5 Best Rap Albums of April 2025

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 5 rap albums from April 2025 that stood out to us most. We also probably still missed or haven’t spent enough time with some great April rap albums that aren’t on this list, and we’ve got a list of honorable mentions with more albums at the bottom of this post. What were some of your favorites of last month? Let us know, and read on for the list (unranked, in no particular order).

Fly Anakin – (The) Forever Dream (Lex Records)

Fly Anakin has been one of the best and most prolific rappers within the recent wave of underground artists putting a fresh spin on the East Coast boom bap era, and his new album (The) Forever Dream is being touted as having “a newfound sense of ‘fun'” compared to his previous works. Not that Fly Anakin’s records weren’t fun before, but this one does feel especially upbeat and it really jumps out and grabs you. It was executive produced by Quelle Chris, who also raps on multiple songs, and it also features contributions from Pink Siifu, BbyMutha, The Alchemist, $ilkmoney, lojii, Nickelus F, Turich Benjy, Demae, and Anakin’s fellow Mutant Academy members Big Kahuna OG and Sycho Sid. If you like when rap music is both traditionalist and slightly off-kilter all at once, you can’t go wrong with (The) Forever Dream.

(The) Forever Dream by Fly Anakin

Niontay – Fada<3of$ (10k)

After putting out two projects in 2023, Niontay is back with his first since then, Fada<3of$. The Milwaukee-born, Central Florida-raised, and now Brooklyn-based rapper is part of MIKE’s orbit, and MIKE is releasing this album on his 10k imprint and also contributed production under his dj blackpower alias. Tony Seltzer and Harrison from Surf Gang also contributed beats, though Niontay produced most of the album himself, and guest verses come from MAVI, El Cousteau, Sideshow, Jadasea, Dav1d, and lil peanutbutter. Niontay says the album was inspired by grief, and we hear him processing death and celebrating life and legacy throughout 19 tracks of mumbled bars and hazy beats. Like MIKE himself, Niontay knows how to work in layers of depth beneath the blurry surface.

Fada<3of$ by Niontay

Fatboi Sharif & Driveby – Let Me Out (Deathbomb Arc)

Fatboi Sharif knows familiarity is comfortable, and he doesn’t want you to be comfortable. He wants to challenge the listener with trippy, out-there rap music, and that’s exactly what he does throughout his ever-prolific run of projects. Let Me Out isn’t as overtly psychedelic as last year’s Psychedelics Wrote The Bible EP, but Fatboi Sharif still isn’t playing by anybody else’s rules besides his own. Driveby’s production is consistently eerie, and well-placed guest verses come from Curly Castro, Beans, and Lungs.

Let Me Out by Fatboi Sharif & Driveby

Papo2oo4 & Subjxct 5 – Papaholic, Vol. 1 (self-released)

NJ rapper Papo2oo4 has frequently been compared to mixtape-era 50 Cent, and his new project Papaholic, Vol. 1 will be no exception, right down to its cover art, which looks like something you’d find being sold on a sidewalk in 2002. It’s a full-length collaboration with producer and frequent collaborator Subjxct 5, whose affinity for the likes of Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, Pharrell, et al. makes him the perfect co-pilot for this trip back to the early 2000s. But Papaholic, Vol. 1 offers more than just nostalgia; Subjxct 5 knows how to subtly mix his early-aughts signifiers with modern trap and drill, and Papo sometimes comes off sounding reminiscent of fellow 50 acolyte Pop Smoke. Like Pop, Papo makes bringing the past into the future look effortless.

Blu & August Fanon – Forty (Nature Sounds)

Blu’s 2007 album with producer Exile Below the Heavens made him seem like the next big thing in alternative/underground rap, but since then, he’s become one of the most perennially underrated rappers around and he knows it. His new album Forty is a slightly-belated birthday party for the now-42-year-old who still sounds as fiery as he did in his twenties, and right off the bat the album finds him reflecting on how everything went down after Below the Heavens: he signed an ill-fated deal with Warner and then fellow West Coasters Odd Future and TDE swooped in and became the new next big things. Blu then went deeper into the underground, further honing his craft and churning out a slew of great projects that rarely get the credit they deserve. Yet he doesn’t sound bitter. August Fanon’s soul sample-infused production is rich and uplifting throughout Forty, and Blu dishes out the kinds of clever rhymes, knockout punchlines, and gripping personal sagas that would have any boom bap-era hip hop head on the edge of their seat. He’s got a lot to say, and still finds the time to share the mic with multiple guests on every song, including Cashus King, Kota the Friend, Chester Watson, R.A.P. Ferreira, Homeboy Sandman, Fashawn, and more.

Forty by Blu & August Fanon

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Honorable Mentions
Boldy James & V Don – Alphabet Highway
Ken Carson – More Chaos
Kool Keith & Grant Shapiro – Karpenters
Ray Vaughn – The Good The Bad The Dollar Menu
Raz Fresco & Futurewave – Stadium Lo Champions
Sauce Walka & That Mexican OT – Chicken & Sauce
Shoreline Mafia – Back In Bidness
Wu-Tang Clan & Mathematics – Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman

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Browse our Best Rap Albums archive for more.