ALL: Best Of

As the industry slowly crumbled, action figures like 50 Cent and Lil Jon rolled off the assembly line with muscular, eardrum-popping sounds.

In a year defined by electro kingdoms and fresh wild styles, Run-D.M.C., Afrika Bambaataa and others sought to explore rap’s future.

Most of the best hip-hop of 1981 didn’t appear on rap records — with Grandmaster Flash’s “Wheels of Steel” a gloriously historic exception.

While Missy Elliott and the Neptunes dominated 2002, the rise of 50 Cent, Dipset, and Southern rap promised to transform the culture.

While 9/11 and Jay-Z vs. Nas defined the year, global forces began disrupting the cloistered rap industry, whether it was ready or not.

In the first year of the 21st century, hip-hop mutated in unusual ways, and a canyon grew between the haves and the have-nots.

In 1979, hip-hop as a regional culture was irrevocably changed when “Rapper’s Delight” introduced it to the outside world.

The year 1993 reflected the music industry’s “see if it sticks” approach to rap, resulting in a boundless variety of peaks and valleys.