Top three hip-hop songs of 2017

Hip-hop is having a triumphant year. Migos’ “Culture,” Drake’s “More Life,” Future’s “Future” and “HNDRXX,” Kodak Black’s “Painting Pictures,” Joey Bada$$’ “All-Amerikkkan Bada$$” and Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN.” have all dropped in 2017’s first five months. Those albums and more have given us hundreds of songs to consider when discussing the year’s best so far. The genre has reached places where some songs are difficult to define as hip-hop (Drake’s “Passionfruit,” for example), and while those songs are tremendous, they will be excluded from this list to avoid philosophical genre-defining debates. With that said, our nominees will represent the breadth of rap music in 2017.