they definitely bend the rules of hip-hop and I do think Since I Left You was way ahead of its time with its production and sampling techniques, so I guess it does count

It's a instrumental hip hop album, listen to El producto

Since I Left you is a masterpiece too but I kinda don't think of that album as a hip-hop album even though its sound is basically rooted in hip hop

Youre forgetting since I left you

Donuts and Endtroducing are the two most essential instrumental hip-hop albums I can think of

drake is boring

i found this new guy childish gambino he used to be an actor but he changed his life like the reverse ice cube.

check him out if you want real rhymes

Drake is weak

sny of drake's albums. You're welcome

J dilla donuts
Cannibal ox the cold vein
Gza liquid swords

in my freshman year of college I actually wrote a paper on the history of rap for comp 1 but I can't actually remember what I wrote about

cheers mate

congrats on gold sirius

Also, I sort of neglected the 'essential' aspect of this thread and went off linking albums I really like, sorry! I just love sharing/talking about music so I jumped the gun a bit. I'm also not entirely sure what would qualify as 'essential' for music either tbqh.

In my experience, I get into albums/artists by just stumbling upon a song of theirs that I just absolutely adore and start branching out from there. If you want to jump into some rap albums maybe you should try to find some individual songs you like first and then explore from there. Just a thought, this may not be true for everyone though.

mf doom is amazing and unique musically but i wouldn't really call him essential or influential, to me he's still a niche artist. i love him though

ya i know some of their tunes alright. they never had anything that really caught my attention tho

harodihg

Masters of The Universe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_lryQvImwk

Operation: Doomsday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EtVJP0Dml4

Black Star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFu--AaguFg

E&A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bGTMnruR20

Duality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIiStlWxU3k

great list but i'd go with black on both sides over black star any day

veryniceboy

i'm mainstream af when it comes to music tbh, and don't know any of these albums, but i think biggie was genius

you probably know some of the artists though,

illmatic - nas
the blueprint - jay-z
the chronic - dr. dre

I've got so many more albums I'd love to share as well but I don't want to bog this thread down. Those aren't listed in any particular order of favorites, just what came to the top of my head.

Masters of The Universe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_lryQvImwk

Operation: Doomsday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EtVJP0Dml4

Black Star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFu--AaguFg

E&A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bGTMnruR20

Duality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIiStlWxU3k

i'm mainstream af when it comes to music tbh, and don't know any of these albums, but i think biggie was genius

i think biggie was the start of rappers actually mixing up their syllable count and not being repetitive with the way they speak

biggie smalls is the answer dude