Hip-hop is well-represented in the 2024 Uproxx Critics Poll, in a year defined as much by conflict as anything else. This is the 7th annual version of the poll, in which nearly 300 music critics from across the industry weighed in.
The conflict between Drake and Kendrick Lamar produced no fewer than four of respondents’ top songs of the year, while Kendrick’s combative surprise release GNX only fell short of the top favorite because Charli XCX’s Brat had a whole summer to stick in the collective consciousness.
2024 was the year the popular and critical consensus dovetailed, but it was also a year of unexpected breakouts, sharp stylistic swings, and the resurgence of regional aesthetics in rap. You may notice that the Los Angeles area returned to widespread prominence with an insular, exclusive approach redolent of the “for us, by us” philosophy. If “Not Like Us” was the prevailing sentiment in hip-hop, it was a sentiment everyone could get behind; community over commerce, authenticity over mass appeal. The real is back.
Be sure to check out the full poll here, and below, explore some of the artists who stood out the most this year.
Kendrick Lamar
Yeah, I know: Obvious, right? But remember: at the beginning of their tiff, any number of fans believed that Drake had a chance, that he’d learned his lesson from the embarrassment he’d suffered five years before at the hands of Pusha T. Even then, Pusha’s follow-up album barely moved the needle on the charts. Kendrick, on the other hand, turned his victory lap against Drake — who he’d pretty soundly buried in one flurry of back-to-back disses traded in a single night — into a year-long celebration of West Coast dominance, a revitalization of LA hip-hop culture, and a slew of catchphrases that have reverberated through pop culture ever since. That’s why he’s all over the list, placing at No. 1 on the songs list with “Not Like Us,” with additional appearances at No. 5 and 10 for rough-and-ready tracks “Euphoria” and “Like That” to go with a No. 2 for GNX on the albums poll.
Doechii
It took a few years, but the inevitable breakout I predicted for Doechii back in 2021 finally arrived — and did so in force, thanks to a cavalcade of imaginative visuals and a fiery, yet relatable rollout full of nods to Black girl magic, putting Alligator Bites Never Heal at No. 3 on the albums poll. Meanwhile, in typical Top Dawg fashion, her label went all out on its awareness campaign, ensuring that not a single week went by after the release of Doechii’s debut mixtape without a live performance, music video, or viral moment, locking her in as the breakout artist of the year.
Tyler The Creator
Prior to the blitzkrieg release of his eighth studio album Chromakopia, Tyler had been something of a known factor. Or, at least, that’s what the rap establishment had convinced itself. Leave it to the Odd Futurian to hit a grand slam for the umpteenth time in his increasingly unlikely career of home run hits. Tapping back into his roots — both those forged from his parental heritage and his upbringing on the South LA streets — allowed Tyler to present some of his most personal and weirdly accessible material to date, which wound up with placements at No. 7 on the albums poll, and No. 13 for “Noid” on the music videos.
GloRilla
If GloRilla wasn’t the breakout artist that Doechii was, it was only down to the fact that she’d had her own breakout a year before. But rap is a “what have you done for me lately” sort of business, and for a bit, it looked like the streets (i.e., the rap literati on social media) had turned their collective back on the Memphis upstart. But then, she dropped “Yeah Glo!” (No. 20 on our songs poll). Then, “TGIF.” Then, “Whatchu Kno About Me,” featuring her ostensible replacement Sexyy Red. It became abundantly apparent that Ms. Gloria Hallelujah Woods was here to stay. THEN, she dropped her debut album, Glorious which is the 25th favorite album in our poll, just a few months after fan-favorite mixtape Ehhthang Ehhthang. Maybe that’ll teach the skeptics to give praise where it’s due.
Surprises:
Among the surprises in this year’s poll were Drake not utterly flopping and LL Cool J overcoming hip-hop’s inherent ageism.
In Drake’s case, you might have thought that after such a complete thrashing by Kendrick Lamar, he wouldn’t have shown up at all — especially since none of his post-“Not Like Us” releases resonated much with fans. However, “Family Matters,” the final gasp in Drake’s war of words against his lyrical better, eked onto the list at No. 18 (well after all of Kendrick’s entries, mind you). Give the man some credit, he went down swinging — even if it did look a little like Batman’s first bout against Bane.
Meanwhile, in a year when rap elders like Common and Eminem failed to make an impression on critics, LL Cool J claimed a relatively solid showing at No. 42 in our ranked-choice poll. It’s kind of fitting that the whole reason hip-hop even has so much disdain for aging rappers (shout-out to Kool Moe Dee) deftly dodged the consequences of the convention he kicked off himself more than 30 years ago. It helps that he sent himself to rap boot camp; if he couldn’t keep up with modern trends, he’d prove that he remains one of rap’s most virtuoso performers.
Grammys 2025
Meanwhile, there were some key differences in our critics poll results and this year’s Grammy nominations, highlighting how “the industry” and “the streets” can sometimes disagree.
While Eminem and Common were nominated for Best Rap Album, they didn’t crack the critics poll at all on the music front, with Em’s nostalgic video for “Houdini” (at No. 16) and album cover (at No. 19) as his sole representation. This seemingly highlights the Academy’s propensity for rewarding familiarity and consistency over innovation. For example, Schoolboy Q and Vince Staples didn’t get nominated for any rap awards despite being in the top 6 rap albums in our poll (Nos. 15 and 26, overall, respectively), and garnering a warm reception from both fans and critics — if not commercial highs. Another example is Rapsody being nominated despite being overlooked by critics. And while respondents barely acknowledged Kanye West at all after his antics firmly alienated him from their graces, if not from fans, it seems the Grammys are willing to overlook a little bad behavior as long as there is some commercial merit behind the argument.