Pitchfork has surprised these days by publishing a list with the 100 best rap albums in history according to its criteria. The list is headed by Mobb Deep’s ‘The Infamous’ (1995) and includes titles as old as Run-DMC’s 1984 debut and as recent as Veeze’s ‘Ganger’, released in 2023. Records that would have been outright illegal to leave out, such as Nas’ ‘Illmatic’ (1994), are duly included. But the list leaves some surprising positions and absences.
‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ is not there
The most famous 10 out of 10 in Pitchfork history, ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ by Kanye West, is considered by many to be his masterpiece, but it seems that the Chicago medium has been deflated in the last 15 years, because it does not appear in any of the 100 positions. West’s only album to appear on the list, ‘Yeezus’ (2023), salutes from an acceptable 27th place.
Pitchfork may be punishing West for his Nazi drift, or it may simply be that the editorial team considers him overrated and does not agree with the opinion of the person who signed that review, Ryan Dombal. “MBDTF”, key in the musical education of artists like Rosalía, was launched on the market with a controversial mastering, but it did not deserve to go from 10 to the most absolute oblivion.
‘To Pimp a Butterfly’, only 44th place
Kendrick Lamar places two albums on the list: the best considered is ‘good kid, mAAd city’, which comes in 12th position. ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’, which at the time was rated 9.3 and voted best album of 2015, has to settle in this review with appearing in a discreet 44th place. One place above appears ‘Die Lit’ (2018) by Playboi Carti, whose score was 8.5 and which, in its corresponding list of the best of the year, only appeared in 25th place.
Again, just because an editor signs a review does not mean that that album has to be collectively valued in the same way. But it seemed that ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ was the key rap album of the 21st century, and Pitchfork this time considers it below works like ‘Some Rap Songs’ (2018) by Earl Sweatshirt (25th place), the – yes – influential ‘DS2’ (2015) by Future (16th place) or the mixtape ‘Rich Gang: Tha Tour Pt. 1’ (2014), which sneaks into the top 10 (position 6, above ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’).
No MIA or British rappers
In the introductory text, Pitchfork promises that the list will be full of works produced in the United States because rap is an “essentially American” invention. Perhaps the absolute contempt for British rap was not so unexpected, but at the very least the inclusion of ‘Boy in Da Corner’ by Dizzee Rascal, which in 2003 received a better score even than ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’, a 9.4, was to be expected.
Ironically, although Pitchfork warns of the lack of women on the list for structural reasons, it seems that they have insisted on leaving them out: MIA does not appear with either ‘Arular’ (2003) or ‘Kala’ (2007), both “Best New Music” at the time (8.6 for the first, 8.9 for the second). Two important works that anticipated the global drift of popular music are ignored.
Hope is offered by Pitchfork readers, who in the list voted for by them do remember ‘Kala’ (96th place) and other British rappers such as Little Simz, whose album ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ (2021) appears at number 64.
Bad Bunny? Lauryn Hill?
There is no doubt that ‘YHLQMDLG’ by Bad Bunny (2020) and ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ (1998) are two great albums. But given the weight of reggaeton and Latin trap in the first album, and neo-soul and R&B in the second, it is difficult to consider them rap albums as such, even if they contain occasional raps. ‘YHLQMDLG’, in position 67, is also the only Latin inclusion, although pioneers like Ivy Queen or Daddy Yankee are mentioned in their corresponding review.
Renewing the canon
The duty of a media specialized in rap like Pitchfork when it prepares lists like this is to bet on new, lesser-known titles, trying to renew the canon of classics. It’s fun to find out what works you’ve never heard of sound like, like ‘Underdog’ (2018) by Duwap Kaine (placed above ‘Doggystyle’ by Snoop Dogg, which opens the ranking), ‘Descendants of Cain’ by KA (2020) or the aforementioned ‘Ganger’ by Veeze (2023); Of course, the history of rap also goes through SoundCloud rap, cloud rap or drill.
Then certain inclusions may seem somewhat forced. Did Pop Smoke ever release a really good album? Is ‘Meet the Woo’, rated 7.6 at the time, really worth watching? And is Nicki Minaj’s best album really her 2009 mixtape, ‘Beam Me Up Scotty’, and not any of her commercial work? According to Pitchfork, Tyler, the Creator has also not improved as an artist since his debut, and his best work is ‘Bastard’, also from 2009, and not, for example, ‘IGOR’ (2019).
With Missy Elliott they are already trying to rewrite history: I agree that ‘Da Real World’ deserves to be in the ranking (it is at 42), but I don’t know if at the expense of ‘Supa Dupa Fly’ (1997) not appearing at all.
Other notable absences
Pitchfork’s concern for not repeating artists (which does not affect either Kendrick Lamar or Notorious BIG, for example) leaves out essential titles such as ‘3 Feet High and Rising’ by De La Soul (1989), ‘Midnight Marauders’ (1993) by A Tribe Called Quest or ‘Stankonia’ (2000) by Outkast, which are voted for by the readers. But The Roots or Ice Cube don’t even appear directly, as if ‘Things Fall Apart’ (1999) and ‘AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted’ (1990) had not existed.
Azealia Banks!
Anthony Fantano laughs at the inclusion of Azealia Banks’ ‘Broke with Expensive Taste’ (2014) in the list of the 100 best rap albums in history. It’s his loss, as the ill-fated Harlem rapper’s only studio album is hilarious and very complete. His “expensive taste” is evident in the productions, but it is his flow and intelligent raps that go down in history. It is surprising that Pitchfork rates it better than ‘The Chronic’ by Dr. Dre (67), but it is clear that there are fans in its editorial team, because personally I imagined ‘Broke’ off the list, and the album that is left out is that of Kanye West.
