2024 Highlights in Hip Hop Music

The 206 Zulu News source editorial team had an idea to start a new tradition for 2024 in hopes to honor an outstanding or particularly impactful record release as album of the year. To get things started, we polled our readers, friends and family in the Hip Hop community. Lo and behold, the results we received were so diverse and contentious that we were reminded once again how easily opinions blend with passions for Hip Hop heads. 

In classic 206 Zulu fashion, we shifted towards a pivot that we feel better reflects the community spirit of our mission. Rather than focus on a sole winner, spotlighting a single album, we’ve taken the tastes and opinions expressed by our community and created a list of releases that made a mark on the Hip Hop landscape of 2024. Our criteria for selections was based on searching out high quality, innovative, and/or historically relevant music that was released between January and December of 2024. Many of these records were referenced directly from the responses of our readers with a few supplemented by our editorial team. Obviously, there will be great music that we missed in this process and differences of opinion on which releases belong on a year wrap up list. 

Our intention wasn’t to create an exhaustive list but rather to take a moment and celebrate a few high points of what’s been created in Hip Hop over the last year. 

Before the list, a few notes about the significance of 2024 and our choice to begin this tradition this year. Hip Hop has had a special cadence over the decades, with big years in its history ending in 4. Some of the music releases and events that have happened during these years are worth reflecting on as we look back at 2024.

(If you’d like to jump straight to the 2024 list, scroll to the bottom)

1974/1984

From the birth pangs of Hip Hop’s first full year of public activity in 1974, another decade would bring us to a year that would change the nature of Hip Hop’s place in the music industry. Prior to this point in history, the music industry had generally considered rap music a singles-driven genre. 1984 is commonly considered the year when Hip Hop music became a genre seen as capable of creating full hit albums. Three records in particular stand out as high water marks in this transition: 

Run D.M.C.- Run D.M.C

Riding off the momentum of their single, “It’s Like That”/”Sucker MC’s,” Run D.M.C.’s eponymous debut album gave the world a deeper glimpse into the emerging culture of Hip Hop with visuals that began a new phase of influence on worldwide fashion. It also provided a personification of Hip Hop values through the use of skits, interweaving themes, and the clear challenging of boundaries that took place on that record. Run D.M.C. was the first rap album to sell more than 500,000 copies, proving that Hip Hop was destined to be much more than a collection of singles.

Whodini- Escape

Whodini’s sophomore album would bridge a gap between many holdouts from the older generation and the youth creating Hip Hop. With a sound and style that appealed to older listeners while still feeling real to young rap fans, Escape also produced timeless hits like “5 Minutes of Funk,” and “Friends,” that would go on to influence generations to come.

Fat Boys- Fat Boys

Another self-titled album released in 1984 by Prince Markie Dee, Buffy The Human Beatbox, and Kool Rock Ski, formerly known as the Disco 3, and now having evolved into the Fat Boys, would bring the fun-loving playful side of Hip Hop into a new level of the public sphere. With production by Kurtis Blow, Davy DMX, and the late Larry Smith (who also produced Run D.M.C. and Escape), the Fat Boys debut release would set new precedents for rap’s ability to climb the Billboard charts as well as charm the world with humor and joviality.

Aside from these and other impactful records from artists like Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five, Kurtis Blow, Egyptian Lover, and the Treacherous Three, 1984 was also a year of shifting ground outside of music releases. Live performance would be forever changed with the advent of the first Fresh Fest concert, a tour that would go on to sell out crowds in over 40 cities annually for several years. The movie Beat Street was released along with a double-album soundtrack, marking a moment of exposure ultimately credited with Hip Hop’s ascent into the world-influencing multi-billion dollar artform that we know today.

1994

The year 1994 is marked less by the innovations and historic advances of the previous decade, but rather stands as something of a ratification of Hip Hop’s role as a tastemaker in the world of culture. 1994 is a year of some of rap music’s most universally agreed upon classics, agreements arrived at between Hip Hop heads and music critics alike.

To illustrate this, rather than belabor the individual impacts of each of the records that make up this phenomenal year of hip hop music, another list might best show at a glance, why 1994 is often referred to as the zenith of Hip Hop’s “golden era.”

Released in 1994:

Nas- Illmatic
The Notorious B.I.G.- Ready to Die
Common- Resurrection
Gang Starr- Hard to Earn
Outkast- Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Scarface- The Diary
Digable Planets- Blowout Comb
Beastie Boys- Ill Communication
Pete Rock and CL Smooth- The Main Ingredient
O.C.- Word…Life
UGK- Super Tight
Jeru the Damaja- The Sun Rises in the East
Warren G- Regulate… G Funk Era
Redman- Dare Iz a Darkside
The Beatnuts- The Beatnuts: Street Level
Casual- Fear Itself
Black Sheep- Non-Fiction
8Ball & MJG- On the Outside Looking In
MC Eiht- We Come Strapped
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony- Creepin on ah Come Up
Keith Murray- The Most Beautifullest Thing in This World 

Worth noting, this list and other albums released in 1994 represent debuts from O.C., Warren G, Outkast, Nas, Casual, Biggie Smalls, Method Man (as a solo artist), Jeru, Bone, the Beatnuts, Coolio, Da Brat, Keith Murray, M.O.P., The Fugees, and more.The widely accepted classics on that list were also released alongside albums from seminal Hip Hop groups like The Coup, Public Enemy, Master P, and Big Daddy Kane. Regardless of personal taste and debates over classic status, it’s hard to deny that 1994 was one of hip hop music’s most widely influential years. 

2004

Notes on the continuum of hip hop records that line up with this year over the next two ensuing decades include the 2004 release of MF Doom’s highly lauded Mm..Food which, with its belabored cartoon samples, anagram cryptology, blend of Basquiat-esque pop reference irony, and deep dive character-driven themes has gone on to achieve an almost mythical status in Hip Hop history. Keep in mind that Mm..Food was released months after Madvillainy, MF Doom’s collaborative album with legendary producer Madlib, another figure in Hip Hop culture to achieve folklorish status. Doom’s hat trick of releasing a pair of albums of such high regard in the same year along with other highly discussed albums like Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter, One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show- Goodie Mob’s first album without their star bandmate, Cee-Lo, and of course Kanye West’s College Dropout have fueled barbershop debates and moved music writers’ pens across pages ever since, making 2004 a year to remember.

2014

2014 was a year of convergence between styles and generations. We saw the release of Hell Can Wait, the debut EP from Vince Staples. Logic officially claimed a spot in the scene with his first album Under Pressure. YG and Isaiah Rashad dropped their first major projects. New and emerging forces in the industry proved their foothold as six releases from the blossoming powerhouse label Top Dawg Entertainment mixed together with drops from 90’s mainstays like Common, The Roots, Mobb Deep, Pharoahe Monch, and the last studio album to date by Souls of Mischief, entitled There is Only Now.

Madlib began another fruitful collaboration, dropping Piñata with Freddie Gibbs and MF Doom took his own stab at a new collab with the up and coming young artist Bishop Nehru with NehruvianDoom. J. Cole dropped what would arguably be his most acclaimed project, 2014 Forest Hills Drive.

2024

And that brings us to 2024 and our list of gathered favorites and notable albums from the year in review. A few last notes that stand out looking back on this year of hip hop music: First, as a continued reflection of 1994, we saw several big records drop from artists with decades of experience, some intentionally affirming their longevity. Redman’s long promised Muddy Waters Too, a reprisal of the notorious energy of his 90’s classic, Muddy Waters, is certainly a high point of eras converging. Spice 1 released Platinum O.G. 2, a sprawling album full of features that brought attention back to some of the still practicing voices of west coast and southern Hip Hop history like C-Bo, Mr. Serv-On, Tela, Devin the Dude, and B-Legit and put them next to some of today’s most prominent artists like KXNG Crooked and Conway the Machine. If that convergence wasn’t enough, the first track on Spice 1’s album features east coast royalty CL Smooth with production by DJ Premier. Common made his biggest resurgence in years by teaming up with Pete Rock for The Auditorium, Vol. 1. Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre teamed up again to put 90’s nostalgia next to fresh new sounds with their new studio album and short film, Missionary. Rakim, the founder of many cultural principles that Hip Hop holds sacred, dropped a feature heavy collection of rap dignitaries. Even early hip hop’s trailblazers, Stetsasonic came back with a new studio album, Here We Go Again.

Newer artists like BigXthaPlug, Doechii, and Little Simz made noise while other contemporary artists like Blu, Killer Mike, Rapsody, and Erick the Architect carved deeper grooves into the collective sound of the industry.

Below is the list of notable albums (including an EP or two) that the 206 Zulu news team, our readers, family, and friends contributed as moments they remember from 2024. To distinguish between feedback we received, we’ve divided the list into three categories: records that received votes for best album of the year, a list of albums regarded as particularly significant historically, and a short list that may not fit directly into either of those categories but were identified as important albums for Hip Hop heads to bend an ear to. 

Thank you all for a great year of news, information, and shared wisdom. We appreciate our community of readers and send out a special shout out to all who weighed in to help us compile this list of great music from another year ending in 4 within Hip Hop culture. We salute you!

And without further ado, some selections of excellent and intriguing hip hop music from the preceding year…

Albums that received votes for best album of the year:

Albums with historical significance:

Tyler- Chromakopia
Kendrick- GNX
LL Cool J- The Force
Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre- Missionary
Rakim- G.O.D.’s NETWORK (REB7RTH)
Eminem- The Death of Slim Shady
Stetsasonic- Here We Go Again
Spice 1- Platinum O.G. 2
Ice Cube- Man Down

Other albums of interest:

Casual- Starduster EP
Ab-Soul- Soul Burger
Your Old Droog- Movie
Ghostface Killah- Set The Tone (Guns & Roses) 
Slum Village- F.U.N.
Rhymefest- James & Nikki: A Conversation
Masta Ace & Marco Polo- Richmond Hill
Maxo Kream- Personification
Skillz- The Seven Number Ones