Top 100 REAL Hip-Hop & Rap Songs of 2011

I put this list together to share great Hip-Hop and a lot of slept-on gems with the masses and to emphasize the fact that REAL Hip-Hop is very much alive. If most of these artists and songs are unknown to you, I highly recommend you give it a listen. You won't find many commercial Hip-Hop artists or songs that were on the radio on this list.

I've tried to highlight a number of different projects and artists, but more or less, it's a collection of my favorite Hip-Hop and Rap songs of 2011. There was a tremendous amount of great music, and it was very difficult to narrow this down to 100 songs and near-impossible to order them. I had to leave off songs from a lot of very good projects and albums. I could have easily turned this into a Top 200 list! But I'm happy with it, and I hope you enjoy it. 

The only rule I have when making the list: No more than 4 tracks from a single project. Other than that, it's just the best of the best.

Check my other torrents for soon to come Top 100 lists for 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008 and beyond. One love.

#1. Pharoahe Monch - Evolve
#2. eLZhi - Memory Lane
#3. MED - This Is Your Life feat. Blu (Prod. Exile)
#4. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - Make the Money
#5. Hassaan Mackey & Apollo Brown - Higher feat. Finale
#6. Rashad & Confidence - The City
#7. Big K.R.I.T. - The Vent
#8. Kendrick Lamar - Ronald Reagan Era (His Evils) feat. RZA
#9. Nas - Nasty
#10. Evidence - The Red Carpet feat. Raekwon & Ras Kass
#11. MadGibbs (Freddie Gibbs & Madlib) - Thuggin'
#12. Pharoahe Monch - Clap (One Day) feat. Showtyme & DJ Boogie Blind
#13. Jay Electronica - MW3 Call of Duty feat. Prodigy
#14. The Roots - Make My feat. Big K.R.I.T. & Dice Raw
#15. Blu - The Clean Hand (Prod. Pete Rock)
#16. CyHi Da Prynce - Woopty Doo feat. Big Sean (Prod. No I.D. & Kanye West)
#17. Black Star (Mos Def & Talib Kweli) - You Already Knew
#18. The ILLZ - To Know Your Place in The Universe
#19. Raekwon - Masters Of Our Fate feat. Black Thought
#20. Phonte - The Life Of Kings feat. Big K.R.I.T. & Evidence (Prod. 9th Wonder)
#21. Skyzoo - The Definitive Prayer
#22. Has-Lo - Fiber Optics
#23. Blu - Jesus (Prod. Madlib)
#24. Evidence - Late For The Sky feat. Slug & Aesop Rock
#25. Bronze Nazareth - Records We Used To Play
#26. Rashad & Confidence - Rumors of War
#27. Common - Ghetto Dreams feat. Nas
#28. Roc Marciano - Slugs Thru Ya Papaya feat. Killah Priest
#29. Cunninlynguists - Hard As They Come (Act I) feat. Freddie Gibbs
#30. Pharoahe Monch - Black Hand Side feat. Styles P & Phonte
#31. Apathy - Most Murderous Music (Prod. DJ Premier)
#32. The Roots - Tip the Scale feat. Dice Raw
#33. yU - Blind (Prod. Kev Brown)
#34. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - Wings
#35. Kendrick Lamar - HiiiPower (Prod. J Cole)
#36. eLZhi - Lifes A Bitch feat. Royce da 5'9 and Stokley Williams
#37. Dela - WhatUWanna feat. Blu
#38. Reks - Mr. Nobody
#39. Dom Kennedy - When You See Love
#40. A.G. - Where You Been
#41. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Otis
#42. Chip Tha Ripper - Crime
#43. MadGibbs (Freddie Gibbs & Madlib) - Deep
#44. Phonte - Not Here Anymore feat. eLZhi
#45. Raekwon - Rich And Black feat. Nas
#46. Rashad & Confidence - Understand
#47. The Audible Doctor - Church Night (Remix) feat. June Haze
#48. Saigon - Oh Yeah (Our Babies)
#49. Coss - Through The Flames feat. Blu
#50. Sene - exit, us
#51. Big K.R.I.T. - Another Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Ecouraging Racism
#52. J. Cole - Breakdown
#53. Edo G - Fastlane (Prod. DJ Premier)
#54. Hassaan Mackey & Apollo Brown - Something
#55. A.G. - I'm A Beast
#56. Slick Rick - Need Some Bad (Prod. DJ Premier)
#57. Blu & DJ Gman - Scaredy Cats
#58. Murs - Remember 2 Forget
#59. Evidence - You (Prod. DJ Premier)
#60. Kaimbr & Kev Brown - Songs
#61. Pete Rock and Smif-N-Wessun - That's Hard feat. Styles P and Sean Price
#62. G-Side - Came Up feat. S.L.A.S.H.
#63. Rashad & Confidence - Shining
#64. Ridla - Life
#65. KRS One - Stand Up
#66. Wale - Ambition feat. Meek Mill & Rick Ross
#67. Jay-Z & Kanye West - New Day (Prod. RZA)
#68. Pusha T - Alone In Vegas (Prod. Nottz)
#69. Kendrick Lamar - A.D.H.D.
#70. Hassaan Mackey & Apollo Brown - Elephants
#71. Rapsody - H.E.R. Throne (Prod. Nottz)
#72. Statik Selektah - Play The Game feat. Big K.R.I.T. & Freddie Gibbs
#73. Canibus - The Golden Cypher feat. Ras Kass & K-Solo
#74. Phonte - The Good Fight
#75. Coss - Love Is
#76. Neek The Exotic & Large Professor - Still on the Hustle
#77. Blu & DJ Gman - All Fall Down
#78. Smoke DZA - White Papers feat. Devin the Dude
#79. eLZhi - Halftime
#80. Pharoahe Monch - Still Standing ft. Jill Scott
#81. Curren$y & Alchemist - Scottie Pippen ft. Freddie Gibbs
#82. Vast Aire - Thor's Hammer feat. Raekwon & Vordul Mega
#83. Blu - DooWhop feat. Planet Asia (Prod. The Alchemist)
#84. Big K.R.I.T. - Dreamin
#85. Ab-Soul & Kendrick Lamar - Rapper Shit
#86. Pusha T - My God
#87. Skyzoo - Written In The Drums
#88. Rapper Big Pooh - Freebasin' feat. Carlitta Durand
#89. Memphis Bleek - Nice Night
#90. XV - Phobia
#91. Atmosphere - My Notes
#92. Grieves - Lightspeed
#93. Smoke DZA - The Early Days Of George (Prod. Hi-Tek)
#94. Styles P - Feelings Gone
#95. Game - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
#96. Young Jeezy - F.A.M.E. feat. T.I.
#97. 9th Wonder - Loyalty feat. Masta Killa & Halo
#98. Blu - ronaldmorgan feat. Edan
#99. Cunninlynguists - Murder (Act II) feat. Big K.R.I.T.
#100. Tyler, the Creator - Yonkers