The 10 Best TV Shows Starring Rap Artists, Ranked By IMDb

In the 1990s, an interesting thing happened for fans of rap music. Some of the biggest rap artists in the world who spent much of their careers railing against the system signed on to star in television shows. In 2021, it seems almost normal to turn on the TV and find a great series starring a rap artist.

Rap artists have gone on to star in just about every genre of television shows over the years, from hard-core dramas to sitcoms to even police procedural shows. Many of these men and women have gone on to bigger roles in Hollywood, a couple even becoming major movie stars. However, when a rap artist finds their groove on television, the shows often capture the attention of the world.

10 Method & Red – 7.3

Method & Red hit Fox in 2004 and while it only ran for one season, it sits on IMDb with a 7.3 audience rating. The series starred Method Man and Redman as fictionalized versions of themselves living in a white upper-class New Jersey neighborhood.

Fox canceled Method & Red with four episodes still to air. However, fans kept the show highly rated on IMDb thanks to its slapstick humor and fish-out-of-water story of two men living around people who mostly hate them, and succeeding every step of the way. What held the show down for some viewers was the irreverent and often juvenile humor by Method and Red.

9 Empire – 7.4

Empire was one of the most successful drama shows starring a rap artist when it hit Fox in 2015. The series starred Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, Jussie Smollett, and featured real-life rap artists including Bre-Z and Xzibit. What helped the show stand out was that it was based on the music industry.

The show focuses on the head of a music company trying to pick out who will lead it after he dies. The show was full of intrigue and suspense, with murder, betrayals, and a fantastic cast. It also had great music throughout the series thanks to bringing in real musicians to play the roles, and sits at an impressive 7.4 rating on IMDb for its six seasons.

8 Living Single – 7.5

Queen Latifah got her start as a rap artist in 1989 with her debut album All Hail the Queen. It only took her three years to transition from the rap music industry to the acting world. She was a success in both, winning Grammys for her music and picking up Oscar noms for her acting.

For her acting career, Queen Latifah got her start with the sitcom Living Single, which ran for five seasons, from 1993 to 1998. Living Single was about six friends in Brooklyn, and it was a huge success. The show really connected with fans, with a great cast that dealt with life and relationships in a positive and inspirational sitcom.

7 Players – 7.8

Before he moved on to the Law & Order franchise, 80s rap icon Ice-T starred in an NBC series from Dick Wolf called Players. While the series only lasted one season, and was cancelled after 18 episodes, it remains a highly rated series for fans on IMDb, who gave it a 7.8 average rating.

The show followed three ex-cons who are commissioned by the FBI to help track down criminals. The show struck the right cords in viewers, even though it struggled to find an audience, thanks to the chemistry between the leads, with Ice-T really proving he was a perfect fit for the small screen.

6 The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air – 7.9

If there was one rap artist from the 1980s that was a perfect fit to move on to television and movies, it was Will Smith. He got his start in the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, where Smith was the Fresh Prince. It was that duo, which put out mostly family-friendly rap, that led to him picking up the TV role that made him famous.

Smith starred in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a sitcom where he played a Philadelphia kid whose mother demanded he move in with his aunt and uncle in Bel-Air for his own safety. The show was a monster success, lasting six seasons and featuring great humor and heart, including some of Smith’s fantastic running gags.

5 Law & Order: SVU  – 8.0

While Ice-T impressed people with his role in Players, it was the TV show he joined next that really catapulted him into the spotlight. Ice-T took on the role of Odafin ‘Fin’ Tutuloa in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He joined the show in the second season and has remained one of the stars for 22 seasons.

IMDb fans rank the Law & Order spinoff high, with an 8.0 rating, the highest ranked of the franchise. Ice-T has also crossed over into other shows in the shared universe and has always impressed fans with his gritty, no-nonsense NYPD detective.

4 Power – 8.1

In 2014, rap artist Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson joined the Starz crime drama TV series Power and it ended up as one of the network’s highest-rated shows for six seasons. The series starred Omari Hardwick as a former drug dealer known as Ghost who wanted to leave the life of crime to start a nigh club.

50 Cent starred as Kanan Stark, Ghost’s former mentor who is one of the main antagonists on the series. IMDb users have it ranked at a high 8.1 while critical scores rose for it each season thanks to its dense plotting, fast pace, and intriguing story of his power and greed can doom almost anyone.

3 Hell On Wheels – 8.3

Hell on Wheels is a Western television series that aired on AMC from 2011 to 2016. The series tells the story of the Union Pacific Railroad as it moved across the West and all the people it affected. One of the main cast members of Hell on Wheels was rap artist Common, a recent freeman who set out to find his place in the world.

The show has an 8.3 IMDb rating thanks to its good performances and the harsh realism that Hell on Wheels portrayed. With anti-heroes leading the way and even good men doing bad things, this was a hit for all five seasons, carrying the story from 1865 to 1869.

2 Dave – 8.3

In 2020, FXX released the new comedy television series Dave, which starred rap artist Lil Dicky. The rapper stars as a fictionalized version of himself, as a neurotic man in the Philadelphia suburbs who believes that he is destined to become a rap star.

Lil Dicky, a comedian rap artist, received positive critical acclaim for his series, which IMDb fans loved, giving it an 8.3 average rating. While there are complaints that the show can be a little too raunchy at times, it had a dark and smart sense of humor that has carried it through two seasons so far. Dave also has plenty of celebrity cameos playing themselves, adding to the humor.

1 Atlanta – 8.6

The highest-rated show starring a rap artist, based on IMDb scores, is the comedy Atlanta. The show premiered on DX in 2016 with rapper/actor Donald Glover in the lead role. Glover played Earn, a manager whose client, rapper Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) hit it big.

The television show was not just a big hit for fans voting on IMDb, but was also a critical darling. It was awards at the Golden Globes and Emmys and while there are just two seasons, but a third season is coming soon. With its smart humor and topical subject matter, it is a show that earned all its praise.

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