For over two decades, the Recording Academy has honored the genre of hip-hop with its own music categories, including Best Rap Album, at their annual Grammy Awards ceremony.
Beginning in 1996, the first recipient of the Best Rap Album trophy was Naughty By Nature for their fourth album, Poverty’s Paradise. In 1997, The Fugees won the trophy for their second album, The Score.
Through the years, there have been artists who have won the Best Rap Album honor on multiple occasions. Eminem has the most wins in this category with six in total, including one for his classic 2000 album, The Marshall Mathers LP, and its 2014 sequel, The Marshall Mathers LP II. Ye has won this award four times: 2004’s The College Dropout, 2005’s Late Registration, 2007’s Graduation and 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
The Best Rap Album category has included some historic and shocking wins. At the 2019 Grammy Awards, Cardi B became the first female rapper to win in the category for her 2018 debut album, Invasion of Privacy. And we can’t forget the controversial Best Rap Album win for Macklemore’s The Heist over Kendrick Lamar’s brilliant album, good kid, m.A.A.d city, in 2014. However, K-Dot has since locked down the coveted award three times with 2016’s To Pimp a Butterfly, 2018’s Damn. and 2022’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.
At the 2020 Grammy Awards, Tyler, The Creator won for Igor but called out the Recording Academy for the selection process because he felt his album should’ve been nominated in the pop music categories and not just rap.
Overall, the Grammy Awards is still music’s biggest night and a place where hip-hop can finally be celebrated. Check out all the Grammy award winners for the Best Rap Album category since it was introduced back in 1996 below.