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 August 2025 that stood out to us most. We also probably still missed or haven’t spent enough time with some great August 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).
Earl Sweatshirt – Live Laugh Love (Tan Cressida/Warner)
Contrary to theories that this might all be an elaborate prank, Earl Sweatshirt’s new album is here, and it’s cut from the same hazy, surrealist cloth as his other recent triumphs.
When Earl Sweatshirt threw his listening party for his new album Live Laugh Love, a lot of people thought it was a prank. First of all, would Earl really name an album Live Laugh Love? And secondly, Earl never showed up at his own party. Instead, he had an obvious imposter in his place, and comedian/rapper Zack Fox filmed the whole thing. One reviewer wondered if the whole thing was a Zack Fox comedy sketch. But Live Laugh Love is a very real new Earl Sweatshirt album–his first since his 2023 Alchemist collaboration Voir Dire–and it’s now here. As for the surprising title, Earl’s new bio says that “what started as a tongue-in-cheek critique of the irony in the phrase developed into a genuine examination of the nostalgia of joy and the simplicity of genuine connection.” “I named it before I wrote it,” Earl himself said. “And then everything started clicking.” The album has production from Theravada, Black Noi$e, Navy Blue, Child Actor, and Earl himself, and it’s cut from the same abstract rap cloth that most of Earl’s music has been cut from since 2018’s career-altering Some Rap Songs. Its 11 songs are all relatively brief (half of them are two minutes or less), the production is hazy, and the lyrics are full of surrealist imagery. There’s an ode to the late Trugoy of De La Soul (“Gamma (need the love)”), and a song about food called “Infatuation” because that word “has fat and it has ate in it.” As with most of Earl’s recent work, it can all sound like a blur from a distance, but the deeper you dig, the more you discover the intricate moments that it’s filled with.
Preservation & Gabe ‘Nandez – Sortilège (Backwoodz)
After collaborating on a 2022 billy woods song, producer Preservation and rapper Gabe ‘Nandez have teamed up for an entire LP of eerie, slowed-down boom bap.
NYC rapper Gabe ‘Nandez caught a lot of people’s ears when he appeared alongside Boldy James on billy woods’ Preservation-produced 2022 album Aethiopes, and that collaboration led to Gabe making his own full-length album with Preservation, Sortilège, released on billy woods’ Backwoodz label and featuring woods on two songs: “War” and “Mondo Cane,” the latter of which also features woods’ Armand Hammer partner ELUCID and his now-frequent collaborator Benjamin Booker. Preservation (who’s also a frequent collaborator of the late Ka, as well as Yasiin Bey, Roc Marciano, and others) is a master of eerie, slowed-down boom bap, and Gabe brings a knack for gripping, detailed bars that fit Pres’ production perfectly. The album title (French for magical spell, witchcraft, etc) is a reference to the duo’s shared francophone ancestry (Preservation is half French and Gabe is half Malian), and the songs are steeped in the tradition of underground New York rap at its darkest and most somber.
JID – God Does Like Ugly (Dreamville/Interscope)
The Atlanta wordsmith’s first album in three years is a grand, ambitious rap album that features Clipse, Westside Gunn, Vince Staples, Ciara, and more.
JID is an Atlanta rapper who always does it big. His albums are all concept albums that all connect to one another, and God Does Like Ugly is no exception. “This is the first step into a new world that I control,” he said when he announced the album. “And. It’s. Fucking. UGLY.” As ever, he delivers autobiographical storytelling at a rapidfire pace, with an approach that suggests he’s obsessed with the art of rapping, down to every word, rhyme, cadence, and syllable. He’s also seemingly only interested in making the kind of grand-sounding albums that people might one day call classics. God Does Like Ugly is fueled by a melting pot of trap, boom bap, chipmunk soul, and actual soul, and every song sounds like it’s shooting for the moon. Even the list of guests is something that could only come from a rap superfan like JID. Clipse continue their big comeback year with an appearance on “Community.” The album begins with an assist from underground rap icon Westside Gunn and later finds time for pop-friendly vocalists like Ciara, Jessie Reyez, Don TOliver, Ty Dolla $ign, and 6LACK to fit in just as perfectly. The show-stealing guest verse on “VCRs” comes from Vince Staples, a rapper who shares JID’s knack for mixing ’90s hip hop traditions with post-genre futurism. Sometimes JID bites off more than he can chew, but there’s no denying his taste and his skillset, and when those two things come together the way they do on GDLU, a lot of magic happens.
DJ Premier & Roc Marciano – The Coldest Profession (TTT)
An architect of ’90s New York boom bap and one of the genre’s most important torch-carriers come together on this nostalgia-inducing-yet-fresh new project.
The story of DJ Premier and Roc Marciano’s collaborative project The Coldest Profession dates back to a chance encounter at the Macy’s in Herald Square. As Preemo announces at the beginning of this record, they ran into each other and Roc asked him when they were going to do a record together. Preemo says he replied, “Yo man, we’re gonna get to it,” and then he adds, “I think it’s time we get to it!” The two previously collaborated when Roc Marci appeared on the 2018 PRhyme (DJ Premier & Royce da 5’9″) song “Respect My Gun,” but The Coldest Profession marks their first 50/50 collab together, and it should come as no surprise that these two are a perfect pair. DJ Premier helped invent New York boom bap as we know it in the 1990s (as one half of Gang Starr and a producer on Nas’ Illmatic, KRS-One’s Return of the Boom Bap, Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, and way too many other records to name), and Roc Marciano has been one of the genre’s most important, prolific, and consistently great torch-carriers of the past 15 years. His music often veers towards something eerie and atmospheric, but over this selection of neck-snapping DJ Premier beats, he delivers nothing but chest-puffed, voice-raised energy. At a time when ’90s nostalgia is everywhere–music, movies, fashion, etc–this is some of the freshest.
ShrapKnel – Saisir Le Feu (with Mike Ladd) & Armature (with Ohbliv) (Fused Arrow)
The indie-rap duo of PremRock and Curly Castro wrapped up their 2025 trilogy of albums, each with a different producer from a different region.
When indie-rap duo ShrapKnel (aka PremRock and Curly Castro) went on tour last year, they linked up with different producers from different regions and made albums with three of them, and they completed that trilogy with two albums this month, the Mike Ladd-produced Saisir Le Feu and the Ohbliv-produced Armature, following July’s Raphy-produced Lincoln Continental Breakfast. On Saisir Le Feu, the Boston-born, Paris-based Mike Ladd favors atmospheric, psychedelic production, a musical backdrop that’s perfect for Curly Castro and PremRock’s dizzying wordplay. On Armature, Virginia’s Ohbliv–who’s also worked with Armand Hammer, MIKE, Fly Anakin, Pink Siifu, Cavalier, Your Old Droog, Yungmorpheus, and countless others–and ShrapKnel make for a disorientingly dynamic underground rap duo, and these 10 songs also include three ear-catching guests: AJ Suede, frequent Open Mike Eagle collaborator Still Rift, and El-P’s onetime Company Flow groupmate Bigg Jus. The overall vibes of all three albums in the trilogy are just different enough that it makes getting this many albums in such a short timespan feel exciting, not overwhelming.
—
Honorable Mentions
Babyface Ray – Codeine Cowboy
BabyTron – Luka Troncic 2
BigXthaPlug – I Hope You’re Happy
Chance the Rapper – Star Line
Che Noir & The Other Guys – No Validation
Cities Aviv – Electric Chair
Curren$y – 8/30
Evidence – Unlearning Vol. 2
Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele 2
Joey Bada$$ – Lonely At The Top
Joey Valence & Brae – Hyperyouth
Juicy J – Head On Swivel & Caught Up In This Illusion
Kid Cudi – Free
Mozzy – Intrusive Thoughts 2
Offset – Kiari
Polo Perks <3 <3 <3 - Fatboy
OT The Real & 38 Spesh – Profession With Intent
Rakim & Big Ghost Ltd – The Re‑Up
Recoechi – Flavaz
Rio Da Yung OG – F.L.I.N.T. (Feeling Like I’m Not Through)
Westside Gunn – Heels Have Eyes 2
Young Nudy – Paradise
YoungBoy Never Broke Again & DJ Khaled – Deshawn