Hardcore Rap

It's the sound of a riot goin' on - the inner city exploding onto pop-culture mass consciousness. It's the sound that put N.W.A. on the F.B.I.'s watch list ("F**k Tha Police") and catapulted 50 Cent ("P.I.M.P."), a gang-banger who laughed at nine gunshot wounds, to the airwaves like few before him.

So you've come straight outta Compton, and you think you're ready for the next episode of the hardest of hardcore rap? Right you are, then: we're digging deeper into our crates, bringing you some of the hardest album jams in rap's history.

Alright, youngster. You've heard all of the big jams and taken the next steps. Now it's time to go underground, where hardcore rap takes off the gloves and the rules simply don't apply. These next cuts are about as dangerous as music gets. Step up, if you got what it takes.

Seventeen years ago, N.W.A., five thugs from a little-known suburb of Long Beach, California, dropped one of the most flat-out dangerous (and brilliant) albums in rap history, Straight Outta Compton. Maybe hardcore rap wasn't born at that moment, but it sure as hell exploded onto everyone's radar. Ever since, pop culture has been obsessed with the bombing beats and blunt braggadocio of Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jay-Z, Jadakiss, Fabolous, N.O.R.E., Too Short, and just about anybody else with the guts and skills to hit hard and make no apologies.