Getty Image/Merle Cooper
The Best New Hip-Hop This Week includes albums, videos, and songs from Jack Harlow, Doja Cat, and Wale.
First things first: Jack Harlow and Doja Cat make a cute couple in the video for Jack’s new single, “Just Us.” I’m not saying I’m gonna start shipping celebrities; I’m just saying, I think I kinda get it now.
Wale returned with the latest single from his upcoming Def Jam debut, “Blanco.” It’s a great song, meeting the standard he’s set over the past decade, but it is a little more vulnerable than we might be used to from him. I hope he’s doing okay.
Funnily enough, the latest single from Nav’s upcoming, long-awaited album, On My Way 2 Rexdale has a similar angle, but less… regret? He says you can only see the “Real Me” when he’s coming down, which makes for great scumbag rap and some mild concerns for Nav’s future if any of this is even a little bit true.
Lil Durk is the quintessential tough guy, but lowers his guard a bit for “Can’t Hide It” with Jhené Aiko.
Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending March 21, 2025.
Albums/EPs/Mixtapes
Che Noir & Superior — Seeds In Babylon
Che Noir
First of all, congrats to Che Noir, who recently revealed that she’s soon to become a mom. We’ve come a long way since Rah Digga battling dudes at open mics while in her third trimester was a mind-blowing feat; most of the women in rap who’ve become moms during their careers recorded and performed while pregnant at least a little bit. But Che deserves extra props because of how consistent she’s been for the past five years. If anyone’s earned a break, it’s the Buffalo native, who often makes her own beats in addition to writing the rhymes. Also consistent? The quality of her releases, which continues as she releases this meditation on her impending motherhood.
Money Man — Insomnia
Money Man
With the release of Playboi Carti’s new album, Music, I’ve seen an increase in chatter about his atypical approach to what we’ve come to think of as the Atlanta sound. That’s true to a degree, but if you think about it, so’s Money Man, who’s been quietly chugging away just below the radar.If you consider the Atlanta trap sound to be the various offshoots of the Future/Young Thug family tree, Money Man feels a like a throwback to when they all had a little more Gucci in their DNA.
Mutant Academy — The Coldest Season Ever
Mutant Academy
The Virginia crew dropped their debut group project last year, but broke with the usual tradition of big crews like this, following up less than a year later. For the life of me, I’m not completely sure why I haven’t seen more buzz for them; their take on the hazy, backpacker-influenced abstract rap purveyed by the likes of Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE is every bit as compelling, with crispy, soulful production. I can only attribute it to their origins; off the beaten path of established rap industry infrastructure, their breakout will be, at best, only delayed. They are the real deal.
Smoke DZA — The Barcelona Tape
Smoke DZA
Speaking of backpack rap, if you’ve been reading this column with any regularity, you could probably infer my feelings about the Harlemite, who reminds me very much of an East Coast version of Larry June and Dom Kennedy. Dope beats, dope rhymes, relatable luxury lifestyle raps, a slight air of criminality without the sort of specificity that makes most coke rap sound kinda fake (sorry man, nobody has ever cooked a brick in an air fryer, and if they did, they sure didn’t TELL PEOPLE). I really, really like most of Smoke’s releases; this one is no different.
Singles/Videos
Black Eyed Peas — “Yesterday”
Disclaimer: Will.I.Am pays some of the bills around here, and we’re both Compton cats, but what I need you to understand is, even before FYI and Uproxx joined forces, I was trying to convince my readers that Black Eyed Peas had evolved beyond being the dance-pop punchlines you might remember them as (and hey, not for nothing, those songs sold A LOT. Some of you are protesting too much, methinks). On their latest, they go full on “jackin for beats,” touching on practically every fan-favorite hit from the ’80s and ’90s that first spawned BEP. It’s slick, it’s smart, and it’s a slap to the back of the head for everybody complaining about the “state of hip-hop.” It never left. Get in them damn crates, sucka.
Buddy — “Hopped Out” Feat. Huey Briss
Compton and Long Beach together, now you know… My Compton compatriot previously collaborated with Northside Briss on his 2024 album Don’t Forget To Breathe, and clearly, they enjoyed the process. Buddy is one of those artists whose collaborations, whether they’re with Guapdad 4000, Kent Jamz, or Huey Briss, always give the air of the best sort of buddy movies (sorry), like two guys just hanging out sharing good vibes you can’t help but want to be part of.
De La Soul — “Respect”
Here’s an interesting release. De La recently reissued their 2004 fan favorite album, The Grind Date, with a few previously unreleased tracks, including this one. It’s… a little bittersweet to hear a “new” Maseo verse and with the simplicity of its instrumental it’s easy to see why it was left off the original tracklist. But it’s a dope curio of a specific time and place in hip-hop, and a solid showing from one of the earliest pioneers of regular-guy rap.
Icewear Vezzo — “Worth Something” Feat. Big Sean & Peezy
Detroit’s bubbling local scene is remarkably tightly-knit when compared to the analogous scenes in rap meccas like New York and Los Angeles. Case in point, if Big Sean were from one of the aforementioned cities, it’d be unlikely to see him collabing with the commensurate up-and-comer a la Vezzo… and yet. Here we are, with Sean delivering one of his vintage verses and Vezzo getting a co-sign from one of his city’s most successful hip-hop artists.
IDK — “Clover” Feat. Joey Valence & Brae
I don’t know (heh) who put the battery in IDK’s back this year, but the way he’s been pushing product out the door in 2025 is a strong argument for both artists going independent, and that the DMV native deserves a lot more attention than he’s been getting. “Clover” is a ’90s throwback of the variety that we haven’t really heard in nearly a decade. It sounds so fresh in spite of that, which is impressive in itself. The features are very reminiscent of Beastie Boys or those Fred Durst verses where he nearly hung in there with Method Man for a bit.
JT — “Ran Out”
City Girls may be more or less kaput (I think), but JT — the half of the group who always seemed to take rap more seriously than her partner-in-rhyme anyway — seems determined to keep going, with or without the City Girls name. Her flow here is brash and confident, her rhymes are sneakily hilarious (“I’d rock consignment before I go out sad”), and, well, if you’re the type who needs the visual component to appreciate women’s raps, it’s there.
Moneybagg Yo — “Close The Door”
The former Uproxx cover star drops a fresh dose of pain rap for Memphis, offering a glimpse at his next project, which presumably drops sometime this year.
Reign — “Somebody Lied”
Okay, hear me out, here: This was released as a single a few months ago, but the EP it’s on dropped today, so I feel this justifies its inclusion. Uproxx’s own Wongo Okon put me on and I rock with it. There’s a clear focus on lyrics — a big criteria for me, as a hip-hop head born in the ’80s — and beats that could, at the right volumes, knock the silver fillings right out of your teeth. What more do you need?
Shoreline Mafia — “Back In Bidness”
I’m from the West; we used to pray for times like this. OhGeesy told us a little bit about the crew’s impending reunion last month, but it’s nice to see them pick up where they left off and run with it. They’re a duo now, but that allows both Geesy and Fenix Flexin to shine all the brighter, resulting in a more focused effort that’s still a lot of fun.
Wiz Khalifa — “Blindfold” Feat. Luh Tyler
A couple points here: one, Wiz has quietly been on one of the best runs of his career over the past year or so, and this truly deserves more attention. Two: he’s back sampling Super Nintendo classics. This is a notable aspect of the above, but needed its own point, and anyone who’s been listening to Wiz since let’s say Star Power (or at least Kush & OJ before it hit streaming) knows why. Three: you have to love this sort of mentorship. For the past couple of years I’ve been writing about Tyler, I haven’t been able to put my finger on what it is I find so compelling about him, and today, I did. He’s the Zoomer version of cool-guy rappers like Wiz, who don’t really have grimy street stories to relay, or witty lyrical trickery that puts them in that rappidy rappin ass rapper category. He’s just, like, fun to listen to the way Pharcyde or Tribe was. We need more of this, I think; rage is overrated.
