I was actually trying to come up with a solid top 10 favorite rap albums a week ago because I never honestly made one, but these were what came to my head. This isn't in order.
Kanye West - Late Registration
Okay, we all know 808s and Heartbreak was Kanye's best album, but too bad it's not a rap album or else I would list it. To me Late Registration is a perfect follow-up album to what was an fantastic debut album. This is album to me is just more fun to listen to than College Dropout. The rhymes on here have me laughing or chuckling a lot more and I don't feel like there's any really preachy songs like College Dropout. I feel the emotional songs on here more and can connect to them as well.
Goodie Mob - Soul Food
This is just that dark shit I love to listen to. Whenever I listen to this I am always surprised how much Cee Lo goes in on this album. It's clear this dude was going to put out many great albums.
Jay-z - The Black Album
Personally to me this felt like the perfect "retirement" album for Jay. Listening to Jay spit on this album, it truly felt like it to me like he was done with rap after this album and I wasn't mad at all. He put out better albums than Nas has(I see you PD). Nah, but seriously, throughout the entire thing he just came off to me a lot wiser than he did on any other album. For whatever reason I was debating on putting the mash up that Danger Mouse did, but I don't really enjoy the beats that much honestly. A better mash up to me is the Beatles & Wu-Tang, but that's for another day.
The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
I suppose this is what people consider a backpack album? I don't know, but I really miss this type of rap where it just came off as fun( I know there's a few, but I'm just talking about majority here). It wasn't really no gangsta album or anything, it felt like an everyday man album, but had a party type vibe to it. These dudes didn't really care too much about simping, they actually look back at it and made fun of it and turned it into a fantastic song.
A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
Pretty much same thing I said about Pharcyde applies to ATCQ. I believe the most people album people love from them is The Low End Theory, but eh, I really like the beats on here a lot more. It comes off a lot more polished and it certainly sounds better in the car. The rhymes are of course on par too.
Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle
I'm pretty sure gin & juice was one of the very first rap songs I learned how to rap, whether that is a good thing or bad lol, it doesn't matter. The song is still hot as fuck til this day and so is the entire album. Absolutely loved Snoop Dogg's flow on this album and he stayed ruthless to hoes lol.
Outkast - Atliens
Honestly for a bit, I was debating on whether I should list their debut album instead of this album. I listen to both albums a lot, but I guess what puts Atliens over it is Elevators, that song is just so ridiculously good. "I live by the beat, like you live check-to-check
If you don't move your feet then I don't eat, so we like neck-to-neck" is something that just stays in my head all the time.
Xzibit - 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz
Personally I believe the beats on here are amazing. Off the top of my head, I can't really think of anything that sounds like What you see is what you get, it's easily my favorite Xzibit song. This album contains such a godlike Ras Kass verse too. The only misstep on this album to me is the Shroomz song, but besides that everything is just perfect for me.
The Game - Documentary
Man, I have so many memories with this album. Haha, I remember when I first heard this album the whole The Game/The Documentary mixed with his constantly name dropping thing made sense to me. I took it as the album was like a Documentary of Hip-Hop so that was his reason for namedropping throughout the thing, thought it was genius, it didn't bother me one bit. Of course, I didn't know he'd continue on doing that, but regardless that hasn't changed my opinion on this album one bit. I truly wish whatever happened between Game and 50 never happened. The songs they made together were just so perfect to me, they had a ridiculous amount of chemistry on songs together. Anyway, incredibly dope album.
UGK - Super Tight
I love UGK, I love bun, and I love pimp c. If I'm being completely honest I think I am the only one here who loves the Underground Kingz double album almost just as much as Riding Dirty and Super Tight, but anyway. While Riding Dirty has hands down my favorite UGK song (One Day) I simply love this album more. I mean it begins with Underground Kings which is a perfect song to begin the album with. Those pianos man those pianos...Then you just have grimey songs like I left it wet for you, I try to avoid fucking around with chicks with BFs, but on the times I do, I am instantly reminded of that song.
I actually kind of hate being limited to top 10, because I feel like I could list 5 more that I would exchange with my top 10 depending on how I feel.
Edit: Amazing, I mentioned that Jay Z/Beatles mash up and a remastered pops up.