Tyler The Creator – Don’t Tap The Glass
Odd future alumni Tyler, The Creator dropped the loose 30-minute mini-album Don’t Tap The Glass which eschews the conceptual ambitions in favour of a more direct and visceral style. The album contains scuzzy atmospheres, evocative of the ‘Crunk’ era (Big Poe feat, Sk8brd), nods to original hardcore hip-hop (the breathless, Stop Playing With Me) and the lo-fi R&B ballads that have become his forte (Tell Me What It Is). The most original tracks combine his animalistic rapping with R&B atmosphere and Princeian vocal harmonies (Sugar on My Tongue, Sucka Free) or quasi-industrial trap (the multi-phased Don’t tap the Glass / Tweakin’) but even those sound like tracks he’s made before. Overall, this serves as a solid summary of his career since 2017, even if lacking in direction.
Losing My Edge Rating: 6/10
Best Tracks: Stop Playing With Me, Don’t Tap The Glass / Tweakin’
Released: July 21, 2025
Label: Columbia
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Key Glock: Glockavelli
As trap became more and more ridiculous, juvenile and extreme under the tutelage of Playboi Carti, Atalanta’s Key Glock emerged with a matured version of Gucci Mane and Jeezy’s original blueprint, steeped in the tradition of southern hip hop; The music is relatively interesting on the cinematic opener Hallelujah (produced by King Wonka, sampling Leonard Cohen), blues-infused Glockavelli, Papercutz (with guitar bends (King Wonka), the soul-infused Sunny Dayz (produced by Bankroll Got It, sampling Boney M) and and the mildly unsettling No Sweat (derivative of the Migos, also by King Wonka) and especially, the dissonant standout 3AM in ToKEYo (which ironically contradicts his ‘matured’ style, produced by DJ Paul, AYJAY089 & TWhyXclusive). The performances are competent (if not extraordinary), particularly on Watch Da Throne, Badu and No Sweat. Alas, 18 tracks is several too many and the rest is monotonous filler. He does himself no favours by extending the album to 31 tracks on the deluxe edition, titled All Eyes On Key.
Losing My Edge Rating: 5/10
Best Tracks: Hallelujah, 3am in ToKEYo
Released: May 2, 2025
Label: Republic
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John Michel, Anthony James – Egotrip
John Michel and Anthony James debuted as a duo with the buoyant atmospheres of Egotrip, reminiscent of Kanye West, Chance the Rapper and Black Album-era Jay-Z. but with a unique (over)usage of chipmunk soul samples. Strings, samples and melodic basslines shape the hysterical atmosphere of Going Down, which reprises Gwen McCrae’s Love Without Sex. That same formula is repeated basically through the whole album: the louder sax-backed soul-funk Take No More, embellished by blaring guitar solos on Oneway, the booming radio-blues proclamations of PREACHER!, (featuring coliN!), piano jaunts, frantic drums and gospel shouts on Nobody form the backdrop for rap sermons that are spiritual in nature (mimicking an evangelical sermon). Admit My Guilt, world’s end and Sunday Morning, Genesis close the set with the most melancholic rapping (almost adjacent to MIKE’s lo-fi psychosis). The unpolished production does a good job at heightening the breathless, triumphant style. Certainly, there is little variety and the samples become exhausting but at least it gets its point across without overstaying its welcome
Losing My Edge Rating: 7/10
Best Tracks: Don’t Save Me, Nobody
Released: 23 May, 2025
Label: LOUDMOUTH
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Armand Hammer / The Alchemist – Mercy
Following up to 2020’s highly acclaimed, Haram, Mercy is an inconsequential album from Woods, E L U C I D and The Alchemist, mostly thanks to predictable production and delivery. Despite the team’s talent, several tracks are underdeveloped and lacking chemistry between the writer and producer that would build these songs into fully-formed highlights. The instrumentals generally boast a slight eastern flair and a warped techno-futurist edge. The Alchemist crafts Laaraji from lacerations of tremolo space-rock guitar, Peshawar from sound effects and pitched piano and Glue Traps (feat. Quelle Chris) from Madvillainy-style keyboard fragments and soul-jazz embellishments (The album contains several references to the late rapper) and Longjohns, with flashes of spiritual jazz. The standouts are Dogeared (feat. Kapwani) with sour keyboards and an oriental flair staging perhaps the two most emotional verses (“I dreamt of boats loose from their moorings, We’ll see if they’re sea-worthy, we’ll see”) and Crisis Phone wrapped in a ghostly drone and gated harmonies (The Alchemist’s finest moment) and supplemented by a guttural chorus from Pink Siifu. Woods’ political allegories breathe life into the trendy chipmunked soul (a la Griselda) of Moonbow. Earl Sweatshirt duets with a flute over the soul instrumental of California Games, while midi synths lend prosody to the single, Super Nintendo where the duo trade gallows humour. There are highlights and memorable moments but not enough original ideas or fully-fledged songs to justify an album-length collaboration.
Losing My Edge Rating: 5/10
Best Tracks: Laraaji, Dogeared, Crisis Phone
Released: November 7, 2025
Label: Backwoodz
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2hollis – Star
Chicago-based songwriter 2hollis – remarkably the son of John Herndon, the legendary drummer of the band Tortoise – plays a polyamorous style of cloud-rap and electropop in the style of Bladee and Yung Lean. He followed up his breakout album Boy with a far tamer but more varied effort on the major label debut, Star. A few tracks mimic the dance music of the mid-2000s, such as Star with a hard-bass techno motif in the second half and Destroy Me, reminiscent of dubstep and particularly Burn, which actually begins as a cloud rap track before evolving into booming glitchtronica. Some tracks try to marry Bladee with Yeat like the simultaneously blissful and rage-adherent Girl and the aggressive but straightforward Sidekick. Meanwhile, some tracks imitate Lil Peep’s anemic emo-rap (Cope). Several tracks are neither atmospheric or eventful e.g. the hip-house track You or at the opposite end of the spectrum, the lo-fi acoustic ballad Eldest Child.
The hodgepodge of styles expands his palette but the feeling is one of transition rather than achievement. The songcraft and arranging is less coherent and dissapointing compared to Boy (which itself, is not exactly Pet Sounds).
Losing My Edge Rating: 4/10
Best Tracks: Burn
Released: April 4, 2025
Label: Interscope