2002 in hip hop music
This article summarizes the events, album releases, and album release dates in hip hop music for the year 2002.
Events
April
- On April 25, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes died in Honduras
June
- On June 15, Big Mello died.
October
- On October 30Jam Master Jay died in New York City
Released albums
Highest first-week sales
| Number | Album | Artist | 1st-week sales | 1st-week position |
| 1 | The Eminem Show | Eminem | 1,322,000 | 1 |
| 2 | Nellyville | Nelly | 714,000 | 1 |
| 3 | 8 Mile OST | Various Artists | 702,000 | 1 |
| 4 | Jay-Z | 545,000 | 1 | |
| 5 | Better Dayz | 2Pac | 366,000 | 5 |
| 6 | Under Construction | Missy Elliott | 259,000 | 3 |
| 7 | The Last Temptation | Ja Rule | 237,000 | 4 |
| 8 | God's Son | Nas | 176,000 | 12 |
| 9 | Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss | Snoop Dogg | 174,000 | 12 |
| 10 | Man vs. Machine | Xzibit | 156,000 | 3 |
Highest critically reviewed albums (Metacritic)
| Number | Artist | Album | Average score | Number of reviews | Reference |
| 1 | The Streets | Original Pirate Material | 90 | 25 reviews | |
| 2 | The Roots | Phrenology | 87 | 23 reviews | |
| 3 | Missy Elliott | Under Construction | 81 | 19 reviews | |
| 4 | Nas | God's Son | 81 | 18 reviews | |
| 5 | Common | Electric Circus | 80 | 22 reviews | |
| 6 | Talib Kweli | Quality | 79 | 19 reviews | |
| 7 | Jurassic 5 | Power in Numbers | 76 | 20 reviews | |
| 8 | Snoop Dogg | Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss | 76 | 14 reviews | |
| 9 | Eminem | The Eminem Show | 75 | 20 reviews | |
| 10 | Nelly | Nellyville | 70 | 15 reviews |