What is the best underground rap album of all time?

Far from the mainstream but rich in creativity — underground rap has consistently pushed artistic boundaries. Which underground album is the greatest?

1. 1
   MF DOOM – Operation: Doomsday

   MF DOOM's 1999 debut album, recorded while homeless in NYC, launching hip-hop's most beloved masked villain.
2. 2
   Madvillain – Madvillainy

   MF DOOM and Madlib's 2004 Stones Throw masterpiece, the definitive underground hip-hop album of the 2000s.
3. 3
   Aesop Rock – Labor Days

   Aesop Rock's 2001 Rhymesayers album exploring labor, identity, and modern life with dense, college-flyer lyricism.
4. 4
   Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein

   Cannibal Ox's 2001 El-P-produced debut, a dark and claustrophobic vision of New York that became an underground legend.
5. 5
   Company Flow – Funcrusher Plus

   Company Flow's 1997 debut, El-P and Bigg Jus's abrasive experimental rap that influenced a generation of underground MCs.
6. 6
   Atmosphere – God Loves Ugly

   Slug and Ant's 2002 Minneapolis underground classic of raw, confessional storytelling that sold without label support.
7. 7
   El-P – Fantastic Damage

   El-P's 2002 solo debut from Company Flow, a paranoid and industrially produced underground masterpiece.
8. 8
   Brother Ali – Undisputed Truth

   Brother Ali's 2007 Rhymesayers album, a fiercely personal and political underground rap record that earned wide critical praise.
9. 9
   Jedi Mind Tricks – Violent by Design

   Jedi Mind Tricks' 2000 Philadelphia album, a dark and dense underground classic with complex martial-arts-themed lyricism.
10. 10
    Billy Woods – Hiding Places

    Billy Woods and Kenny Segal's 2019 album, a critically acclaimed underground rap masterpiece of dense, cryptic lyricism.
11. 11
    Sage Francis – Personal Journals

    Sage Francis's 2002 Strange Famous debut, a deeply confessional and politically engaged underground rap statement.
12. 12
    milo – so the flies don't come

    Milo's 2014 debut on Hellfyre Club, a softly spoken abstract rap album drawing on poetry and philosophy.
13. 13
    Boogie Down Productions – Criminal Minded

    BDP's 1987 debut, an independent release that pioneered hardcore underground hip-hop before being picked up wider.