNG showed. Some of the songs on S&M are still a party, like Wake Up, Story 5, and All Black. Daveed Diggs has grown exponentially after his Hamilton years, and this album is even better than his first, but what prevents this from being in my favorite albums of the year is just that it feels that he wants to do too many things. The album is bursting at the seams. It’s the only album in this section I still listen to, but perhaps the album should have been fleshed out in two.

  • The Hamilton Mixtape, by Various

 

Oh, we’re going there. If Daveed Diggs could have intervened in this project, he may have spoken up and told everyone that having Sia, Queen Latifah, and Kelly Clarkson on the same album as Busta, Watsky, and Wiz Khalifa was a recipe for disaster. Switching moods, switching styles, and switching genres make this album a collection of the incredible and the horrid. Washingtons by Your Side is one of the best songs of 2016, My Shot is a great remix, and hearing Chance do another song with Francis is what saves Lin’s first mix.

  • Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World, by Lil Uzi Vert

 

Metro Boomin was very busy in 2016, and he spent some of this time with Lil Uzi Vert to make a little bit of magic for the upcoming Philadelphiarapper. Singles like You Was Right, Money Longer, and Scott and Ramona are what float the 9 track album, but along with the above fourth-project-glooms, Vert just doesn’t fit all the pieces together.

  • Awaken, My Love!, by Childish Gambino

 

Hard to take one of my old favorites down like this, but Royalty fans remember Glover talking about projects he’s written and trashed- I’m glad he didn’t trash this one. I loved the first half and ending of Awaken, My Love!. Really. My problem with Glover’s third studio album is that it’s been written out as a Childish Gambino album. Glover uses different names for his different ventures, as a screenwriter, stand up comedian, musician, rapper, and more. Gambino is his rapper name. Getting a soul/gospel/funk album was nice, but as a fan who’s been waiting for Fire Fly style lyrics since Because the Internet, I was hurt. Not happening in 2016 I suppose. Maybe we’ll get his rhymes back one day. Maybe.

  • untitled unmastered., by Kendrick Lamar

 

 

Sorry K-Dot. You gave me a B-sides mixtape as a studio album, one that floats your incredible lyrics in a period after your incredible poetic TPAB and expected my standards to be lower. The jazz, the rhymes, the Kendrick I love is here, but there’s no connection that set Lamar apart with good kid, m.A.A.d.city or To Pimp a Butterfly. It just wasn’t what I was looking for in this project. After you and J. Cole getting us so excited for a 2016 project in your Black Friday, shame.

 

THE GLORIOUS LIGHTS OF 2016

 

  • iiiDrops, by Joey Purp

 

A friend and collaborator of Lil Chano’s, Joey Purp shocked and awed with his summer 2016 mix. Still free, still phenomenal, it begins strong with Morning Sex, ramps up with features from Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa, even having an appearance of Donnie Trumpet. A surprising delight.

  • Collegrove, by 2Chainz

 

2Chainz has been winning every day of 2016. Have you seen Most Expensivist Shit? His mixtape Felt Like Cappin’ and Daniel Son, Necklace Don were some of the best, but only one album of his will make the lists- his collaboration with Lil Wayne. Birdman fucked Wayne out of credit one a phenomenal slam, with the infectious Bounce, MFN Right, Gotta Lotta – shit, the whole tape is great.

  • The Life of Pablo, by Kanye West

 

Let’s not talk about the times leading to TLOP or the horrible depression and mental issues Mr. West has suffered. Let’s talk about the music. Along with the help of Chance, Kanye gave us a shocking gospel album with infectious music, vocals, verses, and presentation. His vulnerability on FML, his fun on Waves and Freestyle 4, let alone 2016’s best song Ultralight Beam- while it took a few days to digest, fans and foes agree that Kanye dominated 2016 at the start.

  • Coloring Book, by Chance the Rapper

 

Chance has graduated with his third solo project. Striking the mainstream and hitting oil, Lil Chano from 79th has exploded onto the speakers of people from all around the world. Personally, 10 Day was a stronger project, but his themes have found a peak with the gospel, verses, and sound effects that make Chance the biggest up-and-comer of 2016. He gave us most of the strongest tracks on TLOP, and not four months later, gave us his own album. Blessings keep falling in our laps all 2016 long.

  • The Storm, by Tech N9ne

 

Technician I am, whole-heartedly. Tech’s 2016 album is a follow-up to his first, an album nearing two decades old. But damn has he come a long way. The album is a non-stop ride, with features from Korn, most of Strange Music’s crew, and even Boyz II Men. The album is presented in sections that chronicle a journey through an almost religious experience, and each have rises and falls in mood. Hit singles like Sriracha, Erbody but Me, and What If It Was Me are all guaranteed successes, but when you discover Need Jesus, I Get It Now, and The Needle, it changes how you swallow the album. I picked up this album the same day I got 4 Your Eyes Only and Awaken, My Love! but I’d gone through this album 6 times completely before I even unwrapped the others. Every song is it’s own work of art, starting with Godspeed, and riding to The Long Way. Not to mention the bonus disc that doubles the music you get in Tech’s seventeenth album. Putting out an album a year, if not two big projects, I’m astonished that Yates still has this much impressive material, raw lyricism, and his chopper style grows with each release. Tech N9ne jumped back into 2016 at the finish, but sprinted to the win. Say it with me: Technician I am, whole-heartedly, in life, and, in death. STRANGE MUSIC!

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