2021 was another star-studded year in Hip Hop. Some of rap’s dignitaries returned to deliver albums such as Kanye West, Drake, Nas and J. Cole. While others like Moneybagg Yo, Polo G and Tyler, The Creator did their part to serve the Billboard charts and streets equally with five-course meals, and there seemed to be something for just about every lane of rap connoisseur out there.
As usual, Twitter was present to let everyone know if an album was a certified classic or a colossal flop within minutes of a project’s arrival. Sometimes the harshest criticism arrives due to high expectations. The following albums weren’t necessarily all bad albums, they simply didn’t live up to the hype for one reason or another. Take a trip with HipHopDX to sift through our list of the most disappointing albums of 2021 below.
Lil Durk & Lil Baby – The Voice of the Heroes
A pair of Rapper of the Year candidates for 2020 had expectations through the roof, but The Voice of the Heroes largely fell flat from their trap gold aspirations. The joint project looks even more puzzling when the best Lil Baby and Lil Durk collaboration of 2021 ended up on DJ Khaled’s album with the platinum-certified “EVERY CHANCE I GET.”
Pop Smoke – Faith
Putting together a posthumous album is a delicate proposition. While Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon displayed Pop Smoke’s superstar capabilities, Faith featured recycled lyrics, forced guest spots and seemed to stray further from what endeared the King of Brooklyn Drill to fans in the first place. Even though the smoke will never clear, it’s time to let Pop Smoke’s legacy rest.
Migos – Culture III
For much of the 2010s, the entire industry wanted a scoop of the Migos’ signature sauce to add something from the ATL trendsetters to their own recipe. Three years after C2’s arrival, Culture III largely came and went without anything sticking in the 2021 yearbook while the trio’s celebrity status has finally outgrown their musical output.
Baby Keem – The Melodic Blue
Baby Keem’s The Melodic Blue was a lightning rod for controversy. With one side of the conversation crowning the 21-year-old California native as a leader of the next generation, others chalked his meteoric rise to the Grammy Awards up to nepotism and having the good fortune of being Kendrick Lamar’s cousin.
Lil Wayne & Rich The Kid – Trust Fund Babies
While the debate rages on about how would reign victorious in a potential Lil Wayne and JAY-Z Verzuz battle, one thing everyone can seem to agree on is that Weezy wouldn’t press play on any track from his Trust Fund Babies collab effort with Rich The Kid.
Kanye West – DONDA
Drake – Certified Lover Boy
The biggest issue for Drake to overcome when it comes to his albums is being Drake. While also being the most ubiquitous voice in Hip Hop for the last decade, it’s nearly impossible to satisfy every facet of his wide-ranging fanbase. The hype for Certified Lover Boy was fueled by multiple delays and its arrival didn’t move the needle with every CLB track sounding as if it could land on any of the 6 God’s previous projects of the last five years.
J. Cole – The Off-Season
J. Cole, J. Cole, J. Cole. What happened to the spirited rhymer from his first three albums? While many of the Hip Hop values that the Dreamville spitter was raised on have departed from the genre’s mainstream, it’s as if he’s made peace with coloring inside the lines with his lyrical gymnastics and hiding behind the guise of “real rap.”
Paragraphs By Michael Saponara
Be sure to check out some of our other Year End Award Categories, articles and our previous year’s winners below:
Huh. I’m not a huge fan of all of these artists, but their fans seemed to be appreciative if most of these albums? Where Palyboi Carti on this list? Biased much? smfh
Lil’ Wayne has always been a spontaneous dude. He stumbles upon great albums (like The Carter 3). The quality of his work would be so much better if he took it seriously.
Kanye’s last 3 albums have been clunkers. Buddy doesn’t do hip-hop anymore. He does hippie-hop.
Written by “DX Staff”, because the person that wrote it doesn’t want to take credit for an awful article. If you’re going to write such trash related to music, at least have some integrity and put a name on it.
No, all editorials are written by “staff” unless the writer requests the byline fall on them. The name is at the bottom of the article as well. Additionally this is not their opinion, it is the staff’s, they just wrote it.
Donda is a masterpiece and will have more replay value then all of these other albums years from now!!!
You guys are tripping over J Cole album. It flows very well, it’s not too long, beats and bars are on point. I disagree
HHDX has done nothing but hype Donda, The Off-Season, and CLB. And now they are garbage albums???? You scum
Donda: 3.1
Off Season: 3.8 but with major critiques
CLB: 3.6
All three reviews have a tone of disappointment.
How is DONDA and Off Season 2 of the most disappointing when this same publication had then as honorable mentions in the BEST OF list???
Whole Lotta Red? You got to be kidding me, fuck HipHopDx man
Lol who is the person doing this. Pretty sure they have no idea on what music is
Kanye’s discography is flawless? News to me. The last Kanye album that really, truly mattered goes all the way back to MBDTF.
Honestly, Yeezus is pretty much fire from start to finish. The sound and energy took hip hop in a direction that probably alienated plenty of ‘true’ hip hop fans.
Idk dude honestly On Sight was one of the worst songs I’ve heard in my life and all of Yeezus is massively overrated. I give props to Kanye when they’re due, and they usually are, but god I can’t like Yeezus no matter how hard I try or how many chances I give it
How did J.Cole, Kanye & Drake make the best and worst lists on your site for the same albums. You guys need to tighten up and review your own shit before you post
Fair critique. Counter point, something can be considered by a good portion of the staff as solid and yet still be disappointing if it doesn’t live up to expectations.
On the real. Takeoff shit all over the other Migos on Culture III
My ninja really said J Cole was a flop????
And you call yourselves “Hip HopDx”
What’s sad is that the person who wrote this is actually getting paid to spew nonsense.
ZiniDaLP #AlbumoftheDecade
Off Season was my favorite J. Cole album since Born Sinner. Everybody said it was fire when it dropped. Donda is a real solid album from Kanye, even if a few tracks could be removed. I enjoyed Trust Fund Babies, they were spittin’ bars and I didn’t expect anything different. I guess, that’s like, your opinion man.
Lyrically, Off Season it’s obviously so far ahead of most of his other albums that I don’t understand the criticism here from the author. I always thought Kendrick was superior to Cole until I heard Off Season earlier this year; Cole has definitely taken tremendous strides to cement his legacy and continues to get better well into his mid-30s.
Yep, just an opinion. Thanks for reading and taking it in stride. No one that writes for this website thinks their opinion is better than anyone else, it’s just rap discussion at the end of the day.
What the hell is this fuck shit list? I guess any bozo can wake up and spill shit based on their personal opinions. DONDA isn’t trash, Baby Keem and J. Cole did good also. BE FAIR
Everything right except for Cole
Cole must’ve hit Bruh BM or something. No way that project should be on this list.
I knew Donda would be on here with how cool its become to hate on Ye.. but why the fuck is Baby Keem on here. Y’all are wild for that.
this website is a joke
Lol
Most of the albums came out this year was disappointing. I loved Homeboy Sandman’s EP and Longevity’s new stuff. There were one or two albums, Like the last Nas album that I kinda liked, but the rest are wack. 2021 was not a good year in hiphop music.
all these crap albums deserve to be on this list, this year sucked for hiphop admit it, your Kanye and Drake bullcrap is over with (hopefully we don’t hear from either of them for a long time)
Explain me please how it is possible that Drake album is considered by you both one of the best of 2021 and one of the most disappointing at the same time?
You’re absolutely trippin on J Cole!!!! Off Season is clearly one of his best projects. Its crazy that in “rap” music people dont like people who can RAP . That’s wild to me.
You people be hating. Why should donda n off season be on this list. Fuck
This list is the most rubbish list I have seen how Lil baby, Drake, Ye, J Cole and Baby Keen on this list trash.
Lol this is disappointing but this same site says Lil Nas X’s video wheres hes stripping for Satan is the greatest moment in 2021 for Hiphop.
Interesting half the albums on this list are on the list of the best of 2021. More proof this publication has gone to the dogs. SMH
This is the same website that gave Playboi Carti album a high score and said it was necessary for hip hop while he sounds like a 4 year old crying on record. These people have lost their credibility a long time ago
Fr what is the appeal of Carti?? People said he had AOTY and I literally couldn’t get through it cause he does that crying stuff on every track and repeats all of his lines twice instead of rhyming different words.
Truly agree with melodic blue Donda and CLB
Bro who writes the articles. This sites a joke. J coles album was fire. My guy must of had a hard time understanding the lyrics
J Cole 100% delivered on his album, Kanye’s album was long but I thought it was his best project since 2010, Keem’s album was solid and pop smoke literally had no say on what this album was. You’re tripping bad
Your critiques are all opinion so that’s fair. However, we addressed in the article how Pop Smoke had no say on his album. No one is critiquing Pop Smoke, we’re critiquing his team.
So Kanye,Drake,Lil Baby,Durk,J Cole,Pop Smoke albums as disappointing albums??!! But Lil’ Nas X stripping in hell is the best album of 2021??!!! …You guys are going to be “Canceled” in 22′ if you keep this up!
Lil Nas X’s album didn’t even make our top 5. Let alone best album of 2021. Think you have a category confused.
THE FUUUCK!!! ???
The Off-Season definitely doesn’t belong to this list
Probably the best rap album of 2021
DAMN. No wonder why you named Tyler, The Creator’s album the best
I think Cole delivered, it wasn’t necessarily something that stuck with me entirely but it was not disappointing in the least. Donda was long but very fulfilling imo, Kanye at least still tries w his music (can’t say the same for CLB) and I think the nepotism card for Keem is a bit heavy handed, like is this cloud always gonna hang over him for his career? I think what he did w Melodic Blue was impressive for a young producer his age. Granted there are co producers but it was still different sonically from traditional trap. I like his quirky experimentation.
0/3 on the Cole, Kanye, and Keem takes imo
Respect your opinion. Thanks for the thoughtful comment even if you don’t agree.