The best hip-hop albums celebrate classic styles with new approaches, blend rap with electronic, jazz, and soul, and push the boundaries of genre.
Part autobiography and homage to the city that made him, MICHAEL is a lushly-produced and defiantly Southern hip-hop album from Atlanta rapper Killer Mike.
2011 was a year of great diversity, in which rap fans were faced with enough variety to find whatever flavor of hip-hop they wanted.
Run the Jewels have always had a taste for action-movie hyperbole, but as they've powered through their careers, the lines between slapstick and real have almost ceased to exist.
Run the Jewels' "Ooh LA LA" may hit with old-school hip-hop swagger, but it also frustratingly affirms misogynistic bro-culture.
