Outlandish, volatile, and immensely popular, Kodak Black somehow still rises above it all with each and every new release. After putting out no fewer than four projects in 2024, *Just Getting Started* marks his first substantial release of 2025, a late-in-the-year drop that acts as the promising precursor to a fresh run for the Florida rapper. He’s still living life on his own luxe, individualistic terms on cuts like “All Black Rolex” and “Really Liv’n,” shutting down those who speak ill on his name on “Imma Shoot” and the unapologetic “Project Blue.” With no less than Pharrell Williams by his side, he casually dismisses one of the most tired criticisms of his music on “Mumble Rap,” a bass bin-rattling victory lap boosted by that Neptunes pedigree. The guests here reflect his massive profile and appeal, building up momentum with Chance the Rapper, Gunna, and Lil Yachty, among others. That said, the reflective and ruthless nine-minute solo centerpiece “Prison Deform” offers fans insight and entertainment in equal measure.
The Chicago drill superstar’s eighth studio album, 2023’s *Almost Healed*, was devoted to the concept of recovering from trauma—a theme that’s haunted Lil Durk’s music, either implicitly or explicitly, since his emergence in the early 2010s as the most melodically gifted of the genre’s rising stars. Its March 2025 follow-up, *Deep Thoughts*, was slated for release in October 2024. But that same month, Durk was arrested (along with several affiliates of his record label and collective, Only the Family) in connection to a murder-for-hire case against a rival rapper. The rapper born Durk Banks has maintained his innocence, but was denied bail on the grounds of being a flight risk. If convicted of the charges, the 32-year-old faces life in prison. This changes the gravity of his long-awaited ninth album, which was delayed four times since the 2024 arrest. But the tracklist of *Deep Thoughts* seems to reflect a different lifetime, with pre-arrest singles like “Turn Up a Notch” and a suite of lusty ballads like the benny blanco-produced Jhene Aiko duet, “Can’t Hide It.” The resounding pathos of Durk’s work remains—most potently on “Keep on Sippin’,” whose candid bars detail the vicious cycle of addiction. But the stakes have changed, and it’s hard not to wonder what the Lil Durk of the past year might have to get off his chest instead. Still, an offhand line from “They Want to Be You,” a melancholy Future collab about the expectations of fame, hits even harder now: “All the kids rap, they wanna be just like you.”
In 2020, Mariah Carey gave her all to one of the most vulnerable works of her career—but for the first time, it wasn’t an album. Her memoir *The Meaning of Mariah Carey* laid bare her feelings about her complicated family life, the myriad successes of her record-breaking career, the joys of motherhood, and more. Though Carey’s an award-winning songwriter and has been known for her prowess with the pen since her 1990 debut, she tells Apple Music that the process of writing *The Meaning of Mariah Carey* unlocked something new for her when it came to plumbing particularly difficult emotional depths for her lyrics. “It definitely did something to me where I was just a little bit more vulnerable, a little bit more exposed, a little bit more able to be myself, regardless,” she says. *Here For It All*, her 16th studio album, is her first project to fully capitalize on this soul-searching, and look no further than the ballads for proof. “Nothing Is Impossible” is an ode to her own resilience (“I dream a greater dream/I fight a greater fight/I overcome it all”), and the grand and sentimental title track is the sort of unabashedly romantic that hits the ear like a love note read aloud (“When you leave/You take a little bit of every fiber that’s embedded in me”). These showstoppers are classically Carey, but so is the album’s robust mix of R&B, hip-hop, disco, gospel, and pop. “I was a little bit worried in the beginning that there were too many different types of records,” she says. “And I was just like, ‘I don’t care.’” Whether she’s vaulting her whistle tones to the heavens (alongside gospel legends The Clark Sisters on “Jesus I Do”), invoking ’90s street swagger with “Type Dangerous” (which samples Eric B. & Rakim’s “Eric B. Is President”), time-traveling with ’70s slow jams (courtesy of the Anderson .Paak collaboration “Play This Song”), or covering a childhood favorite (her take on Paul McCartney’s Wings classic “My Love”), Carey is unapologetically herself and relishing in every note. Read on for her thoughts on each track of *Here For It All*. **“Mi”** “It’s an ode to self-love and self-care. It was just one of those things where it’s tongue-in-cheek, but it’s still one of those ones that a lot of people were like, ‘Oh, I love this.’ I just visualize me in a hot tub every time.” **“Play This Song” (feat. Anderson .Paak)** “I definitely wanted to work with Anderson because he’s so brilliant and amazing at what he does, which is just being a kick-ass musician. But when we got into the studio, we decided we wanted to do something that was kind of ’70s, and we did give you that kind of vibe. So we started working on ‘Play This Song,’ and it was just one of those ones that I really loved. Working with him in the studio, he’s a great companion in terms of making music.” **“Type Dangerous”** “I was in a restaurant in Aspen, and I was with Andy \[Anderson .Paak\] and a couple of friends. All of a sudden they started playing music and playing different songs. Suddenly ‘Eric B. Is President’ comes on, and I was like, ‘What? I love this song. I haven’t heard this song in forever.’ We went to the studio the next day and started playing around with sampling it, and it’s just on and on from there... I made them play it over and over.” **“Sugar Sweet” (feat. Shenseea and Kehlani)** “I just think \[Shenseea and Kehlani\]’s freedom really shows, and they’re just present; they’re who they are. This makes the record so much younger and more fun, and I just thought it was everything. I’ve never had a trio before with three strong women, and having the ability to do this now, it’s amazing. I love what it speaks on. I love what it speaks to.” **“In Your Feelings”** “It’s one of those ones where you tell a story about something you’ve been through and put it together and you release it. And that’s what we did. People really like the ‘I think you might be getting a little bit too...’—that part. I like it a lot. I wasn’t really trying to say anything. I was just feeling the moment. I didn’t even appreciate it much until we did it and I lived with it for a while.” **“Nothing Is Impossible”** “I was just writing a couple of things, playing around with little ideas and working with my very close friend and musical director Daniel Moore. He was playing on the piano. I was singing along. We were following each other in terms of melody, and then I just took it home and wrote the lyrics. I think it’s one of those ones where I had to be by myself and really just off in my own world writing about these sort of feelings. I think it’s something, if anything, it would help somebody get through something.” **“Confetti & Champagne”** “I guess it’s about somebody that you’re not with anymore, but you’re speaking to them, and that’s it. You don’t really care. That’s the basic ‘Clink, clink, clink, pow/Look at me now.’ That’s basically it.” **“I Won’t Allow It”** “We took a long time writing it—not a long time with the actual words or the music, but it was just over time we produced more and did more. It’s another one with \[.Paak\], and he’s just so great at that type of vibe. There are some kiss-off moments in that. ‘I won’t entertain all your narcissistic ways’ is one of my favorite moments. ‘Should have been more proactive’—these parts just make me laugh.” **“My Love”** “It’s more an homage to my childhood, because I remember being a little girl and riding on the back of a motorcycle with my mother’s friend’s daughter and her boyfriend. This was their song, and they were in love. I’m still hoping that Paul McCartney might play something on it, which would be amazing. He is one of the greatest of all time, ever, and I just asked before I recorded the song, would he mind if I recorded it? I had a conversation with him, and he was like, ‘No, give it a shot, send it to me.’ And I’m like, ‘How do I do this? Because I really want him to be on this song doing background vocals, something.’ I don’t think that’s where he’s at right now, but he might lay something for the deluxe version. I would be thrilled out of my mind. But yeah, if you talk about the emotion when I’m singing it, it’s definitely about finding someone that you really revere and care for.” **“Jesus I Do” (feat. The Clark Sisters)** “I am a humongous Clark Sisters fan. I love their work. Karen Clark’s solo album is just scrumptious and unparalleled. I really was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m in here doing this.’ We wrote it together and sang it together. All the backgrounds that we did, I mean, I’m so inspired by their background vocals that when I get to mix that with mine, it’s something to be healed.” **“Here For It All”** “It’s just special to me; that’s why I put it at the end and named the album after it, because it’s personal to me. It’s not even something I want to even go into every beat of. I love the way it ends and then it doesn’t end. I thought this was going to be my gospel song on this album, because that’s the vibe it’s giving, but we have ‘Jesus I Do,’ so it’s different. I just feel like this is such a ‘Mariah Carey record’ in a way that other songs I’ve done however long ago weren’t, because it’s got a soulfulness to it, just the way that it’s arranged. I just feel like it’s something very personal, but also very like it’s giving this to other people that need to hear something like that.”
An undeniable East Atlanta fave, Young Nudy amassed a memorable assortment of charting hits in the first half of the 2020s, including a noteworthy few alongside his cousin 21 Savage. After reuniting with Pi’erre Bourne for 2024’s victory lap *Sli’merre 2*, he’s back with his longtime producer Coupe (known for “Peaches & Eggplants”) and beatmaking familiar Kid Hazel for the vibrant, ecstatic *PARADISE*. His mellifluous drawl and explicit lyrics coupled with surreally melodic instrumentals yield some of the most crowd-pleasing tracks of his career to date. From the irreverent strip club bounce of “BTA” to the smooth talk of “CHAINS ON” and “SUPER SLIME,” he’s in rare form as a trap libertine. Elsewhere, he shouts out Zone 6 on the more ominous “MOP STICK,” embraces baller status on “SNAKE,” and vibes with Latto on “WHAT’S HAPPENIN’.” Naturally, 21 Savage makes an appearance alongside Coupe on “ICED TEA,” but it’s the fresh Project Pat hook that takes the already elevated single to even higher heights.
“I’ve been realizing that I really made the album that I needed to heal myself,” Kali Uchis tells Apple Music about *Sincerely,* perhaps her most liberating work yet. The Colombian American singer-songwriter’s catalog has never felt slight or frivolous, whether in English or in Spanish. Yet this full-length follow-up to her 2024 *ORQUÍDEAS* dyad presents as something truly unique, arriving roughly a decade after her promising EP debut *Por Vida*. The majority of the songs here began simply as voice notes, fortuitously captured in inspired moments outside of the confines or pressures of a studio setting. “Messages would just feel like they were directly coming through me, and I just had to get them out,” she says. Given such natural creative origins, it should come as little surprise that the actual process behind the album eschewed industry norms altogether, favoring home recording and unconventional settings. And despite the demonstrated level of guest vocal talent at her fingertips, she opted out of features, too. “When you’re making emotional music, you have to actually dig into difficult subjects,” she says, marking a clear distinction between this piece and its star-powered predecessor. As a result, *Sincerely,* feels disarmingly intimate for what is ostensibly a pop album, even one from as consistently adventurous an artist as Uchis. The evocative moments of opener “Heaven Is a Home…” and closer “ILYSMIH” speak on love in grand and sweeping gestures, the passing of her mother and the birth of her son making understandably profound impacts on the work. Influences like Cocteau Twins and Fiona Apple can be felt in all that comes between those bookends. “There’s a lot of grief, but there’s a lot of joy,” she says, describing what seeps through the veil of “Silk Lingerie,” or the vamps of “Territorial.” Excess punctuation on titles like “Lose My Cool,” and “For: You” hint at the flowing prose of her lyrics as it contributes to an even greater whole. “I think it is a celebration of life in its own way,” she says, “in the sense of finding beauty in the pain and taking the good.”
It could be difficult for the casual fan to believe that, a full three decades in the game, Brother Ali is still improving as an MC. But on *Satisfied Soul*, the follow-up to 2024’s *Love & Service*, he’s rapping like he has something to prove. “Broadcasting live from the world tour with Muhammed my man/I hope that y’all understand, conquering land ain’t part of my plan,” he starts in on “The Counts.” “Put my forehead all on your sand/I put my heart in the palm of your hand/I make art and they call it a jam/You play it loud in your car and they call you a fan/Carve it in your skin, now you’re a Stan/I arrived with a wandering band that climbed out of a van/And held the mic like a wand in my dominant hand…” The Brother is, very intentionally, still nice with his. But *Satisfied Soul* isn’t just about lyrical dexterity. The project is produced by Ant (the production half of Minneapolis underground hip-hop heroes Atmosphere), whose long-standing collaborative relationship with Ali dates at least as far back as Ali’s second album, *Shadows in the Sun*. In interviews, Ali has been consistently gracious about what Ant’s production is able to draw out of him. On *Satisfied Soul*, this is the freedom to talk about everything from complicated family relationships (“Deep Cuts,” “Mysterious Things,” “Better But Us”) to Ali’s path to greatness as an MC (“D.R.U.M.”) to the unhoused (“Under the Stars”) to the time in 2008 when he kicked Justin Timberlake offstage for attempting to surprise him with an impromptu beatboxing effort (“Two Dudes”). As the project’s title implies, Ali sounds more comfortable in his skin than he’s ever been. He seems to have a great life—now residing full-time in Istanbul, and releasing music through Arizona-based Mello Music Group—and he can’t wait for you to hear about it.
When Larry June and The Alchemist get together, the results are invariably magical. Two West Coast hip-hop mainstays, their 2023 joint album *The Great Escape* and a few surrounding one-offs clarified just how marvelously the Bay’s healthiest MC could vibe with LA’s infamous beat artisan. While that project’s featured guests were overwhelmingly comprised of ALC familiars, the duo’s 2025 follow-up welcomes a relative newcomer to that particular scene as its third headliner: 2 Chainz. Having established his reputation primarily with trap producers, the Georgia native reached a certain level of ubiquity by working beyond subgenre borders, which contextualizes his presence on *Life Is Beautiful*. As his biggest fans assuredly know, he and June are in no way strangers, appearing together on the latter’s *Spaceships on the Blade* and *The Night Shift*, albeit not over Alchemist beats. Commonalities and contrasts between the two rappers make *Life Is Beautiful* a uniquely satisfying listening experience. “Colossal” recalls 2 Chainz’s *Most Expensivest* exploits, his luxe litany of decidedly un-humble brags pleasantly incongruous with June’s signature lifestyle index involving fresh-squeezed juices, vintage timepieces, and automotive excellence. At times, they suit one another like a well-balanced cocktail, trading unapologetically profane bars for more methodical and measured ones on “I Been” and “Any Day.” Elsewhere, their shared maturity differentiates them from the brand-name-dropping rap pack, their grown-folks motivations informing the flexes of “LLC” and the title track. Devoid of distractions from outside guests, both artists’ skills and quirks come to the fore over Alchemist’s breathtaking, often sublimely soulful, instrumentals.
If anyone knows something about *FESTIVAL SEASON*, it’s SAINt JHN, the Brooklyn-hailing singer and MC whose “Roses (Imanbek Remix)” has been tearing down electro festivals since its release back in 2018. JHN, though, is an artist whose creative practice extends way beyond single genre. He shows off his range on *FESTIVAL SEASON*, singing and rapping over rage-rap production (“Body on Me,” “4 the Gangsters”), ATL-centric trap music (“Stones!!!,” “Poppin,” “Real Hustler”), pop punk (“Who’s Ex Wife Is This”), pool-party techno (“Glitching”), soca-influenced house (“Loneliness”)—and, because even the greatest parties need a breather, a power ballad (“Never Met Superman”). It’s almost as if it doesn’t matter which festival you choose to attend: SAINt JHN is going to be there.
A few days before the release of *Fancy Some More?*, PinkPantheress posted a teaser video which starred her animated alter ego scribbling the names of 23 artists on a cartoon whiteboard. The list of names spanned genres, generations, and the globe: the Aussie pop icon Kylie Minogue, Swedish rap mystic Bladee, and K-pop supergroup SEVENTEEN were just a few. The artists were revealed as the featured guests on a sprawling, 22-track expansion of the British singer/producer’s second mixtape, *Fancy That*, which landed in May 2025 as her highest-charting album in her home country. Here, PinkPantheress adds two discs’ worth of high-end bonus versions to the original nine tracks, the first of which leans fully into cool, left-of-center pop, including a Spanish-language flip of “Illegal” from Brazilian reggaeton star Anitta and French electro-pop auteur Oklou’s dreamy reimagining of “Girl Like Me.” Disc two features remixes from a decade-spanning range of PinkPantheress’ dance-music favorites—from jungle revivalist Nia Archives to British house heroes Basement Jaxx, whose big-beat euphoria inspired several of *Fancy That*’s original tracks.
Last year, the Baton Rouge rapper’s relative silence spoke volumes. After a staggeringly prolific run in the previous years (one album and six mixtapes in 2022, two albums and two mixtapes in 2023), YoungBoy released just one record in 2024. Days before the intended release of his seventh album, *I Just Got a Lot on My Shoulders*, he was arrested on a number of charges, and he spent much of that year in a Utah county jail before receiving a 27-month prison sentence after accepting a plea deal in a federal gun case that had been ongoing for years. It was the latest in a seemingly endless series of setbacks for the rapper, whose “Legal issues” section on Wikipedia is nearly as long as the one for “Career.” YoungBoy’s 2025 has so far been much brighter, beginning with his release on probation in April after years of house arrest. Then, on May 28, he was granted a presidential pardon, ending the lengthy legal battle that had hampered his career for half a decade. This explains the newfound swell of patriotism at play in the title of his eighth studio album, *MASA* (short for *Make America Slime Again*), as well as in the triumphant “XXX,” which opens with “The Star-Spangled Banner” wailed on electric guitar before YB crows: “The police watching, but they ain’t gonna stop me!” The album’s 30 tracks are brighter than its world-weary predecessor, veering between bouncy Louisiana street rap (“Diesel”) and power ballads (“Cold World”). But he finds room here and there for a bit of introspection regarding his recent years: “Never knew how hard it’d get/Never knew it’d come to this,” he singsongs on “Where I Been” before concluding: “After all, I’m amazed that I conquered it.”
Throughout his career, the rapid-spitting rapper BabyTron has married his love of hip-hop with his devotion to the NBA. There was *Sleeve Nash* in 2020, the original *Luka Troncic* in 2021, and on 2023’s *MegaTron 2* he had a song called “90’s Bulls.” The second edition of the *Luka Troncic* series kicks off with “Luka Magic,” a cut that nods to the Los Angeles Laker and his point-guard predecessor, Magic Johnson. Tron isn’t focused only on superstars, though: On that song in particular, he mentions veteran role player Kyle Kuzma. “77” pays tribute to Luka Doncic’s number and features a joyous throwback beat that plays with Detroit’s early techno roots. Focus too much on hooping, though, and you’ll miss the real star of *Luka Troncic 2*: BabyTron himself.
For his fifth solo album, *Unlearning Vol. 2*, Evidence enlists a handful of underground-friendly West Coast MCs, including Larry June (“Future Memories”), Odd Future alum Domo Genesis (“Favorite Injury”), and late-aughts blog-rap darling Blu (“Stay Alive”). Famed producer and sometime Step Brothers counterpart The Alchemist is here on “Rain Every Season.” The guests share a kinship with Ev in creative theory, if not in actual practice. “I’m just a minimalist who’s still massive,” he raps on “Top Seeded,” casually distilling their respective impacts. Evidence may have the resume of a hip-hop legend, but he wouldn’t likely have you call him one. After his work with acts like Dilated Peoples and The Alchemist, production for Beastie Boys, LINKIN PARK, and Kanye West (to name but a few), and four well-received solo albums, he continues to create and release music on his own terms. *Unlearning Vol. 2*, then, manages to boost both his pedigree and mystique. “Graffiti writer, never dreamed of being famous,” he reflects on “Different Phases.” “The goal was that they never knew the face, not being nameless.”
A lot has changed in the eight years since Miguel last released an album, from the state of the world to his personal life. (In 2023, his divorce from longtime partner Nazanin Mandi was finalized.) If 2017’s *War & Leisure* hinted at turmoil both personal and political, the fifth album from the R&B auteur lands directly in the thick of it. On *CAOS*, the fight for peace is messy, but cathartic. Previous hits like “Adorn” and “Coffee” reveled in the bliss of intimacy, but here Miguel ventures beyond soulful psychedelia to embrace darker sounds and themes, landing somewhere between P-Funk and Nine Inch Nails. In the dark underbelly of the present, love feels a lot like rage, and vulnerability and anarchy coexist more easily than you’d think. He’s masked, strapped, and ready for whatever on “New Martyrs (Ride 4 U),” a Bonnie and Clyde anthem for uncertain times. He sings in Spanish on the apocalyptic title track, interpolates 2Pac on “The Killing” (“I ain’t a killer, but don’t push me”), and flips a poignant piano ballad into a scuzzy house thumper on “RIP.” A streak of primal lust flashes through the darkness, and on “Angel’s Song,” he swoons amidst the flames (“I forget the world’s unraveling when I look at you”). And on the grungy “Always Time,” he delivers an elegy for his marriage, singing: “Maybe this time, love means letting go.”
GIVĒON has been working on his craft these past few years, and the fruits of his labor are resplendent on *BELOVED*, a love letter to R&B that has the timeless feel of ’70s soul sides while possessing a distinctly 21st-century sensibility. “There’s that element where I’m doing this because it’s in my DNA,” GIVĒON tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I didn’t choose music. I tell people all the time, ‘I didn’t choose it. It chose me.’ But I care about rhythm and blues. It means a lot to me.” *BELOVED* starts off in a big way: Surging strings create a high-drama atmosphere that sets the mood for “MUD,” a poison-pen letter to an ex that’s given a cushion by GIVĒON\'s supple croon and the sonic splendor surrounding it. Not only does the song send a message to the person who did GIVĒON wrong, it lets listeners know that the singer-songwriter has leveled up in the years since his last album, 2022’s *Give or Take*. “I think I grew as an artist exponentially,” he says. “There’s a leap in my knowing how to articulate what I feel, or what I have a taste for.” On *BELOVED*, GIVĒON showcases his evolution in a way that’s dazzling without being showy—the longing “I CAN TELL” frames his vulnerable vocals in rhythmic snaps and dry horns, while on the slow-burning “KEEPER” he fully throws himself into his plea to a lover he’s missing. Much of *BELOVED* came out of GIVĒON and his collaborators jamming in the studio, and its grooves possess the sort of loose yet locked-in feel that characterizes the most sublime soul. Despite growing up in Southern California, GIVĒON was raised on East Coast R&B, and he studied records by the likes of Teddy Pendergrass, as well as the productions of Philadelphia soul architects Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, to get properly inspired for *BELOVED*. He also got better at fully tuning in to his artistic desires and curiosity. “I know what artist I am,” he says. “I understand my process. I understand how to evolve as well.”
In the course of making his fourth album, Loyle Carner came to the conclusion that perhaps it was time to lighten up a little. “I needed to not take myself so seriously,” he tells Apple Music. “I think I’m learning how to do that slowly.” One thing that has undoubtedly helped iron out that furrowed brow is just how much the South London rapper, songwriter, spoken-word artist, and now actor, born Ben Coyle-Larner, is reveling in fatherhood. “My son was in the studio so much, we were just in a place of living in the moment,” he explains. “When you’re around kids, that’s the only thing that exists to them. There’s no present or past or future or whatever.” That sense of savoring the here and now runs right through *hopefully !*. It’s an album that shakes off the contemplative turmoil of 2022’s *hugo*, where he explored his relationship with his own father, with these songs possessing a reassuring warmth. An airy, elegant hip-hop record from an artist who sounds totally at ease with himself, *hopefully !* has a cover that serves as the perfect snapshot for its themes of paternal love. “It always happens that my son just decides to draw on my face,” he says. “My partner captured the moment. What’s so nice is you can’t tell in that photo if he’s supporting me or comforting me or if I’m comforting him. I think that’s true of our relationship. It’s quite ambiguous, who’s looking after who?” Let Loyle Carner guide through the soothing sounds of *hopefully !*, track by track. **“feel at home”** “This was made with a friend of mine called Zach Nahome. I went to his house and we made it quite quickly. I was trying really hard to not write too many words down. Then, when I brought it back to the studio with my friends that I was working on the rest of the album with, I played them a little voice note I had on my phone of my son playing wind chimes in the park and it just happened to be in the perfect key with the song. Literally, he was kind of playing along with the song. It had to be at the start of the song and everyone around me was like, ‘It has to be the opener.’” **“in my mind”** “If ‘feel at home’ is the opening credits then ‘in my mind’ is the first scene. This was actually the first song we made together as a band and the first song for this album. We were in the studio in between sessions on tour and we had two days in the studio. It was a totally clean slate. I was listening to a lot more music from my childhood, The Smiths, The Cure, Bob Dylan, Stevie Smith, Elliott Smith—a lot of Smiths!—and new stuff too like Fontaines D.C.. Trying to get back to the stuff I listened to before I was told what I should listen to. That was feeding into it a lot.” **“all i need”** “This is one of my favorites. I wrote it in the car park of a Big Yellow Self Storage in East London. I was struck with how many things people keep, all the stuff that they hold onto. I wish that we had less stuff as people. I was thinking about all the emotional baggage that you don’t see that people carry around. I wish you could put that in a Big Yellow Self Storage instead.” **“lyin”** “This was written just before my daughter was born. It was about not being sure if she was going to make it or not. Birth and pregnancy is so complicated, and it doesn’t always work out. I was thinking about who she would be and hoping that she makes it. Also, putting my son to bed and thinking about how that’s my favorite time and how scared I was the first time around I was having a kid and how light and chill I was the second time because I knew it was easier than I thought.” **“time to go”** “‘time to go’’s days were numbered on the album for a long time. I was trying to get it to fit into the palette of the rest of the music, it was cool but it sounded so big and I wanted it to feel small. Then we went around the houses, tried to take everything away from it and, in the end, we decided that it was meant to be what it was and we couldn’t change it. We left it how it was and gave it a chance. We knew that there was something about it that made us feel good. We were like, ‘Look, if we can’t figure out how to change it, but we want it to come out, it’s going to have to be what it is.’” **“horcrux”** “I was thinking about my son and my daughter. In Harry Potter, Voldemort has the Horcruxes, where he takes a piece of his soul and puts it somewhere else. Someone had said to me, ‘You only get out of life alive through your kids. They’re the ones who get you out of life alive.’ I thought it was such a funny saying but I thought about it a lot because all of the best bits of me, I’ve taken them and tried to put them into my kids.” **“strangers”** “I made this with the intention of passing it over to someone I’m a big fan of: Adrianne Lenker. I really wanted her to sing it. I thought she could sing better than me, but she wasn’t around or whatever, so it fell back to me. At first, I was going to put it in the bin, and then I was like, ‘Actually, maybe this has got a chance.’ Other people started saying to me, ‘Please don’t lose this song. I really love it,’ so I gave it a shot, and here it is. Singing is fucking scary, if I’m honest. I didn’t think it through until it was too late. Obviously, it’s easy in front of no one. Then, the more people who started to come into touch with it and start to listen to it, it’s been a bit more scary. I’m trying to roll with it, trying to brave it.” **“hopefully” (with Benjamin Zephaniah)** “This features Benjamin Zephaniah. I was trying to be a little bit more coded in my language and be abstract a bit more to protect my kids, it’s so hard to express my love for them, literally. The echo you can hear is me and my son underneath a bridge on our bike. Every time we cycle underneath a bridge, he says, ‘Echo,’ because he likes the way it sounds, and so do I. I’ve recorded loads of those. Then, Benjamin Zephaniah, at the end, I had watched this documentary the day before and I heard that excerpt, and I was like, ‘That sums up what I’m saying in a more literal and pointed way.’” **“purpose” (with Navy Blue)** “This features Navy Blue. That was a dream come true, to collab with him. It came about really easily. We had been texting a bit. I texted him on a whim and was like, ‘I made this song, I think you’ll like it.’ He was sat on a beach in Jamaica and he wrote to it then and there and sent it back the next day.” **“don’t fix it” (with Nick Hakim)** “This is me and the main man, Nick Hakim. It was the last song we made for the album. It was in the studio at his in New York. It was quite a profound day for me to watch him. I’m a big fan of Nick Hakim. He wasn’t singing because obviously it’s a hard thing to part with when it’s so special to you. Then he got hunched up into the corner, put the mic to his lips, and spoke this little chorus into the mic. It was a privilege to watch someone do the thing they’re meant to do in your presence.” **“about time”** “It had to be at the end of the album because of my son, ’cause it sounds like he’s telling me to stop making music and focus on being a dad. I wanted it to be quite close to the beginning so it didn’t get lost but then it couldn’t be anywhere else. It was made to be there.”
With Bryson Tiller’s 2024 self-titled album, the Louisville crooner crafted a genre-bending departure from his comfort zone, experimenting with the soundscapes of dancehall, drill, and pop next to his signature mixture of hip-hop and R&B. Tiller fully embraced himself and where he was at within his artistry, so much so that he decided to take a hiatus from music after its release to pursue his passion for video game design. But now he’s back with *Solace & The Vices*, a double album that lets go of the pressures of the industry and starts a new chapter of his ever-evolving sound. On the first half of *Solace & The Vices*, Tiller looks inward as he gets somberly vulnerable about his struggles with romance, handling fame, and more. On the album opener “Strife,” he croons about wanting his lover to give him another chance, while on “Workaholic,” he exposes his own shortcomings as a partner due to obsessing over his career: “I was scared of going broke in 2018/That was after all the money and the fame/Going back to how it was, the shit’ll be a shame.” “I treated *Solace* like a therapy session,” Tiller tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I really want people to listen to it that way, almost as if I’m sitting on a couch and you’re just listening to what I’m saying.” And he does just that, taking listeners on a voyage through his psyche as he pulls himself apart to reflect on the highs and lows of his relationships, whether he’s dealing with losing a lover to someone else (“Damn”), making the hard decision to end a connection (“Uncertainty”), or finding new love again (“I Need Her,” “Star Signs”). The second half of *Solace & The Vices* finds Tiller showcasing the other side of his artistry. As he does across the majority of his discography, the singer-songwriter toes the line between singing and rapping; however, on *The Vices* he leans less into the moody trap-soul tracks that defined his career and launched him into superstardom. Instead, he dives deeper into the rap-heavy side of his musicality, delivering sharp flows and gritty, energetic bars over dynamic production from Charlie Heat, Gravez, Teddy Walton, and Hitmaka. Tiller is unapologetic as he revels in his impulsive nature, waxing poetic as he brags about his lifestyle (“First Place,” “200 Bands,” “Make Life Easy”) while navigating the ups and downs of his situationships (“No Sharing,” “More Than Money,” “Last Call”), and even contemplates letting go of his player ways (“Burnout”). Tiller isn’t alone as he ventures through partying and romance. He gets some help from Bossman Dlow, Rick Ross, Plies, T-Pain, BabyDrill, Luh Tyler, and Bun B, who are along for the ride. On the closing track “Finished,” Tiller addresses his naysayers and critics who doubt his ability to surpass his 2015 debut album *T R A P S O U L*. His resilience in the face of criticism is evident as he confidently asserts: “I’ll be done with this shit when I’m done/I ain’t lookin’ for the number one /Just money and the shit keep comin’/Kept goin’, can’t risk bein’ nothin’/Ain’t fallin’ off, bitch, you funny.”
In a city where idiosyncrasy comes from even the hardest of rappers, there’s still no one in Detroit doing it quite like Bruiser Wolf. Closely affiliated with Danny Brown and part of the insular Bruiser Brigade, he steps to the microphone with the survivalist savvy of a street poet and the poignant wit of a stand-up comic. He spits game because he’s *been* in the game, translating his knowledge into one-liners and double entendres on this collaboration with veteran hip-hop producer Harry Fraud. The cinematic quality of his life story thus far screens in 70mm clarity through the cheeky opener “Tubi,” though he cautions on “Against the Odds” that there’s enough fodder to fuel a full-blown saga. His provocative couplets on “Connect Four” and “Heart Broke” carry on a legacy that encompasses Rudy Ray Moore’s *Dolemite*, Suga Free, and Too $hort. Given Fraud’s own reputation for scoring rap songs like movie scenes, the ’70s throwback accents on “Eye Owe You” and “The Money Say” serve Wolf’s routines well. And if that weren’t enough, cameos by Benny the Butcher and fellow Bruiser brigadier Zelooperz, among others, add even further filmic thrills.
As much as his Griselda affiliation connects him with a Buffalo, NY state of mind, Boldy James remains a Detroit rapper through and through. Coming amid a fast-and-furious run of new releases from the prodigious spitter, *Hommage* rightfully centers him in his hometown both physically and sonically. With the help of Antt Beatz, producer behind favorites by 42 Dugg and Icewear Vezzo, he shares his astutely local vision of the city on cuts like “Concrete Connie” and “Super Mario.” Even the track titles themselves reflect the rapper’s clever brand of lyricism, as cuts like the exultant “Brick James” and “Himothy Mcveigh” contain his all-but-patented blend of narco knowledge drops and street king statements. As expected, the guest list is rightfully restricted to residents, with Baby Money giving nothing but straight talk on the booming “Off the Richter” and BandGang Lonnie Bands trading tight verses off with Boldy on the melancholic “Met Me.”
CMG’s Louisville connect EST Gee made the shift from mixtape marvel to certified hitmaker with seeming ease. Linking with the likes of 42 Dugg, Future, and Jack Harlow, he’s impacted the charts without having to compromise his core strengths and the experiences in which those were forged. That hood-borne integrity continues on *I Aint Feeling You*, its title yet another variant on his discography’s prevailing theme. Such ruthlessness dominates his verses, both when taking calculated aim on \"Slime” and in showing love for his environs on “The Streets.” Recognizing that trap-house politics and personal matters invariably intertwine in the lifestyle, he turns baby-mama drama into opportunities on “Crash” and surveys a veritable war zone from his particular point of view on the vengeful “RIP LU MIKE.” A genuine love for Southern rap helps to rightfully secure Gee’s own place within its legacy. To that end, he nods to regional hip-hop greatness on “Plug Motivation” and reconnects with Lil Baby for “Houstonatlantaville,” with no less than Travis Scott representing the first part of that tri-city trifecta. Drawing direct inspiration from a Lil Scrappy hit, “Do My Own Stunts” showcases Gee’s defiant individualistic streak via a string of flexes and threats. An auspicious reunion with his “5500 Degrees” cohort Rylo Rodriguez out of Alabama, the Veeze-infused “My Love” sets unflinchingly real-life storytelling against a snappy, soulful beat. That reflectively confessional approach carries through to the album’s “Outro,” a clear-eyed accounting of his imperfections and mistakes that makes him even more relatable.