Complex's Best Albums of 2023

Eighteen months before *a Gift & a Curse*, Gunna was in a very different position. The Georgia native ushered in 2022 with the chart-topping success of *DRIP SEASON 4EVER* and its lexicon-altering hit “pushin P” with Young Thug. In May of that year, both he and his YSL label boss found themselves under indictment in a sweeping RICO case. By December, he was free, only to be faced with wild speculation over the terms of his release. Caught up in the fallout, he clapped back over the rumors and narratives that formed about and around him with the single “bread & butter.” Scarred and singed by some of the most damaging accusations one could face in the rap game or the streets, he unloads his lyrical clip in spectacular fashion on his first album since his arrest. Throughout *a Gift & a Curse*, Gunna makes it a point to address his predicament head-on, offering a perspective as unique as the circumstances. A defiant superstar, he reintroduces himself to his fans and haters alike on the simmering “back at it,” following it swiftly with the confident and confrontational “back to the moon.” He shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders over what’s changed with “idk nomore” while returning to the lavish normalcy of his pre-arrest lifestyle via “rodeo dr” and “p angels.” For the grand finale, “alright,” he sees the path forward clearer than ever, shouting out YSL amid a hopeful chorus.

**100 Best Albums** In 2017, *Ctrl*—a 14-track project rife with songs about love, sex, self-doubt, and heartbreak—became one of the most influential albums in R&B. *Ctrl* was the soundtrack for many people in their twenties, highlighting the growing pains of young adulthood. SZA’s vulnerability and raw honesty, coupled with ultra-relatable lyrics full of diary-like ruminations and conversations from friend group chats, are what made her debut so impactful. Where *Ctrl* reflected SZA’s journey towards finding self-love and acceptance, her long-awaited sophomore LP *SOS* finds the St. Louis-born singer-songwriter dealing with some of the same topics of love and relationships from a more self-assured place. She ditches the uncertainties of her romantic entanglements to save herself—most of the time. On the soulful and gritty album opener “SOS,” SZA reintroduces herself and says precisely what’s on her mind after a night of crying over a lost relationship: “I talk bullshit a lot/No more fuck shit, I’m done,” she swaggers. This isn’t the only song that shows her weariness towards relationships that no longer serve her; see also “Smoking on My Ex Pack” and “Far.” She finds the confidence to know that she doesn’t need to depend on a man to find happiness on “Conceited” and “Forgiveless.” However, not every song on the project is about moving on and leaving her past relationships behind her; SZA still has a penchant for making wrong decisions that may not end well for her (“Too Late,” “F2F”) and questions her worth in some instances (“Special”). The album sketches the ebbs and flows of emotions, with strength in one moment but deep regret and sadness the next. There’s growth between her debut and sophomore album, not just lyrically but sonically as well, blending a mix of her beloved lo-fi beats and sharing space with grunge- and punk-inspired songs without any of it sounding out of place. On the Phoebe Bridgers collaboration “Ghost in the Machine,” the duo take a deeper look at the realities of stardom, looking for a bit of humanity within their day-to-day interactions. The track is not only progressive in its use of strings and acoustic guitars but haunting in its vocal performance. Throughout the journey of *SOS*, there are moments of clarity and tenderness where SZA goes through the discomfort of healing while trying to find the deeper meaning within the trials and tribulations she endures. She embraces this new level of confidence in her life, where she isn’t looking for anyone to save her from the depth of her emotions but instead is at peace with where she’s at in life.

A great deal obviously occurred in the five years between *ASTROWORLD* and *UTOPIA*, Travis Scott’s third and fourth solo studio albums, respectively. Still, looking at hip-hop and rap music specifically, few could deny the extraordinary impact his music had on a young generation of emerging artists, their radical vocal and production style choices so overtly informed by his own vision. His commercial success at least partially hinged on the futuristic, otherworldly sound and image he cultivated, with listeners tuning in just to hear what fresh level of the game he’d unlocked. Thus the collective anticipation for *UTOPIA* could not have been higher. Without fail, Scott delivers something only he could have delivered, a thoroughly riveting album that transmutes star power and experimental artistry into a marvelous musical monument. The opening boom-bap bombast of “HYAENA,” the funkadelic crunch of “MODERN JAM,” and the proggy thump of “CIRCUS MAXIMUS” are just a few examples of how he has so lavishly expanded his sonic universe with this record. He now seems to enjoy a certain austerity, as on “I KNOW ?” and “LOST FOREVER,” but remains incapable of completely escaping the maximalist thrills of his past. The deliberately concealed guest list contains quite a few stars and superstars, and shrewd listeners may enjoy trying to identify them all without a cheat sheet. Drake’s unmistakable baritone leads the shape-shifting “MELTDOWN,” while Playboi Carti unspools his magnificent mumble over the buzzy “FE!N.” But when Beyoncé arrives for “DELRESTO (ECHOES),” its muted club contents echoing her own dance music renaissance, she provides a big diva energy that luxuriates amid Scott’s cutting edge.

“I never learned to superstar from a textbook,” Doja Cat snarls towards the end of “Attention,” a song that’s all at once a boom-bap showcase, an R&B slow-burner, and a canny summary of her against-the-odds success. Those who remember Doja’s breakthrough (a viral 2018 joke song, “Mooo!”, whose DIY video had her shoving french fries in her nose in front of a homemade green screen) probably wouldn’t have predicted that a few years later, the girl in the cow suit would be a household name. But for Doja, being an internet goofball and a multiplatinum pop star aren’t just compatible, they’re complementary—a duality attuned to her audience’s craving for realness. With her fourth album, *Scarlet*, the maverick adds “formidable rapper” to her growing list of distinctions. In since-deleted tweets from April 2023, Doja made a pledge: “no more pop,” she wrote, following up with a vow to prove wrong the naysayers doubting her rap skills. *Scarlet* makes good on that promise, particularly its first half, a far cry from the sugary bops on 2021’s star-making *Planet Her*. Instead she hops between hard-edged beats that evoke NYC in ’94 or Chicago in 2012, crowing over the spoils of her mainstream success while playfully rejecting its terms. “I’m a puppet, I’m a sheep, I’m a cash cow/I’m the fastest-growing bitch on all your apps now,” she deadpans on “Demons,” thumbing her nose at anyone who conflates glowing up with selling out. And on “97,” the album’s best pure rap performance, she embraces the troll’s mantra that all clicks are good clicks, spitting, “That’s a comment, that’s a view, and that’s a rating/That’s some hating, and that’s engagement I could use.” Behind the provocations, though, is an artist with the idiosyncratic chops to back them up. That’s as true in *Scarlet*’s lusty midsection as it is on its gulliest rap tracks: No one else would interrupt a dreamy love song (“Agora Hills”) to giggle in Valley Girl vocal fry, “Sorry, just taking a sip of my root beer!” (No one, that is, but Nicki Minaj, Doja’s clearest influence, who paved the way for women who juggle art-pop with hip-hop bona fides.) As catchy as it is contrarian, *Scarlet* offers a suggestion: Maybe it’s Doja’s willingness to reject the premise of being a pop star that makes her such a compelling one. On the album’s sweetest track, “Love Life,” she takes in her view from the top—still the weirdo her fans met in a cow suit but more confident in her contradictions. “They love when I embrace my flaws/I love it when they doin’ the same,” she raps softly. “I love it when my fans love change/That’s how we change the game.”

“I needed my audience to see that Killer Mike is something that this nine-year-old kid created to be fierce and badass and protect him from any ill,” the artist born Michael Render tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “This is my come-home moment musically. It is gospel, it is soul, it is funk, it is hip-hop. And from a moral standpoint, I was taught morality through the Black Southern Christian church, which gave us the civil rights movement, the abolitionist movement, which gave us some of the most beautiful music ever. And I feel like I\'m honoring that and I finally figured out my place.” Released 10 years after Run The Jewels transformed Killer Mike from a workaday regional rapper to the kind of guy holding public court with national politicians, *MICHAEL* is, on some level, a celebration of just how far he has come. But it’s also an exploration of the complex personality that got him there: the son of a drug dealer who needs to mourn his childhood but struggles to let his guard down (“MOTHERLESS”), the community leader trying to elevate youth while snapping back at the perceived narrowness of their politics (“TALK’N THAT SHIT!”), the middle-aged man finally reckoning with the collateral PTSD of Black life in America (“RUN”). “My mother and grandmother left me,” he says. “‘MOTHERLESS’ is about that and about the emptiness you feel, and as a human I feel like I\'ve lost something. But if all the electricity left tomorrow, there\'d still be trees moving, there\'d still be wind grooving, and that\'s all we return to. When you close your eyes, you listen to this record, this device ain\'t how you are hearing this song. These vibrations are how you\'re hearing this song.” There’s also “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS,” which features fellow Atlanta legends Future and André 3000. “Artists love and respect one another,” he says. “The what, who\'s done what, it\'s literally the style. You just waiting to hear your partner\'s next style.” And on a production level, the sustained mix of slow-and-steady trap beats with gospel choirs and soaking-wet organs evokes both the humidity of his Atlanta summers and the blend of sacred and profane that has characterized Black pop from Sam Cooke to Kanye West. If he weren’t so smart and soulful, you might call him a crank. But he’s both.

Victoria Monét is known throughout the industry for her songwriting skills, the brains behind hits for Ariana Grande, BLACKPINK, Chloe x Halle, and many more. “I moved to LA to pursue artistry and just all of the things that I dreamed for myself, and life takes you in different turns, so I ended up songwriting a lot more than recording my own music,” she tells Apple Music. Although the Sacramento native spent most of her career writing, she still released music independently with her 2014 and 2018 EP series *Nightmares & Lullabies* and *Life After Love*, but it wasn’t until 2020’s *JAGUAR* that Monét came into her own as an artist of the same stature as the ones she’d worked for. Named after the fierce jungle cat—known for lurking undetected until they’re ready to pounce—the project introduced a motif that Monét created to show her transition from illustrious songwriter to full-fledged R&B star. “*JAGUAR I* and *II* are relatives, but you see, *JAGUAR II* is an older, more developed, voluptuous older sister,” she says. “I just really wanted to make it in my eyes better than *JAGUAR I*, which I feel like I’ve done.” Co-produced by longtime collaborator D’Mile, *JAGUAR II* is a seamless continuation enlisting live musicians and delving further into the psychedelic sounds of the 1970s—an era that influenced and inspired both albums. Still, Monét takes it further by guiding listeners through different soundscapes of funk, pop, R&B, and reggae while capturing the different moods she wanted to create. Instead of songs about her experiences as a new mom and being in love, Monét decided to showcase the full spectrum of emotions that women feel, whether she’s singing about her affinity for cannabis on the Lucky Daye-assisted “Smoke,” being outside on the flirty party anthem “Party Girls,” or women’s empowerment on “Cadillac (A Pimp’s Anthem).” “I\'m trying to listen to it from a fan\'s perspective, and I would think that people would be like, oh, she\'s going to talk about just being completely in love and wanting to get married and having kids, this white-picket-fence life,” she says. “And it\'s not that I feel like even making the album with my relationship, I had the freedom to discuss things that I may not feel currently, but they came up in the making of this album, even though I\'m not necessarily in that mindset right now.” On the swaggering “On My Mama,” Monét adds some Southern twang, interpolating Texas rapper Chalie Boy\'s 2009 track “I Look Good” for an infectious hook that makes it a soundtrack to positive affirmations about not just looking good but feeling good as well, while the follow-up “I\'m the One” continues that cocky persona over a pop-leaning track. Monét reflects on her stardom on the retro track “Hollywood,” which features legendary funk group Earth, Wind & Fire and her daughter Hazel. “Philip Bailey came in and did his vocals, but then Verdine came in on a different day to play the bass,” she explains. “Just knowing that I\'m inspired by them so much from the inception of *JAGUAR* to have them on it as an exclamation point for *JAGUAR II*, it just means so much.\"

One of the first things Bad Bunny fans will notice about *nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana* is its conspicuous lack of reggaetón. Following the vibey highs of the preceding *Un Verano Sin Ti*, which included some of the biggest songs he’s ever done within the genre, some might have anticipated more in the vein of “Me Porto Bonito” or “Moscow Mule.” Yet limiting his reggaetón exposure to a mere two tracks here, “PERRO NEGRO” and the closing “UN PREVIEW,” marks one of many deliberate decisions made by the Puerto Rican superstar on his fifth proper album. If fans haven’t quite figured it out just yet, El Conejo Malo does whatever he wants. (This is, after all, the same artist who named his 2020 album *Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana*.) He speaks rather directly to his unwillingness to compromise or change for anyone else on “NO ME QUIERO CASAR,” which compounds its throwback nods so adroitly that one might miss the subtle Yandel sample near the end. More often than not, *nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana* finds him getting things off his chest, beginning with the unapologetically direct opener “NADIE SABE.” Those who’ve been with Bad Bunny since the days of “Soy Peor” and “Chambea” will welcome this overt return to his bold trapero roots, something that echoes through “MONACO,” “VOU 787,” and the especially cutting “GRACIAS POR NADA.” Yet there’s more to *nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana* than some rapper rebound. Far from the beach-based pop that peppered *Un Verano Sin Ti*, here he embraces more nocturnal styles on the thumping tech-house cut “HIBIKI” and the frenetic Jersey club variant “WHERE SHE GOES.” He even ventures into the Latin drill fray for “THUNDER Y LIGHTNING,” with lyrics that demand a rewind, before indulging in some Voltio y Notch nostalgia with the triumphant “ACHO PR.” Both of those songs, and several others, include some rather stellar vocal guests, but Bad Bunny would rather his listeners experience those features in real time. To borrow a sentiment from the album’s title, nobody knows what tomorrow brings, so we might as well live—and listen—in the moment.

For as good as he is at making singles (“Bad and Boujee,” “Mask Off,” Post Malone’s “Congratulations,” and The Weeknd’s “Heartless”), Metro Boomin also knows how to put together an album. 21 Savage’s *Savage Mode* and *SAVAGE MODE II*, the Savage and Offset project *Without Warning*, 2018’s *NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES* and its sequel—and the second installment in a planned trilogy—*HEROES & VILLAINS*: They’re all proof that rap in long form is still as dynamic as its bite-sized counterparts. “I didn\'t want to be doing those things where it\'s like, \'Okay, I just called every artist on my phone,\' or \'Let me just show you and flex everybody I could get on the song,\'” he tells Apple Music. “It’s like a movie, you know what I’m saying? Maybe in this scene we got these two characters, and you might not see this character until two scenes later. And now he’s in here with this guy again. And now all three of them are together. Just mixing up the bags.” Easy enough, or at least sounds it. But the shape of *HEROES & VILLAINS* is a seductive and addictive thing, flowing from punishing to reflective and sleek to classic-sounding with a grace that feels both commanding and natural. And the “characters” he alludes to aren’t just some of the most iconic voices in modern rap, they’re juxtaposed in ways that bring out their essences: the boom of Future (“Superhero”) and deadpan menace of 21 Savage (“Walk Em Down”), the alien croon of Don Toliver (“Too Many Nights”) and the mania of Young Thug (“Metro Spider”). “I mean, no one can really say or guess what\'s in Thug\'s head,” Metro says. “He\'s one in a trillion, man.” And if you think he can only work with rap, listen to the dance-adjacent “Around Me” or The Weeknd feature “Creepin’,” which turns the airy heartache of Mario Winans’ 2004 track “I Don’t Wanna Know” into something haunted and new. And for anyone who already knows *NOT ALL HEROES* and was wondering: Yes, Morgan Freeman’s here, too. “It was like, ‘What\'s the craziest thing we could think of?’ Morgan, he had really liked the script, and what it was saying, and the values, and certain things in it, and he felt like it was important for young people to hear those things.”

Ice Spice’s “Munch (Feelin’ U),” the Bronx-born MC’s biggest hit to date and the song that has soundtracked an unknowable number of after-school hangs, almost wasn’t. “The song was really a throwaway for me,” Spice told Apple Music’s Ebro. “I made it, and I was like, ‘All right, let me put that away.’ And the people I was playing it for—I played it for a bunch of people, and \[they\] was just like, ‘Oh. OK, cool.’” But the song was not to be denied. By the time “Munch (Feelin’ U)” hit streaming platforms in August 2022, Ice had accumulated a legion of local fans eagerly awaiting its release, having heard a snippet she’d uploaded to socials earlier that summer. Once the phrase “You thought I was feelin’ you?” made it to TikTok, the rest was history. Or as Spice herself puts it on January’s *Like..?* EP, “In the hood, I’m like Princess Diana.” Twenty-three-year-old Ice Spice was born Isis Gaston and got an early start at rapping. “I had little raps and shit since I was a kid,” she says. “I never made full songs, though.” She began recording properly in 2021, with things really revving up after meeting producer and frequent collaborator RIOTUSA while in college at SUNY Purchase. Though her popularity rose fast, her first and likely most important fan was her father, an MC in his own right who, Spice says, used to run with DJ Doo Wop in the early 2000s. “In the crib or on the way to school and everything, he would be on some, ‘Let me hear something’ and always trying to film me, pushing me to do something,” she says. “Or if I would tell him about girls that I didn’t really fuck with in school, he would be like, ‘Write a rap about them.’” He likely couldn’t be prouder of his little star upon the release of *Like..?*, a six-track EP that was, at its arrival, already 50 percent hits. “Munch (Feelin’ U)” is, of course, here, as are the instantly viral “Bikini Bottom” and “In Ha Mood.” Add to those the NYC drill-expressive “Princess Diana,” the P. Diddy “I Need a Girl, Pt. 2”-sampling “Gangsta Boo,” and the Jersey club-indebted “Actin a Smoochie,” and you’ve got a picture of a young talent who is just getting warmed up. “Those are six songs that I already made,” Spice says of *Like..?*. “Fans going to eat that up. And then there’s always time to evolve and grow as an artist. So, I’m not rushing to jump into another sound or rushing to do some different shit. If it happens, it happens. I just want everything to be natural.”

Like…? is Bronx, New York newcomer Ice Spice’s debut EP. Following up the success of “Munch (Feelin' U)” and “Bikini Bottom,” on November 16, 2022, during an interview with RapCaviar, Ice Spice announced that she was working on an EP, stating: I’m excited for this new music. I’m about to put out an EP. It’s about to be like six songs. ‘Bikini Bottom’ is on there, and then there’s some that people haven’t heard. It’s about to be a vibe. Visuals coming with it, too. Yeah, a bunch of content around it. It’s lit. On December 25, 2022, Ice Spice released the EP’s third single, “In Ha Mood.” Although no other information about the EP was announced, the day before it’s release, Ice Spice took to social media revealing the cover art and tracklist. Lil Tjay serves as the sole feature.

The first song on Lil Yachty’s *Let’s Start Here.* is nearly seven minutes long and features breathy singing from Yachty, a freewheeling guitar solo, and a mostly instrumental second half that calls to mind TV depictions of astral projecting. “the BLACK seminole.” is an extremely fulfilling listen, but is this the same guy who just a few months earlier delivered the beautifully off-kilter and instantly viral “Poland”? Better yet, is this the guy who not long before that embedded himself with Detroit hip-hop culture to the point of a soft rebrand as *Michigan Boy Boat*? Sure is. It’s just that, as he puts it on “the BLACK seminole.,” he’s got “No time to joke around/The kid is now a man/And the silence is filled with remarkable sounds.” We could call the silence he’s referring to the years since his last studio album, 2020’s *Lil Boat 3*, but he’s only been slightly less visible than we’re used to, having released the aforementioned *Michigan Boy Boat* mixtape while also lending his discerning production ear to Drake and 21 Savage’s ground-shaking album *Her Loss*. Collaboration, though, is the name of the game across *Let’s Start Here.*, an album deeply indebted to some as yet undisclosed psych-rock influences, with repeated production contributions from onetime blog-rock darlings Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson and Patrick Wimberly, as well as multiple appearances from Diana Gordon, a Queens, New York-hailing singer who made a noise during the earliest parts of her career as Wynter Gordon. Also present are R&B singer Fousheé and Beaumont, Texas, rap weirdo Teezo Touchdown, though rapping is infrequent. In fact, none of what Yachty presents here—which includes dalliances with Parliament-indebted acid funk (“running out of time”), ’80s synthwave (“sAy sOMETHINg,” “paint THE sky”), disco (“drive ME crazy!”), symphonic prog rock (“REACH THE SUNSHINE.”), and a heady monologue called “:(failure(:”—is in any way reflective of any of Yachty’s previous output. Which begs the question, where did all of this come from? You needn’t worry about that, says Yachty on the “the ride-,” singing sternly: “Don’t ask no questions on the ride.”

One listen to “Dirt,” the opening track from Key Glock’s *Glockoma 2*, and it’s obvious that few things have changed in the world of the rising Memphis MC since the November ’22 release of *PRE5L*. He still loves to sip drank, he’s still making money faster than he can spend it, and he still misses cousin and mentor Young Dolph so much that it hurts. What he does here, then, over consistently bass-heavy production from Tay Keith, Bandplay, and HitKidd, among others, is heed the motivation of Dolph, honoring him by continuing to release his best music until his next music. “I lost my dawg, everyday that shit hurt,” Glock raps on “Work.” “His voice in my head keep on telling me, ‘Work!’”

There’s a handful of eyebrow-raising verses across Tyler, The Creator’s *CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST*—particularly those from 42 Dugg, Lil Uzi Vert, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Pharrell, and Lil Wayne—but none of the aforementioned are as surprising as the ones Tyler delivers himself. The Los Angeles-hailing MC, and onetime nucleus of the culture-shifting Odd Future collective, made a name for himself as a preternaturally talented MC whose impeccable taste in streetwear and calls to “kill people, burn shit, fuck school” perfectly encapsulated the angst of his generation. But across *CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST*, the man once known as Wolf Haley is just a guy who likes to rock ice and collect stamps on his passport, who might whisper into your significant other’s ear while you’re in the restroom. In other words, a prototypical rapper. But in this case, an exceptionally great one. (The 2023 *Estate Sale* version has eight tracks that weren’t on the original, including the single “DOGTOOTH” and features from Vince Staples and A$AP Rocky.) Tyler superfans will remember that the MC was notoriously peeved at his categoric inclusion—and eventual victory—in the 2020 Grammys’ Best Rap Album category for his pop-oriented *IGOR*. The focus here is very clearly hip-hop from the outset. Tyler made an aesthetic choice to frame *CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST* with interjections of shit-talking from DJ Drama, founder of one of 2000s rap’s most storied institutions, the Gangsta Grillz mixtape franchise. The vibes across the album are a disparate combination of sounds Tyler enjoys (and can make)—boom-bap revival (“CORSO,” “LUMBERJACK”), ’90s R&B (“WUSYANAME”), gentle soul samples as a backdrop for vivid lyricism in the Griselda mold (“SIR BAUDELAIRE,” “HOT WIND BLOWS”), and lovers rock (“I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE”). And then there’s “RUNITUP,” which features a crunk-style background chant, and “LEMONHEAD,” which has the energy of *Trap or Die*-era Jeezy. “WILSHIRE” is potentially best described as an epic poem. Giving the Grammy the benefit of the doubt, maybe they wanted to reward all the great rapping he’d done until that point. *CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST*, though, is a chance to see if they can recognize rap greatness once it has kicked their door in.

“I spent a lot of moments in my life trying to represent that I was a *bichota*—a boss girl—but I wasn’t feeling that way completely,” KAROL G tells Apple Music. “It’s good and normal sometimes, feeling not that good and not in that mood—but that tomorrow is going to be beautiful.” That sentiment resonates from the first few moments of *MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO*, on the lively opener “MIENTRAS ME CURO DEL CORA.” After dramatically impacting the very landscape of global Latin music with 2021’s career-defining *KG0516*, the Colombian superstar is now focused on what the future holds. If KAROL G’s phenomenal 2022 run of hit singles, from “PROVENZA” to “GATÚBELA” to “CAIRO,” whet her fans’ appetites, the bold and confessional *MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO* provides them with a downright decadent musical feast. Boasting an eclectic series of collaborations with the likes of Carla Morrison, Sean Paul, and Sech, to name a few, her latest album intrepidly explores sounds both familiar and previously unexplored as she further refines and even redefines her artistry. From the FINNEAS-produced alt-pop of “TUS GAFITAS” to the música mexicana stylings of “GUCCI LOS PAÑOS,” *MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO* sets a high bar across genres. All the while, she delivers powerhouse vocal performances with deeply personal lyrics bound to resonate with listeners. “I was scared to just show that vulnerability,” she says. “But this is the way my album came out, and now I just feel proud.” Among its numerous highlights, the undeniable centerpiece of *MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO* is the momentous Shakira team-up “TQG,” an intergenerational and empowering single that unites these Colombian superstars at long last. “I was just seeing what was happening with Shakira in her personal life, and I was like, ‘You know what? Let me contact her,’” she says of the track, one that had been shelved prior to recording this historic feature. “It was worth it for me to launch it again, for girls to represent that moment of the life.” Read more about some of KAROL G’s favorite *MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO* songs below. **“X SI VOLVEMOS”** “I believe that this duet with Romeo was, in fact, destined. The story of choosing Romeo began when I had originally finished the song. For a long period, I found myself unsatisfied with the end result, as if it was a recipe missing its final ingredient. After replaying the song, the thought of duetting with Romeo felt like the perfect idea. I felt that his voice, charisma, and undeniable sensuality would give life to this passionate track. Days after, I decided to post the track on social media, and coincidentally \[in\] what felt like destiny, Romeo reached out to say he loved the song and that he wanted to join. He was the secret ingredient, and this song wouldn’t be complete without his ‘so nasty’ spice.” **“TQG”** “My collaboration with Shakira is a dream come true. She has always been a reference for me, besides being Colombian. She is the kind of artist that you follow throughout their career and dream about how, one day, you want to represent your country in the incredible way that she has done. Working with her has been an enriching experience, and I have learned a lot from her. My admiration is profound. After Shakira sang about her own breakup, I shared the lyrics of ‘TQG’ with her, a song about that stage when you are ready to rip the bandages off and get back on your feet. She loved the lyrics and felt they represented her; in the end, we finished the song together.” **“TUS GAFITAS”** “‘TUS GAFITAS’ represents something special for me; I got to work with FINNEAS on this track, which also happened to be the first love song I wrote for *MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO*. I was heading to Cairo to shoot a video clip when I wrote the lyrics, which I think was symbolic of where I was on my healing journey. It was a fulfilling experience at many levels, personally and creatively, as I was also involved in the production process.” **“OJOS FERRARI”** “I love blending different genres together, and introducing dembow as an eccentric, upbeat track was essential to deliver my idea of a diverse album. My favorite part about the creative process is being able to collaborate with talent that have fresh ideas. Angel Dior and \[Justin\] Quiles brought that energy to the song. It’s a reminder that art doesn’t always have to be sad or profound but can also be a source of joy and excitement.” **“DAÑAMOS LA AMISTAD”** “I always have a great time working with Sech; he is incredibly talented. In “DAÑAMOS LA AMISTAD,” our styles fuse together perfectly to create a unique sound with its own flow and energy. We are thrilled with the final product and hope our fans will be too.” **“MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO”** “The album’s name is a phrase I repeated to myself when I saw or felt that things were wrong. I felt like I was going through a grand moment in my career, but I was very disconnected from myself and my surroundings. Sometimes, despite so many blessings that life had given me, I didn’t feel happy. So, every day I would say to myself, ‘No matter what, tomorrow it will be nice, tomorrow it will be nice.’ And that’s the message I want to convey to you, that even though life sometimes puts us in situations that no matter how bad they hurt us or how cloudy it gets, the next day, the sun will come out, and everything will be beautiful.”

The initial plan, according to a tweet posted by Offset in September 2022, was for his second solo album to drop in November of that year. But on November 1, his fellow Migo and brother-in-arms Takeoff was murdered outside of a Houston bowling alley. The tragedy hit Offset hard; the trio of Takeoff, Offset, and Quavo had become the preeminent rap group of the 2010s through the sheer force of their chemistry, lifelong friends and relatives whose respective talents kept each other on their toes. If Quavo was the showman and Takeoff the glue, Offset was the wild card of the bunch, introduced to the world by the “Free Offset” T-shirts his partners wore in early videos while he served time in Georgia’s DeKalb County Jail for a probation violation. He could also be a scene-stealer, the lyrical force behind the group’s first and only No. 1 hit, “Bad and Boujee.” Four years after his debut solo album, 2019’s *FATHER OF 4*, *SET IT OFF* is a portrait of a rapper who has challenged himself to evolve rather than rest on his laurels. “My whole mission for this album was to not get caught up in ‘I’m that guy,’” Offset told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I feel like sometimes when you get caught up in that, you create the same thing because you’re comfortable in that element.” By now he’s a father of five, healing from the loss of his friend and bandmate while navigating a solo career and the stressors that come with his high-profile marriage to Cardi B. (She appears twice on the album, stealing the show on the Three 6 Mafia-sampling “JEALOUSY” to spit, “Bitches don’t wanna go Birkin for Birkin/Bitches ain’t got enough hits for a Verzuz.”) There’s the requisite odes to exorbitant flexing with help from Future, Latto, and Chlöe, where Offset’s voice is as sharp and percussive as ever over beats from Boi-1da and Vinylz—producers he’d yet to work with before now—alongside the usual suspects like Southside and Metro Boomin. “I use the A&Rs to \[my\] advantage,” he told Lowe. “I feel like a lot of people talk down on the A&Rs, like you don’t need them. But they bring you another element that you wouldn’t have thought of.” The album’s standout moments happen when the rapper lets his guard down. “Keeping all of this to myself ain’t healthy,” he warbles on the understated “HEALTHY,” and on “SAY MY GRACE” he wonders: “Ask God why I didn’t get an answer/Why I lose my brother to bullets?/Why I lose my grandma to cancer?” Much ink has been spilled over what appears to be the end of the Migos in the aftermath of Takeoff’s death, a subject Offset addressed poignantly. “It can’t be a group, because our main member is missing,” he said to Lowe. “It’s just like, for us, we can’t continue that way. But even on my own journey, I still feel his presence and his energy, like, ‘Bro, we got to go hard. This ain’t the end of it.’ I just keep that in my mind and just keep pushing.”

“I manifested the fuck out of this,” Eladio Carrión tells Apple Music about his new album and its dream lineup of features. The Puerto Rican trap star’s *3MEN2 KBRN* boasts no shortage of formidable rapper guests. Yet the appearances by icons 50 Cent and Lil Wayne, in particular, come after years of him visualizing this moment, so much so that he attached their respective names to the song files well before they’d even agreed to contribute to the record. Though originally intended as a deluxe edition of his 2022 mixtape, *SEN2 KBRN, VOL. 2*, the project soon evolved into a proper album. Carrión likens the resulting *3MEN2 KBRN* to a round of golf, its 18 tracks an intentional, albeit subtle, numeric Easter egg of sorts. Less understated are his vocal guests, a veritable vanguard of hip-hop hitmakers in both English- and Spanish-language spaces, including Future, Ñengo Flow, and Quavo, as well as the aforementioned legends. Though it breaks from the overarching series’ solo-only ethos, Carrión wanted the final volume to achieve something a number of his Latin music peers have strived for. “Sometimes, people do songs with American artists, and they don’t do the right song,” he says. “It’s all about having the right track for the right person, and for them to understand that the music does work on our side.” To that end, he worked largely with the same producers who got him to *3MEN2 KBRN*, namely Foreign Teck, Hydro, and Bassyy. “We really did this bridge between American and Latino artists for the first time. There hasn’t been an album like this before.” Read more about some of Eladio Carrión’s favorite *3MEN2 KBRN* tracks below. **“Padre Tiempo”** “It’s basically me having a conversation with Father Time, asking him for more time. Every time I go on tour, when I come back, I see my parents; they are older with more gray hairs. It’s me trying to say, ‘What can we do?’—trying to negotiate something. It’s just a really powerful track; my intros are known for that. That’s one of those songs you’re going to have to run back like, ‘Damn! He said that shit!’” **“Gladiador Remix” (feat. Lil Wayne)** “Lil Wayne really made me understand how important it is to drop bars in music. So, this is a really big one for me. ‘Gladiador’ was the intro for my last album. I didn’t think that song could get better. Wayne killed the song. It means a lot, just to know he got on it. I manifested it so much, so it’s a beautiful thing. It just talks about, no matter what happens, whatever the obstacle, you have to keep on going.” **“Mbappé Remix” (feat. Future)** “Future was on the top of my wish list, trapwise. You know that is one of my biggest inspirations is trap. Meeting him was super dope. To see his reaction in the studio, and to see how he really fucked with the song, it was super cool to have his blessing on that side. I didn’t see him do the verse. I met him and he went, probably, to the club, and he came back. I got the verse back at like 10 am. So, I think he recorded at like 8 in the morning.” **“Si Salimos” (feat. 50 Cent)** “When I got the 50 verse, I cried like a baby. I knew exactly how he was going to do it. I had manifested and visualized it so many times that, when he sent me the verse, I said that ‘yeah 50’ at the same time \[as him\] because I knew he was going to do it. It’s funny because I went to go see him perform for the first time like two weeks before he dropped the verse. I was right next to him. He was looking at me like, ‘Who the hell is this guy with the big ol’ chain?’ If only you knew, Curtis, I’m your biggest fan. That’s my hero. I’m just rapping with my favorite rapper right now!” **“Cuevita”** “This is more on the pop side. It’s still trap, but it is more commercial. Shout-out to my producers, Hydro and Bassyy. I always try to put one in there, just to see what happens at the shows. That type of vibe, they always do well for shows. I always like to imagine the second my DJ presses that button. That is definitely a festival song.” **“Coco Chanel” (feat. Bad Bunny)** “Me and Bunny haven’t done a song since ‘Kemba Walker.’ That’s why we have been kind of hesitant to drop a song. But when you hear the beat, you’re going to be like, ‘OK, yeah, I get why they chose this song.’ When the hook comes in, that’s when it bops. That’s one of those, you know, fun little tracks that I be doing, him and I.” **“Peso a Peso” (feat. Ñengo Flow, Quavo & Rich the Kid)** “I had this Rich the Kid verse for like a year and a half. I met him in LA, then we met up in Puerto Rico. When he was recording the verse, he was like four bars in and then, out of nowhere, Quavo just walks in the door. I didn’t even know Quavo was in Puerto Rico to begin with. He just pulled up and dropped that in like 15 minutes. It was amazing to watch. I put Ñengo on it to make the best of both worlds on it, and he came in with a super OG verse. That’s just me trying to make those correct collabs and make it sound right.” **“M3” (feat. Fivio Foreign)** “We hit hard in New York. That’s how we got Fivio, we got Lil Tjay, we got 50. Fivio is such a great guy. In the studio, it was so easy to do this because he was just so cool off the bat, like when we met. He went super hard on that one. He did it so fast, too, in like 30 minutes. I said the first words, started in Spanish, and he just went off. That is the only thing I told him.”

Released on Dave’s 25th birthday—the day after Central Cee’s 25th—surprise drop *Split Decision* showcases some of the powers that have embedded the Londoners at UK rap’s top table at a relatively tender age—specifically, the wit, agility, and nuance of their rhymes. The occasion and the artwork—a Ferrari F40 being loaded onto a yacht in Monaco—set a celebratory tone that summer-ready lead single “Sprinter” emboldens, playfully weighing the pair’s success in cars, women, and Amex cards. Characteristically, though, they rarely let bravado run unchecked for too long. Before “Sprinter” is out, Cench has paused to ponder the mental scars left by his journey (“Bare snow in my hood, no Aspen/Can’t get rid of my pain with aspirin”), while over the graceful strings and punchy bass of “Trojan Horse,” a romantic encounter suddenly evokes the trauma of wrongful arrest for Dave. One of Dave’s cleverest rhymes here calls back to the struggle—“Being broke, I can feel that, Mummy had to squeeze into the flats/Like she was borrowing some shoes and her heels snapped” (“Our 25th Birthday”)—but it’s also a joy to hear him skillfully reference Rudimental, Tony Soprano, Nelly Furtado, and Manchester United’s Amad Diallo in the space of seven lines on “UK Rap.”

Two of hip-hop’s most prolific contemporary artists, laidback rapper Larry June and production vet The Alchemist, seem to have plotted *The Great Escape* for some time. If prior co-credited appearances on projects by mutuals Curren$y and Jay Worthy signaled their clear studio chemistry, 2022’s *Spaceships on the Blade* standout “Breakfast in Monaco” left little to no doubt that the two absolutely needed to drop a proper album together. Following the anticipatory loosie teases of “60 Days” and “89 Earthquake,” this 15-track effort exceeds expectations by formally bringing June’s entrepreneurial ethos of health and wealth into ALC’s unparalleled sonic world-building. Visions of luxury cars, presidential suites, and, of course, fresh-squeezed orange juice run through June lyrics over the grind dates “Porsches in Spanish” and “Turkish Cotton.” The pair’s no-expense-spared journey takes them to Detroit, where Boldy James spits confidently through a perpetual snarl on “Art Talk” and Big Sean speaks on the long game with unapologetic frankness on “Palisades, CA.” Elsewhere, East Coast renaissance man Action Bronson drops a dizzyingly reference-heavy verse on the jazz-infused “Solid Plan,” while Wiz Khalifa elucidates his core values on the psychedelic soul-powered “What Happened to the World?”

The question of whether you want an MC like Earl Sweatshirt and a producer like The Alchemist to test each other’s limits is on some level an existential one: Like, isn’t the fact that the dreamlike flights of *VOIR DIRE* feel like comfort food a testament to how much they’ve already stretched our conception of hip-hop? Ten years out from his first “real” album (2013’s *Doris*), Earl sounds grateful, fulfilled, and yet no less enigmatic than when he was a kid, holding space for a history of Black diasporic art from Martinican poet Aimé Césaire to the Swazi-Xhosa South African pop legend Miriam Makeba without sacrificing the hermetic quality that made him so appealing in the first place. In Vince Staples, he continues to find the straight-talking foil he needs (“The Caliphate,” “Mancala”), and in Al a producer who can nudge him just a little closer to the hallelujahs he’s either too cool or evasive to embrace (“Mancala”). And at 26 minutes, the whole thing easily asks to be played again.

*“These ideologies are haunting.”* —Drake In the dog days of summer 2023, Drake did a very Drake thing: Just before embarking on tour, he revealed that he’d written a poetry book called *Titles Ruin Everything*. To spread the news, he took out ads in several major newspapers. On them was a QR code which led to another announcement: “I made an album to go with the book. They say they miss the old Drake girl don’t tempt me. FOR ALL THE DOGS.” The “old Drake” line, as real heads know, is a reference to “Headlines,” a song from the early days of Champagne Papi’s rise from Canadian curiosity to global superstar. The old Drake was an underdog, a former child actor and Lil Wayne protégé who blended hip-hop and R&B in a way that would indelibly change both. And the new Drake? He’s a 36-year-old father of one who’s responsible for a not-small percentage of Toronto’s annual tourist economy and who, with the release of “Slime You Out,” is one No. 1 single away from tying Michael Jackson on the all-time list. (By the time his Scary Hours version dropped six weeks later, he’d tied it.) If there’s anything Old Drake and New Drake can agree on, it’s hour-and-a-half-long blockbuster albums that master the fine art of score-settling. Drizzy’s gone through plenty of phases in his 15 years in the running as one of hip-hop’s GOATs: albums full of wintry grime and drill, or breezy dance albums for the baddies to turn up to on girls’ night. *For All the Dogs*, his eighth studio album, has more in common with 2011’s *Take Care*, the star-making opus loaded with luxuriant beats and big-name features. But instead of drunk-dialing his exes, Drake’s…well, he’s still doing that every now and again. Mostly, though, he’s with his dogs. The album’s loose framework is a late-night local radio program: BARK Radio, live from Chapel Hill, whose hosts include Teezo Touchdown, Drake’s crush/idol Sade, and the occasional chorus of hounds. This particular broadcast is a sumptuous banquet of classically Drake techniques, starting with the smirking fake-out that is intro track “Virginia Beach.” (If you know, you know.) There’s the requisite Houston worship on “Screw the World,” the new jack swing peacocking of “Amen,” and the swanky-sounding “Bahamas Promises,” which opens with a couplet only Drizzy could pull off: “Broken pinkie promises/You fucked up our Bahamas trip.” He’s scoffing at rap’s NPCs with J. Cole on “First Person Shooter” and taking relationship advice from Future on “What Would Pluto Do.” On “BBL Love,” he drops an all-timer for the “that’s so Drake” archives, musing, “They say love’s like a BBL, you won’t know if it’s real until you feel one,” as if anyone has ever said such a thing whose name isn’t Aubrey Drake Graham. But it isn’t officially a Drake album till you get to the song with the city name and timestamp in the title. On “8am in Charlotte,” over a boom-bap beat from Conductor Williams, Drake presides over his dogs like a coach before the big game, initiates breakups at five-star restaurants, and unleashes a barrage of knee-slappers you can imagine him deploying 20 years from now at his eventual Vegas residency. In the video, the most successful rapper of his generation wears a hoodie emblazoned with “HATE SURVIVOR.” Six weeks later he returned via Instagram teaser, dressed like Humphrey Bogart, with a pinot noir in hand and an announcement: Rather than rest on his laurels, he’d recorded the third entry in his Scary Hours series in a spontaneous five-day blitz. “It’s like a storm before the calm—we’ll get to the vacation later,” he raps on “Stories About My Brother,” a song made to be played in high-dollar LA supper clubs. There’s a lot of action packed into the project’s six additional tracks: a Yeezy mention in “Red Button,” a refutation of Old Drake’s romantic ways on the scathing “The Shoe Fits,” a second J. Cole verse on “Evil Ways,” and a rousing chorus of “Fuck my ex” over a beat with all the pomp and circumstance of a graduation anthem on closer “You Broke My Heart.”

Five years after her critically acclaimed studio debut *Lost & Found*, Jorja Smith returns more self-assured than ever. On *falling or flying*, the UK singer-songwriter stays true to her roots, her lush tone draping over jazzy, futuristic production, while cuts like “GO GO GO” give listeners access to Smith’s more lighthearted side as she dips into indie rock territory. While *Lost & Found* exuded the energy of an exploratory coming-of-age for the then-19-year-old, *falling or flying* is a brutally honest expression of all the artist has learned. In her return to the musical spotlight, Smith also found her way back to her hometown of Walsall after spending a handful of years in London, during which time she worked on her sophomore album. *falling or flying* represents the singer’s blossoming sense of self amidst relentless public opinion, once again proving her intricate capabilities as a storyteller through both lyricism and vocal prowess.

Convenient though it may be, sometimes you have to give in and accept the metaphor. *Gumbo*, the engrossing fourth album from Atlanta’s Young Nudy, is what it says on its packaging: a collection of painstakingly crafted component parts (“Okra,” “Duck Meat,” “Shrimp,” “Portabella”) simmered together to become more than their mere sum, an alchemic blend of flavors and textures. And as with the titular dish, a mere recitation of ingredients would give an imitator little insight into how the real thing is made—the secret ingredients, of course, are proprietary. To shift to another culinary metaphor, there’s a use-every-part-of-the-animal ethos at play on *Gumbo*. Even the most mundane parts of the recording process become opportunities for innovation: Where many rappers use punch-ins to lay verses that are difficult to land in a single take, Nudy uses this technique to achieve a hallucinatory effect. See the opener “Brussel Sprout,” which comes to sound more like a lullaby than the opening salvo to a rap record with such punishing low ends. Rather than feeling stitched together, the takes overlap like blankets falling onto one another; the listener has to track whether Nudy in each subsequent layer is underlining what was said before, or subverting it. Produced in large part by Coupe (with an assist from Nudy’s longtime collaborator Pi’erre Bourne on the Key Glock-featuring “Pot Roast”), *Gumbo* is a heavy, percussive album, its punishing bass and yawning negative space giving the rapper ample room to deploy the most fluid flows of his career to this point. Nudy is a chameleonic rapper, able to dance through complicated patterns or communicate via monosyllables through sheer charisma. On *Gumbo*, those and other approaches are used in precise measures—as the recipe demands.

Baby Rose makes healing music for the aimless and heartbroken. The Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter and producer’s uniquely rich voice naturally lends itself to her powerful, smoke-filled ballads lamenting lost loves and broken futures. “I make music to help myself get through things,” she says. The piercing honesty and vulnerability she brings to her lyrics in turn helps others process their feelings and find a place of healing. For Rose, it’s a journey that’s still ongoing. “If I’m going to leave anything behind, it’s going to be getting people back to themselves,” she says. “As I get back to myself, it’s a constant reset: Remember who you are, remember who you want to be.” You can hear the impact of this approach in Baby Rose’s upcoming second album, Through and Through. Take the hypnotic “Fight Club.” Over the track’s simmering baseline and crashing cymbals, she declares, “I don’t need no one else to show me the way.” She describes the song as a “breaking of the shell. It encourages me to just go for it and not care about what anyone else thinks.” Therein lies Baby Rose’s strength: a determination to live, love, and create on her own terms. “I’m not just a singer with a unique voice,” she says. “I’m somebody that has something to say.” Growing up in Washington DC, the artist born Jasmine Rose Wilson first realized the power of her voice by reading aloud original poems at family gatherings. Despite being bullied for her lower vocal register throughout her childhood and teen years, she ultimately found comfort in songwriting and singing while playing her piano, inspired by the likes of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Janis Joplin—strong women who also possessed unique voices. She moved to Fayetteville, N.C for middle and high school. In 2013, Rose moved to Atlanta for college and quickly became immersed in the city’s music scene and which also nourished the gift inside of her. With the release of her seminal projects, From Dusk Til Dawn and To Myself, Rose earned early co-signs from SZA, J. Cole, James Blake, Kehlani, and LeBron James to name a few. Her explosive To Myself project saw Rose channeling immense grief into a body of work that revealed her gift for soul-baring and universally relatable songwriting. The project received large critical acclaim from The New York Times, Pitchfork, Vogue, NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Complex, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE and many more. Rose’s meteoric rise birthed a one-of-a-kind, stirring NPR Tiny Desk performance, a sold-out headlining worldwide tour and major placements on HBO’s ‘Insecure’ and Kenya Barris’ award-winning ‘Grownish’. In late 2020, Baby Rose made her late night TV debut with an arresting performance of her breakout song “Show You” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Additionally, Rose was featured on Cole’s Dreamville compilation, Revenge of the Dreamers III (“Self-Love”), after finding her way into a studio, sitting at the piano, and grabbing the attention of J. Cole by writing and producing records for the album. “I just felt, after living in Fayetteville, NC as well for so long, I deserved to be there,” she says. In the years since releasing To Myself, Rose has been painstakingly piecing together its sequel. Started almost immediately after its release, her new body of work finds her in a state of musical and personal transition. It’s a subtle merging of new sounds—stirring rock, upbeat r&b, psychedelic funk, pop, and soulful ballads—, all mastered through analog tape to make the music feel warmer and all-encompassing. It’s also a journey inward as she battles past fear and self-doubt to finally discover—and love—who she is, where she is. Finishing an album with such peace and firm resolution is a first for Rose, but she makes it clear: She’s nowhere near done writing her story. “I think as long as I’m being raw and trying to push past my comfort zone, it will feel rewarding,” she says. “I don’t want to be the type that doesn’t take risks because I’m afraid. I have to trust that as long as the music is honest and innovative, it'll be timeless."

*NO THANK YOU*—the follow-up to 2021’s Mercury Prize-winning *Sometimes I Might Be Introvert*—emphatically deepens Little Simz’s connection with producer Inflo, and provides further confirmation of the Islington rapper’s generational abilities. The initials of the title of her soul-searching fourth LP spelled out her first name, and the name of its surprise follow-up also hints at a purposeful double meaning. Perhaps a kindly expression of gratitude for the flowers given since *SIMBI*’s success? More likely an act of defiance. Either way, within this trademark ambiguity Simz gets her shine on across 10 sumptuous tracks. BRIT Awards Producer Of The Year 2022 Dean Josiah Cover—aka Inflo—taps into the rich, bluesy elements of his enigmatic Sault music for urgent dispatches from Simbi Ajikawo. It’s a rich sonic seam: A returning undercurrent of gospel-rooted R&B reinforces lines with spiritual resonance. From tone-setting opener “Angel” (dedicated to the model Harry Uzoka, who died in January 2018), soft choral flourishes and dreamy Cleo Sol vocals help Simz pick up where she left off in 2021. “Revoke access, I’m running it back, yes/Missing opportunities, I wish I was that pressed.” Building on a deep-rooted synergy, Simz and Inflo go the whole length on the gut feeling that has made their partnership so prolific. For Simz, an artist who’s always operated to her own set of standards, an equally clear-sighted collaborator (Inflo is also across the keys, chords, and strings) finds her at her most compassionate and precise, tackling family trauma and the emotional isolation of success. Within the streams of sharp, self-analyzing rhymes, scattered samples, and prolonged orchestral sections—“Sideways” and “Control”—lies the sound of a winning combo firmly in the groove. As Simz continues to soar, she’s evidently still clearing house. By facing down the dark reaches of the mind and the tests of her daily environment, emotional and soulful highs and lows are wonderfully bared across her tightest lyrical offering to date.

In 2022, Faiyaz dropped his highly anticipated sophomore album *WASTELAND*, a 19-track LP that unfolds like an R&B Shakespearian tragedy exploring themes of relationships—love, infidelity, and betrayal. The rollercoaster ride through Faiyaz\'s emotions, portraying vulnerable thoughts that come with juggling newfound fame, is what made *WASTELAND* an instant hit. On follow-up *Larger Than Life*, Faiyaz ditches its predecessor\'s darker themes and leans back into the misadventures of the affluent ladies\' man from his earlier projects. The album\'s theme is set in the opener, \"Tim\'s Intro,\" which features legendary producer Timbaland and shows Faiyaz flirtatiously bragging about his larger-than-life lifestyle to a potential lover. Throughout the LP\'s 14 tracks, Faiyaz chronicles the ins and outs of his entanglements on his quest to find love, from developing an emotional attachment to his lover (\"Last One Left,\" \"Outside All Night\") to pledging his faithfulness (\"Forever Yours\"). However, it\'s not all love songs on *Larger Than Life*. It wouldn\'t be a Brent Faiyaz album without some toxicity. \"WY@\" showcases the unfiltered essence of love\'s complexities, namely the struggle to escape a bad relationship. \"Even I know you ain\'t no good for me/But you feel so good to me/Every time I come back, I try to leave/So how you end up back with me? Oh (I don\'t know),\" he croons. *Larger Than Life* forgoes the brooding basslines and synths from *WASTELAND* and draws inspiration from the ’90s-’00s era that has influenced Faiyaz. It\'s nostalgic without sounding outdated and pays homage to some of the biggest tracks from that period, with samples from Nicole Wray\'s 1998 hit \"Boy You Should Listen\" on the Coco Jones-assisted \"Moment of Your Life\" and Rome\'s 1997 classic \"I Belong to You (Every Time I See Your Face)\" on \"Belong to You.\"

The Atlanta-born artist and Playboi Carti disciple (he’s signed to Carti’s Opium imprint) steps out from the limelight of his mentor, establishing his own vision that stands out in Atlanta’s always evolving scene. Distorted synths and rumbling drums provide the backdrop for Carson’s futuristic croons, which are affected by layers of Auto-Tune and digital manipulation. If Outkast were the original aliens out of the ATL, Ken Carson is a cyborg, reprogramming the city to sound like Young Thug soundtracking *Blade Runner*. Lyrically, Carson reflects on struggles, successes, anger, heartbreak, trauma, and more. From the song titles alone, it’s clear that *A Great Chaos* is a deeply personal effort. “Fighting My Demons” and “Paranoid” reflect the bad, but “Rockstar Lifestyle” provides an ample turn-up moment. The album ends with “i need you,” a metallic, bass-heavy ode to true love that finds Carson stripping the window dressing and revealing his rawest self: “Like oxygen, without you, baby girl, I can\'t breathe.”

PinkPantheress’ debut album, *Heaven knows*, opens with the sound of a scaling church organ and heavy rainfall. It’s a grand entrance that’s as fitting for this album’s title as it is perhaps surprising for the artist behind it. But if PinkPantheress broke out thanks to the propulsive, UKG- and D’n’B-shaped pop she’d crafted in her bedroom (and her songs’ wild social-media success), the beginnings of *Heaven knows* feel like an acknowledgment—or a declaration—that she’s outgrown its four walls. Sometimes, that feels literal: “True romance” finds her amid the screaming crowds and clicking cameras of a show as she heralds her love for someone much more famous than her. It’s either a sign of the company she keeps these days (“Every song is about you/And everybody’s shouting out your name”) or a play on the darker side of fan obsession (“I know you’re older/But I really know I’m sure/Held my ticket since they landed at my door/I’ve been a fan of you since 2004/You know you got me”). But this album is also a broadening of her musical world, the songs here—made with collaborators including Greg Kurstin (Adele, Gorillaz, Foo Fighters), Mura Masa, Cash Cobain, Danny L Harle (Caroline Polachek) and Oscar Scheller (Ashnikko, Charli XCX, Rina Sawayama)—are noticeably more expansive than those on 2021’s star-confirming mixtape *To hell with it*. You can expect all the nostalgic sounds and breakbeats that defined that release and made the Kent-raised singer-songwriter/producer famous. But also disco (on the excellent “The aisle”), ’90s R&B (“Mosquito” and “Feel complete,” which sounds like it could have been written for a girl group), rock wig-outs (“Capable of love”), and flourishes of strings, church bells and even birdsong en route. (There are also songs that pass the three-minute mark.) Plus, plenty of collaborations, as Pink recruits a crop of culture-shaping artists to appear alongside her: Rema, Kelela, Central Cee, and, of course, Ice Spice, with whom she reached global domination in summer 2023 with “Boy’s a liar, Pt. 2.” All of which is united by the story of a troubled relationship, the album’s emo-shaped lyricism frequently blurring the lines between heartbreak and death and love and obsession (“You’re not quite stuck with me, but one day you’ll be,” she sings on “The aisle”). It could feel sinister, if her voice—and increasingly boundless, future-facing hyperpop—weren’t quite so sweet. By the time *Heaven knows* closes out with “Boy’s a liar, Pt. 2,” it’s a reminder of the astronomical heights PinkPantheress reached before even announcing her debut. But right in the middle of it, she hints that—despite her social-media beginnings—she can be anything she wants to be. “I am not your internet baby,” she repeats insistently on “Internet baby (interlude).” “I am not your internet baby.”

If 2021’s *Life of a DON* gave us any insight into then newly minted rap star Don Toliver, it was that his lifestyle was both costly and the center of his music’s inspiration. For *Life of a DON*’s follow-up, *Love Sick*, Toliver leans into one of life’s more priceless experiences, delivering ruminations on love and ways he’s experienced it. From chasing unrequited love on “Let Her Go” to falling in love on the dance floor on “Leave the Club” to declaring an undying love on “4 Me” to love through the lens of a Houston native on “Company Pt. 3,” *Love Sick* is the MC’s adventures in courtship. He’s assisted in his storytelling by James Blake, GloRilla, and real-life girlfriend Kali Uchis, who, if nothing else, must love what they and Toliver were able to do here.

Conforming to the expected has never been Amaarae’s strong suit. And it should come as no surprise that the Ghanaian American artist would create a sonic otherworld where the trappings of R&B, hip-hop, Afropop, punk, and alternative rock mesh with globe-trotting instrumentation and exist harmoniously without question on her album *Fountain Baby*. The result? A culmination of what a transnational pop star is in 2023—boundless. *Fountain Baby* lends its credence to Amaarae’s continued quest for growth and mastery, but not in a contrived way. There are pockets of carefully crafted yet carefree melodies like the dreamy “Angels in Tibet” and sultry “Reckless & Sweet.” On “Counterfeit,” the singer-songwriter swiftly glides with confidence on production by KZ Didit that’s reminiscent of an early-2000s movie soundtrack. “Wasted Eyes” opens with a quick koto solo and progresses as Amaarae soliloquizes about a wounded romance. The 14-track solo project pushes the ante of its 2020 predecessor, *The Angel You Don’t Know*, towards newer heights.

Brimming with astrological fervor and unbridled emotionality, *Red Moon in Venus* finds the Colombian American sensation zeroing in on love. From the proud promises behind “Endlessly” to the sweet little profundities of “Love Between...,” the album plays with genre without losing cohesion or connection. On the guest front, Don Toliver matches her R&B potency amid the polyrhythmic blur of “Fantasy,” while Omar Apollo brings his own certain charm to the sumptuous duet “Worth the Wait.” Yet most of the album keeps the spotlight rightfully on her, leading to breathtaking moments like “I Wish You Roses” and the Sade-esque “Blue.” And while *Red Moon in Venus* returns the artist to a primarily English-language mode, she hasn’t dispatched entirely with the approach taken on 2020’s *Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞*. She brings bilingual lyricism alongside orchestral accents for “Como Te Quiero Yo” and retro grooves for “Hasta Cuando.”

The last time we heard new music from Summer Walker was in 2021 with her sophomore effort, *Still Over It*, which chronicled her messy and complicated relationship with Atlanta producer London On Da Track before, during, and after her pregnancy. The album’s relatability, cohesiveness, and introspective lyrics made *Still Over It* a certified hit, giving Walker her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart. Since then, the singer-songwriter has been featured on tracks with Ari Lennox, Ciara, and The Weeknd, as well as expanding her family by welcoming a set of twins. “I’m really loving life right now, enjoying this new outlook on life, loving the new me, loving my kids and not letting life pass me by anymore,” she writes in an exclusive statement to Apple Music. Walker is in her soft-life era, which, according to social media, is a life free of struggle and stress and focuses more on joy and self-care. These ideals and themes are evident on Walker’s latest EP *CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE*, a follow-up in her *CLEAR* series, which she debuted in 2019. “The first one was kinda sad—all my music is sad—but I’m in a different space, so this one is more happy,” she said. “It’s a continuation in the sense of the music because it’s all live.” Where *Still Over It* deals with the loss of a relationship and the emotions that come with a breakup, *CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE* shows the singer-songwriter leaving those feelings of heartbreak and anxiety behind and embracing a life filled with ease. However, she still needs a reminder now and then. On the opener, “To Summer, From Cole (Audio Hug),” J. Cole reaffirms her by letting her know it’s okay to take some time to clear her mind and forget the stresses from her fame. Summer tackles this newfound life that she’s chosen for herself by not following the same patterns from her past relationships (“New Type”) and quickly cuts ties with connections that no longer serve her (“How Does It Feel,” “Pull Up,” “Finding Peace”). On “Mind Yo Mouth,” she finds the confidence to say what’s on her mind, even if it bruises a man’s ego: “Wanna be with me then you gon’ get up off your bottom/Uh, wanna lay with me then you gon’ be a real man,” she swaggers. In true Summer fashion, she offers up introspective lyrics and reflects on her journey within her past relationships on the album closer, “Agayu’s Revelation.” On the Steve Lacy- and Solange-produced track, Summer talks about a realization she had during a conversation with her spiritual guide when she discovered that the partners she chooses are the reason her relationships fail: “They’re fragile/Their egos are fragile/They’re not quite ready to face themselves/Maybe now or ever.” “Maferefun oya, Maferefun Oshun,” Walker writes, with an intriguing kicker: “PS: album 3 soon.”

For a certain kind of rap fan, the sound of an Australian woman giggling, “What is this? I like this Maybach Music…” is like hearing from an old friend. In the early 2010s, Rick Ross’ MMG label was a serious contender for the hottest squad in hip-hop. While the Teflon Don barked about Big Meech over earth-shaking Lex Luger beats, Meek Mill was bellowing fire-and-brimstone missives in all caps. In the decade since, the two have traded the occasional guest verse, but when they hinted at a full-length collaboration in the fall of 2023, it seemed, well, too good to be true. (To be fair, the project was written in the stars, Meek’s real name being Robert Williams and Rozay’s William Roberts II.) There are a few hints across *Too Good to Be True* signaling that the year is not, in fact, 2012: “This bandemic infectious,” the Jamaican singer BEAM warbles on the Tears for Fears-sampling “Go to Hell,” a sentiment that might be lost on early-2010s time travelers. But for the most part, it’s a glorious return to peak form. Meek sounds as hungry as ever, though these days the former Philly battle rapper is power-lunching with Tom Brady. (“Talking ’bout his girl problems—I can’t lie, I related.”) As for Rozay, he’s as iconically ostentatious as he was in his prime, sailing over grown-and-sexy beats like a mega-yacht on Biscayne Bay and boasting about his pet buffaloes. (No, seriously, look it up.) Thunderous anthems like the French Montana-featuring “Millionaire Row” and Future collab “In Luv With the Money” are direct portals to the strip club circa 2012. But the bosses’ biggest coup is the remix of lead single “SHAQ & KOBE,” which tags in Dame D.O.L.L.A., the rap alter ego of the Bucks’ Damian Lillard, and snags a verse from fellow NBA rap G.O.A.T. Shaq Diesel where he promises to “bring the drama ’til he’s with the Mamba.”

If, at any point over the past three decades, Nas’ status was ever in question, his 2020s run with Hit-Boy shut down any and all such speculation. The Queensbridge-bred rapper earned his spot in the GOAT debate well before the critically acclaimed and award-winning *King’s Disease* dropped in 2020, and the full-length sequels to that album only strengthened his position, not to mention his already legendary pen. Yet when *Magic* dropped on Christmas Eve 2021, listeners felt the difference. This was Nasir Jones operating on a decidedly different vibe, rapping for the love of it for a half hour straight over some of his go-to producer’s most gratifying beats. A sort of modern-day parallel to his archival *Lost Tapes* compilation, *Magic 2* serves his fans with a veteran’s ear and a dexterous flow. “Abracadabra” offers a rigorous recap of this era of his career, nodding back to his past while marveling at it all. He pulls off a Queens coup with the homegrown “Office Hours,” reuniting with 50 Cent on record for the first time in some 20 years. Hit-Boy’s instrumentals vary between the understated chill of “Black Magic” and the melodic boom-bap revival of “Pistols on Your Album Cover.” The closing bonus of “One Mic, One Gun” with 21 Savage feels less like a victory lap than a leveling up.

Hip-hop free spirits Aminé and KAYTRANADA broke through around the same time, their respective mid-2010s album debuts having dropped within roughly a year of one another. As such, few should be all that surprised to see their amalgamated KAYTRAMINÉ come to fruition. The sweet soul sensations and razor-sharpened verbiage of initial singles “Rebuke” and the Pharrell-assisted “4EVA” accurately previewed their full-length’s scenic purview, a POV of a righteous escapade through the post-Neptunes/post-Timbaland lineage. Hyper sexual exploits, luxury smackdowns, and much more await listeners on “letstalkaboutit” and “Ugh Ugh,” as well as the aggressively funky cuts “STFU3” and “Who He Iz.” Formidable rapper guests Big Sean and Freddie Gibbs raise the pressure considerably, while Snoop Dogg himself brings his experience in similar sonic spaces to the sparse and synthy “Eye.”

After delays, teases, rumors, and more, Nicki Minaj’s epic and much-anticipated follow-up to 2018’s *Queen* arrives to close out 2023 in style. At 22 tracks and over 70 minutes, the epic project features Minaj tag-teaming with fellow global stars like J. Cole, Drake, Future, Lil Wayne, and Lil Uzi Vert—that is, when she’s not aiming for the throne on solo cuts. Like 2010’s *Pink Friday* (Minaj’s debut album), *Pink Friday 2* features Minaj showcasing the various ways she can carry a track. On some songs, she brings out her best bars, unloading clever one-liners and technically flashy verses. On the album’s second track, “Barbie Dangerous,” Minaj spits over a hypnotizing piano melody and drums that hit like a punch in the gut. Switching between a smooth, controlled flow and a vicious double-time delivery, Minaj is in full control of the song’s dynamics from beginning to end. She makes her claim as one of rap’s great innovators, spitting, “Name a rapper that can channel Big Poppa and push out Papa Bear/Whole mother of the year/Every summer, I come out to walk bitches, make ’em disappear/But to me, it\'s just another year.” On “Nicki Hendrix,” she teams up with Future and taps into his toxic vulnerability, writing a song of love and love lost that would fit nicely into her collaborator’s catalog. At her best, Nicki is uninhibited by style, substance, or delivery. She raps, “Baby, did you think there were a million mes?/I guess I underestimated you too.” Whether engaging in a street cypher with J. Cole, chirping at exes with Drake, or lamenting what once was with Future, Nicki Minaj shows off every weapon in her arsenal on *Pink Friday 2*.

The nearly six-year period Kelela Mizanekristos took between 2017’s *Take Me Apart* and 2023’s *Raven* wasn’t just a break; it was a reckoning. Like a lot of Black Americans, she’d watched the protests following George Floyd’s murder with outrage and cautious curiosity as to whether the winds of social change might actually shift. She read, she watched, she researched; she digested the pressures of creative perfectionism and tireless productivity not as correlatives of an artistic mind but of capitalism and white supremacy, whose consecration of the risk-free bottom line suddenly felt like the arbitrary and invasive force it is. And suddenly, she realized she wasn’t alone. “Internally, I’ve always wished the world would change around me,” Kelela tells Apple Music. “I felt during the uprising and the \[protests of the early 2020s\] that there’s been an *external* shift. We all have more permission to say, ‘I don’t like that.’” Executive-produced by longtime collaborator Asmara (Asma Maroof of Nguzunguzu), 2023’s *Raven* is both an extension of her earlier work and an expansion of it. The hybrids of progressive dance and ’90s-style R&B that made *Take Me Apart* and *Cut 4 Me* compelling are still there (“Contact,” “Missed Call,” both co-produced by LSDXOXO and Bambii), as is her gift for making the ethereal feel embodied and deeply physical (“Enough for Love”). And for all her respect for the modalities of Black American pop music, you can hear the musical curiosity and experiential outliers—as someone who grew up singing jazz standards and played in a punk band—that led her to stretch the paradigms of it, too. But the album’s heart lies in songs like “Holier” and “Raven,” whose narratives of redemption and self-sufficiency jump the track from personal reflections to metaphors for the struggle with patriarchy and racism more broadly. “I’ve been pretty comfortable to talk about the nitty-gritty of relationships,” she says. “But this album contains a few songs that are overtly political, that feel more literally like *no, you will not*.” Oppression comes in many forms, but they all work the same way; *Raven* imagines a flight out.

The ascent of Rauw Alejandro from his R&B-minded reggaetonero beginnings to his visionary global superstar status remains one of the most remarkable rises in Latin music in the 2020s. By the time 2022’s retrofuturistic *SATURNO* arrived, the Puerto Rican singer had amassed an extraordinary following by aggressively yet accessibly pushing past the boundaries of his chosen genre. For this companion album, he presents a veritable beach party playlist to soundtrack the summer and beyond. To that end, *PLAYA SATURNO* leans frequently into his progressive reggaetón strengths, recruiting respected predecessors like Ñejo & Dalmata and Jowell & Randy for “NO ME LA MOLESTE” and “PONTE NASTY,” respectively. The legendary Ivy Queen blesses “CELEBRANDO” with the raw power of her delivery, making for a truly historic moment. Perhaps more impressive still is the way Alejandro brings others into his uniquely constructed world, including veteran pop singer Miguel Bosé and corridos tumbados heartbreaker Junior H. “BABY HELLO,” the Bizarrap collab that first heralded the album’s arrival, closes things out on a thumping high.

The partnership between the pair of rap veterans predates even the name “2 Chainz.” In 2007, when the Georgia native still rapped as Tity Boi, his duo Playaz Circle released their debut single “Duffle Bag Boy”—a great song made even better by a guest verse from Wayne in his prime. Since then, the rappers’ paths have remained entwined: the 2010s are littered with joint tracks from the two, including *ColleGrove*, the 2016 collaborative album that mashed together their hometowns. (That’s College Park, Georgia, for 2 Chainz and Hollygrove, Louisiana, for Wayne.) Seven years later, the forty-something rappers still sound inspired by one another, trading scene-stealing moments for 21 tracks. (It isn’t a contest, but let’s say it is: 2 Chainz excels on minimalist productions like Bangladesh’s “Presha,” whereas Wayne dominates “Shame” in spite of Chainz’ pitch-perfect Ol’ Dirty Bastard impression.) The project is also loaded with more Easter eggs than a Marvel movie; the pair’s verses are riddled with nods to Southern rap greats: Wayne shouts out Fabo on “Long Story Short,” a track that samples Project Pat and channels UGK’s “International Players Anthem (I Choose You).” And on “Big Diamonds,” they take it back to 2000 with a classic Mannie Fresh beat, over which Wayne proclaims: “Me and 2 Chainz, bitch, we’re the new Big Tymers.”

On his Mercury Prize-winning debut album, 2017’s *Process*, Sampha Sisay often cut an isolated figure. As the Londoner’s songs contended with loss—particularly the passing of his parents—and anxieties about his health and relationships, a sense of insularity and detachment haunted his poignant, experimental electro-soul. Arriving six years later, this follow-up presents a man reestablishing and strengthening connections. Lifted by warm synths and strings, songs are energized by the busy rhythms of jungle, broken beat, and West African Wassoulou music. Images of flight dominate as Sampha zooms out from everyday preoccupations to take a bird’s-eye view of the world and his place in it as a father, a friend, a brother, a son. “I feel sometimes making an album is like a manifesto for how I should be living, or that all the answers are in what I’m saying,” he tells Apple Music. “I don’t necessarily *live* by what I’m saying but there’s times where I recognize that I need to reconnect to family and friends—times where I can really lose connection by being too busy with my own things.” So where *Process* ended with Sampha ruefully noting, “I should visit my brother/But I haven’t been there in months/I’ve lost connection, signal/To how we were” on “What Shouldn’t I Be?” *Lahai* concludes in the fireside glow of “Rose Tint,” a song celebrating the salve of good company: “I’m needy, don’t you know?/But the fam beside me/Is what I needed most.” Before then, *Lahai* examines Sampha’s sense of self and his relationships through his interests in science, time, therapy, spirituality, and philosophy. “I became more confident with being OK with what I’m interested in, and not feeling like I have to be an expert,” he says. “So even if it comes off as pretentious at times, I was more comfortable with putting things out there. That’s an important process: Even in the political sphere, a lot of people don’t speak about things because they’re worried about how people will react or that they’re not expert enough to talk on certain things. I’m into my science, my sci-fi, my philosophy. Even if I’m not an expert, I could still share my feelings and thoughts and let that become a source of dialogue that will hopefully improve my understanding of those things.” Started in 2019 and gradually brought together as Sampha negotiated the restrictions of the pandemic and the demands and joys of fatherhood, the songs, he says, present “a photograph of my mental, spiritual, physical state.” Read on for his track-by-track guide. **“Stereo Colour Cloud (Shaman’s Dream)”** “I wanted to make something that felt like animation and so the instrumentation is quite colorful. What started it off was me experimenting with new kinds of production. I was using a mechanical, MIDI-controlled acoustic piano and playing over it. Same thing with the drums—I built a robotic acoustic drummer to build these jungle breaks. So, it’s all these acoustic instruments that I programmed via MIDI, and also playing over them with humans, with myself.” **“Spirit 2.0”** “It’s a song I started in my bedroom, a song I wrote walking through parks in solitude, a song I wrote at a time I felt I needed to hear for myself. It took probably a year from start to finish for that song to come together. I had the chords and the modular synths going for a while and then eventually I wrote a melody. Then I had an idea for the drums and I recorded the drums. It was also influenced by West African folk music, Wassoulou music. I guess that isn’t maybe quite obvious to everyone, but I’ve made quite a thing of talking about it—it’s influenced the way I write rhythmically.” **“Dancing Circles”** “This also came from this kind of acoustic/MIDI jamming. I wrote this pulsing, slightly clash-y metronomic piano and wrote over and jammed over it. I put the song together with a producer called Pablo Díaz-Reixa \[Spanish artist/producer El Guincho\], who helped arrange the song. I sort of freestyled some lyrics and came up with the dancing refrain, and then had this idea of someone having a conversation with someone they hadn’t seen in a long time, and just remembering how good it is, how good it felt to dance with them.” **“Suspended”** “I feel like a lot of what I’ve written goes between this dreamlike state and me drawing on real-life scenarios. This is a song about someone who’s reminiscing again, but also feeling like they’re kind of going in and out of different time periods. I guess it was inspired by thinking about all the people, and all the women especially, in my life that I’ve been lifted up by, even though I frame it as if I’m speaking about one person. The feeling behind it is me recognizing how supported I’ve been by people, even if it’s not been always an easy or straightforward journey.” **“Satellite Business”** “This feels like the midpoint of the record. I guess in this record I was interrogating spirituality and recognizing I hadn’t really codified, or been able to put my finger on, any sort of metaphysical experience, per se—me somewhat trying to connect to life via a different view. The song is about me recognizing my own finitude and thinking about the people I’ve lost and recognizing, through becoming a father myself, that not all is done and I’m part of a journey and I can see my parents or even my brothers, my daughter. \[It’s\] about connection—to the past and to the future and to the present. Any existential crisis I was having about myself has now been offloaded to me thinking about how long I’m going to be around to see and protect and help guide someone else.” **“Jonathan L. Seagull”** “I speak a lot about flying \[on the album\] and I actually mention \[Richard Bach’s novella\] *Jonathan Livingston Seagull* in ‘Spirit 2.0.’ For me, the question was sometimes thinking about limits, the search for perfection. I don’t agree with everything in *Jonathan Livingston Seagull* as a book, it was more a bit of a memory to me \[Sampha’s brother read the story to him when he was a child\], the feeling of memory as opposed to the actual details of the book. I guess throughout the record, I talk about relationships in my own slightly zoomed-out way. I had this question in my mind, ‘Oh, how high can you actually go?’ Just thinking about limits and thinking sometimes that can be comforting and sometimes it can be scary.” **“Inclination Compass (Tenderness)”** “Birds, like butterflies, use the Earth’s magnetic field to migrate, to be able to navigate themselves to where they need to get to \[this internal compass is known as an inclination compass\]. I feel that there’s times where love can be simpler than I let it be. As you grow up, sometimes you might get into an argument with someone and you’re really stubborn, you might just need to hug it out and then everything is fine—say something nice or let something go. Anger’s a complicated emotion, and there’s lots of different thoughts and theories about how you should deal with it. For me personally, this is leaning into the fact that sometimes it’s OK to switch to a bit more of an understanding or empathetic stance—and I can sometimes tend to not do that.” **“Only”** “It’s probably the song that sticks out the most in the record in terms of the sonic aesthetic. It’s probably less impressionistic than the rest of the record. I think because of that it felt like it was something to share \[as the second single\]. Thematically as well, it just felt relevant to me in terms of trying to follow the beat of my own drum or finding a place where you’re confident in yourself—recognizing that other people are important but that I can also help myself. It’s a bit of a juxtaposition because there’s times where it feels like it’s only you who can really change yourself, but at the same time, you’re not alone.” **“Time Piece”** “Time is just an interesting concept because there’s so many different theories. And does it even exist? \[The lyrics translate as ‘Time does not exist/A time machine.’\] But we’re really tied to it, it’s such an important facet of our lives, how we measure things. It was just an interesting tie into the next song.” **“Can’t Go Back”** “I feel like there’s a lot of times I just step over my clothes instead of pick them up. I’m so preoccupied with thinking about something else or thinking about the future, there’s times where I could have actually just been a bit more present at certain moments or just, ‘It’s OK to just do simple things, doing the dishes.’ The amount \[of\] my life \[in\] which I’m just so preoccupied in my mind…Not to say that there isn’t space for that, there’s space for all of it, but this is just a reminder that there’s times where I could just take a moment out, five to 10 minutes to do something. And it can feel so difficult to spend such short periods of time without a device or without thinking about what you’re going to do tomorrow. This is just a reminder of that kind of practice.” **“Evidence”** “I think there’s times where it just feels like I have ‘sliding door’ moments or glimpses or feelings. This is hinting \[at\] that. Again, the feeling of maybe not having that metaphysical connection, but then feeling some sort of connection to the physical world, whatever that might be.” **“Wave Therapy”** “I recorded a bit of extra strings for ‘Spirit 2.0,’ which I wanted to use as an interlude after that, but then I ended up reversing the strings that \[Canadian composer and violinist\] Owen Pallett helped arrange. I called it ‘Wave Therapy’ because, for some of the record, I went out to Miami for a week to work with El Guincho and before each session, I’d go to the beach and listen to what we had done the day before and that was therapeutic.” **“What if You Hypnotise Me?” (feat. Léa Sen)** “I was having a conversation with someone about therapy and then they were like, ‘Oh, I don’t even do talking therapy, I just get hypnotized, I haven’t got time for that.’ I thought that was an interesting perspective, so I wrote a song about hypnotizing, just to get over some of these things that I’m preoccupied with. I guess it’s about being in that place, recognizing I need something. Therapy can be part of that. As I say, nothing has a 100 percent success rate. You need a bit of everything.” **“Rose Tint”** “Sometimes I get preoccupied with my own hurt, my own emotions, and sometimes connecting to love is so complicated, yet so simple. It’s easy to call someone up really and truly, but there’s all these psychological barriers that you put up and this kind of headspace you feel like you don’t have. Family and friends or just people—I feel like there’s just connection to people. You can be more supported than you think at times, because there’s times where it feels like a problem shared can feel like a problem doubled, so you can kind of keep things in. But I do think it can be the other way round.”

Conway the Machine’s path towards rap stardom never meant hopping on trends or diluting his style in the service of others. His successes, in Griselda and otherwise, rarely translate to the hip-hop mainstream, instead demonstrating growth through authenticity and bars on mixtapes and albums like 2022’s gritty Shady Records bow *God Don’t Make Mistakes*. And while *WON’T HE DO IT* doesn’t deviate from that course, the New York rapper has hardly settled into some midlife artistic complacency. For an artist who has steadfastly refused to take a conventionally commercial route, he nonetheless sounds perfectly at home over glistening J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League productions like “The Chosen” and the introspective motivational “Kanye.” Based on song titles like “Water to Wine,” one might misinterpret *WON’T HE DO IT* as a religious record, though in fairness he’s never concealed his personal Rap God complex. He undeniably sees the face of divine power in the streets, admiring his self-described immaculate run on “Flesh of My Flesh” and dubbing himself The Almighty on the segue “Kill Judas.” Rest assured, Conway hasn’t gone gospel, his presence as profane as ever. The coke rap that endeared him to a certain sector of hip-hop fandom persists on the abruptly launched opener “Quarters” and the ruthless “Brick Fare.” Furthermore, rumors of disharmony among the core Buffalo trio remain unfounded, disproven by Westside Gunn’s extended feature on the atmospheric “Brucifix” and Benny the Butcher’s menacingly mesmeric verse on “Brooklyn Chop House.”

Mariah the Scientist is a Scorpio. However, her connection to the arachnid is deeper than astrology; it’s also the inspiration for her third album *To Be Eaten Alive*. “With the title, I decided that because some of them are also venomous and poisonous, if you were to eat one unknowingly, it’ll probably make you sick, or it could kill you,” she tells Apple Music. “Depending on how strong it is. You might think that because it’s a small animal that it could be easily consumed or something, but not knowing it packs a punch.” On the self-produced, ethereal and atmospheric album opener “Heaven Is a Place on Earth,” the singer-songwriter has dreams of what her version of the afterlife would look like, promising her lover that no matter what happens, her love will never change. “Maybe it’s best to make some mistakes/The greatest wins are not made from playing shit safe, but I do now/’Cause I got shit to lose now/Dreams of us paintin’ a crib blue now,” she sings with a lilt. “That was the first song I ever produced,” she says. “I felt really proud. It’s my most prized possession. I feel like I did everything. It’s all me. I feel like it’s a good summary of what the project might mean to me.” Compared to her 2019 debut *Master*, where she deals with the anguish of a failed relationship, and her 2021 sophomore outing *RY RY WORLD*, where she bounces back and explores her newly single status, *To Be Eaten Alive* runs the gamut of emotions and experiences of being in love and the complexities that stem from it—whether she’s feeling jaded (“40 Days n 40 Nights,” “77 Degrees,” “Good Times”) or longing for her lover (“Lovesick,” “Good Times,” “Different Pages”). Her lyrics are relatable, vulnerable, and unafraid to deal with the idiosyncrasies of being hopelessly in love. “I feel like I’m in touch with my emotions or something,” she says. “I feel like I can express them in multiple ways.” Mariah not only experiments with those topics on *To Be Eaten Alive*, but she plays around with her sound as well. She delivers melodic verses over bouncy and energetic beats on the KAYTRANADA-produced “Out of Luck,” and she leans into her alternative side on “Ride”—a duet with boyfriend Young Thug.

One of the most alluring things about the rise of Queens MC Lil Tecca was the young star’s willingness to take off his cool. His way of annotating a gun reference in the lyrics of breakout song “Ransom” included an admission: “I don’t have no straps for nobody…no straps around here.” With each project he’d release, however, Tecca seemed to get further and further away from stereotypical rap posturing, using his signature nasally delivery to dig deeper into his own continually evolving reality. (It’s easier to sound cool as an MC when your life actually does involve consultations with a stylist and avoiding thirsty groupies.) And Tecca sounds nothing if not cool on *TEC*, the MC’s third proper album and fourth release since 2019’s *We Love You Tecca* mixtape. Production is handled largely by the Internet Money collective Tecca made his name with and Working on Dying’s ‎BNYX®, both of whom provide 808-heavy backdrops for the MC’s endless non sequiturs. Each bar is a day in the life of Tecca unfolding, like the following passage, which appears on “500lbs”: “She told me she bad, I say, ‘You could do worse’/I\'m born to be blessed, I live with a curse/When shit is a mess, I\'m rollin\' up first/I smoke on my blunt, then I hit the church.” The project is likewise rife with unique Tecca-isms like “I take it slow now, but I got no reason to slow down” from “Gist,” or “I don’t need someone I need/I don’t need someone like me,” a claim he makes on title track “TEC.” On the whole, any given song is less about any single topic than it is an opportunity for Tecca to empty out his rhyme vault—a practice familiar to the album’s singular feature, Florida hero Kodak Black. Each is a talent who understands that sharing what goes on in their brains is more than enough to keep us entertained.