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Princess Nokia: GIRLS
New album: A provocative, feisty, self-described bad-girl, dark-femme feminist fifth LP by the New York rapper Destiny Frasqueri, with a punchy celebration of her gender, sexuality, blood and high fashion, filled with whip sharp, slick, braggadocio delivery, and referential inspiration to the films of the late David Lynch
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Doja Cat: Vie
New album: With a strong flavour of Prince, and no short of saucy, sexy, funk, hip-hop and pop bite, the American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer’s fifth album is polished and packed with catchy, clever bangers, and oodles of wit and cheeky sugar and bitchy spice across the politics and intimacy of relationships
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Kojey Radical: Don't Look Down
New album: Stylish, eclectic fusion of hip-hop, funk, jazz, neo-soul and R&B by the British Mercury Prize-shortlisted husky-voiced rapper with a candid release about insecurity, fatherhood, love, sex and money, filled with guest rapper and singers, and a follow-up to 2022's acclaimed Reason to Smile
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Maruja - Pain To Power
New album: A impressively intense, emotional, passionate, energised, dark, philosophical-political cross-genre cosmic jazz-prog-punk-hip-hop-hardcore generational debut LP by the Manchester quartet with with lyrics spanning love, death, social issues, world affairs and mental health
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Nova Twins: Parasites & Butterflies
New album: Following 2022’s acclaimed Supernova album, south-east London’s Amy Love and Georgia South return with a third LP of banging boundary-pushing hybrid goth-rock-nu-metal-punk-hip-hop with feisty punch-the-air anthems as well as themes addressing mental health, confidence, negativity and the music industry
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For Those I Love: Carving The Stone
New album: The Dublin poet, performer and producer David Balfe returns after his 2021 self-titled debut, less about specific grief, more powered with with rich, articulate anger and gnarly narratives highlighting injustice, poverty, high rents in his home city and dysfunctional modern life across an energised and emotional soundtrack
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Deki Alem: Forget In Mass
New album: Stockholm’s Swedish-Ghanian twin duo Sammy and Johnny Boakye Bennett bring a superbly stylish blend of sharp hip-hop, punk, dark, seething industrial, electronica and dance music with just a dash of the Prodigy, Alabama 3 and 90s trip-hop
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Raekwon: The Emperor's New Clothes
New album: Part of the Mass Appeal Records Legend Has It... series of 2025, the Wu-Tang Clan member aka Corey Woods releases his first solo album in seven years (since 2017’s The Wild), with punchy classic-feel old-school hip-hop, soul and film samples, joined here in by guests including old friends Nas, co-Wu Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, Method Man
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Africa Express Presents ... Bahidorà
New album: The collective that brought Blur’s Damon Albarn together with Malian musicians 20 years ago now assembles artists from four continents, though particularly plants the roots of this superb 21-track double album in Mexico, with a feast of numbers spanning cumbia, hip-hop, kuduro, soul, salsa, pop, reggaeton and more
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Kae Tempest: Self Titled
New album: A fifth LP by the acclaimed London writer and rapper brings further profound and passionate wordplay themed around their identity, personal story, and dark social issue themes, with a newer sometimes synth-pop sound and guests including Neil Tennant and Young Fathers
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Child scrawls: Loyle Carner’s Hopefully!
New album: The acclaimed London rapper, now 30, returns with a fourth LP that brings his nice guy, tender, candidly earnest persona to a whole new level of almost horizontal gentleness, adding a lazy talk-singing style to his oeuvre, in a release centred around being parent with two young children
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Isaiah Hull: POCOMANIA
New album: The Manchester-born performance poet, rapper and self-defined “stand-up tragedian” releases a striking, distinctively styled experimental hip-hop debut with a title inspired by his heritage – meaning the Jamaican folk religion combining revivalism with ancestor worship and spirit possession
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Slick Rick - Victory
New album: The legendary English-American rapper, now 60, and one of the most influential in the hip-hop’s history, returns with his first for 26 years with a stylish, playful, talkative, narrative ‘visual’ LP featuring guests – the actor and sometime rapper-DJ Idris Elba, alongside Nas, Giggs and Estelle
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McKinley Dixon: Magic, Alive!
New album: Classy, literary, cultured, narrative-rich, experimental, dramatic, dynamic and stylish hip-hop by the Richmond-born, Chicago-based rapper in this follow-up to the acclaimed Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? (2023) in a release exploring the fate of key characters and the idea of what constitutes magic in the turmoil of daily life
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Aesop Rock: Black Hole Superette
New album: The acclaimed Long Island rapper Ian Matthias Bavitz returns with another rich pageant of ingeniously rapid rhymes, ideas, beats and riffs, this one themed around invisible forces that shape our lives and psyches, featuring guests Lupe Fiasco, Armand Hammer, Hanni El Khatib, Open Mike Eagle and Homeboy Sandman
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Little Simz: Lotus
New album: The Mercury prize-winning London rapper and actress Simbiatu Ajikawo brings a powerful, playful as well as personal issues, defiant rage-filled articulate new sixth album, broadening her musical scope with collaborator and producer Miles James with a title inspired by the flower that blooms, despite a harsh environment in mud and swamp
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Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio: Radio Armageddon
New album: The Public Enemy frontman remains as important a voice as ever in a corrupt and troubled world, and this latest release is a tour de force of dynamic, dial-shifting hip-hop delivery, packed with brilliant breaks ‘n’ beats, his commanding, articulate voice, on race, politics, social media and culture, and a wealth of great newer guest rappers
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Emma-Jean Thackray: Weirdo
New album: A remarkable release of experimental p-funk jazz, soul and pop by the British singer and multi-instrumentalist, exploring the ups and downs of her neuro-divergence (autism and ADHD), and playing, writing and producing everything entirely on her own in her south London back-bedroom home studio
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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: Death Hilarious
New album: Thunderous Black Sabbathian doom by the wonderfully entertaining, if deafening, Newcastle Upon Tyne heavy rockers with their fifth album, one which captures dark, uncertain times shaped by neoliberism, an exorcism of anxiety by frontman and lyricist Mark Baty, and a guest appearance by Run The Jewels rapper EL-P
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Benefits: Constant Noise
New album: Super-sharp, angry and articulate, this is striking, vivid, social and political spoken word and hip-hop on a backdrop of cinematic electronica, dance and punk by the Middlesbrough duo of Kingsley Hall and Robbie Major – a scything sonic and verbal attack on western ills at home and abroad
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