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Back to Hip-Hop and R&B Albums: Grammy Wins vs. Losses

2004: Best Rap Album

Amazon.com

Won: 'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,' Outkast

Should've Won: 'Get Rich or Die Tryin,' 50 Cent

If you asked us to pick our all-time favorite Outkast album, 'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below' wouldn't be one of them, but what Outkast's fifth studio album is, is the biggest selling rap album of all-time. Numbers usually don't lie, but in this case, 50's 'Get Rich or Die Tryin'' made arguably a bigger dent in hip-hop culture even though it only went eight-times platinum to the whopping 11-times platinum 'Speakerboxxx' project. Outkast's double-disc may have offered twice as much music, but not twice the hits, apart from 'Hay Ya!' and 'The Way You Move.' On the flipside, club-friendly tracks from Fif like 'P.I.M.P' and the Dr.Dre-produced 'In da Club' changed the rapper's grimier image and threw him into the mainstream headfirst when the latter track reached No. 1 on the charts. Not since John Wayne had someone been shot so many times and lived to tell about it.