Which group won the first Grammy for Best Rap Album at the 1996 Grammy Awards?

Naughty by Nature won the first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 1996 Grammy Awards.

The group won for Poverty’s Paradise, their third studio album. The victory came at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, held in 1996, when the Recording Academy established a full-album rap category after years of recognizing rap mainly through performance awards.

Poverty’s Paradise included the single “Feel Me Flow,” which helped give the album broad visibility. Naughty by Nature’s win marked an important step in the Grammys’ recognition of rap as an album-centered form rather than only a singles or live-performance genre.

The award is distinct from Best Rap Performance, which was introduced earlier. That distinction causes occasional confusion: a rap artist could win a performance award before any rapper won Best Rap Album, because the album category did not yet exist.