By Gary Suarez in Newsletter — Nov 21, 2025

The Results Are In: 2025 CABBAGES Readers' Poll

You voted; we complied. Here are your picks for the best hip-hop/rap albums and artists of 2025.

Back in October, far earlier than I normally would have preferred, I launched the second-ever CABBAGES Readers' Poll. Though the timeline meant that some two months worth of potential new releases would be excluded, I felt it was time for this newsletter to behave just a little bit more like the rest of the music media landscape, which typically starts announcing its own picks as early as mid-November.

I suspect most of you scrolled past this intro section to go right to what the voting readership decided upon, so I'll continue my commentary afterwards...

Best Producer.

5) Infinity Knives

4) Child Actor

3) August Fanon

2) Kenny Segal

1) Preservation

Best Rapper.

5) Fatboi Sharif

4) Brian Ennals

3) Open Mike Eagle

2) PremRock

1) Gabe 'Nandez

Best Rap Album.

5) PremRock, Did You Enjoy Your Time Here...? [BackwoodzStudioz]

4) ShrapKnel & Raphy, Lincoln Continental Breakfast [Fused Arrow]

3) Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals, A City Drowned In God's Black Tears [Phantom Limb]

2) Open Mike Eagle, Neighborhood Gods Unlimited [auto reverse]

1) Gabe 'Nandez & Preservation, Sortilège [BackwoodzStudioz]

Despite the high caliber of these selections, made by a learned plurality of your fellow newsletter readers and interested outsiders, I can already hear some of your murmurs and complaints, so let me see if I can address the biggest one here:

Why isn't [album/artist name here] on the list?

Well, that depends on who we're talking about. The most obvious answer is that some of your faves just didn't garner enough votes to meet the "Top 5" consensus. Others may have come out after November 2nd, which was the voting cut-off date, and thus weren't eligible. (Apologies to Armand Hammer and Navy Blue.) Anything released via the three major label groups (Sony, Warner, UMG) or their relative equivalents (typically those "indies" started by major label execs that behave similarly in scope if not size) was automatically ineligible, which keeps quality picks like Earl Sweatshirt out of the running. And then there's the more specific selection of billy woods, who earned a good number of write-in votes. As explicitly mentioned by me at the outset of voting, the esteemed Mr. woods had won in the 2022 readers' rankings, which in the interest of fairness made him ineligible for this particular list. I hope this helps.

Now that that's out of the way, let's take a moment to celebrate the sweeping win for Gabe 'Nandez and Preservation, whose combined forces yielded the truly terrific Sortilège and of which I previously wrote:

New York-based rapper Gabe 'Nandez has worked with plenty of dope beatmakers, including Tony Seltzer and Wino Willy. But with Preservation, the masterful producer behind modern classics 'Days With Dr. Yen Lo' with Ka and billy woods' 'Aethiopes,' he achieves something extraordinary on proverbial wax. His most cerebral work to date, 'Sortilège' conjures the divine as it side-eyes some of life's somatic concerns. Starting with "Spire," a tapestry of organ swirls and tremulous percussion, his cadence and tone have never sounded quite so DOOM-esque, though topically he's exploring a fairly different realm than the masked villain did. That continues into "Shadowstep," where Golden Age-derived drum patterns augment fluid lyrics about destiny and race, followed by the bellicose elbow throws of "Muay Sok" and the protective yet descriptive "Bascinet." His ability to blend casual streetwise asides in with contemplative expressions on cuts like "Ball & Chain" and the Koncept Jack$on aided "Hierophant" suggests a warrior poet's spirit lurks within, something Preservation's taste in samples naturally supports. And speaking of guests, the aforementioned woods makes two appearances here, first shattering illusions on "War" and then plotting revolutionary acts alongside Armand Hammer's ELUCID amid the kosmische synth fog of "Mondo Cane."

And yes, I'm still planning on doing a year-end list of my own here, which will likely have some level of overlap with the Readers' Poll picks.