© 2025 WBGO
WBGO Jazz light blue header background
Jazz...Anywhere, Anytime, on Any Device.
WBGO
Jazz Overnight
Wayne Shorter - Native Dancer
Ponta de Areia
Next Up:
Wayne Shorter - Native Dancer Ponta de Areia
0:00
0:00
Ponta de Areia
Wayne Shorter - Native Dancer
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

5 Essential Hip-Hop Albums You Slept On In 2016

Saba's <em>Bucket List Project</em> should have been on more lists.
Bryan Allen Lamb
/
Courtesy of the artist
Saba's Bucket List Project should have been on more lists.

When the NPR Music team convened to choose the 50 Best Albums Of 2016, we discussed dozens of hip-hop records. In the end, five deserving LPs found a home on the master list. Chance the Rapper's blessings and A Tribe Called Quest's surprising return are consensus picks for good reasons ... but 2016 had so much more to offer. For those that slept, here's five more joints worth celebrating.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bobby Carter is a leader on the Tiny Desk Concerts team for NPR Music. He's brought an ever growing roster of big names and emerging artists through NPR's HQ to squeeze behind the desk of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen and record standout performances, including Usher, Mac Miller, Noname, Anderson.Paak and H.E.R.
Kiana Fitzgerald is a freelance music journalist, cultural critic, and DJ. She writes for the world from deep in the heart of Texas.