About this series: I’ve decided to make list of the best albums for each year of hip hop’s history–but it’s not a list of the highest quality, most groundbreaking, etc., albums…It’s a list of the ones that I still actually love to listen to all the way through. It’s MY favorite albums. There are lots of critically acclaimed artists and albums that will be left out if they aren’t 100% perfect albums that have withstood the test of time. The list isn’t arbitrarily capped at 10–it’s however long it needs to be to hold all the true GOATs for the year.
Left-Eye Lopez and Jam Jam Master Jay died in 2002. Yet the year is, for me, hip hop’s best year so far. I try not to cap my list at a round number just for the sake of it because that’s dishonest. If there are more than 10 classic albums in a given year, they all should be on the list. So, this year, we’ve got a list that goes over 10.
For the first time, though, the list of honorable mentions is extremely long. There were a lot of very, very, very good (but not good enough) albums in 2002! If you like most of the albums on my best of list, you’ll probably dig the honorable mentions, too.
13. The Return of the Drifter by Jehst. Perhaps not Jehst’s best album (but also maybe it is), yet such a seminal work. His self-produced debut hits hard and introduces his very different voice the world of UK Hip Hop. Jehst can be a an acquired taste. I suggest you acquire it.
12. God Loves Ugly by Atmosphere. For many, Slug and Ant’s second album is their best. It’s not hard to see why. This is where they found their voice for their particular brand of beats with lots of open space for complex lyricism.
11. The Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera by MF GRIMM. Easily Grimm’s greatest work, this album is challenging–it’s a great example of what early 2000s indie rap had to offer, and unlike most of the music released today. I admit that the sound is a little dated, but when you’re in the mood, I’ve found this album rewards relistens.
10. Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci by Felt. The debut album by the duo of Slug and Murs ranks slightly higher than Atmosphere’s album.
9. Exit by k-os. The artist’s debut. k-os changes styles on a dime–from boom bap to dancehall, singing, using live instrumentation–and the album moves seamlessly and strategically from song to song, clearly designed to be heard in a single sitting. On any given day, this could be my favorite k-os album.
8. A Little Deeper by Ms. Dynamite. Perhaps more R&B than hip hop, but this debut album deserves to be mentioned. Ms. Dynamite moves easily across soul, rap, R&B, and dance to create a fantastic start-to-finish album.
7. Lord Willin’ by Clipse. Pusha-T, Malice, and The Neptunes produce one my favorite debuts of this era. Pusha-T and Malice would go on to even greater heights–but I don’t think Pharrell Williams ever got better than this. He inserts his vocal tracks at exactly the right places to counterbalance Pusha’s slick hustler rhymes and Malice’s detailed street stories. Plus, Roscoe P. Coldchain makes a fantastic appearance. His 2026 album, Play with Something Safe, is on heavy rotation for me as I write this.
6. All of the Above by J-Live. After making news with his first album, J-Live pushes the limit with almost 75 minutes of excellent hip hop. He produced half of the songs himself, relying on DJ Spinna for most of the rest. Key songs: Satisfied, Do That S#!%, A Charmed Life.
5. The Lost Tapes by Nas. No, it’s not new material–but that shouldn’t disqualify it from my list because it’s MY LIST. Remember? This collection of B-Sides and other previously unreleased cuts is flawless. Every single cut is amazing. Turns out, Nas’s unreleased songs are better than most peoples’ albums. This is probably my second favorite Nas album of all time. A few of my faves: No Idea’s Original; Doo Rags; U Gotta Love It.
4. The Eminem Show by Eminem. This album has “Without Me,” which is the best Em song from any of his albums (because “Lose Yourself” is on a soundtrack that is not exclusively an Eminem album). It’s also the rare example of an album that was a megaseller, but also was of the highest quality. I’ve seen people rate this album poorly because his first two records were so groundbreaking, but that’s unfair. The Eminem Show occupies a different place–it is album about how huge he has become, and how his “Eminem” personality is now the dominant one. A great record.
3. Original Pirate Material by Streets. Yes, UK rap existed before Streets. I’ve already put a couple on my lists. In fact, there’s some on this very list.
Yet for a lot of Americans, this album was their first foray into English rappers. And what a great place to start. With groundbreaking beats, humor, tight flows, and entirely self-produced using a Logic Pro, Mike Skinner’s debut truly pushed things forward.
2. The Fix by Scarface. For me, “The Fix” is Scarface’s best album. His earlier (and subsequent) works deserve high praise as well, but when I want to listen to one of his records, this is almost always the one I reach for. Key tracks include Guess Who’s Back with Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel and Kanye West; On My Block; and Someday featuring Faith Evans. Production is by some great ones too: Kanye, his old Geto Boys producer Mike Dean, and Tony Pizarro, and The Neptunes.
1. Under Construction by Missy Elliot. Goddamn. To make this list, I had to go through all the albums in my collection and reassess every one of them and in the process I have renewed appreciation for Missy (and of course Timbaland, her producer). Album after album, her work keeps making my top 10. And each time I re-listen to an album for this research, I think, “This one’s my favorite!” They’re all so good. For this one, Missy got closer to her boom-bap roots and paid tribute to the ’90s rap scene–after having moved towards techno and club music in her last outings. Every single song is great, from the megahits (Work It, Gossip Folks) to the deeper cuts (Funky Fresh Dressed, Slide)–and the featured artists all bring their “A” games (Jay-Z, TLC, Beyonce, Ludacris, Method Man, etc.).
Honorable Mentions: Such a great year for rap. Quite a few mentions this time…
- Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz by Nappy Roots. Country rap wasn’t a mainstream thing yet, but this album helped the world move in that direction. Not a great album all around, but an important one and more than half the songs are keepers.
- Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse by Jay-Z. A double album. If it had been a single album, it would have been great (and next year, he’ll re-release as a single album with just the choicest cuts). As it is, there’s too many skips on this to make my top 10. Still, it has memorable moments like “’03 Bonnie and Clyde” (with Beyonce), the Neptunes’ produced “Excuse Me Miss,” and Poppin’ Tags with Killer Mike, Twista and Big Boi.
- God’s Son by Nas. His best since Stillmatic, unless you count Lost Tapes, which I guess I do because it’s on my GOAT list, above.
- The Chosen Few by Boot Camp Clik. These guys should have been as big as Wu Tang Clan. They have a wide variety of voices, solid production, their individual solo albums are often great … But I guess they lacked some of the powerful innovators on WTC. Still, any supergroup with Buckshot and Sean Price can’t be bad, right?
- Varsity Blues by Murs. This is an EP–I’m not including EPs on my list of best albums because it’s not fair. EPs are shorter, which makes it easier to ensure that every track is high quality. Murs has yet to drop a top 10 album (but it’s a good bet he will in 2003).
- The Future is Now by Nonphixion. Truly independent rap, endorsed by no less than MC Serch. Like MF Grimm’s album, this is a challenging but rewarding listen.
- Temporary Forever by Busdriver. Busdriver is often labeled an “abstract” rapper, but I think he’s like if Danny Brown had a sore throat and was spitting lyrics written by Heems. His songs come fast and crazy, and by the time you register what he just said, he’s already dropped two more head-scratching bars.
You Know What It Is Volume 1 by The Game. Game’s first mixtape is really for hardcore fans only, and I happen to think Game belongs in the top 5 rappers of all time–so for me, this is a near-miss from the GOATs of 2002.- O.S.T. by People Under the Stairs. A recent discovery for me and lots of people rate this album as a GOAT, so I could be wrong having it just as an honorable mention.
- Attack of the Attacking Things by Jean Grae. Jean’s first album. There had been “feminist” rap albums before this one, but never had we heard such scathing attacks on the misogyny inherent in so many rap albums and shot through its culture. I love hip hop, don’t get me wrong. At the same time, it’s hard not to agree with Grae’s position.
- Power in Numbers by Jurassic 5. ’90s-style boom bap, but excellence is excellence, and this album stands up. Timeless.
- Blazing Arrow by Blackalicious. Terrific indie rap with features by a wide variety of voices including Zach de la Rocha, Lyrics Born, Chali 2Na and Gil Scott Heron.
Worst Album of the Year: Born to Reign by Will Smith. The content was desperate (note the sequel to his hit theme song to “Men in Black”) but worse, the CD was booby trapped. If you tried to rip it to listen to on your newfangled MP3 player, it started deleting your hard-drive.
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