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Arguably the most dominant genre in current popular culture, hip-hop’s hot streak shows no signs of slowing down in 2024. This was another fantastic year in rap, with far more going on than just the much-publicised back and forth beef between two of its biggest stars. The past 12 months have seen new heroes step up, legends of the style returning to show they still have plenty left in the tank and established artists delivering career-best albums.
These are the 10 finest hip-hop releases of the year.
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10. Schoolboy Q – Blue Lips
The first album in five years for the hugely influential LA star proved worth the wait. Q’s typically manic vocal delivery was at its most aggressively playful here, and the mix of eclectic old school beats, swerving rhythms and gorgeous experimental passages, courtesy of heavyweight producers such as The Alchemist and Beat Butcher, made Blue Lips an incredible ride through hip-hop’s history.
9. Manga Saint Hilare – Everything is Under Control
A well-known name in the UK grime scene for many years, Manga Saint Hilare released the finest work of his career with Everything is Under Control. Essentially an exploration on his own mental health, Manga uses old school jungle beats, stirring strings and euphoric electronics as a backing for opening himself up. Discussing his own personal fears and struggles with identity, social conformity and negative masculine stereotypes, Everything is Under Control is both beautifully poignant and chock full of bangers.
8. Pete Rock and Common – The Auditorium Vol.1
For those who long for a return to the type of lackadaisical, soul-filled, socially conscious rap of the mid-90’s, The Auditorium Vol.1 must have felt like a dream come true. Common brings a sense of positivity and wonderment to the album, musing on his continuing search for bettering himself via imaginary meetings with everyone from Prince to Aretha Franklin to Martin Luther King Jr, but the star of the album is unquestionably Pete Rock. The legendary producer creates such a gorgeous, warm and soulful sound to the album it’s impossible not to feel like you’ve been transported back to rap’s golden era. Old heads rejoice.
7. Lupe Fiasco – Samurai
There’s a very strong argument that Samurai is the finest Lupe Fiasco album since his landmark Lazers in 2011. Inspired by a viewing of the Amy Winehouse documentary Amy, Fiasco’s effortlessly liquid flow attempts to capture the feel of Winehouse if she were a battle rapper. High concept aside, the musings on the ills and perils of the entertainment industry are sublimely articulated here; add in the woozy, spacey production on a tune like Cake and you’ve got a seriously impressive return to top form.
6. JPEGMAFIA – I Lay Down My Life For You
Peggy has been one of the most idiosyncratic rappers of the modern era for some time now. His work is usually characterised by seemingly throwing every idea in his head together at once and somehow making it stick, but on his fifth full-length album he managed to have his cake and eat it. Yes, the usual genre swerving, sharp left turns were there (Sin Miedo manages to ride along on a hard rock riff before turning into French techno with zero warning), but ILMLDFY certainly has a sharper focus on palpable hooks. The result; the biggest and best sounding album of JPEGMAFIA’s career.
5. Doechii – Alligator Bites Never Heal
The Tampa, Florida rapper’s third mixtape emerged during a year where she performed features with some seriously high-profile artists, from Tyler the Creator to Katy Perry, but, sensibly, she saved her best for her own material.
Alligator Bites Never Heal is a brilliantly confident album of dark, threatening hip hop, catchy R&B and experimental trap, with Doechii reflecting on her struggles with success or lashing out at anyone that ever doubted her. It’s a gloriously frenzied performance throughout, perfectly evidenced on the dual-vocal internal monologue of album highlight Denial is a River.
4. Kneecap – Fine Art
It was a breakout year for the Belfast trio, and their Heavenly Records debut- conceptualised as a night on the lash in fictional bar The Rutz – was the perfect statement that helped turn them into one of the most infamous bands of 2024. Taking in elements of classic house, UK garage, drum and bass, punk, traditional Irish music and an uncompromising political messaging spoken in their mother tongue, there really is no one else that sounds like Kneecap. Fine Art could have been too worthy or too alienating in the hands of others, but Kneecap remembered to deliver their message with a huge dose of fun and instantly catchy ragers. Activism has rarely sounded this joyous.
3. Ka – The Thief Next to Jesus
Brooklyn-based artist Ka’s, ninth and final album took on extra emotional significance when he tragically passed away a mere 2 months after its release. Through a musical backdrop of warped and manipulated gospel music, Ka explores his wilting faith through dense, quiet, reflective rhymes. The result, particularly considering that added context, is an album with incredible weight that you can feel pushing down on you, as Ka wrestles with how the things he’s seen have shaped his beliefs. Serious, yes. A deeply challenging listen, unquestionably. But crucially it’s also a dazzling and angelic listen, and a magnificent final statement from a true one-off artist.
2. Kendrick Lamar – GNX
Not content with being the most talked about rapper of the year- his feud with Drake causing utter chaos and inspiring a thousand and one headlines across media outlets across the globe – hip-hop’s undoubted MVP decided to shock release a new album from out of nowhere.
Unsurprisingly, GNX was full of surprises; rejecting the introspective musings and minimalist sounds of 2022’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers for a more R&B and G-funk, Cali sound. Kendrick roared out of the traps initially, attacking all and sundry on opening track Wacced Out Murals, but as GNX progresses his reflections on balancing his muse and his ego revealed a depth that may have passed people by upon first listen. The spectacular Reincarnated might just be the best song of the year, proving once again that, when Kendrick is on form, there’s not an artist alive that can live with him.
1. Elucid – Revelator
As one half of the critically adored Armand Hammer, Queens, New York MC Elucid may have been somewhat overshadowed by the magnetic charisma of his bandmate Billy Woods in the eyes of some. But he is an artist with a long, varied and inspiring back catalogue, and Revelator is as good as he has ever sounded.
This is a record of grey, dank, dark, oppressive, paranoia, the perfect accompaniment to wandering the battered streets of a bustling metropolis in the pouring rain. Musically Revelator clangs, bangs, twitches, judders and stabs, beats stuttering and stumbling one minute, before turning into walls of white noise the next. It’s not easy to grasp, but Elucid’s front-footed, part whispered, part growled bars, seemingly delivered through gritted teeth, are superbly hypnotic. “Hush, hush, even death got a melody” he sighs on almost noise rock of CCTV, there’s not much melody here, but Revelator is a terrifyingly captivating album.
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