Greatest Rap Duos: 16 Pairs and the Album to Hear First

• Eric B. & Rakim were the first rap act to sign a million-dollar record deal. In 2006 MTV ranked Paid in Full as the greatest hip-hop album, pointing to the calm, methodical way Rakim delivered his lines.
• EPMD stands for Erick and Parrish Making Dollars. The pair came from Brentwood, New York, and the title track of Strictly Business is built on a sample of Eric Clapton’s “I Shot the Sheriff”.
• Gang Starr paired the rapper Guru with the producer DJ Premier and helped invent jazz rap. After Guru’s death in 2010, Premier put out One of the Best Yet in 2019.

• OutKast did much to bring Southern hip-hop into the mainstream. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below won the Album of the Year Grammy and was certified Diamond, and the duo entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.
• UGK, short for Underground Kingz, came out of Port Arthur, Texas. Their breakthrough was a feature on Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’” in 2000, and their album Underground Kingz opened at No. 1 in 2007, a few months before Pimp C’s death.
• 8Ball & MJG first met in 1984 at a middle school in Memphis. Their 1995 album On Top of the World climbed to No. 8 and was certified gold.
• Kris Kross were 13 when they charted as the first act on Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def label. “Jump” held No. 1 for eight weeks in 1992. Chris Kelly died in 2013.

• Mobb Deep set The Infamous in the Queensbridge Houses of Queens, and the album sits on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums. Prodigy died in 2017; in 2025 Havoc released Infinite with the Alchemist.
• Tha Dogg Pound, from Long Beach, were among the first acts Death Row signed. Dogg Food entered the chart at No. 1 in 1995 and went double platinum.
• Black Star took its name from Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line. The Brooklyn pair debuted in 1998 and returned in 2022 with a second album, No Fear of Time.
• Method Man & Redman joined Staten Island’s Wu-Tang Clan with Newark’s Def Squad. Their single “How High” peaked at No. 13 on the Hot 100, and a 2001 film starring the two carries the same name.
• Clipse are two brothers from Virginia Beach, found by Pharrell Williams. Lord Willin’ reached No. 4, and Pharrell also produced their acclaimed 2025 album Let God Sort Em Out.

• Run the Jewels joined Brooklyn producer-rapper El-P with Atlanta’s Killer Mike. Their first album was given away as a free download, and critics praised every release up to RTJ4 in 2020.
• Rae Sremmurd are brothers from Tupelo, Mississippi, whose name reverses “Ear Drummers”. “Black Beatles”, featuring Gucci Mane, went to No. 1 on the Hot 100.
• City Girls, a Miami duo signed to Quality Control Music, broke through in 2018 with their guest parts on Drake’s chart-topping “In My Feelings”.
• Unc & Phew was the duo name of Migos members Quavo and Takeoff, uncle and nephew. “Hotel Lobby” was the first song they released as a pair, and their one album entered the chart at No. 7. Takeoff was shot and killed on November 1, 2022. Read more in who Quavo and Takeoff are.

On Hotel Lobby Video, one photo of each person turns into a short video of the two of you performing as a duo, to the Hotel Lobby track, a song you upload or an AI rap verse written from your topic. Still unnamed? The duo name generator suggests one.