#TOP 20 HIP HOP RAP PRO#

It isn't simply that this concept album is more story driven than all of his previous projects - taking listeners inside his upbringing as the youngest of seven siblings with a dream of playing pro ball - it's the brio with which he performs, the engaging ways he embodies his family history and the ways that the history informs the rapper he's become. The Dreamville standout JID was already a dynamic lyricist, but that proficiency finally becomes something more spellbinding than high-powered stunt work on The Forever Story. These are hip-hop's 20 best albums of 2022, a formidable bunch reminding everyone rap can't and won't be stopped. In the wake of everything, rap reunited and revitalized old partnerships, revisited and critiqued old haunts, unearthed powerful new voices and even helped plug a new Minions movie.

Some rappers chose to stay the course this year, growing bolder within their signature styles, and others chose to detonate the monuments built in their image and reimagine their messages.

The rap of 2022 found veterans setting new career benchmarks, breakout rappers rising to meet a fractured monoculture, and rising rappers making bold, position-redefining statements. In reality, rap's influence has never been stronger, and its selection has rarely been more compelling. That's an industry concern, not an artistic one. Some observers have been looking at the tea leaves (streaming metrics) and wondering if the genre's dominance is waning. What does a genre built on words do when those words can, and almost certainly will, be held against its artists in court?īest Music of 2022 The Best Music of 2022īut hip-hop's story is one of surviving adversity, of creating under disadvantageous circumstances, and so the culture has persisted, as it always does, and rappers continued to raise the bar for bars. Thug's lyrics are being weaponized against him. Its reverberations have been quietly felt throughout the rap world. 26 YSL associates were arrested on criminal conspiracy charges in May, and 25 remain in jail, despite the absurdity of those charges. It feels like the Atlanta rap scene, the epicenter of hip-hop, is still recovering. There has been no shortage of abuses, including New York City getting drill rappers removed from the Rolling Loud bill, but one in particular has reverberated across the rap landscape: Young Thug, Gunna, and the members of YSL record label being rounded up and charged in a RICO case. The genre has faced over-policing and sensationalism before, dating back to the NYPD's rap intelligence unit in 1999, but the scope of the crusade has expanded: lyrics continue to be treated like transcripts by the law, rappers are painted as crime lords and their imprints are characterized as mob outfits. Photo Illustration: Jackie Lay/NPR/Derek White/Getty Images for The Recording AcademyĪ pall has been hanging over hip-hop this year: the ongoing criminalization of being a rapper looms large. Pusha T's It's Almost Dry is one of NPR Music's top 20 hip-hop albums of 2022.

Top 20 hip hop rap