When I do these “Year in Review” editorials I want to celebrate hip-hop music and culture. I owe the fact that I’m still alive today to rap. I owe the fact I’m still able to write about to our supporters on Patreon. Unfortunately in an intensely negative economic climate people have been forced to drop out as patrons, which I always understand, but I’ve been waiting for new readers to pick up the slack without me shoving a “please support the site” into every week’s update. One of the oldest sayings I know is “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” so no matter how loathe I am to do so I probably need to make more noise about it. Consider this your final reminder of 2024 and first one of 2025 that without your pledges we’ll have to turn off the lights and pack up. Someone just wrote to me this week (for privacy I’ll refer to him as “B”) and said “I’ve been reading you for 20 years and I just want to say thank you.” I appreciate that, and if you appreciate the site too, don’t let all of this work just go away.

It’s also hard to celebrate when you’re forced to acknowledge the never ending list of rap artists who have passed away due to violence, drug abuse or suicide. It’s hardly unique to rap. Heavy metal and rock music have been eating their own since either genre came to exist, and if I were more in tune with country or folk music I’m sure they could say the same. It’s the paradox of being a creator that art is often born out of trauma, but that same trauma is often inescapable even after the auteur finds success. I offer you the following list of people we lost in 2024 not to depress you (though I admit it might) but as a reminder to give your favorites their flowers while they’re still here.

With that somber list done here is something a little more upbeat — my ten albums of 2024 that you should check out if you already haven’t.

10. Kendrick Lamar – “GNX“

While our review of this album is still pending, it won’t stop me from putting this one on the list as a triumph for Mr. Duckworth on November 22nd. He was already in the running for “Rapper of the Year” for a one-sided dismantling of Aubrey Drake Graham in a highly publicized rap feud. Drake lost the battle so badly that he SUED Universal Music claiming they artificially inflated Lamar’s stats. Tell us you lost without telling us you lost! In addition Lamar revealed he’d perform the Super Bowl halftime show in 2025. Can it get any better for him? Yes it can — “GNX” proves it. Not only is it a well earned victory lap for having an epic year it has already resulted in one of the most memed moments of the last month via his primal scream “MUSTARRRRD!” from the song “tv off.”

9. Snoop Dogg – “Missionary“

For me it’s telling when you can drop an album in your 50’s that’s filled with ghost writers and guest stars, do it VERY LATE in 2024 and still make my top ten. Perhaps with more time to appreciate what he’s done it actually would have ranked even higher. It’s hard to say. What I do know is that hearing from Calvin Broadus at this point feels comfortable and familiar. He’s like your favorite pair of slippers and a hot mug of cocoa on a cold winter day. Even with an album cover that’s intentionally provocative and a well earned parental advisory sticker, he’s still slicker than grease and smoother than silk. I think I could listen to Uncle Snoop spit raps like this for another 30 years.

8. Your Old Droog – “Movie“

In a genre filled with unlikely superstars, the Ukrainian born and Brooklyn raised Dmitry Kutsenko might be at or near the top of the list. What has made him one of my most underrated emcees? Simple. As the late Keith Elam b/k/a Guru once said, it’s “Mostly Tha Voice.” Your Old Droog has the pleasantly melodic New York accent and smooth vocal delivery most rappers would kill for. Rather than ignoring these blessing Droog has taken full advantage of them to “drop 24s like DiCaprio” with some of the wittiest and most entertaining street narratives in the game today.

7. Blueprint – “Falling Down“

I’m going to let Grant Jones do the talking here. “This is further proof of why the culture needs an artist like Blueprint. The concepts, the connection he can muster from the listener, the production (all self-produced, no less) – it’s all so genuine. His choice of hard drums and conversational rhyming retain an uncomplicated quality about them that keeps his style unique amongst a crowd of wordplay-driven lyricists and flashier gangsta stereotypes.”

6. Huey Briss – “Better in Person“

This is another late release that was just too good to leave off my personal “top ten.” I knew very little about Huey Briss going into his album, and left with a firm reminder that Long Beach is more than just Snoop D-O-double-G. Huey Briss takes his claim to rap fame with well written verses and a strong delivery to go with them. He’s elevating hip-hop at a time when too many rappers take the cheap and easy way out by sounding like whatever other emcee just hit the charts on Spotify and SoundScan. Maybe that hasn’t made him a household name (yet) but give him time. He’s young and he can only get better from here.

5. Freeway & Jake One – “The Stimulus Package 2“

There was a time I never would have picked Freeway for any kind of list. At one point he was simply the featured guest on Beanie Sigel’s “Roc the Mic” though he did steal the show doing so. Despite initial skepticism that Freeway’s style made for good full albums he proved me wrong again and again. He’s quietly more consistent than many bigger named and more critically acclaimed emcees, and by linking up with Jake One to do a sequel to his best received effort, he’s proved that not all sequels are a cheap cash in using previous recognition to profit. In fact this sequel might be better than the original.

4. Dom Kennedy – “Class of 95“

I’ll keep this one simple. Dom Kennedy graduated from “featured artist” to “rap star” with this album for me. This album caused me to revise my opinion of Dom and revisit his entire catalogue, and when one single album can do that how can it NOT be in the top ten? Case closed.

3. NxWorries – “Why Lawd?“

I’ve got a better question — WHY NOT? Both the Grammy award winning Anderson .Paak and rap producer Knxwledge put their best foot forward here and achieved something far too rare these days. This is an album you can listen to from beginning to end and never once feel like you need to press fast forward. Some songs are good and some are great but there’s no dull moments or wasted effort. As I said in my review the hardest thing to do when you’re already critically acclaimed is repeat your prior success, but .Paak in particular answered all his critics with this one.

2. Rapsody – “Please Don’t Cry“

Once again I’ll defer to a staffer’s word and give you Sy’s view on this one. “It’s ironic that Rapsody would name her latest album ‘Please Don’t Cry’. Since damn near every track bleeds emotionally like an episode of ‘This Is Us’, how can one expect a listener do anything but? The precision with which she cuts through the folds of her own psyche is pointed, splaying out her strengths and insecurities in rapped form for all to hear and take something away from.”

1. Common x Pete Rock – “The Auditorium“

It’s fair to express skepticism about the “big names” of rap production and how many dickriders they have. I think the likes of DJ Mustard and Mike WiLL Made-It deserve just as many accolades as 9th Wonder and DJ Premier. If we worship one sound or style with disdain of all others then we enforce a detrimental self-limiting envelope for rap music that artists can never push out of. Maybe Pete Rock is one of those people who have had too many nut huggers over the years — but maybe it doesn’t matter when you make an album this good with an equally legendary emcee. Listen to “This Man” and tell me it doesn’t stir your soul. You’re lying. This album is the antidote to everybody who says hip-hop is dead. It can’t be with albums like this.