Rapper Freddie Gibbs and photographer Jonathan Mannion give us the real stories behind the most iconic hip-hop album covers of all time, from JAY-Z's.

This list provides a guide to the most important hip hop albums, as determined by their presence on compiled lists of significant albums: see the "Lists consulted" section for full details. Inclusion on a list is indicated by numbering after each release. The brief accompanying notes offer an explanation as to why each album has been considered important. The organization of the list is by date of release, ranging from Run-D. s eponymous debut in 1984 to Jay-Z's 2001 album, The Blueprint.

Simply the best instrumental Hip Hop album, ever. Top tracks: Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt Midnight In A Perfect World Changeling Mutual Slump. Talk about slept on. New Jersey natives and Hip Hop veterans K-Def and Larry-O come correct with this quintessential East Coast boom bap album. With guests like Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna (among others), this album offers true Hip Hop at its finest. Don’t sleep! Top tracks: Real Live Sh The Gimmicks All I Ask of You Pop The Trunk.

Was there ever a more influential album in Hip Hop? Another 1992 masterpiece that, like the no. 1 on this list, is about the production first and the lyrical content second. Dr Dre‘s production on this album is just INCREDIBLE. Often imitated, never duplicated. It also showed us the full potential of Hip Hop’s next superstar – a young Snoop Dogg. Along with lyrics from a host of other talented rappers and Dr Dre himself, The Chronic is filled with the ‘standard’ gangsta themes (violence, sex, drugs, parties) – difference from most of the others is that on this album it sounds GOOD.

Criteria: These are the albums that epitomized all facets of hip-hop music/culture in the 1990s. They were chosen and ranked according to quality, popularity, timelessness and influence. Last Updated: 2010-01-29. 1. Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers - Wu-Tang Clan (1993) 2. Illmatic - Nas (1994) 3. The Chronic - Dr. Dre (1992) 4. The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest (1991) 5. Ready to Die - Notorious .

Non-album single, 1996 One of hip-hop’s most powerful mourning anthems put Midwest hip-hop on the map. At the time, Bone Thugs had lost several loved ones, including Eazy E, who signed them in 1993. To this day, when we perform it, said Krayzie Bone, there will be, like, 20 people in the crowd crying. Hip-hop’s first beef war started innocently enough. In 1984, Brooklyn trio . released a lackluster single called Hanging Out. Its B side, however, caused a sensation: Roxanne, Roxanne, an irresistible jam where the peacocking guys in . get repeatedly shot down by a stuck-up hottie. Todd Anthony Shaw – . Freaky Tales was his finest hour, an incredible 10 minutes of lascivious versifying. It’s like bar after bar after bar, recalled Snoop Dogg.

Having introduced themselves as hip hop’s bratty punks with 1986’s Licensed To Ill, Beastie Boys holed up with production duo The Dust Brothers, creating a dazzling follow-up whose patchwork of samples is ably matched by the wordplay – and interplay – of Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock. Gleefully sampling everything from P-Funk to The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Johnny Cash, Paul’s Boutique was a crate-digger’s delight, revelling in the possibilities that hip hop’s Golden Age had to offer.

Last year hip hop the grand old age of 45. It began with a birthday party in the recreation room of an apartment building, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, in the west. If Public Enemy was hip hop’s militant conscience, NWA (or Niggaz With Attitudes to give them their correct uncompromising moniker) were the hoodlum wing. Their debut album was a brazen example of six individuals who didn’t give a f k. From the brutal opening triptych of songs (Straight Outta Compton, F k Tha Police and Gangsta) to the groovy Express Yourself this was indeed a riotous display of street knowledge. Key track: Straight Outta Compton. Thankfully, amid the hype there was a classic album to back up all the verbals. In Da Club was the worldwide smash that’s still infectious today, but this was just one high (literally) among a cavalcade of hip hop anthems.