Most Underrated Hip-hop Albums of All Time

All those classic great albums like illmatic and paid in full dont count as this is underrated not greatest.
The Top Ten
1 Rakim - The 18th Letter

This was lyrically his best album. People don't understand he nearly completely killed all of the tracks on the album. How can anyone say this album wasn't awesome after listening to this masterpiece?

This came out at a time where everybody was obsessed with gangsta rap, so sadly it didn't get the attention it deserved.

When Im Flowin has to be one of the greatest rap songs of all time!

An underrated album from a criminally underrated rapper.

2 Eminem - Relapse

How can you underrate an album that gave us "beautiful". People actually never try to understand what a person is going thru. M sorry for people who always want the best.

Just listen to the song "BEAUTIFUL" I am sure you all will love it such a masterpiece it is and you will never get tired of it. Such an inspirational song

This is given loads of hate compared to his other albums, even from the man himself but there were some beauties on this album especially Beautiful and Crack A Bottle. Also 3AM, Stay Wide Awake, Old Time's Sake and Deja Vu deserve credit but I can see why the accents put people off this album.

I love this album so much! So underrated! But what's weird is I think that "Beautiful" is not the best song on the album. It's actually kind of corny. I think songs like Insane, Old Times Sake, Medicine Ball, Crack a Bottle, Elevator (Refill) and Deja Vu are better. Although "Beautiful" is still a great song. The entire album is pretty awesome though.

3 Soul Food - Goodie Mob
4 Look What You Did to Me - Z-Ro
5 Main Source - Breaking Atoms
6 Infinite - Eminem

I don't see how all these albums that are clearly NOT underrated are on this list. Relapse, Stillmatic, and The 18th Letter? They've all gotten their fair share of recognition and critical success (well, somewhat for Relapse). Infinite however, was released 19 years ago, sold less than 1,000 copies, still is relatively unknown, and didn't do so well with the critics. But, it's a great album and (in my opinion) one of Eminem's best.

Aww this one is UNDERRATED and it's always last place when it comes to Eminem albums... This may not be as good as the others but it's not bad

Infinite is actually very good, the lyrics are unbelievable!

Hands Down, most underrated album

7 Illadelph Halflife - The Roots
8 Stillmatic - Nas

Better Than "I Am..." And "Nastradamus" But Not As Good As "It Was Written" And Definitely No Where Near As Good As "Illmatic"

Stillmatic is better than all Jay-Z albums except RD,Blueprint and Black album. This album, Em's infinite and relapse are the underrated supposed to be classics

Stillmatic is Nas' second best album behind Illmatic. Better than all of Jay-z and eminem's albums

Not underrated but not overrated ether but good album

9 Below the Heavens - Blu & Exile
10 Lil Wyte - Lil Wyte

This is a near-masterpiece. Definitely surpassed my expectations. Lil Wyte's first 2 albums are definitely classics, but this is definitely his most complete and personal album to date, where he proves that he can rap about more than just getting high. Unlike his last album No Sick Days, he sounds more focused here than ever and there are no filler tracks.
Rating: 9.5/10

The Contenders
11 Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1 - Lupe Fiasco
12 Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star - Black Star
13 The Great Milenko - Insane Clown Posse
14 Souls Of Mischief - 93' To Infinity

This album is topclass! No further comments

Clever, creative lyrics and beats.

15 King - Kollegah
16 Immortal Technique - Revolutionary, Vol. 1

It's almost embarassing that people would put an album (relapse) on here because it had ONE good song. Sure, Beautiful is great but it can't alone make an overall mediocre album great. Eminem's last good album was The Eminem Show.

I'm a huge eminem's fan, but Infinite and Relapse are not underrated. Revolutionary? Yes it is, because in this album most of the songs are good and tops with Dancing With The Devil ( underrated ).

Dare you say relapse only had one good song that is beautiful. The rhymes schemes on relapse are untouchable

Immortal Technique is the best rapper, hands down

17 UGK - Ridin' Dirty

Hot record really slept on. Should be in the 30-40 greatest hip-hop albums of all time list but usually gets left much lower by people.

These cat's know how to spit. 2nd only to Outkast in the south.

This album is dope to mob to

18 Royce Da 5'9 - Death is Certain

Royce is underrated so as Eminem so as bad meets evil

19 Somethin' Serious - Big Mike
20 Juvenile - 400 Degreez

Most of juvenile's albums are underrated, especially reality check. They say juvenile is, "too regional". Jazz originated in new orleans too. Can you imagine if it had been dismissed as "too regional"?

Lots of underrated southern rap albums.There are those overrated ones like tha carter 3 but the south has some good stuff.

21 Immortal Technique - Revolutionary, Vol. 2

Not a bad song on here, no other rap artist manage to combine that guitar riff with great lyrics, that can always paint a picture. Never gets old.

22 The Rising Tied - Fort Minor

Fort Minor is sick! Love all the songs and its unfortunate most people never heard it. Also lp is good

23 Freestyle Fellowship - To Whom It May Concern

Almost everyone I talk to has never heard of this.Thats a crime this is a classic top 100 lp.

24 The Heist - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Great album, but not underrated.

25 Freeway - Philadelphia Freeway

I was surprised at how good freeways debut was it is a near-classic album.

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