Is it possible that some of the greatest hip-hop albums have never left the studio? Fans of the culture celebrate classics like Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Nas’ Illmatic and Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Clientele because they changed the game. But somewhere in the depths of safely secured hard drives and lost audio files are rap albums that could have joined their ranks, had they not been shelved, scrapped or trapped in limbo.
This list tells the story of hip-hop through some of its greatest “What If?” moments. We take a trip into the multiverse, in which acts both elusive and prolific delivered on promises that have since faded into folklore.
For all intents and purposes, we are not including albums that have leaked or been heavily bootlegged. This means that albums such as 50 Cent’s Power of a Dollar or Clipse’s Exclusive Audio Footage, which are discoverable with a little bit of digging, do not qualify. Also there are some albums that have dropped in a very different form or clearly about to drop, thinking of Nas Lost Tapes 2 and his upcoming album with DJ
This roundup focuses distinctly on projects that have never been heard by the public, whose lore keeps the heaviest up hip-hop fans awake at night, wondering what could have been. Featuring names from The Notorious B.I.G., to Lil Uzi Vert, these are 50 Unreleased rap albums we’d kill to hear.
(This was story was original published on August 8th, 2012.)
Reason It Was Shelved: The lore behind Once Upon a Time in Shaolin has the makings of modern mythology. The project was recorded in secrecy between Wu-Tang Clan and Moroccan producer Cilvaringz from 2007-2013. So secretively, in fact, that Method Man revealed that no group members apart from RZA knew the full scope of what they were creating or the unconventional plan for its release.
Tired with streaming and piracy plaguing the music industry, RZA and Cilvaringz treated Once Upon a Time’s rollout like a piece of fine art. A single copy, packaged in a one-of-a-kind silver box containing two CDs, was sold to “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli in 2015 for $2 Million, resulting in its Guinness World Record for the world’s most valuable album.
Following Shkreli’s prison sentencing in 2018, the album was seized by the U.S. Government and sold to blockchain art collective PleasrDAO, who have since released portions of the album as NFTs, along with facilitating an exhibition on the album at the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania, Australia. A provision in the original sale of the album blocks it from commercial release for 88 years, meaning that 2103 is the earliest that the world can legally hear the elusive album.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Lucrative rollout aside, those lucky enough to hear Once Upon a Time in Shaolin called it the group’s best work since Wu-Tang Forever. The album was set to feature some truly unconventional guests, from Cher to select players of FC Barcelona, with fan favorite kung-fu and western film samples tying it all together. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: “This might be the return of The Throne,” Jay-Z raps on his guest verse from Kanye West’s Grammy-winning DONDA cut, “Jail.” The collaboration came after years of friction between the two, which continued to boil when Kanye threatened to remove Hov from the song over a line about his mother.
Around this time, Ye associate Justin LaBoy teased the long-awaited Watch the Throne 2 for a late 2021 release. Kanye doubled down on the notion of a part two during his controversial appearance on Drink Champs the following year.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: The original Watch the Throne is a highlight in both rappers’ catalogue. It ranks amongst the best albums of the 2010s and the best collab albums of all-time. Deep down, every Kanye fan would like to believe that there is still “the old Kanye” buried beneath all of the madness, and who better to bring it out of him than his “Big Brother?” —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: In what feels like a COVID fever dream, Travis Scott and Kid Cudi teamed up for a collaboration titled, “The Scotts,” which premiered live in “concert” as part of Travis’ Fortnite Battle Royale partnership.
The track debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with Travis Scott revealing that an album between the two was soon to follow. By 2022, following no subsequent releases from the pair, Cudi stated that the project was dead in the water. “Naw I’m not doin that [sic],” he shared with fans via X. “The moment has passed.”
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Travis Scott has proudly worn his Kid Cudi influence on his sleeve throughout his entire career. From “Baptized In Fire” to “Stop Trying to Be God” and beyond, the pair constantly bring out the best in each other. If the rest of the album were to be in line with “The Scotts” single, fans would have been in for a rager of a time. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: In the summer of 2018, Ski Mask the Slump God and Juice WRLD released a video of the two freestyling together. Not long after, Ski Mask posted on Instagram: “Our collaboration tape will destroy the world @juicewrld999.” By August, the pair revealed the project’s title, Evil Twins, during an interview and freestyle session with Montreality.
The collaboration made sense, with both rappers rising fast. Juice WRLD was one of the hottest new artists after the breakout success of “Lucid Dreams,” while Ski Mask had just landed on XXL’s Freshman cover.
By late 2018, Ski Mask was still publicly hyping the tape. “Evil Twins will come 2019,” he told XXL. “Me and Juice decided we’re gonna sit like a month in the same state, chill—whenever we want to though. Like we been just recording songs. Evil Twins just came about because we just see a lot of similarities in each other, you know what I mean, and we see a lot of differences.”
Unfortunately, Juice WRLD tragically passed away in late 2019, leaving the project in the what could have been pile.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Tracks like “Nuketown” and “Wake Up!”—recorded around the time of the planned tape—show just how strong their chemistry really was. —Dimas Sanfiorenzo
Reason It Was Shelved: Following executive producing five seven-track albums, including his own ye and Kid Cudi collabo, Kids See Ghosts in summer of 2018, Kanye West was set to keep the momentum going with YANDHI, a sequel to his acclaimed 2013 album, Yeezus.
Initially set for a September release, the project was set to feature the likes of Nicki Minaj, Ty Dolla Sign, Dua Lipa and the late XXXTentacion. “I Love It,” the sex-crazed duet with Lil Pump, was its only officially-released single.
In typical Kanye fashion, YANDHI was delayed from its original release date. By 2019, the rapper announced himself a born-again Christian, with many of the album’s tracks eventually rewritten and repurposed to fit the secular messaging of Jesus Is King and later DONDA.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Many of the original YANDHI tracks have leaked online over the years.Though many of these leaks are unfinished demos, they offer Kanye taking some of his biggest creative swings in years. Jesus Is King has its moments, but one can’t help but feel as if rewriting the YANDHI tracks dwindled their potential. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: It’s well established that Gucci Mane is one of the godfathers of modern rap. When he was released from prison in 2016, he immediately got back to work, reconnecting with the rappers he had influenced.
This included Migos and Lil Yachty. By 2018, it looked like something big was on the way: the three were preparing to drop a joint mixtape called Glacier Boyz. They even had a single together—the banger “Solitaire.” A release date was set for April 18, with Gucci confirming it on Twitter with an “Ice Ice Baby” post. He then later said “fuck it” and promised to give the album away for free (though in the streaming era, music is basically free already). Still, the date came and went with no tape.
By August, Yachty seemingly admitted the project was in limbo: “We had hella songs, but some of them just wasn’t up to par,” he said. “[Migos] had just dropped Culture II. I didn’t want to put no crap out.”
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: This could have been a true passing of the torch moment, with Gucci setting up the stage for some of Atlanta’s youngest and brightest.
Reason It Was Shelved: In a 2023 interview with Sway in the Morning, Madlib confirmed he was putting the finishing touches on Maclib, his collaborative album with the late Mac Miller. The pair connected while recording “Piñata,” the title track off of Madlib’s first album with Freddie Gibbs, in 2015. Mac and Madlib recorded the bulk of the would-be project until 2017.
Madlib’s promise that the estate-approved album has been plagued with legal drama. Earlier this year, Madlib’s former manager filed a countersuit against him, arguing that projects like Madlib are still bound to old label contracts, following the producer launching his own new label.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: The world was stripped of Mac Miller too soon. His 2013 projects Watching Movies with the Sound Off and particularly, Delusional Thomas fell in line with the unorthodox sound of Madlib/Quasimoto. The few collaborations between the two that fans have gotten to hear prove that they are in for a treat, should Madlib one day get a release date.
Reason It Was Shelved: In 2016, Big Boi revealed that he and longtime collaborator would release a collaborative EP following the release of his next solo album. “We’ve been entertaining the idea for a long time and finally got enough songs to where we just said the other night that we’re gonna do it.”
Of course, the announcement coincided with Killer Mike’s meteoric rise in popularity thanks to Run the Jewels. Although it has been nearly a decade since this announcement, it seems like not all hope is lost for this project. Earlier this year, Big Boi shared footage of the pair working on new music. Although he specified that this was for his upcoming solo project, Boomiverse 2, the only thing in the way of a collaborative EP between the two appears to be busy schedules.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Each rapper serves as a half to two of hip-hop’s most enduring duos. Apart from André 3000 for Big Boi and El-P for Killer Mike, it is clear that these two are each other’s creative muses, with dozens of tracks across decades to back such a claim. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti have a long, complicated history together. Both broke out around the same time, and while they come from different parts of the country, their idiosyncratic styles made them natural peers. In 2017, Carti took to Snapchat and seemingly announced a joint mixtape called 1629*. The title paid homage to their upbringings: Carti came up in Atlanta’s 2900 neighborhood, while Uzi reps North Philly’s 1600.
Not long after, music surfaced—most notably “Break the Bank.” Then something more concrete followed: tour dates. The duo announced an 18-city run with G Herbo and SOBxRBE as openers. But just as quickly as it was announced, the tour was canceled. Days later, Uzi explained he wouldn’t be touring with Carti because he wanted to “focus.”
What complicates matters is that we know the two recorded extensively. The following summer, Carti revealed they had nearly 100 songs in the vault. “We’ve been recording since like 2015,” he said. “We know what we got to do. We know what we’re capable of. We just gotta do what we gotta do.”
From there, the pair went through their ups and downs, with plenty of rumors about beef. Lately, they seem to be back on good terms—Uzi even appeared on two songs from MUSIC. Still, it doesn’t look like 1629* is coming anytime soon.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Uzi and Carti’s chemistry is undeniable. They’re true equals, and this project could have been a classic in the same way Rich Gang was.
Reason It Was Shelved: Following a surprise Kanye West appearance at OVO Fest 2016, Drake addressed his hometown crowd: “Toronto, I got one question for you,” he said. “Is y’all ready for this album?”
That autumn, mysterious billboards popped up across Los Angeles, featuring the words, “Calabasas is the New Abu Dhabi” alongside the logos of Drake and Kanye West’s record labels. The billboards followed a slew of Drake and Kanye collaborations from earlier in the year, including “Pop Style” and Drizzy lending his pen to help write select The Life of Pablo tracks.
The only official collab between the two post-billboards came by way of “Glow” off of Drake’s 2017 More Life mixtape. Soon after, Kanye pulled a bait-and-switch on Drake with “Lift Yourself,” produced Pusha T’s diss track “Infrared” and effectively burned the bridge between the two.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: At the end of the day Drake and Kanye West are frenemies. No matter how much bad blood there could ever be between the two, Kanye continues to consistently express his admiration towards the 6 God. “Forever,” “Pop Style” and “Glow” are cool, but it feels like these two have only scratched the surface of what they could accomplish together.
Reason It Was Shelved: After their Shady Records major label debut with 2012’s Welcome to: Our House, Slaughterhouse got hard at work on its follow-up. Glass House was set to be executive produced by Just Blaze and was described as the supergroup’s most personal body of work thus far. Originally set for a 2015 release, production stalled when the group experienced creative differences.
By 2017, Joe Budden had lost interest in rapping, hanging up his hat in lieu of a podcasting career. He asserted on his podcast that the album was akin to Dr. Dre’s Detox, “‘Cause that album’s never seeing the light of day.”
The nail in the coffin came later that year on Complex’s Everyday Struggle series, where Budden criticized Eminem’s “Untouchable,” calling it “the worst song [he’s] ever heard” and effectively tarnishing the relationship between him and Shady Records.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: When Just Blaze decided to leak two Glass House cuts in 2023, it was clear that we missed out on something special. The project would have been one last hurrah for fans, drawing closure to one of hip-hop’s most formidable supergroups. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: Following their collaborations “The Worst Guys” and “Favorite Song” in 2013, everyone’s favorite internet rappers Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino were set to keep the momentum going with a full project together.
What started off as an EP evolved into an album by 2018, with Chance dishing to Complex’s Open Late with Peter Rosenberg that the pair had six songs ready, with the intent of crafting an album with over 14 songs.
Ultimately, this one fell between the cracks. Between Donald Glover’s success with Atlanta, a departure from hip-hop on subsequent albums and Chance’s lengthy hiatus following an ill-received debut album, a collab album between the pair simply wasn’t in the cards.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: A Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino collaborative project is the J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar album for people who can’t talk to girls. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: In the mid-2010s, Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan, one of the greatest Atlanta duos ever, released Tha Tour, Vol. 1, a modern-day masterpiece. The mixtape came from a highly productive period where the two recorded like madmen.
After scoring a legitimate hit with “Lifestyle,” the general expectation was that another album would follow soon. In fact, later that year, Rich Homie Quan said the album was coming on Christmas Eve. Years later, the artist who did the artwork, Colourful Mula, would tell us he completed covers for followups, saying, “There’s this cover that’s already done, with a tracklist on it. But I don’t know what happened. It just never dropped. I think it was supposed to come right after.”
Things got tense between Quan and Thug and they went their separate ways, ending one of rap’s most promising duos.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Tha Tour is a masterpiece, and many songs that would have appeared on the sequel were likely recorded during the same sessions. Hearing them would have been incredible.
Reason It Was Shelved: In September 2012, one-time G.O.O.D. Music signee Q-Tip let it slip that a follow-up to the label’s Cruel Summer compilation could be in the works.
“I know, I know, I’m sorry about that but I have to let the cat out of the bag. Kanye’s probably gonna get…if there’s a Cruel Summer then there’s got to be a Cruel Winter, right?”
Our only taste at the project came by way of its lead single, “Champions,” which featured Kanye West, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Travis Scott, Yo Gotti, Quavo, Desiigner and a “fresh out the feds” Gucci Mane.
Like many Kanye projects, Cruel Winter slipped through the cracks. Pusha T, then president of G.O.O.D. Music revealed that he personally recorded about 20 verses for the project, including a strip club anthem with Big Sean and Common, “Trash Bags,” which remains unreleased.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: According to Pusha T, Q-Tip was set to be very hands-on in the crafting of Cruel Winter. This could have served as a unique opportunity to see Kanye balance the roles of student and sensei, learning from his idol whilst helping foster the talent of Desiigner, Kacy Hill and other G.O.O.D. Music signees. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: In a 2023 appearance on Lil Yachty’s A Safe Place podcast, J. Cole recalled Kendrick proposing the two connect for a project in 2011, around the same time that Cole supplied Lamar with a pack of beats that included his breakout single, “HiiiPower.”
“I think at that time, [Kendrick] being so excited—‘cause that’s a look for him at that point—so I think he went to Twitter like, ‘Me and J. Cole got something crazy comin.’ And he put up a picture of us. In that moment we did talk about it. Then, a couple of months before his first album came out, we worked on a bus and he came to Fayetteville…he came and we did a few more songs on the bus. So at one point, it was a real thing.”
Cole went on to explain that the two never got a meaningful amount of time to record together, indicating that the two would need “at least a year” to flesh out a body of work together.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Last year’s beef (before Cole turned Switzerland) has us wondering if we’ll ever hear Kendrick and Cole on a track together again. The rare instances that the two did work together offered natural chemistry between two voices of a generation. It’s hard to imagine that these two wouldn’t whip up magic across a full body of work. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: What could have been. In 2012, Mac Miller started talking about a project he had been working on with Pharrell called Pink Slime. The project was named after the stuff used to make McDonald’s burgers. A couple of tracks were released—“Onarolll” and “Glow”—but the EP never arrived. That didn’t stop Mac from keeping people’s hopes up. Every time Mac was asked about the project, he would say they were still working on it. In late 2012, he told Vibe, “It’s going to be really exciting music. It should be out this fall.”
In 2013, he told Rolling Stone, “[Pharrell and I] actually just talked a couple days ago. I’m going to go see him [in Miami], and we’re going to finish it and put it out. Because the shit’s ill and people want it. We both had pretty wild years. We gotta do it!”
We would never hear how the project sounded. After Mac’s death, Pharrell spoke about what it was like working with him, hinting at the direction the EP might have taken. Pharrell told Vulture, “I just remember him being a fan of music and wanting to go deeper and challenge himself. He was really independent in the rap game, but he liked Tribe and all the jazzy stuff, and he liked a lot of the stuff we did that’s jazz-influenced—rap records with those kinds of colors and chords.”
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: This project would have caught Mac during a time where he was finding his voice as an artist and during a time where Pharrell was truly entering a new superstar stage. Project would have been incredible .
Reason It Was Shelved: Ever since Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q first hopped on a track together in 2008, fans have gawked at the idea of a supergroup album between the four. When the artists officially dubbed themselves as “Black Hippy” it seemed like this hypothetical album was on the horizon.
Years passed, and Black Hippy haven’t dropped a track together since “Vice City,” from Jay Rock’s 2015 album, 90059. On last year’s “heart pt. 6,” Kendrick Lamar at long last assumed responsibility for the group’s demise.
“I jog my memory, knowin’ Black Hippy didn’t work ’cause of me. Creatively, I moved on with new concepts in reach,” he rapped on the GNX cut. While ScHoolboy Q also confirmed no Black Hippy album will ever happen saying, “Hell no. I’ll never do that shit.” Despite fond memories together and over a dozen timeless tracks, the window for a Black Hippy album has closed.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Sparks flew every time these four hopped on a track together. A project would have served as the perfect benchmark to capture Top Dawg Entertainment at its peak and the return of West Coast rap at full force.
Reason It Was Shelved: Juelz started work on the Born To Lose, Built To Win album back in 2007 and after a hiatus from the industry, he dropped the track “Mixin’ Up The Medicine” with Yelawolf in 2009 and “Back To The Crib” featuring Chris Brown in 2010. Those singles, however, never lead to the album. In fact, it’s been 20 years since we’ve seen an official album from the ex-Dipset star.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: Juelz’s long stretches of inactivity have probably hurt his legacy in ways you can’t put numbers on. It would’ve been great to have one more album showing just how ill the Harlem rapper was in his prime.
Reason It Was Shelved: Before these friends turned foes, Drake and Rick Ross were two of each other’s most bankable collaborators. From “Aston Martin Music” to “Money In the Grave,” the one-two punch of Drizzy and Rozay never misses.
“One of the people I enjoy rapping with most in this business is Rozay,” Drake dished to Entertainment Weekly in 2011. “Me and him have talked about potentially doing something after our albums come out.”
The pair continued to consistently collaborate throughout the decade that followed (apart from a brief moment of trading shots amid Drake’s Meek Mill beef) but it seemed like there was never quite a time that they hankered down to get an album done.
By 2024, the relationship between the two had soured. When Ross popped up on Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You, Drake didn’t take kindly, lacing his “Push Ups” diss track with some choice words towards his former collaborator.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Rick Ross and Drake’s track record together speaks for itself and if these two are able to patch things up together, the project would still be welcomed with open arms.
Reason It Was Shelved: Kanye West and Jay-Z dropped Watch the Throne in 2011, and YMCMB felt the ripple effects. Just days after that blockbuster release, Birdman announced that Lil Wayne and Drake had a joint album in the works. This wasn’t just bluster from Baby either—Wayne and Drake had genuinely discussed making it happen for years.
By the fall, though, they decided to pull the plug. Why? Watch the Throne. As Drake told XXL: “We just agreed that it would be looked upon as… it would be sort of this competition [with Watch the Throne]. I feel like it would get caught in this whirlwind of hype. [Wayne] agreed. We just said, ‘If we do it, we’ll do it down the line. But right now is not the time.’” The album never materialized, but a couple years later we did get the Drake vs. Lil Wayne tour.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Wayne and Drake have dozens of collaborations, and their chemistry has always been undeniable. It goes back to “Ransom,” where a young Drake kept pace with Wayne’s barrage of punchlines. A full project from the two would’ve been electric.
Reason It Was Shelved: In 2012, André 3000 gave an interview that shut down hopes of a new Outkast album. He did, however, leave the door open for a solo project, saying he’d been inspired by the collaborations he was doing at the time: “I’ve just really been feeding off of that and this year I think I’m planning to do a solo project.”
At that moment, André was in the middle of one of the greatest feature runs in rap history, dropping standout verses for T.I., Drake, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Frank Ocean, and more.
That solo album never materialized. Over the years, his guest appearances became less frequent, and in 2023 he finally released a new album—not a rap record, but a flute-driven project with song titles like “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time.” During the promo run, he confirmed a rap album wasn’t happening, telling GQ: “Even now people think, Oh, man, he’s just sitting on raps, or he’s just holding these raps hostage. I ain’t got no raps like that. It actually feels…sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way.”
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: A proper rap album would be the ultimate capstone for Atlanta’s greatest MC.
Reason It Was Shelved: In 2011, 50 Cent was set to release Street King Immortal, the final album on his deal with Interscope Records. 50 looked to go out with a bang, recruiting the likes of Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Dr. Dre and a plethora of other heavyweights for his major label farewell.
However, friction arose between 50 and Interscope founder Jimmy Iovine, when the rapper launched his own headphone lines, Sleek and SMS Audio, that would rival Iovine and Dr. Dre’s prominent Beats by Dre. The tension reached a boiling point in 2013, when the label blurred out his headphones’ logo in his “My Life” music video alongside Adam Levine and Eminem.
“It kind of got to a point that it was like, ‘I’ve got to get out of here, y’all need to just go do what you’re doing with this,’” 50 said of the headphone debacle. Soon after, the rapper “amicably” exited Interscope, releasing an independent album Animal Ambition, with the promise of SKI’s release following shortly after.
As 50 began to find success in the television space, his interest in the album dwindled. By 2021, he officially nixed Street King Immortal, telling The Guardian, “That original version is not [being released], but I’m releasing new music in September.” Of course, September came and went, and Animal Ambition remains the most recent release in 50 Cent’s catalog.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Street King Immortal was frequently described by both 50 Cent and his collaborators as his best work since Get Rich or Die Tryin’. Singles from the album such as “New Day,” “My Life” and “We Up” showed a vulnerability the world had never quite experienced from the rapper. The Power Universe has repositioned Curtis Jackson as a television industry juggernaut, but we hope to have not seen the last of him as an artist. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: In 2011, we heard that two of hip-hop’s most legendary underground crews, The Beatnuts and Tha Alkaholiks, were joining forces on an EP aptly titled Liknuts. The groups released some in-studio footage and “Grumpy Crocodile” just to keep the people talking but the EP never dropped.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: The Beanuts and Tha Alkaholiks were two of the most well-respected underground crews from the West and East. How could this not have been an instant classic?
Reason It Was Shelved: In 2010, Lupe Fiasco created a supergroup called All City Chess Club. They were envisioned as a new-school version of the Wu-Tang Clan, featuring Lupe, Asher Roth, B.o.B, Charles Hamilton, Blu, J. Cole, The Cool Kids, Diggy, Wale, and Pharrell. They released one song, a remix of Lupe’s “I’m Beamin’,” and then… not much happened after that.
Years later, Sir Michael Rocks from The Cool Kids spoke about it in an interview with VladTV, calling it a “good idea that never came to life.” He explained, “We just couldn’t make it come to light.” The artists were all signed to different labels and scattered across the country. Chuck Inglish added, “Promising albums and shit… giving teasers, we’re too far past that. Do it first, then talk about it.”
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: The All City Chess Club seems like too many cooks in the kitchen, but it’s interesting to imagine how it could have worked.
Reason It Was Shelved: Drake took to his blog back in 2011 to announce the “push” of It’s Never Enough so that he could solely focus his energy on creating Take Care, which would become his second studio album. “I feel like my mind is truly ready to make this next album NOW and I don’t want that feeling to escape me,” the MC said at the time. Since then, an R&B mixtape from the native of Toronto has never seen the light of day.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: An early mixtape of nothing but crooning would have been an intriguing challenge for Drake. Could he write ten or more songs that flow together cohesively in the shape of an R&B album? Would he stick with 40 on the production tip or would he go elsewhere to find someone who has a little more experience crafting R&B style beats? We would get answers to these questions later in his career when he dropped Honestly, Nevermind in 2022.
Reason It Was Shelved: Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Pharrell teamed up as CRS on “Us Placers” back on Kanye’s 2007 Can’t Tell Me Nothing mixtape. All three artists expressed hope that a full-length album was in store and even after they all toured together on the Glow In The Dark Tour. But nothing official ever released with the exception of a 2008 track “Don’t Stop.”
In 2024, Lupe appeared on Okayplayer’s “The Almanac Of Rap” show and talked about the group and what happened. He said, “it was just like n*ggas got rich and crazy, then it was over with. But it was always a good idea, [we] could never… get together. P chasing fashion, Ye chasing fashion…To the point where it’s like, ‘Look, this sh*t never finna happen.'”
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: With the buzz of “Us Placers” and an official guest appearance on “Everyone Nose (Remix),” signs were pointing that CRS was a force to be reckoned with. If Pharrell and Kanye handled their producer/rapper duties and Lupe went in with his lyrical heat, the album would have been a contender for a hip-hop classic.
Reason It Was Shelved: When Eminem announced his comeback in 2009, the rapper looked to make up for lost time with not one but two new studio albums. Relapse was set to release in May, with a sequel set to follow shortly after. However, following a pivotal trip to Hawaii with Dr. Dre and Mr. Porter to record new music, the rapper expressed that the notion of a Relapse sequel, “Started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album.” The remaining tracks for the sequel were repurposed for the Relapse: Refill deluxe reissue, with Em resurfacing months later with the mainstream-friendly, less looney Recovery.
In a 2022 interview on his manager Paul Rosenberg’s podcast, Eminem officially nixed a sequel ever seeing the light of day. “They’re terrible songs,” he said of the unreleased tracks from the era. “And if they didn’t even make the album on Relapse, and I feel how I feel about Relapse, then that should say something. There’s no Relapse 2.”
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Relapse is a cult classic. While it ultimately left the masses divided, the diehard Stans swear by it. The album was the last time Eminem was truly off his rocker, without true care to who he offended. If leaked tracks like “Keys to My Room” and the 50 Cent-assisted “Sociopath” serve as any indication, Relapse 2 would have been just as unhinged as its predecessor. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: It’s hard to believe it has been 20 years since Missy Elliott dropped a studio album. When singles “Ching-A-Ling” and “Shake Your Pom Pom” failed to make an impact on the chart, the Virginia talent went back to the drawing board. During this period, Elliott was also diagnosed with Grave’s disease, forcing her to take a step back to focus on her health.
After several false starts, it finally seemed as if Missy was ready for a comeback when she released the Pharrell Williams-assisted “WTF (Where They From)” in 2015 to high praise and chart success. Ultimately, no album followed suit, and the most we’ve heard from Missy came by way of the five-track Iconology EP in 2019.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: In a 2024 interview with Variety, Missy Elliott estimated that she had six albums worth of unreleased material. No matter what story the charts tell, Missy is the queen of feel-good. Her recent tour sold over 300,000 tickets in under 30 shows. Fans are ready for new Missy whenever she is ready for us. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: Kanye West knew he wanted a quadrilogy even before his debut dropped. In 2003, he outlined what the next four albums would be: The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, and Good Ass Job. He would complete 75 percent of that plan with his first three albums, but when it came time for Good Ass Job, things became complicated. Kanye’s mother, Donda West, passed away, and he broke up with his fiancée at the time, Alexis Phifer, which changed the direction of his fourth album, 808s & Heartbreak.
When word surfaced in early 2010 that Kanye was working on his fifth album, fans wondered if he would return to the original concept. Big Sean tweeted that he was flying to Hawaii to work on Good Ass Job. By summer, however, Kanye announced via Twitter that the album wouldn’t be called Good Ass Job. What began as Good Ass Job ultimately became My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, as Kanye decided not to stick to the same structure and recurring themes of his past albums.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: Kanye West’s college-themed series feels incomplete without a Good Ass Job album. Is it too late? Despite…everything, Kanye has had a “good ass” career.
Reason It Was Shelved: In 2004, while on the Project Revolution tour, Ghostface Killah came across a beat CD titled Metal Fingers. He loved the beats and reached out—turns out the CD belonged to MF DOOM. This sparked a fruitful collaboration between the two, with DOOM providing several production credits on Fishscale. Ghostface later announced that a full album was coming. So certain was the release that the two even appeared on the cover of Mass Appeal together to promote it.
But, of course, no album ever materialized despite their frequent collaborations. In 2006, Ghostface announced an album with DOOM titled Swift & Changeable, slated for a February 2007 release. That never happened. Whenever Ghostface was asked about it, he would insist it was in the works but waiting on contributions from DOOM. Even as late as 2015, Ghostface would say the album was coming soon.
DOOM passed away in 2020, but there is still a Doomstarks album in existence. In 2021, when Okaplayer asked Ghostface about it, he said: “[The estate] got it. They already have the music from back then. All I told them was, ‘Before we make a move with it, let me redo the same verses over,’ because I didn’t want it to sound old. I wanted it to sound new to the people. Let me just go in there and do the same rhyme over, and that’s it. But beyond that, they just weren’t focused on anything.”
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: It just sounds like a good idea to have the spontaneous, but always sharp Ghostface to team up with the hazed-out DOOM for a full-length LP.
Reason It Was Shelved: Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana were teasing their joint album, I Can’t Feel My Face, album for years—with many of the tracks supposedly repurposed for Wayne’s I Am Not A Human Being 2. Wayne has said in past interviews that he’s moved on from the project. While Juelz said, years later, that the reason why the project never dropped was due to a mix of leaks and too many labels being involved. Cam’ron backed this up recently, saying that Universal Music Group, Wayne’s label, wanted to take 95 percent of the profits ,
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: Weezy may take on a lot of projects at once, but I Can’t Feel My Face was most likely to release with all the fan-made prequels surfacing. You can find many of their songs scattered on mixtapes like the Mick Boogie-hosted Blow and My Face Can’t Be Felt.
Reason It Was Shelved: When his self-titled debut dropped back in 2003, Joe Budden and Def Jam had high expectations for the sales after the Grammy-nominated “Pump It Up.” The numbers didn’t pan out and when it was time for Budden to drop his second album, The Growth, problems with the label in regards to the true direction of his music, left the album unfinished and ultimately unreleased. Petitions were started online but he was able to release the first two projects of his classic Mood Musik series while on Def Jam.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: It goes without saying that the Mood Muzik series resonated with fans more than his studio debut. But it would’ve be very interesting to hear a studio album from a young and hungry Joe Budden.
Reason It Was Shelved: 10 The Hard Way was allegedly the title of the OutKast album following diamond-selling Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. This clearly wasn’t the case as the group took an indefinite hiatus after they released the soundtrack for Idlewild.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: Big Boi has released great albums over the years and Andre 3K’s guest verses are rare blessings. But when the two come together, you get classics: ATLiens, Aquemini, Stankonia. We need another one.
Reason It Was Shelved: Few unreleased albums have been discussed as much as Dr. Dre’s Detox. For years, everyone in his orbit swore it was coming. On “Encore / Curtains Down,” Eminem promised, “Don’t worry about that Detox album, we gon’ make Dre do it!” The next year, Dre himself told fans to “look out for Detox” on The Game’s “Higher.” One of Kendrick Lamar’s breakout moments even came with his “Look Out for Detox” track, which seemed to confirm he was involved. The list of artists reportedly contributing was staggering—Jay-Z, Nas, T.I., Snoop Dogg. Basically, if you were making hits at the time, you stepped into those sessions. A few demos leaked over the years, but the album itself never arrived.
Instead, in 2015, Dre released Compton alongside the Straight Outta Compton film. When he announced it, he addressed the fate of Detox: “This is something you’re not gonna hear many artists say: the reason Detox didn’t come out was because I didn’t like it. It wasn’t good. The record, it just wasn’t good… I mean seriously, I worked my ass off on it, but I didn’t think I did a good enough job. I couldn’t do that to my fans, I couldn’t do that to myself, to be honest.”
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: With all due respect to the man himself—come on. This is Dr. Dre, one of the greatest producers of all time. His first two albums, The Chronic and 2001, are undisputed classics. A proper sequel would be treasured in any hip-hop fan’s collection. —Dimas Sanfiorenzo
Reason It Was Shelved: Before Left Eye passed away in April 2002, she was busy working on her next solo album titled N.I.N.A. Left Eye left Arista and signed with Suge Knight’s label Death Row Records, which Knight later announced it would be released in October of that year on Tha Row. The album was expected to feature several songs with Ray J. But due to Left Eye’s untimely death, N.I.N.A. was left unfinished.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: Left Eye was the savviest of TLC with a standout personality. Her first solo album, Supernova, did fairly well overseas and established her rhyming skills and bad girl flow. It’s a shame we never got to see her develop more.
Reason It Was Shelved: Rakim signed to Aftermath back in 2000 to put work in on his Oh, My God album which underwent some changes on a personal and business level. During his time at Aftermath, Rakim made some guest appearances, namely Truth Hurts’ “Addictive” and Jay-Z’s “The Watcher Pt. 2” and the 8 Mile soundtrack but his album took a backseat. After leaving Aftermath, Rakim got back the tracks from Dre and released The Seventh Seal in 2009, after more delays.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: The God with Dr. Dre. Enough said.
Reason It Was Shelved: In late 2001, Timbaland teased the possibility of a joint album with fellow producer powerhouse, Dr. Dre.
“[We’ve] been talking about doing an album called Chairmen of the Boards,” he dished to MTV News. ”He was going to get a couple of other [producers] like [Jermaine Dupri], but I really think it should be me and him. We’ve been talking about it for the last two months.”
The plan? The pair would produce alongside one another, pairing their instrumentals with key artists from each of their labels to showcase their talent.
Between perfectionism and scheduling, this one didn’t make it very far. In 2023, Timbaland insisted that he’d still love to make the project happen. “I haven’t seen Dre but I’m sure we would all love to do it and we probably could do it, especially with where we’re at in our lives.”
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: It’s impossible to sculpt a producer Mount Rushmore without Dre and Timbo atop the monument. Can you imagine what these two could have cultivated together at the height of their powers? —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: One of the greatest rap songs ever is “Sippin’ on Some Syrup,” which brought Port Arthur, Texas legends UGK and Memphis’ Three 6 Mafia together. But there could have been more. The two groups were actually close to forming a supergroup.
In 2017, Bun B appeared on Drink Champs and revealed that “Sippin’ on Some Syrup” was originally the first song from a larger joint project. “We were going to be The Underground Mafia,” he told N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN.
That track, along with “Like a Pimp” from Dirty Money, were both recorded during Super Bowl weekend in Atlanta in 2000. Unfortunately, Pimp C’s legal issues stopped the project before it could really begin.
“We never got that far into it because Pimp got locked up,” Bun explained. “So we never even got to finish the project. And then coming back home … most people don’t know that the original version of ‘Int’l Players Anthem’ was us and Three 6 Mafia. That was actually the return to Underground Mafia music, but that version wouldn’t clear.”
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: UGK and Three 6 Mafia are both Southern rap royalty. Their mix of soul, introspection, and raw gangsta energy makes them a natural fit together. —Dimas Sanfiorenzo
Reason It Was Shelved: Back in 1999, Wyclef promised a new Fugees album, saying his heart was with the trio and that he wanted to pursue a “new millennium zone” around that time. Despite rumors of tension between Wyclef, Lauryn, and Pras—and each member focusing on solo projects—a Ruffhouse Records representative still hinted at a possible release in late spring or early summer 2000.
That album never came. Over the years, the trio would sporadically reunite for tours and one-off performances. The last came in 2021, when they announced a reunion tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Score. From the beginning, the tour was plagued with delays, repeatedly rescheduled before ultimately being canceled in August 2024. During that time, rumors swirled that the three were quietly working on a new album, but a lawsuit Pras filed against Lauryn Hill likely put those hopes to rest.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: Despite their differences, clearing the air in a third album would settle everything. People want to hear ‘Clef and Lauryn battle on a record. People want to hear the Fugees return to their roots and make breakthrough songs that freely express themselves.
Reason It Was Shelved: Heltah Skeltah wasn’t the only Dre-and-Cube project that was rumored about. In the late ‘90s, word spread that an N.W.A. reunion was in the works. The Next Friday soundtrack even featured “Chin Check,” an N.W.A. song where Snoop Dogg stepped in for the deceased Eazy-E, while DJ Yella was absent because—not being glib here—he had moved on to make porn.
During an MTV interview at the time, Dre’s protégé Mel-Man hinted at one of the complications: uncertainty over which record label would release the album. The three stars were signed to different labels—Dr. Dre to Interscope, Ice Cube to Priority, and Snoop Dogg to No Limit. In summer of 2000, they were still discussing the album, with Dre saying they planned to record while on the legendary Up in Smoke tour.
Another major hurdle: they might not be able to use the N.W.A. name. “I believe Priority Records owns the name,” Dre said. The reunion continued to get delayed, and it became clear it was destined for the mythical album graveyard.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Dre, Snoop, and Cube hitting a second wind? Throw in a few appearances from Eminem, and it sounds like it could have been a straight-up classic. —Dimas Sanfiorenzo
Reason It Was Shelved: Since AZ appeared on Nas’ Illmatic in 1994 on “Life’s A Bitch,” fans have been waiting on a collab between the two. In 2002, AZ released Aziatic which featured Nas on the grammy-nominated “The Essence” track. More than 20 years later, fans are still waiting on a collab album. In a 2009 interview, Nas says the collaboration would have made sense during The Firm era, adding that was “really the time” to do it. While AZ kind of gave a non answer back in 2023, saying “He’s his own man. So that’s where we at. He has dreams and aspirations of his own.”
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: Who wouldn’t want to hear the classic duo do it for an entire album? It’s not 1995 anymore but both are still dope MCs with miles left in the tank.
Reason It Was Shelved: The Commission looked like a strong possibility from 1996 to 1997, but Biggie’s life was tragically cut short before the album could be finished. Jay-Z and the rest of the clique—Diddy, Charli Baltimore, Lil’ Cease, and Lance “Un” Rivera—went their separate ways. Still, Jay has kept the memory alive. On Pusha T’s “Neck and Wrist,” he raps: “They like, ‘If BIG was alive, Hov wouldn’t be in his position.’ If Big had survived, y’all would have got The Commission.”
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: A hip-hop supergroup’s album doesn’t always equal a classic; just look at The Firm. However, we’ve how devastating of a combo Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G can be. Listen at their chemistry on the classic “Brooklyn’s Finest,” bling-flaunting “Love the Dough,” and cojones-toting “Young G’s.” How can a whole album’s worth be anything but amazing?
Reason It Was Shelved: The One Nation album sessions date as early as 1996. ‘Pac invited the Boot Camp Clik—including Duck Down label heads Buckshot and Dru Ha—to his summer mansion for recording in California. They were planning to release the collaboration project the following year, but due to ‘Pac’s unsolved murder in September, the finished tracks were indefinitely shelved.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: ‘Pac and Smif-N-Wessun. ‘Pac and Sean Price. These were potential collaborations that could have made history. The One Nation album represented unity between the two coasts and aimed to bury any misconceived media notions of a hip-hop war. For the next couple of years, the tracks were left in limbo and many of them were bootlegged on unofficial mixtapes. In late 2006, the digital label A.E.G. was on track to release an 18-track LP, however, it was all speculation and the plan never moved forward. Still, any rap fan who witnessed the Bad Boy-Death Row feud would kill to hear an album from both parties.
Reason It Was Shelved: One of the most iconic XXL covers features Jay-Z, DMX, and Ja Rule, with the tagline “introducing Murder Inc.” The insinuation was clear: this was a new supergroup made up of rap’s two biggest stars and an up-and-coming talent, Ja Rule. Despite the fact that they had a number of classic records together, including “It’s Murda” and “Murdergram,” the trio never even came close to recording a full album.
In a HipHopDX interview a few years ago, Ja Rule explained that both the cover and the idea of the group were part of an Irv Gotti vision. “Irv was kind of just doubling down on shit like, ‘I got Jay on this record, I’m going to sneak X on it, and then, yo, Rule.’ It was that type of shit. So the XXL cover? That came about the same way.”
Eventually, Irv gave up. What we were left with is a handful of records and one classic cover.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: An album featuring Jay-Z and DMX—both at the peak of their commercial power and rawest form—would have been absurd. —Dimas Sanfiorenzo
Reason It Was Shelved: In the late ’90s, Snoop Dogg, C-Murder, Fiend, Mac and Mystikal were plotting a No Limit supergroup, Tank Doggs. The album they would make, titled Beware of the Doggs, was set to be executive produced by Master P, with Beats by the Pound handling the majority of the production.
Shawn Brauch of Pen & Pixel revealed that he created about four or five versions of the album cover, as more of the label artists joined the ensemble. While select cover art can be found online, no music from the project has ever surfaced.
There is a gumbo pot full of reasons why Beware Of Da Doggs never materialized, the biggest variable coming by way of Mac and C-Murder’s prison sentences.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Some of Snoop Dogg’s best music came from his No Limit tenure. The 504 Boyz, which featured most of the members apart from Snoop in varying capacities, were a cornerstone of No Limit’s twilight years. Throwing Tha Doggfather in the mix would have made for a ferocious juxtaposition of sounds.
Reason It Was Shelved: Back in 2020, RZA sat down with MSNBC’s Ari Melber. At one point, he talked about looking through old material, saying, “I even dug up some old books of lyrics. I always promised my fans an album called The Cure. And it kind of was like in the closet in this old big Tommy Hilfiger duffle bag.”
The Cure was meant to be RZA’s definitive solo statement—no shade to the Bobby Digital stuff. It’s an album that’s been in the works since the late ’90s but has never seen the light of day, despite RZA’s involvement in countless other projects, from Wu-Tang albums to Hollywood films. In 2013, during an interview with Montreality, he explained why: “I won’t release The Cure because at the time I was scheduled to release it, I wasn’t living up to the words I was inspired to write. I live more to those words now—but still not fully. Maybe I’m like 70% living like that. I still like to party, have my drinks. I’m still tempted by women and things like that. I’m not really dealing with a lot of infidelity like I was in the old days. I don’t do a lot of drugs like I used to do. But I still get my lil’ weekend parties on.”
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: RZA has his fingerprints on more classic albums than any other producer in hip-hop history. But he’s still missing a definitive solo masterpiece of his own. The Cure could have been that record.
Reason It Was Shelved: The idea of a collaboration between Dr. Dre and Ice Cube started back in the early ’90s after both left N.W.A. and Ruthless Records. Dre and Cube set out to record Helter Skelter with appearances by Snoop Dogg and help from D.O.C. In 1996, after bad business with Dre, D.O.C. released many of the reels and lyrics, creating his own spiteful version of Helter Skelter. Dre eventually stopped working on the album, but tracks like “Natural Born Killaz” and “Game Over” from Scarface’s The Untouchable were original cuts from the album.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: It’s 1994; Dr. Dre’s hot off of his release of The Chronic and Ice Cube off of Lethal Injection. The two then come together in the midst of their heat to drop this dime. Shoulda, coulda, woulda and damn it they shoulda!
Reason It Was Shelved: Inspectah Deck’s solo debut was supposed to land much earlier than its eventual 1999 release. As the story goes, in the mid 90s, RZA experienced flooding in his basement, which resulted in the loss of approximately 300 to 500 beats.
“Back then, we was doing beats on the ASR floppy disks and things like that. Floppy disks got soaked. Everything got lost, man,” Deck recalled while speaking to VladTV. “I tried to salvage it. I took it to a computer place. Nothing could happen. So, I lost that first album and had to start all over again.”
Between the flood, along with label drama via BMG and Loud Records, Inspectah Deck and RZA were forced to go back to the drawing board, resulting in an unrecognizable reconfiguring of Uncontrolled Substances.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Inspectah Deck has never gotten his flowers as a solo act. RZA described it best in a 2021 interview with The Breakfast Club: “Every member of Wu gets a chance to be the best, I think. And at one point, he was the best… If we would have had the production and the vibe of what his album would have been, I’m sure he would have had a classic in the ranks of [Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…] and [the GZA’s] Liquid Swords.” —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: Eazy-E was initially set to follow up his 5150: Home 4 tha Sick EP with a double disc album titled Temporary Insanity. It was set to feature 30 tracks, including a collaboration with Guns ‘N’ Roses. Eazy put the album on hold following the release of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, opting to fire back with disses of his own on “It’s On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa.”
Eazy was back at work on Temporary Insanity up until his untimely death in 1995. Certain songs were repurposed on the posthumous release, Str8 off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin Compton, with the help of N.W.A.’s DJ Yella.
Why We’d Kill to Hear It: Eazy-E’s decision to focus on dissing Dr. Dre and Ice Cube came at the cost of nourishing his solo career. We only saw the tip of the iceberg of Eazy’s potential by his lonesome. A double disc release before 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me and The Notorious B.I.G.’s Life After Death would have placed Eric Wright ahead of the pack. —Mr. Wavvy
Reason It Was Shelved: Lady of Rage showed promise after her feature on The Chronic and when she dropped “Afro Puffs,” the industry was waiting on her debut album. While Eargasm was reportedly close to completion, rumors surround the lost album as 2Pac signed on to Death Row shortly before the album was scheduled to drop. As Suge Knight put all of his effort into Pac, Lady of Rage ultimately lost her chance with her debut and later dropped Necessary Roughness in 1997—after Pac’s death. By that time Death Row lost a lot of its name.
Why We’d Kill To Hear It: When naming some of hip-hop top “femcees” of all-time, Lady of Rage is often left off the list. Regardless of what anyone says, Rage can spit. Nineteen ninety-two was a seminal year for her. Seen on The Chronic and later Doggystyle, anything that can be salvaged from one of hip-hop’s golden girls during her peak time would be greatly appreciated.