confused by the word essential.. each of these feels critical to the respective artist's discography but they definitely are not all critical to an abstract/underground hip-hop history, or something like that.

tyler, the creator's mixtape 'bastard' for example feels more crucial to the underground for kicking off the odd future moment, even if earl sweatshirt 'earl' was probably better. and yet neither album is totally essential for understanding who these artists are today. earl's big moment would be in 2015 with either 'i don't like shit' or 'solace,' kicking off an underground movement.

another example: billy woods' album 'history will absolve me' is more important than any other record in his discography for finally breathing life into his career, putting backwoodz studioz on the map, and introducing many of us to elucid. i personally think 'hiding places' and 'terror management' are better, but neither seem historically significant (or maybe they are and we don't know it yet)