Where are the classic Hip-Hop Albums of The Decade?

To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar

Hip-Hop has a saturated history of classic albums in every decade since it's creation in 1973. From Midnight Marauders (1993) by Tribe Called Quest to To Pimp A Butterfly (2015) by Kendrick Lamar, year to year Hip-Hop has always had classics hit the streets. However, I've noticed the 2020s have fallen short of the trend. We're 5 years into the 2020s and in that time we've yet to see many if any classic hip-hop albums in that time span. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying hip-hop isn't relevant anymore. I’m simply saying that, aside from a few standout albums, there haven’t been many that the culture truly hails as classics. It’s a bold claim, I know — but hear me out, I think you might agree.

I turned 13 years old in 2010, I had the privilege of my teen years starting in a truly transformative time in Hip-Hop. In my late middle school/early high school years alone, hip-hop pushed out culture defining albums like My Beautiful Dark Fantasy (Fuck Kanye), Watch The Throne, (Fuck Kanye), and Take Care. I don't want to list y'all to death but I could've named more classics that dropped between 2010-2011 alone. Looking back, year after year there were projects the culture stamped as indisputable classics. Albums like Good Kid Maad City (2012), Flower Boy (2017), Rodeo (2015), and even Savage Mode (2017) were staples of the time. I think what sets a classic apart from a great album is the moment it creates for the culture as a whole. Classics have a way of pulling you back in time, making you reflect on where you were and what you were doing when [insert album here] dropped. They are cultural touchstones that impact and form community. If you want to take it a step further, there hasn't been a classic verse either. I remember when Nicki Minaj went so crazy on her feature for Monster (Fuck Kanye), Anna Kendrick was rapping it in movies!

Classics in general aren't decided by an individual, they're decided by a community. There are classics I've never listened to (Eminem Show) that I would never claim aren't classics because I understand the general consensus. The cool thing about music or really any media, is that there's a ton of if that exists before you were born. If you were born in 2013 and develop an appreciation for a genre, those who came before you — or who are deeply versed in it — can tell you what’s a true classic and what’s simply a good album. The authority to call something a classic is simply based on being there. It's based on an awareness of how the world was moving with the album, not soley the individual experience.

Let God Sort Em Out By Clipse

In terms of classic albums, Hip-Hop is very touch and go this decade. Early on we saw juggernauts in the genre in Drake and Kanye drop their respective projects in Certified Lover Boy (2021) and Donda (2021), and while they're ok albums, no one would claim they shook the culture. I don't even need to continue to list albums that fell short of classic status. Stop reading for a second and genuinely think about an album that came out this decade that has half the cultural impact of Get Rich Or Die Trying (2003) by 50 Cent. The most arguable classics for the 2020s are I Am Music (2025) by Playboi Carti, and Let God Sort Em Out (2025) by Clipse. I Am Music, or Music for short, completely broke the mainstream when it dropped in March of this year. As a 30 song album all 30 of the tracks were on the Billboard top 100, moreover, it was the most streamed album within a 24 hour release time. For Clipse, their legend mixed with Pusha T's legendary run in the past few years has reignited their flame as they came back with a Pharrell produced masterpiece yet again after a 16 year hiatus. What these two albums have in common is anticipation.

In 2024 Playboi Carti dropped 6 singles, teasing the album for the entirety of the year. So, when it finally dropped in March of 2025, the build-up with the quality of the album made for a cultural moment that honestly no one saw coming. Now moms in the midwest know who he is, how crazy is that? In New York I couldn't escape that album for months. Even when I opened by phone, I either saw an opium meme or some visual with a Carti song over it. I Am Music was legitametly inescapable. The all consuming nature of an album is what makes it an undeniable classic in my eyes. But long drawn out rollouts cannot be the new norm to make a Hip-Hop album a classic, or at least I hope not. The lack of classic Hip-Hop albums is a sign of the times. I think everyone has found their niche and their sticking to it.

Earl Sweatshirt

Hip-Hop has too many sub-genres. Back in the day there was backpack rap, concious rap, and gangsta rap. However, all of them were still in the forefront of Hip-Hop, there wasn't too much overlap. Today for most listeners it feels like there's an either or approach to who you listen to. People find what speaks to them and they find all the artists that fit that niche. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world, but I do think it creates a culture that exchanges genre classics for cult classics. In other words, classic albums that only resonate with that community. There's a beauty about sub-genres expanding the sound of Hip-Hop, but a part of me misses the influx of genre defining classics that were once a constant. The way these sub-genres manifest makes Hip-Hop as a whole feel less like a community and more like a fragmented landscape of distinct, often disconnected worlds. Hip-Hop is nothing without community, and even though there are quite literally more communities forming out of it, it has created more of an us vs them mentality than unity in the art form.

I can't stress enough how unifying music has been in the Black community. Hip-Hop has a history of dropping classic after classic, but I'm just not seeing it this decade. Before you say I'm too old now and I'm not tapped in, just know I listen to mostly everything in Hip-Hop. My observations just tell me that the community as a whole hasn't rallied around an album the way it used to. Playboi Carti dropping a classic shouldn't be a nostalgic feeling because everyone has an opinion on an album again. I believe the classics will arrive in time, but so far, the 2020s haven’t lived up to Hip-Hop’s storied legacy.