1988 in hip-hop

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This article summarizes the events, album releases, and album release dates in hip hop music for the year 1988.

Eric B. & Rakim's 1988 sophomore album, Follow the Leader, earned an RIAA gold certification and many critically acclaimed reviews.

Released albums

Release Date	Artist	Album
January 31	Too Short	Life Is...Too Short
February 17	Geto Boys	Making Trouble
February 23	Biz Markie	Goin' Off
March 29	DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince	He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper
April 12	Boogie Down Productions	By All Means Necessary
	Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five	On the Strength
April 19	MC Lyte	Lyte as a Rock
May 16	Derek B	Bullet From A Gun
May 17	Run-D.M.C.	Tougher Than Leather
May 31	Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew	The World's Greatest Entertainer
June 7	Audio Two	What More Can I Say?
	EPMD	Strictly Business
June 15	J.J. Fad	Supersonic
June 21	Stetsasonic	In Full Gear
June 28	Big Daddy Kane	Long Live the Kane
	Public Enemy	It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
July 1	The Fat Boys	Coming Back Hard Again
July 26	Eric B. & Rakim	Follow the Leader
August 2	Salt-n-Pepa	A Salt with a Deadly Pepa
August 8	N.W.A	Straight Outta Compton
August 9	Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock	It Takes Two
August 17	2 Live Crew	Move Somethin'
September 1	Sir Mix-A-Lot	Swass
September 13	Ice-T	Power
	Steady B	Let the Hustlers Play
September 20	Marley Marl	In Control, Volume 1
September 28	MC Hammer	Let's Get It Started
October 4	Ultramagnetic MC's	Critical Beatdown
October 7	Boogie Boys	Romeo Knight
October 25	MC Shan	Born to be Wild
October 26	Kid 'n Play	2 Hype
November 1	Slick Rick	The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
November 8	Jungle Brothers	Straight out the Jungle
November 15	King T	Act a Fool
November 22	Eazy-E	Eazy-Duz-It
	Lakim Shabazz	Pure Righteousness
December 15	Various Artists	The First Priority Music Family: Basement Flavor
Unknown	Alliance	We Could Get Used To This
Unknown	Busy Bee Starski	Running Thangs
Unknown	Kaos	Court's In Session
Unknown	Kurtis Blow	Back By Popular Demand
Unknown	Three Times Dope	Original Stylin'
Unknown	M.C. Cool Rock & M.C. Chaszy Chess	Boot the Booty
unknown	Michael Peace	Rappin' Bold
Unknown	MC Shy D	Comin' Correct in 88
Unknown	P.I.D.	Here We Are
Unknown	The 7A3	Coolin' In Cali
Unknown	Tuff Crew	Danger Zone
Unknown	J.V.C. F.O.R.C.E.	Doin' Damage
Unknown	Masters of Ceremony	Dynamite
Unknown	Raheem	The Vigilante
Unknown	Sweet Tee	It's Tee Time
Unknown	Mantronix	In Full Effect
Unknown	Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud	Girls I Got 'Em Locked
Unknown	K-9 Posse	K-9 Posse
Unknown	Rodney-O & Joe Cooley	Me and Joe
Unknown	Cold Crush Brothers	Troopers
Unknown	Def IV	Nice & Hard
Unknown	The Krown Rulers	Paper Chase
Unknown	Various Artists	Rhyme Syndicate Comin' Through
Unknown	Bass Patrol	Rock This Planet
Unknown	The Skinny Boys	Skinny (They Can't Get Enough)
Unknown	Schoolly D	Smoke Some Kill
Unknown	The Fila Fresh Crew	Tuffest Man Alive
Unknown	Tall Dark & Handsome	Tall Dark & Handsome
Unknown	Original Concept	Straight From the Basement of Kooley High!
Unknown	Cash Money & Marvelous	Where's the Party At?
Unknown	Chubb Rock	Chubb Rock (featuring Howie Tee)
Unknown	Whistle	Transformation
Unknown	Numarx	Our Time Has Come
Unknown	Shinehead	Unity
Unknown	White Boys	On A Mission
Unknown	Various Artists	The Rap Pack II Fresh Records Compilation
Unknown	Various Artists	Mr. Magic's Rap Attack Volume 4
Unknown	Various Artists	Rap's New Generation Rooftop Records
Unknown	Don Baron	Young, Gifted And Black
Unknown	Tony Tee	Time To Get Physical
Unknown	Spike V.S.T.	I Wanna Dance
Unknown	The 45 King	Master Of The Game
Unknown	Finesse & Synquis	Soul Sisters
Unknown	True Love	I'm Bustin' Out
Unknown	Chilly Uptown	I Got Rules
Unknown	True Mathematics	Greatest Hits
Unknown	Frozen Explosion	Frozen Explosion
Unknown	The Real Roxanne	The Real Roxanne
Unknown	L'Trimm	Grab It!
Unknown	Kid Flash	He's In Effect
Unknown	Blood Brothers	Honey & Blood
Unknown	Big Mouth	Quite Not Right
Unknown	Boy White	Do We Connect
Unknown	Wendy O. Williams' Ultrafly And The Hometown Girls	Deffest! And Baddest!
Unknown	M-4 Sers	Shake It Up & Get Nasty!!
Unknown	Metal MC	Born To Party
Unknown	Symphonic Evolution	Revolution
Unknown	DJ Red Alert	We Can Do This

Highest-charting singles

Hip hop singles from any year which charted in the 1988 Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100

Song	Artist	Project	Peak position
"Going Back To Cali"	LL Cool J	Less than Zero (soundtrack)	31

See also

• Last article: 1987 in hip hop music
• Next article: 1989 in hip hop music