10 Albums Where Hip Hop Got Real

There's a good chance that nothing was going to be able to top what Kendrick Lamar did on Good Kid Maad City. While the first few years of his career may have given him a decent name in the world of hip hop, this conceptual album about growing up in Compton was miles ahead of what anyone else was doing, leading to a verse on Big Sean's Control where Kendrick promised to absolutely smoke any competition that might be standing in his path. And right when Good Kid was achieving legendary status, To Pimp a Butterfly gave us one of the most candid looks into the world of hip hop fame.

Framed very similar to Good Kid, this album still feels like a reflection of Kendrick's state of mind, but with much more of a jazz flair this time around. With the help of legends like Thundercat and Kamasi Washington behind him, every one of these songs seems like another dissection of what it means trying to outrun survivor's guilt after getting famous, from everyone trying to bring him down at a moment's notice on songs like King Kunta to How Much a Dollar Cost really putting Kendrick's morality into perspective.

This is still about Kendrick's upbringing though, and he finds time to stay positive throughout every dark path, like the song Alright being co-opted for the Black Lives Matter movement years after the fact. It might not be the most pleasant journey to go on by any stretch, but Kendrick was always about speaking the truth, and this is the kind of record that people like 2Pac would have proud to have said he inspired.