This article summarizes the events, album releases, and album release dates in hip hop music for the year 1988.
| Release Date[1] | Artist | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 31 | Too Short | Life Is...Too Short | |
| February 17 | Geto Boys | Making Trouble | |
| February 23 | Biz Markie | Goin' Off | |
| March 29 | DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince | He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper | |
| April 17 | Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five | On the Strength | |
| May 16 | Derek B | Bullet From A Gun | |
| May 17 | Run-D.M.C. | Tougher Than Leather | |
| May 31 | Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew | The World's Greatest Entertainer | |
| Boogie Down Productions | By All Means Necessary | ||
| June 7 | Audio Two | What More Can I Say? | |
| EPMD | Strictly Business | ||
| June 15 | J.J. Fad | Supersonic | |
| June 21 | Stetsasonic | In Full Gear | |
| June 28 | Big Daddy Kane | Long Live the Kane | |
| Public Enemy | It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back | ||
| July 1 | The Fat Boys | Coming Back Hard Again | |
| July 26 | Eric B. & Rakim | Follow the Leader | |
| Salt-n-Pepa | A Salt with a Deadly Pepa | ||
| August 8 | N.W.A | Straight Outta Compton | |
| August 17 | 2 Live Crew | Move Somethin' | |
| September 1 | Sir Mix-A-Lot | Swass | |
| September 13 | Eazy-E | Eazy-Duz-It | |
| Ice-T | Power | ||
| MC Lyte | Lyte as a Rock | ||
| Steady B | Let the Hustlers Play | ||
| September 20 | Marley Marl | In Control, Volume 1 | |
| Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock | It Takes Two | ||
| September 28 | MC Hammer | Let's Get It Started | |
| October 4 | Ultramagnetic MC's | Critical Beatdown | |
| October 7 | Boogie Boys | Romeo Knight | |
| October 21 | Kid 'n Play | 2 Hype | |
| October 25 | MC Shan | Born to be Wild | |
| November 1 | Slick Rick | The Great Adventures of Slick Rick | |
| November 8 | Jungle Brothers | Straight out the Jungle | |
| November 15 | King T | Act a Fool | |
| November 22 | Lakim Shabazz | Pure Righteousness | |
| unknown | Kaos | Court's In Session | |
| December 15 | Various Artists | ||
| Unknown | Alliance | We Could Get Used To This | |
| Unknown | Busy Bee Starski | Running Thangs | |
| Unknown | Kurtis Blow | Back By Popular Demand | |
| Unknown | Three Times Dope | Original Stylin | |
| Unknown | M.C. Cool Rock & M.C. Chaszy Chess | Boot the Booty | |
| unknown | Michael Peace | Rappin' Bold | |
| Unknown | MC Shy D | Comin' Correct in 88 | |
| Unknown | P.I.D. | Here We Are | |
| Unknown | The 7A3 | Coolin' In Cali | |
| Unknown | Tuff Crew | Danger Zone | |
| Unknown | J.V.C. F.O.R.C.E. | Doin' Damage | |
| Unknown | Masters of Ceremony | Dynamite | |
| Unknown | Raheem | The Vigilante | |
| Unknown | Sweet Tee | It's Tee Time | |
| Unknown | Mantronix | In Full Effect | |
| Unknown | Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud | Girls I Got 'Em Locked | |
| Unknown | K-9 Posse | K-9 Posse | |
| Unknown | Rodney-O & Joe Cooley | Me and Joe | |
| Unknown | Cold Crush Brothers | Troopers | |
| Unknown | Def IV | Nice & Hard | |
| Unknown | The Krown Rulers | Paper Chase | |
| Unknown | Various Artists | Rhyme Syndicate Comin' Through | |
| Unknown | Bass Patrol | Rock This Planet | |
| Unknown | The Skinny Boys | Skinny (They Can't Get Enough) | |
| Unknown | Schoolly D | Smoke Some Kill | |
| Unknown | The Fila Fresh Crew | Tuffest Man Alive | |
| Unknown | Tall Dark & Handsome | Tall Dark & Handsome | |
| Unknown | Original Concept | Straight From the Basement of Kooley High! | |
| Unknown | Cash Money & Marvelous | Where's the Party At? | |
| Unknown | Chubb Rock | Chubb Rock (featuring Howie Tee) | |
| Unknown | Whistle | Transformation | |
| Unknown | Numarx | Our Time Has Come | |
| Unknown | Shinehead | Unity | |
| Unknown | White Boys | On A Mission | |
| Unknown | Various Artists | The Rap Pack II Fresh Records Compilation | |
| Unknown | Various Artists | Mr. Magic's Rap Attack Volume 4 | |
| Unknown | Various Artists | Rap's New Generation Rooftop Records | |
| Unknown | Don Baron | Young, Gifted And Black | |
| Unknown | Tony Tee | Time To Get Physical | |
| Unknown | Spike V.S.T. | I Wanna Dance | |
| Unknown | The 45 King | Master Of The Game | |
| Unknown | Finesse & Synquis | Soul Sisters | |
| Unknown | True Love | I'm Bustin' Out | |
| Unknown | Chilly Uptown | I Got Rules | |
| Unknown | True Mathematics | Greatest Hits | |
| Unknown | Frozen Explosion | Frozen Explosion | |
| Unknown | The Real Roxanne | The Real Roxanne | |
| Unknown | L'Trimm | Grab It! | |
| Unknown | Kid Flash | He's In Effect | |
| Unknown | Blood Brothers | Honey & Blood | |
| Unknown | Big Mouth | Quite Not Right | |
| Unknown | Boy White | Do We Connect | |
| Unknown | Wendy O. Williams' Ultrafly And The Hometown Girls | Deffest! And Baddest | |
| Unknown | M-4 Sers | Shake It Up & Get Nasty! | |
| Unknown | Metal MC | Born To Party | |
| Artist | Project | Peak position | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Going Back To Cali" | LL Cool J | Less than Zero (soundtrack) | 31 |