The Best Hip-Hop Concept Albums of 2015
Explore the best hip-hop concept albums of 2015 featuring standout releases with unique themes and narratives. Covering everything from personal stories and fictional worlds to cultural commentary and deeper explorations of society, these are the albums that stood out among the year's conceptual releases.
At the end of every song Kendrick starts a poem but adds more and more to it each time & when the song kicks in it’s highlighting what he’s just touched on in the poem, it turns out to be a poem he wrote and performs for Tupac.
A forgotten ancient world of bloodstained samurai swords and majestic sunsets over desert landscapes, ASM’s third album, The Jade Amulet, is their Magnus Opus. Imagine a Quentin Tarantino movie set in ancient Greece and scored by Ennio Morricone and A Tribe Called Quest.
The album is a story, but it’s also a story in reverse. It’s revelatory to listen to it from front-to-back, then back-to-front. While the forward-moving story plays out like a fall from grace, with the opportunity to reincarnate and try again, listening to it in reverse, It’s essentially incarnating into the video game of life and achieving ultimate victory.
Imani Vol. 1 is ultimately about time and perseverance. It’s not so much about being in the moment as moving beyond it, of creating a conceptual framework for how an oppressed people can move forward.
Cavanaugh’s Time & Materials is a collaboration between Open Mike Eagle and Serengeti and is a concept album exploring the monotony and struggles of working-class life In a new urban development on the far west side of Detroit, Florida, it’s mandated by a 5 to 4 city council vote that a new housing structure be erected that has both luxury condominium units available for private ownership and section 7 housing in the same building. Via separate entrances the Cavanaugh building services two very different populations. And though the lifestyles of the residents vary, each unit relies on the same system of pipes and wiring and are serviced by the same crew. Mike and Dave have a combined 14 years of experience in Cavanaugh maintenance. They usually work drunk, mumbling greetings to the residents, soaking up all the disdain that the higher and lower income inhabitants have for each other. They talk shit to each other all day. They complain about their home lives, and spinn passive-aggressive tales where they pretend to be angrier, stronger, more expressive men.
Influenced by the writings of Bukowski and the drudgery of work, this album focuses on the daily grind that wears us down. “Look What This World Did To Us.” The command is rhetorical. You’re already aware of the echo, the generational discontent and alienation, the whispered and denied calls for absolution. No need to look around, just check your bank account and sigh—or echo Biggie and scream, “fuck the world.” This is a novel disguised as an album, a surly hymn from poisoned lungs. It’s a confirmation of what John Cage once declared: “all great art is a form of complaint. “ Or maybe the better comparison is Bukowski, memorializing the “broken factory windows of emptiness.” That makes more sense in Ferndale, Michigan where Red Pill calls home. After college graduation, “Leonard Letdown” started working at a machine shop. A temporary gig turned into a labor daze. The dream of converting music into rent money seemed more elusive by the day. Depression compounded. The empty packs of cigarettes turned into cellophane towers. The whiskey mixed with an absence of hope. This album is a signal flare, an escape route, and catharsis. This isn’t just hip-hop, this is an attempt to distill the disillusion and cure the hangover. It’s both a brilliant mission statement and a jazzy funeral for what was promised but never delivered. This is for those who played by the rules only to discover that the game was rigged. This is a toast for those entering their late 20s and still acting like adolescents. It’s an anti-Valentine to marriage and mortgages. It offers empathy for those buried under student loan and credit card debt, but who refuse to sink. Even if the smoke rings appear like nooses, this is an artful rebuttal to the nihilism.
Dr. Yen Lo is a collaboration between Brownsville rapper Ka and producer Preservation. The album/duo is aptly titled after the character Dr. Yen Lo from the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate, who was a brainwashing Communist. Many of the album’s themes and samples are taken from the film. Days With Dr. Yen Lo doesn’t retrace the plot of the film or the book that inspired it, but instead engages with its themes, playing off of soundbytes interspersed between songs.
DS2 (Dirty Sprite 2) is a concept album about lost love and a subsequent descent into a vice-laden dystopia. The bleak and unforgiving musical stage set by producers Metro and Southside put Future front and center, spilling his guts in between sips of promethazine-spiked sprite.
For Oddisee, The Good Fight is about living fully as a musician without succumbing to the traps of hedonism, avarice, and materialism. It’s about not selling out and shilling for a paycheck, while still being aware that this is a business requiring compromise and collaboration.
On Music for My Friends, Skyzoo’s third solo LP, he finds himself traveling back to his teenage years and recounting his memories of adolescence with his closest friends and family in their Bed-Stuy neighborhood. Skyzoo’s storytelling and introspective cadence on Music For My Friends invites listeners to get a vivid picture of the vision the MC had from his brownstone stoop on St. James Place Music for My Friends is based on the idea of growing up at 13 years old and seeing the world based on the morals learned at that age. Skyzoo articulates the power of being fully present, a prevailing theme of the album along with temptation.
Israeli Salad by producer The Alchemist is a mostly instrumental concept album, based entirely on Israeli samples. The Alchemist‘s father is an Israeli businessman. After record shopping in Israel while visiting there, in a 2012 Billboard interview, Alchemist stated that he planned on creating an instrumental album with all Israeli samples. The album has many samples and recordings in Hebrew; additionally some of the song names contain Hebrew phrases (eg. “Shalom Alechem”, “Chetzi”) and Israeli cultural references.
Weekend At The Cape is a cleverly composed addendum EP to 2014’s critically acclaimed full-length, “Connecticut Casual“. Apathy continues his twist on New England-inspired backdrops, bringing contrasts of hardcore dirty loops to smooth melodies for relaxing by the Cape Cod shore. Core fans should appreciate this specially-priced companion piece as it is the icing on the cake upon the final chapter in the “Casual”-style series from the Demigodz chief. The EP is almost fully produced by Apathy himself, with one track handled by longtime collaborator Smoke The World. Showcased on the project are Connecticut’s rising stars
It’s Better This Way is a metaphor for the road less traveled, and KRIT railing against all things mainstream. KRIT constantly criticizes the radio and the mainstream within this tape
A concept album that is an ode to writer’s block, Today I Wrote Nothing is the fifth album by billy woods. It takes its title from an anthology of short prose by Russian absurdist writer Daniil Kharms, whose work helped woods overcome his own writer’s block.
Thumbs was made as a mixtape by BUSDRIVER to further explore the concept of a homogenous citizenry from his last record Perfect Hair. It draws from the defining musical tropes of the LA underground rap experience with the isolation born from racial politics fixed as a central theme. “Thumbs are no longer anatomical but rather the static characters of approval for a job well done,” BUSDRIVER said. “The likes that catalog our individual preferences. They grade the successes playing out in a virtual world and within our own minds. Endlessly gathered into sprawling market-ready databases rivalled only by our idea of a God.”
“This project presents the sound of self-value, morals, and spirit to name a few,” says C1UB : A.M. “Those things, along with life lessons are references to the title and definition of the word “ANTIQUE” through the sound we have reached back in time to recreate what classic is. With the help of sampled antique concepts, we have managed to obtain our own unique as well as adopted feeling through instrumentals.”
Compton is almost less of a concept album and more of a straight-up love letter to Compton. “Compton was the American dream,” explains an even-toned voice, sounding like a Chamber of Commerce professional who describes homes with “a palm tree in the frontyard, the camper, the boat. Temptingly close to the Los Angeles ghetto in the ‘50s and ‘60s, it became ‘the Black American Dream.’”
The Tonite Show by eMC is a mockumentary-style concept album that follows the group’s chaotic journey to perform on The Tonite Show with Jimmy Falcon. With its blend of humor, storytelling, and sharp lyricism, the album paints a vivid picture of the day leading up to their performance. The Tonite Show reaches out to book eMC to replace Chief Keef on the show who has an allergic reaction to shellfish. The group makes their way to The Tonite Show with Jimmy Falcon. We are taken through the day that ensues before eMC performs. There’s the guy who’s running late, the annoying fan, and a track about flying out to the show.
The title and concept of The Ecology entail exploring the “ecology” of one’s environment: the people, objects, and events surrounding one’s life, the things that provoke human behavior, how individual choices lead to different paths, and how everyone and everything are ultimately interconnected.
Past is prologue. The sins of the father are visited on sons and daughters. The madness of the world only abates when you stop the cycle-when you seek something beyond the mono-cultural and the corporeal. Georgia Anne Muldrow is a seeker and truth-teller. The words on her first rap album-produced entirely by Chris Keys-balance a beautiful delivery with brutal honesty. These are the honest confessions of a mother who refuses to turn a blind eye to immediate and ancestral misdeeds. Her rhymes are conscious, but more importantly, they speak to our deeper conscience. Muldrow uses music as a vessel to inspire hope and propel people towards a better future. Beyond identifying worldly inequities, this record details one woman’s quest to improve things for herself, her children, and everyone else. It’s about finding universal truths, while staying true to one’s essence-transcending the hate and slowly starting to heal.
In Twelve Reasons to Die II, Tony Starks was killed but his remains were pressed into 12 vinyl records. Playing the music on the vinyl resurrects Starks’ spirit as the Ghostface Killah. This time, he’s in New York City in the 1970s and meets with Raekwon’s character, Lester Kane, who’s trying to oppose Starks’ former group, the DeLuca crime family. In terms of the story, it’s about Raekwon’s character wanting to rise to the top of the NYC mob scene. Where the first installment of Twelve Reasons To Die was based in 1960s Italy – detailing the machinations of the feared DeLuca crime family – Twelve Reasons To Die II inhabits the grimy streets of mid-1970s New York City. Descendants of the DeLucas are running the city, but a powerful, younger crime syndicate is percolating, commanded by black gangster Lester Kane (personified by Raekwon). As Kane’s power grows, he takes on the DeLucas and a bloodbath ensues. Kane has always known the legend of Tony Starks, who was killed by the DeLucas in Italy and whose remains were partially used to create twelve vinyl records. When played back in the “old world,” the Ghostface Killer rose and destroyed the Italian faction. This plays into the story’s conclusion at the end of Part II. The storyline for Part II is vividly brought to life with the help of Younge’s never-endingly evocative and unique brand of cinematic, psychedelic soul. The music – on which Younge himself plays upwards of 10 instruments on certain songs – was recorded strictly on analog tape, to bring out the true grit of the ‘70s era that provides the Twelve Reasons backdrop.
Omniverse : Type 3 : Aum niverse explores the concept of the “Omniverse”—the collection of our universe and all other parallel or alternate universes. It is the third installment in his series, which uses the Kardashev scale to map musical journeys across quantum, quantum foam, and interstellar scales. The Kardeshev Scale is a system used to measure the technological ability of a civilization, based upon its ability to harness energy. The scale was proposed in 1964 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev. Although the scale only includes three types, extensions of the scale have been proposed, which opens up the possibility of Grey continuing with the series.
HANiF is formerly known as Luck-One “It’s a concept album, reminiscent of the 1990s. I consider myself a craftsman and so I like to challenge myself,” HANiF said. “The album is full of stories about coming up in the ‘90s and seminal points in my life. It’s a good introduction to who I am and it’s steeped in the foundations of hip-hop. The content matches the sonic aesthetic.”
Planet Of The Gods is a concept album in both production and lyrical themes, with Priest exploring science fiction themes mixed in with deeply hidden esoteric ancient knowledge. Think esoteric + extraterrestrial. Priest’s lyrics are packed with esoteric references, ancient civilizations, and interstellar imagery.
L’Orange has a few collaborative hip hop concept albums, but his team up with Jerimiah Jae for The Night Took Us in Like Family is a tightly crafted treat. It’s a sendup of old-school 1930s gangsterism, complete with samples and loops of media from or about the time to highlight the underlying story. Broken into five parts, the album tells the story of the rise and fall of a criminal as he’s incarcerated and escapes prison. L’Orange and Jerimiah Jay take tropes of the genre and transport them back to the 1930s. The noir opus brims with references to seedy crooks, bloody gunfights, and white chalk outlines drawn in shadowy alleyways.
Time? Astonishing! is about a man in the early 20th century who is a bored explorer and finds technology to go into the future – but he does so without any sense of adventure. He travels through time as if he is traveling to Tuscaloosa. He is then hospitalized as insane and then goes into suspended animation (a metaphor for his subconscious while sedated in the hospital). The adventure begins only after the album is finished, the record is all the thoughts and introspection before things really begin.
The Incredible True Story tells a sci-fi narrative set 100 years in the future. Following Earth’s destruction, the story follows astronauts Thomas and Kai, along with AI Thalia, traveling on the Aquarius III to find the uninhabitable planet Paradise, who are listening to “The Incredible True Story” while on their way. They use the album as a backing track to the queries they have on life, often contemplating the point of finding Paradise, and what it will hold should they arrive. During the journey, they stumble upon a damaged audio distress signal of another ship.
“13” is a concept album detailing a relationship gone sour, which led to MAHD leaving home. He deals with the stresses of the relationship, homesickness, personal and emotional experiences while traveling, and more while on the road seeking himself. All of the conflicts, struggles, and self-reflection he encounters while on his journey eventually turn him back to his hometown
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Innocent Country is a deceptively subtle character study of self disguised as an excellent piece of stoner headnod hip-hop. Throughout the 33 minutes that comprise Innocent Country, our two protagonists are in synch like a pair of Jaeger pilots. Though the LP certainly has instances of energy and aggression, “Madness In The Oasis” and “Where The Wild Things Roam” are two, more often than not it lives within introspective mid-tempo moments like the languid “Nothing Moves.” Quelle is the wayward MC waxing bittersweet on the reflective “Well Running Deep,” filling Chris Keys’ sweeping string samples with palpable nostalgia. Our peregrine rapper is the lowkey consummate artist, powerful enough to give a rousing performance on the moving “I Asked God,” then turn on a dime and nail the hilarious and self-effacing “Drugfest TooThousandToo.” Upon repeated listens, one might see that Innocent Country speaks to the blissful naivete of youth. It’s the soundtrack to self-medication as an escape from reality, but it doesn’t jump ship before the inevitable moment of clarity. Innocent Country is a party, but it’s also the morning after and the day before. A sweet experience on the surface, this is therapy billed as reefer night at your man’s spot.
Words Paint Pictures has a cover with an drawn still of a black man lying face down, handcuffed and riddled with bullet holes – makes his concerns about police brutality more than plain. And he only draws more unsettling imagery from there. Over seven songs and two remixes, the North Carolina MC captures the complex agonies of the human condition-specifically the black experience in America over the last several centuries. These are tales of racial profiling and corrupt politicians, reality TV distractions, thieving preachers and rapacious exploitation-all offset by tremendous strength. They are uniquely American stories, chronicling both the damned and hopeful. From bleak circumstances, a profoundly durable human spirit emerges.
Home Sweet Home is an album to remind you of what you left and where you’re going. It’s an album that proves that you can go home again, but you’ll meet both the good and the bad. The feeling of being around those you love, and the cousins asking to borrow money. Rapper Big Pooh, in keeping with the “hometown” theme, since he was born and raised in Virginia before relocating to North Carolina, the album features only Virginia artists. This is soul food, an audible feast, a form of mental science, and a collection of memories reminding you why you first loved hip-hop. It’s Home Sweet Home, the collaborative album from rapper Big Pooh and Nottz: 13 slabs of soulful music and superb bars, released on Mello Music Group.
Created by Queens rapper Starvin B and producer Dusty G, The Schizophrenics is the story of three different characters whose personalities blur the line between reality and delusion. It is a mix of raw lyrics over rugged beats, proving that the “golden era” of hip hop is still among us, as long as you know where to look. Starvin B takes the word “emcee” to a new level, seamlessly switching personalities with his alter egos Spofford and Barong to deliver three distinct voices.
This is the second installment of the Bugzy Nino series in which lyricist Supreme Cerebral presents the world with his alter ego Bugzy Nino. It is the sequel to Bugzy Nino’s gritty, street-level narrative, diving deeper into the life and struggles of his alter ego
Rodeo serves as a metaphor for the wild, unpredictable ride of life, especially the highs and lows of fame. Travis Scott stated that his life was like a circus or rodeo and that he feels like he is trying to stay on a bucking animal, and that it is inspired by rodeos he witnessed in Texas “It’s like a Beyoncé concert. The carnival, the livestock, and the show are all parts of the event,” Travis said. “I feel like that’s how my life is. The carnival is like my imagination—it’s the drive behind my vision. Even though I don’t feel like I’m at a point where my shit is at an all-time high, we’re working to get there. We are working to get to the level of where your magazine is and to stand on that level. The livestock show is the road to get to where I’m going. At this point, I’m riding a bull for just eight seconds, and it’s hard as fuck. But we made it.”
Veterans Day conceptually paints a vivid picture of Typ’s rather tumultuous life, starting as a misguided adolescent, to his call to arms as a combat soldier with two tours of duty under his belt, to a devout family man and aspiring artist, determined to make a name for himself.
A concept album aiming to balance the two sides of Vursatyl’s personality, the Polo-wearing, ego-driven rapper and the more thoughtful husband and father, Crooked Straights proved that, whichever aspect of his character the Portland, Oregon wordsmith chose to display, his prowess on the microphone remained consistently impressiv
Droog’s Kinison EP is an ode to rock ‘n’ roll, but not in the way you’d expect. Instead of sampling riffs or guitar solos, he name-drops legends like Sonic Youth, Porno for Pyros, and Rage Against the Machine in his track titles, and weaves references to their lyrics into his own bars. It’s less about imitation and more about vibe.
The Opening Act follows a narrative of Z going on tour with a big shot, cornball named Short Neck. Z-Man is the titular opening act, and throughout the album, he’s suffering this indignation. The Opening Act is the classic tale of an indie rap artist trying to become the headliner and money-maker in this music game. While out on his usual small tour, our rap artist gets a voice message from an up-and-coming “slightly popular” rap artist/promoter named “Short Neck” whom he has met in the past. Short Neck is impressed with our indie opener and convinces him to hop on his tour once he finishes up with his “little” tour he’s on. The Opening Act is an album about show business and all the little hang-ups in the process of opening up for the top artist and everything in between, including egos, bad business, jealousy, hip-hop politics, etc.
This album doesn’t just suggest a flea circus, but it fully commits to the bit. From the jump, Flea Intro sets the stage, and the songs roll out like acts under the big (but, you know, small) top.