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Top 20 Albums of 2011 - A look back at a banner year for good hip hop and R&B. —Alex Gale and BET Staff

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Goblin, Tyler, the Creator - The out-of-the-blue breakthrough of Odd Future and its Svengali, MC-producer Tyler the Creator—highlighted by his unexpected Best New Artist win at the VMAs—was one of the biggest music stories of 2011. Tyler's Goblin, with his twisted, confessional subject matter, one-of-a-kind sub-baritone delivery and Neptunes-on-meth production, backed up the hype and showed potential for a whole lot more. We can't wait to hear what's next.(Photo: Courtesy Odd Future Records)

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Finally Famous, Big Sean - Big Sean's album title was certainly prophetic: On his major-label debut, the Detroit rapper unveiled his own bombastic brand of pop-rap, combining his mentor Kanye West's cocky charisma with a tween, for-the-ladies angle that made Sean ubiquitous on 106th & Park this year. (Photo: Courtesy Island Def Jam Records)

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The Dreamer, The Believer, Common - With his focus on his now well-established acting career, Common's first album in three years could've turned out one of two ways: rusty and out of practice or, hopefully, chomping-at-the-bit hungry. Luckily, it's no doubt the latter, with a back-in-form Com reconnecting with his old co-defendant No I.D. for an album of dusty, early-'90s-inflected meat-and-potatoes hip-hop.(Photo: Courtesy Warner Music Group)

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TM103: Hustlerz Ambition, Young Jeezy - After multiple well-publicized delays, Young Jeezy's album shows that sometimes you can't rush a good thing. TM103 is a worthy continuation of his Thug Motivation franchise, filled with his signature trap-rap capitalist anthems, but also showing a deeper, more introspective side on tracks like "F.A.M.E."(Photo: Courtesy Island Def Jam Records)

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Rolling Papers, Wiz Khalifa - With its electro-inflected beats and catchy sung hooks, Wiz successfully adapts the weed-rap personal aesthetic that made him a dorm-room sensation to the masses on Rolling Papers. His recent collaborations with Snoop make too much sense.(Photo: Courtesy Warner Music Group)

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The R.E.D. Album, Game - Game lets loose like a drunken machine gunner on this scattershot of an album, complete with 21 tracks, all but four without guest appearances. He throws everything and everything's mama at the wall, but a whole lot of it sticks, especially the weirdo-rap triumph "Martians vs. Goblins," featuring Lil Wayne and Tyler the Creator.(Photo: Courtesy Interscope Records)

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Lasers, Lupe Fiasco - Lupe claimed this pop-rap album was the result of an overbearing, commercially-minded record label, but with its No. 1 debut on Billboard, maybe his A&R really was onto something. Lupe didn't let the electro-leaning production or big, melodious hooks blunt his usual darts, making each track his, no matter how radio-friendly. (Photo: Courtesy Atlantic Records)

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My Life II...The Journey Continues: Act I, Mary J. Blige - Though this album falls well short of the high-water wark of its seminal predecessor, 1994's My Life, Mary still shows that she can sing about heartbreak, pain, struggle and the ugly side of love better than any other singer of her generation.(Photo: Courtesy Geffen Records)

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F.A.M.E., Chris Brown - On F.A.M.E., Chris Brown breezes over mountains of criticism and self-inflicted troubles with his slickest, most solid effort yet. Inescapably catchy highlights like "Look at Me Now" dominated 106th & Park, and justifiably so.  (Photo: Courtesy Jive Records)

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Tha Carter IV, Lil Wayne - Wayne was on another planet from 2005, when he began his torrential downpour of classic mixtapes, to 2008, when he released the runaway hit album, Tha Carter III. On Tha Carter IV, he comes down to earth (and off the sizzurp), but he still spits the same endearingly weird stream-of-conscious rhymes that first made him rap's center of gravity. If you don't believe us, ask the almost 1 millions fans who copped the album in its first week.(Photo: Courtesy Cash Money Records)

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Cole World: The Sideline Story - One of the most heart-warming trends in hip-hop this year was seeing quality, no-frills lyricism make a real impact commercially, and J. Cole's major-label debut exemplified the phenomenon. Cole's blue-collar raps lived up to the potential of his mixtapes here, and more than justitified Jay-Z's decision to make him Roc Nation's first signee.(Photo: Courtesy Sony Music)

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21, Adele - The old cliché says that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but it forgot to mention that she can also make a hell of an album. Or at least if she's Adele, who used a tough breakup to fuel one of the year's most stirring releases, led by the stormy soul throwback "Rolling in the Deep."(Photo: Courtesy XL Records)

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Take Care, Drake - Drake boldly expands his futuristic R&B/rap/ambient hybrid into newer, deeper, weirder places on Take Care. An unflinching meditation on fame and relationships over feathery, barely-there productions helmed by his partner 40, this is hip-hop at its most deeply personal. (Photo: Courtesy Young Money Records)

Photo By (Photo: Courtesy Cash Money Records)

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Watch the Throne, Jay-Z and Kanye West - Should we really have expected anything less? Two of hip-hop's undisputed GOATs, Jay and 'Ye had already collaborated on several classics in the past, from "Encore" to "Monster," and they matched their track record with this triumphant album. At its heart a celebration of Black excellence and opulence in the face of hardship, Watch the Throne is a delightfully pompous extension—and justification—of its authors' outsized egos. The album's release provided one of the few recent moments in this digital era of hip-hop fragmentation and sub-genres where all eyes and ears were in one place, and it delivered. (Photo: Courtesy Roc-A-Fella Records)