Z-Ro, Let the Truth Be Told (Rap-A-Lot)
This was the year that Houston hip-hop took over, one chopped and screwed beat at a time. Somehow, this terrific album by one of the city's veteran MCs slipped under the radar. Z-Ro has deft Play Mediarhyme skills and a silken flow, and an old-fashioned pride in both; his mantra is "respect my mind." He's taken the sensitive-thug persona pioneered by Tupac to an extreme—he's very nearly a gangsta James Taylor. In song after song he bares his pain and vulnerabilities, rapping about being "blinded by my tears" and Play Mediaapologizing for his album's dearth of upbeat songs. ("See … I ain't … experienced anything but hard times and heartache.") In a year when hip-hop was almost all party music, Z-Ro's blues-rap reminded us of the genre's confessional power, and that even laments can be danceable.