Here Is Your “Finding The GOAT Album” Sweet 16. The Bracket Just Got Real.

Ambrosia For Heads

Yesterday (March 8) closed Round 3 of “Finding The GOAT Album.” You—the voter—definitively took 32 albums and divided them into a “Sweet 16.”

The last bracket took the Top 10 albums from the 1980s, the 1990s, and 2000s, respectively and included two user-generated Wild Card winners. In examining the Sweet 16, both Wild Cards (Outkast’s ATLiens and Gang Starr’s Moment Of Truth) were defeated. However, to many, there were still upsets in the round.

Tomorrow (March 10) begins the next round of Finding The GOAT Album. In total, three (3) albums from the 1980s made the bracket, as well as nine (9) albums from the 1990s, and four (4) from the 2000s. A Tribe Called Quest is the only act to have multiple entries, while N.W.A. and Wu-Tang Clan share the distinction of being included as a group, alongside some of their members’ (Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah) solo work.

The narrowest margin of victory belongs to Jay Z’s The Blueprint, which by less than 2%, edged out Kanye West’s The College Dropout, released on the same Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records label, with much of the same personnel. Leading the margins is Nas’ Illmatic, which all but crushed LL Cool J’s Radio debut.

Here is the Sweet 16 of the Greatest Of All-Time Hip-Hop Albums, as decided by you, in order of margin of victory:

Nas’ Illmatic (93%)

Eric B. & Rakim’s Paid In Full (87%)

Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP (85%)

A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory (79%)

Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (76%)

The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die (75%)

Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (72%)

Ice Cube’s Death Certificate (70%)

Outkast’s Aquemini (68%)

Dr. Dre’s The Chronic (67%)

Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… (62%)