2021 has been a great year for the rap community. Many artists have dropped highly anticipated albums as well as a fair share of many underrated rappers have released very great albums. 

Some artists that have dropped albums this year include: Tyler The Creator, Drake, Kanye West, J. Cole, NBA Youngboy, Lil Tecca, Moneybagg Yo, Meek Mill, and many more. 

The most popular albums this year include: Certified Lover Boy by Drake, Donda by Kanye West, The Off-Season by J. Cole, Call Me If You Get Lost by Tyler the Creator, and Sincerely, Kentrell by NBA Youngboy. 

Tyler the Creator returned to more of his rap-style music in Call Me If You Get Lost. 

He had many features on this album that include: DJ Drama, 42 Dugg, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Wayne, Teezo Touchdown, Domo Genesis, Brent Faiyaz, Dana Hues, DAISY WORLD, Lil Uzi Vert, and Pharrell Williams. 

“The production on it, and the mixing and mastering was done perfectly,” junior Keller Cox, said. 

Another artist who switched up his style of work was Kanye West in his album Donda. Donda is the name of his mother who passed away and the first track of the album is a woman repeating the name Donda 58 times. All 58 times represent her last heartbeats before passing away. 

Kanye switched to a more alternative rap style in the album and it has gotten very mixed reviews. 

“I think that Donda is different from anything Kanye has done before and it was very heartfelt,” senior Sarah Bachman said. 

Debates have struck social media on whether Donda or Drake’s new album, Certified Lover Boy, is better. Certified Lover Boy is Drake’s first album since the release of Dark Lane Demo Tapes in 2020.

A lot of people were disappointed with Certified Lover Boy and say that it was “mid”, especially on twitter and instagram. 

“Drake’s album wasn’t bad, but I would be okay with going without it,” Cox said.

Not too long ago, Drake was on stage with J. Cole and Drake told him he was one of the greatest rappers to pick up the microphone. J. Cole has since dropped his most anticipated album, The Off-Season. 

The Off-Season has features from Morray, Lil Baby, 6LACK, and 21 Savage. 

“The Off-Season was my favorite album of the year.” junior Levi Larson said. 

Along with the most popular albums, there were also many albums that were underrated or as most people would say “slept on”. Some of the underrated albums were A Gangsta’s Pain by Moneybagg Yo, We Love You Tecca 2 by Lil Tecca and Life of a Don by Don Toliver. 

With 2021 almost nearing to an end, it will be hard to beat it in music. 2022 will hopefully have as many great albums, or even more.