Aktu El Shabazz - AS SEEN ON TV

Aktu El Shabazz’s AS SEEN ON TV delivers grown-man rap with cable-static grit and streaming-era bounce. The Brooklyn-born, Vancouver-based MC commands stylish and high-level boom-bap through a dense, rhythmic flow that channels late-90s lyricism without locking into revivalist nostalgia. His pedigree runs deep: projects like F.L.O.W. Vol. 1 (2016), Waterworld (2020), and K.K.F.W.B. (2022) built his rep, alongside consistent work with producers IM’PERETIV and DJ Billy Bishop that sharpened his technical edge.

The album stacks heavy hitters across 11 tracks. EP of The Doppelgangaz, 2oo2all, Sad Boy Denzel, and AJ Steeles crowd the “Intro,” setting a crew cipher tone. Traffic jumps on the title track “AS SEEN ON TV,” Bryvn808 fuels “Onsight,” and Chris Crack’s eccentric bars clash perfectly with Aktu on “16piece LRG.” Ilajide of Clear Soul Forces trades lines on “Parle Vous,” while frequent partner Keysha Freshh elevates “Storytellin” with sharp interplay. “Alott” keeps 2oo2all in the mix, and solo cuts like “Patient Session 34” let Aktu’s wordplay breathe uninterrupted.

Aktu blends traditional Hip Hop structure—hard drums, sampled loops—with modern flows and melodic shifts here and there, and he pulls it off clean. No weak spots dilute the momentum. AS SEEN ON TV is a well-rounded, fully realized project that demands a front-to-back listen from heads who rate craft over hype.

Release date: January 4, 2026

A$AP Rocky - Don't Be Dumb

A$AP Rocky’s Don’t Be Dumb finally lands after eight long years and a messy and drawn-out rollout, and the result is a restless, uneven, but often exciting return. Rocky moves like someone refusing to pick one lane, jumping from bass-heavy flex anthems to hazy R&B, noisy experiments, and jazz-leaning detours. The album never reaches the consistency of LONG.LIVE.A$AP or AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP—two of the strongest mainstream rap records of the 2010s in this house—but it clears the bar set by the undercooked TESTING and feels like a genuine reset.

What hits hardest here depends on what you want from Rocky. The trap-leaning cuts and pop-gloss moments will satisfy listeners who come for festival energy and big hooks, but those tracks are less interesting if trap is not your primary language. For us, the thrilling stuff lives elsewhere: “STFU” turns into a noisy, off-the-wall barrage that will probably push away casual fans and pull in anyone who misses the weirder edges of his early work, while “Robbery” drapes a back-and-forth with Doechii over loose jazz textures that reward close listening.

This record is a clear case of highs and lows, and those highs and lows will shift with each listener. Some will live with the glossy, melodic joints; others will stay for the experimental cuts and left-of-center production. From here, Don’t Be Dumb sits below Rocky’s first two albums but still counts as a welcome return to form in spirit. Not every swing connects, but the ambition is real, and that makes the misses easier to live with.

Release date: January 16, 2026.

Soek - Falling Into Place: Side A

Soek’s Falling Into Place: Side A drops Arizona’s 19-year-old beatsmith into the underground’s sharpest cyphers. At 35 minutes, the self-produced set layers soulful, drumless loops with rappers who cut precise: Estee Nack and Mickey Diamond lock “SpaceTimeTravel” into a standout pocket of time-warped grit. Willyynova snaps on “Spice Adams” and “WhiteHeartEmoji<3,” YL keeps “Loose Joint” lean, while Papo2oo4’s double cuts “Crocodile Tears” and “Otra Vez!” add Spanish-flavored edge. Sunmundi’s “40 Degrees Overcast,” Maze Overlay’s “Uni,” and Amitai Sno’s paired spots bring measured texture without overcrowding. Brother Tom Sos, Ba Pace, Sahn Hova, Marc Andre, and TuNe B. fill the rest clean. Slightly left-field yet instantly accessible, this plays like a chilled-out late-drive playlist for heads who rate craft over noise.

Release date: January 9, 2026.

Ralphiie Reese - Book 4: Dartula

Ralphiie Reese’s Book 4: Dartula stalks through the Umbrella collective’s grim Philly corridors, casting Kount Dartula—an Islamic vampire of the Five Percent Nation—as the undead voice of street immortality. The Germantown MC drags his gravel rasp across 14 tracks of haunted soul loops and distorted menace, building on the Bladesylvania saga with cinematic heft. “Enter: Dartula” and “Exit: Dartula” frame the hunt, while “Noise Complaint,” “Fried Piranha,” and “Lycanthropy (Sky’s Tha Limit)” bare fangs through power tales and inner-city survival. “Public Service Dart” and “Butterfly Needlez XVII” sharpen the conceptual blade, and Supreme Cerebral’s guest spot on “Blokk Party Bluze” adds iron to the mix. Applause goes to Reese for twisting vampire lore into urban scripture, miles from his street rap peers’ standard plays. Dark, dense, and defiantly original.

Release date: January 10, 2026.

Ialive - Flyetism

Ialive’s Flyetism is a bright slice of Philly alt-rap, clever and off-kilter in a Homeboy Sandman-adjacent way. The record reworks and reframes the world around 2025’s Quietism, threading demos, remixes, and loose ends into something that feels like a scrapbook of creative detours. “Camden Beach,” “Upkeep,” and “Dad Class” get flipped by trusted hands, while “Get There Fast” with Zilla Rocca and DJ Skipmode pushes into more urgent territory. “Talk King” with Curly Castro and “I Made Peace with the Algorithm” bring sharp, funny meta-commentary without losing heart. Psychedelic-leaning beats, left-field hooks, and ialive’s sly, conversational bars make this a typically dope Philly alt-rap document.

Release date: January 12, 2026.

DJ Dremond - Detroit Institute of Art Vol. 1

DJ Dremond’s Detroit Institute of Art Vol. 1 is a curator flex, a producer album that plays like a dark gallery walk through the 2026 underground. The Detroit-based beatsmith lines the walls with smoked-out loops and tense, atmospheric chops, then hands the keys to a ridiculous guest list: Boldy James, Elcamino, Tha God Fahim, Planet Asia, Cannibal Ox, Mickey Diamond, Ty Farris, and more. Tracks like “Drug Deal,” “Steph Curry,” “Rasclott,” and “Artifacts” bring different shades of street-worn luxury, all bar work and detail with zero filler energy.​

Mickey Diamond’s heavy presence ties the record together, turning cuts like “Mick Scorsese,” “Intimidated,” and “How Ya Light It Up” into a loose through-line. “Adamantium Chain” gives Planet Asia his own display case, while “U Got It” with Cannibal Ox feels like a rare artifact pulled from the vault. As producer-driven projects go, this one hits more than it misses, keeping a consistent mood without slipping into background music. For fans of drumless grit, soul-sample smoke, and razor-edged lyricism, Detroit Institute of Art Vol. 1 is required listening.

Release date: January 1, 2025.

Shottie & Wahr Season - Event Center Racing

Shottie and Wahr Season’s Event Center Racing is street rap with salt in the air and engine fumes in the lungs. Shottie spills sharp, street-centric wordplay through a Miami lens, flipping images of hustles, highways, and harbor runs into tight, cinematic verses. Wahr Season’s production leans on sleek, modern boom-bap, but the drums breathe and the chords feel sun-baked; you can hear the Florida Keys in the space between the snares. “Aqua Blue Camo” sets the pace, while “Smugglers Run,” “Apache Wahrpath,” and “Prize Money” stretch the concept without losing focus. Chilled-out, dangerous, and replay-friendly, this is a dope, fully locked-in listen.

Release date: January 17, 2026.

Departure - work of artist i love you

work of artist i love you lands like a half-remembered late-night notebook dump turned into dense, bedroom rap. Departure crafts 11 tracks of lo-fi drift and verbal thickets, pulling in collaborators like Zawdy on “rap game david foster wallace” and “dada as language and art,” plus Jay Cinema, Granite Sky, and shemar for the six-minute core of “forgotten in the sea.” The David Foster Wallace quote that kicks things off sets a tone of raw self-exposure—no polish, no posture, just thoughts caught mid-formation. “materialist raps (in regards to loneliness)” strips things bare, while cuts like “potentially” and “change your behaviour” build quiet momentum through cryptic bars and shifting textures.

The first half coasts on high-level atmosphere without fully gripping; “’97 camry” with JUNE! and J.D.M.M. dips into nostalgia that doesn’t quite stick. The back end rewards patience—“forgotten in the sea” sprawls with purpose, absorbing room noise and private tensions into something environmental rather than staged. Production stays unshowy, favoring ambient hums and deliberate sparseness that demand active listening.

Departure writes from specific nights and pressures that refuse easy slogans. Lines hit because they mirror passing truths, not because they demand attention. The album places trust in the ear, negotiating meaning track by track rather than dictating it. Conscious Hip Hop in 2026 sounds like this: unresolved, inviting, alive with small frictions that linger. Not every moment connects clean, but the whole demands replays from anyone chasing modern rap’s weirder edges.

Release date: January 1, 2026.

Mikey D - Pop-N-Kim: Legends Don't Die

Queens rapper Mikey D’s Pop-N-Kim: Legends Don’t Die points back to Pop-N-Kim’s bodega on Merrick Blvd, where icy 40s and sidewalk battles shaped Mikey D into the battle MC who took the New Music Seminar crown in 1988 and dropped staples like “Out of Control” and “Comin’ in the House,” cuts that still live on our playlists decades later. Mikey D—the veteran of the L.A. Posse and the man who stepped into Main Source after Large Pro—brings a career’s worth of gravity to his 2026 record, anchored by that classic Laurelton edge.​

At 31 minutes, Pop-N-Kim: Legends Don’t Die moves (too) quickly, and not every track lands with the same impact, but the highs argue for heavy rotation. “Over 50!” swings hard, with Rob Swift slicing through the beat, turning age into ammunition instead of limitation. “Hip Hop Kids” links Mikey D with Run DMC’s DMC, turning generational respect into cipher energy rather than nostalgia bait. “Park Jam Legends” with Bumpy Knuckles sounds like an outdoor system wired straight into Queens history, all bark and gravel.​

“Talkin That Shhh!” brings one of the most infectious hooks on the project, a late-album reminder of Mikey’s sense of humor and attack. This album is short, uneven in spots, but still a must-listen for throwback Hip Hop heads and younger listeners who care about where this culture comes from.

Release date: January 9, 2026.

Myalansky - Iron Curtain

Myalansky’s Iron Curtain offers a dose of street rap cut from the extended Wu-Tang family tree, all grit and no theatrics. The veteran Virginia MC moves with the same cold focus heard since the Wu-Syndicate days, sliding through Wolf T Calzone’s grimy loops with crime-story detail and that worn-in, street-refined cadence. Tracks like “Manufacture Consent,” “Tricknowledgey,” and “Casualties” lay out hood politics like one continuous crime flick, while “The Town” and “Emmaculate” stretch the mood without breaking the tone. This 33-minute run will probably be lost in today’s short hype-cycles, but the Wu-flavored beats are tough, Myalansky’s pen is sharp, and the album is worth a few focused spins.

Release date: January 9, 2026.

Jvly38! - A Weary Traveller Murmured To God

Jvly38!’s A Weary Traveller Murmured To God carves out raw spiritual terrain through dusty loops and whispered poetry over vinyl crackle. The UK art-rap explorer stacks 19 tracks of minimal drums and soul-drenched haze, wrestling self-doubt, loss, and fleeting joy into bars that read like open prayers. “Ghost,” “Dead Man Dancer,” and “Suicide Promise” dig into personal fractures, while “Growth” with no god. & Jorden and “Ivermectin” with AGHETTOPHILOSOPHER add voices to the wander. “A Song for Sun Ra” close with quiet defiance, chasing moon-caught moments amid life’s tests.

This is not for everybody. Dense and difficult to crack on first spin, the album demands immersion and repeated listens. Those who commit find rewards in its layered vulnerability—underground heads chasing extremes will lock in.

Release date: January 3, 2026. 

Hyphy Zen & Patrick Downeyy Jr. - Rari Bronze Age

Rari Bronze Age is late-night underground rap with a slight gloss, where Hyphy Zen’s atmospheric instincts wrap around Patrick Downeyy Jr.’s Rari universe without sanding off the edges. The drums still knock, but synths and foggy textures drift through tracks like “The Ether & Fog” and the title cut, giving the project a hazy, cinematic pull. “Peaceful But Deadly” and “Want It All” tap into a more accessible pocket than usual for this camp, and normally that kind of mainstream tilt is not really our bag, but the vibe sticks. The guests fold in smoothly, and the result is a satisfying, replay-ready listen.

Release date: January 5, 2026.

Mic Gutz - Rose

Mic Gutz’s Rose is straight Scarborough concrete: boom-bap drums, soul loops, and no interest in chasing trends. The Canadian underground vet leans into city pride and grind talk, rapping like someone who has carried this lane for years. “4 My City” with Choclair feels built for TTC rides and late-night parking-lot debates, while “Phat Dudez” and “Rap 2 Get Rich” keep the crew energy high and the hooks sticky. Nothing here is especially memorable in the long run, but the hunger, regional flavor, and no-frills production give Rose an energy that makes it a decent, worthwhile listen.

Release date: January 6, 2026.

Nef The Pharaoh - ChangSzn 4

Nef the Pharaoh’s ChangSzn 4 is pure Vallejo energy, all bounce and charisma, landing right in that “Big Tymin’” lineage without feeling recycled. As E-40’s protégé, Nef has always worn the hyphy flag loud, and this installment in the Chang series keeps that spirit moving with a slick, independent grind through his KILFMB / EMPIRE setup. “Up A Notch” with 54Blamtana punches through as a clear standout, “Joseline” links him with Mistah F.A.B. for a generational Bay handshake, and “Private Dancers” rides that bright, West Coast street feel. Melodic, confident, and easy to run back, ChangSzn 4 is another strong entry in Nef’s ongoing Chang chapter.

Release date: January 11, 2026.

Toney Boi - Leave Your Ego At The Door

ToneyBoi’s Leave Your Ego at the Door plays like a Buffalo war room meeting, a “ToneyBoi & friends” cypher where the city’s underground speaks in different dialects of the same grind. Jae Skeese, Elcamino, Jamal Gasol, and a pack of 716 regulars run through 14 tracks that move between soul-chopped loops and shinier pop-rap gloss. This is a producer’s album, and like a lot of those it ends up a mixed bag: grimy street bangers sit next to more polished, trap-leaning joints that are not really our lane. Still, cuts like “Momma Said Move Weight,” “Solid Gold,” and “Eastside Westside” hit hard enough to make the project worth a dig for anyone invested in the Buffalo scene.

Release date: January 11, 2026.

Best Hip Hop EPs Of 2026

• Ill Clinton – Gun Powder Cologne
• Recognize Ali & D-Styles – All Shall Perish

The Best Hip Hop Albums Of 2025

Click here or on the image for the full list.