Top Five Albums of 2025 That Prove Rap Is As Alive As Ever

Rap isn’t going anywhere — it’s too interwoven into the cultural fabric of America. But as clickbait culture continues to require outright, meaty rap beef, like what happened between Kendrick Lamar and Drake in 2024, to draw real chart numbers, the genre’s artists are seemingly losing the attention war, leading some to say that hip-hop is headed back underground. This is not a downside in itself and regardless of the charts, I can attest, after besieging my already-fragile eardrums for nearly 12 months straight, that rap still overflows with creative vigor. The following albums serve as my five reasons why.

Chance the Rapper
STAR LINE
Self-Released
Street: 08.15.2025
Chance the Rapper = Lupe Fiasco + Eminem x smoking weed in the confessional

The most blatant snub of the 2026 Grammys was the Academy’s choice to leave Chance the Rapper off the list of nominees. When I reviewed STAR LINE in August, Chance was still campaigning for a bid, and hopes were high in online circles as fans celebrated his flashy yet brutally honest comeback. Many consider this album, to quote myself and Rolling Stone, to be a “return to form” for a nearly abandoned artist. STAR LINE is my favorite rap album of the year, and not just because I happen to be SLUG’s in-house Chicago rap (and specifically Chance) fanatic. Putting aside the highly modern, melodic and sleek production style, his storytelling and social consciousness, combined with expert rhyme schemes, completely measure up to 2013’s Acid Rap, and may even go beyond what he was capable of in his “prime.” I urge you to listen closely, because this rapper, like everyone on this list, still has a lot to say.

Clipse
Let God Sort Em Out
Roc Nation
Street: 07.11.2025
Clipse = Kanye West Presents Good Music Cruel Summer + Pharrell Williams + Nas

Pivoting a sharp 180 degrees, we arrive at the triumphant revival of the rap duo Clipse, made up of brothers Pusha T and Malice. Rap legend says that the two got their start in the 2000s with help and encouragement from Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, aka The Neptunes, whose unorthodox, bleeding-edge production style melded with the duo’s gritty, coke-fueled lyricism to create something genuine and new in the East Coast end of the game. Despite the long 16 years since their last outing, their rhyming on this comeback album is as airtight as ever. Williams returned as well to produce, coughing up hefty beats that alternate between ominous and euphoric, with a booming style that ends up being as addictive as the brothers’ intricate and hard-hitting verses. With several notable features from Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, The Creator and Nas, Let God Sort Em Out is the undisputed album to beat at the 2026 Grammys.

Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist
Alfredo 2
ESGN, ALC Records
Street: 07.25.2025
Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist = Wu-Tang Clan + LNDN DRGS + Larry June

This hip-hop duo, who released Alfredo in 2020 to righteous acclaim, graced us with a sequel that builds on the vibey themes of its predecessor. Alfredo 2 sees legendary producer and DJ The Alchemist employing his traditional sample-heavy style, but with newer, more exotic sounds that result in abstract backdrops for the now veteran-status Freddie Gibbs to rap over. Entertaining as ever, it often seems as if Gibbs is rapping with a defiant smirk, as on “Feeling.” At other times he sounds entirely unbothered, as on “A Thousand Mountains,” where he half-jokingly threatens a departure from the game and the cruel world at large: “I’m an East Gary n****, food stamps and public housing / I should go get me a flute and just disappear in the mountains.” The album’s levity and subtle mastery was made even clearer to me after I witnessed their revelatory performance at The Union on Nov. 1.

JID
God Does Like Ugly
Dreamville, Interscope Records
Street: 08.08.2025
JID = Kendrick Lamar + Andre 3000

Throughout God Does Like Ugly, JID coasts and, rather than trying to outdo his own well-established lyrical and rhythmic prowess, uses his skill to tell stories that are important to him. On “Community,” which features opportune verses from Pusha T and Malice, the three rappers spotlight the violence in systematically oppressed, Black neighborhoods. In one poignant line on “Gz,” JID expands on this and presents the potential need for militancy in response: “We see the data and the pattern of plight … / I be thinkin’ maybe Martin was wrong, Malcolm was right.” But he also conveys pride, nostalgia and joy, such as in memories of going to Skate World on “Sk8 (with Ciara & EARTHGANG).” While not exactly a concept album, JID clearly dedicates this Grammy-nominated project to Black people in America, capturing a moment in a country that dismisses Black issues more and more with each passing political distraction, detracting from the visibility of real issues.

Mac Miller
Balloonerism
Warner Records
Street: 01.17.2025
Mac Miller = A Tribe Called Quest + Thundercat x Miles Davis

Balloonerism may not be a perfect example of current rap supremacy, especially since it’s a project that dates to 2014. But it’s something special that Mac Miller’s estate felt the world needed to hear in 2025. Despite dropping back in January, I’ve had it on repeat throughout the year. It’s a bare, raw, liminal project, a result of the collaboration and complex noodling that took place in Miller’s studio in L.A., which was called The Sanctuary, during his Faces era. It examines many existential hang-ups, which both intrigued and plagued Miller throughout his life and career — beautiful and, at times, difficult to listen to. Layered over soulful, jazz-oriented instrumentation are deep, introspective lyrical dissections of drug use, mortality and mental illness. Prepare to laugh, prepare to cry, but listen and enjoy it most of all. That we still get to hear new music from Miller in 2025 is a blessing, albeit a sometimes painful one.

Read more Year End Top Fives Here:
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