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It is a cold fact of life in the music industry that not every artist’s album is meant to see the light of day. While no artist deliberately sets out to make an album that will never be released, sometimes record label politics, bad timing, artistic perfectionism, or pure hubris keeps an LP from making its official street date.
Over the course of hip-hop history, there have been countless albums that got shelved. In some cases, an artist's work might be deemed too controversial for a record label to touch at the moment while in others, heavy bootlegging is the cause of an album's permanent delay. Some get released years later on a different record label, while others never make it out alive. Here's a list of Rap Albums and Mixtapes That Got Shelved Into Oblivion. May they all one day be reclaimed from the industry abyss.
B.J. Steiner is a writer living in New York. Follow him @doczeus.
KMD, Black Bastards
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Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, Helter Skelter
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InI, Center of Attention
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Large Professor, The LP
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The Notorious B.I.G., Jay Z, and Charli Baltimore, The Commission
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Cormega, The Testament
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Murder Inc.'s Collaborative Album
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N.W.A, Not These N****z Again
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The Fugees' Third Album
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Rakim, Oh My God
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M.O.P, Ghetto Warfare
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Dr. Dre, Detox
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Nas and DJ Premier's Collaborative Album
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Juelz Santana and Lil Wayne, I Can't Feel My Face
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Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt. II
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Scarface and Beanie Sigel, Mac & Brad
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Ghostface Killah and MF Doom, Swift & Changeable
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Jay Electronica, Act II: Patents of Nobility (The Turn)
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Andre 3000's Solo Album
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OutKast's Seventh Album
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