The 50 Best Albums Of 2020
At certain moments, 2020 felt like a year that might not ever come to an end. Now that it's mostly in our rear view, can a retrospective give a shape to that swarm of weeks and months? Can we make sense of layer upon layer of fear, anger, frustration, confusion, exhilaration and exhaustion that piled up like soil falling over our heads? Sometimes art breaks through. Better to think of the best music of 2020 as an urgent cacophony of distinct voices rather than a chorus with a single melody. Many voices, with many stories to tell. Here are the 50 best albums of a year unlike any we can remember.
The 50 Best Albums Of 2020:
50-41 / 40-31 / 30-21 / 20-11 / 10-1
30.
Lil Baby
My Turn
Lil Baby was arguably the biggest and best rapper of 2020, but it took him in the wake of George Floyd's killing for hip-hop outsiders and mainstream outlets (including (the deluxe version in particular) showcases a star out of Atlanta coming into form, a feature-length argument for Baby as the year's rapper to beat. Despite its length, the record has the singleminded quality of a sculptor chiseling away at a block of marble. Baby powers through the familiar hi-hats and hues of contemporary trap with muscle and confidence, placing his cars and clothes in conversation with his family, area code and former street life. He may have only started rapping a few years ago, but his past informs his writing in ways that no amount of Young Thug tutelage could have provided him. This is a world-conquering timestamp of a record, a capsule of Atlanta rap, and maybe hip-hop at large, in 2020.
