The hip hop community was flooded with tons of music during this past year. From established superstars, such as Young Thug, to rising stars, such as DaBaby, great projects have been released throughout the year. Today, we will be reflecting on the great year of music we have had by looking at the top rap and hip hop albums of 2019.

Starting off in the early months of the calendar year, DaBaby established himself as a stronghold in the rap genre with his first of two projects for the year with Baby on Baby. Released on March 1, the Charlotte raised rapper showcases his signature thrilling style that usually allows listeners to have a great time while listening to the rapper.

The album features different artists, such as common collaborator Stunna 4 Vegas, Offset, and Rich the Kid. Offset’s verse on the track “Baby Sitter” helps compliment DaBaby’s strong hook which allowed for the song to spend 19 weeks on the Billboard Top 100 Hip-Hop songs.

 “Suge” is the strongest song on the album, garnering the most sales and being ranked the top song of the year by many fans on different blogs and YouTube channels. It was featured on Jay-Z’s top songs of the year, which shows that even the top artists are listening to DaBaby’s top hits. It peaked at  number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 list. “Goin Baby” and “Walker Texas Ranger” are among other popular hits from this project. Clearly, Baby on Baby is one of the top albums from the year.

Next up, late rapper Juice WRLD’s “Death Race for Love” project reveals the tough instances that he faced that involved loving another individual. Many songs display his heartbroken and angry emotions. The album also portrays his unbelievable lyrical abilities, as he revealed on his twitter account that he had freestyled the entire album in the studio, which is a pretty remarkable feat. The album peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 list, which ranks the top albums.

Before the initial release of the project on March 8, the song “Robbery” came out on all platforms and also included a music video directed by Cole Bennett, the popular director and owner of Lyrical Lemonade. “Hear Me Calling” is the album’s second pre-release single and represents a callout to a girl in his life.

Other songs, such as “Empty” and “Out My Way” were crucial in the album’s success. Respectively, the tracks represents battles with depression and the extravagant rockstar lifestyle that Juice was living at the time.

NAV’s Bad Habits project deserves to be discussed as one of the top projects from the year due to the abundance of catchy songs he includes on the album. The album speaks to different activities NAV takes part in since his rise to fame, which include taking drugs and spending money on designer items.

Songs, such as “Know Me” and “Why You Crying Mama” represent his rise to success and his current lifestyle of celebrating his journey to success. NAV obtained features from other artists, such as Future, Gunna, and Meek Mill. Meek Mill’s opening verse on “Tap” allowed the track to be the top song of the album as it still is featured in the top 100 hip-hop and R&B songs as represented by Billboard at a respective number 97.

The album was supposed to feature NAV’s close friend Lil Uzi Vert on the song “Habits”; however, due to issues with Lil Uzi’s record label, a version with his verse wasn’t able to be released on the album, disappointing many.

On Aug. 16, Young Thug released his highly anticipated project So Much Fun, and it surely didn’t disappoint fans. In our opinion, this is the top album of the year due to its many popular songs and featured artists that spice up Young Thug’s diverse style.

“The London,” the pre-release single off the album, features hooks from Travis Scott and a verse from J Cole. The song was highly praised by many and was a perfect way to introduce the project.

Artists from Young Thug’s record label, such as Lil Keed, Lil Duke, and Gunna, are featured on the album. Gunna is a stand out on the album as he features on two of the original tracks and on one of the album’s deluxe version tracks. His hook on “Hot” serves the track well as it topped the Rolling Stone Top 100 songs list. He is also a part of “Surf” and “Diamonds.”

Juice WRLD offers an exhilarating verse on “Mannequin Challenge.” NAV’s hooks and verse on “Boy Back” are a part of an underrated song on the project, and Quavo offers his repetitive style on “Circle of Bosses.” Other artists who collaborated with Young Thug on the project were Future, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Travis Scott, and  Doe Boy.

More recently, a deluxe version of the album was released, which added a Travis Scott verse to the top single “Hot” and a feature from the Houston artist on “Hop Off a Jet.” “Diamonds” featuring Gunna is also an added treat to the already great project. “Millions” and “Die Today” are also apart of the deluxe version of the project.

Trippie Redd continues his love letter series with “A Love Letter To You 4.” The project showcases Trippie’s abilities to rap and sing. Some songs, such as “Love Me More” and “Hate Me” featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again, are devoted to displaying his love for significant others or his heartbreak from past relationships. Other songs are placed on the album to flex his success in the rap industry, such as “M’s” featuring Lil Yachty and Pi’erre Bourne and “This Ain’t That” featuring Lil Mosey. Other tracks have shown Trippie’s dark side as portrayed in “Death” featuring DaBaby and “The Grinch,” which both have music videos on YouTube. Because of Trippie’s diverse choice of themes in his songs, this album is one of the year’s best.

Commercially, the album has had great success across the charts. It topped three different US charts as the top album: US Billboard 200, US Rolling Stone 200, and US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, which is also provided by Billboard. “Death” featuring DaBaby and “6 Kiss” featuring late rapper Juice WRLD and YNW Melly are still featured in the Billboard Hot 100 charts at the respective positions of number 74 and  number 100.

Most recently, Roddy Ricch’s first studio album, Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial, is one of the best projects from the past year. Ricch, who has previously released two mixtapes prior to the December release, has established his position in the industry with the successful album.

Ricch released three singles prior to the official release of the album in order to earn buzz for the project with “Big Stepper,” “Start wit Me” featuring Gunna, and “Tip Toe” featuring A Boogie Wit da Hoodie. All three tracks were well praised by fans, so it was expected that the rest of the project would be a blessing to the ears.

The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 charts and still resides at number three, weeks after its original release. As for individual tracks, “The Box,” which features a signature squeaky beat, has a ranking of number 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Start wit Me” featuring Gunna, “Tip Toe” featuring A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, “Peta” featuring Meek Mill are also on the list with respective positions of numbers 69, 80, and 90.

Although the year of 2019 was flooded with many projects from very popular artists, highly anticipated albums went missing this past year, such as Eternal Atake by Lil Uzi Vert and Whole Lotta Red by Playboi Carti. Hopefully, in 2020, we will be able to experience listening to these albums and other albums from artists that went through 2019 without any major releases, such as Meek Mill, Travis Scott, Drake, and Migos.