For The Culture: The 25 Best Albums Of 2016

2016 proved to be a revolutionary one in music. Genre bending artists like Kaytranada, Rihanna and Solange blessed us with three of the most intriguing albums of the year. While rap's most wanted helped keep the fire going with projects like Blankface LP, Coloring Book and Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight

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You can consider all the excessive name-dropping as hints for who made VIBE's 25 Best Albums of 2016 list. It was truly a daunting task to comb through the hundreds of albums that our staff cherished this year. Add the fact that artists are still dropping new albums as we speak, and it's one chaotic challenge. We set a firm cut off date of Nov. 25 for eligibility this year. All albums released after Thanksgiving 2016 will be in contention for 2017's list.

Now, for the main event! The next 25 works of art were among the most impactful, influential and sought after releases of the year. This comprehensive list features both official studio albums and mixtapes.

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