Hiphopheads

If there were any remaining doubts as to hip-hop’s MVP, consider the decision stamped: Kendrick Lamar officially won 2024. There were whispers that Compton’s finest was working on an album in the wake of his feud with Drake, a once-in-a-generation beef that kept jaws dropped for months. (Perhaps you’ve heard of a little song called “Not Like Us,” an immediate entry into the canon of all-time great diss tracks.) After a sold-out celebration at the Kia Forum, an armful of Grammy nods and streaming records, and the headlining slot at next year’s Super Bowl, Lamar ties up his biggest year yet with a bow with his sixth album, *GNX*, the most legitimately surprising surprise drop since *BEYONCÉ* in 2013. Named for his beloved classic Buick, *GNX* finds Kendrick wielding a hatchet he’s by no means ready to bury, still channeling this summer’s cranked-to-11 energy. On “wacced out murals,” he’s riding around listening to Anita Baker, plotting on several downfalls: “It used to be fuck that n\*\*\*a, but now it’s plural/Fuck everybody, that’s on my body.” (Yes, there’s a nod to his Super Bowl drama with Lil Wayne.) If you’ve been holding your breath for Jack Antonoff to link with Mustard, wait no more—the seemingly odd couple share production credits on multiple tracks, the explosive “tv off” among them. Still, K.Dot keeps you guessing: It’s not quite 12 tracks of straight venom over world-conquering West Coast beats. SZA helps cool things down on the Luther Vandross-sampling “luther,” while Lamar snatches back a borrowed title on “heart pt. 6” to remember the early days of TDE: “Grinding with my brothers, it was us against them, no one above us/Bless our hearts.” He cycles through past lives over a flip of 2Pac’s “Made N\*\*\*\*z” on “reincarnated” before getting real with his father about war, peace, addiction, and ego death, and on “man at the garden,” he outlines his qualifications for the position of GOAT. Here’s another bullet point to add to that CV: On *GNX*, Lamar still surprises while giving the people exactly what they want.

Whether as Marshall Mathers or Slim Shady, Eminem never fails to make a strong impression. His discography regularly documents a struggle between the Detroit-bred rap superstar’s two outspoken personas, an artistic battle followed closely by his most ardent and attentive fans, while pitchfork-wielding outsiders and his more casual listeners never bothered to discern the difference. The willfully profane Slim and the comparatively less sacrilegious Marshall compose a dramaturgical dyad that makes each of his album releases feel like blockbusters. That said, the stakes feel dramatically high on *The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)*, its title the most thematically loaded of his two-and-a-half-decade career. If this does end up the genuine final curtain call for Eminem’s most notorious alter ego, he makes it a point to execute it on his own controversy-baiting terms, whether people like it or not. Addressing his detractors head-on, “Habits” defensively dismantles criticisms both internal and external, taking personal inventory while decrying political correctness. Cancel culture and wokeness as existential threats stay front of mind throughout, looming particularly large over the combative “Antichrist” and the Dr. Dre co-produced “Lucifer.” Repeated references to Caitlyn Jenner won’t quell the perpetual transphobia accusations Eminem has long faced, but on songs like “Evil” and “Road Rage” he at least aims to clarify his positions amid his characteristically clever wordplay. Naturally, Slim isn’t about to go out quietly. Ever the eager pugilist, he exploits his upper hand with Fight Club panache on “Brand New Dance” and “Trouble.” The character’s antagonism vacillates between self-destructive outbursts and strategic gaslighting, gleefully poking at touchy topics on “Houdini” and assigning we’re-in-this-together complicity to Marshall on the surprise sequel “Guilty Conscience 2.” Yet even as the tragicomically intertwined foes grapple with one another, the album still makes room for something as personal as “Temporary,” a heartfelt message to his daughter for after he’s gone. With the added benefit of a few unexpected cameos, including Michigan-repping cut “Tobey” with Big Sean and BabyTron, the over-the-top theatricality driving *The Death of…* feels like fan service, giving his longtime patrons the Eminem show they’ve come to expect from him.

As someone who invited fame and courted infamy, first with inflammatory albums like *Wolf* and later with his flamboyant fashion sense via GOLF WANG, Tyler Okonma is less knowable than most stars in the music world. While most celebrities of his caliber and notoriety either curate their public lives to near-plasticized extremes or become defined by tabloid exploits, the erstwhile Odd Futurian chiefly shares what he cares to via his art and the occasional yet ever-quotable interview. As his Tyler, The Creator albums pivoted away from persona-building and toward personal narrative, as on the acclaimed *IGOR* and *CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST*, his mystique grew grandiose, with the undesirable side effect of greater speculation. The impact of fan fixation plays no small part on *CHROMAKOPIA*, his seventh studio album and first in more than three years. Reacting to the weirdness, opening track “St. Chroma” finds Tyler literally whispering the details of his upbringing, while lead single “Noid” more directly rages against outsiders who overstep both online and offline. As on his prior efforts, character work plays its part, particularly on “I Killed You” and the two-hander “Hey Jane.” Yet the veil between truth and fiction feels thinner than ever on family-oriented cuts like “Like Him” and “Tomorrow.” Lest things get too damn serious, Tyler provocatively leans into sexual proclivities on “Judge Judy” and “Rah Tah Tah,” both of which should satisfy those who’ve been around since the *Goblin* days. When monologue no longer suits, he calls upon others in the greater hip-hop pantheon. GloRilla, Lil Wayne, and Sexyy Red all bring their star power to “Sticky,” a bombastic number that evolves into a Young Buck interpolation. A kindred spirit, it seems, Doechii does the most on “Balloon,” amplifying Tyler’s energy with her boisterous and profane bars. Its title essentially distillable to “an abundance of color,” *CHROMAKOPIA* showcases several variants of Tyler’s artistry. Generally disinclined to cede the producer’s chair to anyone else, he and longtime studio cohort Vic Wainstein execute a musical vision that encompasses sounds as wide-ranging as jazz fusion and Zamrock. His influences worn on stylishly cuffed sleeves, Neptunes echoes ring loudly on the introspective “Darling, I” while retro R&B vibes swaddle the soapbox on “Take Your Mask Off.”

Vince Staples knows his songs aren’t soundtracking too many wild Friday night parties; they sound way better on the long, contemplative walk home. “I’ve always been aware of where I fit within the ecosystem of this whole thing, and that allows me to create freely,” he tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “No one’s coming to me from a fan standpoint looking for a single, or looking for a party record. But I do know the people who listen to my music are probably looking for thoughtfulness or creativity.” Since breaking through a decade ago with his debut EP *Hell Can Wait*, the Long Beach rapper has been the go-to guy for heady West Coast rap: songs that may not make you dance, but always make you think. Still, his sixth studio album (and the last one on his Def Jam contract) isn’t quite the downer that the title suggests. Where its predecessor, 2022’s *RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART*, looked back at his bittersweet youth, *Dark Times* is a snapshot of Staples right now: on top of the world on paper, but the reality is trickier. (“I think I’m losing it,” he raps on the bass-heavy “Black&Blue.” “Hope you’re along for the ride.”) On “Government Cheese” he grapples with survivor’s guilt, mourning his brother and lying that all’s well to his friend in prison who saw him on TV. Still, light enters through the cracks with breezy, soulful beats from frequent collaborators Michael Uzowuru and LeKen Taylor, not to mention Staples’ trademark dry wit: “Don’t be no crab in the bucket, be a Crip at the Ritz,” he quips on “Freeman.” There’s even a few tracks you could bump at the function: “Étouffée,” a love letter to New Orleans rap, and “Little Homies,” a lo-fi house jam on whose hook Staples crows, “Life hard, but I go harder.” And no matter how heavy things get, Staples is realistic about what his work means in the grand scheme of things. “They\'re just songs, man,” he says. “It doesn\'t need to go past that point. I know everybody values things differently—but for me at least, put it out, people listen to it, they like it or they don\'t. And then if you get to do it the next time, that\'s the gift that you get is the ability to do it the next time, because most people don\'t get that.”

Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s 2024 album *VULTURES 1* served as Yeezy’s first collaborative album since his 2018 album with Kid Cudi, *KIDS SEE GHOSTS*, and as such, provides the bacchanal-like vibes of a long-awaited reunion. Bridging R&B, classic soul-sample rap, and the lo-fi electro stylings of late-era West, *VULTURES 1* manages to fuse Yeezy’s go-to production methods with Ty Dolla’s effortlessly smooth vocals to create something entirely unpredictable. One standout is the Playboi Carti and Rich The Kid-assisted “CARNIVAL,” which begins with a group chant fit for a soccer stadium before the rappers take turns flexing, making the luxurious life sound more enviable than ever before. West even samples his own song, “Hell of a Life,” making it clear that everyone in his orbit is still living in Yeezyland.

For years, Childish Gambino’s *Atavista* hid in plain sight. When he released an unfinished version of the record on March 15, 2020, it spent just 12 hours on his website before he pulled it down. Reappearing on streaming a week later as *3.15.20*, the project brought up almost as many questions as sparkling neo-soul anthems, which still sounded slicker than the average as raw cuts titled after timestamps. Flash forward to 2024 and Donald Glover has upgraded and updated *3.15.20* with added tracks. He worked closely with Los Angeles producer DJ Dahi and Swedish producer and esteemed film and TV composer Ludwig Göransson, a longtime collaborator, to set a sumptuous tone seated back between the ’70s funk reverence of 2016’s *“Awaken, My Love!”* and the smooth Caribbean-inflected soul of 2014’s *Kauai*. Features from Ariana Grande, 21 Savage, and Summer Walker soar on reinvigorated mixes, while “Little Foot Big Foot” features a spotlight-ready Young Nudy, finding Gambino’s eye still fixed towards the future of the regional scene he portrayed in vivid color on FX’s *Atlanta*. *Atavista* is an ode to impermanence, never more directly than over the glimmering guitar of “Time” with Grande. (“One thing’s for certain, baby/We’re running out of time,” they harmonize on the chorus.) But in Gambino’s capable hands, *Atavista* also slows down to enjoy the view, the sonic equivalent of a luxe leather-interior BMW cruising an open California highway. “I did what I wanted to,” he revels on closing track “Final Church.” *Atavista* took many shapes over the years to reach a final form. In each warm refrain, tight sequence, and carefully chosen collaborator, Gambino demonstrates why some things are worth waiting for.

A Top Dawg Entertainment fixture since the early 2010s, ScHoolboy Q played no small role in elevating the label to hip-hop’s upper echelon. With his Black Hippy cohorts Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock, the tremendously talented Los Angeles native made a compelling case for continuing the West Coast’s rap legacy well beyond the G-funk era or the days of Death Row dominance. Even still, his relative absence from the game after *CrasH Talk* dropped in 2019 has been hard to ignore, particularly as the most prominent member of his group departed TDE while SZA became the roster’s most undeniable hitmaker. Indeed, it’s been nearly five years since he gave us more than a loosie, which makes the arrival of his sixth full-length *BLUE LIPS* all the more auspicious. His concerns as a lyricist draw upon the micro as well as the macro level, as a parent decrying mass school shootings on “Cooties” or as a rap star operating on his own terms on “Nunu.” Elevating the drama, the *Saw* soundtrack cue nods of “THank god 4 me” accent his emboldened bars targeting snitches, haters, and fakes. Q’s guest selection reflects a more curatorial ear at work than the gratifying star-power flexes found on *CrasH Talk*. Rico Nasty righteously snarls through her portion of the menacing “Pop,” while Freddie Gibbs glides across the slow funk groove of “oHio” with scene-stealing punchlines. A producer behind TDE records by Isaiah Rashad and REASON, Devin Malik steps out from behind the boards to touch the mic on a handful of cuts, namely “Love Birds” and the booming paean “Back n Love.”

Card-carrying members of the #FutureHive remember where they were on the two consecutive weekends of February 2017 when rap’s reigning king of gorgeously toxic masculinity dropped a pair of albums that nailed the yin and yang of the whole Future thing. The first one, simply titled *FUTURE*, exemplified his singular breed of haunted club crushers, like “Mask Off,” a Metro Boomin joint that became his highest-charting single at the time. Hot on its heels was *HNDRXX*, named for his softer, trippier side, a buoyant return to the romance of his *Pluto*-era hits. Both albums debuted at No. 1 and felt like a return to form for a rapper who’s had more thrilling returns to form than just about any other rap star of the past 15 years. A similar feeling floats on the breeze with the release of *WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU*, Future’s second collaborative album with Metro Boomin in less than a month. From the spacey and vaguely French disco pulse of the Weeknd-featuring title track, you get the sense that *WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU* is the *HNDRXX* to *WE DON’T TRUST YOU*’s *FUTURE*—a balmy sunrise after a dark night of the soul. That feeling is confirmed by the shimmering bacchanalia of “Drink N Dance” and the Brownstone-sampling “Luv Bad Bitches,” an instant addition to the canon of Future’s best love songs (“I like good girls, but I love, love, love bad bitches!”). Metro’s productions have rarely sounded prettier, and Future Hendrix fires on all cylinders, reminding you that for all his red-eyed “fuck love” bangers, at his core he’s a romantic. Kendrick Lamar’s surprise verse on *WE DON’T TRUST YOU* reopened the “Big Three” debate floor; with *WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU*, it’s time to start seriously considering the idea of the “Big Four.”

Throughout Donald Glover’s idiosyncratic entertainment career, Childish Gambino has served as a vessel for his musical endeavors. The malleability of that moniker provided the right fit for his restless creative spirit, via the wry alt-rap adventures of *Camp* and *Because the Internet* and subsequently through the gripping P-Funk-meets-BLM expressions of *“Awaken, My Love!”* Few, if any, artists of his generation could make television as profound and unique as the critically acclaimed *Atlanta* while also charting Billboard hits as diverse as “Redbone” and “This Is America.” But everything has its limit. “I\'m not trying to be for anybody anymore,” Glover tells Apple Music\'s Zane Lowe. “It\'s too much work. I have to pick up the kids. I have to make chia seed pudding so they have something to eat in the morning.” So it’s with a certain sadness for his fans across mediums that Glover has declared *Bando Stone and the New World* the last Childish Gambino album. The ostensible soundtrack to a feature-length movie of the same name, the hour-long project includes snippets of dialogue that hint at the film’s apocalyptic subject matter. The fact that the soundtrack is preceding the actual film is part of Glover’s strategy: He wants listeners to work to figure out what they’re listening to. “The soundtrack forces the audience to participate in a way that I don\'t feel like most things force you to participate,” he says. “It forces you to have an imagination. I already see people being like, \'This is very cinematic, this must be the part that... This feels like a credit sequence.\' A lot of stuff feels flat because it\'s not asking you to participate. Art used to be you had to participate on some level and have some sort of thought process on it. You can\'t just be like, \'Oh, this is mid.\'” Even without the benefit of the full visuals, these 17 tracks make for a satisfying swan song that synthesizes what came before with fresher ideas gleaned from the threshold of finality. From the industrial dancehall clatter of “H3@Rt$ W3re M3@Nt T0 F7¥” to the post-EDM edge of “A Place Where Love Goes,” he borrows from the zeitgeist in order to tell a story that’s all his own. That process makes *Bando Stone* a more rare and diverse effort, merging multiple styles into an oddly cohesive listening experience. “Lithonia” applies soaring guitar and dramatic keys to the single’s self-realizations, while the genuinely sentimental “Real Love” liberally mixes subtly squelching synths with breezy breaks. Elsewhere, he pops out and shows his haters what’s what with the punchline-laden bars of “Talk My Shit,” keeping that same energy on the power-pop bop “Running Around.” To Glover, this stylistic eclecticism is faithful to how he thinks people experience their lives. “Depending on what you want or where you want to go, you\'ll listen to Sade or you\'ll listen to Nine Inch Nails,” he says. “They offer something, and I feel like with more access to things, you can offer a more holistic view of life or just what we\'re all going through.” Glover’s personal life understandably bleeds into the mix, marked most poignantly by the presence of his son Legend on the tender duet “Can You Feel Me.” That meaningful guest appearance exists alongside collaborations with other noteworthy guests culled largely from the hip-hop and R&B world, such as Flo Milli, Fousheé, and Yeat, the latter of whom Glover says he was “super impressed with.” With the help of Amaarae and Jorja Smith, he makes a meaningful case for love on the standout cut “In the Night.” Ultimately, Glover believes he’s wrapped up this part of his life on his own terms, even if there’s some ambiguity. “I remember seeing the ending of *The Sopranos* and being like, ‘I feel very content.’ And I know some people didn\'t feel that way, but I remember watching it. It\'s like, ‘Man, I have to make something that makes people okay with an ending like that.’”

On *VULTURES 2*, the second collaborative album from Ye and Ty Dolla $ign, they continue to seamlessly fuse the R&B aesthetics of Ty’s world with the maximal ambition of Yeezy’s vision for rap. Released just six months after *VULTURES 1* arrived, the follow-up leans into lyrical themes of excess, joy, and betrayal established on the first album, while introducing a wider sonic palette. Armed with guests like Lil Wayne, Lil Baby, Young Thug, and Kanye’s daughter North, West and Ty go through the epic highs and demoralizing lows that come with life on top. On “PROMOTION,” which features a cheeky chorus from Future, Ye complains about his girl troubles, rapping, “When she want attention, she disguise it as a post/I forgot to mention, she was mine before she yours.” Ye and Ty often expand their scope beyond ladies and luxury, like on “RIVER,” which features stirring string swells and a knocking drum groove. Yeezy pays tribute to the song’s featured artist, Young Thug, realizing that despite the pain in his life, freedom is priceless: “Too much money to be in the streets/Too much money to spend all on me/Too much hate and not enough love/Free Larry, free Young Thug.”

Denzel Curry’s *King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2* continues a series that began way back in 2012, and the South Florida spitter illustrates just how far he’s come on the sequel. He unites rappers of all different generations on the project, taking cues from the Raider Klan crew he cut his teeth with in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Key Nyata and That Mexican OT represent the new school, while 2 Chainz and Juicy J hold it down for the old heads. As is often the case with Curry, the album is full of high-energy bangers, like the Maxo Kream-assisted “SET IT,” which burns and bounces with the half-speed swagger of Maxo’s Houston roots. Employing his now-classic triplet flow, Zel recalls how real the struggle was when he was cutting his teeth in the game: “They always told me more money, more problems/But when I was broke, they gave me shit for less.” On the Armani White-featuring “WISHLIST,” the duo turn in a club anthem, beaming with arena-ready synths and drums that will be perfect for one of Denzel Curry’s rowdy concert mosh pits.

Across his varied, genre-pushing discography, Chicago spitter Lupe Fiasco has kept one thing consistent: He remains one of the best bar-for-bar rappers in the game. His ninth album is a milestone in many ways, although it continues his trend as one of hip-hop’s strongest lyricists: The entire project was produced by Soundtrakk, making it their second full-album collaboration, following 2022\'s *DRILL MUSIC IN ZION*, and it’s the first album that Lupe and Soundtrakk worked on with their longtime manager Charley \"Chill\" Patton since 2007\'s *The Cool*. Considering it’s a family reunion of sorts, Lupe and his go-to producer wanted to make the album as personal as possible, weaving narratives with anecdotes unique to the Windy City wonder. On the throwback “Mumble Rap,” Fiasco tells the story of a woman entranced by a mysterious sound before realizing its danger, which Lupe highlights by mumbling his way through the chorus. It’s conceptually daring commentary on the industry Lupe has made his name in, while still reflecting his singular POV. In that way, too, *Samurai* is more of the thrilling same from rap’s poet laureate.

Over the course of his decade-plus in the spotlight, Future has allowed his many alter egos a turn at center stage. There’s Future Hendrix, the soulful hippie for whom 2017’s *HNDRXX* is named, and *The WIZRD*, a nickname given by his uncle and the namesake of 2019’s *Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD*. Super Future represents him at his catchiest, where Fire Marshal Future shows the rapper at his most lit (as in, the fire marshals are going to have to shut the club down). But it’s been a while since we’ve seen Pluto, the character associated with his earliest projects, including 2012’s *Pluto*, the debut studio album that revealed him as a secret romantic and unexpected hitmaker. That eerie, pink-lit house on the cover of *MIXTAPE PLUTO*, Future’s first solo release of 2024, is none other than the Dungeon, the Georgia studio from which some of history’s most vital and inventive rap music emerged, from Goodie Mob to Outkast to Future himself. The basement studio was owned by Rico Wade, Organized Noize producer and Future’s older cousin. When Wade died at 52, Future posted a poignant message to Instagram: “This life wouldn’t b possible if it wasn’t for my cousin. Love u forever.” Across the album’s 17 featureless tracks, Future pays tribute not only to his uncle and mentor, but also to the era from which he emerged. “SKI,” “MJ,” and “READY TO COOK UP” deliver elevated updates on his narcotized rasp circa 2011’s *Dirty Sprite*, 2012’s *Astronaut Status*, and 2013’s underrated *F.B.G.: the Movie*. (“READY TO COOK UP,” in particular, feels like a high-end sequel to *Dirty Sprite*’s haunting title track: He might pull up in a helicopter, but he still knows how to use a Pyrex.) But it’s his soulful side that shines on tracks like “SURFING A TSUNAMI,” a shimmering hallucination of mermaids and giant waves, or on “OCEAN” when he croons, “So many tears, I could fill up an ocean.” And on the heartbreaking “LOST MY DOG,” he mourns a friend who died from a fentanyl overdose: “His mama tried to raise an angel, turned out gangster like his daddy/We share the same pain, so I knew he wasn’t happy.” It’s further evidence for Future as one of our greatest living bluesmen.

Denzel Curry’s *KING OF THE MISCHIEVOUS SOUTH* enterprise is the multipronged project that just won’t quit. The first edition of the mixtape arrived way back in 2012 and has since been lost to the ether, but Curry re-upped the project in 2024 with a 2.0 version. The second mixtape showcased his sterling stature while still paying homage to his roots, carrying on the *MISCHIEVOUS* torch and highlighted by features from Maxo Kream, Juicy J, and That Mexican OT. Before 2024 wrapped, though, Curry unveiled an album version of the project, which features a new tracklist and five additional songs. The updated collection is highlighted by “STILL IN THE PAINT,” which interpolates the legendary Waka Flocka Flame song and boasts verses from LAZER DIM 700 and Bktherula. It features the Carol City, Florida, MC at his charismatic best, revealing a world that looks and sounds familiar but is painted with that one-of-a-kind Denzel Curry style.

Listening to the 23-year-old rapper born Noah Olivier Smith, you get a sense of what it must feel like to witness a UFO: awestruck, confused, a little frightened, but convinced of intelligent life beyond this planet. The follow-up to the ever-mysterious rapper’s 2023 album, *AftërLyfe*, is loosely organized around the late-21st-century dystopia in which Yeat apparently already lives: “I’m in 2093, where your life at?” he yelps on the thunderous “Psycho CEO.” The Portland rapper’s best known for rapping over rage beats—dark melodies, booming bass, trap drums—but here he occasionally veers into subterranean techno (“Riot & Set it off”) or scuzzy house rhythms, like the strangely addictive title track. Lil Wayne and Future make brief cameos, but Yeat’s most fascinating on his own, left to ponder life’s great mysteries and make cryptic proclamations that future generations of rap scholars might make sense of in the 2090s. “I made every god cry…I know what happens when you die,” he warbles ominously over the decaying thump of “Team ceo.” Somehow, you kinda believe him.

Though NxWorries—the duo of Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge—took eight years between their first and second albums, the sound remains perfectly the same. On *Why Lawd?*, the producer from New Jersey uses his backpacking past to conjure up dusty grooves that serve as the perfect counterpoint to .Paak’s silky-smooth voice. On “Distractions,” Knx cues up Spanish-inspired guitar and echoing drum clicks to give .Paak the perfect stage from which he can sing of long nights and beautiful days: “I don’t need no more distractions, but I’m gassed to see what might happen.” It’s an album of impeccable textures and an ode to the “you only live once” mindset. “SheUsed” is a throwback gospel track with soaring vocal harmonies that finds .Paak unearthing his scratchy falsetto. “Said I’ll be back but won’t be mad if this time is the last,” he raps after multiple innuendo-laced bars. It’s all good, though. *Why Lawd?* is what happens when two of the game’s best link up in the pursuit of pure hedonistic joy.

When KAYTRANADA left the 2021 Grammys with two awards (Best Dance/Electronic Album for 2019’s *BUBBA* and Best Dance Recording for “10%”), he made history as the first Black and first openly gay artist to win the former category. The industry recognition was long overdue for the producer, who had been building a devout following for nearly a decade. “In my mind I was finally a true artist,” he tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. After relocating to Los Angeles, he channeled that confidence into making his third solo album, *TIMELESS*: “It felt more serious—more legit. I was still having fun making *TIMELESS*, but making *BUBBA* was another type of fun where I didn’t really take it seriously.” Like its predecessor, *TIMELESS* is a collection of club grooves for catching a vibe. It’s packed with guests who effortlessly acclimate to KAYTRANADA’s singular sound while imprinting their own touch. PinkPantheress’ saccharine voice is richer on the squiggly house beat of “Snap My Finger,” Ravyn Lenae offers breathy seductions on the hard-edged R&B of “Video,” and Thundercat delivers comical disses in soothing falsetto on the jazzy hip-hop of “Wasted Words.” Back-to-back tracks “Do 2 Me” (featuring Anderson .Paak and SiR) and “Witchy” (featuring Childish Gambino) hit an energy peak, their tales of late-night infatuation framed by sultry, body-enveloping production. If *BUBBA* was about finding KAYTRANADA’s sound, *TIMELESS* expands it. The producer is in what he calls his “experimental bag,” and Channel Tres joins him in it on the incendiary “Drip Sweat.” Channel’s trademark baritone drifts in and out of disembodied Auto-Tune, dropping bars over punchy drums and breaks sampled from Lyn Collins’ “Think (About It).” “We were just making the funkiest thing, like how it would sound if we did new jack swing today,” KAYTRANADA says. “What is that Bobby Brown energy? We were trying to give it that.” He tries out AI sampling on the breezy instrumental “Seemingly.” He also sings on a track for the first time on the Weeknd-inspired “Stepped On,” creating his version of ’80s New Wave with strobing synths and a dark disposition. With a new skill unlocked, *TIMELESS* makes room for another KAYTRANADA evolution.

Where 2023’s *Love Sick* provided a means for Don Toliver to live out his funk-soul fantasies, the subsequent *HARDSTONE PSYCHO* finds him on an arena-rock-star wave. To be sure, this doesn’t at all mean the Houston rapper/singer is awash in gaudy guitar noodling or engaged in performative posturing here. Instead, he treats his chosen premise like a new state of mind, transmuting the weight and complexity of his catalog into this larger-than-life version of his artistry. So when some distinct riffs launch “BANDIT” and “TORE UP,” he effortlessly slips into the leather-jacketed cool in a manner that historically has eluded most rappers who’ve attempted such a move. Divided into four movements, *HARDSTONE PSYCHO* may mirror classic-rock indulgence in terms of overall structure, but more specifically it delivers on what fans from his *Heaven or Hell* or *Life of a DON* days desire. His voice, pliable and otherworldly, carries the muted fuzz of “KRYPTONITE,” the bleep-laden R&B of “DEEP IN THE WATER,” and the trippy trap of “4X4.” On “HARDSTONE NATIONAL ANTHEM,” he follows through on the titular promise with a showstopper that expertly reconfigures the pop-wise power ballad format. As before, Toliver’s brought a few guests along to amplify and augment himself on record. Naturally, his Cactus Jack benefactor Travis Scott makes a handful of appearances, first as a sleek spitter on “ICE AGE” and later as his crooning co-conspirator on “INSIDE.” *Love Sick* standout Charlie Wilson returns to briefly feature on the Cash Cobain collab “ATTITUDE,” its low-end rumble and inventive Pharrell callback giving considerable chills, while Future and Metro Boomin reignite their “Too Many Nights” torch for “PURPLE RAIN.”

A mysterious trailer emerged the week before the release of Uzi’s fourth studio album, *Eternal Atake 2*. “On March 6, 2020, Lil Uzi Vert mysteriously vanished,” it narrated. “While it was never confirmed what happened that day, the faithful believed it to be the fulfillment of a long awaited prophecy… Eternal Atake.” Fans will recognize that fateful date in 2020 as the release of their mythic second album, *Eternal Atake*—a high-stakes concept album that not-so-subtly referenced the Web 1.0 aesthetics of Heaven’s Gate. (The religious group’s surviving members threatened the rapper with legal action over appropriation of their logo.) The project has taken on cult-classic status in the years since, representing Uzi’s peak as both a futuristic trendsetter and a shockingly great rapper. Nearly half a decade later, Uzi’s still light-years ahead: “My life amazing and I been that n\*\*\*a, but fuck all that, let’s fast-forward,” they chirp on “Black Hole.” The Philly rapper’s throwing curveballs on *Eternal Atake 2*, whether that’s casually dropping the best Drake song in years (the Chipmunks-sampling “Chill Bae”) or yelping “Bitch, I’m Big Time Rush!” on a song called “The Rush” which also features Big Time Rush. “I don’t think that they ready,” Uzi repeats like a mantra on “Light Year (Practice)” before spitting a verse like a machine gun just to remind you they can. Uzi hinted in 2023 at the prospect of retiring from music to make clothes, but for now there’s still new galaxies to be explored.

“I hope that I’m genuinely breaking down walls and opening doors for kids like me that think they can only do rap,” Lil Yachty tells Apple Music. After the ambitious yet effective psychedelic pivot of *Let’s Start Here*, the artistic possibilities afforded to Yachty grew exponentially like multiversal timelines. Here was someone who could step outside of hip-hop’s comfort zones to credibly deliver a rock odyssey for the 2020s. Evidently, that intrigued singer-songwriter James Blake enough to join forces with the Atlanta-based rapper for a joint album that further blurs the lines of their respective discographies—with captivating and even magnificent results. “Most of the songs started by me playing \[him\] a piece of beatless ambient and then him literally just writing a song in about 20 seconds,” says the British songwriter and producer. At times, *Bad Cameo* can feel like a push-and-pull between the two talents, something to be expected when seemingly disparate artists enter into such a venture together. A flurry of narcotized love and burnt rubber, “Woo” comes closest to the jittery clubwise energy of Yachty’s singles. Meanwhile Blake, a consummate collaborator for everyone from Beyoncé and ROSALÍA to Oneohtrix Point Never and Nico Muhly, seems to have the upper hand on the meditative “Midnight.” And yet, that dynamic also seems a function of the thematic gravity of these shared songs that focus heavily on internal monologues and relationships, with all the inherent messiness and complexity intact. One can detect the fundamental empathy amid the ambient drift and retro breakbeats of “In Grey,” as both Blake and Yachty turn their all-too-human vulnerabilities into open secrets. Propelled by intentionally slippery beat switches, “Transport Me” reveals commonality and camaraderie through their long-distance dramatics and poetic ruminations. “There were no boundaries whatsoever musically,” Blake says. “There was nothing cynical on any level about the process.” By the time the harmonious finale “Red Carpet” arrives, it’s clear how respectively and collectively transformative the process was for them. “When you have two people who come from different worlds, I think at the end of the day it’s all a love for music,” says Lil Yachty.

“I\'m at a point in my life where I just let things happen when they\'re supposed to happen,” Big Sean tells Apple Music about the decision to drop *Better Me Than You*. “So I just felt like it was time.” Originally thwarted by an online leak, the hitmaking rapper waited a few beats before moving forward with his first album in four years. Yet where 2020’s *Detroit 2* made for a love letter to his hometown, its follow-up surges beyond the sentimental to embody something altogether more meaningful regarding the man behind the mic. “I was inspired to have fun, first and foremost,” he says, “but I was also inspired by just the events that were going on in my life.” The terminally online will no doubt scour its contents for details and disses after his departure from G.O.O.D. Music, where he proved one of its most commercially successful and visible acts for over a decade. But even if one wanted to read deeply into the unrelenting and accusatory “Apologize,” his album is so much more than mere hip-hop gossip fodder. There’s a clear sense throughout the album that the accomplished punchline craftsman has grown since the days of *Finally Famous*, personally as well as artistically. In addition to the interlude monologue “Clarity,” he expresses the impact of first-time fatherhood on cuts like “On Up,” his maturity made increasingly evident. “It’s not that I\'m trying to prove myself,” he says. “I\'m really trying to *improve* myself.” To this end, Sean Don ensures that his guests, like Larry June and Charlie Wilson, enhance his own performances rather than pull focus. Formerly of The Internet, Syd maintains an ethereal vocal presence throughout the teachable moments of “Something,” while Thundercat and Eryn Allen Kane add a certain musicality to the cathartic “Black Void.” Still, he hasn’t lost his edge in the process, letting loose with sexy-drill mastermind Cash Cobain on the reckless “Get You Back” and defensively dismissing haters with Gunna on “It Is What It Is.” By the time the Three 6 Mafia-reminiscent “Precision” rolls around, his victory feels nothing short of palpable. “What is really important to me is the progression of myself and passing that on to my family and to my audience or to whoever I can,” he says.

Looking at the stats, you’d think Megan Thee Stallion was on top of the world: “HISS,” the second single from her third studio album, was her first solo chart-topper. But as the silver-tongued Houston native has risen from cult-favorite Instagram freestyler to full-fledged cultural force after breaking through with 2019’s “Hot Girl Summer,” the rapper’s been weighed down by grief and betrayal, all highly public and intensely scrutinized. On 2022’s *Traumazine*, Megan began to let down her guard and open up about her pain. She teased its follow-up in late 2023 with a statement: “Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past, over and over again.” On *MEGAN*, she’s still going through it, but she’s not going down without a fight. The motif of the snake, coiled and waiting to strike, winds its way through *MEGAN*’s 18 tracks with cool, collected menace. “Still going hard with the odds against me,” she spits on “HISS” over an eerie beat from go-to producer LilJuMadeDaBeat. She’s got devastating burns for everybody within earshot on “Rattle,” snapping at an unnamed peer, “Your life must be boring as fuck if you still reminiscing ’bout shit that we did.” (Her claim to be “a motherfuckin’ brat, not a Barbie” on “Figueroa” might clarify its intended target.) There are moments of levity: “Otaku Hot Girl” flexes her arcane anime knowledge, while “Accent” recruits Hot Girl Summer tourmate GloRilla for a country-girl ode to being “thicker than a Popeye’s biscuit.” But you get the sense that for Megan, it’s awfully lonely at the top: On “Moody Girl,” she switches her trademark tagline to “real motherfuckin’ sad girl shit.” And over the metalcore guitar chug driving “COBRA,” she tells you how it feels to break down while the world is watching.

Westside Gunn’s *Still Praying* has long been a grail in Griselda Records lore. The label’s head honcho began teasing the project long before its 2024 arrival, and it came after threats of retirement, disgruntlement with the music industry, and drama within his family-first crew, which includes his brother Conway the Machine and his cousin Benny the Butcher. On *Still Praying*, all is well, with Westside setting the scene as a family reunion of sorts: Conway and Benny make appearances, as does close friend Boldy James. DJ Drama plays the role of host, and Westside does what he does best: talk shit and count all that money he’s got. The Buffalo native is one of the best one-line spitters in rap, and throughout *Still Praying* he delivers plenty of quotables that linger long past the project’s runtime. On “Speedy 40” he recalls a particularly romantic night in New York City, rapping: “I done fell asleep, woke up in the Waldorf/Top floor, spooning with her shirt off.” On “Underground King,” which features his daughter Westside Pootie and frequent collaborator Rome Streetz, Gunn sums up his role in rap in only the way he knows how: “I\'m MJ from the free throw in designer.”

Well before “Not Like Us” became a bona fide phenomenon, Mustard amassed a staggering number of hits. Contrasting with the concurrent rise of trap music, his 2010s work as a producer for the likes of Big Sean, Migos, Rihanna, Tinashe, and YG—to name just a few—all but defined the sound of mainstream hip-hop and R&B that decade. Yet his musical contribution to Kendrick Lamar’s beef with Drake sent him soaring back to the top of the charts, essentially making the 2024 release *Faith of a Mustard Seed* an inevitability. Some five years after his last album *Perfect Ten*, Mustard fully reinserts himself into the proverbial conversation with this 14-track effort. Teaming up with old friends and new collaborators alike, his curatorial approach leads to exciting configurations around the album’s various guest features. He spreads that California love with Vince Staples and ScHoolboy Q on “Pressured Up” and gives Atlanta its props with Young Thug and transplanted resident Lil Durk on “Ghetto.” Elsewhere, he acts against regionality. “Up Now” unites Lil Yachty, BlueBucksClan, and 42 Dugg for an all-American flex, while the sentimental “A Song for Mom” adds Masego\'s island vibes to the mix with Ty Dolla $ign and the legendary Charlie Wilson. A few artists get solo showcases, namely Kodak Black on the booming “Yak’s Prayer” and Travis Scott on the shimmering “Parking Lot.” A frequent studio partner, Roddy Ricch, heads up the sinuous “Truth Is” and duets with Ella Mai for the revelatory “One Bad Decision.” And while gospel fixture Kirk Franklin delivers the opening prayer on “Show Me the Way,” it’s Mustard himself who closes with gratitude and grace on the poetic speech “Pray for Me.”

With all due respect to DJ Battlecat, The Neptunes, and the other myriad producers who made key contributions to Snoop Dogg’s vast discography, nothing feels quite so right as when he links with Dr. Dre. From the moment the former N.W.A member’s ostensibly solo debut *The Chronic* entered the zeitgeist, artists have repeatedly tried—and generally failed—to achieve the level of chemistry and clout generated by their seminal pairing. While they’ve stayed in each other’s orbit over the years, trading beats and bars on albums like Snoop’s 2006 *Tha Blue Carpet Treatment* and Dre’s 2015 *Compton*, the auspicious release of *Missionary* marks their first full-length team-up in more than three decades. Its title a clear nod to the 1993 West Coast masterpiece *Doggystyle*, this long-hoped-for album changes positions without losing the feeling. Though *Missionary* largely leaves the microphone duties to Snoop, it doesn’t take too long before he and Dre are sharing verses again, exuding music-mogul energy on “Outta Da Blue.” The good doctor, in turn, busts out the martial drumwork for “Hard Knocks” and puts a subtle spin on G-funk’s inherent groove on hard-hitting closer “The Negotiator.” Demonstrating the extraordinary pull both artists maintain in the industry, “Last Dance With Mary Jane” flips Tom Petty for a trip down Snoop’s own memory lane with some contemporary musings from Jelly Roll. In that same vein, they convene with Sting over “Another Part of Me,” an inventive interpolation of one of The Police’s rock classics. Golden Age peer Method Man comes through for the triumphant “Skyscrapers,” but a family reunion with both 50 Cent and Eminem on the slow and funky “Guns N Smoke” should evoke the strongest nostalgic vibes.

The enigma born Noah Olivier Smith—better known as Yeat, to use the word “known” loosely—broke through in 2021 as a maverick of rage-rap. These days, the 24-year-old exists in his own orbit entirely, recording and engineering his own songs that are possibly informed by extraterrestrial wisdom and rife with bizarro ad-lib soundscapes, dystopian-sounding beats, and non sequiturs that could either be profound or total nonsense. (And umlauts inserted where no one has ever dared to insert umlauts before, naturally.) The songs across his deep, curious catalog sound like World War 16 battle cries, or the moment a UFO beam makes contact with a cornfield, or the sound of an old world being replaced with a new one. Yeat’s known (again, loosely) for his strange preoccupations: sui generis slang terms, face-shielding headgear, bells and flutes. *LYFESTYLE*, his fifth studio album, shows off a handful of new obsessions: telling lies, gazing with wonderment at lights, threatening to cut people’s heads off like the Red Queen. It’s also a 22-track showcase for more probing stylistic experimentation, from “FOREVER AGAIN,” his version of a New Wave track, to “GONE 4 A MIN,” which channels a *Yeezus* deep cut thrown into zero gravity on which he makes a promise to “turn a deaf folk blind.” He’s big enough to feature on the most-streamed track from Drake’s *For All the Dogs*, but far-out enough to inspire more questions than answers.

It’s understandable if Gunna feels a bit isolated these days. For some two years now, the Georgia-bred rapper has been on the defensive—first, when he was indicted in a sweeping YSL Records RICO case and, subsequently, in the time since his release by the feds. “I’m still fighting,” he tells Apple Music. “I still got friends incarcerated, and I’m still growing, too and getting massive.” Indeed, amid the sly whispers and outright accusations levied against him in hip-hop’s court of public opinion, he nonetheless managed to maintain both his commercial viability and star status with 2023’s *a Gift & a Curse*. That earned him one of the biggest singles of his career in “fukumean,” which, like the rest of the album, eschewed features and put the spotlight squarely upon himself. “It’s a bittersweet moment for me,” he admits. Nearly one year later, he returns with *One of Wun*, another defiant and largely solo testament to his endurance in the face of genuine adversity. Opener “collage” seems to take stock of his current situation, dismissing those who wish he’d retire or otherwise quit the rap game. From there, Gunna faces down opposition with impeccable drip while reveling in the lifestyle he’s become accustomed to, conflating matters on “whatsapp (wassam)” and the title track. From his perspective, professional jealousy and rumor-mongering are no match for his swag. “I’m wearing clothes differently now,” he says of his sartorial aesthetic, which comes up not infrequently throughout the project. “It’s not just about the name. It’s more like really where it come from or the cut of it.” Unlike on *a Gift & a Curse*, a few guests do stop by to show support. Gunna and Offset go way back to the *Drip Season 2* days, making their reunion on “prada dem” all the more momentous. Another repeat collaborator, Roddy Ricch comes through for “let it breathe,” a sleek and moody rebuttal to the haters.

On Doechii’s 2024 release, the Tampa-born rapper showcases the blend of clever rhymes with deep, philosophical musings that have punctuated early releases like 2020’s *Oh the Places You\'ll Go* mixtape and 2022’s *she / her / black bitch* EP. Lead cut “STANKA POOH” finds the Top Dawg Entertainment artist wrestling with her artistic mortality and role as a Black woman in music. She raps: “Let’s start the story backwards/I’m dead, she’s dead, just another Black Lives Mattered/And if I die today I die a bastard/TikTok rapper, part-time YouTube actor.” Obviously, Doechii aims to be bigger than viral clips and TV shows so small they can fit on your computer screen. On *Alligator Bites Never Heal*, Doechii asserts herself as one of rap’s most impressive bar-for-bar MCs. “DENIAL IS A RIVER” is a classic narrative cut in the style of Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story,” while “NISSAN ALTIMA” is an electro-rap thriller designed to keep the dance floor hot and heart rates up. She sums it up simply enough when she raps: “All beef gets smoked/I’m a real fly bitch, you in coach.”

Sporting one of the most outsized personalities in all of hip-hop history, LL COOL J made rap braggadocio into an art form. During his mid-’80s emergence, the Queens-bred MC used his inherently aggressive delivery to prove himself bigger and deffer than the competition. In the ’90s, he channeled that tenacity even more effectively on the seminal *Mama Said Knock You Out* and its gritty successor *14 Shots to the Dome* while increasingly amplifying his libidinous loverman side to great commercial effect. It worked so well that, by the time he popularized the term “GOAT” on his sexually charged 2000 album of the same name, few could argue he wasn’t a contender for that prestigious title. Yet those who arrived during James Todd Smith’s R&B crossover era, or the many more who’ve come to know him primarily as an actor on television and in film, may not know what a tremendous rapper he was—and remains. His first studio album in some 11 years, *THE FORCE* shows his microphone prowess has in no way waned over the past decade. There’s a core combativeness to his contemporary approach, unquestionably bolstered by the distressing and galvanizing events of recent years. Out the gate, on the Snoop Dogg-assisted “Spirit of Cyrus,” he conjures a vivid Black vigilante fantasy where racists receive their comeuppances in brutal fashion. With a similarly vibrant Busta Rhymes in his corner, he outlines a revolutionary mindset on the thunderous “Huey in the Chair.” As should be expected with an artist with his tenure, he also reveals a sentimentally nostalgic streak in a number of instances here, calling back to his come-up on “Basquiat Energy” and realizing that the you-can’t-go-home-again axiom rings truer than expected on “30 Decembers.” “Black Code Suite” synthesizes his tendencies quite beautifully, its Afrocentric bent mixing memory with militancy. Part of what makes *THE FORCE* such a tremendous record comes from producer Q-Tip. Rather than chase trends, the Natives Tongues veteran gives LL a series of instrumentals (and, on more than one occasion, hooks) that veer far from legacy-act stagnation and instead towards a mature yet rugged vibe. This translates to the laidback synth slap of the Saweetie duet “Proclivities” as much as the far squirmier funk of his Eminem collab “Murdergram Deux.” From the reconfigured throwbacks of “Passion” and “Post Modern” to the timeless grooves of “Runnit Back” and “Saturday Night Special,” their robust artist pairing ensures that *THE FORCE* is an album to reckon with.

*Hall & Nash 2* plays sequel to the rare early release that diehards everywhere associate with the beginnings of Westside Gunn and Conway the Machine’s Griselda Records. On its follow-up, the Buffalo-bred brothers show just how much they’ve leveled up by recruiting legendary producer The Alchemist to handle all the beats. The surprise drop once again finds the duo paying homage to WWF wrestlers Razor Ramon and Diesel, who together called themselves The Outsiders and were celebrated for their unwavering loyalty. Westside and Conway mirror this devotion, showcasing their almost telepathic abilities on cuts like the dusty, soul-sampling “Ray Mysterio” and the ScHoolboy Q-assisted “Fork in the Pot.” Throughout the project, the duo recount the highs and lows that come with making it out of the streets and onto the charts, like on the aptly titled “Judas,” where Conway the Machine raps, “They just wanna squeeze and leave you deceased, at least a paraplegic/Hit in my head and walked out of the hospital, please believe it.”

Anyone thinking Benny the Butcher signing to Def Jam would inspire him to be more “mainstream” or “pop” is underestimating his intelligence. Steady, talented, 39 years old and relatively unknown until he was in his early thirties, he’s already a voice of reason and maturity for his fans in a world of hype. He doesn’t have to crack the mainstream; signing to Def Jam is proof that all this gritty, soul-sampling, old-school stuff might still have a place in the mainstream after all. Highlights on this Alchemist- and Hit-Boy-produced album include “TMVTL” (threatening), “Pillow Talk & Slander” (celebratory), and a title track where he admittedly does open a little space for something like a “commercial” hook, courtesy of Kyle Banks. He’s safer and more up-the-middle than his Griselda affiliate Westside Gunn (note the passing reference to watching MSNBC), but in that quiet confidence lie the fruits of his fabled grind. And while he might be telling the truth when he says he’s thinking of leaving Buffalo for somewhere warm (“BRON”), you know what they say—you can take the boy out of Buffalo, but…

Bryson Tiller exploded onto the scene in 2015 with the release of his viral, atmospheric track “Don’t” from his debut album, *T R A P S O U L*. Since then, the Louisville crooner has established himself as an R&B hitmaker and go-to collaborator with his 2017 sophomore LP True to Self and 2020’s *A N N I V E R S A R Y*, as well as linking up on tracks with Rihanna, DJ Khaled, Kiana Ledé, and many more. Although Tiller tends to take a bit of a hiatus between projects, he’s ready to reintroduce himself and show the world what he’s capable of. Tiller has always been known to toe the blurry line between singing and rapping. Here, the Grammy-nominated star blends elements of R&B, dancehall, pop, drill, hip-hop, and more throughout the album’s 19 tracks. Executive produced by Tiller and Charlie Heat, *Bryson Tiller* invites listeners into a world where genre boundaries are not only crossed but reimagined in vignettes of his love life—whether he’s saying goodbye to an ungrateful lover (“Ciao!”), dealing with the heartache from a failed relationship (“Random Access Memory \[RAM\]),” “Peace Interlude”), or enjoying the bliss of a newfound relationship (“Find My Way,” “No Thank You,” “Prize”).

After nearly two decades in the game, Rapsody’s left no room for doubt when it comes to her formidable pen. But it wasn’t until 2020, when she began piecing together her fourth studio album, *Please Don’t Cry*, that Marlanna Evans realized that she’d shared very little of herself beyond her mic skills. “People had to put up a mirror for me,” she admitted to Apple Music’s Ebro Darden, recalling a pivotal conversation with the producer No ID. “He was like, ‘Everybody knows you can rap, but I can’t tell you five things that I know about you.’” Thus began the North Carolina native’s journey inward: Before she could reintroduce herself to her fans, she’d have to know herself first. The result of that journey, *Please Don’t Cry*, is Rapsody’s deepest and boldest work yet. “Who are you in your rawest state?” asks the gentle voice of the album’s narrator, Phylicia Rashad. Making the record, Rapsody found her mind wandering towards *The Matrix*, in particular the relationship between Neo and the Oracle. “He’s trying to find his way, trying to find himself…and she’s kind of his guiding voice,” she tells Darden. “I was like, ‘That’s kind of what this journey has been for me, but who would be my Oracle?’” Rashad was the first name that came to mind. Through interludes, the Tony Award winner nudges Rapsody further down the path of vulnerability: “Who are you when you’re joyful? What makes you sad? Why do you cry?” Rapsody doesn’t hold back her answers on tracks like “Diary of a Mad Bitch,” a cathartic shit-talking session, or the bittersweet “Loose Rocks,” where she grapples with a loved one’s dementia diagnosis with backup vocals from Alex Isley (yes, that Isley). Intense emotions are countered with airy, meditative beats on the gorgeous “3:AM,” a late-night love song with a hook from Erykah Badu, and the balmy reggae jam “Never Enough.” By the closing track “Forget Me Not,” her fear of vulnerability feels like a distant memory as she raps: “I want to know everything/I want to feel, I want to be alive/It’s too good.”

More than a decade removed from his 2013 self-titled debut, Jahron Anthony Brathwaite—aka PARTYNEXTDOOR—remains an enigma in the OVO ecosystem: He takes several years between album releases and makes few live appearances, while his elusive reputation is intensified by the fact that some of the biggest moments of his career have come as a behind-the-scenes writer for artists like Rihanna. But his first album in four years represents the purest statement of purpose we’ve heard from the Toronto R&B auteur. If *PARTYNEXTDOOR 4*’s NSFW cover art doesn’t make his intentions clear, then the album’s very first lyric—“Take off your clothes”—instantly thrusts you into the boudoir where many of these songs play out, with foggy keyboard tones wafting in like incense and trap beats flickering like candlelight. But PARTYNEXTDOOR is a certified lover boy keenly attuned to the destabilizing dynamics inherent to desire: After making the aforementioned request for disrobing on the opening “C o n t r o l,” he asks, “Who is in control?”—reframing his bedroom conquest as an act of surrender. Even his most salacious admissions project a certain ecstatic innocence: The Auto-Tuned devotional “L o s e M y M i n d” is possibly the most rapturous song ever written about enjoying a threesome on molly, while the dreamy “M a k e I t T o T h e M o r n i n g” renders mutual oral sex as a near-religious experience. But *PARTYNEXTDOOR 4* does more than merely celebrate his X-rated exploits: The awestruck “R e a l W o m a n” suggests he’s looking for a relationship that goes beyond sunrise, while the downcast closing duo of “F a m i l y” and “R e s e n t m e n t” tap a deeper emotional vein to reveal the hang-ups that come with the hookups.

Boldy James’ low-key, monotone flow suggests that the rapper spends more time spitting than sleeping. It makes sense, considering how wildly prolific he is. Case in point: The Detroit MC, who has long been a fan of recruiting a single producer for each of his projects, teamed up with Brooklyn-based beatmaker Harry Fraud for *The Bricktionary*, his third album of 2024 alone. Benny the Butcher rolls through on “Rabies,” which features the MCs spitting over soaring guitar solos and epic tom drum fills. “Kitchen cabinet full of 8-ounce bottles like a Gerber baby,” he raps. On the Tee Grizzley-assisted “Cecil Fielder,” Boldy makes sure his name stays pure: “Can’t mention Boldy name for clout without getting my gang involved.”