These are The 50 Greatest Debut Albums in Hip-Hop History. 500 Greatest Albums List (2003) Rolling Stone’s original list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time was originally published in 2003 (with a slight update in 2012). While MTV and BET were obsessed with Jay’s track with Foxy Brown, who seemed set to be the star of the duo, we knew that Jay-Z had so much more to offer we knew he was destined to rule rap. All of these songs were on Jay Z's best albums, which this list tries to figure out what can truly be named his best albums. And best of all, amongst my friends, this album seemed to be our own little secret. Jay Z is widely known as one of the greatest rappers of all time, and with good reason.The man with many nicknames also has just as many hit songs. 1? Which artists who dropped their first LP in the past decade made the cut? Read on to find out all of that, and more. Years later, I even wrote a college essay based on 22 Two’s.
We decided to get to the bottom of the never-ending discussion about rap's greatest debuts. It was tough, like any list of this scope, but we got it down to 50 surefire classics, from past and present, and we've ranked them as well. Rappers essentially have their entire lives to make their first album, and it shows-in some releases more than others.
There's a reason why Jay-Z calls Reasonable Doubt his "baby." There's a reason why Raekwon still can't escape the shadow of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. If it seems like the scales of appreciation are tipped in favor of debuts, it's because they are. A rapper's initial offering can often have a massive influence on subsequent releases, and culture in general. Sometimes that first album is the most significant of an artist's career. Dre changing the sound of hip-hop production with The Chronic or Clipse ushering in a new era of urgent lyricism on Lord Willin' two decades later, time has shown that many do, in fact, live up to these pressures. Hip-hop heads agree: These are the best albums of this century. by Doriean Stevenson, for Metacritic October 19, 2017. Historically, so many rap debuts are so damn good, and anyone looking to make their first foray into a career within the genre has a lot to live up to. The Best Hip-Hop Albums of the 21st Century. But there's also an unspoken pressure here. Girls Best Friend(featuring Theresa Rodriguez)(Album - Vol3:Life & Times of S. Part of the reason why rap debuts are so revered is because they present the first opportunity to judge an artist's singular body of work. 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin', Kanye West's The College Dropout, Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle and more have the best debut hip-hop albums of all time. First impressions are everything and few have greater impact than a hip-hop artist's debut album.