The 10 Best Follow-up Albums in Hip-Hop

Sometimes, a debut album shows an artist's sound in full bloom. Sometimes, it merely offers a glimpse of brilliance, a capacity to blossom into greatness. It's no surprise, then, that several artists have recorded follow-up albums that manage to rival their first for greatness. Here are 10 sophomore albums that turned out better than their predecessors.

Honorable Mention: Mecca & The Soul Brother (Pete Rock & CL Smooth), Late Registration (Kanye West), The Marshall Mathers LP (Eminem)

10. Clipse - 'Hell Hath No Fury'
© Star Trak/Interscope
Third time was the charm for the Clipse. While the duo's very first album, Exclusive Audio Footage, generated enough momentum to land them a spot on Elektra's roster, it was eventually shelved. The Virginia duo then migrated to Star Trak to go work with hometown heroes The Neptunes. Their official debut, Lord Willin', was produced entirely by The Neptunes. It gave rise to a handful of bangers (including "Grindin'") but turned out to be uneven. It was 2006's Hell Hath No Fury that finally established the Clipse as a force to reckon with.
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9. Mobb Deep - 'The Infamous'
© Loud/RCA
Prodigy and Havoc were unseasoned 19-year olds when they released their forgettable first album, Juvenile Hell in 1993. By the time 95 rolled around, the Queens duo had undergone a metamorphosis like no other. Their rhymes were sharper. Hav's beats were mindblowingly impressive. The Infamous churned street classics like "Survival of the Fittest" and "Eye for an Eye" and went on to become an authentic documentation of 90s hardcore hip-hop sound.
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8. Common - 'Resurrection'
© Relativity
Where Common's debut, Can I Borrow A Dollar, drew directly from old-school rap, funk, his sophomore effort, Resurrection, was gentler and well-rounded. No I.D.'s dense sonic barrage meshed perfectly with Common's conscious cry.
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7. GZA - 'Liquid Swords'
© Geffen Records
It's easy to forget that GZA launched his solo career prior to Wu-Tang's collective debut. His first outing, Words from the Genius, dropped in 1991 and is often credited as the first solo album by a Wu member. While that album was produced primarily by Easy Mo Bee, RZA took the production reins on Liquid Swords and laced his cousin with a cinematic backdrop for his gritty narratives. Liquid Swords was rap as literature.
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6. A Tribe Called Quest - 'The Low End Theory'
© Jive
Tribe is one of few acts in hip-hop that can boast of a flawless catalog. That said, Low End Theory is stylistically superior to the group's debut.
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5. Fugees - 'The Score'
© Sony
Anyone who listened to the Fugees' Blunted on Reality and The Score back to back can be forgiven for thinking that they were created by two different acts. The Score was so much more compelling that everyone quickly forgot about their first LP. Indeed, it was a remarkable improvement on the lackluster Blunted.
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4. Ice Cube - 'Death Certificate'
© Priority
Ice Cube's solo debut, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, painted a frighteningly morbid portrait of mutual distrust. It was a certified street masterpiece. So, how do you follow that up? With an even more controversial, more venomous album titled Death Certificate. Sure, Cube caught plenty of flack for his misogynistic and antisemitic lyrics, but he also turned in a brilliant album. The album's 'Death Side' presented an image of the present, while the 'Life Side' showed a vision of the future. Standouts include the scathing "No Vaseline" and the highly controversial "Black Korea."
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3. De La Soul - 'De La Soul Is Dead'
© Rhino
No one knew what De La would do for their second go-round. The Long Island crew had already redefined rap music with 3 Feet High & Rising -- a groundbreaking debut that challenged hip-hop with its playful yet inventive sound. At a time when rap was mostly a "shoot 'em up, bang bang" playground, De La peddled rhymes about daisies and body odor. After being derided as hippies, the group dropped a follow-up album that was notoriously edgiy yet remarkably impressive. The title (De La Soul Is Dead) and album art (an image of withering daisies) signified the end of the daisy-era De La. They broke out of the envelope that supposedly limited their art without sacrificing their core sound.
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2. Beastie Boys - 'Paul's Boutique'
© Capitol
Critics dismissed the Beastie Boys as a one-hit wonder after the arrival of the group's flawless debut, Licensed To Ill. To add salt to injury, they had also severed ties with producer Rick Rubin. As people were busy writing them off, Ad-Rock, Mike, and MCA were holed up in their L.A. studio working feverishly on a comeback album. The result was an LP that offered a combination of creative depth and multi-layered production. The sheer fact that the Beasties managed to drop what's arguably their best work while shuffling from one label to another is remarkable in itself. Their extensive and innovative use of sampling helped establish the practice as an art.
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1. Public Enemy - 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back'
© Def Jam
Simply put, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever made. While Yo! Bum Rush The Show showed Public Enemy banging on the door of societal injustice, It Takes a Nation knocked down the door, ran into the building and burned the whole thing down. Chuck D's politically salient rhymes combined with Bomb Squad's searing, ferocious sound to yield a groundbreaking work that remains the standard for politically charged rap.