2016 seems like a lifetime ago. Barack Obama was still POTUS, XXXTentacion was just a budding SoundCloud rapper and we were still walking around sans masks and touching foreign objects without direct fear of possible death. What a time to be alive.
Five years ago was also a good year for hip-hop, with some memorable albums—several from some of the rap game’s biggest names—serving as the soundtrack for the final year B.T. (Before Trump). Kanye West stirred things up in the first quarter by ending a three-year album drought and releasing his seventh solo studio album, The Life of Pablo, on Valentine’s Day via an exclusive Tidal listening experience. The
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