Better late than never, here are 40 rap albums I enjoyed last year. They reflect 12 months of listening to and writing about the music that the genre’s artists have to offer. One could argue that the bleeding edge of the culture isn’t found in full lengths anymore, but within sundry online corners from YouTube and TikTok to Soundcloud and Instagram, where sounds and images often flash by in seconds. A colleague of mine argues, “Rap albums kind of feel like podcasts now.” Perhaps it’s true that the album format seems perfunctory in the streaming age, a relic we can’t let go of because we haven’t found a better organizing principle.
The past three years has brought much handwringing over whether “rap is dead,” and I’ve contributed my share to the discourse. But now, a new question has appeared to me: what happens next? If the glory years are long gone, then what remains, and what emerges as life goes on?
If 2025 is any clue, rap music will look and feel older. The most discussed mainstream acts of the year were largely well past 30, from historic combatants Drake and Kendrick Lamar war to the recently reunited Clipse, and from gossip monger Cardi B to the scarred ex-convict Young Thug. Underground scenes thrived with its own set of wizened veterans like The Alchemist, Westside Gunn, and Aesop Rock. Younger voices, meanwhile, were left to navigate a chaotic musical landscape with too many options to distract from crafting great art, and too many geo-political dangers, whether on or offline, to feel truly safe and protected.
As the world enters a fraught phase where power politics reigns, it’s natural to wonder if something as trivial as rap music matters, anyway. But, to paraphrase New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, working people deserve lives of joy, of art, of rest, of expression. Hip-hop culture, no matter how it evolves in the years ahead, is something worth fighting for.
Playboi Carti featured photo by Brandon Bowen.
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