Hip-hop was the success story of 2017, the streaming model providing new levels of speed and access to music that always thrived as dispatches from someone's here and now. Yes, this meant Jay-Z was able to work in a joke about Al Sharpton's selfies on an album released weeks later, but it also means

This article originally appeared on www.rollingstone.com: 40 Best Rap Albums of 2017

Hip-hop was the success story of 2017, the streaming model providing new levels of speed and access to music that always thrived as dispatches from someone's here and now. Yes, this meant Jay-Z was able to work in a joke about Al Sharpton's selfies on an album released weeks later, but it also means

This article originally appeared on www.rollingstone.com: 40 Best Rap Albums of 2017