These albums vary in style and anger, but they all earned “Explicit Content” stickers like no others. Some will complain they are New York-centric, but so is most quality gangsta shit.

RZA, RZA as Bobby Digital

In terms of pure, raw vulgarity, nothing beats RZA’s solo debut. Guests like ODB help the Wu-Tang leader make paint curl with explicit sexual romps. Check “Domestic Violence,” RZA’s awfully hilarious condemnation of his significant other. The beats are the most addictive, most creative ever forged in the mainstream.

Notorious B.I.G., Life After Death

Biggie’s unchallenged classic cast him as the unrivaled champion of the rapped verse. His streetwise rhymes are like an angrier, raunchier Shakespeare, and bring his Brooklyn background to life.

Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

Wu-Tang’s best storyteller cut a beautiful album, with RZA on soundboard and Ghostface Killah as co-MC. He hypnotically weaves tales from the “slums of Shaolin,” marrying street carnage with strong beats. And this album was paid the highest accolade — Mos Def sampled a verse for “Mathematics.”

Big L, The Big Picture

Many believe that if Big L hadn’t been gunned down on a Harlem street, he, and not Nas, would be battling J-Hova for title of Best NYC MC. His lyrics are of the woman-bedding-bitch-killing variety, and his beats are sketchy, but he was a freestyle champ, and his wordplay makes the album a worthy tribute.

Nas, Illmatic

Nas is currently the “lost man” of rap, rhyming in a style that the Wu-Tang might call “pinky-ring shit.” But way back when, Escobar created a new gorgeous flow, was produced fabulously and just tore shit up. If one were to measure Nas by this album alone, his verse destroys Jay-Z’s.