Hip Hop | The Rhapsody Hip Hop Blog

It's only been a year and some change since Drake soared to stardom with "Best I Ever Had." With an ensuing Grammy nomination, near constant airplay on urban radio stations, and several guest spots from Jay-Z and Timbaland to Alicia Keys, it seems like the former Toronto actor has been in the game forever. That's what happens when a new rap hero emerges -- it's like love at first sight, and everyone wants to get down. Or, as Drake put it on "Over," "I know way too many people here right now that I didn't know last year/ Who the f*ck are y'all?"

With Drake's long-awaited debut, Thank Me Later, just arriving in stores, this playlist documents a very busy period for October's Very Own.

Hip-hop and R&B share a history fraught with musical romance and cultural tension. Though there have been successful marriages -- Faith Evans and 112's massive "I'll Be Missing You" tribute to the late Notorious B.I.G. comes to mind -- the two cultures remain suspicious of one another. R&B fans often claim that rappers are just entitled industry thugs that perpetuate noxious ghetto stereotypes about people of color. And hip-hoppers claim that R&B singers are just bougie careerists whose baby-maker blandishments are far removed from the halcyon days of sweet, socially relevant soul.

Drake's new album, Thank Me Later, revisits those fault lines. Merging introspective lyrics and emotive (and, yes, occasionally Auto-Tuned) vocals, he has become something of an overnight superstar. But it has also led to accusations of being an industry product cynically designed for radio hits. Some rap fans complain that he's more concerned with wooing teenage girls with lovey-dovey vocal hooks than spitting deft rhymes for the hardcore faithful. Or, to paraphrase De La Soul, it's whether his mix of rap and R&B simply translates into "rap and b*llsh*t."

More so than other types of music, hip-hop is a genre of debuts. At its best, the music moves quickly, and fans are constantly awaiting the next game-changer, the latest and greatest emcee or producer to create (and erase) history. We've compiled our picks for the 20 best hip-hop debuts. A quick ground rule: the debuts listed served as the artists' introduction to a larger public audience, so we're not listing albums by emcees who were members of popular hip-hop groups. Other than that, have fun with this and don't get too cross-eyed about it. Feel free to leave your comments and let us know what we missed.

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For women who aspire to rap stardom, there seem to be only two accepted industry paths. They can follow Lauryn Hill, the iconic ex-Fugees emcee that emphasized achingly soulful vocals and an earthy persona on 1998's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Or they can follow Lil' Kim. The "first lady" of Diddy's Bad Boy camp and the Notorious B.I.G.'s Junior M.A.F.I.A. crew, her 1996 album Hard Core established her as a thug mistress that performed acrobatic tricks in the bedroom. A big personality of Pamela Anderson proportions, Lil' Kim's raw sexuality casts a shadow over any woman who strives for acceptance as a hip-hop artist.

One woman trying to establish her own identity is Nicki Minaj. She hails from Jamaica Queens, New York, and that fact alone makes her remarkable. New York hasn't produced a rap artist with gold and platinum appeal since 2003, when 50 Cent smashed the game with Get Rich or Die Tryin'. The current track record for female emcees is worse, a veritable trail of tears that begins after Eve, the last woman to achieve legitimate rap stardom (via her 1999 debut Let There Be Eve: Ruff Ryders' First Lady). (Did you say M.I.A.? Sure, OK.) Add her association with Lil Wayne, and there are plenty of reasons why Nicki Minaj stands out. She has landed on numerous magazine covers, been recruited by Christina Aguilera and Usher for guest spots, and regularly appears on urban gossip websites -- all before she has even scored a hit single.

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Ever since Kanye kick-started hip-hop's love affair with Coldplay, we've seen more and more hip-hop stars getting chummy with the alt and indie rock bunch. Jay-Z loves him some Grizzly Bear (and Coldplay). Members of the Wu-Tang Clan, plus Mos Def, Q-Tip, Ludacris and other hip-hop honchos, formed Blakroc with the Black Keys just last year. Current breakout star B.o.B got a little help from Paramore's Hayley Williams on the chart-climbing "Airplanes"; he also revealed to us his own little crush on Coldplay, along with bands like Broken Bells, MGMT and Green Day on his celebrity playlist.

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Do rappers even rap anymore? When B.o.B's The Adventures of Bobby Ray debuted at the top of the Billboard charts, it not only divided critics and fans but also led to feverish claims that major labels don't support straight-up lyricism anymore, at least not without an equal helping of slumming pop vocalists and Auto-Tuned crooning to make rap palatable for the American Idol generation. The forthcoming arrival of Drake's Thank Me Later -- which will probably follow Bobby Ray as the second No.1 hip-hop album of 2010 -- hasn't dissipated those concerns, not when the Toronto artist spends his time wooing teenage girls with R&B hooks. Drake doesn't even rap on his latest single, "Find Your Love."

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As another summer beckons, another season of the Dirty South dance commences. The yearly ritual brings dozens of contenders, the kind of bubblegum rap that no one admits to liking in the daylight but everyone loves in the nightclub (and strip club) when the ladies are loose, the guys are stuntin' and the vodka is pouring. And most of it will probably come from Atlanta.

Ever since the mid-'90s and booty bass anthems like the Ghost Town DJs classic "My Boo" and, uh, Freak Nasty's less-than-classic "Da Dip," the ATL has beguiled and tormented us with its bubblegum rap. The current style is "swag," a misbegotten blend of materialist lyrical flossing, trap/thug authenticity and, occasionally, a new dance for the folks to try back home. And all you so-called real hip-hoppers step off. I bet that when you're partying at the club, and you're surrounded by dozens of hot girls, your drunken ass sings "Turn My Swag On," too.

Last year, when I first heard Nas was linking with Damian Marley for his next album, I immediately had visions of recycled Marley-as-spliff punchlines, rambling one-love diatribes, and uninspired Chant Down Babylon rehashes, and/or -- given Nas' relationship woes -- hip hop's version of Hear, My Dear. The probabilities had me cringing and side-eyeing this release.

But can you blame me? I mean, the last time a Marley hooked up with a revered New York mic fiend, the Fugees broke up. (Still missin' you, L-Boogie.)

So as I loaded my advanced copy of Distant Relatives, I kept one finger on the delete button and a couple 140 shots on old men rapping at the ready. And then, something strange began to happen.

It got good.

Reef the Lost Cauze is a beast. I guess I should have known this, but I didn't. For years, I dismissed him as a castoff of the Jedi Mind Tricks school of super-scientifical, jihad-obsessed, Wu-Tang-inspired East Coast cult rap. And yes, Reef is something of a malcontent that boils together strange themes of copious drug consumption, criticism of the government and bloody sucker MC decapitation. He seemed like another name in a horde of Army of the Pharoahs releases.

The album that forced me to recognize Reef's skills was 2008's A Vicious Cycle. And the track that got me open was "Pay-Per-View." The track was seemingly written for sleepers like me; it begins with two fake announcers asking if Reef, a veteran of the early 00s freestyle battle wars and the concurrent indie-rap meltdown, is still a viable artist.

"Onetime titan Reef the Lost Cause is coming out of retirement. Bob, what are your thoughts on that?" asks the first.

"I don't think the kid has a shot in hell. He's been out of the game way too long," answers Bob.

Then Reef just brings it. Over an improbably banging beat ripped from cable network HBO's 80s theme music, the Philly MC drops, "Spazz out like I smoke dust/ Get your soul crushed/ AOTP/ Greatest crew since Cold Crush." He goes hard like that for over three minutes, ending each stanza by shouting out, "Say Attica, Attica!" like Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon.

On the Record is a video series where rock stars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds. Click above to watch MJG talk about his favorite album of all time. Rhapsody subscribers can listen to Ten Toes Down and millions of other albums whenever and however they want. Click here to sign up for a free Rhapsody trial subscription and see what we're all about.

ARTIST: MJG RECORD: The Show The After Party The Hotel

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On the Record is a video series where rock stars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds. Click above to watch 8Ball talk about his favorite album of all time. Rhapsody subscribers can listen to Ten Toes Down and millions of other albums whenever and however they want. Click here to sign up for a free Rhapsody trial subscription and see what we're all about.

ARTIST: 8Ball RECORD: In Our Lifetime

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Memphis rap legends 8Ball and MJG took a break from this year's SXSW festivities to talk about their influence on Southern hip-hop, the lost art of DJ'ing, and their new album, Ten Toes Down.

"Let us die young or let us live forever, we don't have the power but we never say never." As his wife sang the hook on "Young Forever" and he looked out upon 50,000 fans, you couldn't fault Jay-Z for getting a little emotional. "I felt like a child up here tonight, I had a beautiful time. I had so much fun with y'all tonight. I felt y'all energy and y'all spirit"

Y'alls aside, being one of the fans in the audience that night ranks up there with one of the most moving moments of my life. Although Coachella is known as a rock festival, Jay-Z signed on as a headliner anyway. Many in the crowd may have been simply curious to see what it would be like. Would it play like a greatest hits album, with a few hype men yelling his verses along with him? Should we bail and go see Benny Benassi and Deadmau5? No, we should stay here. This is epic.

We've waited years for the much-blogged-about new school to emerge. It appears that moment has finally arrived. The music charts are teeming with hits by Drake, from 2009's inescapable "Best I Ever Had" to the new "Over." Kid Cudi continues to show up in the strangest places, whether it's on dance-club tracks with Dan Black ("Symphonies") and Sharam from Deep Dish ("She Came Along") or on Vitamin Water's new "Pursuit of Happiness" ad campaign. Asher Roth is courting MTV attention with Asleep in the Bread Aisle while maneuvering between frat-rap expectations and online haterade. And B.o.B is currently sitting at the summit of the pop charts with "Nothin' on You," his shaggy-dog ballad with Bruno Mars of the Smeezingtons; his soon-to-be hit debut, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, is now landing at online and brick-and-mortar vendors.

Backspin to 1996: I was locked in a cubicle, pick in 'fro, a crappy slow beige Mac underneath my fingertips, and cold Chicago winds pushing me to and from work. For that whole year, only two things kept me from jumping out of the office window:

One: Our company's windows were locked and sealed shut. Seriously, it was an old building, so for insurance purposes the windows on the high-up floors were sealed shut to keep people from jumping and then suing the company. Now, I was pretty sure anyone who could survive a voluntary +300-foot header wouldn't be thinking "lawsuit" as much as they'd be thinking, "F**k?! This didn't work, either!"

But the other thing that kept me sane was a little collaboration called Nocturnal.