By Gary Suarez in Newsletter — Dec 15, 2025

The Best Hip-Hop/Rap Albums Of 2025

25 ranked selections of the year's finest from the independent and underground world

Every week, I use this platform to recommend all manner of independent/underground/whatchamacalit hip-hop and rap artists that you should listen to. That's the whole point of CABBAGES.

I've never loved making a year-end list, for previously explained reasons I won't rehash in another series of paragraphs few will even read, but I've found it to be one of the best ways to get people to check out records they might have missed.

Before I share this year's picks, here are a few things to keep in mind:

No major label releases are included. Yes, that means nothing released via Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, or any of the large, well-financed companies with major label pedigrees that behave like majors. Sadly, that means some records I loved including Earl Sweatshirt's Live Laugh Love weren't eligible and thus don't appear below. (The industry is changing so much, admittedly, that I'm honestly not sure how much longer this will matter.)
The picks are mine and mine alone. I don't consult with anyone else when putting together the list, so what you see here is entirely my opinion. So if any of your personal favorite albums of 2025 don't show up here, including those featured on more popular lists, this is why that is. I listen to hundreds of new hip-hop albums / mixtapes / EPs / projects in a single year, so I probably didn't miss the one you're upset about.
Whenever possible, rankings are limited to one album per artist. Naturally, exceptions do exist, particularly when there's overlap with producers or duo / group configurations. That said, I try to credit other notable releases I liked from those same artists underneath their numbered placements.

Okay, here we go again...

25. Nakama., EVERYTHING BURNS!

Throughout this excitable half-hour outing, the versatile vocalist never ceases to astound as he aggressively unravels ugly truths and generational traumas while careening musically into markedly degenerative chaos.

24. Big Moochie Grape, Nightmares On AB

This East Memphis signee to the late Young Dolph's Paper Route EMPIRE makes as strong as case as any for claiming the Gucci Mane mantel, boasting charisma and confidence while delivering barrages of bars in a way like Mr. Perfect once did.

23. Sunmundi & Sasco, Contacting

Clearly influenced by the Backwoodz Studioz Cinematic Universe, the young New York area rapper-producer duo operate in an idiosyncratic space, their clear collaborative might yielding remarkable results that lets subtly slip a maturity of approach.

22. Another Planet x YL x Ill Sugi, Bad News

RRR meets Tase Grip most momentously with an emerging Japanese producer behind the boards, their union illustrating why these are three of the most technically accomplished rappers currently operating in the New York area.

See also: YL & Subjxct 5, RRR & 2oo4 Presents...Only Ones Taxin'.

21. FOHDH Matthew & Wino Willy, Matthew Gets Sick Off Cheap Wine and Prefers Gruaud-Larose 1945

Just seeing this producer's name attached to a project is enough to warrant a listen, and this truly impressive team-up with the caustic, darkly comedic Philadelphia rapper contains the power to make anyone an instant fan.

See also: Teller Bank$ & Wino Willy, Black Man!

20. Salimata, The Happening

Despite transplanting herself to Marseille, the Brooklyn essence of this NYC native dominates her latest project for MIKE's 10k imprint, her brash and quick-witted raps an absolute thrill to hear over the subtly jazzy and soulful instrumentals.

19. Gabe 'Nandez & Preservation, Sortilège

This exemplary rapper-meet-producer project achieves something extraordinary on proverbial wax, a cerebral and contemplative work that conjures the divine as it side-eyes some of life's more somatic concerns.

See also: Gabe 'Nandez, The Skirmish Compilation.

18. Jesse The Tree, Worm In Heaven

The bleary-eyed boom bap beatnik and Strange Famous fave reunites with his Pigeon Man producer Mopes to explore topics related to self-assessment and personal growth, all through a thick 420 haze.

See also: Jesse The Tree & Jason Griff, Spruce Almighty.

17. PremRock, Did You Enjoy Your Time Here...?

With a barman's lived-in intellect and a barfly's low-key existential dread, the ShrapKnel spitter unloads on listeners while expounding upon the great (and small) mysteries of life with a coterie of badass beatmakers circling his drain.

16. Bruiser Wolf & Harry Fraud, MADE BY DOPE

The Brooklyn-born producer has long gravitated towards distinctive emcees with outsized personalities, and this full-length team-up with the perhaps the sharpest, funniest rapper alive is no exception–yet also somehow downright exceptional.

See also: Bruiser Wolf, Potluck.

15. Eddie Valero, Gangsta Blues

Though trap music decentralization has its faults, its spread credibly opened up the sound to other Southern locales, which gives us solid practitioners like this Memphis native who keeps that street shit front of mind with some assists by Luh Ron Mayde Dis and Paper Route EMPIRE go-to Bandplay.

See also: Eddie Valero, Gangsta Blues 2.

14. Jay Cinema, A Smile To A Tear

A deservedly rising star in the underground levels up in real time and opens up his proverbial world with this refreshing and riveting album laced with mesmerizing beats by skilled familiars such as Tony Seltzer, JUNE!, and shemar.

See also: Jay Cinema & chasay, be a better friend.

13. Goya Gumbani, Warlord Of The Weejuns

The best dressed man in hip-hop steps out in his finest loafers both literally and metaphorically, drawing spiritual inspiration from Miles Davis while making milestones of his own.

12. Open Mike Eagle, Neighborhood Gods Unlimited

Backed by tremendous production from the likes of Child Actor and Kenny Segal, the indie rap war-horse persists in making relatable, humorous, and insightful songs on one of the strongest albums of his already-incredible 2020s run.

See also: Previous Industries, Evergreen Plaza.

11. Doseone & Steel Tipped Dove, All Portrait, No Chorus

The fabulously phlegmy poet of Anticon x Mush pedigree gazes into the abyss with prolific and dissonant leftfield composer, oddly resulting in something altogether unique when measured against either artist's priors.

10. NAHreally, Secret Pancake

Handling both the beats and the bars himself, this Jersey City denizen presents a self-deprecating self portrait set to breezy new bap on this whimsical yet melancholy effort, his deceptively laidback delivery transmitting a deeply human wit.

09. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist, Mercy

Reuniting with the elite studio veteran behind their career-shifting Haram, the verbose twosome show how far they've come as lyricists over the past four years, devastating and dazzling in equal measure as they conjure Baldwin, Mandela, and Laraaji in their ongoing journey together.

08. ShrapKnel, The Triple Steel Beam Collection

Despite being released individually, this engrossing trio of albums from Curly Castro and PremRock deserves to be treated (and thoroughly enjoyed) as a single body of work, staying consistently mind-blowing with Raphy, Mike Ladd, and Ohbliv behind the boards.

07. Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals, A City Drowned In God's Black Tears

So rarely found in music nowadays, the full-throated radical ire levied against states, institutions, and ideologies by this blistering Baltimore-based duo on their latest LP undeniably aligns them with a longstanding lineage of artists who weaponized platforms and wielded mics to speak out against injustices.

06. Wave Generators, RUN AWAY WITH A WILD AND A RARE ONE

Scarcely a year after their colossal sounding debut, uneasy riders Nosaj and Height Keech return with a provocatively enormous sophomore set, flying their tattered, flammable freak flag at full-staff on this supersonic road trip straight on through America's unstable cerebral cortex.

05. BLUEHILLBILL & Al.Divino, Avematix

As Divino retreated further into the shadows of the underground, making and releasing music for an insular cabal of in-the-know loyalists, he poked his head out to feed the streets opposite this acrobatically off-kilter Boston rapper. Their album's volatile formula results in gloomy boom bap shuffles, uptempo jazzmatazz blurs, and bassy, blown-out bangers.

See also: BLUEHILLBILL & Grubby Pawz, Billy's Revenge.

04. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist, Alfredo 2

On paper, any attempt to best the 2020 original seems like the stuff of kamikaze missions, admirably purposeful if on some level inadvisable. Yet this Japan-inspired sequel by these hip-hop samurai comes closer than it has any right to, cutting down foes with calculated precision and utterly without mercy.

03. Boldy James & Nicholas Craven, Criminally Attached

The Detroit rapper nearly redefined the word prolific this year, dropping so many projects that many fans lost count. Still, even after re-teaming with his fave Quebecois producer over the summer for Late To My Own Funeral, his presumably final album of 2025 outshined all that preceded it, with narco talk startlingly pure when cut with Craven's soul sample spattered instrumentals.

See also: Boldy James & Nicholas Craven, Late To My Own Funeral; Boldy James & Real Bad Man, Conversational Pieces; Boldy James & Chuck Strangers, Token Of Appreciation; Boldy James & Antt Beatz, Hommage.

02. billy woods, GOLLIWOG

No album this year stayed with me the way this one did, haunting my headphones for days on end with American horror stories told by contemporary rap's anomalously gifted practitioner. Even in a catalog as richly detailed as woods', one commonly populated by other uncommonly great artists, this chilling set ranks among his greatest works.

See also: billy woods & August Fanon, gowillog.

01. Errol Holden, MULBERRY SILK ROAD

One of the last times Roc Marciano put his whole weight behind a cosign, we ended up with Stove God Cook$' Reasonable Drought. As if drawing up the damn blueprint for our current era of pristinely gritty New York styled rap with his 2010 album Marcberg wasn't enough, giving his backing and blessing to this generational talent set the Syracuse-born spitter on a stupendous ascent. Not only did Stove become the voice of Griselda's thrilling new wave, but his outsized Pyrex prowess landed him a rare feature on Clipse's jaw-dropping reunion album. Whether or not the same fortuitous fate befalls Errol Holden, his latest acolyte, the exquisitely titled MULBERRY SILK ROAD encapsulates the New York native's unquestionably evident worthiness.

No neophyte to the art of a deftly written rhyme, the onetime Mass Appeal act forced his way into the current conversation with February's outstanding Supreme Magnetic. But with the benefit of Roc Marci's imprimatur, his second full-length of the year revealed similarities beyond the superficial shared by both men. Holden's designer tastes and strong-armed shrewdness make for some sophisticated street shit on "visvim vandal," its title already a declaration of class before so much as a single bar is uttered. Here, he recounts criminal acts of watch theft and assertive gunplay like a stick-up kid with a poet's soul, pushing that style further forward on "Rod lavers with the stüssy hoodie." Those familiar with the grimy side of NYC life will certainly recognize and likely relate to its unapologetic depictions of the pangs of poverty, particularly how that hunger motivates summertime sprees, retribution campaigns, and sexual conquests.

In scarcely over half an hour, Holden presents a dark, dare-I-say romantic vision few of his would-be pot-stirring peers could dare to compete with. Indeed, experienced through his expensive shades, Mulberry Silk Road can feel simultaneously ominous and alluring, larcenous and lascivious, drawing listeners in with the dangerous prospect of getting too close. Reflecting an eagerness to differentiate himself, his delivery is almost invariably rapid-fire, emptying full clips worth of wordplay into the filthy, menacing instrumental ether of "comanche war paint" and "dip dip diver." And differentiate himself here he does...

See also: Errol Holden, Supreme Magnetic; Errol Holden, DEATH MARCH.