The Best Albums of 2020 (So Far)

Image via Complex Original

Label: RCA Records

Released: March 22

From the way in which it was released, to the tracklist, to its musical footprint, Childish Gambino’s 3.15.20 embraces the experimental. While it may not have the highs of Awaken, My Love! or the flair of Because the Internet, there are still moments that capture Gambino’s impressive creative spark, as he tackles themes of self-love and navigating life in uncertain times with a little help from stars like 21 Savage and Ariana Grande. —Edwin Ortiz

Label: G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam

Released: January 17

070 Shake’s vision of rap is informed by a myriad of influences. There’s the AutoTune drawl of pop stars like Enya, the robotic machinations of 808s-era Kanye, and the emotional vulnerability of Kid Cudi. She’s a 21st century star, able to synthesize signifiers of these artists into something wholly new and thrilling. Modus Vivendi is highlighted by a relentlessly flexible aesthetic. Shake moves from idea to idea with confidence and an ability to link disparate ideas through her singular vision. Modus Vivendi is a feat, and at only 22 years old, just the beginning for 070 Shake. —Will Schube

Label: The Conglomerate Entertainment

Released: March 27

When Roc Marciano spoke with Complex a few months back, there was one artist he was dying to talk about: Stove God Cooks. Roc Marci met Cooks through Lord Jamar and Busta Rhymes, and decided to produce the entirety of Reasonable Drought. “I knew he was a talented dude. We just had to capture it. I had some production for the brother, and I knew that if he did what he was supposed to do, we would put him right on the fast track,” Roc told Complex. And he did. Reasonable Drought is the work of a rapper who, while inspired by Roc, is far from a clone. Stove God Cooks’ phrasing, his vocabulary, and his whole aesthetic is unique and compelling, even if the subject matter and some of the musical backdrops wouldn’t sound out of place on Marcberg or Reloaded. —Shawn Setaro

Label: Alamo/Geffen Records

Released: May 8

Lil Durk makes pain music. The Chicago rapper, who is one of the faces of the city’s post-drill movement raps from a traditional blueprint but does it with a specificity that separates him from the pack. On Just Cause Y’all Waited 2, he moves from tragedy to triumph, a phoenix-like rising from street hustles to gold records and an Alamo record deal. His story makes it easy to root for him, and the consistent quality of his music just seals the deal. —Will Schube

Label: Interscope Records

Released: April 17

DaBaby has heard your criticism about all his songs sounding the same. Blame It on Baby is his album-length response to Twitter trolls and, ahem, music critics who want to hear more variation. Don’t worry, though: there’s still plenty of his patented rapid trip-uh-let flows over spare trap beats, especially towards the project’s beginning. But when he really tries for something different, as on the beat-switching title track or the emotional and melodic “Sad Shit,” the results are exceptional. It doesn’t always work—there’s a little too much about how he loves the ladies, without any real introspection or storytelling to hold the listener’s interest—but overall, the project proves that DaBaby is good for far more than just two minutes of straight spitting. And whether he keeps experimenting from here or returns to form, this album has left us all anxious to hear where DaBaby is headed next. —Shawn Setaro

Label: Backwoodz Studios

Released: June 5

Elucid and billy woods are on a hell of a run. The rappers, who together form the group Armand Hammer, have separately, together, and in tandem with other artists (shout out to Nostrum Grocers) given us some of the best rap music of the past half-decade or so. The group really found its footing with 2017’s superb Rome, and broke out with the instant classic, Parrafin, the following year. Shrines is a more communal effort than the nearly feature-less Paraffin. It features a ton of woods and Elucid’s peers in their arty universe: Quelle Chris, R.A.P. Ferreira, Pink Siifu, Akai Solo, and even Earl Sweatshirt, the last of whom has long proclaimed his admiration for woods. The guests serve to enhance woods and Elucid’s worldview and aesthetic, rather than detract from it. The duo’s layered, abstract approach is intact. In their universe, you’re quoting Howling Wolf one second, Nas the next, and talking about the Nag Hammadi library in between. There’s no place I’d rather be. —Shawn Setaro

Label: GRND.WRK/EMPIRE

Released: February 21

There’s a long lineage of rappers who excel on classic Bay Area beats—fitting naturally on their prominent bass, glossy synths, and crisp drums—and Oakland’s Kamaiyah deserves to be mentioned in the top tier. Following her turbulent major label deal with Interscope, Got It Made is something of a back-to-basics mixtape for the now-independent Kamaiyah, but her confidence is far from shaken. Over a crisp 10 songs, she reels off some of her best hooks and verses since her 2016 breakout A Good Night in the Ghetto.  “Didn't come back to kick no shit and be friendly/I came back to kill off all of y'all ingrates,” she raps on “Pressure.” On “1-800-IM-HORNY,” she mixes in a dash of New Orleans bounce, resulting in a high-octane club song that sounds like it could’ve been a local hit in two totally unique rap scenes. Got It Made closes with the emotional “10 Toes High,” a self-affirmation song where Kamaiyah looks back on a career, already filled with triumphs and setbacks. “West Coast culture, I’m embedded in it,” she says, and that status is unlikely to change anytime soon. —Grant Rindner

Label: Asylum Worldwide LLC

Released: March 19

The best Sada Baby songs should come with bibliographies. The wily, surprisingly versatile Detroit rapper packs his tracks with so many colorful references, from classic cartoons to ’80s wrestlers to NBA players who barely had a cup of coffee in the league, that it’s impossible to catch it all on first listen.The sequel to his breakout mixtape, 2017’s Skuba Sada, Skuba Sada 2 contains several of his idiosyncratic YouTube hits (“Slide,” “2K20,” “Aktivated”), and a handful of new tracks where he continues to hone a singular style. “Off White Whoop” is a winner, as Sada lists all the ways he controls an opp’s neighborhood with such godly authority it sounds like he’s reading off biblical commandments, while “Pressin” with King Von is one of the most menacing midwestern rap songs this side of G Herbo and Lil Bibby’s “Kill Shit.” Sada’s studio debut is on the way, and if this is how strong his loosies sound, that project is sure to be a revelation. —Grant Rindner

Label: Relentless Records/Sony Music UK

Released: April 3

Sonically, GANG is a slick survey of modern U.K. music, featuring pummeling drill (“Charades”), glitchy garage (“Smoke” with Jamie xx), and impressionistic indie R&B (“Judge Me” with FKA Twigs). What unites it are Headie One’s heartfelt vocals, whether he’s rapping about the co-opting of the drill sound, a gut-wrenching breakup, or his own steady rise through the London rap scene. Headie One is an exceptionally nimble rapper, capable of injecting subtle melodies into his flows or spitting with staccato precision. Headie and producer Fred again.. prove to be a potent pairing, touching on a world of sounds in just 22 minutes. Let’s hope their next project is a quadruple album. —Grant Rindner

Label: 1501 Certified Entertainment/300 Entertainment

Released: March 6

Suga came out of a very complicated and messy legal situation involving Megan and her label. So it makes sense that it’s a bit of a disjointed project. The first three songs are stellar. Megan is bursting with energy, and with lyrical and rhythmic and dynamic ideas. She sounds like a superstar. But the actual star-making machinery of the pop world chews her up at the end of Suga, with the project’s three last songs featuring heavily pitch-corrected singing that drowns all of the fun and originality out of Megan’s work. If Thee Stallion can continue to harness the energy and ideas of Suga’s first few tracks, though, we may well have another Texas rap legend on our hands. —Shawn Setaro

Label: Paper Route EMPIRE

Released: January 31

The Yellow Tape isn’t an album you should shuffle or pick through. It’s a project worth sitting with. What you will discover is a mournful, yet triumphant history lesson about Key Glock’s life growing up in the trenches. He starts from the very beginning with “1997,” a song that chronicles his first moments in the world. Then he takes us through his child-rearing, sprinkling in words of wisdom he collected from his grandmother (“What Goes Around, Comes Around”) and aunt (“Crash”). By the end of The Yellow Tape, you’ll get a better understanding of who Key Glock is and what he stands for, which only makes us more interested to hear what’s next for an endlessly talented young artist. —Jessica McKinney

Label: Warner Records

Released: March 13

On “Industry Games,” CHIKA chides artists who make rap but lack a true passion for the music. Throughout the rest of her acclaimed EP, the rapper and singer showcases not just a deep reverence for the genre, but an ability to consistently excel on vastly different beats. “Designer” begins as a trap song with CHIKA rapping in pristine triplets, but a beat change creeps up, turning the track into a soul-sampling mission statement. “I’m over tip-toein’ around the problems, honey/I been steady cryin’ and dyin’, it ain't about the money,” she says. She further shows her versatility on “Crown,” which pairs a joyous gospel beat with hard-hitting lyrics about depression and self-doubt, as well as “Songs About You,” a breezy, neo soul-tinged record about manifestation and success. “I met Hov last week, that shit was hella cool/Diddy introduced me as the best of the new school,” she raps nonchalantly on the latter. After one listen to Industry Games, it’s clear why hip-hop legends are paying attention to CHIKA. —Grant Rindner

Label: Mozzy Records/EMPIRE

Released: May 1

Despite having released many projects over the last decade, Mozzy doesn’t sound anywhere close to running out of gripping street tales on Beyond Bulletproof. From the opening bars of “Unethical & Deceitful,” in which Mozzy kicks over a tribute candle at an enemy’s memorial, every verse is graphic, gritty, and guileful. His veteran weariness shows through on “Bulletproofly” and “Betrayed,” tracks where the Sacramento rapper shakes his head at friends and acquaintances failing to adhere to the code. Mozzy could comfortably carry a project like this solo, but one of the things that’s kept him sharp over the years is his ear for young talent. Collaborations with Polo G, Shordie Shordie, and Lil Poppa help place his commanding voice in new contexts. Ever prolific, Mozzy will probably drop again in the next few months, but there’s more than enough on Beyond Bulletproof to tide us over until 2021. —Grant Rindner

Label: Machine Entertainment Group/Epic Records

Released: February 28

G Herbo is remarkably only 24 years old. He’s been on the scene since 2012, when as a 16 year old, he dropped out of high school and began rapping with Lil Bibby. He’s made a name for himself as a brilliant lyricist within the drill scene, and on PTSD, he proves that he’s only getting better. The album boasts a staggering guestlist, with features from 21 Savage, Chance the Rapper, JUICE WRLD, Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, and more. With so many other stars surrounding him, though, Herbo still manages to stand out as an unequivocally unique voice. No longer limited to the confines of Chicago’s drill landscape, G Herbo is now becoming a national entity. —Will Schube

Label: February 21

Released: eOne Music

As a member of a squad as ferocious as Slaughterhouse was, it’s been awesome to see Royce da 5’9 be the one who has been the most consistent in terms of output. Just look at the last six years of his career. He’s dropped multiple projects with DJ Premier, as well as steadily released solo projects, The Allegory being the eighth solo studio project from the Detroit emcee. It’s a testament to how he’s improved both as a writer and a selector of sound; he’s operating at the peak of his abilities here. It may be on the long-ish side, but the handful of interludes laced throughout the album are well worth hearing Royce spaz on a beat. —khal

Label: Cactus Jack/Atlantic

Released: March 13

Don Toliver’s momentum leading up to Heaven or Hell was astounding. In December 2019, “No Idea” was rising up the top half of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and he was the breakout star of the Travis Scott collective Cactus Jack project, JACKBOYS, stealing the show on the tape’s best song, “What to Do?” Then, mid-March hit, #StayAtHome hit, and the Houston native delivered a quarantine lifeline with an album full of atmospheric music, hazy production, and infectious hooks. Fans introduced to Toliver via Travis Scott’s “Can’t Say” weren’t disappointed with much of the same. “Cardigan,” which appropriately popped up for a split second in the Travis Scott Netflix documentary, sounds like it could have been slotted right into Astroworld. Unsurprisingly, three of the song’s tracks were made in the Hawaii sessions that delivered La Flame’s 2018 LP. Production highlights on the project include the piano and soothing synths underneath the Travis and Kaash Paige-assisted “Euphoria,” as well as the guitar on the Mike Dean-produced “Company,” which features a smooth and satisfying outro. Other standouts like “After Party” and “Had Enough” are tailor-made for would-be playlists at would-be parties this spring—if only 2020 hadn’t 2020’d. The 12-track album won’t do much to distance Toliver from his mentor, but it delivers on its face-value promise: an album full of enjoyable melodies and enough memorable hooks that’ll keep it in rotation through 2021. —Waiss Aramesh

Label: Freebandz/Epic Records

Released: May 15

High Off Life finds Future aggressively diving into everything we love about him. He’s mean yet heartbroken, menacing but a softy to those he loves. In lesser hands, a run of albums, mixtapes, and singles that tread a singular terrain over and over again would fall apart. But Future is a wizard because he’s able to mine his one-of-a-kind style over and over, and it never gets old. High Off Life features some classic Future songs, like “Posted with Demons,” but mostly, it’s just another very solid effort from a true original. —Will Schube

Label: Young Money Records/Republic Records

Released: January 31

Lil Wayne’s thirteenth studio album has glimpses of genius towards the beginning, with standout tracks like “Mama Mia,” and the Mannie Fresh-produced cuts “Mahogany” and “Piano Trap.” Those moments of brilliance fade a bit towards the middle as Tunechi loses focus, drowning in bizarre production and ill-selected features, but putting those missteps aside, Wayne’s technical skills as a rapper are still there. He’s sharp and aggressive when the song calls for it, punny at the appropriate moments, and melodic and sentimental when needed. Wayne may be removed from his heyday in the early 2000s, but he still proves to be one of rap’s heavy-hitters on Funeral. —Jessica McKinney

Label: Def Jam Recordings

Released: March 6

Jhené Aiko is more grounded and centered than ever before on Chilombo. After spending much of her early catalog tackling grief, Aiko draws her attention to exploring romantic love—its high and low moments—with more focus and intent than she ever has before. Aiko has a knack for creating soothing music with clear storytelling and velvety vocals, as she comfortably nestles in her power zone on this album. Creating each song with alchemy crystal singing bowls, the singer challenges her audience to look deeper, discovering how each track connects with a different chakra. But where she succeeds most is her relatability. She’s wise in some moments, and sensual (“Pussy Fairy OTW”), rebellious (“B.S.”) and passionate (“Triggered”) in others. —Jessica McKinney

Label: Brainfeeder

Released: April 3

Wizard bassist Thundercat is an enigma in the music industry. He’s cool enough to score an episode of Atlanta and work on Kendrick’s Grammy-winning To Pimp a Butterfly, but can also drop an album featuring the likes of Childish Gambino, Lil B, and Zack Fox, and still be able to exist on the lower of keys. It Is What It Is, Thundercat’s fourth album, doesn’t surpass the heights he reached on 2017’s Drunk, but highlights on this album like “Dragonball Durag,” “Black Qualls,” and “Fair Chance” stand up with many of Thundercat’s finest. On an album dedicated to the memory of Mac Miller, Thundercat uses his humor to help express his pain, and continues to be a vibrant force in the leftfield music lane. —khal

Label: Warner Records UK

Released: March 27

Dua Lipa’s empowering and intoxicating spirit is ever-present on Future Nostalgia. The album sounds like an essential pop playlist, packed with bold dance songs that are reminiscent of ’80s disco and funk music. She sometimes takes a break from the upbeat tempo on tracks like “Cool” and “Boys Will Be Boys,” but she never strays away for long. While Dua channels the bravado of the pop royalty that came before her, her unique tone and carefree attitude on records like “Don’t Start Now” and “Good In Bed” proves that she is in a category all on her own. Dua kicks off the album with a sassy response that likely addresses critics who have yet to place her sound. “I know you’re dying to figure me out,” she sings on the title track. While this may have been true at the beginning, any lingering confusion is kicked aside by the time the final song concludes. —Jessica McKinney

Label: ALC/EMPIRE

Released: March 30

Those Griselda boys keep serving marvelously dense packs in 2020, like they didn’t put up a quality 2019. There’s no rest for the wicked, which is the best way to describe the combination of Conway and Alchemist, who is one of the most captivating producers of our time. If you’re familiar with these two, you can smell it coming through the pack, and cuts like “14 KI’s” exemplify just how raw and delicious this collab is for hip-hop lovers. The project is light on features, and Conway makes his guest picks count. Schoolboy Q is very capable over ALC instrumentals, and at this point in 2020, it feels like Conway was the only artist who could get Cormega to take it back on “They Got Sonny.” At this point, anything Griselda-related is guaranteed satisfaction before you rip off the plastic, and with so much material hitting the streets, you truly don’t need to listen to anyone else. Word to LULU. —khal

Label: True Panther Sounds/XL Recordings/Matador Records

Released: February 21

Man Alive! is vintage King Krule from its very first moments. Distorted, garbled guitar mixes with feedback and whirring synths, inviting us back into Archy Marshall’s warped world, one that’s always expanding in subtle ways. His last album, 2017’s The Ooz, was an appropriately murky mix of songs that blended into one another, and though Man Alive! is hardly clean cut, the individual songs are able to better rise and differentiate themselves. “Stoned Again” is a howling embodiment of the harshest bong rip you’ve ever taken. “Underclass” is a jazzy ode to finding love in the gutter, replete with warm, wafting saxophones. King Krule’s universe remains hazy as streetlights in the fog, but on Man Alive!, his vision is as clear as it’s ever been. —Grant Rindner

Label: PH Recordings/Loma Vista Recordings

Released: February 6

Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats don’t waste a second on their joint EP, Unlocked, which functions as an 18-minute survey of rap sounds from ’00s West Coast (“Pyro”) to old school New York (“Take_it_Back_v2”) to gleefully demonic trap (“Lay_Up.m4a”). Both Curry and Kenny have proved themselves chameleonic in their careers thus far, and they consistently complement each other here. Denzel’s raspy flow adds intensity to the airy “So.Incredible.pkg” and switches pitches with abandon on “Track07,” while Kenny graces the project with some of his most unpredictable instrumentals. Last year, Denzel had one of the best episodes of Kenny’s The Cave freestyle show, and that chemistry carries over to Unlocked, a brief project that offers listeners a whole world to explore. —Grant Rindner

Label: ALC/Boldy James

Released: February 7

The old saying about making your work universal by being specific may have been beaten into the ground by lazy creative writing teachers, but Boldy James proves the truth of that dictum. On The Price of Tea in China, the Detroit rapper doesn’t just talk about drug dealing and street life in the abstract. It’s about deaths in his family and the never-ending beefs they inspire. It’s dumping a particular make of gun “with the barrel smoking.” It’s worries that his time on the wrong side of the law will make “my son think that I don’t love him.” And all of this is set to ominous Alchemist beats that perfectly match the mood of each track. Even the producer’s interludes are well-thought-out, as they move us smoothly from one track to another. By the time Boldy makes a Coming to America joke on “Speed Demon Freestyle,” it’s a rare and well-needed moment of levity. The singularity of the mood, the detail in the writing, and the coherence and beauty of the sound make this not only Boldy’s strongest release to date, but one of the best rap albums of the year, period. —Shawn Setaro

Label: February 24

Released: RCA Records

“You motherfuckers don't understand where the fuck I'm coming from,” Young Nudy laments on “Understanding,” the opening track of Anyways. “So I had to explain to you motherf*ukers where the fuck I'm coming from.” He proceeds to spend the next hour getting listeners fully up to speed, holding court sans features atop a collection of cloudy, glitchy, and downright strange beats. Nudy has always been a natural collaborator—strong guest verses and an acclaimed mixtape with Pi’erre Bourne prove as much—but Anyways is the project that establishes him as a true solo star. “A Nudy Story” is a breathtaking, richly detailed autobiography in which he recalls meeting and making peace with his estranged father, and affirms his loyalty to those who’ve stuck with him this long. “That’s Why” is woozy and dreamy enough that Nudy’s threat of pulling a Freddie Kreuger lands especially hard. As crowded as the Atlanta A-list can feel, it needs to make room for Nudy. —Grant Rindner

Label: OVO/Republic Records

Released: May 1

Dark Lane Demo Tapes is a warmup. Hours before releasing the 14-song project, Drake urged everyone not to think of it as an album. “My brothers Oliver El Khatib and OVO Noel put together a lot of the songs people have been asking for (some leaks and some joints from SoundCloud and some new vibes),” he wrote on Instagram. Just like that, he lowered the stakes and gave himself a chance to share some ideas that wouldn’t have made sense on a proper album. We hear Drake playing around with SoundCloud-era sounds (“From Florida With Love,” “Pain 1993”), drill (“Demons,” “War”), introspective raps (“Losses,” “Chicago Freestyle”), and dance records (“Toosie Slide”) on the same project. There’s no cohesion here and no obvious summer anthem, but there doesn’t need to be. This is Mixtape Drake, throwing songs at a wall and seeing what sticks. What he ended up with was another No. 1 hit (“Toosie”), hundreds of millions of streams, and a handful of standout gems that’ll hold us over until his self-proclaimed “lucky number” sixth studio album drops. Not bad for an appetizer. —Eric Skelton

Label: CBE/RCA

Released: May 8

Collaborative projects in hip-hop were long ago deemed as longshots. It’s a 1000-to-1 chance of ego, schedule, and creativity aligning to yield a musical marriage that sounds neither alien nor forced. When they do happen, it’s like a lightning strike (from you know, God or Zeus, maybe). But something about What a Time to Be Alive made the pipe dream a reality and an attainable one at that. Ever since, we’ve been inundated with too much of a good thing. Artists link up for six tracks they made in six days all the time now, and the returns are more often diminishing than not. But for every pairing that feels like it was predestined, there’s one that seems, frankly, random as hell (which honestly makes it even sweeter when it turns out to be a slap). I don’t know if I was even aware Chris and Thug knew each other, much less liked each other enough to give us 10 tracks of absolute heat, but here we are. (Yes, I know Young Thug featured on two CB tracks in the past, take a joke.) 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, in retrospect. Love or hate Chris Brown, the man has an undeniably effortless approach to earworm melodies and hooks. Compare that with the precision of a croon-happy Young Thug, who at the very least makes the finished product seem just as easy, and you get a rap-R&B hybrid that recalls the Fan of a Fan energy, only with (no shots) better rapping. With minimal guests, producers familiar to both artists, and a mercifully lean running time—nothing short of a blessing when it comes to Chris Brown these days—this is a lean-and-yayo nutcracker of breezy fun just waiting to soundtrack the clubs whenever they re-open. There’s no telling if this is the start of a fruitful and frequent partnership, or just two stars’ ships passing in the L.A. nights, but that uncertainty makes it even more thrilling. —Frazier Tharpe

Label: Lost Kids

Released: February 7

Fuck the World wastes no time. With 10 tracks, Brent Faiyaz presents a concise body of work that depicts a world with loose rules. He’s ruthless on songs like “Rehab (Winter in Paris)” and “Fuck the World (Summer in London),” which illustrate his detachment in romantic flings, but he’s gentle and soothing on ethereal records like “Clouded.” On F*ck the World, Brent Faiyaz continues to push the boundaries of what R&B in 2020 can sound like, and we love what we hear. —Jessica McKinney

Label: Winners Circle/EMPIRE

Released: May 15

Sheff G may be the closest thing to a traditionalist to emerge from Brooklyn’s burgeoning drill scene. One and Only, though, is only nominally a drill album. While there are moments like the menacing “No Suburban, Pt. 2,” elsewhere, the Flatbush native switches modes, turning introspective over more conventional production on songs like “Fear Over Love” and “Once I’m Gone,” as he experiments with deliveries. Every track doesn’t hit, but throughout the project, Sheff shows that he has the technical acumen to transcend the subgenre he helped establish. Time will tell if he needs to. —Lucas Wisenthal

Label: Alamo Records

Released: April 3

Rod Wave is sad, and he’s not afraid to tell you as much. Apparently, we’re all sad, too, because his two LPs, 2019’s Ghetto Gospel and Pray 4 Love from April of this year, have both peaked in the top 10 on Billboard’s charts. It’s easy to see why. The St. Petersburg, Florida rapper has a way of turning his pain into universal truths, like on album closer “Dark Clouds,” which ends the album on both a high musical note and a wildly low personal note. He’s sad and he’s homesick. Aren’t we all? Rod Wave emerged as a Kevin Gates disciple but has quickly moved from that shadow into his own lane. His style is singular and he’s relentless in pursuing personal truths and turning them into human values. Pray 4 Love finds Rod Wave submitting to his desires and fears. Very few rappers can turn pain into something so beautiful. —Will Schube

Label: Ironworks Records

Released: May 7

What can be said about Ka that hasn’t already been said about other gods of rap? The Brooklyn firefighter, who moonlights as one of rap’s greatest hidden gems, prefers to operate under the radar, dropping music whenever he sees fit. His projects almost always have themes, executed through the use of various samples of media, whether that be old records, tv shows, or movies. Descendants of Cain is no different, except this album has a much darker feel than his previous work. There’s jewels abound as Ka’s underrated lyricism hovers over his bleak production like a dark cloud ready to replenish the earth it spills onto. It’s always the quietest before the storm, and that’s what Ka’s style reminds you of. Once you’re done consuming Cain, you feel refreshed like the smell of rain on a hot day. “It’s hard to say, every sentence is pain/Brothers killing brothers, descendants of Cain/Props if getting knocked, no mentionin’ names/I had to steal, all that time I spent in the flame,” Ka raps on the chorus of “Solitude of Enoch,” as to say the harsh environment in America’s ghettos breeds contempt. Ka’s music is best to be heard at night with headphones on, so you can escape to a place more desolate than ours, and return with more wisdom than you had before. —Angel Diaz

Label: TSNMI/Atlantic

Released: May 8

A lot has happened in Kehlani’s life since the release of her debut album back in January 2017: the birth of her daughter Adeya, a critically-acclaimed mixtape While We Wait, platinum single “Nights Like This” with close friend Ty Dolla $ign, and more. Now, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t tells all aspects of a relationship’s highs and lows, as well as the contradictions that come in between. Kehlani’s internal debate on love is no better reflected than on the James Blake-assisted “Grieving,” where she mourns the conclusion of a relationship she understands had to end. “The option was to stay and ride/Or to let it die/I picked a side, now I’m just grieving.” Don’t get it twisted, though. Kehlani didn’t follow up an album called SexySweetSavage with a project of sad songs pining over a man. This thing has an abundance of bad-bitch energy, with a Megan Thee Stallion-assisted “Real Hot Girl Skit, a long-awaited Jhene Aiko collaboration “Change Your Life,” and more. Across IWGUIW, Kehlani also confronts the harsh realities that come with being honest with yourself through a breakup. “I get real accountable when I’m alone/I get real about it all when I’m alone,” she muses on album standout “Toxic.” The album shines brightest when these reflections manifest themselves into Kehlani’s silky vocals over dark, moody, sultry beats. —Waiss Aramesh

Label: Dirty Hit/Polydor Records/Interscope Records

Released: May 22

Many have deemed Notes On a Conditional Form The 1975’s grand maximalist statement. But Matt Healy is no stranger to doing the most. (Recall the run-on sentence title of their breakthrough sophomore album.) A 20+ track, 80-minute hodgepodge of every genre the band has dabbled in before was inevitable. The excess only really works against them in comparison to their past work. Nothing on here quite matches the peaks of their previous release, which has at least three of the best songs they’ve ever made. But Healy has a special gift for making saccharine earnestness soar, for making sonic interpolations and influences seem genuine instead of vulture-y, and for making even the band’s wildest experiments at least respectable in their effort. 

What a long album sacrifices in cohesion it makes up for with variety. Notes has small ballads with incisive writing and rich scene-setting like “The Birthday Party,” as well as requisite big pop tracks. But nothing about this group is formulaic. Healy’s penchant for experimentation is often a criticism when it should be heralded as a thrill—“If You’re Too Shy” is a romcom music supervisor’s wet dream and stealth Prince homage. “Me & You Together Song” is ‘90s Freddie Prinze, Jr. music, sitting right beside a singular alt-R&B fusion like “Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy).” Whether he’s singing with wistful country twang (“Roadkill,” arguably the best track) or annotating his own lyrics as baseless boasts (“I never fucked in a car, I was lying” he admits of the opening lines on “Nothing Revealed/Everything Denied”), more of it connects than not. 

The album may be a season finale of sorts to the bands “Music for Cars” era (IYKYK), but ending on “Guys,” a “me and the boys” meme writ large, feels like it’s heralding a long break. Hopefully they don’t sit the game out for too long, because even at this excess, I can’t wait to see what they try next. Healy once tweeted “Young Thug.” Imagine that? —Frazier Tharpe

Label: N/A

Released: April 15

Kenny Mason may not be exactly what you might expect from Atlanta’s rap scene right now, but he’s a rising star who is bringing a fresh new energy to the city. Angelic Hoodrat is an experimental project that combines Kenny’s many musical inspirations and tastes. He moves freely from alt-rock sounds on “Metal Wings” to soaring melodies on “Anti-Gravity” to pure rap flows on “HIT.” Combining so many genres and sounds on a 14-track project could be chaotic, but he never loses focus here. Angelic Hoodrat is an exceptionally compelling listen, with no skips. Kenny is still a mystery to much of the rap world, but his debut album makes one hell of an introduction, foreshadowing a long, successful career ahead. —Jessica McKinney

Label: Epic Records

Released: April 17

Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters has all the joy, chaos, and warped edges of a truly homemade product, but her songwriting ensures everyone will see themselves reflected in the music. From the perverse feeling of being praised by a bully (“Shameika”) to the weight of depression (“Heavy Balloon”) to the cyclical nature of pain and hurt (“Relay”) and even the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh (“For Her”), Fetch the Bolt Cutters grapples with all the messiness of life today. Though the songs all share a cacophonic quality that has long been part of Apple’s sound, each feels wholly its own. Apple’s wildly expressive voice remains one of the most unique tools in modern music. She can wring every ounce of meaning from phrases like “I would beg to disagree/But begging disagrees with me,” and can take the listener on a full emotional arc just by changing her inflection. We likely won’t be getting another Fiona Apple album for a long time, but Fetch the Bolt Cutters is the kind of record that will feel as vital and urgent a decade from now as it did the day it was released. —Grant Rindner

Label: Jewel Runners LLC

Released: June 3

The dynasty continues. Run the Jewels are a factory, churning out variations of one overarching sound. You know exactly what you’re gonna get with Run the Jewels, and on the fourth installment of the project, El-P and Killer Mike have turned in a monumental fuck you to oppressors, haters, and anyone with the bullshit. RTJ have always made revolutionary, prescient music, but the release of RTJ4 feels especially prescient. In the middle of a nationwide awakening, El and Mike decided to push up the release of their album to mirror the mighty stand of Black people against police brutality and racism. On the stellar Gangsta Boo-assisted “Walking in the Snow,” Killer Mike raps, “You so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me/ Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, ‘I can't breathe’/And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV/The most you give is a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy." Talk is no longer enough. Being an ally only works when you’re in the street, alongside those being systematically targeted by violent cops. 

RTJ are the perfect group for our moment in time, again and again. The duo have gone from an intriguing side project to world-beating hip-hop force. RTJ4 features 2 Chainz, Mavis Staples, Pharrell, Zack de la Rocha, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Greg Nice, and DJ motherfucking Premier. That diversity of talent offers a telling foreshadow into what El and Mike do on the album. It’s the most sonically daring project they’ve released, moving from noisy experimental beats to a futuristic take on new jack swing. It’s easy to hear how comfortable El and Mike are with each other, but also how willing they are to take chances now that they’ve established themselves as a force within mainstream rap. It’s quietly experimental while still unequivocally remaining a Run the Jewels album. —Will Schube

Label: Rimas Entertainment LLC

Released: February 29

Bad Bunny always tries to work with everybody in his lane, whether it be veterans in the genre like Ñengo Flow and Daddy Yankee or peers like Sech and Myke Towers. Puerto Rico is like Atlanta that way. Most of the rappers in those areas collaborate often, resulting in much better music. Bunny’s sophomore album was supposed to run the summer in terms of sound, even more so because it bridges the gap between the old and the new. He already had very little to prove, yet continued to push the sound of reggaeton further than anybody before him. “Yo Perreo Sola” was ready to take off before COVID hit, relegating everyone to dance in their houses. Whether it’s in his music, or interesting music videos like the one he made for “Yo Perreo Sola,” Bunny knows how to make himself the topic of conversation, and he has handled his new-found stardom with grace so far. When the world opens back up again, YHLQMDLG will have its day again, but for now we’ll have to settle for dancing alone. —Angel Diaz

Label: YSL Records/300 Entertainment

Released: May 22

It’s still hysterical that Gunna called his new album Wunna. Even more so that it’s a shoddily constructed acronym that the rapper put together while stoned. But Gunna just likes having fun, and Wunna is an extremely good time. It’s a relaxed album, and Gunna doesn’t tread too far from his signature territory: he needs a nice fitting pair of designer jeans, some watches, and a fleet of cars. A few women would be nice, too. From there, he just talks, describing his life like a nature documentary narrator, viewing his exploits from his own POV and relaying the tales to his eager audience. It’s his first chart-topping LP, and deservedly so. It features Thug and Lil Baby and Roddy Ricch, but the features don’t seem like grabs for streaming numbers. His work with Lil Baby is impeachable, and Young Thug is his musical dad. Roddy kills his verse, and Gunna stands in the background throughout it all, smiling, totally unsurprised that he’s on top of the world. —Will Schube

Label: Roc Nation

Released: March 13

The enigma that is Jay Electronica will always keep folks interested. The fact that he delivered an album as good as A Written Testimony after a decade of pump fakes only adds to his legend. Like most of his catalog, this album will age well, and considering the state America is in right now, it already has. The unrest happening now is a theme Jay Elec has weaved into his music since he blew the doors off the industry with “Exhibit C.” Farrakhan speeches, surahs from the Qur’an, and Black Power raps is what one would expect from Mr. Flowers. And the fact he brought Jigga along for the ride made this project well worth the wait. From jump, the album pulls you into the mind of one of rap’s most mythical figures, who handled the brunt of the production, and still, it’s Jay-Z’s voice you hear first. Operating more as a collab album than a solo debut, it reminded me of Ghost and Rae on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… and the two Jays have almost as much chemistry as their Wu counterparts. Jay Electronica gets vulnerable on here, too, an underrated quality of his, as he touches on his reluctance to climb the mighty high ladder he built for himself. Bars like, “Sometimes I was held down by the gravity of my pen/Sometimes I was held down by the gravity of my sin/Sometimes, like Santiago, at crucial points of my novel/My only logical option was to transform into the wind,” try to explain why this took so long. While “The Ghost of Soulja Slim” might be my favorite song on the album, it’s “Ezekiel's Wheel” that remains A Written Testimony’s thesis. Let’s just hope Jay Electronica sticks around this time. We need him now more than ever. —Angel Diaz

Label: OVO Sound/Warner Records

Released: April 17

After releasing two albums that showcased their take on alternative R&B with a throwback feel, Dvsn expanded their sound with A Muse in Her Feelings. “The last couple of albums were a little bit more consistent in whatever that feeling was being the majority of the album,” producer Nineteen85 told Complex Canada. “This one has so many different feelings.” The approach paid off, as the OVO Sound duo scale across club-ready performances (“No Cryin”), dancehall-tinged backdrops (“So What”), and soaring ballads (“... Again”) that fit into the sequencing of the project. The run from “Dangerous City” to “‘Flawless' Do It Well Pt. 3” is particularly great, each track’s ending offering an interlude-like build into the next record. Singer-songwriter Daniel Daley captures the emotion and vulnerability of working on relationship woes throughout, with “No Good” and “For Us” reinforcing what’s made Dvsn a standout act. The majority of the guest list also works in their favor (they previously featured a total of zero artists on Sept. 5th and Morning After), as the likes of Future, Snoh Aalegra, Popcaan, and Summer Walker blend into the narrative seamlessly. With A Muse in Her Feelings, Dvsn push the future of R&B forward. —Edwin Ortiz

Label: Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic Records

Released: February 7

Less than two weeks before his tragic death, Pop Smoke released Meet the Woo 2, a project that showcased his endless potential and proved he had plenty more to offer after the breakout success of “Welcome to the Party” and “Dior.” His hauntingly low register anchored the project, as he effortlessly rapped over gliding-bass-heavy production in a way that couldn’t be duplicated, even while a growing number of mainstream artists were attempting to ride the wave of Brooklyn’s exploding drill scene. Pop built on his signature sound on songs like “Invincible” and “Christopher Walking,” but he also made time to flex his diverse skill set throughout the rest of the 13-song tracklist. On standouts like “Element” and “Like Me,” Pop showed his versatility, introducing R&B-inspired bars and playing around with different flows, while staying true to his winning formula. The project solidified Pop Smoke’s place as the clear leader of Brooklyn’s drill movement and the city’s most exciting new artist. On “Christopher Walking,” he makes a point of uttering the phrase “King of New York,” which was beginning to feel like a realistic title when Meet the Woo 2 arrived. Pop Smoke was only just getting started. —Jessica McKinney

Label: Columbia Records

Released: May 15

With a title like The GOAT, it was imperative that Polo G bring his A-game. It was an ambitious and bold claim for a rookie, but Polo G was prepared to back up the assertion with witty wordplay, harrowing storytelling, and youthful enthusiasm. Polo’s music isn’t for the weak-hearted. The album oozes pain as he recites agonizing stories about his fallen friends, including Juice WRLD, whom he memorializes on “Flex” and “21.” But amid the challenges, there is a sense of hope that prevails as he looks to his newfound lifestyle among the palm trees in California. Shortly after the album dropped, Polo G told Complex that he believed The GOAT should be in the conversation about the very best releases of 2020 so far. “I feel like it’s up there with some of the top dogs who just released projects,” he explained. “I feel like I expressed myself in a unique way.” He was right. The GOAT confirms the fact that Polo G has firmly arrived as one of rap’s best new artists. —Jessica McKinney

Label: Capitol Records/Motown/Wolfpack Music Group/Quality Control Music

Released: February 28

Lil Baby had shown plenty of great flashes before 2020—Harder Than Ever made him a mainstream star, Drip Harder with Gunna proved he had the ability to blend in or stand out when necessary, and Street Gossip had sustained stretches of truly excellent rapping—but My Turn is his coronation. Carrying a 20-track album with only a handful of features is no easy feat, but Baby manages it with improved hooks, a deep bag of woozy, singsong flows, and lyrics that balance novel boasts (“Aventador on the ground like a skateboard”) with revealing personal insights (“Watched my lil’ boy play with toys, I just dropped a tear of joy”). Gliding on 808-driven anthems like “Commercial” and “No Sucker” is second nature for Baby at this point, but on tracks like “Emotionally Scarred” and “Catch the Sun,” he demonstrates a newfound sensitivity that, combined with his quavery vocal delivery, shows some tenderness beneath his gruff exterior. “By time I get 40, I gotta be one of them greats,” Baby raps on “Sum 2 Prove.” After hearing My Turn, it sounds like he might get there well ahead of schedule. —Grant Rindner

Label: Warner Records

Released: January 17

“Some people say they want to live forever,” Mac Miller sings on “Complicated.” “And that’s way too long.” Miller’s posthumous album, completed by Jon Brion, is a wonderful and sad addition to Mac’s discography. It’s hardly a rap album at all—more of a singer-songwriter record with some great rapping sprinkled in at key points. Miller sounds incredibly confident in his lyrics, melodies, and, more importantly, his ability to express emotion and meaning through his singing. He lets his voice carry the record, even at moments when he’s at the very top of his vocal range. There’s a waltz, a bass guitar solo, and arrangements that are complicated and lively without being busy or overbearing. “Why can’t it be easy?” Miller wonders on “Good News.” Life may have been difficult for Mac Miller, but he left this album behind to make it a little bit easier for all of us. —Shawn Setaro

Label: Griselda Records

Released: April 17

The Griselda crew has been on an incredible run for the last half-decade or so, and Westside Gunn is a big reason why. Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher had both been trying to make a go of things for years, but it took Gunn’s vision to really make things happen. That vision, from the beginning, has involved mixing high and low culture. Pray for Paris, inspired by Gunn attending Virgil Abloh’s January 2020 Off-White show in Paris, provides a perfect canvas for these obsessions. On the very first song, following an art-auction intro, Gunn raps about having “bulletproof Bentleys parked outside the Whitney,” and the dichotomies keep going from there. The rapping is excellent, and the beats (from the likes of Premier, Alchemist, Muggs, longtime associates Camoflauge Monk and Daringer, and even Tyler, the Creator) are lush. But more importantly, Gunn, a reluctant rapper from the beginning who makes constant threats of retirement, plays a curatorial role as well, bringing in just the right guest voice at the perfect moment—including a standout rap verse from Tyler. With projects this high-quality and well thought out, there’s no need to pray for anyone. Westside Gunn’s got everything under control. —Shawn Setaro

Label: ESGN/ALC/EMPIRE

Released: May 29

“This album’s going to be a classic,” Freddie Gibbs told Complex a few days before Alfredo’s release. It sounds like the type of thing rappers normally say about upcoming albums. But after a string of incredible-to-instant-classic albums (Piñata, Shadow of a Doubt, You Only Live 2wice, Freddie, Fetti, Bandana), chances were good that this wasn’t just idle boasting. Alchemist is also on a hot streak—in 2020 alone he has superb collaborative projects with Boldy James and Conway the Machine under his belt. And Alfredo meets all our expectations. The album finds Gibbs looking backwards, examining tough times and lamenting lost friendships and deceased relatives. Technically, he’s on top of his game. No longer the beat-switching champion he was on Bandana, he instead concentrates on bringing a head-spinning variety of flows and approaches to each Alchemist soundscape. And what soundscapes they are: simple, beautifully layered and arranged, and varied. Alchemist’s beats make the project sound like nothing else we’ve heard this year. “Ain’t nobody rapping like this right now. Ain’t no project like this right now,” Gibbs said in our interview. “The game need it.” Yes, it does. —Shawn Setaro

Label: XO/Republic

Released: March 20

“It has something for everyone” is a great thing to read in a Yelp review of a family fun center, but it’s the last thing you want to hear about an album. We’ve all seen artists attempt to please everyone, only to sacrifice artistic vision and alienate their core fans. Of course, there’s an exception to every rule, which brings us to the Weeknd’s fourth studio album, After Hours. Somehow, over the course of a 14-track album, Abel finds a way to throw some bones to the fans of his early-era, brooding mixtape ways on songs like “Snowchild” and “Escape From LA” while also reaching for the mountaintop of pop success with radio-friendly anthems like “Blinding Lights,” “Heartless,” and “In Your Eyes.”

Long ago, the Weeknd made it clear he had ambitions of becoming a global superstar, but there were missteps along the way as he struggled to do so without losing the raw magic of his first three mixtapes. On After Hours, he learns from those mistakes and successfully scales his Trilogy-era aesthetic up to an arena-size capacity by doubling down on his favorite tropes—overindulgence, toxic relationships, and drugs—in a more refined way than he’s ever pulled off. The songwriting is tighter, the production is more dynamic, and Abel’s worldview has grown (a little) more mature. A beautifully sequenced album, After Hours flows from one song to the next with no real skips, as Abel shows off his knack for world-building throughout one of 2020’s most cohesive releases. When the album arrived, Abel revealed he had been encouraged by his label to delay it due to COVID-19 concerns, but he stood his ground and insisted on dropping as soon as he could. Now that we’ve all heard it, who can blame him? Who wouldn’t be itching to get a near-flawless album like this out in the world? —Eric Skelton

Label: Modular/Island Australia

Released: February 14

By now, we know what Kevin Parker is capable of, but there’s still an added thrill whenever a long-anticipated album exceeds expectations. It’s been five years since Tame Impala’s psychedelic funk-rock-alt sounds exploded in a particle accelerator and gave us Currents, which spawned sold-out stadium tours, festivals, Rihanna covers, and Travis Scott collaborations. This year, after the turn of a new decade and a few false starts (which still gave us incredible loosies like the aptly named “Patience”), Parker came back with a record strong enough to keep us fed for another five years. 

Currents made use of thunderous, stadium-status songs (“Eventually”) and quieter grooves (“Cause I’m a Man,” “Love/Paranoia”) to dissect doomed relationships with devastatingly acute writing. On The Slow Rush, Parker, now older and married, puts that incisiveness to work on themes of millennial angst. Currents hit when many of us weren’t long out of college; now the vast period between quarter-life and mid-life looms. Mini-crises and grim realities are around every corner. “It might be time to face it,” Parker warns on “It Might Be Time,” a statement that can apply to dreams, goals, relationships, identity—all of the above. 

The album begins with “One More Year,” espousing all the vibes of January 1-type empty resolutions, false optimism, and self-deception. Six tracks later, on Slow Rush’s centerpiece “On Track,” it’s “nearly August” and the knife has firmly twisted. “Strictly speaking, I’m still on track, So tell everyone I'll be alright/’Cause strictly speaking, I've got my whole life.” It’s the soundtrack of convincing yourself as much as you’re trying to convince others. Still, ennui has never sounded so groovy. Songs like “Breathe Deeper” use funk for encouragement, and the calming odyssey of “Tomorrow’s Dust” espouses “kill the past” energy. Even the bass-heavy furor of “Posthumous Forgiveness” eventually crescendos to soothing synths of catharsis. By the album’s end, time has elapsed from a year to an hour. Grim prospects, but not before the penultimate track allows a glimmer of hope. There’s always another year to “roll” your aspirations over into like vacation days. Until there isn’t. —Frazier Tharpe

Label: Generation Now/Atlantic Records

Released: March 6

No one told Lil Uzi Vert how unprecedented it is for an artist to have the most anticipated rap album on the planet and then actually live up to those expectations. But Uzi doesn’t play by the same rules as other Earthlings. “I live my life like a cartoon,” he taunts on “You Better Move,” delighting in the fact that he moves through life on a completely different wavelength than the rest of us. And as we find out on Eternal Atake, Uzi’s universe is a beautifully strange place, full of futuristic sounds, designer clothes, and, um, aliens. 

After years of delays, label drama, and even a brief retirement from Uzi, Eternal Atake finally crash-landed on March 6, just one week before the world shut down. On arrival, it felt like a portal to another dimension. Months later, it’s become a dispatch from one of the last days life felt normal, which is ironic because EA is anything but an ordinary rap album. Layering over-the-top flexes about money, fashion, and girls over storylines about alien abductions and intergalactic adventures, Uzi approaches songwriting with a whimsical flair that separates him from everyone else making popular music right now. What other rapper would even think to write a line like, “I’m like Mother Goose, if I say shoot, they gonna shoot”? 

Uzi’s theatrics and eccentricities would stand on hollow ground, though, if it weren’t for the deceptively sturdy rapping that anchors Eternal Atake. Uzi has earned a lot of credit for his heart-stricken melodies on songs like “XO Tour Llif3,” but it’s time to acknowledge how good he is as a rapper, too. Setting out to prove he can go bar for bar with anyone, Uzi spends the first six songs of the album spitting harder than he ever has. On the blistering Supah Mario-produced “Silly Watch,” he nimbly cartwheels his way through a round of hilarious shots directed at brands like Baccarat, Crocs, and Fashion Nova, all while finding the time for stop-you-in-your-tracks one-liners like, “I’m a hare all on my bike, bitch, I bunny hop/Hugh Hefner died, so I can’t get bunny top.” Having proven himself in those opening half-dozen songs, he moves on to the melodic half of the album, the highlight of which is “Celebration Station,” an intoxicating summer anthem that includes Eternal Atake’s most memorable Uzi-ism: “I can’t do my dance ’cause my pants leather, they from France.” 

Guided by the blissful sounds of Philadelphia collective Working On Dying, Lil Uzi Vert delivered the year’s most purely entertaining rap album so far. And, in a savvy move that would turn out to be his biggest flex yet, he followed it up a week later by releasing 14 new songs on a deluxe version that essentially doubles as an entirely new album (Luv vs. the World 2). Damn. Uzi really might not be from Earth, after all. —Eric Skelton