{"id":63813,"date":"2013-04-06T10:24:54","date_gmt":"2013-04-06T08:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackouthiphop.com\/?p=63813"},"modified":"2013-04-02T17:42:28","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T15:42:28","slug":"the-year-hip-hop-exploded-the-15-greatest-rap-albums-of-1988","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/the-year-hip-hop-exploded-the-15-greatest-rap-albums-of-1988\/","title":{"rendered":"The year Hip Hop exploded: The 15 greatest rap albums of 1988"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ericbandrakim\"<\/p>\n

1988 changed everything.<\/p>\n

Hip-hop had been on wax for about a decade and had gone through a few permutations. The early disco and funk-influenced party raps of artists like Spoonie Gee and the Funky Four+1 were ancient history, and the ascendance of Run-D.M.C. and the artists of Def Jam Recordings had broken rap music through to the mainstream in a major way. With multi-platinum album sales, movie deals and major tours featuring rap artists, the genre\u2019s staying power was becoming more and more evident.<\/p>\n

Also, rap videos were becoming a hot commodity. Via shows like \u201cYo! MTV Raps\u201d and \u201cRap City,\u201d hip-hop culture was being beamed into living rooms around the country. Kids in the suburbs and in rural areas were now seeing hip-hop live and direct \u2014 just as the genre was beginning to splinter into several different subsets.<\/p>\n

1988 saw hip-hop truly come into its own \u2014 and diversify. By year\u2019s end, gangsta rap, pop-rap, alternative rap and political rap would all be firmly cemented into the hip-hop conversation. The genre was no longer easily defined and streamlined \u2014 it was now multilayered and growing broader by the album.<\/p>\n

And, the albums were amazing. 1988 is constantly mentioned alongside 1994, 1998, 2000 and 2003 as one of the genre\u2019s most significant years musically.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to see why.<\/p>\n

So, as these classics reach their 25th anniversaries, here are the 15 greatest hip-hop albums of 1988 \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check the list HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1988 changed everything. Hip-hop had been on wax for about a decade and had gone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pG6fW-gBf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}