So much rap music comes out all the time, and especially with frequent surprise releases, it can be hard to keep track of it all. So, as a way to help keep up with all of it, here’s a roundup of the 6 rap albums from May 2024 that stood out to us most. We also probably still missed or haven’t spent enough time with some great May rap albums that aren’t on this list. What were some of your favorites of last month? Let us know, and read on for the list (unranked, in no particular order).

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.

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.

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.

Sexyy Red – In Sexyy We Trust
Open Shift/gamma.

Sexyy Red is everywhere right now for a lot of reasons, and one of those reasons is how undeniable her songs are. “Get It Sexyy” came out in March and quickly and deservedly became one of her biggest songs, and now that song and 13 others make up her latest project, In Sexyy We Trust. After “Get It Sexyy,” the album’s most talked-about and most-played song is “U My Everything” because of its guest verse by Drake, a verse that broke Drake’s silence after he was widely declared the loser in his battle with Kendrick and that finds Drake himself rapping over Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” beat, which… no further comments. Otherwise, In Sexyy We Trust delivers more of the loud, fun, charismatic songs that Sexyy Red has been dishing out left and right since even before “Pound Town” broke. She’s been criticized for being a little too one-note, and this project isn’t exactly beating those allegations, but it’s a fun record that you can play again and again and not think too hard about, and there’s a lot of value in that.

Jadasea – Too Many Tears
10k

Jadasea has been the go-to UK rapper in NYC underground rap leader MIKE’s orbit for a few years now, and he continues to turn heads. His new album for MIKE’s 10k label follows Jada’s two 2023 albums, The Corner: Vol. 1 with Laron and the glitched-out Pressure Sensitive with Anysia Kim, and this one’s grounded a little more in mid ’90s traditionalism than its two most recent predecessors. It’s still hazy and abstract, but it’s a little more hard-hitting and direct than last year’s albums, and a little more immediate as a result. If you haven’t hopped on the Jadasea train yet, this would be a great entry point.

Rome Streetz & Wavy Da Ghawd – Buck 50 EP
The Influenyce Enterprise

There’s no lack of contemporary rappers making music that sounds like it could’ve come out of New York City between 1994 and 1997, and the latest project in that realm to really jump out and grab me is Buck 50, the new EP from Brooklyn rapper Rome Streetz and Brooklyn producer Wavy Da Ghawd. With six songs in 13 minutes and no guests, no time is wasted as the pair deliver one hard-hitting song after the next. Every beat and every bar sounds like something that could’ve come out 30 years ago, but with a liveliness that’ll have your neck snapping today like it would have back then.

Honorable Mentions
Big Hit, The Alchemist & Hit-Boy
Chief Keef – Almighty So 2
Coi Leray – Lemon Cars EP
Conway the Machine – Slant Face Killah
Courtney Bell & Royce Da 5’9″ – Microdose
Crimeapple & Big Ghost Ltd – Bazuko
Ghostface Killah – Set the Tone (Guns & Roses)
Gloss Up – Not Ya Girl: Act 1 EP
iLoveMakonnen – NOT MY MAKONNEN EP
Kamaiyah – Figuring Out My Emotions
Oddisee – And Yet Still EP
Ras Kass, RJ Payne & Havoc – GUTTR
RXKNephew – Till I’m Dead 2
Slum Village – F.U.N.
Smoke DZA & DJ RELLYRELL – You’re All Welcome EP

—

Browse our Best Rap Albums archive for more.

—

Top photo: Vince Staples at Afropunk 2023. More by Luis Ruiz @larufoto here.