u/adorani1991

Just letting y’all know anything pre 2000 I won’t give really give insight on just simply because it’s already a shit ton of writing and I’ll most likely respond to any comments y’all make abt any particular year anyways so with all that being said here's my list!

1970s
1979 MVP: Grandmaster Caz
Runner up: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

1980s
1980 MVP: Kurtis Blow
Runner up: Kool Moe Dee
1981 MVP: Kool Moe Dee
Runner up: The Sugarhill Gang
1982 MVP: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Runner up: Kurtis Blow
1983 MVP: Whodini
Runner up: Kurtis Blow
1984 MVP: Run-DMC
Runner up: Kurtis Blow
1985 MVP: LL Cool J
Runner up: Run-DMC
1986 MVP: Run-DMC
Runner up: Too $hort
1987 MVP: Eric B. and Rakim
Runner up: KRS-One
1988 MVP: Slick Rick
Runner up: public enemy
1989 MVP: NWA
Runner up: Big Daddy Kane

1990s
1990 MVP: Ice Cube
Runner up: LL Cool J
1991 MVP: Ice Cube
Runner up: Q-Tip
1992 MVP: Dr. Dre
Runner up: Redman
1993 MVP: Snoop Doggy Dogg
Runner up: The Wu-Tang Clan
1994 MVP: Nas
Runner up: The Notorious B.I.G.
1995 MVP: Mobb Deep
Runner up: 2Pac
1996 MVP: 2Pac
Runner up: Nas
1997 MVP: The Notorious B.I.G.
Runner up: Mase
1998 MVP: DMX
Runner up: Lauryn Hill
1999 MVP: DMX
Runner up: Jay-Z

2000s
2000 MVP: Eminem (The MMLP is Eminem's best album and arguably the best album oat)
Runner up: OutKast (Admittedly a weaker album in their respective catalog but def the second best of the year)
2001 MVP: Jay-Z (Jay dropped his amazing album The Blueprint  which was the second biggest thing to happen in New York city in 2001)
Runner up: Ludacris (Simply one of the best years in southern hip hop history Luda was red hot at this moment with hella hits just stacking up man just a shame this came as Jay was having arguably the best year of his career) 
2002 MVP: Eminem (Dropped The Eminem Show which was the cherry on top to his second best year in his career imo)
Runner up: Nelly (Dropped Nellyville which is the best album of his career and he debuted #1 and went crazy on the charts)
2003 MVP: 50 Cent (Best breakout/blowup year in hip hop history alongside one of the best albums in hip hop history 50 definitely cemented himself as a legend with this album)
Runner up: Jay-Z (Dropped his "Retirement album” which would have been a very good retirement album tbf and def one of his best and had him temporarily leave on top of the game)
2004 MVP: Kanye West (Much like 50 this is also one of the best breakout years in hip hop history and dropped one of the best debut albums ever in The College Dropout)
Runner up: T.I. (T.I. dropped Urban Legend in 04 and had all the clubs going crazy throughout the year tho not better than the college dropout he was def doing his thing in 04)
2005 MVP: The Game (I simply just like The Documentary more than Late Registration and think Game was the hottest rapper out in 05 reviving the West Coast hip hop scene that hadn’t seen a superstar of his stardom since 2Pac)
Runner up: Kanye West (Late Registration is great but def not the best of his discography)
2006 MVP: T.I. (Dropped one of the best albums in southern hip hop history in King and made history basically being one of the pioneers for southern hip hop and making way for acts such as The Migos Future etc etc)
Runner up: Clipse (They dropped my second fav project from them in Hell Hath no Fury and became the definitive hip hop duo of the late 2000s after OutKast broke up)
2007 MVP: Kanye West (But he made graduation tho)
Runner up: Lil Wayne (He dropped Da Drought 3 and he had all types of features and buzz around his name he was simply the second best rapper in 2007 behind one Kanye Omari West)
2008 MVP: Lil Wayne (Wayne dropped his greatest album of all time not my fav from him I prefer not a Human Being ll but that's not the point imo it's definitely his magnum opus)
Runner up: Kanye West (Dropped 808s and Heartbreaks which looking back was way too hated on but sadly didn't hit as hard as The Carter lll imo)
2009 MVP: Jay-Z (Dropped the best rap album of the year and one of the best of the late 2000s The Blueprint lll and showed the whole game that he still got it much like Clipse years later, but we'll get to that later)
Runner up: Eminem (Dropped Relapse which was his triumphant return to the rap game, and he killed everyone on Forever and he got the Grammky for rap album of the year what more needs to be said )

2010s
2010 MVP: Kanye West (Dropped his magnum opus and arguably the goat rap album)
Runner up: Eminem (Dropped Recovery and showed the whole world that he was not finished fucking the game up with his penmanship and lyrical abilities)
2011 MVP: Drake (Capped off his triumphant year with his magnum opus Take Care and showed the rap game that this was then star of the Drake era and they either had to get down or lay down)
Runner up: Kanye/Jay-Z (Split votes) (Dropped WTT which was a great collab album lots of replayability just not as good as Take Care)
2012 MVP: Kendrick Lamar (GKMC is my favorite album he dropped and one of my favs of the decade and effectively made him take the torch from The Game as the king of the West Coast)
Runner up: Chief Keef (He put Drill music on the map and dropped the classic album Finally Famous he was white hot this year and I wanted to pick him so badly but nah Kendrick was better)
2013 MVP: Drake (Dropped one of his best projects ever and did what he does best and drop bangers and hits he took the torch from Lil Wayne and ran with that shit)
Runner up: A$AP Rocky (I actually like LLA more than NWTS but I can't deny the sheer dominance of the boy Drizzy so I begrudgingly chose Drake as the MVP)
2014 MVP: J Cole (My fav J Cole album I want the 10 year anniversary version of this vinyl, this album is one of the greatest rap albums ever and cemented Cole as a household name, member of the big 3 and a definite part of hip hop history)
Runner up: Nicki Minaj (Dropped The Pinkprint, had four number one singles first female rapper to ever do that too bad she dropped in the same year Cole dropped his magnum opus)
2015 MVP: Future (Even though I think that Kendrick Lamar had the second best album overall in the year, I think that Futures Musical output including DS2 and WATTBA plus his late 2000s Wayne type feature run this year Gives him the edge over Kendrick for me personally)
Runner up: Kendrick Lamar (Kendrick dropped his magnum opus enough said one of the greatest albums any genre ever period)
2016 MVP: Drake (Much like Future the year prior Drake was just inescapable in 2016 from the radios to the clubs and had all types of hits 100% one of the most successful years in rap history
Runner up: Chance the Rapper (Dropped one of the best mixtapes of all time and won multiple Grammys all without being signed to a label)
2017 MVP: Lil Uzi Vert (Uzi dropped my second fav album of his ever and established himself as the best rapper to come out of the “mumble rap” era with this album)
Runner up: Kendrick Lamar (Not tryna give repetitive reasoning but some of these are just as simple as album 1 better than album 2 and that's what I think in this instance, I think Uzi was overall more influential and affected the sound and I think he had the better album give me Luv is Rage 2 over Damn)
2018 MVP: Travis Scott (I wanted to do a Co MVP so damn bad but no cop outs, he should have won the Grammy for RAOTY Cardi snub sigh but at least he had the best album of the respective years and one of the best of the decade)
Runner up: Drake/Kanye (Split votes) (All three were giants in this year but Astroworld was the best rap album of the year and when I think back on the year the first rapper to come to mind is Travis not to mention that the other two would prob be hit with sum voter fatigue atp simple as that)
2019 MVP: DaBaby (Dropped Baby on Baby and Kirk in the same damn year he was going crazy this year, and I see this as a Russell Westbrook type MVP say what you want abt him now but at the time he was 100% the hottest rapper in the game)
Runner up: Tyler the Creator (Honestly, I like Igor more than either Kirk or Baby on Baby but both of them combined plus DaBaby’s crazy spew of hits and features makes me give him the edge over Tyler

2020s
2020 MVP: Playboi Carti (Dropped a #1 Album with WLR and ushered in the rage sound that defined the early 2020s)
Runner up: Lil Baby (Simply one of the hottest rap years of the decade Lil Baby was red hot and dropped his best work imo in My Turn I just simply think WLR is better)
2021 MVP: Tyler the Creator (Just dropped an amazing album that deservedly won RAOTY and was overall one of my fav projects he’s ever dropped)
Runner up: Kanye West (The most personal album in his career and the second best rap album of the year imo def a great addition to his discography wasn't as good as CMIYGL)
2022 MVP: JID (Just simply one of the best breakout years in rap history and dropped the best rap album of the year imo should've won RAOTY but I’m not mad at the Kendrick pick)
Runner up: Kendrick Lamar (Won AOTY at the Grammys and dropped his most heartfelt album ever)
2023 MVP: Travis Scott (Should've won RAOTY at the Grammys and this is one of my fav projects he's ever dropped)
Runner up: Danny Brown (Dropped my fav album of his and I don't even like Danny Brown that much it just simply isn't as good as Utopia imo)
2024 MVP: Kendrick Lamar (Much like 2018 I wanted to give them a Co MVP but as I said no cop outs, in regards to Kendrick he snatched Drakes Drake in one of the biggest rap battles ever went #1 with Not Like Us proceeded to drop GNX and then won a grammy on top of everything just goat lvl stuff)
Runner up: Future (Dropped 3 high quality projects he just wasn't as white hot as Kendrick imo so I gave Kendrick the slight edge)
2025 MVP: Clipse (Dropped an excellent comeback album and showed age is nothing but a number in Hip Hop)
Runner up: JID (Had a great sophmore album and showed he was still one of the best rappers on the planet)
2026 MVP: Drake? (Dropped three albums say what you want abt the other two, but Iceman lived up to the hype imo and passed the king of pop with total chart dominance)
Runner up: J Cole? (Not much to say if this is Cole's retirement album this man did not disappoint and showed how much of a lyrical juggernaut, he is)
(I don't think there's much time in the year left for either of them to be overtaken so as of now Drake will prob win with Cole getting the Runner up but if I'm proven wrong, I'll come back and edit this part)
Top 3:
Drake 🏅4x
Kanye West 🏅3x
Ice Cube/Run DMC/Eminem/Jay-Z/Kendrick Lamar/DMX🏅2x
I know many of you won't agree with some of my picks so lemme see y'alls lists down in the comments!
Also shoutout to [Free-Yoghurt124](https://www.reddit.com/user/Free-Yoghurt124/) he inspired me to make this post as he made a really interesting and similar post over on r/rap.[](https://www.reddit.com/r/rap/)
[**r/rap**](https://www.reddit.com/r/rap/)•2y%E2%80%A22y) ago

Hip-hop has grown into a global culture, but certain cities have played an outsized role in shaping the music, influencing trends, and producing legendary artists. Some cities built the foundation, others dominated entire eras, and a few consistently reinvented the sound generation after generation.

If we’re talking about the greatest hip-hop cities of all time, this is the list I’d start with:

New York City
Los Angeles
Atlanta
Houston
Chicago
Philadelphia
Detroit
Miami
New Orleans
Memphis

Honorable Mentions

Oakland
Cleveland
Toronto
Washington DC
Charlotte

For me, the debate starts with New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. New York gave us the birthplace of hip-hop and an almost unmatched roster spanning every era—from pioneers to the golden age to modern stars. Los Angeles delivered some of the most influential artists, albums, and movements ever, from gangsta rap to the G-funk era and beyond. Atlanta, meanwhile, has arguably been the most important hip-hop city of the last 25 years, producing wave after wave of artists who reshaped the sound of mainstream rap.

Houston deserves special recognition for creating a completely unique regional identity, while Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, and Miami all produced legendary artists and sounds that influenced the culture far beyond their city limits.

The bigger question is, how much should we value historical importance versus overall catalog quality versus cultural influence? A city like New York may have the strongest claim based on history and depth, while Atlanta can make a compelling case based on sustained dominance, and Los Angeles has an argument built on some of the most iconic artists and albums ever made.

What does your top 10 look like? And if you had to choose just one city as the greatest hip-hop city of all time, who gets the crown? ✌️✌️✌️

"Chonkyfire" is a mixture of Rock & Roll guitar strings, Hip-Hop drums, and gospel-like lyricism which equates to one of the most experimental songs in hip-hop, ever. The song uses the outer space sound and theme that they leveraged on ATLiens. Big Boi's verse is the better verse on the song, if you are into a smooth and sped up flow. He rhymes "They want that hardness that oddness that gets a n***a to start this", which is exactly what fans were asking of the group for this album.

"Skew it on the Bar-B" is a landmark moment in OutKast's discography, marking the first time the duo tapped a rapper from outside Atlanta for a guest feature, and they went straight to Staten Island for none other than Raekwon "The Chef."

Andre 3000 sets off the song with a classic hook that perfectly sums up the shifting landscape of the era: "Old school players to new school fools." In his verse, Dre explains how women love him but envious men want to destroy him for rejecting the standard rap tropes, spitting, "For spittin' all that bourgeoise, 'my watch, my car'/I'm a star, I'd rather be a comet by far."

Raekwon anchors the middle of the track, proving exactly why he was the perfect bridge between Southern bounce and gritty East Coast lyricism. The Chef matches the high-octane Organized Noize production with his signature rugged, Wu-Tang slang, delivering a dense, rapid-fire verse packed with cinematic street imagery that perfectly complements OutKast’s style without losing an ounce of his New York edge.

Big Boi brings it all back home, remaining fiercely true to his colors and spitting a verse rooted deep in the streets. He sets it off heavy with the opening line, "Boi, I bust raps like D-boys bust gats, shit/We the type of people that don't bury the axe." He wraps up his time on the mic by airing out a legendary grievance, claiming that The Source robbed them of a perfect 5-mic rating for Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.

Before diving into my top 3 members of the Wu, it is worth looking at the broader picture. Wu-Tang Clan evolved hip-hop by blending gritty, underground lyricism and production with a highly structured business model that has been replicated only a few times throughout the life cycle of the genre.

Instead of a traditional group format where members blended into a uniform style, Wu-Tang functioned as a collective of distinct solo artists. They revolutionized group rap by negotiating a historic contract that allowed individual members to sign with different record labels. This decentralized structure allowed them to flood the market, dominate the mid-to-late 90s, and prove that a large group could maintain individual identities while executing a shared vision.

Now the order of this list can change on any given day if I’m being honest with everyone but I think this is how I’ve felt the majority of my life:

1 Raekwon
2 GZA
3 Ghostface Killah

Honorable Mention
Method Man

Ultimately, the true strength of the Wu lay in their competitive dynamic which pushed each member to success both as a crucial component of the group's collective albums and through their own independent solo careers. So.. who are your top 3 in the Wu? Drop your thoughts in the comments ✌️✌️