What a year for California hip hop! We witnessed one of the biggest rap beefs in history, where Kendrick Lamar came, saw and conquered. By the end of the year, he dropped GNX, the album we had all been waiting for, featuring his long-anticipated collaboration with DJ Mustard, who had an exceptional year of his own. Meanwhile, LaRussel, our Rookie of the Year in 2023, and Lefty Gunplay, this year’s Rookie of the Year, both leveled up to full-blown superstardom. Below you will find our year end awards and a playlist celebrating our favorite tracks of the year.

1 Kendrick Lamar – GNX

2 Snoop Dogg – Missionary

3 LaRussell & P-Lo – Majorly Independent

4 Dezzy Hollow – Caught In The Funk

5 Mustard – Faith Of A Mustard Seed

There’s no debate over the rapper of the year. Kendrick Lamar had an exceptional run, starting with his guest verso on Future and Metro Boomin’s Like That. Eventually he put a dent into Drake’s career, that Drake may not fully recover from, with Not Like Us, Apple Music’s most streamed track of 2024. Finally he dropped our album of the year, GNX, fully embracing hyphy and ratchet inspired sounds.

Mustard made a huge comeback this year, with Kendrick Lamar’s infamous Not Like Us diss towards Drake. He also had notable tracks on GNX and YG’s Just Re’d Up 3. He then dropped his first solo album in five years, Faith Of A Mustard Seed, which made our top five albums. And towards the end of the year he produced Ella Mai’s 3 EP.

Lefty Gunplay’s debut album, released early 2024, is titled Rookie Of The Year. It’s hard to argue with that fact. Lefty’s rise has been meteoric, with him dropping a total of four albums in 2024 and landing a feature on Kendrick Lamar’s tv off, from GNX.