Moments in Timelessness

BE MORE GRATEFUL Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2026 DaBaby Affirmations and resolutions can prove to be helpful self-empowerment tools, and DaBaby seems like one of those people. For the Charlotte rap star’s fifth proper album—his first since 2022’s  Baby on Baby 2 —he symbolically steps back into the spotlight after a tumultuous period with  BE MORE GRATEFUL . The titular attitude of gratitude permeates the proceedings here, manifesting via the erudite rap game rejoinders of “ PAPER LOW ” and the highly personal musings of “RAIN RAIN.” He opens up about his own pain on the melodic and melancholic “ WHAT ABOUT ME ” and exposes his interpersonal vulnerability amid the reflections of “MARINATING” and “MIC CHECK.” Speaking more on his own experiences, he proffers unsolicited albeit useful advice for others on “LETTER TO MY YN” and the snarky, soulful “OUT YA BUSINESS.” That said,  BE MORE GRATEFUL  is hardly some resolutely somber affair from the rapper who gave us “ ROCKSTAR ”...

OCTANE Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2026 Don Toliver Since breaking out on the Travis Scott  ASTROWORLD  highlight “ CAN’T SAY ,” Don Toliver has propelled himself into hip-hop’s mainstream with melodic stylings that willfully and efficiently blur the bounds between rap and R&B. Following the leather-clad rock star moves of his 2024 album  HARDSTONE PSYCHO , the Houston rapper returns roughly a year and a half later with an album that enhances that larger-than-life aesthetic while remaining committed to the ultramodern sound he’s spent half a decade cultivating. He opens  OCTANE  with a fuzzy, Isley Brothers -esque funk rock flair on “ E85 ,” a track that soon renews itself in a more maximalist mode. With a seemingly unstoppable energy, he catalogs romantic exploits and sexual conquests with aplomb on revved-up tracks like “Gemstone” and “Rendezvous.” Continuing the Neptunes worship from  HARDSTONE ’s hit single “ATTITUDE,” he borrows from Justin Timberlake ’...

Khaotic Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2026 Wiz Khalifa If 2025 was a victory-lap year for Wiz Khalifa, during which he celebrated the 15th anniversary of his seminal  Kush & Orange Juice  with both a reissue and a guest-heavy sequel, the seasoned lifestyle rapper had a clean slate entering into 2026 with  Khaotic . Packed with features from other notables and hitmakers in hip-hop, the roughly half-hour-long outing pushes his extravagant 420-friendly narrative signature over decidedly hard-hitting trap beats. Save for two truly solo tracks, “I Put That Shit On” and the ethereal “ La Vida ,” he’s scarcely ever on his own here, mixing it up with repeat collaborators Juicy J and 2 Chainz on “ If You Know You Know ” and “ Wit My Twin ,” respectively. Notably, RMR appears no fewer than three times, fixating on sex and success for “ Head Money Trees Clothes ” and flexing alongside a freshly freed Max B on the 808-bumping throwback “ Back Against the Wall .”

Slime Cry Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2026 YoungBoy Never Broke Again Knowing YoungBoy Never Broke Again, it wouldn’t be long into 2026 before the wildly prolific MC dropped his first project of the new year. Indeed, just 16 days into the thing, YoungBoy delivered with  Slime Cry , a 30-track epic that finds him getting ever closer to the ideal form of his diaristic, heartbreakingly honest pain rap .  Slime Cry , like most YoungBoy releases of the past few years, finds the rapper moving between shockingly vulnerable reflections on his struggles and the somewhat regular breath of fresh air where he allows himself to look back on how a broke kid from Baton Rouge hustled his way onto the Mount Rushmore of rap . “Anti-Social” represents one end of that spectrum, with YoungBoy reflecting on how the traumas of his childhood have manifested themselves in adulthood. Despite the occasional victory lap, this is a theme that appears again and again in the rapper’s music, and one that will nev...

Don't Be Dumb Album ∙ Rap ∙ 2026 A$AP Rocky When A$AP Rocky first emerged online in the early 2010s as the face and figurehead of the trendsetting Harlem collective known as the A$AP Mob , he was already primed for stardom, with model good looks, a strong curatorial eye, and a sound that drew from brolic New York street rap, DJ Screw tapes, and trippy underground electronics alike. Parlaying the hype from his acclaimed debut mixtape, 2011’s  LIVE.LOVE.A$AP , the Harlem native soon found himself in hip-hop’s upper echelons, testing the boundaries of genre and style. But for years, Rocky mostly applied his ambitions elsewhere: He embraced acting, taking on roles in 2025’s  Highest 2 Lowest  and  If I Had Legs I’d Kick You , co-chaired the 2025 Met Gala (for which he designed his own look), and meanwhile, became half of pop culture’s coolest power couple, starting a family with his partner, Rihanna . Some wondered if the fashion killa had outgrown rap entirely. His l...