Top 10 Albums of the Year | 2025 Rap-Up

In the Autumn just gone, not one single Hip Hop song was able to reach the US Billboard Top 40, for the first time in 35 YEARS. This lead to various hyperbole and catastrophising about Hip Hop and the future of the genre that has dominated so much of popular culture in the 21st century so far. Are the listeners fatigued and bored of rap now? Has there been a resistance or naivety towards creative evolution, resulting in stale and dated output? The most dramatic and final question of all was, "Is Hip Hop Dead?" 

Despite the underwhelming mainstream performance of the genre, I can very much confirm, Hip Hop is alive and kicking, and I hope this list can show to you that whilst the commercial visibility is absent, 2025 was a superb year for genre-bending, sample wielding, and lyrical proficiency. Hip Hop is in great hands with true pioneers both young and old leading the way. 

Meanwhile charting topping rap songs were hard to come by this year, over the past several years and significantly in 2025, the underground sub-genre of "coke rap" has been franticly bubbling away. A huge shoutout to Griselda for paving much of the way for this rap style. This modern, quirky take on mid 90's gangster rap has been fresh and exciting, offering a viable alternative to the mainstream, for fans that appreciate the mid 90's sound but want to hear something new. Whilst offering a familiar sound to that of the mid 90's, the out-of-the-box sample and production choices, and the lyrical content (and even album art work choices) referencing gangster films, high art, designer fashion and even golden era WWF wrestlers, meant that there was plenty of clues that this was a new sub-genre in itself, with artists making their own interpretation of the beloved boom bap sound. But don't worry if "coke rap" ain't your thing, 2025 had superb drops from all corners of the genre, and hopefully this list will reflect that.

Below the top 10 list I have awarded winners for categories such as 'Best Song', 'Best Feature Verse', 'Best Bar', and a few more. I hope you enjoy the read and let me know your Hip Hop album of the year...

10) Conway the Machine - You Can't Kill God With Bullets

One third of the main Griselda triangle, Conway the Machine released his 5th solo studio LP in 6 years. I say "solo studio LP" because there's been many a mixtape or collab project drop within those years, Conway's work rate is undeniable. Whilst his studio LP's range in quality, this one here is certainly on the stronger side. Whilst not as prolific as God Don't Make Mistakes (2022), it outperforms WON'T HE DO IT (2023) and Slant Face Killah (2024) in terms of producing consistent greazy bangers. Conway allows himself to be vulnerable and let's you in on his inner thoughts as he discusses the story of his life, this is particularly potent on tracks such as I Never Sleep and Hold Back Tears towards the back-end of the album. There's a spoken word part of the song Hold Back Tears which sums up how brutally honest Conway can be in his music - "somebody said I sounded depressed in a lot of my songs now, sh*t, hell yeah I'm depressed, I lost a child ni**a, you know the love don't feel real no more homie, I'm fucked up for real".  

On You Can't Kill God With Bullets, the flows are smooth, the lyrics are vivid, and the beats are ill. Conway comes across both aloof and pissed off at the world, whilst also proud, confident, and aware of his impact on the game and what he has achieved in life - see the first half of the album for the 'victory lap' type tracks. His dark twisted sense of humour, his brutal honesty and all-round contempt for people who have done him wrong makes for quite a hateful listen at times, but also there's genuine sincerity and soul in this music that always brings me back to it.

Star Track - Crazy Avery

9) Tyler, The Creator - DON'T TAP THE GLASS

You just can't deny that in the last 5-10 years, Tyler, the Creator has been on a prolific run, dropping three albums in the 2020's so far, with both CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST and CHROMAKOPIA having deluxe editions too. Another undeniable truth is Tyler's ambition to never make the same album twice (not including deluxe albums obviously), you know that with Tyler he will show some evolution in one way or another and his new project won't sound like the previous one. And whilst DON'T TAP THE GLASS kind of has a mixtapey feel to it like CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, it's sonically very different and is a far cry from the challenging, experimental and introspective projects of Igor and CHROMAKOPIA. On DON'T TAP THE GLASS, Tyler fuses pop and dance to make a fun, snappy project that sees Tyler being both camp and sassy in equal measure. So once again, whilst everyone zigs, Tyler zags. The only comparable project to this in 2025 I would say would be 13 Months of Sunshine (also good) by Amine. However, what gives DON'T TAP THE GLASS the edge here is the amazing and epic production and the punchier choruses like on Sugar On My Tongue and Sucka Free. The closing 3 tracks add another dimension to the album to with the singing performances from Madison Mcferrin, Yebba and Tyler himself with these songs being more love sick sentimental tunes.

Star Track - Ring Ring Ring

8) Mac Miller - Balloonerism

For a posthumous album, it's amazing how well connected and synced up the message of this album is, between the songs, the overall vibe and how I think if you heard one of the songs out and about you would be like "I think that's from balloonerism", let's say if you didn't know the name of the song but recognised it a bit. That seems quite exceptional for an posthumous album. It's cool and it does feel like something Mac would feasibly put out if he was alive, so huge credit to the estate and the people that finalised Mac's work, with an ambitious, quirky album that sees Mac pushing boundaries even beyond the grave. It's not at all what I expected when it got announced but I think that's a good thing. It's not like the people responsible for releasing the work have listened to Mac's work and said, 'right which ones sound the catchiest that will make us the most money'. Nah, they took no shortcuts, and gave the project the respect it deserved. It's a slow start with the Tambourine Dream and DJ's Chord Organ and even the last song Tomorrow Will Never Know is an 11 minute soundscape of random shouting from children playing, a phone dialling and so on, with Mac singing a verse at the start - so it's not a song that would endear itself to the audience in any way but I think that is testament to the fact that they weren't chasing streams with this project. This album is by no means boring or solely experimental chin scratchers, once in the flow of Balloonerism you have several runs of amazing tracks, for example Do You Have A Destination?, 5 Dollar Pony Rides, and Friendly Hallucinations, and then towards the end there's Funny Papers all the way through to Rick's Piano. The production is crisp, some of it jazzy and funky, and Mac's lyrics are whacky and sometimes provocative, but ultimately have a lot of introspection, soul, and are poetic in their own right.

Star Track - Stoned

7) Boldy James & Nicholas Craven - Criminally Attached

You just can't have a list for 2025 Hip Hop without Boldy James. His work-rate alone resulted in 9 albums last year, 3 of which I managed to catch. My favourite being this one Criminally Attached produced by Nicholas Craven - his second collab album of the year with Craven. Whilst I enjoyed the earlier one in the year, Late to My Own Funeral, Craven's sample game on Criminally Attached is just on another level. The beats are super colourful and creative, and times catchy like on Mr. Quaker Oats and 1st Time Around. Boldy's signature deep, monotone delivery sounds so locked in to the beat, there's a brilliant chemistry and fusion between producer and rapper. Boldy's lyrics are greazy and clever, he's proficient in both wordplay and punchlines. Although the monotone style is something we've heard from rappers in the past, when Boldy does it, it sounds so unique and individual to him, when Boldy raps it's instantly recognisable. Although his name has popped up on features here and there, 2025 was the first year I properly discovered his music, some old, some new, and I'm very happy to have found it. He's a great example of someone who's ran down that path that Griselda paved and set his own creative standards in the mean time.

Star Track - Mr. Quaker Oats

6) Rome Streetz & Conductor Williams - Trainspotting

Another rapper I'm so glad to have discovered in 2025, Rome Streetz. Whilst maybe not as experimental as Boldy in production, his elastic flow and relentless bars completely carve his own identity. Like Boldy & Craven, Rome Streetz & Conductor Williams have A1 chemistry with Streetz murdering every hit Williams puts out. Rome has one of the best voices ever, he kind of sounds like a mix of multiple New York rappers, he himself is very New York, but you can here traces of Nas, AZ, Jay-Z, and a lot of Big L. He spits pure greaze, typical of "coke rap" but still has ambition for crafting great songs, sometimes with strong conceptual elements, for example the track Rule 4080 with the sample beat with the hook "before I be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave". The song discusses how record labels will have you working like a slave and basically rob you ("for your socks whilst you've still got your shoe on") blind, and it's comparable to how black people were treated in America in the not too distant past. But then Rome has a line where he takes the chorus seriously and scraps the metaphor to describe how he would react to being a slave back in the day, and that lyric makes my best bar of 2025, see down below, because not only is it cold as fu*k but in the context of the track it's insane. Just wanna shoutout my boy Harry for sending me a lot of Rome and Boldy's music as we started bumping these artists last year! 

Star Track - Rule 4080

5) Loyle Carner - hopefully!

It didn't really set in how good this album was until I was lying in bed in late June, watching with intense FOMO Loyle Carner's Glastonbury set. The live band worked absolutely perfect for the huge crowd of the Other Stage where he was headlining, but also for the tracklist itself which was dominated by hopefully!. The production on the album is full of life, super crisp and classy. Whilst quite reserved and downbeat in vibe, the subject matter is way more positive and content than the existential and disconcerting nature of some of the stuff on hugo, and the mood of Loyle seems relaxed and at ease. Loyle sings as much as raps on hopefully! without stretching his vocal chops too much, he sounds pretty comfortable and crafts listenable and accessible tracks with a lot to get out of them. The hooks were nicely used, especially on tracks like in my mind and strangers. We get his signature introspection and vulnerability, but the music itself shows Loyle is willing to evolve and move out of his comfort zone and create something he hasn't before.

Star Track - Strangers

4) JID - God Does Like Ugly

The top 4 was always going to be these, but choosing the order has been a mission. Like Loyle Carner though, JID followed up a great previous album, with another stellar record. JID's flows on some of these tracks are nasty as hell, over some ill production too, such as the opening track YouUgly but also fire tunes like Community and On McAfee. It'd be hard to look past JID in terms of who displayed the best "rapping" of 2025. Listen to the way he floats on On McAfee, it's straight up disgusting. An album that doesn't lack variety either, we have softer cuts too that have choruses and melodic performances that blend Hip Hop with RnB, bops like Sk8 and What We On go over really well. The only tracks I didn't gel with were Wholehearterdly and No Boo which went in a silky smooth direction that veered into bland and boring. It was great to hear a few victory laps on this album from JID, notably the closing track For Keeps with its Kanye-esque soul chops, a track where JID reflects just how far he's come in the game - and given his lyrical and musical skills, he deserves it. 

Star Track - On McAfee

3) Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out

Probably the album which is broadly considered the 'album of the year' for 2025, and although it's not mine, I can certainly see why that consensus exists. Pharell's production is futuristic, cold and daringly imaginative. The album itself blends coke rap verses with punchy and catchy choruses making for music that's more out-the-box and ambitious than much of its competition last year. Both Pusha T and Malice dropped hard verse on top of hard verse, they sounded present and passionate, and technically proficient. The cold-hearted braggadocios aura of the duo really shone through on tracks like Chains & Whips and So Be It where they sounded untouchable, but then there are personal and touching moments such as The Birds Don't Sing. With the help of the features from the likes of Tyler, The Creator, Kendrick Lamar, and Stove God Cooks, the whole album sounds like a modern epic. Despite the softer sounding tracks book-ending the album with The Birds Don't Sing and By The Grace of God, it's hard not to feel a bit grim after playing this album through, you kind of need to accept the album will be bitter, petty, brutal, and aggressive, and if you can accept that and indulge it, then you'll most likely love it.

Star Track - The Birds Don't Sing

2) Lausse the Cat - The Mocking Stars

Since dropping some of the sickest and quirkiest UK Hip Hop in 2018, Lausse has been on an 8 year hiatus. Given his cat-like nature, I assumed we'd never see Lausse again, so the news that he had returned in November came as a complete, pleasant surprise. The Mocking Stars picks up where we left off, with Lausse still cutting a nomadic, Sainsbury's loving, conflicted figure in his whimsical world. It's hard to know if Lausse is content in his stoner bliss, or if he does have genuine ambitions for more. 

I love the detail and care that go into the skits on the album, the creativity of the album art, and various characters (old and new) Lausse meets on his journey. The world-building is incredible. Ironically, despite the world building and Lausse's rapping ability and storytelling chops on tracks like IDWGAJ and Keep On Walking, I actually find the over-arching story quite difficult to follow. But I think that is okay and partly expected, picking up little bits here and there and putting them together. I liked clocking the detail of Keep On Walking, being a story of how Lausse left London to live in France and his escapades there - it was all very romantic and coming-of-age but with Lausse's signature witty and colourful impressionism. The world building is a beautiful, hazy, fairy-tale blended with a kitchen-sink reality. It all happens in your head - allowing you to decide which bits are "real" and happened to the person behind the character, or to Lausse. As wordy as Lausses verses can be, the aloofness of the character leaves much of the interpretation open. Lausse has style and substance, with cool verses, incredible choruses and amazing production. I'd say I want to hear a new one of these every year, but the beauty of Lausse is knowing that I won't.

Star Track - Peonies for Breakfast

1) Chance the Rapper - STAR LINE

This pick might surprise you for number 1, and to be honest it surprised me too. Why? Well, because Chance's comeback album, STAR LINE is not perfect, it has some songs that I'm not particularly fond of. However, I would still be lying if I said STAR LINE did not completely surpass my expectations. The consistency is their enough on the album, but the peaks are absolutely sky-high, and several tracks on here stuck with me more than any other songs this year. There are beautiful songs with beautiful messages, such as Tree, Link Me In The Future, and Speed of Light. The beats are well produced, vibrant, and powerful, meanwhile Chance has that goofy, kind of cool, kind of dorky demeaner that is very endearing to me. I find myself rooting for Chance, especially when the music is great. And it's hard not to mention the context of this being a 6 year gap in Chance's career, following the widely-panned The Big Day (2019). With the The Big Day being his first full length album, it was meant to be the moment Chance became the superstar of the genre, and it resulted in an embarrassing flop with fans and critics writing dude off. Chance also went through a divorce in 2024 from his wife, adding insult to the irony, with much of The Big Day centred around that very marriage. So Chance was up against some adversity with this project, he needed this to land well with listeners, and although I haven't seen this album talked about tons this year, I think it passed most people's expectations, and for me it did that and then some. On STAR LINE Chance addresses his past woes, whilst also seemingly having a hopeful outlook for his future. Musically he has proven that he should be positive, with exceptional song-writing on songs like Star Side Intro and Letters, clever and lyrical verses like on Back To The Go, catchy choruses such as Tree, and an ear for killer features like on Ride and Just a Drop. As well as heart-broken introspection, we get level-headed and progressive perspectives on societal issues from Chance. So as much as Chance has been through the ringer in the past 5 years, the fact he still displays opinions and care for things bigger than him shows to me that he has a sensible head on his shoulders. Overall, I think this is a superb comeback and he will do well to top this. STAR LINE  has gorgeous production, amazing lyrics, and incredible performances.

Star Track - Back To The Go

Honourable Mentions that just missed out on a top 10 finish:

• Ransom & DJ Premier - The Reinvention
• Kevin Abstract - Blush
• Billy Woods - G*******

Best Song

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist ft Anderson .Paak - Ensalada

(Honourable Mention: Earl Sweatshirt - TOURMALINE)

Best Beat

Boldy James & Nicholas Craven ft Poppy Bricks - Mr Quaker Oats

(Honourable Mention: Nas & DJ Premier - Nasty Esco Nasir)

Best Ensemble Track

Joey Bada$$ ft Rome Streetz, Kid Ca$h, CJ Fly - BK'S FINEST

(Honourable Mention: JID ft Clipse - Community)

Best Feature

Vic Mensa - Back To The Go by Chance the Rapper

(Honourable Mention: Kano - Chapter 16 by Dave)

Best Chorus

Chance the Rapper ft Lil Wayne, Smino - Tree

(Honourable Mention: Loyle Carner - Strangers)

Best Bar

Rome Streetz on Rule 4080 - "Back in the days, I'd be a runaway slave, fu*k the woking for free my destiny's to be paid, I would hide in the field and stab master in the face, go kidnap the wife and drown that bi*ch in the lake".

(Honourable Mention: Dave on My 27th Birthday - "I got withdrawal symptoms but they happen at ATM's, next two years I'll be looking at eighty M's").

Best Art Work

JID - God Does Like Ugly