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The Best Chicago Rap Albums

10 albums · Updated

Chicago rap has always been more musical and more personal than its reputation for drill suggests. Common and No I.D. built a soulful, jazz-rooted sound in the 1990s; Kanye West carried it to the charts; and a later generation around the city's open-mic and youth-poetry scene (Chance the Rapper, Noname, Saba) took it somewhere warmer and stranger.

These are the Chicago albums reviewed on the site, ranked by scorecard.

How this list works: Albums by Chicago artists, reviewed on the site, ranked by current score. Scores come from each review's six-part scorecard; see the methodology.

  1. 1
    My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West album cover

    Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

    Score: 9.7 · Read the review · Kanye West albums ranked

    Recorded largely in Hawaii with a large cast of collaborators, it turns maximalism into a study of fame and self-destruction.

  2. 2
    Yeezus by Kanye West album cover

    Kanye West – Yeezus (2013)

    Score: 9.3 · Read the review · Kanye West albums ranked

    Abrasive, minimal and industrial, made with Daft Punk, Hudson Mohawke and Rick Rubin among others, and stripped back in final mixing.

  3. 3
    Be by Common album cover

    Common – Be (2005)

    Score: 9.2 · Read the review · Common albums ranked

    Produced mostly by Kanye West with two J Dilla beats, Common's comeback is eleven tracks and about forty-three minutes.

  4. 4
    Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper album cover

    Chance the Rapper – Acid Rap (2013)

    Score: 9.2 · Read the review · Chance the Rapper albums ranked

    A free mixtape full of gospel and jazz touches that made Chance a star without a label.

  5. 5
    The College Dropout by Kanye West album cover

    Kanye West – The College Dropout (2004)

    Score: 9.0 · Read the review · Kanye West albums ranked

    Kanye's debut mixed chipmunk-soul production with jokes, faith and class anxiety; "Jesus Walks" and "Through the Wire" broke the backpack-versus-street divide.

  6. 6
    Late Registration by Kanye West album cover

    Kanye West – Late Registration (2005)

    Score: 9.0 · Read the review · Kanye West albums ranked

    Kanye co-produced with Jon Brion, adding orchestral arrangements to his soul samples; "Gold Digger" and "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" came from it.

  7. 7
    Room 25 by Noname album cover

    Noname – Room 25 (2018)

    Score: 9.0 · Read the review · Noname albums ranked

    Noname's debut studio album sets conversational poetry over live jazz-soul production from Phoelix.

  8. 8
    Resurrection by Common album cover

    Common – Resurrection (1994)

    Score: 8.7 · Read the review · Common albums ranked

    No I.D.'s jazz-soul production backs Common's sharpest early writing, including "I Used to Love H.E.R.", hip-hop told as a love story.

  9. 9
    Few Good Things by Saba album cover

    Saba – Few Good Things (2022)

    Score: 8.3 · Read the review · Saba albums ranked

    The Chicago rapper's warm, family-focused follow-up to Care for Me, about generational wealth and what it means.

  10. 10
    Graduation by Kanye West album cover

    Kanye West – Graduation (2007)

    Score: 8.0 · Read the review · Kanye West albums ranked

    Kanye swapped soul samples for stadium synths and electronic textures; it outsold 50 Cent's Curtis in their shared release week.

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