Beastie boys collection announced a sudden death of an incredible member. 

Beastie boys collection announced a sudden death of an incredible member.

In the ’90s, rap music solidified itself as a genre that would soon spread all over the world to become the dominant global culture. But rap wouldn’t have reached such heights without learning to stand on its own two legs in the ’80s. It was then that seminal artists stepped to the forefront of the stage, took the mic, and made the foundation of the culture.

Here, we wanted to remember that era of hip-hop. Those salad days in the ’80s when beats were simpler, rhymes were tighter, and there was so much possibility in front of the sounds and styles born of those New York City parks just a few years prior. These are four rap albums from the ’80s you forgot about that still hit.

When rap music first became a thing in the ’70s, its leading voices were often rhyming to disco break beats. But by the mid-80s, there was a new sound taking over, and it was essentially all on the shoulders of the New York City-born trio known as Run-DMC. Those guys brought rock music into rap.