The Best Rap Albums Of 2018 Were Totally Surreal
It was the year that trolls and tabloid fodder took over. It was the year that beef became the chief marketing strategy. It was the year that hype trumped truth. And we're not even talking politics yet.
In these absurd times, rap provided an equally surreal soundtrack. This ranked year-end list — which includes the hip-hop albums voted onto NPR's original 50 Best Albums of 2018 list, with writing that was originally published there — provides an unintentional reflection of the overwhelming weight we bore in 2018. It's full of personal rumination, grief and grit, escapist fantasy, hyperreality and some serious melody making. The following order is our dire attempt to extract some meaning from it all.
1. Saba
CARE FOR ME
Anyone who's experienced death up close knows the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance — don't come in such a neat, orderly fashion. They crash like waves, unrelenting and unforgiving. CARE FOR ME is the sound of Chicago hip-hop artist Saba trying not to drown as he grapples with the aftermath of his cousin John Walt's 2017 murder in Chicago. If it sounds like a familiar story, it's not. The specificity with which Saba renders his personal inventory of survivor's guilt, toxic relationships and internal struggles, while swimming against a rising tide of systemic injustice, elevates CARE FOR ME from mere tragedy to living tribute. And when the album finally reaches the point of surrender ("Heaven All Around Me"), after climaxing with Saba's seven-minute, cinematic recounting of his life with Walt ("Prom / King"), you'll be wiping away your own tears. —Rodney Carmichael
2. Noname
Room 25
A week after releasing one of the best albums of the year, Noname tweeted out a missive that perfectly encapsulated the frustration of being a wildly creative, independent artist without major-label backing in 2018. "This f*** around and be my last tape," she wrote in a since-deleted tweet. "The way n***** consume music is so weird. I hope means something to someone. If not, I tried."200, where failed to debut among the week's 200 best-selling and -streaming albums. It's a vivid reminder that, despite rap being the most-consumed genre, the industry has yet to devise a metric capable of accurately measuring the value of black genius.