1. billy woods - GOLLIWOG

billy woods’ GOLLIWOG opens like a trap door. It doesn’t provoke with shock—it simmers with dread. Structured like a horror film in reverse, it lingers, stalks, and unfolds with controlled unease. Across 18 tracks, woods delivers some of his most vivid, fractured work yet. A rotating lineup of producers—The Alchemist, Preservation, Kenny Segal, EL-P, Steel Tipped Dove, and others—constructs a soundscape of industrial rot and psychological decay. Every beat feels like it’s rising from a flooded basement; every verse flickers like a dying flashlight.

The opener, “Jumpscare,” sets the tone with groaning metal and stillness that creeps under the skin. woods doesn’t raise his voice—he mutters, like reading a coroner’s report down the hall. “STAR87” is equally tense. Conductor Williams layers wires, phones, and strings into something jagged and sharp. woods doesn’t organize the noise—he moves through it like he’s lived there for years.

The bleakness isn’t just sonic—it’s emotional. On “Misery,” Kenny Segal loops a brittle piano under static and hiss. woods sounds buried but cutting, tired in a way that can’t be faked. “Waterproof Mascara” is nearly unbearable in its tension—Preservation loops a warped scream under anxious piano hits. woods doesn’t flinch. He floats above it, already elsewhere.

“Corinthians” finds EL-P and Despot in a grim cipher, cold and distorted. “All These Worlds Are Yours,” produced by DJ Haram and Shabaka Hutchings, spirals in metallic menace. No hooks, no relief—just static and dread. On “Maquiladoras,” al.divino and Saint Abdullah build a haunted factory floor. woods raps like he’s reporting from the wreckage, not performing.

Even the more spacious cuts offer no comfort. Yolanda Watson’s ghostly vocals haunt “A Doll Fulla Pins,” and “BLK ZMBY” crawls with skeletal minimalism. “Lead Paint Test” turns a drum loop into a pressure cooker as woods, ELUCID, and Cavalier trade hushed verses. The closer, “Dislocated,” ends in near silence—jazz-soaked, submerged, unresolved.

GOLLIWOG doesn’t guide or soothe. It disorients. woods scatters his lyrics like crime scene fragments, never offering clarity or closure. The beats are sparse but heavy, full of hisses, echoes, and distant crashes. The record feels like sitting with trauma—not witnessing it, but inheriting it. There’s a constant pressure in the space between snares, in the surveillance-style samples, in woods’ unflinching descriptions of inherited violence. This isn’t a poetic horror. It’s just horror. And it’s never exaggerated—it’s familiar.

GOLLIWOG is both a continuation and a leap in the context of billy woods’ discography. It deepens his themes of alienation, Black identity, and historical trauma while embracing an abstract, almost theatrical form. For years, Hiding Places stood as his peak of the past ten years for us—a masterpiece of suffocating intimacy. But GOLLIWOG might top it. There’s a rare clarity of vision here. This isn’t just another great billy woods album. It’s one of his absolute best. An incredible work.

Release date: May 9, 2025.

2. Aesop Rock - Black Hole Superette

Aesop Rock, born Ian Bavitz, has long held a reputation as one of underground Hip Hop’s most intricate and singular voices. Since the early 2000s, he’s built a catalog known for dense lyricism, surreal storytelling, and off-kilter production, from Labor Days to The Impossible Kid and beyond. He’s collaborated with artists like Homeboy Sandman and billy woods, and his last record, Integrated Tech Solutions, satirized modern tech paranoia. Now, with Black Hole Superette, Aesop turns inward, offering one of his most understated and strangely inviting works.

Self-produced from top to bottom, the album feels like it was recorded inside a vending machine during a power outage. The beats are synthetic but handmade—full of warm crackle, oddball samples, and clunky drum loops. It’s less confrontational than his past work but no less detailed. Aesop fills every track with tangents: forgotten artists, unusual pets, obscure snacks, malfunctioning memories.

“Secret Knock” opens with sputtering drums and a lo-fi shimmer, setting a tone that’s part dream logic, part malfunctioning tech. “1010WINS,” featuring Armand Hammer, offers one of the album’s sharper moments—claustrophobic, paranoid, and lyrically ferocious. “Movie Night” and “So Be It” lean into quiet reflection, with soft loops and hooks that feel like internal monologues.

A standout is “John Something,” a meandering recollection of a houseguest from the ’90s whose name Aesop can’t quite recall. It’s funny, sad, and oddly resonant—about memory, identity, and the slow erosion of detail. Other tracks like “Snail Zero” (about an asexual aquarium snail) and “Ice Sold Here” (a celebration of coldness) show his gift for absurd specifics without slipping into novelty.

The closer, “Unbelievable Shenanigans” featuring Hanni El Khatib, ends on a warm, nostalgic note—half-lullaby, half-sitcom credit sequence. Throughout, Aesop sounds more at ease than ever, sharpening his voice without raising the volume.

Black Hole Superette doesn’t strive for grand statements. It’s an inventory of curiosities, built with care and strange affection. It plays like a weird mixtape of late-night thoughts and thrift store finds—a quiet triumph from a veteran still exploring the edges of his imagination.

Release date: May 30, 2025.

3. Yugen Blakrok - The Illusion Of Being

South African rapper Yugen Blakrok returns with The Illusion of Being, a deep and defiant third album that blends political fire, spiritual depth, and unorthodox production without losing its Hip Hop foundation. It’s a dense, layered record—dark, intellectual, and fiercely grounded in rhythm. At 13 tracks, the album unfolds slowly, inviting repeated listening and deeper understanding with each pass.

Produced primarily by longtime collaborator Kanif the Jhatmaster, the beats move between eerie loops, tripped-out flutes, gritty samples, and bursts of guitar distortion. The sound is experimental but never loses the drum-heavy backbone. Yugen’s voice cuts through the mix—precise, poised, and poetic. She doesn’t waste bars. Her delivery stays steady even as the themes shift from cosmic allegory to revolutionary critique.

“Mesmerize” opens with surgical cuts by Loudmic and a slow, hypnotic groove. From there, tracks like “Osiris Awakens” and “Earthlinguist” dig into mysticism and identity with lush flute work and layered percussion. “Fighter Mantra” is short and aggressive—tight bars, no hook, all heat. “The Shining” brings dusty tension with cuts by DJ KCL and production from Lee Scott, while “Tessellator” features Cambatta in a cerebral trade-off full of coded language and cryptic wisdom.

Features throughout the album—Sa-Roc on “The Grand Geode,” Hannah Allen on “Regrettably,” and more—add texture without pulling focus. Every guest fits the tone, contributing to the album’s meditative but unflinching spirit.

Yugen’s lyricism remains the anchor: challenging, spiritual, and steeped in ancestral memory. Her flow adapts without losing clarity, moving through abstract themes with discipline and fire. Even in its most experimental moments, the album stays rooted in Hip Hop’s essence—loop-driven, lyric-forward, and rhythmically unshakable.

The Illusion of Being stands shoulder to shoulder with her excellent earlier albums, Return of the Astro-Goth (2013) and Anima Mysterium (2019). All three are immersive, uncompromising bodies of work that reward focused listeners.

If you’ve missed Yugen Blakrok until now, it’s time to pay attention. This album doesn’t follow trends—it builds its own world. And once you’re in it, there’s no mistaking the power of her voice or the vision behind it.

Release date: May 21, 2025.

4. Knowledge The Pirate & Roc Marciano - The Round Table

The Round Table is Knowledge the Pirate’s most focused and refined album to date, a cold and calculated project built entirely on Roc Marciano’s production. Across 14 tracks, the duo sticks to what they know—no filler, no spectacle, just airtight beats and street-minded verses delivered with patience and precision.

A Harlem native and longtime Marciano collaborator, Knowledge the Pirate emerged in the 2010s after a brief early stint with Interscope. Since Flintlock (2018), he’s carved a lane through albums rooted in East Coast grit, shaped by his Five Percent Nation beliefs and street experience. He raps with calm authority, moving deliberately through every verse, trusting the listener to keep up.

Marciano’s production leans hard into drumless loops, chopped soul, and pitch-shifted vocal samples. “Eating Etiquette” and “Addicted to Danger” ride without drums, forcing attention to cadence and tone. Tracks like “Golden Rules” and “The Outfit” use minimal arrangements to amplify Knowledge’s clipped, conversational delivery. It’s a sound that never hurries. There’s space between every bar, letting the tension sit.

“Takes a 10” brings in a funkier energy, and “Magic & Kareem” lands on a rich, pitched-up soul loop. “Food for Thought” taps deeper into chipmunk soul territory, giving the back half of the record some movement without changing direction. Humor surfaces in “Ride wit a P” and “1 on Me,” but the tone stays dry and measured. The final stretch—“Servitude” and “Receipts”—eases the album into a calm exit, trading street pressure for self-possession.

There’s no grand concept here. No guests. No hooks engineered for attention. Every decision is lean, deliberate, and in sync. The beats never overpower the verses, and the verses never chase the beats. It’s a quiet power move, the kind of record that doesn’t announce itself, but lingers long after the last track. For us, this is the best Knowledge the Pirate project yet, also thanks to Roc Marciano’s excellent work behind the boards.

Release date: May 7, 2025.

5. Chuck D - Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio: Radio Armageddon

Radio Armageddon plays like a broadcast from the middle of a storm. Chuck D delivers each line with clarity and force, backed by production that grinds, loops, and cuts without warning. It’s a heavy listen—packed with sharp drums, scratched vinyl textures, and layers of distortion that feel scorched by time and pressure.

The structure flips between full tracks and chopped-up interludes, like someone spinning the dial through pirate stations. “What Rock Is” pounds forward with thick drums and crackling fuzz. “Black Don’t Tread” rides a rhythm that feels like it’s dragging history behind it. “Is God She?” bends the tone—layering a funk groove with warped effects and echoing vocals. The production keeps shifting, never settling into a comfortable rhythm.

Chuck’s voice is steady, grounded, and deliberate. He speaks plainly about violence, surveillance, inequality, and survival. On “Here We Are Gear,” he opens fire on systemic racism with lines that cut to the bone. “Make racists afraid again” drops without buildup or filter. “New Gens” extends a hand across eras, with Daddy-O joining to underline Hip Hop’s long timeline.

The album is full of voices—DJ Too Tuff, Miranda Writes, Schoolly D, Donald D. They jump in and out like radio signals crossing over each other. Some verses hit sharp, others feel buried in the noise, but all of them add to the chaos. The mix is raw, sometimes overwhelming, always intentional.

Chuck D isn’t chasing anything on Radio Armageddon. He’s transmitting. The lines land hard, the beats stay rough, and the message keeps moving.

Release date: May 15, 2025.

6. Boldy James & Real Bad Man - Conversational Pieces

Conversational Pieces is a focused, sharp-edged return for Boldy James, locking into Real Bad Man’s most textured and creative production of their ongoing collaborations. There’s a grit to the beats that doesn’t rely on nostalgia—plenty of vinyl hiss and soul loops, sure, but they’re bent in weird, compelling ways. Tracks like “Cutthroats” and “Aspen” lean on lurching, off-center rhythms that force Boldy to rap in tighter, more precise bursts, which he does with full control. His voice, always slightly flattened and unbothered, moves steadily through each verse with quiet tension.

“Fear of God” with Conway is especially heavy, built around a grainy loop that crackles under the weight of their verses. El-P’s appearance on “It Factor” is a left-field choice, and the production matches him—dense and jagged—but Boldy adapts without sounding out of place. The closer, “Conversational Pieces,” is the most melodic and layered track here, anchored by a jazzy loop that lets Boldy stretch out.

It’s not without dips—Come Back Around,” featuring dreamcastmoe, floats with a smoky, melodic hook that doesn’t work for us—but this is easily among Boldy’s strongest 2025 projects, with more risk, more detail, and more grip than most of his recent output.

Release date: May 2, 2025.

7. Rome Streetz & Conductor Williams - Trainspotting

Trainspotting pairs one of the best emcees of his generation with a producer who knows how to build a minimal but textured backdrop. Rome Streetz raps with total control—quick-footed, cutting, and confident. His voice cuts through every dusty loop with the same focus he’s brought for years, but now it sounds sharper, more dialed-in. Tracks like “Ricky Bobby” and “Rule 4080” lean into vivid detail and tight cadences without slipping into overstatement. Method Man brings a strong feature, but Rome never loses command of the track.

Conductor Williams builds the whole thing with stripped drums and slow-churning samples that leave room for Rome to operate. But over time, that repetition pulls things down a bit. The producer tag—“CONDUCTOR, WE HAVE A PROBLEM”—starts to grate by the midpoint, and a few of the beats land closer to filler than foundation.

Also, at 33 minutes, the project cuts off right when it should be deepening. The brevity keeps it tight, but there’s space for more growth, more shifts in mood, and more risk. Still, Trainspotting is a strong project from a rapper who doesn’t miss. Rome’s talent is undeniable, and while the production plays it a little safe, the bars never coast.

Release date: May 30, 2025.

8. Mike & Tony Seltzer - Pinball II

Pinball II finds MIKE and Tony Seltzer leaning harder into the energy that made their first Pinball tape click—this time with sharper hooks, louder drums, and more momentum across a tightly packed 33 minutes. Where Showbiz! felt deeper and more textured, Pinball II moves faster, built for quick hits and punchy rhythms. It’s a slick, bright album that trades MIKE’s usual haze for clarity and bounce.

The beats snap. Seltzer brings a mix of cloudy synths, high-pitched vocal chops, and trap drum kits that swing between playful and intense. Opener “Sin City” starts with warped keys and sirens before exploding into a booming drum break. “Prezzy” and “Amiri” jump between ideas in seconds, cutting hard left mid-verse or letting a loop glitch just long enough to trip you up. The transitions come fast, sometimes jarring, but they work.

MIKE sounds locked in. His delivery rides the production without dragging, clipped and direct, tossing out lines in bursts and leaving space for the beats to breathe. “Money & Power” hits the sweet spot—MIKE sounds hungry, the beat sparkles, and everything moves together. “Shaq & Kobe” and “Jumanji” bring in features from Niontay and Earl Sweatshirt, and both land clean without throwing off the pacing. The shorter track lengths help keep things tight, though some cuts (“Angsty,” “Hell Date”) wrap up before they really settle in.

The downside is that Pinball II doesn’t hit the emotional weight of MIKE’s other recent work. Compared to Showbiz!, this project feels lighter, less grounded in reflection and more focused on rhythm and energy. But that tradeoff mostly works—this is a fun, loud, quick-hit tape with no real duds.

Even if we prefer Showbiz! for its depth, Pinball II is another win for MIKE—streamlined, stylish, and full of replay value.

Release date: May 7, 2025.

9. Xzibit - Kingmaker

Kingmaker opens with confidence and control. Xzibit moves through each track with a steady hand and a voice that cuts through thick, layered beats. The production leans heavy—rich with low-end grit, sharp snares, and a mix of live instrumentation and sample flips that keep things grounded. Tracks like “Play This at My Funeral” and “Been a Long Time 2” hit with clarity, built around hard drums and precise bars, while “The Moment” bursts with energy, Busta Rhymes and JasonMartin jumping into the mix without losing pace.

The album moves across different moods without breaking its focus. “Earth is Over” grinds forward with tense horns and cold realism. “Leave Me Alone” drops into a slower, organ-heavy groove, where X and Dr. Dre keep things stripped down and personal. On “Crash,” Royce da 5’9” brings a sharp edge, and “American Idol” stretches into a darker, more reflective space.

Xzibit sounds fully locked in. The lyrics are blunt, detailed, and direct. He doesn’t waste bars or fall into nostalgia. The guests (including Ice Cube, King Tee, B-Real, T, Redman, and Busta Rhymes) come ready, the beats knock, and the sequencing keeps things tight. Kingmaker doesn’t drift. It stays focused, heavy, and unshaken from start to finish. Comeback albums by Hip Hop vetrans are more often miss than hit, but this one slaps.

Release date: May 16, 2025.

Honorable Mentions

• Bruiser Wolf – Potluck
• Rob Gonzales & DJ Proof – All Be All
• Snoop Dogg – Iz It A Crime?
• Daniel Son & Futurewave – Baggage Claims
• Him Lo & Shar The Analog Bastard – Grand Architect
• LMNO & D-Styles – Three Mimes & An Elephant
• Masta Killa – Balance
• Crimeapple & DJ Skizz – Rose Gold
• Gifted Youngstaz – Lifestylez Of Da Prolific And Gifted
• BoriRock & BoneWeso – Infinite Wave
• The Legendary Traxster – LAMBS
• DJ.Fresh & The Musalini – Live And Let Fly
• Stu Bangas & Horror City – The Phantom Of The Operap
• Maze Overlay – Vintage Lord
• LE$ & Mr. Rogers – Racer’s Edge
• Mic Bles & Klutch Norris – BLESS
• Dumi Right – Foreword To The Future
• Vino La Mano & The Soul Monsters – Season Of Revenge
• Cee Gee Incorporated – Rewind, Press Play, Fast Forward (Side A)
• E-Fluent & Reckonize Real – Broken King’s III
• BlackLiq & Dub Sonata – Much Given, Much Tested

Best EPs

• LaRussell & Ethika Music – Good Ethika
• Novatore, A.M. Early Morning & Johnny Slash – Kingdom of Criminality Part II
• Substance810 & Haas Almahdi – One Inch Punch
• Nowaah the Flood & The Custodian of Records – Mergers and Acquisitions
• Bluehillbill & Al.Divino – Avematix
• Boldy James & Your Boy Posca – Magnolia Leflore
• ScienZe & NappyHIGH – Praises
• K.A.A.N. & Jonah Renna – Yesterday
• Grand Puba – The Origin
• Agallah Don Bishop – The Hart of New York
• Tha God Fahim & Nicholas Craven – Ultimate Dump Gawd
• Blunted Sloth – Good Water Makes Good Tea
• JPEGMAFIA & Flume – We Live in a Society
• Benny the Butcher – Excelsior
• UFO Fev & Vanderslice – Pyramid Schemes
• Nejma Nefertiti – Jayne Wayne The Juggernaut
• Asun Eastwood & MK Ortiz – Ask God for Help
• Jimmie D & Nicholas Craven – Good Music Hypnotizes