It’s a tradition at Complex to rank the very best rap verses every 12 months, but this year was a little different. Our original plan was to limit this list to 20 selections, as we always do, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to eliminate any of these verses. How could we leave out Young M.A’s blistering L.A. Leakers freestyle, 21 Savage’s ASMR bars, or Retch’s filthy rhymes on “Throwin’ Sets Down”? We were blessed with a flood of incredible verses this year, so we had to make an exception to our own rule and extend the list. What a nice problem to have.
These are Complex’s picks for the 25 best rap verses of 2018.
26. Eminem, “Lucky You”
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Verse: 2
Best Line: “‘Cause even if I gotta end up eating a pill again, even ketamine or methamphetamine with the Mini Thin/It better be at least 70 to 300 milligram, and I might as well ’cause I’mma end up being a villain again”
After the critical drubbing he took for 2017’s Revival, Eminem felt like he had something to prove. So this year’s Kamikaze, per its title, takes aim at the sound of rap today. This idea reaches its climax on “Lucky You,” where Em not only addresses mumble rappers in his lyrics, but in his delivery as well. Much of the verse is delivered in Migos-style triplets, but at a dizzying pace. Em makes the dual point of proving that he can beat the new generation of rappers at their own game, and also showing how reliant they are on one Three 6 Mafia-inspired trick. And when he finally breaks out of the trip-uh-let, Marshall busts into a variety of rhythms and deliveries, climaxing in a virtuosic hyperspeed, chopper-style run. Guess who’s back? —Shawn Setaro
25. Young M.A, “Freestyle #055”
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Verse: 1
Best Line: “All I need in this life of sin is me and my damn self, never needed handouts/I would eat some ass out before I put a hand out”
Young M.A didn’t release any projects in 2018, but all she needed was a visit to the L.A. Leakers, at Power 106’s Los Angeles studios, to remind everyone how cold she is behind the mic. Spitting over Busta Rhymes’ classic “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” instrumental, she found a way to weave together X-rated bars about eating ass with deceptively witty punchlines like “I keep a knife just in case I gotta cut ties.” It’s no accident she begins one of the best verses of the year coiled up in a crouched position: As her debut full-length album finally approaches, Young M.A is in attack mode. —Eric Skelton
24. 21 Savage, “Don’t Come Out the House”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “First name 21, last name Hefner, I got too many freaks/Levi jeans, low self-esteem, he on BlackPeopleMeet”
When Metro Boomin’s “Don’t Come Out the House” begins, it sounds like it’ll be your standard 21 Savage song. Which is to say, it’ll likely be a banger, but a predictable one. But this is not your standard 21 Savage song. The second the opening chorus ends, 21 dips from his standard vocal tone to a literal whisper. For 25 seconds, he quietly reminisces about his old neighborhood, earning his “first stripe” at 13, and doing what had to be done to pay his mom’s light bill. He eventually bounces back up to his normal rapping voice, saying, “Y’all must thought that I was gon’ whisper the whole time.” (Accurate and hilarious.) The song moves forward, as Metro and Tay Keith keep the energy up, but then 21 raps, “I green light hits, I don’t make jingles,” and proceeds to conclude the song with more whisper raps. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. If you can’t get enough of this song, he brings the new genre back with “asmr” on his latest album, i am > i was. Enjoy that. —Kiana Fitzgerald
23. Beyoncé, “Apesh*t”
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Verse: 3
Best line: “35 chains/I don’t give a damn ’bout the fame”
OK, so it’s Offset’s pen behind this one, but with everything Beyoncé is great at, are you really going to begrudge her for not writing her own bars? Hate is for suckers—get some love in your life! (Who’s to say she can’t write her own raps, either? Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week with that family.) Writing is one thing, but execution is everything, and with the reference track out, the objective facts are that Bey delivers this tour de force of flexing more forcefully than Kiari did. In Offset’s hands, it’s another example of the Migos artfully rattling off the ways they’re richer than us. But in Beyoncé’s, it plays like a grand statement of wealth, delivered more theatrically. After all, in her hands, the G5 becomes, more appropriately, a G8. Beysus collaborates, but the Queen always has final edit. —Frazier Tharpe
22. Retch, “Throwin’ Sets Down”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “Play with them racks like Federer”
Retch often raps like he can’t wait to get bars off his chest, and this verse is a perfect example of that. “Throwin’ Sets Down” is just a day in the life of a trapper-turned-rapper, as Retch paints a picture using hood talk with some extravagance sprinkled in. Tinashe could resurrect her career if she got with Retch, if only to give us the moment of them pulling up to the Met Gala in matching durags. —Angel Diaz
21. Kendrick Lamar, “Mona Lisa”
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Verse: 3
Best line: “He dogged it again like the bitch Lassie/I’m a dog in the wind, I’m a pit laughing”
Before even pressing play on “Mona Lisa,” fans were excitedly making memes about the reunion of two GOATs, and who can blame them? Four years after Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar last collaborated, on Mike Will Made-It’s “Buy the World,” two of the greatest rappers of all time join forces on the long-awaited Tha Carter V, and they don’t disappoint. First, Wayne warms us up with a fable about betrayal, then Kendrick jumps in and tells a similar tale from a different perspective. Stretching his voice to the limit as he fully commits to embodying the song’s panicked character, Kendrick fleshes out a dizzying romantic arc that ultimately ends in suicide—reminding us once again that no one does this storytelling shit quite like K-Dot. —Eric Skelton
20. Cardi B, “Bickenhead”
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Verse: 3
Best line: “Make that pussy slip and slide, like you from the 305/Put your tongue out in the mirror, pop that pussy while you drive”
Bars are cool, but joy is crucial, too. Few rap verses were as joyous as Cardi instructing bad bitches on how, when, and where to “pop that pussy” (her words, not mine) like a ratchet but empowering Richard Simmons. Show me a line this year as gleefully demented as “Pop that pussy up in church.” I’ll wai—oh, never mind. She says, “Pop that pussy while you drive,” right after. That’s the X-rated KiKi challenge that never was. “I Like It” was everywhere this year, but while that dominated the radio and advertising circuit, I fully expected “Bickenhead” to rule turnt-up functions all summer off the strength of this verse alone. Though Invasion of Privacy’s full array of tightly sequenced singles were worked thoroughly, this seems like the one that slipped through the cracks before Cardi moved on. “Money” is cool, but this deserved the NSFW artistic visual, in my opinion. —Frazier Tharpe
19. J. Cole, “A Lot”
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Verse: 3
Best line: “Some niggas make millions, other niggas make memes”
For the intro of 21’s long-awaited album i am > i was, DJ Dahi stitched together a hidden gem of a vocal sample (East of Underground’s “I Love You”), which sounds like something Cole might have wanted to chop up himself. On top of Dahi’s work, Cole locks right into his favorite pocket to rap in: contemplation mode. As he is wont to do, he travels all over the areas we love him most for—his own form of Pride Rock, so to speak. (Shout out to everyone who remembers his “Simba” days.)
Cole starts out by cheekily winking at all the rappers gaming the system: “How many faking they streams?/Getting they plays from machines?” Then, as he winds through his verse, he ends up venturing down an inevitable detour—his own form of the Elephant Graveyard. It’s somewhere he should never go, but seems to frequent out of pure curiosity: caping for questionable characters. “Pray for Tekashi, they want him to rot/I picture him inside a cell on a cot/’Flectin’ on how he made it to the top/Wondering if it was worth it or not.” While some of this is objective pondering, it still reeks of Cole wanting to save people who (allegedly) thought it best to destroy their own lives. Weirdness aside, Cole uses this verse in an almost André 3000-“What a Job” kind of way—choosing to speak about real-life experiences, and then creatively telling us how the song came together. “A Lot” contains some of Cole’s best bars of the year, and they popped up at the very end, when many of us had already closed the Book of 2018 on him. —Kiana Fitzgerald
18. Roc Marciano, “Muse”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “Naomi Campbell, smoking a Camel/.38 taped up, look like I broke the hammo, famo”
“Thank God for Roc Marci,” Roc Marciano raps at the beginning of “Muse.” It might sound like hyperbole at first, but then the hypnotic, drum-less music continues, and Roc spins out line after line of smoothly delivered, captivating images. He’s alternately threatening, boastful, and seductive—sometimes in the space of a single couplet—and somehow sounds equally at home in all of those modes. Whether it’s conjuring “Naomi Campbell smoking a Camel” or mocking his opponent’s “imaginary ammo,” Roc is in complete control of the ride. And by the end, we can’t wait to turn around and go through it again. Thank God for Roc Marci. —Shawn Setaro
17. Pusha-T, “The Games We Play”
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Verse: 3
Best line: “This ain’t for the conscious, this is for the mud-made monsters/Who grew up on legends from outer Yonkers/Influenced by niggas straight outta Compton”
One of the thrills derived from listening to Pusha-T is the villainously gleeful way he raps about a lifestyle (both past and present) that us plebes could never fathom. He phrases his flexes in a way that makes him sound like he’s both Frank Lucas from back then and in JAY-Z’s tax bracket right now. What the fuck is a drug mummy? Alternatively, caviar facials?! I’m not privy to either, but they both sound thrilling. It’s no wonder the verse starts with a JAY interpolation. This is celebratory drug kingpin music made not from the vantage of someone who escaped the life for legal pastures, but rather someone reveling in getting away with breaking the law. Push is daring them to do more than watch, all while treating bottle servers like horses at Belmont Park, without a care in the world. And he still has the nerve to include a line like, “Stay woke or get out.” This was rap album of the year at track two. —Frazier Tharpe
16. Phonte, “So Help Me God”
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Verse: 2
Best line: “I am Hugh Masekela meets Masta Killa/The OG’s OG, just ask the nigga”
If this verse only consisted of Phonte comparing himself to “Hugh Masekela meets Masta Killa,” it would still be pretty high on this list. The wildly surprising yet thoughtful connection and the playful assonance—it could only come from Tigallo. And what surrounds it is just as good. There’s the polysyllabic Breaking Bad nod (“I’mma kill shit, I’mma be a silent monster/That will shit to happen, like he Tio Salamanca”); clever, multi-layered references to Humphrey Bogart and Jane Goodall; detail that makes you feel like you’re right there with his man Mike on 2nd and Carondelet; and rhymes wild enough (“mastermind,” “vandalize,” “metastasized,” and “infanticide,” to take one arbitrary run) to make any aspiring MC delete their Notes app in despair. —Shawn Setaro
15. J.I.D, “Off Da Zoinkys”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “Look at the pain in your eyes, nigga, look where we been/Look at our wins, look at our sins, and look at our skin”
After my first listen of J.I.D’s “Off Da Zoinkys,” I calmly, promptly made a playlist called “Let’s Fucking Go!” and added this song to it. It remained the only track for days, meaning I just played it on repeat whenever I felt the need for rejuvenation. Almost half of the three-and-a-half-minute song is dedicated to an elongated, beautiful buildup, courtesy of J.I.D’s frequent production collaborator Christo, and a come-down at the end, in the form of a (misguided) conversation about two U.S. presidents. For the remaining runtime, J.I.D focuses all of his energy on rapping the fuck out of just one verse: no hook, no features, no nothing else. In that verse, he does his best to guilt-trip his colleagues and friends into putting down the drugs and vices—even Newport cigarettes. It can come across as preachy, if you’re not into people telling you what to put into your body (“Mr. Know-It-All/‘Oh, here he go,’” J.I.D raps knowingly). But, since it comes from someone who’s seen the effects of addiction firsthand, ad nauseam, maybe this is one of those times we should just shut up and listen? —Kiana Fitzgerald
14. Benny the Butcher, “Broken Bottles”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “I’mma write a whole album ’bout the plugs I met”
We could’ve gone with 15 other Benny options from this year, but his first verse on “Broken Bottles” was our favorite. This shit sounds like a felony over Alchemist production, and Benny always raps like he’s never eaten a day in his life. Each bar is said with emphasis, and each drug metaphor gives you an ugly face. “I heard they sick about me rapping ’bout the drugs I stretch/I’mma write a whole album ’bout the plugs I met” is one of those lines that just makes you throw your hands in the air and press rewind. Benny has been Griselda’s secret weapon since they bubbled to the top of the underground a couple years ago, and he's sharper than ever on 2018's Tana Talk 3. —Angel Diaz
13. Noname, “Self”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “My pussy teachin’ ninth-grade English/My pussy wrote a thesis on colonialism”
On the opener of Room 25, Noname’s highly anticipated Telefone follow-up, the rapper emerges with a new energy. She’s still got her soft, honeyed cadence, but nine bars in, she’s refreshingly braggadocious, asking, “Y’all really thought a bitch couldn’t rap, huh?” The song’s second verse starts with a takedown of various male nemeses, including “Mr. Wifing Me Down,” “Mr. Me-Love,” “Mr. Miyagi,” and “Mr. Molly Inside My Sake.” The 27-year-old goes on to (inadvertently?) compare herself to Erykah Badu (“Fucked your rapper homie, now his ass is making better music”), and follows that up with one of the best rap lyrics of the year: “My pussy wrote a thesis on colonialism.” As usual, the flow is unparalleled. That central question—“And y’all still thought a bitch couldn’t rap, huh?”—isn’t rhetorical; each time Noname asks it, she replies with a sly, “Maybe this your answer for that,” sounding like she really believes all the praise she’s received so far. —Carolyn Bernucca
12. JAY-Z, “Friends”
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Verse: 2
Best line: “When I say, ‘Free the dogs,’ I free ’em, that's how Meek got his freedom/Y’all put niggas on a T-shirt, it hurts you ain’t never meet ’em”
JAY peels back decades of carefully built mythology on this confessional verse from his collaborative album with Beyoncé. He mentions many longtime friends (including Ty Ty, Juan Perez, and Emory Jones) who sharp-eared Hov fans will surely recognize, taking us from their early days hustling in the Marcy Projects all the way to them all sitting courtside in NBA arenas. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill, started-from-the-bottom story of rap friendship. JAY puts these friendships in perspective with his marriage, showing how his priorities have changed over the years and the way that has altered these other relationships. “I ain’t goin’ to nobody nothin’ when me and my wife beefin’/I don’t care if the house on fire, I'm dyin’, nigga, I ain’t leavin'/Ty-Ty take care of my kids, after he done grievin’/If y’all don’t understand that, we ain’t meant to be friends,” he raps. Upon release, the verse was dissected for any possible Kanye shade, but that barely scratches the surface of the song’s true conceit: the friendships worth truly keeping are those that encourage growth. —Grant Rindner
11. Jay Rock, “ES Tales”
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Verse: 2
Best line: “It’s all about that money, mane, miss me with that Trump stuff”
If you want Jay Rock’s mission statement, his core themes, and motivations in one place, look no further than this verse. His Compton is a dystopia: insulated from social media justice and besieged with horrors on the daily. Who are you to tell him different when he snarls, “It’s all about that money, mane, miss me with that Trump stuff”? Don’t you know no good, bitch? No, indeed. —Frazier Tharpe
10. J. Cole, “1985 (Intro to ‘The Fall Off’)”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “Just remember what I told you when your shit flop/In five years you gon’ be on Love & Hip-Hop, nigga”
Showing self-awareness and a sense of humor, J. Cole puts an arm around the SoundCloud generation and offers wisdom from his decade in the game, rapping about money, relevance, and playing into the expectations of cynical hip-hop fans. Using a flow inspired by Phife Dawg on A Tribe Called Quest’s “8 Million Stories,” Cole offers his candid thoughts—copping to his dislike of hip-hop’s new wave, but not speaking from a place of bitterness: “I must say, by your songs I’m unimpressed, hey/But I love to see a black man get paid/And plus, you havin’ fun and I respect that/But have you ever thought about your impact?” Cole does his best to avoid finger-pointing, instead offering frank and practical advice to his younger peers (though the warning about ending up on Love & Hip-Hop is a true gut punch). —Grant Rindner
9. Nipsey Hussle, “Blue Laces 2”
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Verse: 3
Best line: “Really not too spooked, calmly asked me, ‘Am I dyin’ now?’/All I know is keep you calm and collected/Crackin’ jokes like, ‘Nigga, now you gon’ be finally respected’”
Nipsey Hussle’s storytelling abilities take center stage on the last verse of “Blue Laces 2,” where he vividly depicts the aftermath of a shootout. At the heart of the tale is a wounded associate and a race to get him somewhere safe while avoiding the police. The lines play out like a scene from a movie, and knowing these experiences are taken straight from Nipsey’s memory makes the performance that much more moving. “I was overwhelmed because of how truthful it was,” he told NPR. “The third verse, especially, is about a moment in my life.” —Edwin Ortiz
8. Drake, “Duppy Freestyle”
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Verse: 1
Best line: "I told you keep playin’ with my name/And I’mma let it ring on you like Virginia Williams"
Seven months later, the release of “Duppy Freestyle” can only be described as bittersweet. It was Memorial Day weekend, and Pusha had just reignited his beef with the Champagne Papi on DAYTONA’s “Infrared.” Drake stans, including myself, barely had time to process what was happening before our Canadian king unleashed “Duppy Freestyle,” a searing takedown of Kanye West and then, regrettably, Pusha-T. Never one to shy away from theatrics, Drake pulled out all the stops, from the “I’m in shock… the nerve, the audacity” opener to the Instagram invoice to G.O.O.D. Music for “promotional assistance and career reviving.” Listening to “Duppy” for the first time was at once riveting and terrifying. Here was the return of rapper-Drake, back in his bag and unafraid, going straight for the jugular. What consequences would the 6 God face for coming after the crown jewels of Def Jam? Was it worth it?
Today, “Duppy” brings me back to that brief period of optimism, when it seemed like Drake might actually come out on top. The boy opens by putting a stop to the ghostwriting accusations that have plagued him since 2015, reminding Push (and everyone else) that Kanye had requested his help on Pablo’s “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1” and “30 Hours” (and later admitting that Quentin Miller assisted him “a couple of times”). Then comes that infamous warning: “Don’t push me when I’m in album mode.” After poking fun at Kanye for being jealous of Virgil Abloh and calling Push a has-been, Drizzy resurfaces his “Two Birds, One Stone” claims that the Virginia rapper’s drug dealing tales are fabricated. Of course, the impact of his Vanessa Williams (Pusha-T’s fiancée) name-check has since been rendered depressingly obsolete, but there isn’t a contemporary rap fan out there who doesn’t remember hearing that lyric for the first time. Drake forced Pusha’s hand and, in doing so, won the battle. For just a moment, it felt like he might even win the war. —Carolyn Bernucca
7. Royce Da 5’9,” “#Freestyle090 With Funk Flex”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “These niggas hoes, man, it’s sickening/They only goals is get some golds and bitches and/Get on the ’Gram wearin’ a Roc Nation hat”
Every word of Royce’s 10-minute Funk Flex freestyle is worthy of real estate on this list, but let’s focus on the first verse. Something snaps in Royce’s brain as soon as DJ Premier lets the “N.Y. State of Mind” instrumental loose, and he rattles off a ridiculous set of rhymes that confirms his mind really is “like the Japan bullet train, it floats in cycles.” Crossing his arms close to his chest, Royce barks one-liners at anyone he can think of, like a schoolyard bully who’s never faced any consequences for his words. By the end, he’s so fired up about Roc Nation IG imposters that he needs a long swig of water and claims the whole thing’s Flex’s fault. Sheesh. —Eric Skelton
6. Nas, “Echo”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “Haters say it must be nice, I say it must be hate”
Nas is back? “Echo” is better than anything on his disappointing (to some people) NASIR album from this summer. In the first verse of “Echo,” Nas takes us down memory lane as he does what he’s always done best: rap about everything he saw as he came of age in Queens. You can see each line vividly. It’s like Nas’ version of Roma. —Angel Diaz
5. Black Thought, “Twofifteen”
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Verse: 1
Best line: “I heard murder ran this vast, deserted land/Since back when Burning Man was blacks in Birmingham/Before the presidential election diversion scam/Matter fact, before they clapped Franz Ferdinand”
Black Thought ended 2017 with a scorched-earth Funk Flex freestyle and picked up right where he left off with his Streams of Thought Vol. 1 project. The EP opens with “Twofifteen,” an all-encompassing look at the African-American experience in his hometown of Philly, which starts in the warm confines of a church kitchen and ends in the cold, sobering reality of 2018. Along the way, Tariq Trotter dissects every factor that has contributed to our grim state of affairs with the kind of surgical precision Pusha-T used to dismantle Drake. He addresses everything from World War I and racial violence in the segregated South to Donald Trump’s election and the Parkland school shooting. He makes the connections clear, but never veers into the preachy or sanctimonious, a disappointing habit of many veteran rhymers. Black Thought’s pen has only gotten sharper as he inches toward his 50s. —Grant Rindner
4. Lil Wayne, “Let It Fly”
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Verse: 2
Best line: “Tunechi Tune a lunatic, my goonie goons the gooniest”
This is one of those mind-boggling Wayne verses everybody talks about. Vintage Wayne, if you will. There are too many entendres to count, and the wordplay is on some godly shit. Wayne hasn’t lost it in the slightest. He’s literally rapping circles around your favorite rappers. Tunechi Tune a lunatic, his goonie goons the gooniest. Run inside your room and kill you and who you roomin’ with. I could keep going, but you get it. Wayne’s still the best rapper alive. —Angel Diaz
3. JAY-Z, “What’s Free”
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Verse: 3
Best line: “Look at my hair free, carefree, niggas ain't near free/Enjoy your chains—what’s your employer name with the hairpiece?”
Bringing Jigga to guest on a riff of Biggie’s “What’s Beef” makes perfect sense. After all, Hov and Big were the original Jay and B, a close pair whose personal connection (and competitiveness) was reflected in the music they made together. But no one could have expected what JAY did to “What’s Free.” Coming in just days before the album’s release, the verse commanded the entire rap game’s attention when it dropped. So much of it became part of the public conversation that in retrospect it seems insane that all these discussions came from the same 40-odd bars. There was the stuff about Kanye; the shot at Billboard; the lightning-quick rundown of his impressive portfolio. And that’s just the surface. There were also the buried puns about hair products and Seinfeld; the history of soul food as a precursor to modern gentrification (both geographic and cultural); the tribute to Biz Markie-via-Big; and a million other subtleties that we’ll all be unpacking for years to come. Over 20 years after he first told Big’s spirit, “Don’t worry about Brooklyn, I’ll continue the flame,” JAY proved once and for all that some lights never go out. —Shawn Setaro
2. Pusha-T, “The Story of Adidon”
Verse: 1
Best line: “You are hiding a child, let that boy come home”
After dropping what would become the best album of the year in DAYTONA, Push answered rather viciously to Drake’s “Duppy Freestyle.” Only Push and his team know how long he was sitting on this record. While Drake tried to ruin Pusha’s album rollout with his answer to shots he heard on “Infrared,” his arch-nemesis decided to ruin Drake’s Adidas line, drive a wedge between Kanye and Drake, confirm baby mother rumors, question Drake’s identity, shame Drake’s father, and make Drake send out a press release about that unfortunate blackface photoshoot before dropping a response to “The Story of Adidon.” Even though Drake is still putting numbers up, his rap career took a knee-buckling body shot. He’ll be fine, but the fact remains: Pusha won. —Angel Diaz
