Vince Staples

Don Data's favorite albums of 2022 include selections by Soul Glo, Kendrick Lamar, Sudan Archives and more.

We ranked a list of 100 songs that reflects the sprawling, energetic messiness of 2022. Start listening.

The rap of 2022 reunited and revitalized old partnerships, revisited and critiqued old haunts, unearthed powerful new voices and even helped plug a new Minions movie.

NPR's pop critic and correspondent shares her favorite albums of this year.

This year's best hip-hop — including Westside Gunn, Mach-Hommy and Moor Mother — comes from death and defiance, erotic power and provocation, Black joy and pain — and that's just the shortlist.

NPR's annual list of the year's best albums is full of work by musicians who hit career peaks, discovered their voices or willed something new into reality.

Our list of the year's best hip-hop is an encapsulation of a year awash in trolls and tabloid fodder, grief and grit and escapist fantasy, and also an attempt to extract meaning from the chaos.

Even in an era when listeners have been primed to expect the unexpected, the best albums of 2018 are full of surprises: a cascade of discoveries, revelations and artistic rebirths.

The Long Beach rapper calls out NPR, and the media in general, in a new song that finally combines his online persona with his singular artistic temperament.

"You can't find a Jay Z article where they don't speak about him selling drugs," the Long Beach rapper says. "You can't find a Vince Staples article where it doesn't say 'ex-gang member.' "