Perhaps Rosenberg said it best when he ranked The Blueprint as the decade's best: "Quite simply, this is the best rapper of the era's best album - kind of hard for it not to be number 1." You overwhelmingly agreed, as more than 70 percent of voters included this album on their list. Even Pitchfork gave this album an 8.7 out of 10.

Not surprisingly, the only hip hop album voted by our readers to The Top 13 Albums of the Decade finished near the top of this list. Stankonia, the fourth studio album from OutKast, cemented this Atlanta duo's place in mainstream pop culture, selling more than four million copies. This album made Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The debut album from long-time Jay-Z producer, The College Dropout was an instant critical and commercial success. On the strength of singles "Jesus Walks" and "Through the Wire," the album has sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. Entertainment Weekly recently named it the fourth best album of the past 25 years (three and eight spots ahead of the first two albums on this list, respectively).

West's second album was another critical and commercial success, and featured perhaps his most ubiquitous song, the hyper-catchy "Gold Digger." While it's hard to imagine a rapper receiving more accolades than West did for The College Dropout, he did just that with Late Registration. Here's what Rolling Stone raved: "Late Registration is an undeniable triumph, packed front to back, so expansive it makes the debut sound like a rough draft."

With over 19 million copies sold worldwide, this is by far the highest selling album on The Top 13. Although the album's ultra-violent, misogynistic, and homophobic lyrics sparked controversy, The Marshall Mathers LP was greeted warmly by critics. In naming the album one of the 100 greatest of all time, Time Magazine wrote: "Eminem delivered dizzying, blistering rhymes that laid bare his neuroses, his fury, and his confusion. He jumped from laugh-out-loud funny to chillingly menacing from one line to the next."

The album Jay-Z probably wishes Nas never released, this is by far Nas' best album since his classic debut, Illmatic. Anchored by "Ether," a vicious diss track aimed at Jay-Z, Stillmatic received a rare Five Mic ranking from The Source. The Los Angeles Times wrote: "Even though Nas unleashes many of his strongest rhymes when he's attacking his adversaries, he also delivers a strong batch of selections elsewhere. . . These songs are typical of the top-tier lyricism that first made Nas a household hip-hop name."

The first of two Ghostface albums on The Top 13, this album was Rosenberg's second favorite hip hop album of the decade. It was also the only hip hop album on our Top 13 Albums of the Decade. As Pitchfork recently opined in naming it the eleventh best album of the decade, "its release in the decade's first month provided an unexpected millennial rebirth, singlehandedly restoring Wu Tang's mysterious artistic vitality and positioning Tony Starks as hip-hop's most consistently astonishing and confounding lyricist."

Madvillainy is the only true indie album on this list and easily has sold the fewest copies. This collaboration between MF Doom and producer Madlib features one of the decade's most memorable sounds, blending classic jazz recordings with Doom's distinctive, layered rhymes. As the Village Voice said, this album is "a glorious phantasmagoria of flow."

You agreed with Rosenberg that this is "a rare hip hop album that matches its hype." The heavily anticipated sixth studio album from New Orleans' hip hop veteran Lil Wayne quickly spawned three top ten singles and became 2008's best-selling album. The critics also were pleased. As Now Magazine wrote, "His off-the-wall third installment in the Carter series is a subversive masterpiece. . . It's eclectic, eccentric and yes, essential."

After the flawless Supreme Clientele, many Ghostface fans doubted the Staten Island rapper would ever reach those heights again. And just when it was beginning to look like they were right, Fishscale put those doubts to rest. XXL raved: "Fishscale is Ghost's most addictive dosage post Supreme Clientele. Packed with vivid street tales, comic relief and straight spittin', the album continues his standard of excellence."

Produced by his pal Kanye West, Be was something of a comeback album for Common, whose previous release, Electric Circus, bombed both critically and commercially. Calling it "perhaps his best effort to date," Vibe opined: "Like a train ride through the 'hood, the concise, 11-track opus steamrolls through the images, stories, and emotions of urban folks getting by any way they know how. Overflowing with passion, honesty, and optimism, Be gets to the root of human experience - all the while staying beautifully soulful and funky."

OutKast's second entry on The Top 13, this double-album is actually a pair of solo albums - one each from André 3000 and Big Boi. The first hip hop release to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below features the number one singles "Hey Ya", by André 3000, and "The Way You Move," by Big Boi. England's The Guardian raved: "Both albums are sublime. Taken together they're hip-hop's Sign o' the Times or The White Album: a career-defining masterpiece of breathtaking ambition."

Yet another classic from Jay-Z, this was initially marketed as Hova's final album. And although that turned out to be far from true, there are plenty of reasons other than nostalgia to listen to it. In giving it four out of four stars, USA Today wrote: "If The Black Album is indeed Jay-Z's last, he's not only leaving at the top of his game, but at a time when he is getting even better. He enlisted beats from an all-star cast of producers, who come through with top-shelf work. But it's Jigga's trademark lyrical dexterity and diversified deliveries that put him on a level all his own."