2025 Favourite Albums
I chose 55 albums that could have been named by the Junos but weren’t.
Here’s the playlist - you can listen on Spotify, but if you’ve got money, go support the artists you enjoy. Buy digital, buy physical - CD, Vinyl, Cassette, shirts, merch - whatever. Don’t just stream music and think you’re helping artists though. I buy everything I play on ATSIC.
Ok, so. There’s an argument to be made that any of these albums are the “best” of Canada’s 2025 Hip Hop albums. It’s up to you to decide. I’m not gunna tell you what to think. I’m not going to persuasively make any argument for any particular albums. I’m not saying my picks are better than the Junos. I’m just pointing at a bunch of albums I liked last year and making click bait titles to try to get the algorithm to show this all to someone so the scene can gain some new ears. It deserves it.
Ultimately, my opinion is less important than creating conversation around the Canadian artists who deserve support. If you like other shit, great. If you don’t like something I do, great. If you find something you like here, mission complete. I’d love to hear about it. I do my best to document the scene week by week, and this is far from all the music I heard from this country last year. Believe it or not, I narrowed this list down over the course of 5 or 6 months, and waited until now to make a post about it - I wanted to take some time to sit with some of the late year albums, and to solidify what I really wanted to do with my picks. I’ve gained a unique perspective paying this much attention to this much new music every week, and focusing exclusively on Canadian artists. That doesn’t mean I want to use that perspective to try and tell people who “won”. It’s art, and while competition is entertaining and pushes people forward, I reject the idea that anyone is the “best” artist. At some points I had thought maybe I’d choose 10 or 20 of these albums. 50 is absurd, I didn’t even know that’s how many I had until I typed them out here and told it to number the list. But everyone here is doing what they set out to do, creating what they want to create, and doing it in a way that makes their passion for the craft, respect for the culture, and many many hours of practice very evident.
So no. I didn’t want to even try to narrow the list down - these are all solid albums that can play front to back without skips, they’re well paced and well planned and well executed, cohesive, fleshed out and free standing. There’s some variety in various lanes but for the most part I pick boom bap and bars as my favourites, and this is exactly that. These are a bunch of albums I enjoyed last year that I hope other people might enjoy too, and I think these are all masters of their craft operating at a high level.
For this lists purposes I considered 30 minutes the benchmark to meet in order to be considered a “full album” - there’s a few that are under by 5 or 6 minutes, but they still got a passing grade even with a few points deducted for brevity. Then there’s a couple I just wanted to shout out cuz they deserved it, but I know they can’t be taken too seriously in a full album conversation.
The point here is to highlight the wide variety of really dope artists who are putting in a lot of work across Canada. Our scene is a vibrant and thriving one, and you shouldn’t let anyone tell you different.
There’s a video from a couple of streams I did in late January, after I’d had a bit of time to digest and analyze, crunch numbers on ATSIC stats, and actually take the time to listen to some of the late year releases (if you know me you know I hate on any drop after December 10 or so). You can watch the video or read the post, or both. I listed the albums I talked about in no particular order as I made the Spotify playlist - but I wrote about them in the order that they were talked about on the video, and I timestamped each albums start time in the video if you want to skip through. I typed a bit about some albums, but not much. I just said something nice that can be quoted on a grant application.
This is how we build. The people deciding who gets the national funded push are not people who can tell you what good or bad Hip Hop sounds like. We can just take the reigns. They are begging us to take the reigns.
THE JUNO NOMINEES
I started off talking about the freshly announced Juno nominees - both for singles and albums, even though this list is only talking about the albums. If I was going to try to list all the singles I like.. It’d be a long list since a lot of artists don’t bother to drop full albums in this era. This is a salute to the artists that do and did in 2025:
JUNO NOMINEE - ARDN - KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE SPARROW - This album is a vibe, and I love to see Western Canada and especially Edmonton getting the look, but at 24 minutes, it probably wouldn’t have made my own list because of the 30 minute criteria. Solid project with great production and songwriting thoughout, and ARDN is actually one of the examples of artists who use a lot of autotune that feels fresh or unique to me. It’s tough to place exactly why that is, but I feel a bit more genuine expression and emotion in the songs here - to a point where it gets above the “this is just a way to get women” feel I get from some music in this vein of rap. Plus I cheer for Edmonton, so bonus points for sentimental reasons. Edmonton has spitters, old era/new era - the whole lineage is a bunch of beasts, but it’s good to see someone making some crossover moves and getting motion - clicks, crowds and critically.
JUNO NOMINEE - CONNOR PRICE - ABOUT TIME - While his style is a bit more pop focused and crossover ready than I typically want to listen to by/on my own devices, I think this is a fairly undeniable body of catchy, danceable, clip ready, quotable, expertly promoted, hype, fun, non-threatening party rap shit. It will find an audience who loves it, I promise. Connor is slick with the wordplay and constantly knocking out uptempo bops over the past few years. Those are in no short supply here. There’s some features, notably a track with Idris Elba that caught some attention when paired with the social media buzz that comes from having a trending A-list actor appearing to rap with you out of the blue. I can only guess at the industry connects that made that, or all of this possible, but this album is one of the 2 Juno noms listed as “independent,” so I guess maybe Connor did get it from the mud, at least to the extent possible to also be considered for a Juno. If there was one drawback here, it might be a lack of heavier subject matter, but really, there’s a time and a place for deep meaning, and a time and a place for fun music, and this fills that latter role with finesse. I haven’t heard everything on here, but I think I get the gist of it. I’ve heard the long lead up of singles and the collabo album with Nic D, and the tone is constant. Connor does what he does and he does it well. I’ve played lots of his music on ATSIC, and I’ll keep looking this direction when I’m putting together the more dance floor focused mixes for the show.
JUNO NOMINEE - NORTHSIDEBENJI - MISERY LOVES COMPANY - wouldn’t have been one of my picks - no hate, I see the numbers and know there are people out there who love this style of music, but I’m not the target audience and this post is about my opinions. fuck it. If we’re talking about “Rap” albums, I prefer a more hard fast bolted down definition of what rapping is, and I’m not sure I can call the melodic deliveries across this one “rap”. There’s some songs with guests or with more rapid deliveries that I’d call rap, but there’s a lot of emcees across the country in every lane who are rapping circles around this for full albums, and that’s just my personal preference. I fucks with some autotune crooning from time to time and have nothing against melody to help flavour certain flows, but I admit that a full album of autotune songs is too much for my old man tastes, especially with a lot of topical retread about fucking your bitches and shooting guns in foreign cars or whatever. It’s cliche bingo and just doesn’t feel very artistically driven, but the people love it, so all the power to him and anyone who enjoys it.
JUNO NOMINEE - SAD BOI - DRY CRY - wouldn’t have been one of my picks - this one didn’t grab my attention when it dropped, and even if it had, it dropped in December 2024, which is inside Juno deadlines, but not in the year I’m trying to write about in this post. Upon briefly listening now, I can’t seriously put it above a lot of the other projects I picked in my own list from 2025, and it’s a few min short of the 30 minute mark I arbitrarily chose to run with. It sounds well produced and it’s not sonically displeasing or anything like that, I’m just hearing a lot of guests carrying weight, and I’m assuming she didn’t produce the beats. Not enough on this one to justify it above a lot of other artists albums in my opinion, but she’s finding an audience according to online numbers, and I wish her continued success - I’ll follow for the next drops.
JUNO NOMINEE - TOBI - ELEMENTS VOL. 2 - I’ve been impressed by everything I’ve heard from TObi - and this album is probably the pinnacle of the rising trajectory, so far. He’s also nominated for Rap Single for a track off this LP, “Who’s Driving You” with Jully Black and Saukrates - which is an infectiously smooth, funk driven, certified slider featuring cosigns and quality contributions from 2 legends of the Canadian scene. “He’s So Good” is another big track on this album, complete with a horn driven beat from Classified that drips with triumphant charisma - Sportsnet used it for some Raptors promo, and that sort of placement is exactly what music like this needs to hit a wider audience and get the recognition it deserves. I generally don’t listen to much American stuff these days, but Mick Jenkins is one of the few newish underground emcees I’ve actually checked for in the past half decade or so, so his appearance on “Forgot We Were Seeds” gets some bonus points on top of just being a dope track. Production and sound quality, vibe, lyrical dexterity and integrity, blends of fun and serious subject matter, artistry, cohesion, crossover appeal, conscious content, relevant features that add to the songs - this album checks all the boxes.
AND NOW FOR MY PICKS
CLICK THE ALBUM TITLE TO JUMP TO THAT TIMESTAMP IN THE VIDEO
KAI BANKS - 08’ JETTA - 45:25 - Two great albums this year from Kai, this one and The Kaible both. This one’s dope, but it’s too short to meet my arbitrary criteria of being 30 minutes long. I ended up deleting it off the Spotify playlist, but I talked about it on the video and it’s worth a listen, dude is rapping rapping and it’s high quality production he’s rapping over.
JIMMY D & NICHOLAS CRAVEN - GOOD MUSIC HYNOTIZES - 48:00 - If you like laid back, drumless Hip Hop with a lot of focus on slow flow street bars, this might be your AOTY.
LOU PHELPS - CHELBE - 50:00 - lots of funk infused on this one, bringing the bars to the dancefloor.
SHAD - START ANEW - 52:20 - Laid back, conscious songs covering a wide range of subject matter. Shad has rightfully been a mainstay on the scene, and his ease and comfort are evident on this project, which plays like a check list of songs you would write if you set out to get Hip Hop some critical acclaim and respect from a wider audience who hates on the mainstreams extravagance.
THE BLUE - SO LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE - 58:00 - live instrumentation and laid back delivery from the Calgary based emcee on this one. You can tell that a lot of passion went in on this project, and if chill soulful raps over live bands is your vibe, you’ll dig this.
BOSLEN - DALI - 1:02:32 - Vancouver emcee Boslen takes a few sonic cues from Ye on the start of this project and then moves into his own brand of lyrically dense, genre blending Hip Hop. Not 30 minutes long, but still a dope album.
NAYA ALI - WE DID THE DAMN THING - 1:05:21 - Maybe not enough rapping rapping on this one to count as my personal favourite “rap album” - but it’s really well made and has a bunch of stuff that fit in on mixes alongside more lyrical stuff.
TONA - HOTC 2 - 1:07:14 - Tona been dope, and this album just further cements his status as one of the best doing it, with top tier lyricism throughout. I looked it up and HOTC 1 did drop in 2024, but if you slept on that it’s also worth hearing.
ROSHIN & UNCLE FESTER - HI / LO - 1:11:05 - One of a few albums that got multiple spins from me this year, Canadian or otherwise. Fester’s on fire, and he was cooking on this one, providing perfect soundscapes for Roshin to showcase the continued evolution of his introspective, no nonsense style alongside a variety of great guest features from other Canadian underground mainstays.
JUNK - NO WATER IN HELL VOL. 2 - 1:14:42 - Junk gets a lot of credit around these parts, and he deserves it for consistently delivering. This album was a showcase of versatility and continued artistic growth, and it was only one project from a busy year for the west coast emcee.
KRYPLE - JOHNNY RICH - 1:19:54 - This Edmontonian has long since made it known that he can rappity rap - this album has him in a more autobiographical mode, recapping, re-evaluating, and flexing a more introspective side than we usually get from him, or other super lyrical emcees. Bonus points for self producing too, this is a fully formed artistic vision.
QUAKE MATTHEWS - PATIO SEASON - 1:23:36 - Quake dropped twice this year, with this album’s sunshine and similes sonic approach balanced out by the darker, moodier tones of his December drop, Phantom. The Halifax veteran was fully embracing superstar mode for this nostalgia induced, self produced collection of summer jams.
KABOOM ATOMIC & THE DIRTY SAMPLE - 2 CENTS - 1:26:52 - As the name implies, this one is full of a lot of opinions and societal critique, in a self described “old man yells at clouds sort of scenario”. Kaboom is a seasoned lyricist, is hilarious, and is rapping over some of my favourite dusty chopped sample beats from The Dirty Sample. It was the most played album on ATSIC’s 2025 season, and another on my short list for personal favourites.
LOTUS JAMES - WORDPLAY KING - 1:33:23 - another one that’s too short to be seriously considered for best full album status, but if you’re a fan of wordplay and double entendres, this one offers a lot of lyricism packed into a short, cohesive playlist.
ASUN EASTWOOD & LORD JUCO - 2 BIRDS - 1:35:15 - FLY IN FORMATION INTERVIEW FEBRUARY 17 - Two more slow flow super lyricists (I admit, this is my favourite variety of emcee) from the Toronto underground scene who should be getting more attention teamed up on this one, and I couldn’t have handpicked a duo that would make me happier to hear collaborating. Jesse Green’s beats give them plenty of space to speak, and the chemistry is undeniable. Both emcees dropped solo projects on this list as well, but I think I like the back and forth on this enough to push it above those, and call it one of my personal favourites of 25.
NOSUHR - PEELS - 1:46:58 - Edmonton’s dopest emcees named Kyle united on this one with the type of collaborative chemistry you only ever see in guys who were step brothers for a year or few but aren’t officially brothers any more but still are anyways because Hip Hop. Jimmy Burnett did the beats, Nohsur did the blue-collar, down to earth, everyman with mud on the mic bar burying. It’s too short for my 30 minute criteria, but it’s an honourable mention and a damn good listen.
EZZA OF CHOOM GANG - JUST CALL ME E - 1:47:17 - FLY IN FORMATION INTERVIEW APRIL 28 - There’s something in the water in Niagara Falls - 6 albums on this list originate there. Ezza made two of those, and both were straightforward boom bap stylistically, but find E using his relaxed and monotone delivery for poetic self reflections and laid back braggadocio.
LORD JUCO - BREAK A LEG - 1:52:02 - Juco had extra time to write while he was resting with a broken leg, and he knocked out a solid project with the spare time. Sparse beats and smart rhymes, I’m here for it.
ASUN EASTWOOD & MK ORTIZ - ASK GOD FOR HELP - 1:52:59 - Asun is always entertaining, and on this one he had big lush backdrops to propel him to higher heights.
SAYZEE & KNG BONDALERO - 2 WAY MIRROR - 1:54:20 - Sayzee produced half of this, KNG Bondalero produced the other half, and both rapped on everything, for a mash up of styles and a friendly competition to see who could get over on each track. A lot of 1 emcee & 1 producer projects would have the emcee choosing beats and rejecting what they don’t want to rhyme on, but an album of this format pushes both emcees to meet or exceed the challenge of each track, and you hear it.
TRIPPZ - WATER - 1:56:04 - This one might be the least rap focused album on here, and I acknowledge that earlier in this post, I used ever-present melody as an excuse not to like North Side Benji’s album.. but I’ve heard Trippz rap plenty, and if he wants to do a self produced magnum opus after completing a production course and learning the ropes of production and engineering, I’m here for it. You can tell he’s realizing his artistic vision here in a way he hasn’t before, and he brings a certain lyrical sensibility to the songwriting that isn’t always a guarantee in this sort of music.
NEW VILLAIN & CIRCA 95 - MYSTERIOSO - 1:57:57 - Toronto’s masked villian hotboxes the fishbowl helmet and refreshes some well tread metaphors for a comic book infused trip through the streets.
TOBI - THE PERFECT BLUE - More top notch production and polished product from this talented rapper singer songwriter. This is the type of music that sounds like it’d get you signed to Sony and pushed to a wider audience, and that’s exactly what it is.
DIALECT SOSA - ULTRA VIOLENCE: DECLINE OF A BEAUTIFUL MIND - 1:59:09 - There’s a wide range of stylistic choices across this one, from classic boom bap call and response ONXY type choruses to sing songy nursery rhymes over wonky melodies. Listening to experimentation is always fun for me, and after talking to DS I know that he’s just trying to up the challenge level with self produced beats and a desire to see where he can go next. The album follows a storyline of sorts, the type of ambitious theme album you’d expect from a mad rapper with Kubrick and societal decline on the brain.
MIKE SHABB - SHABBVANGOGH - 2:06:51 - Shabbo’s self produced jazz sampled beats complement his off kilter but consistent flow, and he paints a vivid picture with this one, focusing a sound that’s unique and road tested.
TAIYAMO DENKU X THRUST OG X BOFAATBEATZ" - NICER THAN YOU - 2:15:15 -
SKIZZA & AK PRODUCTIONS - WINTER CLASSIC - 2:24:13 - These two are on a run like Nas & Hit Boy, and the warm up is long since over, with this winter drop finding Skizza as sharp as he’s ever been, with topical songs and high level lyricism.
IMPERETIV & SUPA KALIENTE - NEW LEVELS NEW DEVILS - 2:26:59 -
SHARK & DJ ALKEMY - DEEP BLUE SEE - 2:30:22 - Shark is a relentless presence in the Hip Hop deep end, and every time he surfaces it’s worth a listen. The soundscapes on this matched his style well and he’s carrying a ton of momentum at this point which manifests into an album that feels like a real statement.
TACHICHI - PEAK PERFORMANCE - 2:32:45 - Tachichi isn’t going anywhere and is continuing to hold down Halifax Hip Hop heads, dropping a mixtape era inspired album that plays like a compilation and features a wide variety of styles displaying the wide range of music that T is capable of making. Not everything has to be a focused, coherent thesis statement theme album to get my attention or praise - I’m not FACTOR - and I know that mixtapes and bringing an assortment of sounds together are integral to this kulture.
THE 6TH LETTER & GHOSTBOYRJ - SMOKE SUMN RADIO, VOL. 1 - 2:37:21 -
ALCHEMY THE LINGUIST & RUGA.PIE - STILL BECOMING - 2:39:24 - Lethbridge is in the mix with this one! Saskatoon emcee RUGA.PIE delivers dense, emotionally charged lyrics over top of the other windy cities own Alchemy the Linguist’s dreamlike soundscapes. Even without the cosign for being from the home city of ATSIC, this album stands on it’s own and deserves a listen even if it only has 6 songs and might not count as a full fledged long play album.
NICHOLAS CRAVEN & BOLDY JAMES - LATE FOR MY OWN FUNERAL - 2:42:22 - Boldy might be my favourite emcee in the drumless lane, so even though he’s American, I’m including a second Craven produced album on this list.
TIMBUKTU & T.O. HUXTABLE - THUNDERDOME - 2:43:26 - really fun album filled with head nod beats and punchline driven, light hearted bars displaying a style that’s been mastered long ago and remains as sharp as ever. Backburner & Swamp Thing guest features keep each track engaging, and while none of the content here is overly thought provoking, it’s a great album that does exactly what it sounds like Tim set out to do - slap them across the face with skills.
HALFCUT & COLE THE GOD - THE RELENTLESS TWO: 2:45:27 - These two Calgarians bring just the right level of spaghetti western tension to the mix with well chosen samples, and keep things cowboy without going country. Halfcut’s heavy handed lyricism and homages to their classic era influences throughout keep things firmly rooted in Hip Hop tradition.
HIDDEN RENAISSANCE, NEW VILLAIN, THRONE & BBGLOS - TROIKA - 2:49:57 -
FUZZY ED - THE WAY HOME - 2:50:50 - another nice collaborative album from a producer based in Calgary. Ed could have looked north of the border for a few more features on this one in my opinion, but his beats worked nicely with the American underground guys he did work with.
TROY DUNNIT - BBS - 2:51:33 - Montreal’s Troy Dunnit delivered a full fledged full length LP with this one, delivering a baritone barrage over a selection of cinematic soundscapes. Points for run time and features from some Canadian legends.
B1 THE ARCHITECT & SYTHE - HEADS OR TAILS - 2:52:18 - B1 never stops working, whether producing, emceeing, or engineering for other artists across the industry. It’s good to see him take some weight off his shoulders by passing production duty to West coast producer Sythe, who offers sinister and shadowy sonics for B1 to serve up self serving soliloquies over.
SLIK JACK & VINCENT PRYCE - THE PRYCE YOU PAY - 2:54:40 - The second of two albums in 25 from this Montreal duo,
ERROL EATS EVERYTHING - ERROL EATS EVERYTHING - 2:56:54 - New age entertainment with classic sensibilities here, big horn sections over lush beats, and no nonsense lyricism that pays homage to the greats while plotting it’s own trajectory. I dunno where Errol is from, but this one is heavy with Jamaican patois and Caribbean styles like a lot of Canadian stuff is, and he’s doing it well. This self titled debut (?) is worth a listen and serious consideration for AOTY.
SAYZEE & LUPARA - WORD ON THE STREET IS GOD WANTS YOU DEAD - 2:58:36 - Sayzee seems at this point like he probably just walks around talking in rhyme in his day to day life. The drop schedule has been absurd, and this album played to my tastes - when an emcee gets to choose beats from an international producer collective, you’re going to get a nice beat buffet with a wider range than you would in a typical 1 emcee 1 producer album, and Sayzee brought the A game we’re all used to hearing by now.
BACKXWASH - ONLY DUST REMAINS - 3:00:49 - Poetry that plays like salt on a nerve, with an expressive and distinct vocal quality, over sweeping instrumentation that sounds like it was composed by a mastermind maestro and an orchestra of angels ready for war is what to expect on this one. Sometimes raw and emotional, but polished and practiced as well, this album is one of the most purely artistic albums I’ve heard in a while, pushing boundaries of what you’re allowed to do in a rap song time and time again across the album.
BUCK 65 - KEEP MOVING - 3:03:11 - The East coast indie legend returns to the stage with an extended playlist of jams that will make you want to hit a backspin. If you long for old school rules and rappers who aren’t afraid to be weird, this one might have been your AOTY, as Buck hasn’t lost a step since his days blazing the trail for indie rap in this country.
Raz Fresco & Futurewave - Stadium Lo Champions - I fucked up the audio from the section I talked about this one, but it’s another solid drop from Raz. 2025 was a slower year release wise for the head of BKRSCLB, but he didn’t disappoint with the one full length album that streaming did get. At this point, if you aren’t a fan of Raz Fresco our differences of opinion are probably irreconcilable. Futurewave has been supplying the Toronto underground’s best with fire for years, so this album was no surprise in it’s partnering great bars with great beats.
The crazy thing is that I’m probably forgetting some. Choclair, Merkules, Snak all dropped solid albums too.. They’ve all got plenty of fans though, doesn’t matter if I recommend them or not. The point here is shining light on people who don’t get enough recognition. It’s ridiculous how many good albums drop. There’s so many that it’s easy to overlook even good projects. That’s the point of this list. If you think I should have included something, let me know.
Stay Up.
