Grammys 2026: Who Wins Best Rap Album?
Because the hip-hop genre has grown over the past three decades into a tremendous force in American and international popular culture, it can be easy to forget how relatively young it is, originating as it did from the Black and Latinx cultures of the early-1970s Bronx. The category of Best Rap Album was introduced to the Grammys in 1996, at the tail-end of the genre’s golden age. This year’s lineup features several Grammy veterans and a couple of first-time nominees.
Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out
The first entry on this list marks a reunion for brothers Terrence and Gene Thornton, better known by their respective rap names of Pusha T and Malice. These two joined forces in the 1990s to become the rap duo Clipse and created three albums (technically four, though their intended 1999 debut, Exclusive Audio Footage, was shelved and only ever unofficially released to streaming in 2022) before temporarily disbanding in 2010 to start independent rap careers. Let God Sort Em Out, self-released in July of last year, is Clipse’s first album since 2009.
This is arguably Clipse’s first Grammy nomination – while they’re technically credited with a 2003 nod for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, this was for Justin Timberlake’s debut solo single “Like I Love You,” which merely featured them. Pusha T was also featured on two Grammy-nominated works by Kanye West – the 2012 song “Mercy” and the 2021 album “Donda.” Two of his solo albums have each received a Best Rap Album nod. Let God Sort Em Out is also a nominee for Album of the Year, and three songs from this album have respectively garnered nominations for Best Rap Performance (“Chains & Whips,” with Kendrick Lamar), Best Rap Song (“The Birds Don’t Sing”), and Best Music Video (“So Be It”).
GloRilla – GLORIOUS
Next up is not only a first-time nominee for Best Rap Album, but a debut album from the artist GloRilla. While this is her first studio album (released in October of 2024), she has received two previous Grammy nominations for Best Rap Performance on account of her singles “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” and “Yeah Glo!” (the latter of which was released on her 2024 mixtape Ehhthang Ehhthang). This year, Tyler, the Creator’s song “Sticky,” which features her, is another Best Rap Song nominee, as is “TGIF” from GLORIOUS.
JID – God Does Like Ugly
Another first-time nominee in this category is JID for God Does Like Ugly, released in August of last year. Its title was originally intended for his most recent album, 2022’s The Forever Story. That album received greater acclaim than this one, but it garnered no Grammy nods. Nonetheless, JID has been nominated once before in this category for 2019’s Revenge of the Dreamers III (a compilation album to which he contributed) and was featured on Doja Cat’s Album of the Year-nominated Planet Her in 2021.This year, he is also nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance on account of “Wholeheartedly” (which he shares with Ty Dolla Sign and 6lack).
Kendrick Lamar – GNX
The fourth candidate in the lineup is the sixth studio album by a much-nominated artist: Kendrick Lamar. GNX, which Lamar surprise-released in November of 2024, is also a nominee for Best Album of the Year. Over the course of his nearly 23-year (thus far) career, Lamar has accumulated 66 Grammy nominations and 22 wins. He has received a total of five Best Album nods, winning three of them. This year alone, he’s been nominated for eight other awards, including Album of the Year for GNX and Best Rap Performance twice for “TV Off” and the aforementioned “Chains and Whips” with Clipse.
Tyler, The Creator – CHROMAKOPIA
The final rap artist on this list also has a fair number of Grammy nods under his belt. Tyler, the Creator has received 11 nominations in his career, six of which are pending for the upcoming ceremony. He has won Best Rap Album twice before, for 2019’s Igor and 2021’s Call Me If You Get Lost, and been nominated once before that for 2017’s Flower Boy.
CHROMAKOPIA, which Tyler, the Creator released in October of 2024, is also a candidate for Album of the Year, and the mournful, vintage-looking package in which it comes has been nominated for Best Album Cover. The album has guest appearances from a number of Tyler, the Creator’s prominent peers, including Lola Young, Lil Wayne, Sexyy Red, and GloRilla. (It’s the album that includes the aforementioned Best Rap Song nominee “Sticky”).
The 68th Grammys: When to Tune in
This year’s Grammy ceremony will take place at the Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles. Its duration is between 5:00 and 8:30 PM PST. It will be broadcast on CBS, streamed on Paramount+, and hosted for the sixth time in a row by Trevor Noah.
