5 Best Rap Albums of January 2026

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 January 2026 that stood out to us most. We also probably still missed or haven’t spent enough time with some great January 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).

A$AP Rocky – Don’t Be Dumb (ASAP Worldwide/Polo Grounds/RCA)

After an eight-year gap that followed the most divisive album of his career, A$AP Rocky’s new album had to feel like a comeback. After all these years away from the spotlight, it needed to make the bold statement that Rocky is still a force to be reckoned with. And it only takes one listen to Don’t Be Dumb to realize that’s exactly what it does.

I happen to think the psychedelic, genre-defying Testing is a much better album than it often gets credit for being, but if you’ve been itching to hear A$AP Rocky return to making earth-shaking rap songs, the first half or so of Don’t Be Dumb gives you exactly what you’re looking for. By the time you hear Rocky talking his shit on “Stole Ya Flow” (which is being perceived as a Drake diss), you know he’s out for blood. There are a lot of big, booming trap songs on this album, and because Rocky rarely settles for anything that sounds too regular, those songs push the boundaries of what you might expect “big, booming trap songs” to sound like.

Outside of the soul/R&B-leaning Brent Faiyaz collab “Stay Here 4 Life,” Don’t Be Dumb spends most of its first half re-entering the rap game with a vengeance, and then it gets weird. Speaker-busting electronics fuel “STFU” and “Air Force (Black Demarco)”; the former almost sounds like The Prodigy, and the latter starts out just as abrasively before making a 180 towards airy soul. “Whiskey (Release Me)” is a collaboration with both Gorillaz and Westside Gunn that delightfully doubles down on the psychedelic vibes of Testing. “Robbery” finds Rocky sharing the spotlight with Doechii over a bustling, vintage jazz instrumental. Final track “The End” opens with a will.i.am verse and closes with the alluring Jessica Pratt, who steals the show in a way her 2024 A$AP Rocky collaboration “Highjack” only hinted at. As she sends the album off with her refrain of “Look at the way the world ends,” the ’60s-loving folk singer makes the end of Don’t Be Dumb sound like one of her own albums, and it works.

Don’t Be Dumb also has a “disc 2” that Rocky has been adding more songs to, including one with Tyler, the Creator, one with Tokischa, and one with Clams Casino that sample Imogen Heap. By the time you read this, maybe it’ll have even more.

Don’t Be Dumb is available on double black & white vinyl in the BV shop.

IDK – E.T.D.S. (self-released)

Maryland rapper IDK has a reputation for expansive, ambitious albums, but he’s calling his new project E.T.D.S. (which stands for “Even The Devil Smiles”) a mixtape, and he says it was inspired by “the immediacy of 90s and 2000s mixtape culture.” “Immediacy” is a good word to describe E.T.D.S. in general, and in some ways this project hits even harder than his grander works. The ’90s / 2000s era feels like a sonic reference point here too. Pusha T of Clipse and Black Thought of The Roots bless this tape with the kinds of hard-hitting verses that they could’ve released back then. Posthumous clips of DMX and MF DOOM are worked in, and there are contributions from boom bap-era architects like RZA, No I.D., and Madlib, along with boom bap revivalist Conductor Williams and some nostalgia-inducing production from Kaytranada on the Black Thought and Pusha T collabs. Another side of the ’90s comes through on “Stigma,” a collab with drum & bass OG Goldie. E.T.D.S. isn’t beholden to revivalism though; IDK’s got a handful of modern twists in there, including an appearance on “Clover” from rising duo Joey Valence & Brae.

And even though IDK’s calling E.T.D.S. a “mixtape,” he could’ve called it a concept album. It comes out right around the same time that IDK would’ve completed the 15-year prison sentence he was given at the age of 17 had he served the entire thing–he only had to serve three years–and he says the project “confronts the reality [of incarceration] head-on, blending sharp lyricism with raw storytelling about, betrayal, spiritual conflict, and the moments that shaped me. Real phone calls with Deangelo Sneed, a high ranking Blood who saw my potential and kept me focused, serve as checkpoints throughout the project. It leans heavy on rap with touches of melody — gritty, honest, and fully transparent.”

Roc Marciano – 656 (Pimpire/Marci Enterprises)

There’s really nobody doing it like Roc Marciano. Even though he helped kickstart the entire boom bap revival that’s thrived for the past decade or so, his music still sounds like it’s in a world of its own, especially when he’s the only one involved. And after recently releasing a handful of albums produced by other people (like DJ Premier and The Alchemist) and producing albums for other rappers (like Knowledge the Pirate and Errol Holden), Roc Marciano returns with the entirely-self-produced 656. He never sounds more haunting than over his own devilish production, with instrumentals that could fit in horror flicks and samples so vintage you can still hear the dust on the vinyl. Roc Marci’s delivery sounds just as noir-ish as his beats, and his voice is (almost) the only one you hear, besides two songs with the aforementioned Errol Holden. It’s a transportive listen for its entire 32 minutes, without a single distraction or an ounce of filler.

Tha God Fahim & Nicholas Craven – Ultimate Dump Gawd 2 (self-released)

There’s “prolific,” and then there’s whatever the hell Tha God Fahim and Nicholas Craven did last year. Across a 13-month period, they released twenty two projects together for their Dump Gawd: Hyperbolic Time Chamber Rap series, and they’ve also been cherry-picking songs from those projects for some more digestible compilations. This month’s Ultimate Dump Gawd 2 is songs from volumes 5-8, and it functions as a great standalone album. Think of it like Fahim and Craven are just giving you all the outtakes first and then the album instead of the other way around. Nicholas Craven’s laid-back, sample-based boom bap production sounds as great as ever, and Fahim is in top form on these songs. He’s the kind of compelling, ’90s-style MC who can leave you hanging on every single syllable, and that’s exactly what he does here.

Not one to slow down, Tha God Fahim has another new album out next week: Tha Dark Shogunn Saga, Vol. 3 with Spanish producer Cookin Soul.

By Storm – My Ghosts Go Ghost (deadAir)

After the 2020 death of Injury Reserve member Stepa J. Groggs, surviving members RiTchie and Parker Corey kept the group going to release 2021’s By the Time I Get to Phoenix, which was largely completed before Groggs’ death, but in 2023 the duo revealed plans to retire the name Injury Reserve and continue to release new music under the name By Storm. RiTchie released a solo album the following year, and now By Storm release their debut album, My Ghosts Go Ghost. Going further down the experimental, post-genre rabbithole of By the Time I Get to Phoenix, By Storm have made a record that’s nearly impossible to categorize. Throughout its 9 songs, you get a mix of outsider hip hop, art pop, and electronic music (and a billy woods guest verse) that sounds like it’s coming from an entirely different universe. It’s a far cry from the brash, industrial-tinged rap music that Injury Reserve made their name with, and it’s always nice to hear already-beloved artists do something this unpredictable.

Lexa Gates – I Am (48 Lights/GoodTalk/UMG)

The prolific 24-year-old Queens rapper Lexa Gates (real name Ivanna Alexandra Martinez – I Am is a play on her initials) has released six albums since 2020, and when people aren’t talking about her music, they’re talking about her public stunts, like when she locked herself inside a giant clear box in Union Square while promoting her 2024 major label debut Elite Vessel and when she walked a human hamster wheel while promoting its followup I Am. But she’s not a gimmick. Her music puts a fresh spin on the the jazz-rap, chipmunk soul, and R&B of the late ’90s and early 2000s–I’ve seen her compared to everyone from Lauryn Hill to Alicia Keys to Doja Cat–and like Doja Cat in particular, she pulls off old school hip hop traits without seeming like a revivalist. She’s a powerful singer, a crafty rapper, and compelling enough to earn the right to release her lengthiest project yet with the 18-song, 52-minute I Am.

Honorable Mentions
The Alchemist & Budgie – The Good Book III
Curren$y – Everywhere You Look
Don Toliver – Octane
Fakemink – The Boy Who Cried Terrified
French Montana & Max B – Coke Wave 3.5: Narcos
Xaviersobased – Xavier