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Image Courtesy Mark Davis/NBCKendrick Lamar’s third album, To Pimp a Butterfly ranks at the top of Rolling Stone‘s 50 Best Albums of 2015 list.
The rapper’s critically acclaimed album beat out Drake‘s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late at #3, D’Angelo’s Black Messiah at #4, and The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness at #5. K. Dot even bested runner-up Adele‘s record-breaking album, 25.
“Musically, lyrically and emotionally, Kendrick Lamar’s third album is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece — a sprawling epic that’s both the year’s most bumptious party music and its most gripping therapy session,” declares the magazine of Lamar’s album, which debuted with 324,000 units sold in March.
Elsewhere in the top 50, Future’s DS2, Miguel’s Wildheart, Jazmine Sullivan’s Reality Show, Vince Staples‘ Summertime ’06, and Rae Sremmurd’s SremmLife all make an appearance on the annual list.
Here are the top ten of Rolling Stone‘s 50 Best Albums of 2015:
1. Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp a Butterfly
2. Adele — 25
3. Drake — If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
4. D’Angelo and the Vanguard — Black Messiah
5. The Weeknd — Beauty Behind the Madness
6. Courtney Barnett — Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
7. Jason Isbell — Something More Than Free
8. Various Artists — Hamilton: Original Broadway Soundtrack
9. The Arcs — Yours, Dreamily
10. Blur — The Magic Whip
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