The time has come. Our final genre list of 2023 has arrived. Concluding the year, after trips into the worlds of punk, K-pop, rock, indie folk, country and pop, we are looking at what the rap universe had to offer us. I’ll be the first to admit that this was not a terribly strong year for the genre, as the titanic, critically acclaimed releases—Maps, Sundial and VOIR DIRE—stood head-and-shoulders above the more mainstream offerings the industry tossed our way. But what a strong showing it was for the under-the-radar gems, especially from MIKE, Kipp Stone, McKinley Dixon and TEMPS. And with a record as bombastic and unforgettable as Sexyy Red’s Hood Hottest Princess, it’s easy to see rap’s highs more than its lows. So, let’s take a look at the top performers. Without further ado, here are our picks for the 25 best hip-hop albums of 2023, ranked alphabetically. —Matt Mitchell, Music Editor
Armand Hammer: We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
For the past decade, billy woods and E L U C I D, the two rappers who regularly join forces Wonder Twins-style under the name Armand Hammer, have remained comfortably ahead of the curve among their hip-hop contemporaries—finding common cause with fellow forward-thinking producers as they blow apart they idea of what rapping needs to sound like. On album #6, the bitterly and humorously titled We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, they continue to delight in blank verse, surprising internal rhyme schemes and forked tongue imagery describing a world on the precipice of disaster. The secret to their sauce: a sense of humor. “The night is dark and full of terrors,” woods intones on “Total Recall,” “Might fuck around and say ‘Suge Knight’ three times in a mirror.” Everyone involved from guest rappers Moor Mother and JPEGMAFIA to producers El-P, Sebb Bush and Child Actor had to raise their individual game to reach Armand Hammer’s level. No mean feat but damn if they didn’t reach the mountaintop only to find woods and E L U C I D already halfway down the slope on the other side. —Robert Ham
billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps
There aren’t many artists who’ve had a 2023 like billy woods has. The New York rapper popped up on tracks by Aesop Rock and Noname, released another perfect album with his buddy E L U C I D as Armand Hammer and, a few months earlier, fucked around and dropped a second full-length collaboration with producer Kenny Segal. Listening to Maps, it becomes evident that the two men have learned how to play to each other’s strengths. Segal knows that woods can make hay with any beat no matter how twisted or spiky, and woods knows to let those beats breathe and evolve before stomping through them. In interviews, woods has called the album a “hero’s journey.” In that case, it’s akin to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours or Dante’s Inferno—a long day’s journey into the inner circles of hell, meeting gentrifiers, dodging wildfires and daring to down a glass of New York tap water upon his return. —Robert Ham
Cisco Swank: More Better
Cisco Swank’s 2022 collab album with Chicago producer Luke Titus, Some Things Take Time, was my pick for the best rap album of last year, but I didn’t expect Swank to return so quickly with a debut record of his own. But More Better arrived in May and it was an incredible amalgam of jazz, gospel, R&B and hip-hop. The Brooklyn-based multi-hyphenate welcomes a bevy of players on the LP, including Yoshi T., Malaya, Morgan Guerin, Laura Elliott, Ambrose Akinmusire and, of course, Titus. The product is 13 chapters of ear candy; reflective, vulnerable and instrumentally beautiful compositions. Swank has a swift knack for leaving his mark on every listener, as he considers where he’s been and where he and his community are going, truths most evident on songs like “No Funny,” “All The Same” and “Changes.” If there is one MC to look out for in 2024 and beyond, it’s Cisco Swank—and, honestly, the race isn’t even close. —Matt Mitchell
Danny Brown: Quaranta
Quaranta, Danny Brown’s first solo album in four years, is the culmination of years of struggle with addiction, sobriety and mental health—and a shining reflection of his dedication to meeting his demons where they’re at. Over the course of the LP’s 11 songs, Brown sounds as if he’s in a zen state: He’s accepting of his past, mindful of his present and at peace with whatever his future may bring. “This rap shit done saved my life and fucked it up at the same time,” he laments on the album’s titular opening track, a song driven by smooth electric guitar licks and candid lyricism that sees Brown recounting his life’s journey, setting the scene for a number of emotionally vulnerable confessionals that dominate the project. “This that Black Lives Matter, still sniff cocaine / Paid for a therapist, but I still ain’t change,” he raps on The Alchemist-produced rock-heavy track “Tantor,” a frank allusion to the depths of his own personal complexity. But, as cliché tells us, sometimes truth is the very thing that sets you free. Brown sounds determined to clean the skeletons out of his closet on the synth-driven “Down Wit It” and is able to give his past selves a nod and a smile on transcendental standout track “Bass Jam.” “Probably never win a Grammy or chart on the charts / Should I still keep going or call it a day?” Brown raps on the meditative “Hanami,” a term borrowed from the traditional Japanese custom of appreciating the ephemeral beauty of cherry blossoms. For now, he seems content to stop and smell the roses. It’s high time we give him his flowers. —Elizabeth Braaten
Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist: VOIR DIRE
The Alchemist has had one hell of a 2023, as has Earl Sweatshirt. The fact that the two musicians made a record together—and a damn great one, at that—is a rare kind of magic. VOIR DIRE is one of the best rap albums of the year, guided by standout tracks like “The Caliphate,” “Vin Skully” and “Sentry.” Vince Staples and MIKE make guest appearances here, and they each help emphasize just why these 11 songs are some of the best of Earl’s career. The arrangements are muted, beats push onwards with faint synthesizers and slightly off-pace tempo. The truest mark of charm is in Earl and his flow, as he drums up a firestorm of mic drops. Look no further than “The Caliphate,” one of the best songs of the year, which finds Earl and Staples trading licks. “When the cheese attract the rats, police attachin’ facts. They ain’t PC, they just trustees, I had to laugh at that,” Vince spits; “Please observe the gone and dead, tell ‘em save a spot for them. The kid lost his collar then, death be scraped up off all the chips and left a trail of frowning faces and shakin’ powdered wigs,” Earl responds one verse later. It’s not often we get to watch two titans of the genre converge like this, and VOIR DIRE proves that Earl Sweatshirt can take the Alchemist’s best instrumentation and spin it into solid gold. —Matt Mitchell
El Michels Affair & Black Thought: Glorious Game
One of the most underrated rap releases of the year, El Michels Affair and Black Thought’s collab album, Glorious Game, sees two titans of their respective lanes come together to spin soul into diamonds. The Roots MC and bandleader Leon Michels are money in the studio, as songs like the title track, “Grateful” and “That Girl” are old-school jazz-rap musings for the ages. As always, Thought’s flow is that of a fearless wordsmith, and the Affair’s instrumentation is emphasized by disgusting, funkified basslines and snare-centric percussion. Throw in velvet-draped contributions from KIRBY, Son Little and Brainstory, and you’ve got one of the sexiest, most confident projects of the year. When two powerhouses converge like this, you shut up and listen. Glorious Game is a massive, all-encompassing mirage of timeless vibes and relentless chemistry between all-time greats. —Matt Mitchell
Ice Spice: Like…? EP
Right now, Ice Spice is one of the biggest rap stars on Earth. And yet, she doesn’t even have a full-length project under her belt—unless you want to count the deluxe-edition of her debut EP Like..? as such. But, the project arrived at the dawn of January and quickly established a truth we’ve come to embrace wholeheartedly: Ice Spice is the real, captivating deal. She’s Bronx drill royalty for a reason, and songs like her Nicki Minaj collab “Princess Diana,” the Lil Tjay duet “Gangsta Boo” and “Actin A Smoochie” are clever, hooky benchmarks that confirm Spice is destined to remain larger-than-life like her contemporaries Cardi B, Nicki and even Megan Thee Stallion. Like..? got her on Saturday Night Live and a bushel of Grammy nominations. I can only imagine where Ice Spice’s fame will go once her first proper LP hits. —Matt Mitchell
Jaboukie: All Who Can’t Hear Must Feel
All Who Can’t Hear Must Feel is a burgeoning ecosystem of various pushes and pulls, a manifestation of reclamation and a braggadocious testimony of a life still being lived in a world aiming to erase you from multiple angles. The complexity merges with wordplay and many metaphors to chew on, but the soul of the record shines through Jaboukie’s storytelling—a pen sharpened by survival on-stage and fashioned into a new, limitless weapon of sonic extrapolation. In barely half-a-decade, he has accomplished more than most multi-hyphenates his age—so his foray into a music career might just seem like another rung he was destined to grab onto. And you’d be right, but this isn’t some actor thinking he can make a banger album on a whim. No, All Who Can’t Hear Must Feel is quite good, pushing the sky even further upwards—cementing Jaboukie as one of our most brilliant voices and redefining what it means to never let anyone know what your next move is. —Matt Mitchell [Read our full feature]
Jim Legxacy: homeless n**** pop music
It’s hard to quantify just how substantial Jim Legxacy’s third album really is. homeless n**** pop music demands to not fit into any box. Instead, it’s an experimental triumph from the London rapper/producer. A mixtape that builds on the otherworldly momentum of 2021’s Citadel, HNPM makes headway through boundary-pushing instrumentation and sampling. Take “mileys riddim,” for example, which pulls soundbites from Iroking.com (a Nigerian streaming service) and Miley Cyrus’ Hannah Montana single “Ordinary Girl.” No one else is turning in a record so dexterous, so limitlessly positioned in the lanes of Midwest emo, Afrobeats, pop and rap. Cornerstone track “block hug” fuses teardrop acoustic guitar with glitchy trap beats and drill components. While it’s nearly impossible to keep up with Legxacy’s genre-hopping, the core attitude of HNPM is drenched in that of rap’s greatest sensibilities. It’s the kind of project that solidifies its maker as a modern hero; Jim Legxacy has heeded the call. —Matt Mitchell
jonatan leandoer96: Sugar World
The latest LP from Yung Lean’s crooner side project jonatan leandoer96 isn’t necessarily the rap album you might have expected. In fact, it’s not really a rap album at all, save for “Blue Light,” which flirts with lounge singer/songwriter more than it does trap music. But, even at his most soulful, Lean is unable to hold off from throwing out some bars. Sugar World is the alt-rock, piano man and synth-pop record that challenges pre-conceptions of what a rapper can do when he steps out of his comfort zone. Ditching his canonical sad rap for art-pop with scratch flows and King Krule-style instrumentation was not on my bingo card, but Sugar World finds the Swedish novelty MC embodying his own singing voice more so than his spitting. To me, this is a rap record because the lyrics follow the cadence of bars, and Lean’s delivery still sounds familiar even when it’s draped across the most left-field arrangements of his career thus far. Sugar World is emotional, gentle and ambitious; the kind of turn every artist should try to make at least once. —Matt Mitchell
JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown: SCARING THE HOES
A collaboration between hip-hop heavyweights, SCARING THE HOES is an arc of brilliance from JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown, two of the most important MCs of the last 10 years. This album is a collision at full-speed, boasting some of the very best rap songs of 2023 and of the 2020s altogether. “Lean Beef Patty” arrives with mangled beats, while “Steppa Pig” employs the chaos of unorthodox synthesizers. So few convergences have ever sported such a unique and honed-in chemistry, yet Peggy and Danny are in a completely different orbit from everyone else but greatly in-step with each other. “Orange Juice Jones” and “Fentanyl Tester” showcase their individual talents and coupled malleability, while “Garbage Pale Kids” might go down as the best rap track of the year, as Danny and Peggy go absolutely manic with their flows. “You can’t be broke and over 30, getting your ass beat where you sleep at,” Peggy spits. “Come on, bro.” If you want to know what it looks like when two titans join together and refuse to steal each other’s thunder, look no further than SCARING THE HOES. —Matt Mitchell
KAYTRAMINÉ: KAYTRAMINÉ
2023 offered some great collab albums, but none have flown under the radar quite like Kaytranada and Aminé’s self-titled debut as Kaytraminé. Kaytraminé is one of those team-ups that is done with pure, joyous energy. Kaytranada and Aminé don’t go into this project with the intent on unveiling some grand, profound masterpiece. No, this record is pure party masterclass, executed by two of the most skilled MCs in the industry. Aminé, especially, has been on a great wave of momentum, as his last two solo LPs—TWOPOINTFIVE and Limbo—solidified his assent as one of the most optimistic, swaggering rappers working. Kaytranada’s last solo LP, BUBBA, was one of 2019’s most-underrated releases. These two guys rapping together is a perfect match, especially on tracks like “letstalkaboutit,” “4EVA” and “Sossaup.” Whether or not Kaytranada and Aminé are going to keep up with Kaytraminé, I can’t predict one way or the other. But, I do hope they continue making records together. Gold-plated, 11-track projects like Kaytraminé aren’t every day occurrences. —Matt Mitchell
Ken Carson: A Great Chaos
Atlanta rapper and member of Playboi Carti’s Opium imprint, Ken Carson sets himself apart on his new album, A Great Chaos. Take a track like “Jennifer’s Body,” which revels in glitchy production and auto-tuned vocals, all after a Green Day, “Good Riddance”-inspired “Fuck” at the jump. A Great Chaos lives up to its name through mosh-pit relics and digitized, crunchy instrumentation. From track one to track 18, Carson sounds like not just a man on a mission, but a man on fire. His flows are ferocious and meticulous; he boasts with vocal inflections soaked in ambitious and dried through intentionality. His rapping ability isn’t even that great; the influence he takes from peers like Young Thug and Carti don’t always translate into his own stardom. On songs like “Pots” and “Succubus,” Carson makes his presence known through attitude and confidence—a talent lost on so many MCs who can’t make up for their lacking flows. A Great Chaos is the mark of a man employing industrial beats into his hedonistic thesis statement, as he creates a record that stands on its own as a dense, powerful token of bold rap for the modern zeitgeist. —Matt Mitchell
Killer Mike: Michael
Throughout Michael’s 14 songs, Killer Mike looks back at his youth in Atlanta. Although there are plenty of fond reminiscences here, there are a lot of painful memories as well: promising lives undermined by addiction on “Something for Junkies,” time wasted on the hollow promise of the thug life on “Yes” (among other tracks) and, most personal of all, the loss of his mother, Denise, who died in 2017. Mike honors her directly on “Motherless,” an unsparing tribute where he describes how much he misses her without steering away from the twistier turns in their relationship over the years. Denise is also the unseen presence at the heart of many of these songs, as Mike reflects on what he learned from her—or didn’t. The way she encouraged him to live strong and achieve permeates throughout Michael, but as any parent knows, children absorb unintended lessons, too. On “Slummer,” it’s the unprotected sex as a teenager—who was the child of teenagers—that resulted in a terminated pregnancy that still tugs at his conscience. Killer Mike doesn’t shy away from the trauma of the streets, either. Though he was active in the drug trade in his younger days, he has long refused to glamorize that hustle, presenting it instead as a last resort in a society that has a long, evil history of marking out people of color for prison before they even lose their baby teeth. If the drug trade is a symptom of structural inequities, Killer Mike accepts responsibility for the choices he made to perpetuate the system, describing his hunger for status symbols on “Down by Law,” seeking atonement on “High + Holy” and celebrating having beaten the odds on “N Rich,” which also offers a reason for making Michael: “I know you love me running the jewels but these my n**** flows.” Killer Mike feels these songs deeply and it shows. —Eric R. Danton [Read our full feature]
Kipp Stone: 66689 Blvd Prequel
The latest effort from Cleveland rapper Kipp Stone—his first new release since his EP Faygo Baby in 2021—is a stunning display of arresting and mountainous hip-hop. 66689 Blvd Prequel is nothing short of a stroke of brilliance that I pray doesn’t float under the radar this week. Tracks like “18 the Hard Way” and “Lakeshore” and “The Sun is Medicine” showcase Stone’s careful construction and magic touch, as he perfects a strong balance between deep reflection and stoic, hypnotic finesse. He’s transcended the promise that his previous projects laid down, as 66689 Blvd Prequel is his first step through the door of icon status. Cornerstone track “Petrichor” is mountainous, the type of track that showcases Stone’s careful construction and magic touch. It, like much of the album, is jazz-rap with a mellow bent, and the genius is in the language, as Stone balances humility and humor in his verses. You can hear every part of his understanding of the world charging up at once, all with a piano-based melody unraveling beneath him. It’s slight yet profound. To know this good of work is coming out just a quick drive north from my apartment, it’s a gift I don’t—nor should you—take lightly. Kipp Stone is the past, present and future all at once. —Matt Mitchell
Larry June & The Alchemist: The Great Escape
Larry June dropped two records this year, and either of them could slot in here. I’m going with The Great Escape, his collab album with Producer of the Year the Alchemist. On this LP, the San Francisco rapper is at his most charismatic; his flows ooze like finesse on tap. June’s textbook monotone delivery sounds like butter when paired with the Alchemist’s sample-heavy arrangements. A song like “Porsches in Spanish” showcases this dichotomy with flying colors, while a tune like “Summer Reign” finds the duo calling upon Ty Dolla $ign for a guest verse and an added dimension of energy. From top to bottom, track one to track 15, The Great Escape is one of the best-sounding albums of the year. It’s sun-soaked, earnest, and challenging yet accessible. The songs sometimes venture into trippy domains, but they always return to a level-headed place where June is able to usher listeners through without grounded flows, hypnotic phrasing and standalone timelessness. If there was any doubt about whether or not Larry June is one of the culture’s great MCs, The Great Escape is a direct example of why there should never be a single doubt ever again. —Matt Mitchell
McKinley Dixon: Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? is about an entire ecosystem crafting its own optimism in the wake of surviving together. The progression is natural, earned and celebratory. But to achieve optimism, you have to first grieve through the cynicism and fatalities that come before it. Five years after the death of his homie Tyler, McKinley Dixon is still learning how to cope with that absence in his heart. On the track “Tyler Forever.” he raps: “Propelled forward by vengeance, penchant for taking yo’ pendants / Accountability process is loaded in them extensions / We done fixed on ascending, my boys might break through the roof / Y’all become killers all of a sudden when you find dusty loops.” Dixon’s songs are not figments of the past so much as they are considerations of the present and the future, depictions of how each soul around him continues to get by in the places they came from. He considers how he will continue to hold them and make their voices loud and true and generous under the sun’s, the cops’ and the system’s calamitous weight. It is not the work of a king, but the stenography of someone—born on street corners that bent inwards into gentleness at the first crack of summer sun—who has found enough language to chronicle survival. And who is the architect of a kingdom if not the tongue that dared to name the crown? —Matt Mitchell [Read our full feature]
Mick Jenkins: The Patience
The one summer record that, to me, floated too low beneath the radar, Mick Jenkins’ The Patience is a stunner from the top down. The Chicago rapper’s approach to his craft is one built through trust and confidence. His focus is on self-awareness; the result is some of the most empathetic world-building in the genre altogether. Continuing the momentum of previous projects The Anxious and The Frustration, Jenkins is keenly clued into his own siren-song. The Patience is the sample-forward, romantic rap record that few modern MCs could make. Songs like “Michelin Star,” “Smoke Break-Dance” and “007” are ear candy chapters populated with some of Jenkins’ best storytelling yet. To boot, he’s called upon Freddie Gibbs, Benny the Butcher, JID and Vic Mensa to fill out the LP, and it makes for one of the most multi-dimensional rap albums of 2023—one that is coated in jazz influence and lives up to its own title through enactments of patience and unbothered finesse. It’s the quickest 28-minute record you’ll hear this year, but every moment is one of gratitude and excitement. —Matt Mitchell
MIKE: Burning Desire
My dark-horse pick for the best rap album of 2023, MIKE’s Burning Desire is, in no short terms, a career-defining mark of brilliance. The New Yorker is on another level throughout, emphasizing underground attitudes with timeless sampling and crystalline verses. A song like “Snake Charm” has been on constant rotation for me since it came out in October, and its mystical beats drench my ears in sentimentality from the jump. With a crew of guests like Larry June, Liv.e, Earl Sweatshirt and fashionspitta, MIKE put together a who’s-who of gold-medal co-collaborators. It’s a harmonious affair, too, as every added part fits perfectly. “plz don’t cut my wings” is orchestral brilliance paired with MIKE and Earl trading monotone verses that are tranquil and morose. Burning Desire is adventurous and quick, despite its 24-song, 51-minute runtime. MIKE’s approach to vignettes evokes a mixtape ethos with the grandiosity of a big-budget studio album. —Matt Mitchell
Mykki Blanco: Postcards From Italia EP
A combination of Eurodance, classic rock and soul-inspired rap, Mykki Blanco’s recent RP Postcards From Italia is a colorful riot of playful heaters. Explorations on Blackness, femininity and queerness live in the bones and joys of these six songs—and it’s some of the best stuff of Blanco’s career thus far. “Tequila Casino Royale” is relentlessly groovy, and Blanco’s flows are of the gold standard. Elsewhere, on tracks like “Johnny” and “Just a Fable,” they make good on wondrous conduction and sorrow submerged beneath the glow of thousand dancefloors. With the attitude of old school hip-hop running like an electric current throughout, Blanco is able to harness their own eclecticism in favor of retro-yet-timeless triumphs. This EP is one full of never-ending delights. “I believe in love, and I believe in going hard,” Blanco sings on the closing track “Holidays in the Sun.” That much, I agree, is true. —Matt Mitchell
Noname: Sundial
Noname’s third album—and first in five years—arrived as an immediate, unforgettable triumph. The Chicago MC delivers momentous flows atop silk-smooth instrumentals. Noname’s voice is dynamic, revolutionary. Songs like “toxic” boast romance-centric musings, as she spits “He like toxicity, my recipe good / Get that pussy to drip, wear that drip in the hood / Good riddance and good dollars makin’ him feel better / Fuck better, want better.” Likewise, on “afro futurism,” Noname admits “This is a dog-eat-dog world, she got family to hunt / It’s that time of the month / Blunt bitches and booze, I could smoke on a good mood / You could squabble in the comments, bitch, you are a comet.” She pulls no punches, rapping about Obama being the first Black president but then turning around and bombing innocent lives. Noname amplifies what’s around her and examines what’s in front of her. Sundial is packed with melodies and hooks that are pensive and intimate. Features from billy woods, $ilkMoney, Common and Ayoni turn the album into a mirage of quality. And Noname’s lyricism is literary, like a spoken-word poem transcribed above old-school beats. —Matt Mitchell
Open Mike Eagle: another triumph of ghetto engineering
Consistently one of the best lyricists in the game, Open Mike Eagle continued to ride the wave of his own output in 2023 with his latest LP, another triumph of ghetto engineering—a companion to the Chicago MC’s 2022 album, Component System With the Auto Reverse. another triumph is just as good, if not better, than its predecessor, making good on Eagle’s continued sense of profound penmanship. Nine albums in, and it’s clear that he is not slowing down—and thank goodness, because another triumph is like a living, breathing archive of hip-hop history. Eagle pulls from all eras while keeping his storytelling canonically current. With clever jabs at R. Kelly and Rolling Loud, a stirring homage to Eazy-E and Wu-Tang Clan and 2 Chainz spaced throughout, you can hear the profundity unfurl with every syllable. Songs like “we should have made otherground a thing” and “mad enough to aim a pyramid at you,” finds Eagle weaving in and out of rapping and singing, over back-beats and guitar solos and industrial, no-melody pacing. another triumph makes note of Ewoks, Peacock, Manwich and the Grog Shop in Cleveland, Ohio, direct examples of where he’s been and who he is. Eagle is the Frank O’Hara of modern rap, pulling names of those close to him and places he’s been and delivering them to us as if we’ve known them and visited them just as long as he has. It’s a moving, enchanting gift to watch unfold. —Matt Mitchell
Sexyy Red: Hood Hottest Princess
St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red kicked off the summer with one of the most exciting mixtapes in recent memory. Hood Hottest Princess is dirty, chaotic and freaky at every turn, a true landmark of empowered songwriting that is as theatrical as it is gravitational. Sexyy Red moans and boasts her way through 11 of the most unpredictable, loud, vibed-out rap tracks all year. She works with Juicy J and ATL Jacob on “Strictly for the Strippers,” calls upon Nicki Minaj and Tay Keith on “Pound Town 2.” Sukihana shows up on “Born By the River,” but Red is at her very best when it’s just her and a microphone. “SkeeYee” and “Hellcats SRTs” will put you on your ass, proceed with caution. Hood Hottest Princess is not a record for the faint of heart, as it’ll get in your face and rearrange your guts with a vocabulary that’ll send you into a different orbit. Hood Hottest Princess is one of the funniest, outward and hypnotizing rap records in a minute, and Sexyy Red makes debauchery look universal. —Matt Mitchell
TEMPS: Party Gator Purgatory
James Acaster is one of the world’s greatest comedians, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the industry’s very best—and often surpassing them. His delivery is gut-busting; his ability to create some of the cleverest punchlines is one-in-a-million. But perhaps that is where what you know about Acaster ends. I, myself, was shocked to learn that the English humorist was not only a musician, but that he was putting out a record this year. In his younger days, Acaster played in bands that presented themselves as everything from Limp Bizkit kinfolk to Beach Boys wannabes. PARTY GATOR PURGATORY, which Acaster is releasing under the stage name Temps, arrives to us this week as an experimental, genre-bending, 10-track odyssey dedicated to the legacy and heroics of a party gator toy he won at a fair when he was seven years old. A project born from the ashes of a now-canned I’m Still Here-style mockumentary, Acaster dons a gator suit to keep the aesthetics moving; he even became gravely ill while filming music videos for the sake of upholding the bit and his high-brow art of long-winded wit. Across PARTY GATOR PURGATORY, Acaster plays drums while his guiding lights sing and perform alongside his percussion arrangements. Calling on everyone from NNAMDÏ to Open Mike Eagle to Shamir to Joana Gomilla to Deerhoof’s John Dieterich, Acaster has formed a superteam of inquisitive wordsmiths and cosmic shredders. He’s become the coolest DJ in the world, and no song on the album arrives the same—which elevates the mythology around the project altogether. —Matt Mitchell [Read our full feature]
Veeze: Ganger
Detroit rapper Veeze’s sophomore LP, Ganger, is one of the most moving rap albums of the year, punctuated by “Safe 2,” a sweet, dreamy ballad that shows just how intimate the MC can go when the delicious beats of tracks like “No Sir Ski” and “Tony Hawk” turn sublime. Ganger is a precious album that oscillates between pop, folk, soul and trap, and Veeze is our confident steward—whispering flows so lightly his vocals grow gravelly with unbotheredness. With guest appearances from Lil Yachty, Babyface Ray, Lucki and Lil Uzi Vert, not even the most braggadocious and uptempo tracks ever grow too chaotic. With that, Ganger is patient and methodical; a grand statement from an under-the-radar artist who grows stronger with every project yet never wavers from his steadfast brilliance. If Ganger is any immediate sign of what’s to come from Veeze, his punchlines and vulnerability will always be essential in this generation of rap. —Matt Mitchell