Archive | February, 2026

Top Five Mostly Rap Albums to Get You Started With 2026

16 Feb

A$AP Rocky – Don’t Be Dumb

A$AP’s long-awaited release is overstuffed, bloated with filler and has some very interesting moments in the morass. This is dog-bites-man news; absolutely unsurprising. I do want to tell you about the interesting moments though.

Firstly “STOLE YA FLOW” goes hard. It’s a great song and great swagger. The jazz of “ROBBERY” is fun and I like Doechii’s Esparanza Spalding impression in it. “PUNK ROCKY” continues the dream pop of “Sundress” and I wish the whole album just delved into that instead. Both “SWAT TEAM” and “WHISKEY” have interesting moments but are let down by laziness.

So, we have about a third of the album be interesting and the rest is inoffensive but unnecessary. “PLAYA”, for instance, does nothing and goes on too long. The voiceovers are lazy storytelling and don’t fit the make-your-own-mixtape style of throwing everything in an album.

At its very best, it reminds me of the inventiveness of Yeezus but is too unfocused to hold anything like the same power.

Gabriel Jacoby – gutta child

gutta child is really excellent dirty Southern funk. It clocks in at a quick 20 minutes and doesn’t miss once over the course of it. “bootleg” shows Jacoby in a party mode while songs like “dirty south baby” skews more to funk, where he’s a bit better, but he’s a lot of fun whatever he chooses to do. gutta child showcases Jacoby perfectly and gets out once the job’s done.

KP SKYWALKA – I Tried To Tell You

KP SKYWALKA’s flow is immediate. When you hear “ITTY” or “A DROP OUT”, the breakneck flow over the leisurely flow grabs you hard. Even softened by the beats, even when the beat is Erykah Badu in “HELL OR NOT”, the flow can be punishing.

It’s a rough album though. The flows are interesting but the album is raw and overstuffed. It has plenty of weak cuts and gets repetitive. A mixtap ewould have done better to showcase KP SKYWALKA’s talent but the talent is certainly there.

J. Cole – The Fall-Off

This is J. Cole’s best album and I don’t even like J. Cole. The man has always been able to rap. There are stretches here that remind me of mid-00s Lupe. His flow on “Drum n Bass” is immaculate as he navigates an impressive rhyme scheme over a clean piano line.

There is inevitably too much of J. Cole’s trademark self-indulgence in the album. No matter his protests, you can write the history of rap without mentioning him once. J. Cole lucked into the middle of the biggest rap beef in history and apologized his way out of it.

This makes “I Love Her Again” feel false. It’s tough to make “I Used to Love H.E.R.” at the best of times and J. Cole comes off misogynistic in his version. Additionally, he’s not as central to rap as he thinks he is. His failings undercut “Run A Train” as well. Why lie about your height to make yourself shorter? Why mention Gaza if you have nothing to say about it? J. Cole’s singular focus on narrativizing himself into rap’s pantheon leaves him with nothing of value to say.

And yet, J. Cole can rap. When you put on “SAFETY” or “POOR THANG”, his ability is undeniable. He can make great music and The Fall-Off is the best music that he has ever made. He may not have made a career for the history books but he has made a lot of music well worth listening to.

Jin Dogg – Pain Makes You Better

Jin Dogg has tremendous charisma but like a lot of regional acts, he’s an omnivore for trends but has yet to synthesize them into something his own. “NEED ¥” is very easy to get into the flow of and he’s easy to groove to but the person is currently far more interesting than the rap.

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Dry Cleaning – Secret Love

2 Feb

London-based post-punk band Dry Cleaning first came to our attention during SXSW 2025 at an event featuring tens of British bands. While other acts aimed to create a strong first impression on the stateside audience, Dry Cleaning stood out for their complete nonchalance. Singer Florence Shaw’s vocals were barely what one would call singing; her lyrics and style are closer to a particularly sing-song voicemail message, say, and delivered in a tone that suggests that no one’s going to listen to her message anyway. The other three band members – Nick Buxton on drums, Tom Dowse on guitars, and Lewis Maynard on bass – provided a well-synced backdrop; idiosyncratic as Shaw’s vocals may be, they seem to be enveloped perfectly within the instrumentals.

Secret Love, the band’s third album, keeps this uniqueness intact while tightening up the instrumentals into an even more solid rock sound, along with Shaw’s otherworldly lyrics that get deeper with time. It’s a great outing for the band, and a good first album if you’ve never given this band a spin before.

“Blood” opens with a tinny guitar riff that transitions into a metronomic drumbeat, clashing well with Shaw’s unhurried spoken-word dialog. “Rocks” is a haze of jagged sounds set to a relentless beat from Buxton. The Porcupine Tree-esque title track features beautiful guitarwork (even a mandolin), and Shaw legitimately sings a chorus; after hearing her deadpan voice note-style lyrics for so long, the effect is quite striking.

And maybe we’re overthinking it, but Shaw has a way of making her lyrics just random enough that you see metaphors everywhere. For instance, the second track “Cruise Ship Designer” initially seems to simply describe a ship designer who doesn’t particularly like designing ships but does it anyway. But the more you listen to it, the more you can interchange that specific occupation with any BS corporate job (“I need to serve a useful purpose / I desire very much a place in society”). The lead single “Hit My Head All Day” makes you think about how overwhelming life is as an adult – wasn’t it easier when, like Shaw, you were a child and wanted to be a horse or something silly like that? She goes overboard on “Evil Evil Idiot” describing the way she likes her food deeply burnt, before flipping her stance thirty seconds later to say that heating leeches chemicals into food. Is she really talking about food, or is it perhaps about idiotic and dangerous diet influencers?

What’s immediately apparent, though, is that Dry Cleaning is never trying to be unique; this is just the way they sound. A lot of this relates back to their origins. In their 20s, all the members except Shaw bounced around in various London bands, and then, somewhat atypically, transitioned into fully grown-up jobs in their 30s. Most importantly, Dowse became a visiting arts lecturer and eventually connected Shaw, a fellow arts lecturer, with Buxton and Maynard. These four artistic individuals decided to turn an adult band hobby into the main act – and you can hear that depth and self-assuredness throughout their music.

Dry Cleaning’s Secret Love is an interesting mixture of solid sounds and idiosyncratic vocals that truly sounds like nothing else, in a good way. Give it a spin if you’re looking for something new and effortlessly cool.

Rating: 7.5/10

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