An Enjoyable Game to Play with the Rolling Stone Top 200 Rap Albums List

Rolling Stone, the paragon of fair and balance coverage of hip-hop music and culture on opposite day, has come out with what I am comfortable calling a very good list of the Top 200 Rap Albums of all time. Do they miss some things? Yes! Do they cover some stuff I need to learn about? Yes. Do they pick the wrong album by some of the greats? Yes. Did I play a weird game with some friends where we had to take ten records off the list that we were legitimately familiar with (you can’t just blindly pull some young artist off because you’re 41 years old and kind of an asshole). And then you get to put ten back on. Here’s what I got:

ADD:

Busta Rhymes: The Coming

2 Live Crew: As Nasty As They Wanna Be

Redman: Muddy Waters

Jay-Z: American Gangster

Aceyalone: Book of Human Language

Prince Paul: A Prince Among Thieves

Judgment Night: Soundtrack

Prodigy: HNIC

Outkast: ATLiens

Lupe Fiasco: Food & Liquor

REMOVE:

Chance the Rapper: Coloring Book

Handsome Boy Modeling School: So, How’s Your Girl

A Tribe Called Quest: People’s Instinctive Travels and the Path of Rhythm

Kanye West: Yeezus

Freddie Gibb and Madlib: Bandana

Childish Gambino: Because the Internet

Clipse: Hell Hath No Fury

The Roots: How I Got Over

Rick Ross: Teflon Don

Dr. Octagon: Dr. Octagynecologist