Before the close of the year, let's reflect on a few albums which celebrated a decade of rotation in 2025. 2015, a year slap-bang in the middle of a decade dominated by Hip Hop in the charts, the clubs and festivals alike. As Hip Hop continued to gear up towards its pop-cultural peak in the years following, I think it's safe to say, we got a classic or two in this year.
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
There's no way you have an article on 2015 Hip Hop and not mention this record. TPAB has bulldozed its way into GOAT album conversations for the genre, and became the high water mark for conscious, conceptual Hip Hop. The genre-fusing production sounds crisp, classy and just as fresh ten years later, meanwhile Kendrick delivered iconic performances of passion, skill and precision. Standout performances include the vociferous Blacker the Berry, the charismatic and witty Wesley's Theory, and the confident and provocative Kung Kunta. The forward-thinking production mixed with the unique song-writing means that To Pimp a Butterfly is littered with near-perfection tunes. Tunes that pack powerful messages with well-observed social commentary, ultimately resulting in an unforgettable album, and totally justifying its praise as a modern-day classic.
Star Track - Wesley's Theory
Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
A modern day cult classic, is how I would describe Earl's second record, I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside. Dope, dark and dense in equal measure, the production can sound sharp and suffocating, and although being harsher and more challenging than the beats on To Pimp a Butterfly, what the beats do have in common is that they still sound fresh af in 2025. I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside is pretty tight at just 30 minutes, but leaves you well satisfied having just listened to a well-crafted, emotionally driven project as Earl reconciles with his relatively newfound fame and works through a variety of darker thoughts and feelings. As always, Earl provides exquisite flows, clever wordplay, and skilled multi-syllable rhyme schemes. This album is a superb follow up to Doris (2013), it showed an ambition to evolve, and that Earl has one of the best pens in the game. Star Track - DNA
Dr. Dre - Compton
After a 16 year hiatus following 2001 (1999), Dr Dre's Compton could have quite easily flopped. With Dre at the age of 50 at this point, there may have been worries that he may have lost his touch - but if anything, Compton proved to me you should never underestimate or forget about Dre. What is likeable is that he didn't try and re-create his previous successes from previous eras, he moved with the times, helped by new-school feature artists such as Kendrick Lamar, and Anderson .Paak. But we also got epic contributions from long term collaborators in Eminem and The Game. The instrumentals sounded glamorous, seismic, and punchy, we can't not talk about the beats on a Dr Dre project, and it's particularly worth shouting out the beat switch for the track Gone where Kendrick Lamar is absolutely levitating over those piano keys. Dre's verses ranged from introspective and thoughtful to aggressive and braggadocious, the classic Dre combo that works for him so well as a rapper. It's been 10 years since this record, so maybe within the second half of this decade we will be enjoying another solo Dr Dre album. Star Track - Animals
Rae Sremmurd - SremmLife
Trap drums defined mainstream Hip Hop for much of the 2010's, and one of the essential records of the sub-genre came from the Mississippi duo, Rae Sremmurd. Bangers like No Type, This Could Be Us, and Come Get Her gave Rae Sremmurd internet virality, becoming commercial heavyweights which they ultimately cashed-in on with the viral track Black Beatles a year later in 2016 (you remember the mannequin challenge right?). SremmLife is a fun, colourful, and charismatic album. I remember listening to the album one February, I remember walking to work in the snow and the summery melodies of This Could Be Us melting it away. The infectious tunes and performances, particularly from Swae Lee, made this album feel unique, clean and impressive. Although lyrically it's not a heavy-hitting TPAB, it has its place on this list and certainly was a year-defining record and deserves its flowers. Star Track - This Could Be Us
Drake - If You're Reading This It's Too Late
2015 was a pretty epic year for Drake, dropping this album in the February, then dropping the joint tape with Future in autumn. Both albums have standout hits and top performances from Drake. With the ice cold production and Drake's catchy inflections in his flows, tracks like Energy and No Tellin' absolutely knock. In all honestly, this isn't my favourite Drake project, I don't think it has the quality of Take Care or Nothing Was The Same, and I think the tracklist can occasionally dull-out and become tedious. But when revisiting these tracks for this on my lunch break, and hearing those memorable lyrics on tracks like Know Yourself and Energy, it was hard not to feel nostalgic for 2015 and remember how often you would hear these tracks whether you wanted to or not. This incredible year for Drake was just the platform he needed for the following 3 years where he went to a different stratosphere. I felt like I was listening to a lot Drake against my will in 2015, if only I knew what was coming. Anyway back to work work work work work... Star Track - 6PM In New York
Mac Miller - GO:OD AM
GO:OD AM ranks in mid-table for me in Mac's discography. Whilst it's not as consistent as Macadelic (2012) or as inventive as Faces (2014), it still has some undeniable bangers and great tunes, notably Brand Name and 100 Grandkids, two of my personal favourites. I think it's worth touching on the most successful track on the album in terms of popularity, Weekend. Whether from the vocal samples, the synths or the string section, the beat is super melodic and catchy, Miguel does a perfect job as a feature artist dropping a passionate performance adding another dimension to the track, and Mac drops some dark and heart-wrenching lyrics (no need to drive home the context that makes them doubly sad). Whilst GO:OD AM is a well thought out cohesive experience, it still hits you with a good variety of tracks, for example, the quirky experimental closer The Festival, and Perfect Circle with the ominous piano loop and backing vocals, I don't know if Perfect Circle reminds me more of an old western movie or series 1 of True Detective, maybe somewhere in the middle, maybe just both. The 3 deluxe tracks that got added this year are fantastic, showing the prolific form Mac was in during this era, I can't believe they didn't make the original cut. But yeah overall, really solid output at this point in his career, and he continued to evolve in the coming years and make brilliant, introspective and soulful music. Star Track - 100 Grandkids
Fetty Wap - Fetty Wap
I'm so not guilty about this pleasure that I actually bought this album on CD around 2018 - for me, this album has just as much right as TPAB to be in the category of 'you can't not talk about this record in an article on 2015 Hip Hop'. Has the fall-off being pretty spectacular from Fetty? Yes, but that's only because the high was so fucking high. Fetty's melodic trap bangers dominated pop culture, SoundCloud mashups, second rooms of nightclubs, and stood as a staple of mainstream rap that you either loved or hated. Even back then as someone who got into Hip Hop through the more lyrical branches with rappers like Eminem and Nas, and really held the technical aspects of lyricism very highly, Fetty Wap came along and blew my whole perspective to pieces as I fell in love with this record. Look, I still love hardcore MC's and always will, but my tastes are more open-minded now and I like different rappers for different reasons. Fetty's catchy sing-song flows and autotuned ad-libs were a big part of that. The self-titled album is a classic - it's unique, the production is large, it's engaging and uplifting, it makes you want to move, the album doesn't pretend to be anything its not, it's unashamedly a chart dominating hit machine. Star Track - Trap Queen
Love Story - Yelawolf
Despite being the album I listened to first on this list, it's probably the one I least re-visit. But I don't think that is necessarily an indictment of my opinion on the record, just my tastes have broadened and this album initially was a bi-product of being a huge Eminem fan and getting into Hip Hop via him and his features/collaborations. Em is on this album, with one of his all-time best feature verses on Best Friend, and this is of course a Shady Records release. Although it wasn't a commercial hit that his second Shady Records album probably wanted to be, the quality and growth we saw from Yelawolf was brilliant. The album is thoughtful, introspective, painful, and beautiful. The red-neck flavour in the accent, content and instrumentals gives it a unique sound and aesthetic. I like the album prior, Radioactive, but I think Love Story is way more ambitious with its song writing, being less reliant on powerful pop hooks, and focuses more on making music that is reflective on Yelawolf's roots and getting his message across without the (at times) over-the-top melodrama of the album before. I liked the 3 albums that followed this from Yelawolf, it's a shame his time petered out on Shady Records, but he left after dropping some sick music, and I think this is the most consistent and well-rounded effort of those releases. Star Track - Heartbreak
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