Thanks to everyone who contributed! We didn’t have a large of a turnout as last year, I guess a few Lessonheads weren’t as passionate about the 2000s decade in hip hop as myself.

In total, 18 users submitted lists containing 177 different albums by over 120 different artists.

14 albums were placed in one or more user's #1 slot, 49 landed in at least one user's top 5 and 90 were in a top 10.

Full results can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/lessontop25200s

The Lesson's Favorite Hip Hop Albums of the 2000s:

01. Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought (2000)
02. Common Like Water For Chocolate (2000)
03. Madvillain - Madvillainy (2004)
04. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele (2000)
05. OutKast - Stankonia (2000)

06. Jay-Z - The Blueprint (2001)
07. Slum Village - Fantastic Vol. 2 (2000)
08. Q-Tip - The Renaissance (2008)
09. Kanye West - Graduation (2007)
10. Scarface - The Fix (2004)

11. Common - Be (2005)
12. The Roots - Game Theory (2006)
13. Blu & Exile - Below the Heavens (2007)
14. Little Brother - The Minstrel Show (2005)
15. Nas - Stillmatic (2001)

16. De La Soul - The Grind Date (2004)
17. Kanye West - The College Dropout (2004)
18. dead prez - Let’s Get Free (2000)
19. Little Brother - The Listening (2003)
20. Mos Def - The Ecstatic (2009)

21. J Dilla - Donuts (2006)
22. Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow (2002)
23. Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030 (2000)
24. The Foreign Exchange - Connected (2004)
25. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury (2006)

01. Common (996 pts, 25 votes, 3 albums)
02. MF DOOM (inc. Madvillain, Viktor Vaughn) (762 pts, 17 votes, 3 albums)
03. Kanye West (794 pts, 22 votes, 3 albums)
04. Talib Kweli (inc. Reflection Eternal) (677 pts, 14 votes, 2 albums)
05. Jay-Z (611 pts, 16 votes, 3 albums)
06. The Roots (600 pts, 17 votes, 3 albums)
07. Little Brother (534 pts, 14 votes, 2 albums)
08. OutKast (492 pts, 11 votes, 2 albums)
09. Ghostface Killah (481 pts, 9 votes, 2 albums)
10. Nas (462 pts, 13 votes, 3 albums)

1. 2000 (3377 pts, 76 votes, 19 albums. Top album: Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought (1st))
2. 2004 (1918 pts, 50 votes, 21 albums. Top album: Madvillain - Madvillainy (3rd))
3. 2002 (1912 pts, 53 votes, 24 albums. Top album: Scarface - The Fix (10th))
4. 2001 (1821 pts, 47 votes, 18 albums. Top album: Jay-Z - The Blueprint (6th))
5. 2005 (1604 pts, 50 votes, 19 albums. Top album: Common - Be (11th))
6. 2006 (1429 pts, 39 votes, 19 albums. Top album: The Roots - Game Theory (12th))
7. 2007 (1365 pts, 42 votes, 16 albums. Top album: Kanye West - Graduation (9th))
8. 2003 (1226 pts, 38 votes, 17 albums. Top album: Little Brother - The Listening (19th))
9. 2008 (1160 pts, 34 votes, 15 albums. Top album: Q-Tip - The Renassaince (8th))
10. 2009 (516 pts, 16 votes, 9 albums. Top album: Mos Def - The Ecstatic (20th))

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ut4JYClgSzErBekqvK0Mq?si=18239bb663fd4bc2

Missing De La Soul's The Grind Date and Mos Def's The Ecstatic due to not being available on Spotify at the moment. Replaced by Tronic and Phrenology.

I was wondering if you guys would be interested in more regular rate/rank battles? I think the 2010s are too fresh, and seems like people already had trouble remembering what was in what decade, so if I were to keep doing Lesson Ranks X posts, would something smaller scale but more regular be interesting/would you participate?

My idea would be doing discog rankings. For example, we could do artist specific (Rank/Rate The Roots, Kanye) or do it with famous rivals (Rank/Rate Jay-Z v. Nas, Tribe v. De La).

Ballots could either be a simple rank of 1-x of the artists albums, or be a little more specific where we give a 1-10 score for each album. The results would be the average rank or score based on the ballots submitted.

Let me know if anyone would be interested in this or if we should wrap this up before it becomes a tradition lol

i would have trouble doing a 2010s list since i wasnt really paying attention the first 5 years. i am planning to go back and revisit those years but yeah probably too fresh.

i like the idea of doing rivals. maybe top 30 songs of each artist.

i think something that would invite people to check out the given catalog incase theyre new to it or it has been a while. so give us some time to revisit/listen then open voting.

maybe a tournament?

whatever you pick im down.

It would be interesting for me to see what the people who were paying attention to hip-hop in the 2010's liked (even though it would be fewer than the 2000's voting participants).

... but I had a lot of fun with the "all time" list you did last year.

So I'm def down for more. And wish I'd found the time to chime in on this. Although by the looks of it, my choices wouldn't have altered much of anything haha.

i wonder what reddit would say.

how long until okp makes an article on it? lol

Thanks for taking the time to not only count the votes but go to great lengths to come up with the spreadsheets and list the other data.

It's interesting to see the results quantified. Based on my sense of what the boards thought at the time of the release of these albums, I think the results match up really close to the general taste of everyone.

It's not too surprising that a lot of these albums were released at the beginning of the decade. Not only was that a great time for music, but our tastes as a community also seem more in line with the boom-bap sound that grew less popular over time.

The only shocking album is seeing Deltron 3030. It's a good album, but I didn't think it was so well-regarded. And it's odd that Phrenology isn't here. I'm biased because I voted it #1, but I sensed it was received well at the time and thought it would rank high on the final list.

...but it's not for me to "get".

Again, when the album first dropped I played it a lot.
In fact I remember the excitement and buzz around it in The Lesson.
I think it was verification that Talib could lead a project on his own
outside of the BlackStar umbrella. Black On Both Sides had dropped the year before
as this landmark album, we were all waiting to hear what Kweli would do.

And Train Of Thought held its own in what was one of the most iconic
years of soul and hip hop music. Fall of 2000? After Voodoo?
After Mama's Gun? After LWFC and Phrenology?

But I guess my ears have grown tired of Talib the MC these days.
I can't tell you the last time I played it in full.

But it seems even today people still have a strong connection with that album.