WESTSIDE GUNN & CONWAY – Griselda Ghost
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WESTSIDE GUNN & CONWAY – Griselda Ghost

The "Griselda Ghost" EP is the record that put the Griselda crew on the map. It is also the manifesto of a blogger, Big Ghost Ltd, revealing himself to be an accomplished producer. And finally, it is a true work of East Coast rap revivalism, with beats still firmly boom bap rather than *drumless*, beautiful ’70s samples, and a format concise enough to ensure maximum impact.
EPIC – Heater In My Truck II 
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EPIC – Heater In My Truck II 

Twenty-three years later, Epic delivers a sequel to "Heater On My Truck", and almost nothing has changed: our rapper who doesn’t look like a rapper still deals in trivial subject matter and shares his love of hip-hop alongside fellow veterans of the Canadian underground, Moka Only, DJ Moves, and Noah23. Sure, this laid-back rap very much shows its age. But it’s aging pretty well.
MADVILLAIN – Madvillainy
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MADVILLAIN – Madvillainy

That, in the end, is what independent hip-hop turned out to be. Hip-hop's coming of age. A way for its aging audience to replace the fading thrill of discovery with aesthetic pleasure, with a fascination for form. In 2004, two of the movement's greatest heroes embodied that evolution with "Madvillainy", an album that critics and purists alike would go on to revere for years to come.
KNEECAP – Fenian
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KNEECAP – Fenian

After months of controversy in the UK, the US and France, Kneecap are making the most of their newfound notoriety. With Dan Carey’s help, the trio have honed their second album to a fine edge. Without giving up their political commitments or their bad-boy swagger, Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí show that they are more than just “Irish rappers who support Hezbollah.”
HUS KINGPIN – Wavo Forever
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HUS KINGPIN – Wavo Forever

The best Wu-Tang Clan album since the glory days is not a Wu-Tang Clan album. It is the one that Hus Kingpin - that great 90s nostalgist - put together by compiling his varied collaborations with some of the group's members, affiliates, and a few others besides, all set to music that, with its string sounds, piano lines and soul samples feels more Wu than Wu itself. Wu-Tang Forever. Wavo Forever.
BILLY WOODS – Golliwog
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BILLY WOODS – Golliwog

Indie rap isn’t dead. By bringing in his longtime producers (El-P, Ant, Preservation, Kenny Segal, The Alchemist) and rappers in his vein (Bruiser Wolf, Elucid, Cavalier), by invoking Company Flow, MF DOOM, and Antipop Consortium, and by delivering a Black, committed, and experimental form of rap, Billy Woods carries on the underground tradition of the 1990s.
TRAPMAT SAVIOR & NICHOLAS CRAVEN – Scottie Trippin
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TRAPMAT SAVIOR & NICHOLAS CRAVEN – Scottie Trippin

Nicholas Craven may collaborate with Boldy James, Tha God Fahim, Mach-Hommy, Billy Woods, and even France's Akhenaton, but he hasn't forgotten his roots. For the second time, the Canadian producer teams up with Montreal-based Haitian rapper Trapmat Savior. And to complement the latter's haunting voice and understated humor, he delivers one of his finest works.
GORILLA GLUE & LIL NAKUR – Russian Trap House
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GORILLA GLUE & LIL NAKUR – Russian Trap House

Long live globalization. It makes this kind of glorious absurdity possible. Trap-A-Holics-style trap music, complete with all the sounds and imagery that come with it, but cooked up by real muzhiks, by backwoods hicks from deep rural Russia rapping about saunas, and eating pancakes. And what's more, their music actually works, as if this style of rap had truly been born over there.
CESCHI – Bring Us The Head Of Francisco False (Part 1) 
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CESCHI – Bring Us The Head Of Francisco False (Part 1) 

With the two-part "Bring Us The Head Of Francisco False," Ceschi bids us farewell, bringing to a close a solo career that began nearly twenty years earlier. He does so as he always has: exploring disillusionment, with confessions that verge on the unbearable, but also with an unrivalled ability to transcend eras and musical genres, and to deliver one inspiring track after another.
DRAKE – Nothing Was The Same
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DRAKE – Nothing Was The Same

"Nothing Was The Same" is meant to be Drake’s rap album - the one where he invokes the Wu-Tang Clan. The one where, in between bouts of whining about his exes, he sounds at his most combative. But it is also, and above all, his weirdest, strangest and most experimental record: astonishingly shapeless and melody-light for something this mainstream. And, just maybe, his best.
IDK – e.t.d.s. A Mixtape by .idk
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IDK – e.t.d.s. A Mixtape by .idk

Duality is embedded in the very meaning of IDK's stage name: his rap is both "ignorant" and "conscious." On "E.T.D.S.", however, it is the "I" that takes center stage. Its content is devilish and gangsta. Yet in reality, this faux mixtape- which takes us back to the days of DJ Whoo Kid and G-Unit - is a carefully crafted album, one that does not abandon its urge to preach a moral message.
BUNNAB – Bunna Summa (Ice Cream Summer Deluxe)
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BUNNAB – Bunna Summa (Ice Cream Summer Deluxe)

Atlanta rapper BunnaB is more than just "Bunna Summa," the perfect summer anthem for carefree girls having fun in the sun. It's also the entire album of the same name, especially in its Deluxe edition: a playful, exuberant celebration of female pleasure, sexual freedom, and independence that's as funny as it is empowering, while making brilliant use of trap music's oldest tricks.