The 25 Best Rap Albums Of 2025 So Far

When you think of the best rap albums of 2025, numerous different artists are going to come to mind. Overall, it is a testament to just how many phenomenal projects have been released so far this year. Since January 1st, HotNewHipHop has been documenting the biggest and best releases from all of hip-hop's established and rising stars. After six months that have just flown by, we are ready to present you with our Top 25 Best Rap Albums of 2025...so far. Our staff had to make some tough decisions, but as you will read, we are passionate about every single album on this list. While we don't expect you to agree with these placements, we appreciate you rocking with our lists, every single year.

Read More: Top 40 Hottest Hip-Hop Albums Of 2024

Wiz Khalifa had the blog era in a trance with his Kush & Orange Juice at the start of the last decade. While topping the feeling of the original wasn’t totally accomplished here, the vibes of it are very much intact on the sequel 15 years later. It’s modernized with even cleaner production and we can appreciate Wiz bringing a nice blend of OGs and newcomers. It shows how far he’s come since the predecessor and feels like a mini victory lap for the Pittsburgh native.

- Zachary Horvath

Twenty-six years following the release of The Art of Storytelling, Slick Rick is finally back with a new project called Victory. The album is part of Nas and Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It series, which will include seven albums from seven legendary hip-hop artists. Slick Rick’s album was the first domino to fall, and it proved to be the perfect way to kick things off. From the very first track, “Stress,” Slick Rick delivers his signature flow that will immediately transport you back into the 90s. Don’t get this confused with being dated, however. The MC manages to take you back in time while still sounding timeless.

The production here is a modern take on the New York boom-bap of the '90s, and it makes for a nostalgic feel. Slick Rick’s storytelling continues to be his selling point, and his nonchalant flows are as infectious as ever. At 60 years old, Slick Rick hasn’t lost a step. He’s given fans an inspirational body of work, and one that will define 2025.

- Alex Cole

Young Thug’s YSL imprint has introduced the rap world to some stars. His proteges typically carry the torch of his unique sound. Although in the past, some of these artists have been received by the masses as clones, as opposed to mentees. Thankfully, 1300Saint is breaking that mold as he has taken the Young Thug blueprint and has made it his own thing. His album All Hail is the perfect example of this.

Throughout the project, we get the perfect mix of lavish beats and catchy autotune-soaked flows. Overall, 1300Saint has a phenomenal ear for melody, and that shines through on this effort. Songs like “I SEE RED,” “GALLERY,” and “THE WORLD IS YOURS” all serve as individual mission statements for the young MC, which will leave you in awe. With 1300Saint, YSL has a superstar on their hands, and with Young Thug gearing up to drop an album, we hope to hear some collabs between these two.

- Alex Cole

Lefty Gunplay is known for his heavily influenced gangsta raps that don’t require the most intricate metaphors or wordplay to make the song a hit. However, his new collaboration with Problem, now known as Jason Martin, tells a classic coming-of-age story about a man growing up in the neighborhood, which immediately grabs your attention with its relatable situations and old-school samples. 

The 15-song tracklist secures an authentic L.A. hip-hop sound, interweaving with authentic appearances by The Game, JasonMartin, Ty Dolla $ign, and RJmrLA. Creating his renditions, he samples classic L.A. radio hits, such as Amanda Perez’s “Angel.”

Through honesty and loyalty, the album strips away the rapper’s antics and displays a man looking for love, peace, and avoiding prison. In the album, he battles his family demons, street rivals, and juggles women. By the end of the album, you're rooting for Lefty Gunplay to escape the madness like we did Kendrick Lamar on Section.80 and Good Kid M.A.A.D City.

- Bryson "Boom" Paul

Three years removed from her last project, Backwxsh returned in March with the best work of her career in Only Dust Remains. Touching on themes of isolation, institutional violence, greed, bigotry, and more, the album serves as an examination of the apocalyptic landscape of the world around us. Despite the dire scene, Backwxsh is often fervently fighting back. She’s unapologetic in her proclamations, belting out calls for a free Palestine on the seventh track, “History of Violence,” as she describes vivid scenes of the bloodshed in Gaza.

From the ashes of the environment that Backwxsh presents, she rises for a more hopeful and rebellious ending, sampling bell hooks for “Love After Death,” before beautifully tying up one of the best albums of the year on the title track. 

- Cole Blake

In February of this year, Westside Gunn dropped off his first release of 2025, 12. The 11-track project is the twelfth installment in his iconic Hitler Wears Hermes series and includes features from the likes of Estee Nack, Stove God Cooks, Brother Tom Sos, and Elijah Hooks. It sees the Griselda co-founder take a step back to let his featured artists shine. On the verses he does deliver, however, he maintains his signature unorthodox flow. Much like his album 11, 12 serves at least partially as a tribute to his close associate Big Dump, who tragically passed away in 2024.

- Caroline Fisher

For Central Cee, the past several years have embodied the slow grind to the top. He buzzed through the streets of London and beyond with the release of his first two mixtapes, and then came a string of high-profile collaborations: an EP with Dave, a feature on J. Cole’s Might Delete Later, and a tight-knit relationship with Drake, all of which cemented the foundation for his debut album, Can’t Rush Greatness. Teetering between viral stardom and lyrical respectability, Central Cee’s first full-length outing is a bold, focused statement that bridges UK grit and global polish without compromising either.

Across sleek production and razor-sharp storytelling, Cee unpacks the weight of expectation, the disorienting effects of fame, and the growing distance between his past and present. While tracks like “No Introduction” and “Limitless” dig deep into mental health, loss, and ambition, others showcase his refined hitmaking instincts—whether flexing alongside Dave on “CRG” or tapping into crossover sensibilities with artists like Lil Durk and Young Miko.

Not every risk lands, but Can’t Rush Greatness proves Central Cee has the range, resolve, and presence to thrive well beyond UK borders. It’s easily one of 2025’s strongest debuts, cementing his global rise and long-term potential.

- Aron A.

Over the last decade, MIKE has earned his reputation as one of the best rappers out of New York through a number of nuanced and introspective projects like May God Bless Your Hustle and Weight of the World. In 2024, he switched up that tone for the more accessible Pinball with Tony Seltzer, blending his own ability to weave together impressive flows with Seltzer’s more upbeat production. It was a match made in heaven, and the project’s sequel Pinball 2 is no different. “I'm in the stu' with Tony Seltzer, we just raising hell,” MIKE raps on the opener, “Sin City.” With an even longer runtime than its predecessor, Pinball 2 is MIKE at his most confident and charismatic. 

- Cole Blake

At just 19 years old, FearDorian already has a hip-hop resumé worthy of the SoundCloud era’s most prolific and groundbreaking trailblazers. While some of this shows up via their highly sought-after production for other collaborators, Leaving Home is their best album statement so far that takes the Atlanta native’s blunt and hazy artistry in more versatile directions. Sparse but sharp percussion, nostalgia-inducing sample flips, and deadpan deliveries are still here, and as captivating as ever.

But in comparison to previous projects, Leaving Home is both rainier and rowdier atmospherically, and a more direct reckoning with the clash of Dorian’s mental cages and their unbridled confidence. Cloud rap, plugg, and jerk inspirations have never sounded as weary, and it’s a very compelling approach. Listening to this project is like leaving home in a few ways: the path forward is exciting and visceral, but some painful yet pivotal roots keep you grounded.

- Gabriel Bras Nevares

When Lil Tecca burst onto the scene with “Ransom” six years ago, no one could have predicted the artistic evolution that would follow. Of all the catchy-hook-writing, autotune-drenched SoundCloud stars of the last decade, Tecca is the one who has aged the most gracefully. At 22 years old, his songwriting ability is mature beyond his years, and Dopamine is a great example of that. Borrowing from the '80s Pop Radio aesthetics of video games like GTA Vice City, Tecca delivers an album packed with nostalgia.

The opening track, “Dark Thoughts,” is a Disco banger, while “OWA OWA” pays tribute to “Video Killed The Radio Star,” a track that, you guessed it, appears in GTA Vice City. Songs like “Forever Lie” will immediately remind you of Michael Jackson's production, while the radio skits make you feel like you’re driving down Ocean Boulevard. This album contains some of Tecca’s stickiest hooks and easily his best production. If he continues to go down this road, superstardom is on his horizon.

- Alex Cole

Ray Vaughn isn’t Doechii; he can’t transcend to pop star status. However, he is the future of Top Dawg Entertainment in hip hop among the label’s second generation. The Good, The Bad, & The Dollar Menu is the essential album that sets the foundation for the label moving forward. 

He captivates with his imperfect story. The Long Beach, California rap star is often difficult to like throughout the album, as he reveals his dastardly actions towards his family while unveiling dark family secrets. On top of that, he is a man in survival mode, utilizing his wits, confidence, and swagger to tie together the good, the bad, and the ugly in West Coast productions.

"Flat Shasta" explores family trauma, while "Suburban Kidz" and "Miles Away from Heaven" deliver introspective narratives. TDE alumni appear on the album to co-sign the promising rapper’s future. 

Fans can't help but love the brutally honest storytelling by the end of the album. 

- Bryson "Boom" Paul

This February, Larry June, 2 Chainz, and The Alchemist delivered their highly anticipated collaborative album, Life Is Beautiful. The project plays to each of the artists’ strong suits and features no guest appearances. It contains breezy bars prioritizing themes of mindfulness and wellbeing courtesy of June, while 2 Chainz lends his trademark braggadocio and wit. All of this is grounded by laid-back, atmospheric production thanks entirely to The Alchemist to create what the trio calls “lifestyle rap.” While all of them brought something different to the table, they still managed to make the album cohesive, which keeps listeners engaged without it feeling disjointed. Reportedly, the project first started with a simple text from The Alchemist to Larry June when he and 2 Chainz had already been in the studio. What was supposed to be a five-pack quickly turned into more once they all joined forces and recognized their undeniable chemistry.

- Caroline Fisher

Glitchy beats are in right now. With each new generation suffering from severe attention span issues, producers and MCs have to come up with new ways to keep your attention. Artists like Nettspend and OsamaSon have figured out the formula. These artists use busy production, and they also treat autotune like an instrument as opposed to a pitch corrector. Of all the artists operating in this space, OsamaSon has mastered the craft. No album proves this more than Jump Out, which has become Gen Alpha’s sacred text.

The album is just 35 minutes long, with 18 tracks, which means the average length is under two minutes. That is par for the course these days, but OsamaSon makes each second count. From his catchy flows to his ability to find pockets on beats that would make even the best rapper shudder, OsamaSon has proven himself to be one of the leaders of the youth movement in rap. While some may find this style of music unlistenable, it clearly resonates with the younger generation. The impact of this album is undeniable, and we can’t wait to hear more from the artist.

- Alex Cole

BLACK’!ANTIQUE has everything amazing about hip-hop rolled into one lengthy album, and the whole culmination could’ve only come together thanks to Pink Siifu. He believes “an artist should be one of one,” and all the old, new, hype, and mellow inspirations in his artistry filter through a gritty, noisy, but nonetheless powerful lens. The Birmingham multi-hyphenate’s bravado could be right up in your face, or his reflections on Black identity and heritage could inhabit chilled verses, but they still paint the picture of 2025’s most dynamic rap odyssey.

What’s more is that a cavalcade of featured guest performers, producers, visual artists, and more shine bright on BLACK’!ANTIQUE, making for a uniquely collective and free-flowing creative experience. Sure, the album is comfortable in stasis and in meditation throughout, whether aggressively or with melancholy, and it’s a lot to take in. Yet that patience rewards more gems with each listen.

- Gabriel Bras Nevares

In January of 2025, Rio Da Yung OG kicked off the new year by unleashing his album, RIO FREE. The release followed his nearly four-year-long stint in prison over a gun charge, and certainly didn’t disappoint. The Flint, Michigan rapper returned with the same unrelenting energy that he displayed before serving his time. He explores themes of betrayal, paranoia, freedom, and more, dishing out unapologetically brutal rhymes about life behind bars and how it shaped him. There are no features on the album, which boasts production by Wayne616 along with BlueStrip. RIO FREE follows Rio Da Yung OG’s album City on My Back, his first official studio album as well as the last album he dropped before getting incarcerated. It also follows various projects he released from behind bars, which feature material recorded before he surrendered in 2021. This includes Fiend Lives Matter, The F Tape, and Rio Circa 2020.

- Caroline Fisher

Critical acclaim is nothing new for MIKE, who has already been celebrated for dropping some of the best music of the decade, but in 2025, he’s on pace for two of the best albums of the year. Months before teaming up with Tony Seltzer for the uncharacteristically vibrant Pinball 2, he kicked off the year with Showbiz!. The 24-track effort is laced with the existential quips and moral ponderings to which his fans have been accustomed, but with a new level of fame and perspective for the rapper behind them. “The prize isn’t much, but the price is abundant,” he raps on “Artist of the Century.” On “Da Rock,” he tackles the fandom that comes along with this success, ending the song by sampling a fan showering him with praise. Overall, it’s another rich and immersive addition to MIKE’s consistently impressive catalog.

- Cole Blake

Bruiser Wolf’s emerging popularity in Detroit hip-hop adds another layer to the city’s mixture of rap styles. 

Not since Pomona, California, rap legend Suga Free have we had a rapper who combines pimp-like mannerisms with street knowledge. While you can’t help but laugh on tracks like “Dope Boy Diary” and “Momma’s Stove,” its greatness is undeniable. Using the ugliest parts of Detroit, Wolf paints a masterpiece. 

Drawing solely on his creativity and minimal resources, he creates remarkable music that typically demands top-tier talent from both underground and mainstream scenes. His sound is distinct and does not resemble any similar traits to those of any other Detroit rapper ever. Not Big Sean, Eminem, Boldy James, Trick Trick, or Tee Grizzley.

Potluck succeeds because it surprises, challenges, and entertains, proving that Bruiser Wolf's voice is essential and refreshing in the current rap landscape. In 2025, no other album matches its wit and heart within the same budget.

- Bryson "Boom" Paul

Chicago wordsmith Saba and legendary producer No ID team up for the long-awaited From The Private Collection of Saba & No ID, an album that more than lives up to expectations. Saba delivers sharp, personal bars over some of the most dynamic soundscapes of his career. On “Breakdown,” No ID flips Janet Jackson’s “I Get Lonely” and Saba reflects on fame and self-improvement, while “Westside Bound Pt. 4” with MFnMelo is a hard-hitting track built for big speakers. The emotional centerpiece, “How To Impress God,” finds Saba dealing with his material success and the spiritual emptiness it’s brought him.

Overall, From The Private Collection of Saba & No ID is a near-perfect marriage of both artists’ strengths, with No ID’s detailed production and Saba’s candor. It’s deliberate, spirited, and authentic to both men’s sensibilities as hip-hop artists. It feels like the start of something special, and hopefully, they get to run it back someday soon.

- Devin Morton

This 2025 XXL Freshman proves that deep introspection and heart-wrenching narrative don’t have to skip out on lyrical simplicity or contemporary trap gloss to hit hard. Love Me As I Am is one of the year’s most creative and idiosyncratic projects for how covertly and sneakily it worms its thematic woes into some of the most fun and candy-like production you’ll hear in hip-hop these days. Keys, as the album cover suggests, take up a lot of the melodic draws on this album. But their direction fits on a lot of different contemporary rap styles, and Nino Paid floats over each and every one.

More importantly, this is the rare mainstream breakout that reckons with its success and with the responsibility on its shoulders in clear, vivid, and honest ways. There is death and strife all over Love Me As I Am, but its personal triumph fulfills its title’s wishes.

- Gabriel Bras Nevares

Mac Miller displayed just how well he can walk the fine line between upbeat and depressing on his second posthumous release, Balloonerism. Made around a really experimental time during his career, the multi-hyphenate successfully focused on topics like drug addiction, fears of growing up, and dying, all while softening the blow through the production and his sometimes loose singing performances. With lots of live instrumentation, light drums, and chill melodies, Mac, Thundercat, Taylor Graves, Dylan Reynolds, and Kintaro (among others) kept the spirits as high as they possibly could.

It gives you a sense of comfort while listening to the album knowing that everyone isn’t as confident in the future as you think they may be. In a way, Mac is encouraging those who have doubts to just life take you where it wants to and to not be so fixated on making every right decision. While it is a sad mood piece at times, there’s a sense of calmness, too. We will take that, especially with all of the negativity that’s permeated throughout 2025.

- Zachary Horvath

The best part about Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show was hearing Ghais Guevara’s “The Old Guard Is Dead” play before the performance. The Philly MC and producer’s politically charged, spiritually impassioned, and sonically gritty artistry was defined well before this moment, but the acclaim and visibility he’s garnered for it have made the snakes in the grass that much closer to diluting his work. Goyard Ibn Said fearlessly rejects that compromise while still improving Ghais Guevara’s skills as a spitter, writer, and beatsmith.

It’s arguably 2025’s best conceptual record, with key contrasts between hedonism, responsibility, and the rappers and forces of consumption who try to play both sides. For all the striking colonial and capitalist critiques on here that pull no punches where other MCs just use them as aesthetics, this is still a very enjoyable, seamless, and blazing listen that condemns hip-hop mediocrity, whether artistically or morally.

- Gabriel Bras Nevares

McKinley Dixon followed up his critically acclaimed 2023 effort, Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?, with yet another brilliantly devised project in the form of Magic, Alive!. This time around, he wrestles with the weight of death and the strangeness of confronting it at a young age. He presents a story of three friends who tragically lose a fourth and wrestle with the ensuing turmoil. They turn to their childlike imagination in a surreal attempt at resurrection. The setup provides a canvas for Dixon to tackle complex thematic ideas that strike at the very core of what it means to be alive. 

Once again, he’s using beautifully arranged jazz samples and live instrumentation as the backdrop for his carefully constructed lyrics. Across 11 tracks, Dixon jam-packs the music with glamorous production that constantly blends genres while he shifts flows and delivery.

Several guests make appearances too, including Quelle Chris, Ghais Guevera, Pink Siifu, Blu, and more, each providing their own insight on the themes Dixon introduces. For Blu’s contribution on the closing track, he raps from the perspective of a poster on the wall in Dixon’s bedroom, advising him to find meaning in life through self-assurance. “I think you know the answer is right in your catalogue / McKinley, you showed me the importance of self-belief / Be loved, be jazzed, you don't gotta be me,” he raps. The narratively dense and stylistically eclectic album easily ranks as one of the best of 2025.

- Cole Blake

Key Glock has long displayed tremendous potential, dating back as far as the first Glockoma mixtape and becoming more apparent on his Dum and Dummer collaborations with his cousin-in-law, the late Young Dolph. The young rapper reached that potential on Glockaveli, his official major-label debut. Glockaveli features the most impressive rapping displays of Glock’s young career over a wide range of the most cinematic, soul-sampling trap beats he could find, a stylistic choice that separates him from almost all of his Memphis peers. 

Glock is in top form, rapping at an occasionally dizzying pace about the streets, luxury, and women. “Blue Devil” and “3AM in ToKEYo” are examples of him at his very best, most focused lyrically. “She Ready” is about as close as you’re going to get to a Key Glock love song, where his cynicism outweighs any pleasantries that he could possibly deliver. It would be easy to label Key Glock as a one-note trap rapper. That would be doing a tremendous disservice to this album. Glockaveli features some of the most unique sounds to come out of Memphis in years and stands as both his most consistently great album to date and comfortably among the best releases of the first half of 2025.

- Devin Morton

With the “Big 3” discourse dead in the water, few albums this year have stirred the culture like Playboi Carti’s MUSIC. Arriving after years of teases, leaks, and half-confirmations, MUSIC rewards patience with a chaotic, star-studded spectacle that blurs the line between punk, trap, and gothic experimentation. In a post-Migos, post-YSL Atlanta, Carti has emerged not just as a scene leader but as a generational outlier—wielding a raw, abrasive sound that’s as jarring as it is hypnotic.

His voice contorts into snarls and growls, often serving more as an instrument than a narrator, letting cavernous production and glitchy textures dictate the flow. DJ Swamp Izzo’s drops bring a dose of mixtape-era nostalgia, while Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Travis Scott, and Future help elevate the album into blockbuster territory. Even when Carti cedes the spotlight, his vision remains unmistakable: provocative, maximalist, and impossible to pin down.

MUSIC it thrives in discord, not in cohesion. The themes are familiar, but the delivery feels alien. And while its ambition occasionally outruns its execution, Carti’s daring still makes MUSIC one of 2025’s most compelling listens—an unfiltered snapshot of a pioneer charging forward, unconcerned with who follows or not.

- Aron A.

The acclaimed London rapper returned with another bold concept record this year, and you can easily make the argument that it’s the best hip-hop has had to offer. The lead up to Simbi’s sixth studio album was a bit heartbreaking and concerning to witness, though. Her longtime friend and producer who goes by Inflo, had a major falling out over an alleged failed loan repayment that’s equivalent to 2.3 million USD. It left Little Simz unable to pay her taxes for last year and led her to file a lawsuit against him. So, with Inflo now out and Miles James -who also worked on Sometimes I Might Be Introvert- in, how does Lotus sound?

It’s not as sprawling and fantastical as that record, but that’s partially because Little Simz is in a different mindset right now. As such, there’s some production that we have never seen her tackle before. There’s instances where she takes on a more intense and hungry personality thanks to these primal and incredibly grimy beats on tracks like “Thief” or “Flood,” for example. But there’s the epic tracks that she’s known for like “Blood” featuring Wretch 32 and Cashh which showcases this emotional therapy session between brother and sister. With the album fittingly being about resilience, rebirth, and enlightenment, Simz successfully converts her legal ordeal to fuel for the next phase for her personally and musically. 

- Zachary Horvath

One of the most quoted lines from billy woods’ latest masterpiece appears on the very first track, “Jumpscare.” “The English language is violence, I hotwired it / I got a hold of the master’s tools and got dialed in.” If you’re a big fan of the Backwoodz exponent, you probably connect with this line thanks to many records in his discography. But in the case of the best rap LP of 2025 so far (and likely the whole year), it’s incredible to hear how such an all-encompassing portrait of woods’ artistry is still so hyper-specific and unique in its presentation.

There is a murderer’s row of some of the best producers in the game right now on this album, and they provide some of the most haunting, atmospheric, intoxicating, and grueling beats they have ever put to wax. Rather than a strict narrative tying themes of Black diaspora, historical subjugation, and violently rooted racism together, each track is like a horror movie scene of its own.

But to reduce billy woods’ latest to “horrorcore” or an exercise in literary and academic worship would take away from the harsh reality and traumatic inheritance that roots the whole LP in today’s sociopolitical climate. To put it bluntly, woods’ reference to a racist caricature is much more about the treatment and image thrust upon Black people worldwide today than it is about how things were in the late 19th century. Perhaps more accurately, the verses on this record from woods and his guests connect these ideas as a constant throughline, not an evolution.

Speaking of which, the Washington, D.C.-born, New York City-based writer is as skilled as ever on the mic, with this new album including some of his weariest but also most authoritative deliveries across his lauded career. He takes control of a record in a way very few other rappers can, and his smaller narratives and character portraits on this LP are a big reason why. Never does the door close for cynical wit, pessimistic humor, and cheeky one-liners to pull through. But these quips and phrases can become dour quick, and all the more powerful for their brief yet direct condemnations and reflections.

Back to that “Jumpscare” line, perhaps it’s also reductive to chalk up billy woods’ magic to historical awareness. There’s a keen sense of indignation, resistance, and identity on here that, for better or worse, defines 2025.

- Gabriel Bras Nevares