The Best Rap Albums Of 2025, Ranked

Key Takeaways:

• Clipse, Cardi B and JID delivered standout albums that sparked major conversations in 2025.
• Several long-awaited projects finally dropped, including Playboi Carti’s MUSIC and Wale’s everything is a lot.
• The list highlights both chart-toppers and hidden gems, like Monaleo’s Who Did The Body.

Hip Hop was alive and well this year, despite rap momentarily dropping out of the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 40 for about two weeks. There were big tours, major collaborations among some of our favorite artists, and above all, plenty of great albums to hold onto for years to come.

For one, 2025 was the year when several long-awaited albums finally arrived. Cardi B dropped her sophomore LP, AM I THE DRAMA?, after seven years of waiting and multiple delays. Playboi Carti delivered his heavily anticipated follow-up to Whole Lotta Red with the massive 30-track offering MUSIC. And then there was Clipse, who returned with their first project in about 16 years.

There were other albums we would’ve loved to include — like Lil Tecca’s DOPAMINE or PLUTO’s fittingly titled PLUTO WORLD — but our year-end lists can only hold so many. With that said, here are the 10 best rap albums of 2025.

10. YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s MASA

For the first time in roughly five years, YoungBoy Never Broke Again was able to tour again. Ahead of his Stateside arena run, he dropped MASA (short for Make America Slime Again). The sprawling 30-track project released months after Donald Trump pardoned the Baton Rouge rapper in May.

Considering MASA was NBA YoungBoy’s second of three full-length releases in 2025 (and with his planned fourth project, Slime Cry, still unreleased at the time of writing), it’s fair to wonder whether fans truly needed another LP so soon. That’s especially since he’d already released five projects across 2024 and 2023. While MASA did introduce highlights like “Where I Been” and “Fire Your Manager” featuring Playboi Carti, the sheer amount of music comes with an obvious downside: Repetition is inevitable.

9. Monaleo’s Who Did The Body

Monaleo impressed us in every which way throughout the year. On Who Did The Body’s opener, “Life After Death,” she wrestles with the idea of what comes after we’re gone, with “Dignified” picking up where that left off. Elsewhere, she unites with Texas legends like Bun B, Paul Wall, Lizzo and Lil’ Keke.

There are moments, like “Open The Gates,” where Monaleo reflects on losing close friends and late rapper Enchanting, that suggest she could’ve benefited from giving herself a little more breathing room instrumentally. However, she finds that space beautifully on “Diary Of An OG” and “Bigger Than Big,” the latter on which she takes us to church. Overall, there are a lot of goodies on Who Did The Body.

8. Wale’s everything is a lot.

The fact that Wale is still giving us albums like everything is a lot. after more than two decades in the game is honestly remarkable. His flows and lyricism haven’t faded one bit, and you hear that clearly on songs like “Conundrum” and “Belly,” where he flips Soul II Soul’s “Back To Life.” Saving the features — Leon Thomas, Odeal, Ty Dolla $ign and others — for the end turned out to be pure chef’s kiss. After listening to the project and seeing how little mainstream attention it received, it’s hard not to feel like Wale truly is one of the DMV’s most underrated rappers.

7. Gunna’s The Last Wun

The Last Wun finds Gunna assembling some of Afrobeats’ brightest stars — and the very few collaborators who’ve stuck by him — for one of his most expansive projects to date. With Turbo guiding the production for most of the journey, the duo takes listeners on a full-blown marathon. Gunna comes out swinging on highlights like “him all along” and “just say dat,” unites with Burna Boy for “wgft,” and stands his ground on “cfwm.”

When The Last Wun first came out, there was speculation that this might be his final release under Young Thug’s YSL Records imprint, since the two still haven’t reconciled. Whether that shaped the music or not, the LP carries a certain hunger and a darker tone that sets it apart from Gunna’s previous albums. Even so, the production’s repetitiveness holds it back.

6. Tyler, The Creator’s DON’T TAP THE GLASS

DON’T TAP THE GLASS places Tyler, The Creator in our best rap albums of the year list for the second year straight. Unlike 2024’s CHROMAKOPIA, which carried a more mature and sometimes darker tone, his ninth studio LP moves in a brighter, bounce-heavy direction — so much so that labeling it strictly as “rap” doesn’t tell the whole story.

The 10-song project begins with Tyler laying out a few expectations: “no sitting still,” “leave your baggage at home” and “don’t tap the glass.” On “Big Poe,” he introduces the project, while the very next song, “Sugar On My Tongue,” turns his creative energy into a horny, upbeat romp matched perfectly by its vivid visuals. The LP starts off strong, but things unfortunately taper off as it goes on.

5. Playboi Carti’s MUSIC

“You now locked in with the flyest n**ga on planet Earth,” DJ Swamp Izzo declares at the end of “MUNYUN,” one of several highlights on Playboi Carti’s long-awaited MUSIC (shortened from its previous I AM MUSIC). The Atlanta rapper teased, delayed and reshuffled the album so many times — including on release night — that it’s hard to pinpoint when anticipation actually peaked. What matters is that once it arrived, fans got exactly what they’d been waiting for and then a little more.

Like many of 2025’s most talked-about albums, MUSIC houses more than enough songs to get lost in or latch onto. To name a few big moments: Carti reunited with The Weeknd for an arguably less satisfying replay of “Timeless” on “RATHER LIE,” tapped his self-proclaimed “evil twin” Kendrick Lamar for the magnetic “GOOD CREDIT,” and reaffirmed his heavyweight status on songs like “MOJO JOJO” and “LIKE WEEZY.”

After scoring one of the year’s biggest rap debuts, it’s hard not to wonder if this will be the last time we hear from Carti for a long while after the dust settles.

4. Lil Baby’s WHAM

Considering how often Lil Baby was criticized for all his songs sounding the same during and after It’s Only Me, his comeback album WHAM was a pleasant surprise. Released in January, the 19-track project came with a sense of urgency that had seemingly been missing from the artist for a while. On the opener, “Listen Up,” he declares, “This time, I’ma show ‘em, get in a whole different bag / Everybody can talk it, but they ain’t standin’ how I stand up.”

The first six songs serve as the album’s crux, thanks in large part to Young Thug’s first guest verse since his prison release on “Dum, Dumb, and Dumber.” Elsewhere, GloRilla pulls up with some much-needed energy on behalf of the ladies on “Redbone,” while Rod Wave and Rylo Rodriguez prove to be Lil Baby’s most reliable collaborators on “By Myself.”

The back half of the LP holds up just as well, especially with the production on tracks like “99” and “Idol.” One thing the record makes clear is that Lil Baby still has it. Hopefully Dominique continues building on that momentum and trims the few weak spots that popped up along the way on its predecessor.

3. JID’s God Does Like Ugly

Dreamville Records artists have long carried that underdog label, with that being especially true in JID’s case. Being the elite lyricist that he is, the East Atlanta rapper dropped God Does Like Ugly in August. It’s one of the most varied projects we’ve heard this year, from the Ciara-assisted “Sk8” becoming an unexpected skate anthem to Baby Kia scream-rapping on “On McAfee.”

Across God Does Like Ugly, JID proved he can explore many sounds while still keeping what makes him so appealing as an artist. It might not have been as commercially successful as some other albums mentioned here, but a couple of Grammy nominations are still plenty to write home about. As he reminds us on “YouUgly,” “And fans argue ‘bout record sales like they record execs themselves / It’s like we all under a spell and still, I hope this message reaches you well.”

2. Cardi B’s AM I THE DRAMA?

After years of waiting for AM I THE DRAMA?, Cardi B knew she couldn’t return with anything less than a statement-making sophomore album. She came in swinging on “Dead,” rattled several rap girlies with “Magnet” — especially JT and Nicki Minaj — and opened up about everything from the strain on her estranged marriage to the ways she’s grown as a woman.

The album’s sprawling tracklist (23 songs, or 33 if you count the Ultimate Edition) gives listeners plenty to wander through. Some tracks go right for the jugular; others are a bit more personal, and all of them are worth paying attention to. “Safe” basks in the comfort of being chosen, while the BIA-aimed “Pretty & Petty” and “Killin You H**s” see Bardi clearing out anyone who doubted her.

That being said, AM I THE DRAMA? isn’t perfect, mostly because the album runs longer than it needs to. “Bodega Baddie” sounds like it belonged on her long-teased Spanish LP, Selena Gomez doesn’t add much to “Pick It Up,” and three consecutive songs about her marital struggles with Offset are a bit tough to get through. All things considered, the LP is a worthy addition to Cardi’s discography, and if her next project is more focused, it could realistically sit beside her no-skips debut, Invasion of Privacy.

1. Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out

Returning after a 16-year gap since their last album is reason enough for Clipse to make this list; however, Let God Sort Em Out is damn near a perfect project. For one, they didn’t repeat the mistakes of Playboi Carti and Cardi B by stuffing their albums to the brim to make up for lost time. Instead, fans got an incredibly well-curated, 13-track album executive produced by Pharrell.

Let God Sort Em Out opens with the tear-jerking “The Birds Don’t Sing,” on which Pusha T and Malice reflect on the loss of their parents. From there, we get the brothers’ lyricism at its peak on “Ace Trumpets,” just one track after Pusha T sent shots at Travis Scott on “So Be It.” Another thing that works in the album’s favor is the features: Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator are genuine Clipse fans, not just marquee names (though that part is true too, especially in 2025).

Though rap is often touted as a young man’s game, it’s quite impressive how much Clipse’s comeback album resonated with pretty much everyone.