From fostering major stars like Kendrick Lamar and SZA to generating rap hitmakers such as Doechii and ScHoolboy Q, Top Dawg Entertainment bears no small responsibility for shaping our current cultural moment in hip-hop and R&B. Given that track record, any TDE signee warrants at least some attention, especially if that artist happens to be from Los Angeles. Long Beach native Ray Vaughn certainly makes as strong a case as possible for his come-up on *The Good The Bad The Dollar Menu*, his substantial debut mixtape for the acclaimed label. On the piano-driven opener “FLOCKER’S remorse,” he sets listeners on a whirlwind tour of his hardscrabble past, one explored in further graphic detail on “XXXL Tee.” Hunger is a well-established lyrical metaphor in rap, for literal and figurative means, but Vaughn makes it as resonant as ever on the shapeshifting “DOLLAR menu.” The troubling reveals of “3PM @ DAIRY’S” will hit like shockwaves for some, while others may find comfort or at least relatability in his contemplative assessments of generational trauma. Yet even when he’s scheming for a way out or at least a way forward, it’s hard not to bounce along when it sounds as danceable as “KLOWN dance” or “LOOK @ GOD.” Skits and segues, including one particularly profane maternal voicemail, somewhat remind of the ones that dotted *good kid, m.A.A.d city*, yet the comparatively looser mixtape feel here allows the rising rapper more flexibility and freedom as he maneuvers through his oft-difficult subject matter. Still, the rather personal nature of songs like “FLAT shasta” and “JANKY moral COMPASS” aligns the rapper with some of his TDE colleagues, past and present. To Vaughn’s credit, though, he avoids relying on flashy features for what amounts to a proper introduction to his boisterous-yet-confessional style. So when labelmate Isaiah Rashad rolls up for “EAST CHATT.” it makes that internal team-up all the more meaningful. By the time the tape wraps up with “SUBURBAN KIDZ,” a thought-provoking summation that touches on themes of addiction and faith, Vaughn’s proverbial star seems well worth ascending.
It’s been seven years since Cardi B’s debut album, 2018’s record-breaking *Invasion of Privacy*, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 with the largest female rap streaming week of all time and made the Bronx superstar the first solo female artist to win the Best Rap Album Grammy. For anybody wondering what she’s been up to in the meantime, allow her to set the record straight: When she wasn’t flexing at Fashion Week, she was mostly holed up in the studio, battling a mean case of writer’s block. “I really went through a crash where nothing was pleasing me—nothing,” the artist born Belcalis Almánzar tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. Despite spending more time in the studio than at home, Cardi describes recording song after song that just didn’t feel right while fans clamored for *Invasion of Privacy*’s hotly anticipated follow-up. Rather than brush off the funk, Cardi harnessed the full force of its power on *AM I THE DRAMA?*, her long-awaited sophomore album, named for a revelation after a vain attempt to stay out of the headlines. “For some reason, I’m getting tried even when I’m not saying nothing,” she says. “And it’s like, damn—do drama chase me, or am I just the drama?” Here, the unapologetic MC channels her pent-up aggression into belligerent trap bangers that remind you who’s the “first rap bitch on the cover of *Vogue*.” “I tried to come in peace/They tore me into pieces/Now I gotta RIP it,” she snarls on “Dead,” which opens with a report of a recent crime spree targeting “bloggers, journalists, and, most chillingly, several female rappers” before Summer Walker sings about pulling off her enemies’ lacefronts. “I’m a very colorful person,” Cardi tells Lowe. “But this past year, I feel like something kind of was dying inside of me. My humbleness, me trying so much to be unproblematic, me trying to avoid drama, avoid the disses, avoid the bitches—that’s dying out in me. Because I’m really about to show you, bitch, that you are not fucking with me. The cockiness is being born again.” The attitude comes through on “Imaginary Playerz,” Cardi’s riff on the 1997 JAY-Z classic, which was born on a bad day in the studio during the summer of 2024. “I was really caught in a funk,” she explains. “It was the third, fourth day that I’m sleeping on the couch in the studio. I’m exhausted. I’m pregnant as fuck. And I was just going through some drama in my life, and I just was so tired, so over it.” Trying to lighten the mood, her engineer blasted the JAY-Z original, and a light bulb went off. “I’m like, ‘Yo, imagine if I flip this, but my way,’” she thought, suddenly remembering that she had an awful lot to brag about. Amidst all the *DRAMA*, there are moments of levity—she recruits Selena Gomez, Tyla, and Lourdiz for a trio of sultry R&B bops, flips a Janet Jackson classic for the buoyant “Principal,” and reps her roots on “Bodega Baddie,” a high-octane norteño banger. But first, there are shots to be fired—whether at her so-called peers or at the low-down, dirty dogs she disses over the Triggerman sample on “Outside.” And on “Man of Your Word,” she opens up about the demise of her marriage over mournful steel drums. Between the flexing and the reflecting, *DRAMA* feels like catharsis—and that’s before it ends on 2020’s record-shattering, zeitgeist-capturing “WAP.”
What’s in a name? In the case of Yung Lean, what initially registered as a sardonic take on post-ironic internet rap tropes was, in fact, a riff on the Swedish rapper’s given name: Jonatan Leandoer Håstad. In the decade-plus since he broke through with 2013’s “Ginseng Strip 2002,” Lean has evolved past his position as Scandinavia’s foremost cloud-rap interpreter, embracing sincerity, transparency, and, more recently, post-punk. (On 2024’s *Psykos*, his first full-length collaboration with Drain Gang CEO Bladee, they channeled Joy Division and The Cure for songs about psychosis and ego death.) The title of his fifth solo album says it all: *Jonatan* is Lean at his rawest, a homecoming after a long, dark night of the soul. Lead single “Forever Yung” plays out like a funeral for his former self: Phoenixes rise from the ashes, masks are taken off, a rickety one-note bassline rattles ahead. A handful of bruised love songs crackle with manic energy and magical-realist details: On “Paranoid Paparazzi,” he raps about pills and lullabies in a voice that sounds like he’s just rolled out of bed, and “Babyface Maniacs” could be the theme song of a future *Badlands* remake: “Infamous murderous couple ridin’ through the drylands/Sugarcane kisses and shotguns, candy cane violence.” But at the emotional crux of *Jonatan* are heavy yet hopeful ballads that put chaos in the rearview—like “Swan Song,” on which Lean singsongs, “I wanna know what it feels like to come down from the trip of a lifetime.”
“I kind of prolonged my come-up,” Central Cee tells Apple Music. Off the success of record-breaking global hits “Doja” and “Sprinter,” not to mention the indisputable smash “Band4Band” with Lil Baby, nobody could have faulted the “Wild” West London native from hastily dropping an album to capitalize on any of those singles. But as he’d be happy to remind any of his fans, it was already an uphill battle just being a rapper out of Shepherd’s Bush, which makes his long-anticipated full-length debut, *CAN’T RUSH GREATNESS*, all the more momentous. “The first two projects were mixtapes,” he explains of his prior work. “The energy I put into them is what made it a mixtape, and the energy I premeditated to put into the album and the timing of everything is what the album is.” In line with that intent, Cee’s conflicted state of mind quickly comes to the fore on opener “No Introduction,” acknowledging and accepting the whirlwind of fame while concurrently craving a more tranquil life. Those changes manifest throughout the album, with him straddling diverging worlds on the drill dazzler “5 Star” and struggling with resonant pain on the plaintive “Limitless.” While the instantly gratifying “St. Patrick’s” indulges in familiar flagrant flexes, the album gets decidedly deeper than rap via tracks like “Don’t Know Anymore” and “Walk in Wardrobe,” with the latter’s late beat-switch raising the stakes. “It’s hard for me to rap in such a reflective wake,” he says. “I just want to look ahead at the light at the end of the tunnel and not really think about certain things.” While a substantial amount of the lyrical material skews intimately local, Cee’s worldwide reach reveals itself largely via collaborations with the likes of Lil Durk and Young Miko. Still, as good as it feels to hear him going bar for bar with 21 Savage on trap stunner “GBP,” his link with UK rap icon Skepta on “Ten” and reunion with *Split Decision* mate Dave on “CRG” just hit different, in the best way. “These songs aren’t really for the masses,” he says, “but just to touch the people, remind everyone that I’m human—that *they’re* human.”
With an album title like *The Last Wun*, speculation is bound to fly about Gunna’s future with—or without—his longtime label home YSL Records. Perpetuating his penchant for portraiture, the Cubist cover art conspicuously obscures his face even more so than on 2024’s *One of Wun* and further adds to the mysteriousness of these proceedings. Still, considering the repeated successes he’s enjoyed over the past decade, both solo and with hitmakers like Drake and Lil Baby, this sprawling set makes for an impressive send-off, one indicative of his commitment to quality. Victory laps don’t always yield the best results, but *The Last Wun* stands apart, staying consistently interesting throughout its more than two dozen songs. “pushin P” fans don’t have to wait long for new meme-ready moments like “let that sink in” and “just say dat,” though later cuts like the defiant “cfwm” and “him all along” are well worth sticking around for. His moneyed, jet-setting lifestyle matches a perpetual grindset mentality, evident on “showed em” and “on me.” Still, he remains a hedonist at heart, feeling faded yet tenacious on “again” and similarly invested in his pleasure on “gp.” Repeat Gunna collaborator Offset once again proves a worthy foil on “at my purest,” while Nechie adds some much-appreciated plug talk on “i can’t feel my face.” But as Gunna clearly looks towards the next stages of his career, his international tastes begin to intentionally solidify through some of his other feature choices. No fewer than three Nigerian stars make appearances here, with Burna Boy’s silky-smooth one on the explicitly salacious “wgft” contrasting with Wizkid’s romantic contribution to the subtler “forever be mine” and Asake’s more melodic placement on the luxe “satisfaction.”
It was a big deal when #KushandOrangeJuice became the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter upon the release of the eighth Wiz Khalifa mixtape in April 2010, back when “hashtags” and “trending topics” were cutting-edge promotional tools. Back then, it was practically unheard of for a rapper with no major-label deal to be making such big waves (he’d left his former label, Warner Bros., in 2009). But there was something comforting about the red-eyed Pittsburgh rapper’s laidback mode of rapping about the staples of college dorm-room chatter: weed, women, cars, parties… Did we mention weed? Today, *Kush & Orange Juice* is considered a “blog era” classic—a throwback to a chiller, simpler time. Almost exactly 15 years later, its sequel arrives like a visit from a friend from long ago who’s grown up and gotten richer, but otherwise mostly stayed the same. The 23 terminally chill tracks of *Kush + Orange Juice 2* feature more of the Taylor Gang touchstones you know and love: jet-ski races, beach picnics, fat joints, drop-tops, crab rolls, hot-boxing Ferrari F8s. He’s joined by a loaded roster of guests who haven’t changed much in the past decade and change, either: Curren$y, Smoke DZA, Chevy Woods, Terrace Martin. “I been doing the same thing since I was 19,” Khalifa crows on “I Might Be,” which might be tragic were those things not so timelessly appealing. Throughout the tape, a radio DJ (broadcasting on a station known as W-E-E-D) offers salient advice: “Don’t stay in the house, man. Jump in the car. Ride around with the homies and the homegirls, and put on some of that Wiz Khalifa, y’all.”
At this point in their respective production careers, Hit-Boy and The Alchemist are responsible for so many hip-hop hits and faves that it seems pointless to try and list them. Their contributions to the culture span generations, with decades in the game and no signs of slowing down for either artist. Yet one area where the two don’t get nearly enough shine is in the vocal booth, their rap talents often overlooked by contrast with their widely recognized instrumental prowess. That’s precisely what makes *GOLDFISH* and their prior duo collabs of the past few years: their skills both behind the boards and on the mic put on proud display. Off the rip, they’re in fighting form with the one-two punch of “Doing My Best” and “Business Merger,” maintaining energetic confidence for the album’s full 50-minute runtime. “God Is Great” snarks at lesser beatmakers and wack wannabes with a pointed use of gospel flair, while “Show Me the Way” covers both parenthood and personal ambition as powerful midlife motivators. Indicative of Alchemist’s lengthy history with Mobb Deep, Havoc’s appearance on “Celebration Moments” emphasizes his own dual lane. Other rapper guests like Boldy James, Conway the Machine, and Jay Worthy offer features that serve to remind listeners of the headliners’ curatorial clout. Yet perhaps it’s the presence of Hit-Boy’s father, Big Hit, on “All Gas No Breaks” that best drives home the intimacy of the core duo’s partnership—one that hopefully has plenty of road ahead of it.
Louie Pastel and Felix actually hail from Los Angeles, borrowing their name from the title of Wim Wenders’ 1984 road movie. But beyond showing their movie-geek bona fides, the choice also speaks to their fondness for juxtaposing elements that might not typically go together—let’s say, West Coast G-funk and sneering punk rock, which they meld seamlessly on “Dogma 25,” where they deliver the odd cinephiliac bar (“Stanley Kubrick, how I’m making a scene”) in matching growls that do Tumblr-era Tyler, the Creator justice. Since their 2018 debut EP, *I’ll Get My Revenge in Hell*, the duo have earned comparisons to alternative rap groups like Death Grips and clipping. But *They Left Me With the Sword*, their third official EP, suggests that they’re equally inspired by blog-era cult faves The Cool Kids, whose retro-futuristic minimalism they channel on “Holy Spinal Fluid” and “El Camino.” (The latter, with its vocoder balladry and tight lyricism, showcases the pair at their best.)
On 2024’s *Samurai*, Lupe Fiasco gave his fans exactly what they wanted. Reuniting with longtime producer Soundtrakk (of “Kick, Push” and “Superstar” fame) for their second consecutive full-length collaboration, following *DRILL MUSIC IN ZION*, he kept his high-level rap songcraft at the fore on the acclaimed album. This EP-length companion expands upon that project somewhat, with some additional material including a few choice remixes featuring his Samurai Tour opening act, singer Troy Tyler. At first, the reworked version of the title track seems a rather nuanced revisiting, yet its final minute and a half gives the groove a more pronounced R&B feel with Tyler’s take on the hook. A similar thing happens with “Bigfoot,” where their vocal interplay elevates an already surging chorus. As for the newer songs, “SOS” delivers the masterly lyricism that people expect from Lupe, his running commentary and intricate metaphors buoying the divinely jazzy, ATCQ-esque beat.
Like its 2024 predecessor *Pinball*, part of the appeal of *Pinball II* is hearing MIKE step out of the fog of his own introspection and do something a little more sociable. Make no mistake: This is not straightforward rap music. But where *tears of joy*-era MIKE (age 20) sounded hell-bent on unburdening his soul, here he seems not only content with rapping for rap’s sake but resplendent in it. He pulls together West Coast breeziness (“Splat!”), Detroit bounce (“#74,” “WYC4”), weird Cubist R&B (“Dolemite”), and DMV dreamscapes (the Niontay feature “Shaq & Kobe”) with a free-associative joy that manages to be both fun and totally nonlinear. As for his collaborator, you guess he picked the name because of how hard he bubbles.
Is there anything Jane Remover *can’t* do? The 21-year-old rapper, singer, and producer’s surprise-released third album, *Revengeseekerz*, arrives just a few months after their striking and contemplative album *Ghostholding* under their Venturing alias. If that album dove deep into the tangled guitars and complex emotions of Midwestern emo, then *Revengeseekerz* finds Jane Remover fully leaving behind the gauzy anti-rock of 2023’s *Census Designated* and blasting off into the realm of rage music. It’s impossible to hear the bitcrushed synths of “Dreamflasher” and the lurching trap beats of “Experimental Skin” without conjuring images of current rage titans like Yeat and Playboi Carti. But nothing is ever that simple in Jane Remover’s world, as their dizzying and flashy approach to production means that even the catchiest *Revengeseekerz* material is densely packed with sonic bells and whistles. Amid a plethora of sonic gestures tilted towards the neon crags of modern rap, Jane Remover still finds the space to execute a few shocking left turns across these 12 tracks. Danny Brown lends his always elastic voice to the endless-ladder electroclash of “Psychoboost,” while “Professional Vengeance” bounces like a pop-punk Super Mario across a landscape of video-game lasers and pummeling bass. *Revengeseekerz* is the strongest statement yet from a true prodigy at the height of their powers.
The fact that Dijon Duenas had a hand in producing one of 2025’s most anticipated indie-rock releases (Justin Vernon’s two-part Bon Iver opus *SABLE, fABLE*) and most surprising pop-star comeback (Justin Bieber’s *SWAG*) speaks to his singular standing in the contemporary musical landscape. Arriving mere weeks after he became every Belieber’s most popular search term, Dijon’s second full-length, *Baby*, is an open invitation for his recent converts to follow him deeper into his lo-fi underworld—and a reassurance to his longtime fans that he isn’t farming out all his best production ideas to famous guys named Justin. On the conjoined opening tracks “Baby!” and “Another Baby!,” Dijon comes off as part Prince, part Salvador Dali, rendering his sensuous serenades in pitch-shifting surrealist style, like tapes from a late-night “Paisley Park” session left out to melt in the morning sun. And whether he’s indulging in the sound-collage gospel of “HIGHER!,” the distorted dub-soul of “FIRE!,” or the barking dog-assisted folk ballad “loyal & marie,” Dijon’s real superpower is crafting straight-from-the-heart songs and then throwing them delightfully off-balance, perpetually dropping elements in and out of the mix with a “what does this button do?” sense of mischief.
The past few years have been trying for the former member of Migos, which officially disbanded in 2023 after the tragic death of Takeoff in 2022. But hardship has shaped Offset’s path from the beginning, going back to his incarceration during Migos’ big break in 2013. “With me personally, adversity made me focus,” the 33-year-old rapper tells Apple Music’s Ebro Darden. “I’ve learned to just brush it off.” His debut solo album, *FATHER OF 4*, arrived in 2019, but 2023’s *SET IT OFF* marked Offset’s first venture with Migos in the rearview. On his third solo album, the rapper born Kiari Cephus sets aside his alias to dig a little deeper. “I named my album *KIARI* because it’s like me looking at myself in the mirror—my real life, how far I’ve come and what I’ve done, the good and the bad, the mistakes,” he tells Ebro. After seven years of marriage, Offset’s ex-wife, Cardi B, filed for divorce in August 2024. Through the drama, he sought solace in the booth. “I just wanted to focus on the music,” he tells Ebro. “And as soon as I did it, I seen the results.” The 18 tracks of *KIARI* show Offset at his most soul-searching, without sacrificing the technical precision he’s been known for since his scene-stealing turn on 2016’s “Bad and Boujee.” Moody samples add to the gravity, from the flip of Nina Simone’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” on “Pills” to “Bodies” with JID, which throws a curveball by interpolating Drowning Pool’s “Bodies.” (“I like the element of surprise on the records,” Offset told Ebro of the collaboration.) On “Move On,” Offset officially closes the book on his relationship with Cardi: “I’m trying to move on in peace,” he sings on the hook. As for a future reconciliation with Quavo for a Takeoff tribute album, Offset tells Ebro, “It’s possible. We just building us first.” Still, he scatters tributes to Takeoff throughout *KIARI*, recollecting the trio’s early days on “Prada Myself” and recruiting John Legend for the poignant hook of “Never Let Go”: “I lost my brother, but I gained an angel.”
After building a fanbase and a reputation among other artists as an MC of earnestness, emotional depth, and conceptual density, Saba took a different approach. He created 2025’s *From the Private Collection of Saba and No ID*—a collaboration with legendary hip-hop producer and fellow Chicagoan No ID (Common, JAY-Z)—as what he described as a “tasting menu”: a compelling collection of songs whose connective tissue is the artists who made them, not a specific theme or topic. His second project of the year, *COFFEE!*, is a mixture of both approaches. It’s named after his car, a black Bronco Wildtrak that he wrote and recorded the project’s nine songs in over the course of a week. (The vehicle itself is even personified as a character on “don’t be long.”) But while it may seem conceptual by title, the album plays more like a sketchbook than a fully realized artistic vision. That works to its benefit, though: Instead of the studious intentionality that distinguished his previous albums, *COFFEE!* plays like a carefree, jazzy vibe session that gives oxygen to his artistic instincts. Saba’s supple sense of melody and casual introspection means that even his doodles provide just as much comfort as other artists’ complete portraits. “don\'t be long” affectionately describes the intrapersonal relationships between his loved ones with conversational catchphrases. “itachi” starts as a slow, airy reflection of perseverance before shifting into a catchy, percussive set of whispered vocals, all within less than a minute and a half. The best contemporary comparison to *COFFEE!* is Kendrick Lamar\'s *untitled unmastered.*: a brief, satisfying detour for one of hip-hop’s best.
After almost four years in prison, Flint, Michigan, rapper Rio Da Yung OG returned in early 2025 with his first project since incarceration: *RIO FREE*. Despite the prolonged absence, the MC, who has been a staple in the Wolverine State since 2019, picks up right where he left off before lockup. On the project, he’s not inclined to harp too intensely on the years lost to prison, instead reiterating that his status has remained unaffected despite his presence missing from the streets. On opener “Yung OGee,” he marvels at his status in the hood, his independent streak, and his ability to cook up a mixtape in less than an hour. He allows for some introspection, though, on “RIO FREE,” spitting over a mournful piano melody, reminiscing on the highs and lows of life in prison. He brags that the guards never found his phone (he hid it in some lotion) but also takes a moment to offer up a striking admission, a pain that clouds the celebration of his freedom: “I just did four years,” he raps. “I’m a lonely man.”
The New Orleans-born cousins (Ruby da Cherry and Scrim) have little in the way of crossover hits or mainstream press. But since emerging on SoundCloud in 2014 with their depressive, Memphis-inspired blend of horrorcore, witch house, and emo rap, the duo’s nihilism has proved surprisingly potent—their Grey Day Tour was the third-highest-grossing rap tour of 2024. On their fifth album, *THY KINGDOM COME* (a modest catalog, until you count the additional nine mixtapes and 30-plus EPs they’ve released in just over a decade), $uicideboy$ mostly stick to their bread and butter: themes of addiction and abjection, morose yet baroque titles, and the rap game’s bleakest flexes. (“Smokin’ on shit that smell like body rot,” they chant on BONES collab “Now and at the Hour of Our Death.”) But occasionally, a bit of levity creeps in, be it a jubilant sample of a NOLA bounce classic (Big Freedia’s “Gin in My System”) on “Napoleon” or the ’80s-R&B gloss on the otherwise grim “Full of Grace (I Refuse to Tend My Own Grave).”
Whether rocking with hip-hop heavyweights like The Alchemist over inventively sampled beats or spitting with lesser-known talents like RichGains and WhoTheHellIsCarlo, Boldy James can’t help but thrive over quality instrumentals. Coming off a string of near-monthly releases with producers ranging from Conductor Williams to Harry Fraud, the versatile Griselda affiliate delivers once more with his second project of 2025, *Permanent Ink*. Recorded with fellow Detroiter Roger Goodman of Royal House, the 13-track effort showcases a specific set of skills applied to yet another sonic side of the genre, one simultaneously more commercial and authentically regional. His street lingo backed up by street smarts, he brings intimate knowledge of the game on cuts like “All On My Side” and “It Hit Different,” mixing business with pleasure as is his wont. “Gargoyle Pelle” and “Stop Signs & Yields” blend him overtly into his city’s distinct palette of sounds, his hustler’s joy and survivor’s pain blurred throughout.
Since he signed to Def Jam at the end of 2021, Benny’s projects have been a mix of underground grit and mainstream appeal—a tough line to walk, but one he walks in style. At seven tracks in 20 minutes, *Excelsior* captures the gruff thrills of the equally brief *The Plugs I Met* series, pairing him with a marquee’s worth of midtempo, heritage-coded, narco-rap heroes including *Plugs* producer Harry Fraud (“Sign Language”), Styles P (“Toxic”), and Boldy James (the exceptionally titled “Duffel Bag Hottie’s Revenge”). You know what they say: You can take the boy out of the street, but…
“I believe the weirdest ones survive,” Doja Cat sings on “Stranger”—a line that just as easily applies to her unpredictable trajectory as it does a shimmering power ballad for misfits in love. With her world-conquering third album, 2021’s *Planet Her*, Doja Cat completed her evolution from viral internet oddball to full-on pop-rap star. Well, sorta: Ever the contrarian, the musician born Amala Dlamini announced in early 2023 that she was leaving pop music behind; months later, her fourth album, *Scarlet*, showcased her formidable rap skills with flinty songs that rejected the terms of her mainstream success. But when she began to conceptualize her fifth album last year, the pendulum swung the other way. “I think I love talking about love,” Doja tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “And I also think music is just such a door for expressing love in its different forms.” On *Vie* (the French word for life, or the phonetic interpretation of the Roman numeral five), Doja pulls up via DeLorean with a whole new sound and style. Artfully grounded in the decadence of the ’80s, she spiffs up songs about love-bombing and limerence with skittering drum machines, punchy basslines, and the occasional sax solo. She channels Queen on “AAAHH MEN!,” an ode to the maddening, demoralizing, irresistible pleasures of men, and brings new jack swing into the 2020s on lead single “Jealous Type.” Naturally, what she called “that ’80s tacky romance sort of spin” demanded Doja’s first meet-up with pop’s premiere nostalgist, Jack Antonoff. “And so it’s the grappling with talking about something personal and creating something fresh, and then getting to know someone new,” she tells Lowe of their collaboration. “All of these things fell together really naturally.” More playful than its predecessor, *Vie* relishes in its campy mood board and dishy subject matter: On “Silly! Fun!,” a punch-drunk R&B throwback about romantic delusion, the honeymoon’s over nearly as soon as it starts (“I know it could be a blast to just pop out a baby/We’re so very silly, getting married in Vegas”). But just because it’s flamboyant doesn’t mean it can’t be deep. “This album really grew from my sessions in therapy, and being so gung-ho on being there twice a week,” she says. “And learning about the human experience and how our brains function subconsciously and consciously.” Meanwhile, she mastered her singing skills—note the chops towards the end of “Jealous Type.” “I feel like I can do a lot more things that I could never do,” she says. “It’s just a more evolved, more mature version of whatever I’ve been doing since the beginning.” High-gloss romance aside, love manifests in other ways. “I think that creativity is love,” Doja tells Lowe. “You risk a lot for love. And so when a musician loves what they do, sometimes that entails things that are kind of uncomfortable and scary. But it doesn’t matter, because you love that thing so much.”
It would have been impossible to predict what would come next when Gucci Mane released his debut album *Trap House* in 2005, leading this century’s most influential hip-hop subgenre and skyrocketing the East Atlanta rapper to stardom. But since his release from prison in 2016, the trap pioneer has been transparent about the mental health struggles that informed the ups and downs of his 20-year career. Released, as per tradition, on 10/17 (which Atlanta officially declared “Gucci Mane Day” in 2023), Gucci’s 17th solo album is accompanied by his second book, *Episodes: The Diary of a Recovering Mad Man*, in which he gets real about his long road to redemption. “I done did all types of stupid shit,” he admits frankly on “Episodes Intro,” summing up his early-career legal drama in a nutshell. Much has changed for the trap icon, but some things stay the same: on “Back Cooking,” he reunites with longtime collaborator OJ da Juiceman for that vintage Guwop feeling.
The early 2020s was a period of leveling up for Daniel Caesar. The Toronto R&B artist signed to a major label, logged No. 1 hits with Justin Bieber and Tyler, The Creator, and with 2023’s *NEVER ENOUGH*, scored his highest-charting album to date and graduated to arena-headliner status. But as a child of the church, Caesar has always seemed less interested in indulging in the spoils of stardom than in forging a deep spiritual connection with his congregation of fans. In the lead-up to the release of his fourth full-length, *Son of Spergy*, Caesar hosted surprise pop-up concerts in various cities, turning up in local parks on a few hours’ notice with just an acoustic guitar—a fitting prelude to his most intimate and off-the-cuff album to date. Named for his gospel-singer father, *Son of Spergy* is a moment for Caesar to recalibrate after years of whirlwind success, and reconnect with family, old flames, and the church. “Lord, let your blessings rain down,” he sings on the opener, “Rain Down,” a hazy-headed hymn that sets the soul-searching tone for the album. Compared to the beat-driven experimentation of *NEVER ENOUGH*, *Son of Spergy* is both a more organic and psychedelic experience, favoring folky instrumentation that Caesar weaves to delightfully daydreamy effect on openhearted serenades like “Have a Baby (With Me)” and the Bon Iver-assisted beauty “Moon,” where jazzy piano wafts through the dulcet acoustic arrangement like a misty drizzle. But *Son of Spergy*’s Zen vibe is counterbalanced by Caesar’s growing confidence at drawing far outside the lines of R&B: “Call on Me” is an upbeat outlier that pairs crunchy alt-rock guitars and reggae riddims, while “Baby Blue” is a beautifully dazed ballad that just turns stranger and stranger over its six minutes, layering woozy strings, chopped-up vocals, and sound-effect samples with White Album-style wanderlust.
A broken clock is right twice a day, and a new Boldy James album comes twice a month. Well, not quite, but few rappers have ever been on a run as prolific as the Detroit MC has been in 2025. What makes the barrage of releases so special, however, is the high-quality raps he serves up again and again. On his May 2025 release with LA producer Real Bad Man, *Conversational Pieces*, he keeps the good times rolling like the luxury whips he loves to rap about. Much like the duo’s 2020 collaboration, *Real Bad Boldy*, James and Real Bad Man have an almost telepathic chemistry on *Conversational Pieces*. Whether spitting about cruising the streets late at night on “Tap the Brakes Twice” or luxury vacations on “Aspen,” Boldy floats atop stripped-down beats. It’s a fine line the artists effortlessly walk, balancing minimalism and charisma with an intoxicating nonchalance. It’s a personality Boldy has embodied on this generational run, and lord knows he’s had the practice.
Between Comedy Central’s *The New Negroes*, his Stony Island Audio podcast fiefdom, and countless hours of livestreaming, Open Mike Eagle has got plenty of media experience. For *Neighborhood Gods Unlimited*, he proffers a conceptually inventive take on imagined cable network Dark Comedy Television, with barely enough budget for an hour’s worth of programming. That translates to one of the indie-rap mainstay’s more diverse offerings thematically and, with help from underground producers like Child Actor and Ialive, sonically. On the sitcom-esque “me and aquil stealing stuff from work,” he and his buddy AQ both toil and loaf around like quintessential mall rats. His unabashedly nerdy tastes come through as he nods to *Adventure Time*’s wintry wizard on “contraband (the plug has bags of me)” and non-canonically mixes heterogenous comic book and cartoon lore on “michigan j. wonder.” Longtime cohorts R.A.P. Ferreira and Previous Industries’ Video Dave appear as fourth-wall-winking guest stars in sweeps-week fashion, but nobody upstages Mr. Number 1 on the Call Sheet.
For Benny the Butcher, feeding the streets is more than just a business strategy. As the Buffalo rapper builds his Black Soprano Family brand, he concurrently makes clear his determined aspirations towards earning a spot in the top-five-dead-or-alive vanguard of elite MCs. With the release of *Summertime Butch 2*, a sequel to his well-received 2024 project, he adds another audio document to the growing dossier comprising his craft. After letting Griselda comrade Westside Gunn get a few Flygod bars off on “Jasmine’s,” he proceeds to lay into the current state of rap music, lambasting the lyrical laziness and pop aspirations of a mercifully unnamed cluster of subpar artists. On “Told You So,” he deflects criticism from those who overvalue mainstream chart placements while cruising down his personalized path to hip-hop greatness. Later, he reaffirms both his dope-boy bona fides and his underground classics on “77 Club,” demonstrating a linkage with the past criminality that now thematically fuels his creativity. Guests like Bruiser Wolf and OT The Real operate at a high level alongside a never-complacent Benny on the Daringer-produced “Hood on Fire” and Nickel Plated’s “Gold Plated Leica,” respectively. Other collabs like the booming “In the Wall” with Bun B and “Why Would I” with G Herbo take him out of his well-established trap-house comfort zone, yet he adapts his knowledgeably streetwise flows with sweat-free dexterity over those beats. Naturally, he shows love for his BSF insiders, making space for Elcamino and Duckman on the cinematic “Pandoras.”