Our full list of picks for the best full-length hip-hop projects ever made is out now ... songs that span the gamut of black life in the ’80s, covering everything from the shoes people wore ...

Head back to the future this Christmastime and listen to the most bodacious '80s tunes from the likes of Whitney Houston, George Michael, and Annie Lenox.

But the best '80s albums go beyond all those easy cliches ... politically charged hip-hop acts like Public Enemy and NWA were erupting into the mainstream. Genres like techno and post-punk were ...