Even if he is not exactly a trap-rapper himself, it’s not a stretch to say he helped father the mumble trap genre, spawning an army of face-tatted Lil Clones who have been flooding the mainstream with an endless stream of generic braindead music. Lil Wayne is an icon, one of the most influential rappers of the last two decades. Tha Carter III is Lil Wayne’s sixth studio album, it follows Tha Carter II as well as a long string of mixtape releases and guest appearances on other Hip Hop and R&B artists’ records, helping to maximize Lil Wayne’s exposure in the mainstream, which was further aided by features appearances on this album from high-profile artists such as Jay-Z, T-Pain, Busta Rhymes, and Kanye West, among others. What do YOU think of this selection? Is this list missing essential trap albums? Some albums that shouldn’t be on this list? Drop your opinions in the comments!

So, let’s get into it – this is our list with what we consider to be 25 of the best trap albums ever released – not ranked, but presented in order of the years they were released. So even if some of the pre-2010 albums on this list are not really categorizable as trap albums, we included them anyway – either because they are Southern classics that influenced the direction trap would go, or simply because we feel these are the best albums of artists who often get categorized as trap-artists (even if their best albums arguably are not strictly trap-music). Some people argue the modern trap sound really broke into the mainstream with Waka Flocka Flame’s influential Flockaveli album in 2010, and everything released before 2010 influenced that sound but is not necessarily trap as we would define it now.

But making an effort to enjoy trap for what it is and trying not to condemn it for what it is not, we opened our minds and revisited a bunch of albums roughly categorizable as trap-music, albums we DID actually enjoy to an extent or even a lot. We get called out a lot lately for having an anti-trap bias because our well-read The Best 250 Hip Hop Albums Of All Time list includes no trap albums – and we stand by our choices made there. And although often catchy enough, in our opinion meaningful content is not something to turn to trap for. For us lyricism counts, and we feel lyricism is more than simply a series of enjoyable flows and cadences – content matters too. Regular visitors of the HHGA site will know we are NOT the biggest fans of the trap subgenre of Hip Hop.

Best lil wayne albums and mixtapes