The 100 Best Indie Rap Albums (1995–2025)

Author: Stephan Kunze

Length: • 5 mins

Annotated by Blair Millen

My favorite underground hip-hop records from the last 30 years

Today I am sending you a list that I made on Sunday afternoon, because that’s just what I do for fun on weekends: Creating spreadsheets of formative records.

Having spent a couple of hours refining this list, I thought I might as well share it because some of you might find it valuable. I added Bandcamp links where applicable, and YouTube links where I couldn’t find any.

House rules

  • To define ‘indie rap’, I kept a narrow definition of ‘indie’ and restricted the list to:
    • Truly independent releases. This rules out all albums released on major labels or labels that at the time of release were either (predominantly) major-owned or major-controlled (like Jive, Tommy Boy or Delicious Vinyl). There’s a blurry line at major distribution or ‘partnerships’. If you’re wondering about some of the YouTube links being provided by major labels, that’s mostly due to indie labels and their catalogues being scooped up by majors after the release of the respective albums.
    • Hip-hop with an indie vibe. A lot of independently released hip-hop is basically just aspiring mainstream rap, recycling the same clichés and tropes over similarly generic production. The music in this list feels indie in spirit to me, which is a very subjective judgment. The music covers a wide range from relatively traditional, earthy and jazzy boom-bap to wildly experimental electronic sounds, spoken word poetry and off-beat flows.
  • No instrumental albums. They will get their own list at one point.
  • Only artist albums. No twelve-inches, mixtapes or compilations, though especially the late 1990s underground was definitely shaped by those formats, even more than by albums. Many important artists actually don’t appear on this list, because they’ve never released a (strong) album.
  • Some EPs were included if they’re at least 25-30 minutes long and not just a 12-inch with two or three tracks plus remixes and/or instrumentals. Most of these golden era indie EPs with seven or eight tracks would definitely be released as proper albums today, so I saw no reason not to include them.
  • I only included albums that I’d still enjoy today. Back in the days, I listened to tons of stuff that I wouldn’t bother sitting through again, and to some artists with questionable views and/or behaviour that I don’t condone and don’t want to support by amplifying today. You won’t find these artists and records on the list, even if they might have once been important parts of the indie rap scene.
  • No ranking. The list is chronologically ordered.
Indelible MCs at Fat Beats 1997, source: YouTube

The 100 Best Indie Rap Albums (1995–2025)

  1. The Cenubites – The Cenubites (Fondle Em, 1995)
  2. The Juggaknots – Clear Blue Skies (Fondle Em, 1995)
  3. Dr. Octagon – Ecologyst (Bulk/Mo Wax, 1996)
  4. Siah & Yeshua DapoED – The Visualz (Fondle Em, 1996)
  5. Company Flow – Funcrusher Plus (Rawkus, 1997)
  6. Slum Village – Fan-Tas-Tic (Donut Boy, 1997)
  7. Sensational – Loaded With Power(WordSound, 1997)
  8. Black Star – Mos Def and Talib Kweli are... (Rawkus, 1998)
  9. Aceyalone – A Book of Human Language (Project Blowed, 1998)
  10. Hieroglyphics – 3rd Eye Vision (Hiero, 1998)
  11. Rasco – Time Waits For No Man (Stones Throw, 1998)
  12. MF DOOM – Operation: Doomsday (Fondle Em, 1999)
  13. Pharoahe Monch – Internal Affairs (Rawkus, 1999)
  14. Mos Def – Black On Both Sides (Rawkus, 1999)
  15. The High & Mighty – Home Field Advantage (Rawkus, 1999)
  16. Polyrhythm Addicts – Rhyme Related (Nervous, 1999)
  17. Lootpack – Soundpieces: Da Antidote (Stones Throw, 1999)
  18. Dr. Dooom – First Come, First Served (Funky Ass, 1999)
  19. Sonic Sum – The Sanity Annex (Ozone, 1999)
  20. Deep Puddle Dynamics – The Taste of Rain... Why Kneel? (Anticon, 1999)
  21. Antipop Consortium – Tragic Epilogue (75 Ark, 2000)
  22. Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030 (75 Ark, 2000)
  23. Quasimoto – The Unseen (Stones Throw, 2000)
  24. Reflection Eternal – Train of Thought (Rawkus, 2000)
  25. Slum Village – Fantastic, Vol. 2 (GoodVibe, 2000)
  26. Sole – Bottle of Humans (Anticon, 2000)
  27. Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein (Def Jux, 2001)
  28. Aesop Rock – Labor Days (Def Jux, 2001)
  29. Roots Manuva – Run Come Save Me (Big Dada, 2001)
  30. cLOUDDEAD – cLOUDDEAD (Anticon, 2001)
  31. Alias – The Other Side Of The Looking Glass (Anticon, 2002)
  32. El-P – Fantastic Damage (Def Jux, 2002)
  33. Sage Francis – Personal Journals (Anticon, 2002)
  34. Antipop Consortium – Arrhythmia (Warp, 2002)
  35. Mr. Lif – I Phantom (Def Jux, 2002)
  36. Atmosphere – God Loves Ugly (Rhymesayers, 2002)
  37. Dälek – From Filthy Tongue Of Gods And Griots (Ipecac, 2002)
  38. Jaylib – Champion Sound (Stones Throw, 2003)
  39. Little Brother – The Listening (ABB, 2003)
  40. Danger Mouse & Jemini – Ghetto Pop Life (Lex, 2003)
  41. King Geedorah – Take Me To Your Leader(Big Dada, 2003)
  42. Bigg Jus – Black Mamba Serums V2.0 (Big Dada, 2004)
  43. Madvillain – Madvillainy (Stones Throw, 2004)
  44. MF DOOM – MM..Food (Rhymesayers, 2004)
  45. Edan – Beauty And The Beat (Lewis, 2005)
  46. Sean Price – Monkey Barz (Duck Down, 2005)
  47. DJ Muggs vs. GZA – Grandmasters (Angeles, 2005)
  48. Masta Killa – Made In Brooklyn (Nature Sounds, 2006)
  49. Prodigy – Return Of The Mac (E1, 2007)
  50. El-P – I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (Def Jux, 2007)
  51. Black Milk – Popular Demand (Fat Beats, 2007)
  52. Evidence – The Weatherman LP (ABB, 2007)
  53. Percee P – Perseverance (Stones Throw, 2007)
  54. Blu & Exile – Below The Heavens (Sound in Color, 2007)
  55. Phat Kat – Carte Blanche (Look, 2007)
  56. Guilty Simpson – Ode To The Ghetto (Stones Throw, 2008)
  57. Jean Grae – Jeanius (Blacksmith, 2008)
  58. Diamond District – In The Ruff (Mello Music Group, 2009)
  59. Mos Def – The Ecstatic (Downtown, 2009)
  60. Souls of Mischief – Montezuma’s Revenge (Clear Label, 2009)
  61. Roc Marciano – Marcberg (Fat Beats, 2010)
  62. Curren$y – Pilot Talk (DD172, 2010)
  63. Freeway & Jake One – The Stimulus Package (Rhymesayers, 2010)
  64. Strong Arm Steady – In Search of Stoney Jackson (Stones Throw, 2010)
  65. Evidence – Cats & Dogs (Rhymesayers, 2011)
  66. Danny Brown – XXX (Fool’s Gold, 2011)
  67. Tyler, The Creator – Goblin (XL, 2011)
  68. Curren$y & The Alchemist – Covert Coup (no label, 2012)
  69. Aesop Rock – Skelethon (Rhymesayers, 2012)
  70. Roc Marciano – Reloaded (Decon, 2012)
  71. El-P – Cancer4Cure (Fat Possum, 2012)
  72. Ka – Grief Pedigree (Iron Works, 2012)
  73. billy woods – History Will Absolve Me (backwoodz, 2012)
  74. Oddisee – Tangible Dream (Mello Music Group, 2013)
  75. Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels (Seeker Music, 2013)
  76. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib – Piñata (Madlib Invazion, 2014)
  77. Ratking – So It Goes (XL, 2014)
  78. Milo – So The Flies Don’t Come (Ruby Yacht, 2015)
  79. Noname – Telefone (self-released, 2016)
  80. Westside Gunn – Flygod (Griselda, 2016)
  81. Mach-Hommy – HBO (Haitian Body Odor) (Fashion Rebel. 2016)
  82. Rapsody – Laila’s Wisdom (Jamla, 2017)
  83. Quelle Chris – Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often (Mello Music Group, 2011)
  84. Armand Hammer – Paraffin (backwoodz, 2018)
  85. billy woods & Kenny Segal – Hiding Places (backwoodz, 2019)
  86. Westside Gunn – Pray For Paris (Griselda, 2020)
  87. R.A.P. Ferreira – Purple Moonlight Pages (Ruby Yacht, 2020)
  88. MIKE – Weight Of The World (10k, 2020)
  89. Boldy James – The Price of Tea in China(ALC, 2020)
  90. Navy Blue – Song of Sage: Post Panic! (Freedom Sounds, 2020)
  91. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist – Alfredo (ALC, 2020)
  92. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Haram (backwoodz; 2021)
  93. Fat Ray – Santa Barbara (Bruiser Brigade, 2021)
  94. DJ Muggs & Rome Streetz – Death & The Magician (Soul Assassins, 2022)
  95. Roc Marciano & The Alchemist – The Elephant Man’s Bones (Empire, 2022)
  96. Elucid – I Told Bessie (backwoodz, 2022)
  97. H31R – HeadSpace (Big Dada, 2023)
  98. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown – Scaring The Hoes (self-released, 2023)
  99. Cavalier – Different Type Time (backwoodz, 2024)
  100. PremRock – Did You Enjoy Your Time Here...? (backwoodz, 2025)

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