5 Anticipated Hip-Hop Albums To Watch For In 2025
The new year is here, and this latest trip around the sun marks the fifth anniversary of CABBAGES. There's a lot coming your way from the newsletter and podcast this year, but it's all driven by the independent and underground sounds of contemporary hip-hop and rap music.
The first 2025 initiative of note is the official launch of the CABBAGES playlist at Spotify, a regularly updated selection of fresh tracks from established and emerging artists operating outside the major label system. Be sure to add the playlist to your Spotify account, so you can keep up with that new new.
That said, let's set the tone with a handful of albums to look forward to in the coming months.
Ghais Guevara, Goyard Ibn Said [Fat Possum]
Fans of the multifaceted North Philly rapper have been hearing #GOYARDCOMIN for a couple of years now. Thankfully, the wait is nearly over, and the four songs he's shared from it thus far strongly suggest it will be his best work yet, one we'll all be still talking about at the end of 2025. At a different time in hip-hop history, songs as commercially viable albeit lyrically subversive as "Leprosy" and the just-released "The Old Guard Is Dead" would've positioned him for major label stardom. Instead, he stands to deliver a heady concept album that should prove one of the most insightful, yet accessible, indie rap records in recent memory.
clipping., title TBA [Sub Pop]
It's been more than a few years since the trio's horrorcore diptych There Existed An Addiction To Blood and Visions of Bodies Being Burned left its bruising mark on hip-hop. A curious and welcome contrast, two new advance singles released in the latter half of 2024 boasted decidedly more rave-oriented origins, the acidic TB-303 bass squelch of "Keep Pushing" and the electro-breakbeat squalor of "Run It" serving as compelling previews for their as-yet-untitled cyberpunk outing.
Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, Vol. 2: I Love Y.O.U More [Old Soul Music]
Not long after beatsmith L'Orange dipped from Mello Music Group to launch his own label, a wave of auspicious new signing announcements soon followed. So it wasn't entirely a surprise to learn at the top of 2025 that New York's own Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire had joined the roster. Judging by the quality of last summer's stopgap The Y.O.U. Tape, there's plenty of reason to be excited about his upcoming moves at OSM, be it the second volume in I Love Y.O.U. series or some other new recording project.
Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon, title TBA [Lex Records]
Known for putting out seminal records by Gnarls Barkley and MF DOOM, London-based label Lex Records continues to scout talent stateside. One of their 2024 signees happened to be this North Carolina indie rap phenom. So far, the bespectacled Charlotte-based artist behind projects like the NYC-based odyssey SEVENTY-FIFTH AND AMSTERDAM and the Navy Blue-produced Beautifully Black has dropped two slick singles for the imprint, the reflectively dope "So You Really Don't Miss Me" and the self-explanatory "I’m Signed to Lex Now I’m Up."
Uncommon Nasa, title TBA [Uncommon Records]
Though he doesn't always get the props he deserves, this Def Jux studio vet and not-infrequent Backwoodz Studioz contributor remains one of the New York underground's most enduring artists. Running his own label out of Staten Island, he put out releases and reissues by Masai Bey, Guilty Simpson, Pastense, and Samurai Banana–as well as duo projects with many of them–in just the past couple of years. In addition to new records by Junclassic and Short Fuze, respectively, he also plans to drop a self-released solo album of his own, taking on both rapper and producer roles in full for the first time since 2017's Written At Night.
BoriRock, HOUSEFIRE
Last month, just weeks before Christmas, BoriRock’s home caught fire and burned down. Two days later, the prodigious Feed The Family rapper linked with fellow Massachusetts familiar al.divino and recorded HOUSEFIRE, intended as both time capsule and fundraiser to help offset some of the assuredly considerable costs associated with the tragedy. Following an introductory montage of contextualized local news clips, “S.O.S.” vocally reaffirms his trademark waviness and resolute swagger even amid such devastation. He’s still operating in the same confident mode as on his other 2024 efforts, vociferously combative on “DEAD VAPE” yet not sweating the small stuff on “EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.” On the surreally soulful “HEAD ABOVE WATER,” he ponders a move to Florida while indulging a flirtatious impulse. BLUEHILLBILL and the aforementioned divino serve as the project’s sole vocal guests, the latter credited on no fewer than four cuts including the narco groover “NOWHERE2GO.”
freespottie, Center Page Reflections
The lo-fi beats to relax/study to trope has always come off inherently disrespectful, as if deliberately hazy, oft off-kilter music lacked the substance to warrant active listening. Now, as stories emerge about streaming behemoths populating playlists with royalty-agnostic background and arbitrarily raising the eligibility threshold for penny fraction payouts, letting some vague notion about fidelity get in the way of one's genuine music discovery feels downright offensive. In the case of freespottie, an Atlanta-based artist/producer with a NY/NJ pedigree, there's great value to be mined from paying close attention. His Center Page Reflections take up liminal space, with songs like "Blessings" and "Deja" concurrently capable of blending in or blissing out. Stuttering loops and rhythms underpin the stoner ease of his limber lyricism, playing out as macro/micro-dosed Jetlife jams like "Surf" and the mesmeric Earl Sweatshirt-y "Clocks." A delightfully discursive interpolation of a hip-hop classic, "Friends" welcomes guests Chebba and Ariesfullmoon into a psychotropic group hug.
Three new tracks to snack on...
Joey Bada$$ & Conductor Williams, "The Ruler's Back"
Big Sad 1900, "4AM In Los Angeles"
Darko The Super & Steel Tipped Dove, "You Don't Know Me And You Don't Know My Style"