A Fallow January's Fresh cropscropscrops

If you stepped into any multiplex this weekend, you likely weren't presented with Hollywood's best. Beyond December's franchise leftovers like Avatar: Fire and Ash and The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants as well as Oscar hopefuls such as Marty Supreme, the January options so far include a dystopian disaster sequel, two different zombie flicks, and horror fare concerning murderous monkeys and bloodsucking cops. On the imminent horizon is an AI-inspired, Chris Pratt-led riff on Minority Report, a standalone Jason Statham action-adventure with an instantly forgettable name, and, somehow, a third Silent Hill adaptation. Clearly, winter's cinematic doldrums are here–and the same applies to hip-hop.

January and February are canonical "dump months" at the movies, and looking at the rap albums dropped so far this year we're experiencing something similar. There's always going to be filler and fluff in any given release week, but being getting the first A$AP Rocky album in nearly eight years–and being expected to care–feels like yet another recession indicator. His luxurious brand of luxury branded lifestyle rap has grown from aspirational to utterly unattainable during that considerable lapse, which makes the supremely mid Don't Be Dumb all the more underwhelming. (Please don't get me started about Westside Gunn's non-feature on this thing.)

Speaking of lifestyle rap, Wiz Khalifa's latest Khaotic offering arrived concurrently with Rocky's, favoring a more trap aesthetic as he persists insisting that he smokes better weed than the rest of us. Aside from that, we've got another nearly 90 minute hard drive dump from YoungBoy Never Broke Again (with bonus Jelly Roll, for some reason) alongside more unmemorable mixtapes from rappers you used to care about and others that you never will.

As I cling to Max B and French Montana's reunion effort Coke Wave 3.5: Narcos as if it was a wavy life raft in an even wavier boat wreck, I remind myself that it always feels pretty dire at this point in a new year. Thankfully, the elevated underground tends to provide something satisfying even in this traditionally fallow period. Ruminative rappers run rampant year round in this particular space, an outwardly ideal spot for deep thinking creatives to riff poetically. Yet few in this particular subcategory can match the moody milieu occupied by the Montreal-based cropscropscrops, who returns to steel-tipped dove's grossly underrated Fused Arrow Records right on time for we've been after each other.

As on his prior collab with producer Vaygrnt out of New York, as well as his 2024 set Long-Light Derecho, he flows philosophically, each half-spoken stanza on tracks like "trailhead north" and "humtree_shelter" probing the recesses of his worried mind. Throughout these 40 minutes, he grapples with the double edged sword of escapism–simultaneously artistic trope and pernicious trap–over a wintry, neo-pastoral haze that shimmers and rustles. Their blend of natural and unnatural elements and themes makes for an engrossing listen, evidenced by the disconcerting, self-effacing emo of "we used to dance" and their exquisite ELUCID team-up "anatomy angels."

Young Reese Dude & SPGBamm, God Bless Gordon Ave

(buy it / stream it)

Dayton, Ohio rapper Young Reese Dude got himself on the genre's wrestling fan radar with last year's The Luger Manifesto. But he closed out 2025 on a more locally minded tip with God Bless Gordon Ave, breaking kayfabe for something noticeably nonsecular. With SPGBamm on the beats, he draws upon spiritual influence to sermonize about his life experiences on "HOLY WATER DEMONS" and the crescively claustrophobic "IS WHAT IT IS." Positioned behind the pulpit, he delivers a different kind of word on "JESUS WEPT" and "MY LIFE," the lyrical latter a gospel-tinged, Dipset-indebted cut concurrently feeding both the heads and the streets. For the closing threnody "MACHINE GUN FUNK," he exits the church and heads back to the block with a solemn prayer for those taken from or still living the life.

Shottie, Event Center Racing

(buy it / stream it)

Thanks in no small part to Miami Vice, powerboating inevitably found its way into hip-hop culture. Whether offshore racing for sport or smuggling for profit, these speedy vessels have become a recurring presence in the genre's lyrical lexicon, with Curren$y particularly enamored with them from Cigarette Boats through 2025's Never Catch Us. On the newly released Event Center Racing, South Florida's own Shottie secures his own spot in this thematic legacy. With the aid of producer Wahr Season and some choice archival samples, he blends the nostalgically breezy Jet Life aesthetic with a decidedly rawer one. This means impossibly smooth tracks such as "Show Piece Exquisite" and "WXNNXNG" run up against rugged cuts like "Apache Wahrpath" and "Aqua Blue Camo," all unapologetically fixated on big money schemes. Stick with it through the deep, deliberative closer "Finish Line."

Three new tracks to snack on...

ELUCID & Sebb Bash, "First Light (feat. MATTIE)"

BunnaB, "SEEUMSAYIN"

AJ Suede, "Drawing Bored"