MexikoDro, the producer who, together with his Beat Plugz colleagues, created plugg, returns to his roots. Stepping up to the mic, he successfully revisits the motivational trap music of its early days. Except that after all these years, that same motivation has changed in nature: the veteran’s aspiration now is to live a straight, sober, ordinary life, harboring no illusions about anything.
JOHN GLACIER – Like A Ribbon
This occasional model that is John Glacier has all the hallmarks of a Londoner. Her wide-ranging circle, her music infused with post-punk and electronic influences, her monotone, low-key poetry, and her doubts and uncertainties ultimately have very little to do with rap. Nevertheless, on this compilation album, her formula often proves as haunting as it is seemingly disembodied.
SWAVAY – BILLY2
In 2024, the EP “Billy” was R&B for the girls. So in 2025, its successor “Billy2” brings us trap music for the boys. Nothing particularly sensational in the end from this release by Metro Boomin’s protégé and James Blake’s rapper friend. But it is an improvement nonetheless. There’s some “real trap shit” there, as SwaVay himself puts it, with a few well-aimed lines that hit just right.
TYLER, THE CREATOR – Don’t Tap The Glass
This is Tyler, the Creator’s dance album. His return to basics, as signaled by a cover that evokes 1980s hip-hop. But as this grotesque, parodic image also suggests, everything very quickly takes on a particular tone – acidic, acrimonious, and atrabilious – with a rapper like him. The sound is funky, but the sharp-tongued provocateur from Odd Future is still very much present.
BEN PEDROCHE – Independent As F***
Another book on independent rap? The first one in English? And rather complete, informative, and efficiently put together, no less? There is every reason to welcome the existence of Ben Pedroche’s work. Even if at times it has the dryness of an encyclopedia and relies a bit too much on synthesizing what was already being said back then, without always taking advantage of the hindsight that time affords us.