Only the first one gets a pic this time

DJ QUIK AND KURUPT—BlaQKout (Mad Science)
This was the year of the “temporary” rap duo, as declining record sales and other factors led everyone from EDO.G and Masta Ace to Buckshot and KRS-One to pool their resources into one-off collaborative albums. BlaQKout was easily the most revelatory of these releases, a decidedly un-gangsta, throw-everything-in-the-kitchen-sink type party album that works from start to finish. Kurupt sounded reinvigorated in his role as hype man and pinch hitter while Quik continued to quietly elevate his production and mic game, almost 20 years in.

CURREN$Y AND WIZ KHALIFA—HOW FLY (mixtape)
This slow burner (no pun intended) is the musical equivalent of hanging with your friends in your mom’s basement smoking blunts, playing video games and talking shit. There’s a hypnotic, monotone quality to How High, but that’s what works about it: Curren$y and Wiz Khalifa, both prolific creators of sporadically brilliant but spotty mixtapes on their own, isolated a zone and stuck to it.

RAEKWON—ONLY BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX…PT. II (EMI/Ice Water)
The long-awaited sequel was exactly what it should have been and what we were promised. Nothing more, nothing less.

UGK—UGK 4 LIFE (JIVE)
The one terrible song aside, UGK 4 Life was like a less overlong Underground Kingz, with what might be the best from-the-gave performance from a dead rapper since The Don Killuminati.

Z-RO—COCAINE (Rap-A-Lot)
FREDDIE GIBBS—midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik (mixtape)
These two solid releases from emotionally honest gangster rappers not only make great companion pieces, but comparing them also serves to illuminate exactly how backwards the music industry was working in 2009. Z-Ro, a consistently brilliant yet still unsung veteran rapper, and Gibbs, a relatively new Interscope castoff with a distinctive voice that recalls no one more than Z-Ro, both dropped excellent, album-quality “mixtapes” of essentially equal quality. Z-Ro’s was released on a (well-known) record label; Gibbs’s wasn’t. Z-Ro’s product went mostly unacknowledged by media and blogs; Gibbs’s product was an instant sensation that made him a household name in the blogosphere/music press. He deserves it, but not any more than Z-Ro.

MF DOOM—BORN LIKE THIS (Lex)
DOOM returned to unpredictable form on his most consistent release since Madvillainy.

RICK ROSS—DEEPER THAN RAP (Def Jam)
I strongly disliked this album at first, even publishing a mostly negative review on it. Oops. (In my defense, I had about 12 hours to sit with the record before turning in my copy). Jettisoning the blunt, forceful production of Port of Miami and Trilla in favor of a more subtle approach, Ross’s third effort is the coke rap equivalent of easy listening. I suggest spending some time in the car with this one, if possible.

CAM’RON—CRIME PAYS (Asylum)
With no apologies to Drake, Cam had the year’s best punchlines. I don’t get the negative reviews for Crime Pays; although a little overlong, it’s perhaps his strongest album, and certainly more entertaining than the overrated (but better timed, trend-wise) Purple Haze.

BLAQ POET—THA BLAQPRINT (Year-Round)
The first primarily DJ Premier-produced rap LP since GangStarr’s The Ownerz didn’t disappoint. With Prodigy in stuck in jail, Poet filled the misanthropic Queensbridge rapper void swimmingly with the first true solo LP of his 20-plus-year career.

TANYA MORGAN—BROOKLYNATI(Interdependent Media)
It certainly has its flaws—see the recycling of the “Used to Love H.E.R.” rap-as-woman metaphor (for the song “Without U”)—but Donwill, Ilyas and Von Pea’s easy chemistry and some of the year’s freshest-sounding boom-bap beats helped make this pseudo-concept album a thoroughly enjoyable listen.

CHARLES HAMILTON—THIS PERFECT LIFE
I’m still riding for my little homey. I could care less if he’s a pathological liar. So was 2Pac. His music is honest, and that’s what matters. The mixing on This Perfect Life, Hamilton’s aborted debut LP for Interscope, sounds unfinished, but, when it inauspiciously leaked online months after his June meltdown/disappearance, tracks like “Three Pound Bullet” instantly reminded me of why I still think he was the “freshman” headed in the right direction. (As opposed to those other guys.)

JHAWK—JERKIN WITH JHAWK (mixtape)
17-year-old producer Jeremy “JHawk” Hawkins made all the beats on this pre-“You’re A Jerk” overview of L.A.’s burgeoning jerk scene, and it’s still the last word on the movement. Highlights include anything by Pink Dollaz, a five-deep crew of female MCs, each with Shante-sized attitudes.

Honorable Mention:
The Alchemist—Chemical Warfare (Koch)
Method Man and Redman—Blackout! 2 (Def Jam)
G-Side—Huntsville International (mixtape)
New Boyz—Skinny Jeanz and a Mic (Warner Bros.)
Freeway and Jake One—The Beat Made Me Do It (mixtape)
Clipse—’Til the Casket Drops (Columbia)
Jadakiss—The Last Kiss (Interscope)
Daytona—Come Fly With Me (mixtape)