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”
25. Young M.A, “Freestyle #055”
24. 21 Savage, “Don’t Come Out the House”
23. Beyoncé, “Apesh*t”
22. Retch, “Throwin’ Sets Down”
21. Kendrick Lamar, “Mona Lisa”
20. Cardi B, “Bickenhead”
19. J. Cole, “A Lot”
18. Roc Marciano, “Muse”
17. Pusha-T, “The Games We Play”
16. Phonte, “So Help Me God”
15. J.I.D, “Off Da Zoinkys”
14. Benny the Butcher, “Broken Bottles”
13. Noname, “Self”
12. JAY-Z, “Friends”
11. Jay Rock, “ES Tales”
10. J. Cole, “1985 (Intro to ‘The Fall Off’)”
9. Nipsey Hussle, “Blue Laces 2”
8. Drake, “Duppy Freestyle”
7. Royce Da 5’9,” “#Freestyle090 With Funk Flex”
6. Nas, “Echo”
5. Black Thought, “Twofifteen”
4. Lil Wayne, “Let It Fly”
3. JAY-Z, “What’s Free”
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