Where can I download rap albums for free?

Six netlabels release the music themselves, ours included: blocSonic, Dusted Wax Kingdom, Phonocake, Monster Jinx, Exociety and Jumpsuit Records. For more to dig through, there’s Jamendo, the Free Music Archive, Bandcamp and the Archive.org netlabel collection. It’s all free, and it all comes from the people who made or released it, though on Bandcamp you have to pick out the name your price releases.

Here at blocSonic, we’ve been seeking and providing the highest quality free music downloads since 2007. Netlabels were all the rage back then, and we wanted to shine a light on the high-quality music coming out of that culture. It started with our Creative Commons licensed netBloc compilation series and grew into original releases from a large roster of artists. Let us point you to the sources we’ve found dependable since.

Is It Legal to Download These Albums?

Yes. Every album here is posted by the people who own it. What differs is how they said so.

We have been releasing under Creative Commons licenses since 2007, so here is the short version. A CC license is a standing grant of permission from whoever holds the rights, artist or label. It says up front what you may do with the file. Dusted Wax Kingdom and Phonocake both use CC BY-NC-ND: keep it, share it, credit the artist when you do. No commercial use, and no putting out a remix. Our simple breakdown of CC license types covers the other licenses you will meet.

Bandcamp works differently. An artist can set the minimum to 0, so when you type 0 you are paying the price they set. Licensing there is a separate question from price, and each Bandcamp entry below says where it stands.

A CC license covers only the rights the person applying it actually held, so it will not clear a sample the artist never cleared, and it does not make a major-label rap album free. Nothing we have listed is a leak or a rip. These are labels putting out their own catalogs, and the torrents on Archive.org are generated by the Archive for files it already hosts.

Here at blocSonic, We’ve Got You Covered!

In addition to our netBloc compilation series, we’ve long been releasing an eclectic range of original music releases too. From Hip-Hop to Rock to Electronic to Pop… with over 550 releases, you’re bound to find some new music you’ll love!

Files: FLAC at 16-bit, and 24-bit on some releases, mp3 at 320 or 192 kbps, and Ogg Vorbis. Take single tracks, or take a zip holding the whole album, the cover art and the liner notes PDF. The printable high-resolution artwork and the PDF come as their own zips too. Current releases are CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, some older ones CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, and each release page names its own. No account, no email.

Browse our lossless music catalog for incredible free downloads before moving on to the list below.

Must-Visit Netlabels

Although there aren’t as many active netlabels as there once were, there are still a large number of them releasing incredible music that you won’t find on Spotify or other digital outlets. Here are a few of our favorites to get you started. Most of them offer lossless FLAC alongside mp3, and each entry says how much rap you’ll find.

Dusted Wax Kingdom

This scrappy Bulgarian netlabel specializes in dusty instrumental downtempo and trip-hop musical gems. Since 2007, they’ve been a dependable source of fantastic free music. Expect beats rather than rappers here. It’s the sound a lot of people are chasing when they go looking for free hip-hop.

Files: mp3 only, under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. The whole album comes down as one zip. No account needed.

Visit Dusted Wax Kingdom to browse their high-quality catalog.

Phonocake

Since 2003, the German netlabel Phonocake has been delivering high-quality music from artists around the world. Electronic music is the bulk of the catalog. Hip-hop turns up across a smaller run of releases.

Files: recent releases come as mp3, FLAC or WAV, each downloaded separately. Older ones are mp3 only, and their Archive.org collection takes the whole run in one go. Everything sits under a CC BY-NC-ND license, with the version varying by release. No account, and no email either.

Stop by Phonocake to discover their tasty catalog of electronic and hip-hop music.

Monster Jinx

The Portugal-based netlabel and artist collective Monster Jinx explores hip-hop in unique and wonderful ways. Rap runs through all 13 albums and the handful of singles they’ve released. Check out their catalog and hear what the purple monster has for your ears.

Files: rights are set per track, so check the track page before you reuse anything. Name your price on Bandcamp, and the album downloads as a zip in any of the 8 formats, from mp3 up to 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC and WAV.

Visit Monster Jinx for great free hip-hop albums.

Exociety

Exociety is a fine netlabel releasing hip-hop at the bleeding edge since 2012. If you’re looking for something a bit different, they should be a good fit.

Visit Exociety for great hip-hop/rap music.

Jumpsuit Records

The US-based Jumpsuit Records is a netlabel and curation project run by The Polish Ambassador, putting out hip-hop and trip-hop alongside a deep run of electronic music. Their 2015 album Terra Bella pairs him with rapper Mr. Lif, and the catalog runs past 50 albums, most of it electronic.

Visit Jumpsuit Records to browse their fantastic free hip-hop and electronic releases.

Platforms & Catalogs

In addition to the above netlabels, here are four more sources of free music that could keep you busy for a very long time:

Jamendo

Jamendo has long remained an important source of quality Creative Commons-licensed music, including hip-hop. Check out their catalog of releases, and use the hip-hop genre to cut through everything else in there.

Files: mp3 for the free personal-use download, and tracks are released under Creative Commons licenses. Downloads come track by track rather than as one album zip. You’ll need a free account before it hands anything over.

Visit Jamendo to discover great hip-hop and more.

Free Music Archive

The FMA has been handing out Creative Commons music since 2009, and its Hip-Hop genre page splits into Rap, Alternative Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop Beats, Lo-fi Hip-Hop, Nerdcore and Wonky. Albums have their own pages, so a release comes down whole.

Files: mp3, with the license and the credit you owe shown in a box before the file arrives. Signed out, the download button sends you to a free account signup, the same as Jamendo.

Visit the Free Music Archive to browse their hip-hop catalog.

Bandcamp

Monster Jinx, Exociety and Jumpsuit Records all put their releases on Bandcamp, and the site’s own hip-hop and rap section runs deeper still, with tags for underground hip-hop, boom-bap and beat-tape. There’s no filter for free, so open a release and look for “name your price” above the buy button.

Files: 8 formats, from mp3 up to 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC and WAV, and the album comes down as one zip. Each release sets its own licensing, so read the release page. Type 0 in the price box. Some artists want an email address first, and none want a card.

Visit Bandcamp’s hip-hop and rap section to find name your price releases.

Archive.org Hosted Netlabels

The internationally known home of the Wayback Machine also hosts a very extensive catalog of netlabels and their releases. The collection held 80,447 items when we counted, and 1,801 of them carry a hip hop tag. If you love digging, you’ll enjoy exploring this wide range of netlabel music.

Files: mostly VBR mp3 and Ogg Vorbis, some FLAC, with a torrent on most items. Of 25 we sampled, 15 carried a Creative Commons license. You never sign in.

Visit the archive.org netlabel catalog to dig up some great free music albums.

Can You Grab a Whole Discography?

On Archive.org, partly. Three of the labels above keep a collection there: Dusted Wax Kingdom at 399 items, blocSonic at 425 and Phonocake at 162. Most items carry a torrent, and Archive.org’s own command line tool takes the lot in a single command. Just don’t read a collection as the whole label. Ours holds the early releases only, and our catalog has run past 550 since.

Everywhere else you go release by release, or worse. Bandcamp’s discography button bundles the payment, and you still download each release on its own. Jamendo drops to a track at a time, and the Free Music Archive stops at the album.

What About SoundCloud and Audiomack?

Both names come up when people go looking for free rap albums, and neither one hands you an album. SoundCloud’s own help page sets 3 conditions: the web, a sign-in, and an uploader who switched downloads on. It also states that a playlist never downloads as a whole. Audiomack keeps its downloads inside its app. Signed out on the web, its album menu offers Embed, Shuffle, Queue and Copy Music URL, and no download at all.

How Do You Actually Download an Album?

The steps are much the same everywhere, with a couple of exceptions worth knowing.

Start on the release page. The download lives there, not one level up on the label’s front page. Jamendo is the exception, where it sits on the track.
Pick a format if you’re offered one. Several sources here are mp3 and nothing else, and each entry above says which. Our guide to music download formats explains what the choice gets you.
Type 0 if a price box appears.
Sign in only at Jamendo and the Free Music Archive. Some Bandcamp artists ask for an email address instead, and nobody asks for a card.
Unzip it. Ours carries the cover art and the liner notes PDF alongside the tracks, and some sources hand over loose files instead.
Check the tags and the artwork before you file it away. Our piece on downloading high-quality artwork and metadata explains what to look for.

We checked how the download works on every source we recommend above. No pop-up download manager, and no timer counting down before the link works. That is not what a search for free albums usually turns up.

Support the Artists You Love

Remember, no matter where you discover great new music to download for free, be sure that when you find artists you love, you show your support by purchasing whatever physical goods they’re selling. Downloading the music for free and streaming it on digital outlets simply doesn’t provide nearly as much value to artists. It’s time music fans do all they can to help prop up artists they love!