Explore the best rap albums of 2025, from Clipse to Cardi B. These projects defined the year’s sound and spirit. Dive into ...

It was the best of hip-hop times. It was the worst of hip-hop times. Ha! 2025 was a rollercoaster of rap music’s highs and lows. The duality was so real. I can’t recall a year with such a wide array ...

Which Tiny Desk made an audio engineer question everything? Which one made a producer want to cry? Touch grass? Look back on ...

From Clipse to Metro Boomin and Cardi B, the year was full of memorable rap songs that expanded and experimented with the ...

NPR Music critics reflect on the lyrics that captured the year's mood, sparked emotions and stayed with them long after the music stopped.

We asked some of our favorite culture creators to give us their best-of lists for 2025; the rest of James Gunn's top 50 alternative rap songs of the year can be found right here. Easily my favorite ...

As the year comes to an end, we are wading deep into list season. Now that we’ve talked about the best albums, songs, debuts, and EPs of 2025, it’s time to get even more granular and pay tribute to a ...

We should address the elephant in the room: hip-hop did not have a strong year on the charts. In fact, rap music had its worst showing in years. Back in October, it made headlines when—for the first ...

Earlier this month, the Paste team unveiled its list of the 50 best albums of 2025. Thank you for reading it and for not ragging on us too bad for our picks (or omissions). As is tradition, we’re ...

Mammoth's "The End" is Loudwire's No. 1 rock song of 2025. It's the title track from Mammoth's third album and was also the lead single, released back in May. Wolfgang Van Halen once again took on all ...

This past fall, for the first time since 1990, there wasn’t a single rap song in the Billboard Hot 100's top 40. Megan Thee Stallion briefly shifted the disappointing mark with a new single shortly ...

Every year, we’re told that hip-hop is in crisis. But if you ask us, it feels like there’s too much heat to keep up with. What’s lost on the chart-watchers lamenting rap’s mainstream lull is that the ...