10 Best Rap Albums of 2024 So Far

To go along with our list of the 40 best albums of 2024 so far, we’ve been posting genre-specific lists with even more albums we love and here’s our list of the 10 best rap albums of the year so far. Every genre list we do raises questions of what does and doesn’t count as said genre and this one was no exception; for example, there are definitely rap elements of both the Tierra Whack and Kim Gordon albums that made our top 40 list, but are those definitely primarily rap albums? We weren’t sure, but opted to leave them off of this list in favor of 10 albums that we feel pretty strongly represent the rap we’ve been most excited about in 2024 so far. Even within the list we chose, there’s a fair amount of musical diversity and genre-experimentation going on, and the rappers included range from underground heroes to arena-headlining stars, with plenty of the in-between. Read on for the list, in alphabetical order.

bbymutha – sleep paralysis
True Panther

bbymutha was born in Chattanooga and she now lives in Atlanta, but the rapper’s True Panther debut sleep paralysis was inspired by a trip to London, where she was able to experience the UK electronic/club scene firsthand. The result is an album that marries bbymutha’s boisterous dirty south bars to a backdrop of underground dance beats, and it’s a very rewarding blend. Even with an influx of songs coming out lately that combine hip hop and dance music, sleep paralysis stands out as bbymutha’s own wild, weird ride. She recently lamented that people have a tendency to box her in, but I think it’d be pretty hard to hear sleep paralysis in comparison to any of her previous releases and do that.

GloRilla – Ehhthang Ehhthang
CMG/Interscope

Memphis rapper GloRilla took the rap world by storm in 2022 with “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” and her ensuing Anyways, Life’s Great… EP, and–at least as far as the fast-paced rap world is concerned–she slowed down a little bit since then. From the looks of it, though, Anyways, Life’s Great… was only the beginning. She’s been having a big 2024 that included opening Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Summer Tour, and she and Megan also teamed up for one of the year’s most addictive rap songs, “Wanna Be.” That song and the just-as-unstoppable “Yeah Glo!” are both on Glo’s new mixtape Ehhthang Ehhthang, which has plenty of other great moments too. With the lines between “mixtape” and “album” remaining blurry, this feels like the old school version of the former. 12 tracks, no sweeping introduction or album arc, just GloRilla rapping her ass off. And she remains really, really good at doing that.

Heems – LAFANDAR
Veena Sounds/Mass Appeal India

We probably throw around the word “comeback” when we talk about music a little too much, but Heems’ new album LAFANDAR really feels like one. It’s the first project from the former Das Racist member since Swet Shop Boys’ (his duo with Riz Ahmed) 2017 EP Sufi La and his first solo album in nine years, and it feels full of energy and totally current. It was produced entirely by Lapgan, who’s signed to Heems’ label Veena Sounds and who spends the album building neck-snapping hip hop beats out of South Asian samples, and it features a who’s who of underground rap guests, including Kool Keith, Open Mike Eagle, Quelle Chris, Your Old Droog, Saul Williams, Blu, Fatboi Sharif, Sir Michael Rocks of The Cool Kids, and Sonnyjim (plus Def Jam-signed indie-R&B singer and Bollywood musician Sid Sriram). Most of those guests have been more prolific in recent years than Heems, but if you thought he fell off, LAFANDAR shoots that down within the first 20 seconds. He sounds lively and hungry and ready to reclaim a spot at the forefront of underground rap. If anyone who misconstrued Das Racist as joke-rappers 15 years ago are still skeptical about Heems, they’re clearly not listening.

Also, more from Heems is coming soon; his second LP of 2024, VEENA LP, arrives in August.

Mach-Hommy – #RICHAXXHAITIAN
self-released

Mach-Hommy is insanely prolific, but he hasn’t released a proper solo album since 2021, a year in which he released two solo albums, Pray for Haiti on Griselda Records and the self-released Balens Cho (Hot Candles). That now changes with #RICHAXXHAITIAN, a self-released project that feels as subtly towering as you’d hope from Mach. In what’s become Mach-Hommy’s trademark fashion, the album is rooted in both Mach’s Newark, NJ upbringing and his Haitian heritage, and it includes Vailsburg slang, Haitian Kreyol, and French lullabies worked into Mach’s uniquely fresh version of East Coast rap. Mach brings in likeminded rappers like Black Thought, Roc Marciano, Your Old Droog, and his very frequent collaborator Tha God Fahim, all of whom have the same hard-hitting dedication to boom bap-era bars that he does, and he also successfully steps outside of that zone, like on the electronics-fueled title track with 03 Greedo and Kaytranada.

Megan Thee Stallion – Megan
Hot Girl

Megan Thee Stallion’s rise in popularity has long been accompanied by personal struggles, whether it’s the Tory Lanez assault trial (and other rappers accusing her of lying about the shooting) or her lawsuit against her record label 1501 Certified Entertainment, but she always seems to persevere. She finally freed herself from her label last year and launched her own company (called Hot Girl Productions, natch) earlier this year, and now she just released her Hot Girl debut, Megan. She acknowledges the public gossip that surrounds her more than once on the album, but for the most part, you get the sense that she finds living well is the best revenge. She sounds free on this album, and she’s rapping her ass off. It’s an onslaught of shit-talk and braggadocio raps, and it’s one of her most focused, cohesive albums yet. With 18 songs in 52 minutes, she’s not immune to the streaming-era trend of overloading albums, but the strong moments far outweigh any filler. Guest appearances come from recent collaborator/tourmate GloRilla, her home state Texas heroes UGK, Brooklyn drill rapper Kyle Richh, Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba, rising R&B star Victoria Monét, and fellow Southern rappers Big K.R.I.T. and Buddah Bless (appearing together on “Miami Blue”), and Megan benefits from their presences but never relies on them to draw people in or boost numbers, like she might have done with Beyoncé and Dua Lipa on past albums. The best, strongest, and fiercest parts of Megan are all handled by Megan herself.

Rapsody – Please Don’t Cry
Jamla/Roc Nation

“Under-appreciated but I’m still the most respected,” raps Rapsody on her fourth proper album Please Don’t Cry, and it’s hard to think of many other rappers who earn that line the way Rapsody does. She’s stolen the show on songs by Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, Black Thought, and A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg, and the list of legends that admire her grows with each passing year, but she’s never really had her own big breakthrough moment. It’s a shame, because she’s already made a few of the strongest rap albums of the last 15 years and Please Don’t Cry is on the same high level as its predecessors. Guests on this one range from veterans like Rapsody’s longtime collaborator Erykah Badu and Lil Wayne to rising rapper Baby Tate to reggae singer Keznamdi to Clair Huxtable herself, Phylicia Rashad. As always, Rapsody stands out next to living legends, and she’s got an arsenal of hard, intricate, incisive bars that would leave at least 80% of any Rolling Loud lineup in the dust. Her last album, Eve, celebrated a long history of Black female icons, but Please Don’t Cry takes a more personal approach. Rapsody opens up about her own life in a more unfiltered way than she ever has, and the results can be just as empowering as her last album. Rapsody gets in much-deserved boasts like the one mentioned earlier, but she’s also honest about the imperfections in her life, and when music is as honest and sincere as Please Don’t Cry is, it’s hard not to feel impacted by it.

Roc Marciano – Marciology
Pimpire/Marci Enterprises

There’s something to be said for possessing the type of consistency that Roc Marciano does. You know a new Roc Marciano album is gonna mean a hefty helping of eerie boom bap production and sinister bars that sound straight out of mid ’90s New York City, but just because the style is predictable doesn’t mean the songs won’t surprise you. Over beats from Alchemist, Animoss, Roc Marciano himself, and more, Marci leaves you hanging on every word of Marciology, with punchlines that knock you out on first listen and continue to endure with repeated ones. He gets help from fellow ’90s devotees Flee Lord, Larry June, Jay Worthy, CRIMEAPPLE, Knowledge the Pirate, T.F., and GREA8GAWD, who all sound great here, and probably all of whom have Roc Marciano to thank for keeping this style of rap alive before its recent widespread revival kicked in. At this point, Roc Marciano is just about as much a veteran as Mobb Deep and Nas were when Roc was first starting to break through, and he still raps like he’s trying to win you over. He still makes every syllable count.

ScHoolboy Q – Blue Lips
TDE/Interscope

I like ScHoolboy Q’s 2019 album CrasH Talk, but it felt like he was coasting a little, playing it a little bit safe. It’s good news then, that its followup Blue Lips is one of the most delightfully weird albums that Q has released yet. Across 18 songs, Q covers everything from distorted punk-rap to industrial electronics to jazzy psychedelia to smooth soul to throwback boom bap to modern trap. He sounds totally re-energized, ready to yell about whatever on one song and tone things down and get pensive on the next. Freddie Gibbs, Rico Nasty, and longtime Black Hippy compatriot Ab-Soul are among the guests, and all three of them deliver standout verses. Q’s felt a little more elusive during the rollout for this album than he has in the past, and it makes sense. This one feels meant to get a little darker and weirder.

Vince Staples – Dark Times
Blacksmith/Def Jam

Vince Staples has made so many different types of rap songs over the years, and lately he seems most interested in making personal, introspective rap songs that favor lyrical depth over easily-digestible hooks. That’s very much the vein that his 2021 self-titled album and much of his 2022 album Ramona Park Broke My Heart were in, and it’s also the vein that his new album Dark Times is in. He’s pillowed by some background singers and spoken word clips, but Vince is the only rapper on the album, and he lays out dense stories that require (and deserve) multiple listens to fully dive into. He’s had his crossover tracks over the years, but on these last few albums, it feels like he’s really making music for himself and his loyal fanbase. His whole career has been a journey and Dark Times is an intriguing new chapter of it, a series of soul-searching tales set to a chilled-out backdrop that’s perfect for immersing yourself in.

Your Old Droog – Movie
self-released

Brooklyn rapper Your Old Droog is extremely prolific and not always easy to keep up with, but Movie is his first proper full-length album since 2021–17 songs with skits, etc–and it really feels like an album that’s full of intention. Not that there’s anything wrong with firing off seven-song EPs like he did all throughout 2022, but it hits different when the project feels as grand and purposeful as this one does–it’s not called “Movie” for nothing. Over a great selection of ’90s-style boom bap beats from Just Blaze, Madlib, Harry Fraud, Conductor Williams, and more, Droog does what he does best, delivering knockout punchlines, memorable pop culture references, and creative rhymes that could make his heroes shit their pants. Method Man and Denzel Curry show up on recent single “DBZ,” and otherwise Droog holds his own for the entirety of the LP. He talks on Movie about seeing himself as a counter-culture guy, and at this point, it’s pretty tough to deny that he’s reached iconic status within that realm. Underground/counter-cultural rap has changed a lot since Droog stirred up buzz with his debut EP a decade ago, and he’s been a staple the entire time. This year alone he’s had standout guest verses on two of the best new rap albums (Mach-Hommy’s #RICHAXXHAITIAN and Heems’ LAFANDAR), and now he releases one of his most legacy-cementing projects yet.

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We’ve also been spinning: Previous Industries, ShrapKnel, Chuck Strangers, MIKE & Tony Seltzer, Boldy James, Benny the Butcher, AG Club, Bruiser Wolf, Sexyy Red, Cavalier, RiTchie, and Kneecap, not to mention all the other rap albums we covered in our Best Rap Albums of the Month lists this year.

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SEE ALSO:

* Our 40 Favorite Albums of 2024 So Far

* 10 Best Punk & Hardcore Albums of 2024 So Far

* 10 Best Emo & Post-Hardcore Albums of 204 So Far

* 25 Best Metal Albums of 2024 So Far

* Indie Basement: Best Albums of 2024 So Far

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Top photo: Vince Staples at House of Vans Chicago in 2019 by James Richards IV. More here.