What makes a great rap album? It's about style. It's about artistry. It's about challenging the norm. It's about staying in control of your music, rather than chasing trends. There were many such albums in 2007, so narrowing this list to 27 was a bit challenging. Without further ado, I give you the 27 best rap albums of 2007.
Honorable Mentions: Bayani (Blue Scholars), How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? (Pubic Enemy), and Port Authority (Marco Polo).17. Freeway - Free At Last
© Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam
Free At Last seems an unlikely album to command devotion -- wryly hypnotic, intensely emotional, rhymes delivered in a grunt that suggests Freeway is tired of being slept on. These conflating ingredients yield a palette of tunes that sound heartfelt rather than affected.
16. El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
© Definitive Jux
15. DJ Jazzy Jeff - Return of the Magnificent
Jazzy Jeff’s latest album offers a balanced diet of hard-hitting gems (“Hold It Down,” “Brand New Funk 2K7”) and soul-tugging grooves (“All I Know,” “The Garden”). Laudable collaborations with Method Man, CL Smooth, and Dave Ghetto help make The Return of the Magnificent a triumphant comeback from one of hip-hop’s most revered innovators.
14. Devin the Dude - Waiting to Inhale
© Rap-A-Lot
13. Joel Ortiz - The Brick/Bodega Chronicles
© Koch
After listening to upstart Joel Ortiz's The Brick: Bodega Chronicles, you'll swear there's no bright spot in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York. Ortiz raps about the grave injustices that shroud the streets and his constant quest for survival. But it's the authenticity in his rhymes that makes this album an enthralling musical ride.
"Brooklyn B*******" [ Video ]"Hip-Hop" [ Video ]
12. Sharkey & C-Rayz Walz - Monster Maker
© Babygrande
As much as we hate to admit it, we're all monsters on the inside. Even the most benign of us aren't immune from reaching a breaking point every now and then. That's the concept behind Monster Maker. It's a well executed concept, as C-Rayz Walz and DJ Sharkey manage to stuff some of the fiercest cutting edge music of 2007 into 12 songs. Best of all, the album's brief run time leaves no room for redundancy. This is "alien music" at its finest.
11. Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab
© Def Jam
2007 saw the dramatic fall of many artists who could use some serious rehab, but Ghostface is not one of them. If anything, the lyrics on Big Doe Rehab affirm that Ghost still has a bottomless supply of absurd imageries left in him.
10. Little Brother - The Getback
© ABB
Don't expect the music on Little Brother's new album to take a nosedive just because their chief boardsman, 9th Wonder, walked away from the group. Jazzy horn sections and thumping drums from Nottz, Illmind, and others provide Phonte and Big Pooh with a backdrop for their nail-biting (and often comical) musings.
9. Prodigy - Return of the Mac
© Koch
Don't let the title fool you; This isn't the album where Prodigy dons his limited edition G-Unit hat, grabs a few groupies and balls out like a pimp. Return of the Mac is, in fact, a back-to-basics, hardcore rap album that hearkens to the 90s era Mobb Deep. Alchemist, who produced the entire disc, keeps the soundscape gritty and cohesive, making it easier for P to focus on his CSI-esque crime tales.
8. Common - Finding Forever
© Geffen
Finding Forever picks up where Be left off, with Common unleashing some blistering social commentary and Kanye supplying the gentle soulfulness. But it's the "conscious n***a with more mac than Steve Jobs" attitude that keeps things varied and interesting here.
