Ranking 10 Best Rap Albums of All Time

In the ninth episode of Billboard Unfiltered, Billboard staffers Carl Lamarre, Trevor Anderson, Damien Scott and Kyle Denis break down the top 10 best rap albums of all time and elaborate on why and how they earned their ranking. They also analyze Kendrick Lamar’s music video for “Not Like Us,” how Shaboozey was able to get his first No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and more!

Damien Scott:
All these callbacks that for someone who is reportedly so offline, he seems to know a lot about what people are doing online.

Kyle Denis:
It’s just a fantastic freaking moment, a Nigerian-American country star with a No. 1 single.

Carl Lamarre:
We went through 100-11 the last few weeks … the top 10!

There was some fireworks on the Fourth of July, seven o’clock Eastern time, courtesy of Mr. Kendrick Lamar officially dropping the “Not Like Us” video. It has 41 million views in five days on YouTube.

Trevor Anderson:
That was only five days ago?

Carl Lamarre:
Yep. Yeah.

Kyle Denis:
Those numbers are nuts for, like, 2022.

Carl Lamarre:
Yeah.

Trevor Anderson:
I was trying to … I literally was try to think …

Kyle Denis:
2024?

Trevor Anderson:
Even better! 2024!

Kyle Denis:
These videos don’t get played on YouTube like that anymore.

Carl Lamarre:
Yeah. I think the only …

Trevor Anderson:
I was trying to think of the last music video that really …

Carl Lamarre:
I think “Houdini” because “Houdini” had like 20 (million) in a day.

Trevor Anderson:
But I’m trying to think, I guess, like made an impact in a you know …

Carl Lamarre:
A cultural …?

Trevor Anderson:
I mean, even just ,like, though we’re waiting for this video to drop kind of moment.

Carl Lamarre:
Yeah.

Damien Scott:
Like, when the stills dropped, people were excited.

Carl Lamarre:
Yeah.

Damien Scott:
And I’ve never seen … I haven’t seen people that excited over music, video stills in I don’t know how long and that was crazy. Just seeing people being like, “Oh, man!” They were dissecting images of a video that they have no idea about.

Watch the full video above!