In 2019, rap continued to evolve in a melodic direction. There’s a bigger emphasis on sticky hooks than ever right now, but there’s still nothing like a verse that stops you in your tracks the first time you hear it. We’ll never get tired of lyricism that forces us to run a song back, over and over, until we’ve caught every last metaphor and obscure reference. This year, more than a few of these moments came from the Griselda crew up in Buffalo. Meanwhile, Pusha-T ended 2019 with two of our top five verses of the year. What a way to close out the decade. We’ve already ranked the best songs and the best albums of the year. Now, for our final year-end list of the decade, it’s time to reflect on the verses that blew us away and required repeat listens. These are Complex’s picks for the 20 best rap verses of 2019.