You 53 and you still rappin?

Kurupt & DJ Battlecat - Me N The Boyz
(From Me N The Boyz single; 2026)

This is the west coast Gangsta-Rap equivalent of Redman doing a track over a James Brown sample innit? Yeah, it's obvious and lazy, but who cares because it jams. Why does Snoop get an official credit here when he's not on the song or in the video?

Late pass!

"Ain't no talkin' in my area
My n****s keep quiet like librarians
That pork and that beef is for barbarians
You see me, I'm more of a pescatarian
Beef with me will have you floatin' in an aquarium"

Mic Terror - Viagra Triangle
(From Viagra Triangle single; 2024)

Mic Terror & his m8s dropped so many loosies throughout 2024 that I managed to miss this one. It's another gem which mixes the ignorance with the elegance on some Chicago "drive slow, homie"-core. If I were gonna collate an album out of Mic's 2024 loosies, I'd use Juicenan Freestyle as the first track and Viagra Triangle here as the final track. Maybe that should be my next playlist? For now tho, here's a list of my top 10 favourite non-2026 Rap songs I've discovered this year.

Run-D.M.C - Jam-Master Jammin' (Rick Rubin remix) (1985)
Biggie Smalls - Biggie Got The Hype Shit (1991)
Me & My Cousin - My Day (1996)
Ma$e ft. Puffy - I'm No Killa (O.G version) (1998)
Rev Run - I Used To Think I Was Run (2005)
Bavgate ft. LJ - Keep It Gangsta (2005)
J-Diggs - Diggs Dance (2005)
Mic Terror - Viagra Triangle (2024)
The Egyptian Lover - Vocoder Jam (2025)
Sir Michael Rocks - Talkin' Legit (2025)

My Mind Spray 24

Seeing great football players from the 2000s/2010s reduced to playing in the MLS and scoring goals against plumbers from Maryland is the sporting equivalent of seeing great rappers from the 1980s/1990s reduced to touring Europe and doing albums produced by the Snow Goons. Yeah, it's undignified, but everybody gotta eat and get their adrenaline rush somehow, right?

Favourite line on a 2026 Rap song: "I'm in my bag like yo' grandmama's peppermints" from Mic Terror's A Year Ago. You know a line is good when you can add it to your IRL lexicon.

That unreleased Digital Underground song Blue View from the recent Sex Packets reissue is cool. It sounds like Shock G had been listening to Bristolian Trip-Hop, but in a good way: Portishead rather than that whispering stoner c**t Tricky.

Shout out to Tricky's Christiansands tho. A notable entry in my personal canon of Shinola Songs By The Shittiest Artists.

Those tech lad Rap fans who did the AI videos for Ice Cube's Once Upon A Time In The Projects and My Summer Vacation should do a video for Slick Rick's The Moment I Feared next. Might be best if they avoid doing one for Rick's Indian Girl (An Adult Story) tho.

I've seen a buncha very promising snippets from BunnaB recently. Thus, I'm very optimistic about her next album.

Every corny "U.K club mix" of a Rap song CJ Mackintosh hacked out in the late 80s/early 90s was worth suffering to get his remix of Whitney Houston's Queen of The Night. The lumpen original transformed into Diva House tremendo. That shit rivals K-Klass' remix of Bobby Brown's Two Can Play That Game in the canon of incredible U.K remixes of U.S pop singles.

Laughin' to the bank

Public Enemy - Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya, Man!
(From Fear Of A Black Planet album; 1990)

Keep yer ears peeled at 0:56 and 2:29. Unless anyone can think of any earlier examples then it's time Flava Flav is recognised & realised as the #actual pioneer of the Max B laugh on wax.

Pour out a little snakebite for L7's Jennifer Finch. L7 were basically four L.A Punk birds doing Motörhead, and so they were one of my favourite bands of the early 90s. No lie, their Bricks Are Heavy LP is as important to me as any of my favourite Rap albums from that era. L7 also had two truly great moments on British TV: their performance of Pretend We're Dead on The Word and Johnny Vaughan interviewing them on Naked City.

In The Trunk (part 2)

Trunk Boiz & Seiji Oda ft. Fijiana - Sky Scraper
(From Right Back In EP; 2026)

A video for one of my favourite cuts from the Trunk Boiz & Seiji Oda EP. I fuxwit this one because it sounds like a Trunk Boiz and Kreayshawn collaboration which should have happened in the early 2010s. And that's the thing: lots of my current favourite choonz sounds like a parallel universe of Rap which never happened but which really should have happened.

Kreayshawn's Gucci Gucci was a true “I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it!” song.

21 Years Later

Z-Ro - Mo City Don (Freestyle) (video)
(From Let The Truth Be Told album; 2005/YouTube; 2026)

It's never too late for a proper video to one of the greatest songs in Texas Rap history. A song with no actual chorus which is #actually one long chorus innit. Just press stop or rewind at the 4:30 mark because no discerning Rap connoisseur needs to be reminded of what comes next. True story: when I first copped the Let The Truth Be Told I was so stuck on this song I didn't even listen to the rest of the album until days later. And so here's a generic list post of 30 first songs on albums which were so good they had me in a headlock for days.

Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther Theme (1963)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Foxy Lady (1967)
Isaac Hayes - Walk On By (1968)
Curtis Mayfield - (Don't worry) If There's A Hell Below.. (1970)
Baby Huey & The Babysitters - Listen To Me (1971)
Lalo Schifrin - Theme From Enter The Dragon (1973)
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976)
The Damned - Neat Neat Neat (1977)
Ramones - I Just Wanna Have Something To Do (1978)
Madness - One Step Beyond (1979)
Michael Jackson - Don't Stop Til You Get Enough (1979)
Motörhead - Ace Of Spades (1980)
Prince - Let's Go Crazy (1984)
Run-D.M.C - Peter Piper (1986)
Beastie Boys - Rhymin' & Stealin (1986)
Eric B. & Rakim - Follow The Leader (1988)
Danzig - Twist Of Cain (1988)
N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton (1989)
Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo - Road To The Riches (1989)
Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance (1989)
Freddie Foxxx - The Master (1989)
Faith No More - From Out Of Nowhere (1989)
LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out (1990)
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
Soundgarden - Rusty Cage (1991)
The Diplomats - Un Kasa (2003)
Andre Nickatina - Conversation With A Devil (2003)
Mac Dre - Feelin' Myself (2004)
Z-Ro - Mo City Don (Freestyle) (2005)
Young Bleed - Stamp On It (2011)

You can play this game with me if you want, but there's one rule: all first songs on albums which are preceeded by a skit or an intro are officially excluded.

Surf youts with attitude, kinda groovy

BabyChiefDoIt - Ghetto Love Story
(From R.A.M.B.O album; 2026)

Nowadays you have to look for that Charlie Rambo waviness in places other than Max B's music. What a pleasant surprise to find it in a song by a teenage Chicago Drill rapper which sounds it could be on a new So So Def Bass All-Stars compilation. In fact, this is the most So So Def Bass All-Stars soundin' track since Freak Like Me by Slimeroni. Anyhoo, I'd call Ghetto Love Story my Song of The Summer™, but England is experiencing another 30+ degree heatwave and I'm ready for autumn already.

AIight then

Ice Cube - Once Upon A Time In The Projects
(From AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted album; 1990/YouTube; 2026)

Examples of AI being aiight: when it's used to create videos for Ice Cube's greatest storytelling songs ever. Cube never shot the video for Once Upon A Time In The Projects himself, so some tech geek Rap fans got the computers 'putin. Damn, this is exactly what I picture in my mind's eye every time I listen to the song. Now do You Can't Fade Me next plz.