Kevin Gates dropped *I’m Him* some five years after “I Don’t Get Tired,” the breakout hit that transformed him from mixtape upstart to mainstream rap rule-breaker. Beyond the controversies and improprieties that added a tabloid-ready gloss to his career, the Baton Rouge artist stood out on that second proper album for his inventive, oft-energetic takes on the trap era’s street-hustle mindset. Now, another half-decade later, freshly independent and pushing 40, he reveals both the rewards and the toll of that lifestyle on this concise sequel. In line with hip-hop’s ongoing mental health journey in rhyme, opener “Therapy Sessions” dives deep into a psyche so fraught with trauma that it would send most so-called pain rappers into hiding. “Same Way” finds him operating as a master of that particular subgenre, calculating loss amid the wins as a form of cautionary tale for the listener. Via the duality of “Big Bruddah (Don’t Be Mad),” he recounts betrayals and slights endured in the trenches while also flaunting his wealth and the intricate means through which he’s acquired it. Still, he can’t help but come off as triumphant on “Brasi the Eagle,” evoking his infamous mobster moniker to emphasize that his successes surpass his suffering. Gates’ characteristically unfiltered approach serves him well here. Whether truth-telling on the grimy motivational “Manifest” or casually pulling the baddest of baddies on the explicit “No Pressure,” that outlandish streak resurfaces enough times that it rewards his day-one listenership. Those long-term fans know that he’s remained true to form all these years, though anyone needing a reminder can reference “Block Away” and “Kiss the Ring” for clarity.
Florida rapper Nardo Wick was still at the tail end of his teens when *Who Is Nardo Wick?* dropped in 2021. Its songs shared his stark vision of the streets in such a way that artists older than him could’ve learned a thing or two from his pen. A little over three years later, his sophomore full-length, *WICK*, goes deeper into the darkness, with booming beats that recall drill and trap at their most austere ends. The chilling monologue of “Gangsta” sets the mood early on, his bars veering between direct threats and tweaked references. In his signature snarl, even the Hamburger Helper punchline on “Ain’t No Lettin’ Up” feels intimidating. No small feat, he transforms menace into macabre turn-up tracks with “I Don’t Think” and “Get on My Nerves.” Though the production dwells largely on the dour side, he switches things up on occasion, revealing a sense of humor for “Beatbox” and flirting in the glow of ATL Jacob’s subtle throwback funk on “A Lil Different.” While the vast majority of *WICK*’s tracks solely center him, the handful with guests tend toward those who were there for his debut. A clear influence on his forbidding style, 21 Savage flexes amid sexual conquests on “HBK,” a lifestyle the younger artist has evidently grown accustomed to as well. Future and Southside raise the tempo and the stakes alike for the disorienting “Back to Back,” while Lil Baby helps Wick relive an era of Southern rap that neither was previously old enough to fully appreciate on “Hot Boy.”
Will Smith has heard the chatter. So much of it, in fact, that the armchair punditry he apes on his *Based on a True Story* opener, “Int. Barbershop - Day,” sounds like it could be a field recording from any number of Black American gathering spaces. “Who the fuck Will Smith think he is?/And that boy damn crazy how he raising them kids,” goes a particularly cartoony quip. But that’s the beauty of Smith’s creative practice. Whether as star of television’s groundbreaking *The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air*, hunky lead of rom-coms like *Hitch*, and even action flicks like the *Bad Boys* franchise, Smith has never had a problem poking fun at himself. But keep playing…and he’ll get serious quick. Which is exactly what happens on *Based on a True Story*, Smith’s first body of work following 2022’s infamous Chris Rock/Oscars altercation and his first full-length album since 2005’s *Lost and Found*. Once he gets the jokes out of the way, Smith is out to remind us that he can still rap, and maybe more importantly, that he’s one of the greatest entertainers of all time. The album is Smith doing him to the fullest extent of his abilities, reveling in a storied legacy of acting and rapping (“You Lookin’ For Me?,” “Bulletproof,” “Tantrum”), while affirming his faith and the respect he has for his status as a role model (“Beautiful Scars,” “Make It Look Easy,” “You Can Make It”). It’s no light lift, but as he states on “Work of Art,” he’s built for it: “Ima king no denying this/Every limit, I’m defying it/Everybody wanna be a lion/Until it’s time to do lion shit,” he raps. Say what you want about Will Smith—you probably already have—but if you let him tell the story, there’s gonna be a little bit of boasting and a whole of gratitude. And that’s as close to the truth as we’re gonna get.**
The cover of Jessie Reyez’s third album features a questionnaire she answered as an eighth grader, and in a section titled favorite hobbies, she writes, “Rapping/singing/dancing.” In a sense, *PAID IN MEMORIES* makes good on those interests. She recruits hip-hop icons like Lil Wayne and Big Sean, alongside peers such as Lil Yachty, to help formulate some of these rap-leaning ideas. Despite the prevalence of these moments, though, she still offers up plenty of alt-pop songs for fans of her first two efforts: 2020’s *BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILLS US* and 2022’s *YESSIE*. “PSILOCYBIN & DAISIES” flips the guitar riff from The Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” and turns it into a hard-charging pop cut. Elsewhere, she displays her versatility with the downtempo neo-soul of “TORONTO SHORDIE” and the reggaetón-inspired groove of “PALO SANTO,” creating an album that pays tribute to all her passions.
Fully back on his independent grind, Detroit mainstay Icewear Vezzo continues to flourish and succeed on his own merits. In a crowded scene of Michigan rap contenders, his name stays in the upper echelon off the strength of his work. The EP-length *UNDEFEATED* exemplifies his ethos, with a foundation in unapologetic street talk and backed with trunk-rattling productions. Nodding back to his Green Guyz days as well as to a certain Lil Yachty single, “MINNESOTA” hits like a brick with its purp-skewed trap-house chronicles. Buoyed by a beat sampling a romantic ’80s electro-funk gem, “GOOD TO ME” flips the narrative to break down what he’s looking for in a baddie, citing loyalty above nearly all else. Naturally, he gives the project’s handful of guest spots to homegrown stars, with both Big Sean and Skilla Baby flawlessly flexing over “WORTH SOMETHING” and GT bringing his A-game to “RICHER THEN I EVER BEEN.”
Buffalo producer ILL Tone Beats was never much for a producer tag. And it’s not because his sample-heavy beats are so immediately identifiable like those of, say, a Timbaland or Swizz Beatz. But the company Tone most frequently keeps—the MCs of Griselda Records and the Black Soprano Family collective—happen to have a way of announcing themselves in the space one might normally reserve for a producer tag (Cue Westside Gunn’s “Boom-Boom Boom-Boom!”). Making a name for himself is hardly ILL Tone’s concern, though. He’s already an integral part of one of rap’s most inventive and exciting movements. He reaffirm this position across *The Outcome*, a project that features the very best of MCs like Benny the Butcher, Conway the Machine, Elcamino, Rome Streetz, and Flee Lord. Those are, of course, hometown heroes, but he’s also got an AZ verse and an interlude with Ghostface Killah talking crazy. So the people who actually need to know who ILL Tone is already do: They’re the ones he’s been making neoclassical hip-hop with for years now.
In the three-and-a-half decades since roaring like a self-described “dungeon dragon” on A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario,” Busta Rhymes has often slipped into the serpentine. Following in the tradition of his zodiac-inspired *Year of the Dragon* and the collaborative Q-Tip mixtape *The Abstract and The Dragon*, this EP offers a preview of his promised return to fire-breathing form. Beginning with the ferociously boastful intro “Letter to My Children,” he proceeds to ensure that everything remains raw. No matter what kind of beat enters his lair, he wields seemingly supernatural rap powers over the music, from the positively funky single “Do the Busabus Pt.2” to the stop-start clamor of “Keep Executing.” The oft explicit nature of his lyrics only serves to strengthen his arguments, adding heft to the gospel-tinged boom-bap take “National Treasure.” The sole vocal guest here, emerging singer YG Marley, honors his own legacy with Jah praise over the reggae-pop grooves of “Treasure & Gold.”
Two decades into his career, Jim Jones finds himself exactly where he expected to be. Back up to 2004, when Jones was riding high as a member of Cam’ron’s Dipset crew, the Bronx MC unleashed his solo debut, *On My Way to Church*. On his eighth solo album, 2025’s *At the Church Steps*, he’s finally arrived. Sure, enough time has passed between the two records to raise a human from birth to legal drinking age, but Jones sounds in vintage form. The line from his debut to its spiritual sequel is nearly straight: On opener “Jomo” he travels on back to mid-2000s Harlem, where The Diplomats made their name, cueing up a soul-heavy vocal chop courtesy of Statik Selektah. It’s a beat that would have sounded nice on *Diplomatic Immunity* from 2003. On the cut and throughout the album, he’s contemplative, celebratory, and mournful in equal doses. On that opener, he raps, “I done put so much work in, I could have died on the job.” Despite it all, the blessings remain bountiful for one of New York’s perennial rap figures.
New York may currently be dominated by any number of sexy drillers, but a real and abiding love for rap’s prior native iterations runs citywide. Listening to Lord Sko, a young MC eagerly updating a classic sound, one can’t help but hear how his *PIFF* could reverberate well beyond the five boroughs. With material support and on-record co-signs by the likes of Statik Selektah, he tackles topics and themes as integral to his home’s hip-hop traditions as any, from sporting Polo and smoking blunts to chatting up shorties and betting on the Knicks. Lest anyone think this is some purely nostalgic play, Sko’s lexicon goes considerably beyond what the boom-bap glory days contained. Over beats by the highly contemporary likes of Tony Seltzer, Mike Shabb, and Wino Willy, he sounds like the underground that nurtures him, shouting out local spots like The Astor Club on the woozy “Problem Child” and casually flexing over the dreamlike vibes of “Robinhood.” This explains how he can move in the same rooms as Conway the Machine and Grand Puba on “Camel Eyes” and “Girbaud Talk,” respectively.
As a condition of the New Orleans rap legend’s supervised release from prison in 2023, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled that the artist born Christopher Dorsey would have to allow the government to approve his lyrics going forward. (He’d served 11 years of a 14-year sentence, having pled guilty in 2011 to two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.) It wasn’t the first time a rapper’s lyrics were used against him in the courtroom (see the State of Georgia v. YSL Records trial of 2023-2024), a seeming infringement upon First Amendment rights which the former Hot Boy doesn’t shy away from emphasizing on his first solo album since 2009. “I want to tell them stories, but I ain’t ’bout to risk it,” B.G. rasps in his familiar drawl on the fiery title track, on which he shouts out Young Thug, urges young rappers to learn from his mistakes, and stoically reaffirms, “Through it all, I hold my head up.”
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.”
As you’re by now well aware, the host city for Super Bowl LIX is New Orleans, which gives us a chance to celebrate a region with one of the most storied legacies in the history of Black music. New Orleans hip-hop, specifically, is so rich with culture and originality, you’d be doing yourself a severe disservice by trying to get the story from just one person. Which is exactly why we’ve enlisted four(!) of our favorite NOLA-based DJs to deliver sets highlighting New Orleans the way they hear it. We’ve got masterfully seasoned mixes from the engine of Cash Money Records himself, superproducer Mannie Fresh, the man who orchestrated the sound of No Limit’s ’90s dominance, KLC The Drum Major, one of the area’s foremost remixers and bounce experts, Streetz 100.3’s DJ Poppa, and a woman who knows exactly what’s moving in the city right now, Player’s Ball founder Legatron Prime. These are people who know New Orleans hip-hop and who’ll have you wanting to visit the city long after the big game’s final whistle is blown. Make time for them all—we promise you won’t regret it.
When Casyo “Krept” Johnson and Karl “Konan” Wilson released mixtape *Young Kingz* in 2013, it set a Guinness World Record for the highest-charting album by an unsigned act. By 2015, their full debut *The Long Way Home* saw them collaborating with Ed Sheeran, Skepta, and Wiz Khalifa. Ten years later, the Croydon rap duo, who met when they were teenagers, evolve further with *Young Kingz II*, a raw and reflective album full of playful lyrics and emotional moments. “There’s so much to talk about, so the album’s developed over a few years,” Krept tells Apple Music. “Things have changed and lots has happened and we want to document it all. We just create whatever feels natural at the time and then you have the process of having to narrow it down, thinking, ‘What flows through the album? What makes the most sense?’” Krept & Konan are keen to uplift those around them, whether it’s new artists or their local community: Shortly before the release of *Young Kingz II*, they opened their own supermarket, Saveways, to create jobs in Croydon and bring a diverse range of affordable food to people. It’s an inspiring attitude and standing up for others is something the duo wanted to continue on *Young Kingz II*. “Having a voice for people, our friends that are in situations, is important,” says Konan. “We just want people to feel human after they’ve listened to the album and realize we’ve all got different emotions, which we’ve tried to tap into here. We want to take you on a journey. I think this album is like going back to the essence of Krept & Konan, how a lot of people first heard of us. So the origin of the hunger and trying to make it in the scene and breaking out of the doors, but now we’re in a new chapter.” The 18 tracks were recorded in London, Hertfordshire, and Jamaica and encompass many different styles, plus collaborations with Ghetts, Chip, and Popcaan, so it’s a journey with plenty of ups, downs, and beats that go off. Read on as the duo talks Apple Music through 10 key tracks. **“100 Mistakes” (Konan Solo)** Konan: “This song is like a psychotherapy session. I’m talking to myself about everything that’s going on, realizing who I am and being open. Hopefully, it helps other artists coming up to hear that after everything we’ve done, we still feel like this. All we do as artists, and you might get those flowers, but you can’t always rely on other people to give them to you, so you’ve just got to do it for yourself. I feel like it sets the tone for the album—people will know we’re going to be talking about some real stuff and there’s going to be a lot of reflecting.” **“Low Vibrations”** Krept: “‘Low Vibrations’ is a track that is exactly what it says on the tin. We don’t want anyone to come around here with the low vibrations. You can see that vibe in the video, where we’re with our friends celebrating. Everyone around us was having fun. In this life and in this industry, there are a lot of things that can be negative, so we just wanted to create that song that makes you feel good. It felt like that was needed. We’re coming out of our ring with no bad vibe and no bad energy.” **“How Many Times”** Krept: “It’s a song for the mandem and it’s got a laid-back, cool vibe. You’ll not really hear me on a song like that, so it was good to try it. It’s simple, there’s not too much going on with the beat in terms of the drum snares and hi-hats. It just feels so relaxing because it’s something that I don’t usually do, and I feel like I’ve done it well on that song. We’re always open to just trying things out on songs and there might be some stuff that will never see the light of day.” **“Bedroom” (feat. Sizzla)** Konan: “‘Bedroom’ was a wild card, to be fair. And then for the beat, we were just thinking about who we could collaborate with that would make it sound different. And Sizzla came to mind. It was gold from there. When we make songs, it’s not forced—we just make the music and it’s like the album creates itself.” Krept: “People are not going to be expecting that from Sizzla when they hear it, which makes the song quite special.” **“Nala’s Song” (Krept Solo)** Krept: “This song is so important for me because I’d love my daughter, Nala, to have something of me. She can always go back and listen to some words from her dad. Music is something I love and always will love, so being able to give that to my daughter in hard form forever and actually giving her life lessons and some gems is special—I wish someone had done it for me when I was younger. Now when I play it to her, she knows the ‘baby girl’ line, but as she grows older, she’ll understand how deep the song is. I’m also appreciating her mum \[health and beauty influencer Sasha Ellese\], who’s carried my child into this world on that journey that us men didn’t have to go through.” **“Delroy’s Son” (Konan Solo)** Konan: “This song’s about my dad \[late reggae star Delroy Wilson\]. It was a difficult one, so I wrote it in parts. When I listen back, I do get a bit choked up. I had a lot to get off my chest, but being transparent in the music, especially on a song like that, is important. There’s a line in there about when were playing one of our shows at Brixton Academy and, just as we were going on stage my mum said, ‘The last time I was here, your dad was on.’ It’s a sick experience to perform in the same place as my dad. With the hardships of the industry, I feel like he didn’t get his flowers. But now it feels like I’m completing my dad’s work.” **“Kilimanjaro” (feat. Oxlade)** Konan: “This was the last song we made and it feels like what was missing from the project. We needed that ‘G Love’ or ‘Freak of the Week’ kind of vibe. I shouted a couple of producers saying, ‘Just send me beats,’ then I was like, ‘This is the one.’ Once we’d got the beats, I was thinking about who could deliver what we wanted and I couldn’t come up with anything myself, so I shouted Oxlade. He was on tour at the time, so we messaged on Instagram and exchanged numbers and he filmed himself singing it and, as he was playing it in the background, he was smiling and saying, ‘This is a hit.’ And I was like, ‘Say no more.’” **“Smooth Lovin” (feat. Popcaan)** Konan: “‘Smooth Lovin’ is one of the first songs that we had for the album. We’d already done a song with Popcaan \[‘Freak of the Week (Remix)’\], which was a bit more street. As soon as we started the album I said, ‘Yo, I need another one, bro.’ We had the beats for a while, trying to figure out who we wanted to do the song with, and Popcaan helped to make it something more light-hearted and more summery with that Caribbean feel.” **“Rage” (feat. Ghetts)** Krept: “‘Rage’ was done in stages. We already had the beat and we were working on it at Geejam Studios in Jamaica. It’s one of those beats that just makes you want to go crazy. It was like, ‘Who else could we get on this that is able to come with this much venom?’ Ghetts was the perfect person for it. So we sent him the song, and straightaway he made his verse. He sent the video back to me and you know when you screw up your face like, ‘Yeah’? That’s how the song came about, and everybody just went crazy on the beat.” **“Last Cards” (feat. Michael Ward)** Konan: “‘Last Cards’ was originally meant to be the title of the album because, when we were making it, we thought it would be the last one on the label. That was the concept behind it. And then we ended up getting out of that situation into a new situation \[*Young Kingz II* is on Krept & Konan’s own label, Play Dirty\]. Then we didn’t want to confuse people and make them think, ‘Ah, it’s their last album ever.’ It just happened to be the 10-year anniversary of *Young Kingz*. It made more sense, like a full-circle moment.” Krept: “You know we’re not the youngest kings, we scratched out the young on the artwork because we’ve \[been through\] a lot of maturity and growth in the last 10 years. But I think what we’ve done in this space and time, respectfully I feel like we can call ourselves kings.”
