5 Best Rap Albums of November 2025

Danny Brown (photo by Emilio Herce)

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 November 2025 that stood out to us most. We also probably still missed or haven’t spent enough time with some great November 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).

Danny Brown – Stardust (Warp)
Danny Brown goes hyperpop on his latest album, with help from Quadeca, underscores, Jane Remover, Frost Children, and more.

After making a bid for the canon of grown-ass man rap albums with 2023’s Quaranta, Danny Brown has gone in the opposite direction with Stardust, an album that wholly embraces the Gen Z-oriented genre of hyperpop. Almost every song is a collaboration with a different artist from in or around the world of hyperpop–including but not limited to Quadeca, underscores, Jane Remover, Frost Children, Femtanyl, JOHNNASCUS, 8485, and Ta Ukrainka–and Danny avoids the “How do you do, fellow kids?” allegations because Danny Brown albums like Atrocity Exhibition helped pave the way for hyperpop in the first place. He isn’t latching onto a hot new youth genre; he’s rightfully claiming his place as a pioneer of it.

Stardust is as much a hyperpop album as it is a rap album, and I’d even say it’s as much a Danny Brown album as it is a showcase for all of his collaborators on it. (Sometimes, like on the JOHNNASCUS collab “1999,” it’s also trap metal.) There are times on Stardust when we get some of the best songs of Danny Brown’s career, and other times when Danny sounds like the guest on his collaborator’s song–and I don’t mean that as a diss. What I mean is that Stardust sounds like the work of a musical collective with Danny Brown as its leader who’s never afraid to take a backseat when the song calls for it. It verges on feeling like a compilation but it’s ultimately too cohesive to accuse it of being one. It certainly doesn’t sound like any other Danny Brown album, and it’s a treat that, 15 years removed from his debut LP, he’s still surprising us.

Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Mercy (Backwoodz)
Armand Hammer and The Alchemist remain a match made in indie-rap heaven on their second collaborative album.

billy woods already released one of this year’s best rap albums with GOLLIWOG, and now Armand Hammer–his duo with ELUCID–are back with Mercy. It marks their second album-length collaboration with The Alchemist, following 2021’s Haram, and they remain as much of a match made in indie-rap heaven as they were on their first collab. Alchemist’s production ranges from twinkling jazz keys to eerie atmosphere, and woods and ELUCID remain masters of bouncing off of each other with rhymes that blur the line between everyday observations and profound statements. Haram contributors Earl Sweatshirt and Quelle Chris reprise their roles with standout guest verses on standout songs, and this time Pink Siifu, Cleo Reed, Kapwani, and Silka came along for the ride too. With two or more great Armand Hammer-related albums getting released almost every year, woods and ELUCID continue to make sure that their prolificness always comes with a sense of quality control. And while Mercy isn’t necessarily a left turn or a drastic reinvention, it finds woods and ELUCID using familiar tricks in fresh ways, with enough memorable one-liners to make this album feel just as essential as the last.

Navy Blue – The Sword & The Soaring (Freedom Sounds)
The highly prolific and remarkably consistent rapper is back with another deceptively abstract LP, with an assist from Earl Sweatshirt.

Ever since catching a lot of ears with guest verses on Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE’s respective 2018 albums Some Rap Songs and War In My Pen, indie-rapper Navy Blue has remained highly prolific and remarkably consistent. He’s released at least one full-length a year since 2020’s Àdá Irin, and it’s all in that same deceptively abstract rap realm that Navy Blue and his most frequent collaborators tend to be in. (On this album, the only guest is Earl Sweatshirt.) With production from Child Actor, Animoss, Chris Keys, Gray Matter, Navy Blue himself, and others, The Sword & The Soaring is set to a backdrop of jazzy keys, sweeping string and horn arrangements, warped soul samples, psych-rock and psych-folk loops, and other gorgeous instrumentals. On top of the blissful production, Navy Blue weaves together layered storytelling and poetic turns of phrase that bring real depth to an album that you could mistake for woozy, vibes-first music on a cursory listen.

MAVI – The Pilot (Loma Vista)
The North Carolina indie-rapper keeps the momentum of last year’s great ‘Shadowbox’ going with a 10-song mixtape ft. Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, and others.

MAVI transcended the “abstract rap” label on his devastating 2024 album Shadowbox, and now he’s back with a 10-song mixtape that finds him with an even greater sense of clarity. Shadowbox was partially informed by MAVI’s struggles with alcohol, and as he raps on track 1 of The Pilot, he made this new project after getting sober. The Pilot is short but sweet, with 10 songs and only one track that reaches the three-minute mark. It’s got four perfectly-matched guests (Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, Smino, Kenny Mason), and some nice variety in the production, which ranges from chilled-out jazz to orchestral swells to the delightfully dancey outlier “Silent Film.” The short runtime and the Thanksgiving week release date makes it feel more like a stop-gap release than a proper new album, but regardless, MAVI’s on such a roll right now that everything he touches is worth hearing.

Pink Siifu – ONYX’! (Dynamite Hill)
One of this year’s most creative and overwhelming rap albums gets a companion LP.

Pink Siifu already released one of this year’s most creative and overwhelming rap albums with the 77-minute sensory overload BLACK’!ANTIQUE, and now he’s back with a 13-song, 45-minute companion piece called ONYX’!. Like BLACK’!ANTIQUE, it’s a genre-defying affair with an ensemble cast. It’s got appearances by Armand Hammer (whose new album Siifu appears on), HiTech, Kal Banx, Turich Benjy, Valee, Woo Da Savage, and others; and production from Hudson Mohawke, evilgiane, Jason Wool, iiye, Roper Williams, Apollo Rome, and others.

ONYX’! is tacked on to the end of BLACK’!ANTIQUE on Bandcamp, starting on track 20:

Honorable Mentions
Boldy James & Nicholas Craven – Criminal Attached
Bun B & Cory Mo – Way Mo Trill
Crimeapple – Hanzai
De La Soul – Cabin in the Sky
FearDorian & osquinn – Before You Press Play
G Herbo – Lil Herb
Hit-Boy x Spank Nitti James – Yeast Talkin’
Lausse the Cat – The Mocking Stars
Lerado Khalil & Surf Gang – Scenic Route
MexikoDrop – Still Goin the Ep
Ransom & Conductor Williams – The Uncomfortable Truth
RZA’s Bobby Digital Presents: Juice Crew All Stars
TOBi & Real Bad Man – The Perfect Blue
Valee & MVW – Where We We
Young Miko – Do Not Disturb
Your Old Droog – Anything Is Possible EP