Like all music these days, there is an entire sea of new rap music being released to dive into on a pretty much near-daily basis. These pages can’t profess to going as deep as the diehards do on that scene, but where it does pay attention are the words of rhyme making their way up from the alternative underground scene as well as those big, artful blockbusters that etch new mile markers in its culture. Here’s 2022′s best moments in those corners of the game…

AKAI SOLO – Spirit Roaming [Backwoodz Studioz]

Spirit Roaming, AKAI SOLO’s first release in collaboration with Armand Hammer’s Backwoodz Studioz, may be the 27-year-old Brooklyn’s rhymer’s most audibly compelling yet. Across a spectrum of color-and-mood-immersed production by the likes of established progressive beatmakers Preservation, Animoss, Messiah Musik and August Fanon as well as those being discovered in Theravada, ibliss, WifiGawd, Roper Williams and JUNIE creates a complimentary canvas for AKAI’s think bubbles, wrapping deep processing in prose inside a steep haze and self-designed spiritual ladder hell bent on ascending.

Backxwash – HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SUFFERING [Self-released]

Backxwash’s 2020 breakthrough God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It and last year’s I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES heard the Montreal-by-way-of-Zambia noise rapper tearing through her skin and soul with her own process of faith, trauma, vice and addiction, all while unspooling her identity, and the trilogy’s conclusion, HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SUFFERING, goes an additional layer deep in her therapeutic catharsis by looking even further beyond her own timeline and understanding the plague of debts generationally burdened onto the individual by history with a siphoned rage.

billy woods – Aethiopes [Backwoodz Studios]

These days, listeners are probably more familiar with billy woods as one half of Armand Hammer, but Aethiopes, his latest solo effort recorded alongside underground producer Preservation, deservedly reaps what he began to sew a decade ago in NYC’s alternative rap scene with an even finer skill set in beautiful rhymes and progressive beat-making that’s nearly gothic in its darkness, creaking in with minimalist structure as well as global influences, all while woods sets scenes fictional yet blurred into past and present realities.

Earl Sweatshirt – SICK! [Tan Cressida / Columbia Records]

SICK! is another example of how when the rest of the world of rhyming goes left, Thebe Kgositsile is already swerving into the right lane. Comprised of 10 songs in just 24 minutes manifested during the lowest points of a global pandemic, going through the motions of grief and anxiety of it all are right in Sweatshirt’s wheelhouse, but the murkier, fragmented production that once tattered his prose behind a curtain on 2018′s Some Rap Songs or 2019′s EP Feet of Clay doesn’t need any outer coverage here.

ELUCID – I Told Bessie [Backwoodz Studioz]

I Told Bessie, the third solo effort from Armand Hammer’s other half, ELUCID, is a personal document from the NYC rapper inspired by his paternal grandmother and doubles as an origin story from the roots up. The listen positions ELUCID in a headier space as he shifts through timelines with a jazz-rock fusion in its beat production that forms more psychedelic orbs to project abstract memories into. billy woods and Pink Siifu are close to his back throughout, but its ELUCID cutting through the daze that gives us a clear portrait of the energy that’s surrounded him.

Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers [Aftermath / Interscope / pgLang / Top Dawg Entertainment]

Even at his messiest, Kendrick Lamar is still miles ahead of the rest in the rap game on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. An introverted nightmare where he feeds into his inner villain’s origin story, his pain, shame, and everything in his life that’s trying to kill him, Lamar at his ugliest can’t stop the Compton rhymer from being even more agile in his flow with full-on art in its production as his prose teeters disjointed bouts of soul and funk that jostles the brain and always knows when to bring a moment back into a banger.

MAVI – Laughing so Hard, it Hurts [Self-released]

MAVI’s way of rhyme is a very insular one, but the way the Carolina rapper and neuroscience student projects his singular experience brings his corner of the underground into a scope as big as his life is getting itself on his sophomore effort, Laughing so Hard, it Hurts. His flow here moves over a masterclass cast in beat production rich with soulful, spliced woozy textures as he peers into balancing the struggle introspectively. He’s got a lot to say in figuring this life (and it’s “jokes”) out, and with that, we’re privy to be a part of that journey with him, cracks in the sidewalk, and all.

Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry [G.O.O.D. / Def Jam]

It’s no surprise that It’s Always Dry plays out like another master class from one of rap’s most gifted rhyme articulators who isn’t afraid to put his ugly side on full display. A certain someone’s shadow behind the boards looms, but its Pharrell’s light that shines most, and it’s here where It’s Almost Dry gets most of its veneer of experimental freshness within its air. Where there’s plenty of wealthy to brag of, there’s also been plenty of bullets dodged. A true villain never apologizes, however, and as long as he keeps danger at bay, we can expect to hear Pusha T staying hungrier than the rest.

Vince Staples – Ramona Park Broke My Heart [Blacksmith / Motown Records]

The passion of Vince Staples is even more illustrious on Ramona Park Broke My Heart, the counterpart to the Long Beach rapper’s excellent 2021 eponymous self-reflection, with beats shifting away from the overt rumination of last year’s Kenny Beats production in a more finessed sense despite working with a collective of names familiar and not in the studio. It complements the richness in Staples’ style as he continues letting his life story from the darkened street corners be seen out in the open.

Wicca Phase Springs Eternal – Full Moon Mystery Garden [Self-released]

Adam McIlwee has had a prolific run since putting behind his emo rock days as the vocalist of Tigers Jaw and forging ahead with his emo rap moniker Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, but his latest effort, Full Moon Mystery Garden, may be the most cohesive statement from the genre-transcending rhymer. The sprawling 23-track listen has no filler and features Wicca Phase’s GothBoiClique cohorts in one of their most collaborative visibilities and hears the beat behind his morbid flow at its most compellingly absorbing, layering accessible patterns in rap-pop and trap with shoegaze and experimental electronic flashes in the dark.