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Drake's return brings us one of the most monumental and impactful moments in hip-hop, in recent history. He has just delivered his best studio album since Views, which dropped almost exactly a decade ago. The aspect of it that stood out for me was that it's possibly his most rap centric album, especially since IYRTITL, but that makes sense b/c he dropped 2 alternative albums on May 15th along with ICEMAN. In summary, I love the wide variety of deliveries Drake gave us, the production ... read more

Mac making this tracklist just 10 songs made this album such a great experience. The jazz/pop rap was very groovy and fun to listen to. The features on here were very strong, I really enjoyed Anderson's, Ariana's, Bilal's, and Kendrick's features. The only weakness to the album was the lyrics got a bit repetitive, not that love isn't a concept you can't carry for whole tracklist, but he stayed in a similar aspect of love for most of it.

K.I.D.S. is just simply great vibes, as the whole album fits this free, smoking, and summer aesthetic. The rapping ability from Mac really impressed me on this album, I thought his flows were amazing all over this mixtape.

At times SAME DIFFERENCE is a cool + catchy pop-rap record, but it consists of a lot of mediocre material. Swae sounds great when he catches a nice melody/flow, but often times on this album he misses the mark, the production gets basic + repetitive, and even the mixing isn't super clean at times. Overall, I think he went 6/15.

Bully is very much a return to form for Ye. I will say, my rating is a bit ahead of itself just because I am kind of viewing it as what Bully will be with mixing and vocal updates coming soon, but even now the album is great. Sonically, this felt like a mix of many eras: Yeezus, Jesus is King, 808s, and Late Registration. Ye has the greatest catalog is music history for me, and this was the first time since Donda for me that it felt like a true Kanye West album. There was a clear theme here of ... read more

I am not a fan of the modern distorted rap genre, but this album had a lot of good material. I enjoyed the melodic moments the most, his sound at times is pretty reminiscent of Tecca and Uzi, just with a rage touch. I still think those distorted songs that are mixed poorly are instant skips, but there are a very strong 8-10 songs on here. Even with some immature production choices, a few mixing issues, and the distortion, the production overall was very forward thinking, unique, and I loved the ... read more

I respect the expansive soundscape and the experimentation he does for the new generation, but this album just didn't hit for me. There are a solid 5-6 tracks that I will probably go back to b/c Yeat is a replay-able artist, but almost half the tracks are skips for me and the highs don't touch Dangerous Summer.

The Weeknd returns with a short RnB masterclass, and it's his strongest project since the trilogy. I thought his first 3 studio albums were strong, but they didn't stand up to Trilogy at all and as a fan, I really wanted him back in this bag. The melodies were just so perfect for all 21 minutes on here, and you get that experimental industrial RnB production that he fits great on it.

Beauty Behind The Madness is definitely an improvement over The Weeknd's debut album, Kissland, and this album's quality felt much more reminiscent of his classic trilogy era. I still feel like the delivery on here has similar flaws to Kissland, but the production and experimentation was very strong. Also, on an album full of hits like this you'd expect some gimmicky moments but I thought all the hits (The Hills, Can't Feel My Face, etc) were very pure in quality and if ... read more

$$$4U is a pretty good collab album that is full of gems with immense replay value. I thought this album did a great job giving us that classic Toronto RnB sound with punchlines that are universally relatable, which is something that Drake and PartyNextDoor really pioneered over a decade ago now. Along with that sound, Drake gave us a few trap, dance, and rap tracks mixed in there as well. And for Drake, he continues to run the music game and gave us a good project to tide fans over until ... read more

Trying Times is one of the strongest albums of 2026, and such a well crafted and beautiful project. The entire album is just so heavenly, and I love the otherworldly production. James's vocals are amazing and very calming for all 47 minutes of this album.

After some mediocre mainstream geared albums starting off of his career Jack Harlow really tapped into his rap potential on here and it was pretty great. Jackman is a great album where he is just barring over some beautiful vocal samples, and there are only a few misses. I think the short runtime really works to his benefit here, as the front to back 24 minute listen is a really nice album experience.

A super smooth RnB album from Jack Harlow, which was a huge surprise. The thing that brings this album down is that his vocals aren't very great during this album and he stays in the same pocket which gets repetitive. All Of My Friends was a stand out though, as I thought it was actually a good vocal performance. From front to back this is a pretty decent chill project, but I just won't go back much because there are so many more amazing vocalists in this genre.

Pimmie's debut project shows so much RnB stardom potential. Every track is so smooth, and she has such a unique voice that has this sentimental feeling that you find in some of the best RnB music. The front to back listen on this tape is such a vibey experience, also her choruses are very catchy. I thought the production was great, and it stayed cohesive and in her wheelhouse for all 10 songs, while still never feeling repetitive at all. In the future I hope to see her make some longer ... read more

Denzel Curry & The Scythe dropped a pretty solid mixtape, and I really appreciate this recent trend in 2026 releases of keeping the tracklist down in runtime. I think the production was a very strong suit for this album, no track was lacking, and it really kept me engaged for all 29 minutes. I will be honest though, this project did disappoint me a bit. Coming in seeing just 8 songs, I was expecting a spurt of high energy tracks with no low points, similar to KOTMS. For me though, I only ... read more

After listening to Rebel, EsDeeKid is definitely another promising young rapper out of the UK. The sound packed into this concise 20 minute runtime was super fresh, it was like UK Drill mixed with the modern jerk and rage styles. The flows and energy he brought to every track was very impressive. I thought every feature was really great and contributed to this sound he was pulling off. I will say though, the only thing that holds back this album was the versatility, I'm not sure if ... read more

The Weeknd's debut album, Kiss Land, is a very polarizing album for me. Coming off the legendary trilogy I was expecting something special for his debut album, and I was left pretty disappointed not gonna lie. Weeknd's voice is still top tier, and the production on here is top tier all through out. I just found the songs boring and repetitive. Despite having such a legendary voice, his artist performance was mediocre and felt very low effort. I think the song structure may have been ... read more

The finale to The Weeknd's trilogy, Echoes of Silence, definitely ended sonically on a darker note. I felt like this mixtape was pretty similar to Thursday, maybe less experimental with the production, and with a cleaner sound overall. I think this might be the best written tape of the 3 as well. I would rank it third in the trilogy though. Overall, The Weeknd had one of the best runs we've ever seen with 3 AOTY contenders in my opinion.