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THE WHOLE WORLD (Chapter X.)

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From The Whole World (SOS) by Sunmundi & Sasco

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10. Fly Anakin – (The) Forever Dream

We are entering the TOP 10 in a big way. (The) Forever Dream by Fly Anakin is a spectacular rap experience that will remind you why you love music. The album was executive produced by Quelle Chris, and by the time you reach the final track, you’ll truly feel that someone with a deep artistic vision was overseeing the project. (The) Forever Dream is a textbook example of masterful track sequencing and album flow. It’s colorful, beautifully sounding, musical, and frequently shifts in tempo, cadence, and mood. The guest appearances always bring fresh energy and add their own part to the story. From tracks like My Ni**a (feat. $ilkmoney, Quelle Chris & Big Kahuna OG), an ode to brotherhood, friendship, and love within communities, the hypnotic CheckOnMe (feat. lojii), all the way to the breathtaking banger The Times, you’ll be captivated by the diversity of beats, flows, and emotions poured into the album.
Fly Anakin assembled a true dream team for the project — expect production from Chris Keys, Quelle Chris, Mosel, Shungu, Micall Parknsun, August Fanon, Child Actor, Denmark Vessey, Mono En Stereo, The Alchemist, Sycho Sid, and Foisey, and verses from Pink Siifu, Turich Benjy, Sycho Sid, Quelle Chris, bbymutha, Denmark Vessey, $ilkMoney, Nickelus F, lojii, and Big Kahuna OG.

By the time the final track, Say Thank You, finishes, you’ll feel like you’re walking out of the theater after the final scene of a movie you’ll remember for the rest of your life. And it doesn’t matter whether you went to the movie with someone you love, excited about your accomplishments, exhausted from work, or alone with a broken heart – this album will remind you that you feel your emotions, and that’s why you live.

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9. Obijuan – NEW BLOOD 

Voodoo, Bahamas, Gods, Caribbean legends, and the best contemporary rap. Bahamian rapper Obijuan continues to fascinate us year after year. We’ve written a piece on his album GUANAHANI (w/ dylantheinfamous), and every year we rank his records among the best the genre has to offer. Last year was no different, Obijuan released three phenomenal albums – NEW BLOOD, UNTIL THE SKY BREAK (w/ CAMOFLAUGE MONK) and ‘WATCH POT DON’T BOIL’. All three are equally good, but we decided to include the first one in our list because it resonated with us the most. NEW BLOOD by Obijuan, aka a new generation of rap myths: the Bahamian rapper has released another monumental work of art. From the intro song SOUNDBOY, you’ll know you’re in for a unique experience. On NEW BLOOD, Obijuan masterfully intertwines his personal story, the Bahamian atmosphere, and the theme of colonialism. NEW BLOOD is a powerfully anti-colonial work, with a strong message that few contemporary rap works can match. We’ve never heard anything quite like the likes of NO SPOON or WAR PAINT. The second track mentioned above appears to be a war song, but it doesn’t lose the rap elegance and is packed with strong emotions that will leave you with a profound experience. “Santa María on the beach bring my war paint.” & “My mother lives where my heart stays.”

Obijuan seems to develop an almost mythical atmosphere around his character, something we know from rappers like MF DOOM or Kool Keith. Yet the record is strongly communal, with DA LOCAL OBEAH MAN guiding you through each interlude, and you’re soaking up Bahamian culture from every second of the album, witnessing a great story. As with other art that is strongly connected to a particular nation or community, you find many universal truths that have been passed down through generations. “DON’T FATTEN UP DA FROG FOR DA SNAKE.” There was literally an all-star team working on the record. Obijuan chose artists who are taking contemporary rap to unexplored territories. So you’ll hear the tag of PUBLICHOUSING NYC; BA PACE himself makes a guest appearance on the album. Besides him, Papo2oo4, al.divino, and Rahiem Supreme make guest appearances on the album. The beats were produced by Dylantheinfamous, August Fanon, Camoflauge Monk, Wino Willy, Subjext 5, Sniper.Lew, The Builder, Mike Shabb, Grimm Doza, Baelei P., and Argov. NEW BLOOD is another phenomenal work by one of the most prominent artists of our time, who, with each album, writes his life myth. At the end, we will quote part of the track SCIENCE to remind us, like Obijuan, that even today there are powers with colonial ambitions persisting in the world. “Wide body pull up in da plaza. Free Gaza one finger blow away ya Mazda. “

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8. Earl Sweatshirt – Live Laugh Love 

Earl Sweatshirt belongs to the small group of artists who, in an unprecedented way during the second decade of our millennium, shaped the next generations of musicians and brought their unique sound. Earl is also among the artists who always infused their music with pain, darkness, doubt, chaos, and confusion. With each new album, Earl solidified his place in the world, and we can consider Voir Dire from 2023, produced entirely by The Alchemist, a turning point. In a narrower context, the term “voir dire” refers to the jury selection process; in a broader sense, it means “to speak the truth.” And surely you’ll agree: Earl let the truth shine on Voir Dire. Perhaps for the first time in his life, he didn’t have to fear a jury judging him. That jury isn’t us listeners, but his reflection in the mirror. His newest album reflects Earl’s personal growth and a flood of new, powerful emotions stemming from fatherhood and a healthy relationship, though ironically, it places them against the backdrop of today’s alarming global societal situation.

Feeling happy in today’s world feels like a bad joke: Earl Sweatshirt, on the album Live Laugh Love found his beacon, which he intends to protect. The very title feels ironic, yet it carries an almost naive honesty. Within the context of Earl’s discography, listeners quickly realize there’s no grandiose pathos here, but rather a determination to preserve a sense of happiness and safeguard those Earl loves. Structurally, the album resembles Some Rap Songs (2018), offering a fragmented soundscape with truly unique beats. Half of the album was produced by the one and only Theravada, additional beats come from Earl Sweatshirt himself, Black Noise, Navy Blue, and Child Actor. Listening to the album feels like levitating, yet Earl’s strong, evocative rhymes keep you grounded.

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7. Navy Blue – The Sword & The Soaring

It’s no secret that American rapper, producer, skateboarder, model, and visual artist Navy Blue, born Sage Gabriel Carlos Atreyu Elsesser, is one of our favorite artists. Since his 2020 debut album, Àdá Irin, we’ve followed every one of his deeply introspective and emotionally charged projects. We ranked his album from the year before last, Memoirs in Armour, among the best albums of 2024, so we’re fascinated that his newest release, The Sword & The Soaring, is even more opulent and conceptually thought-provoking.

Navy Blue is a master of introspective rap, and The Sword & The Soaring is a deep dive into his mind and heart — a place where he reflects on his traumas and protects the moments and people who allow him to love life. From the opening tracks The Bloodletter and Orchards, which flow seamlessly into one another, it becomes clear that The Sword & The Soaring is an honest, tranquil journey that asks for time and attention. The album spans a remarkable 16 tracks, and while its soundscape is atmospheric and cohesive, the diverse lineup of producers gives it many distinct flavors. It’s like a perfectly arranged bouquet — each flower contributes to the whole, yet none overshadows the beauty of the others. The central themes revolve around self-understanding, overcoming trauma and grief, and a profound love for family. Sage describes everyday emotions with a magnitude that feels almost mythological, turning the exploration of life’s pains and joys into an endless pilgrimage every generation must face on its own. The only guest is the one and only Earl Sweatshirt, for whom Navy handled the art direction on I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside a decade ago. The truest!

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6. Evidence – Unlearning Vol. 2 

Evidence is back. Mr. Slow Flow, after four years of waiting, delivers the phenomenal album Unlearning Vol. 2. Every bar is quotable; every shot from the accompanying music videos could be framed. Let’s break it down step by step. Evidence is, for the SudetyRaport website, one of the most essential artists ever, and this project exists in large part thanks to his music. We placed Unlearning Vol. 1 at number two on the best albums of 2021 in our very first best-of list. Since then, Evidence certainly hasn’t been idle, producing stellar albums for Planet Asia, Domo Genesis, and Blu. Still, we were genuinely, TRULY looking forward to his full-fledged return to the mic. And on August 15 this year, we finally got what we had been waiting for.

A world where you cannot hide from rain, fog, and gloomy thoughts. On the album Unlearning Vol. 2, Evidence has created a mosaic of self-discovery, grief, and perseverance. The greatest strength of his lyrics is, despite their often introspective and intimate nature, the universality of their message. Evidence manages to find a fresh way to powerfully describe everyday reality, an overarching truth whose full understanding, however, requires a complex, long, and thorny path that demands life experience and a desire to learn. Exploring the surrounding world, the environment, other people, and oneself is a central theme of the album: sometimes it pushes us forward by showing that we need to unlearn certain things.

From every second of the album, it’s clear that Evidence has experience with graffiti, photography, and music production; he connects perfectly with all beats, samples, and guest artists, interacting with them genuinely and passionately. This is immediately noticeable on the opening track, where Evidence naturally flows into a sampled speech about dark and melancholic music, instantly drawing the listener into the whirlwind of the album. Together with a stellar lineup of guests and producers, including Theravada, The Alchemist, Larry June, Sebb Bash, and many more, Evidence has created a living world that cares about itself and its surroundings. It is precisely in this concept and its execution that the essential rap power of this work lies, a power that will resonate with listeners for decades to come.

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5. Preservation & Gabe ‘Nandez – Sortilège 

History, zeitgeist, blood, and art: an endless cycle of love, determination, oppression, and violence—Sortilège by Preservation & Gabe ‘Nandez is a magical capsule of human observation that transcends time and space. Gabe ‘Nandez is a talented rapper who releases several remarkable projects each year. Gabe kicked off last year with The Skirmish Compilation, formed the duo LJGN with Louis Jack, and released their debut album, but it was his third album last year that generated the highest expectations. He teamed up with the one and only DJ Preservation, and under the Backwoodz Studioz label, they released Sortilège. For context, the album synopsis highlights: “The two also bonded over their shared francophone ancestry: Preservation is half French and ‘Nandez is half Malian. These connections made their way into the music as well, via both aesthetics and sample sources, and that sort of exchange courses through Sortilège, bridging the generational, geographical, and cultural gaps between the two artists with a record that feels a world unto itself. Esoteric, yet blunt and uncomplicated as a fistfight, Sortilège erases the line between urbane and urban. It’s a movie in a lucid dream, A Clockwork Négritude projected against the wall of a construction site. Mixed-use residential.“The album’s soundscape is thunderous, with Preservation erasing temporal boundaries through his beats, crafting music that carries the truth of ancient times. Sortilège is dense and heavy in the best sense, a vast, multi-layered work whose essence cannot be captured in a short paragraph. A prime example is the track War, accompanied by a music video, where Gabe and billy woods cynically layer the brutal, insatiable hunger of empires against the pain and sorrow of the oppressed and the faded dreams of revolutionaries. Sortilège is an album dirtied and dusted from the day it was released, yet it will remain timeless even a hundred years from now.

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4. Mary Sue and the Clementi Sound Appreciation Club – Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword 

We’re incredibly grateful for every new artist we discover — especially when their work is as distinctive as the albums by Mary Sue. The Singaporean rapper has released three absolutely exceptional records in less than two years: For Sure, CACOPHONOUS DIGRESSIONS, A RECORD OF A MOMENT IN TIME (w/psychedelic ensemble.), and Voice Memos From A Winter In China. These aren’t just albums that sound unlike anything we’ve heard before — they also bring entirely new cultural and social perspectives to us as listeners from Europe. The last year album, Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword, is no exception. Once again, it proves that Mary Sue belongs among the finest rappers of the new decade. As the artist notes: “This is what happens when an MC/producer grows up on abstract hip-hop, Southeast Asian samples, and Taoist folklore.” Alongside the Clementi Sound Appreciation Club — a five-member band from the Singaporean jazz scene — Mary Sue blends samples with live instrumentation. At the heart of the album is the story of a time-traveling oracle searching for meaning in the modern world — a world where ancient wisdom feels fragile and truth is constantly shifting. This very concept makes the record a unique and resonant reflection of today’s turbulent times. Where many rap concept albums take a sci-fi route, Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword instead draws on spiritual, mythical, and fantastical elements. The album is full of powerful truths based on folk sayings and parables about animal behavior. A perfect example is the track Mosquito, where Mary raps:

The soundscape of the album is something we’ve never heard before — live jazz orchestra instruments seamlessly blend with Southeast Asian samples and Taoist folklore. To release four such distinctive, diverse, and high-quality albums in less than two years? Mary Sue is making history.

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3. Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Mercy 

Under the label Backwoodz Studioz, six albums were released last year (seven if gowillog is counted as a standalone album). Their another phenomenal year began as early as January with All Portrait, No Chorus by doseone & Steel Tipped Dove and concluded in November with the biggest project imaginable. Armand Hammer (billy woods and E L U C I D) reunited with The Alchemist once again, four years after the album Haram. When Armand Hammer and The Alchemist announced they were teaming up again, we expected a profound rap experience. Mercy is an inner seismograph of a world breaking from within. Where Haram felt like a lurking from the underground, Mercy sounds like the chronicle of a city that burned yet still stands in the ashes. billy woods and E L U C I D open their wounds across the album. Each verse is a fragment, a conversation with the past, a report from a crumbling reality. Their voices alternate, complement, and interrupt each other. Everything is tight, confined, yet astonishingly precise. Meanwhile, The Alchemist does what only he can, crafting a world from details that can’t be described, only felt. The beat on Laraaji cracks like an old vinyl in an empty apartment. Crisis Phone with Pink Siifu feels like listening to a conversation through static, while California Games with Earl Sweatshirt emerges from the smoke and vanishes before you can catch it. The album carries blood, dirt, childlike laughter, and even something that looks like hope—though maybe it’s just an echo. The duo’s penultimate album, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips from 2023, was a chaotic (in a good way) work—an untamed entity full of loud beats and unprecedented creative decisions. Mercy is far more grounded, with the duo choosing The Alchemist’s seemingly simple beats to give themselves as much space as possible. And both artists were able to rap like their lives depended on it, in the tradition of legendary rap duos such as Mobb Deep or Cannibal Ox. The resulting album is flawless, which is why it could not be missing from the three best projects of last year.

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2. looms. – The Carillon

looms., a mysterious artist who approaches releasing music in a completely unique way, returned last year—two years after the album Saints Are Hard To Live With—with a new record titled The Carillon. The album is available for purchase on loandbeholdconstruction.co.uk, and alongside a unique piece of rap art, you can also look forward to direct contact with the artist in the form of a letter addressed to all his supporters. We didn’t hesitate for a second and bought the album ourselves. Since we respect the rapper’s release model, we won’t attempt to decode the record or interpret its title. Trust us—after purchasing it (or listening to it on streaming services), you’ll be fascinated by the musical instrument that gave the album its name. There are countless reasons to support this artist. We can’t think of any other rapper who works with his voice the way looms. does. In every word, you feel raw emotion, sorrow, and pain—looms. speaks directly to the soul, describing his feelings and life experiences with incredible sensitivity and openness, in a way that feels as fresh and thought-provoking as his music itself. The lyrics are intimate to the point of discomfort; while listening to the album, we felt as if we were intruding on the artist’s personal space. This idea is also reflected in the artist’s very pseudonym: a figure waiting in the distance, whose face you never see, because if it were given a clear and sharp form, its surroundings would lose their privacy. Powerful emotions in the lyrics, combined with anonymity and mystery, create a truly unique experience—one that’s easy to escape into. Maybe we’ve found the answer to the question Obijuan asks in his lyrics: “where the fuck is looms.?” Everywhere.

Alongside the album, a black-and-white documentary titled what looms. was released. Directed by Jamie Flatters and produced by Our Second Cousin, it is a calm, contemplative film built around the artist’s monologue. Slow shots of the city and nature flow through the film, creating space to reflect on how looms. comes to terms with his past and how he understands his relationship to truth, society, and his own voice. Music is a unique tool for him—one through which he can express himself and discover who he truly is.

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1. Sunmundi & Sasco – Contacting

Sunmundi, a rapper from Kingston, New York, and the biggest rap talent of recent years, had already set his sights on the title of best rap album of the year according to SudetyRaport back in 2024 with the album Lived and Born prod. by klwn cat, which we ultimately ranked third. We were therefore genuinely excited for his new album, yet Sunmundi still took our breath away and exceeded all expectations. He teamed up with Brooklyn producer Sasco, reformed his rap style, and together with the producer released the monumental and innovative album Contacting. This album is so inspiring that at the time of its release we couldn’t limit ourselves to including it only in a news roundup with a single paragraph, but instead devoted an entire article to it.

The entire album, in a thought-provoking, sophisticated, and unprecedentedly complex way within rap music, comments on and depicts inhumanity, hatred, and new forms of oppression in the postmodern digital internet era (Mankind’s unkindnesses kindled in a new hardwiring). Paranoia, constant surveillance (as emphasized by the Czechoslovak rap duo Edúv Syn & Dominik Holý – Camera knows), the indelible digital footprint, and the manipulation of public opinion through censorship of news related to Palestine [“Palestine will be thriving or we’ll all just be humans recognizing survival” From Algorhythm / Power Lines (feat. Jouquin Fox)], are motifs that (in)directly flourish in every track on the album. This authoritarian control of the internet space could be called digital fascism.

Contact and communication are poisoned (commodified), controlled, and full of hatred, yet the very awareness and shared reflection through rap (poetry) ignite the flame for revolution (communities). The origin of the power that Sunmundi and Sasco find despite obstacles can be traced back to the very birth of hip-hop, to the essence and core of the genres, as DJs and rappers created some of the most effective and revolutionary interventions in the field of communication while deliberately opening it up to a wider audience. On the album, Sunmundi captures the contemporary world with all its flaws, yet through its apocalyptic vision flows faith and love for people, humanity, and the planet. 

It’s no surprise that Sunmundi, in the conclusion of the album, on its final track, turns to the most intimate feelings and the closest circle of people—his family. Despite the album’s complex lyrics, which we could (and should) study much longer and deeper than this brief article allows, the simple message conveyed is one of empathy, care, and love (for oneself, for others, for all, for the Planet). As Sunmundi and many others will surely confirm, the path to this awareness is infinitely complex, and everyone must walk it alone. But don’t look for an end—it’s a lifelong journey.

„My whole life I’ve been contacting you.“

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THE YEARS WE HAVE (Epilog)

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“This is what it’s all about folks”

Theravada

We have closed out the rap year 2025. The albums released during it, however, will continue to live their own lives, which is exactly the idea we want to pass on. We don’t create an exhaustive TOP 100 list because we want to present a definitive list of the “correct” rap albums—this is not how we view art. We want to show that hip hop is a vast, interconnected, living world that does not exist in a vacuum but grows out of the world around us and stands on the front line of exposing injustices and problems faced by the most vulnerable groups. And there are millions of artists who share their life stories, emotions, successes, and struggles with the world around them. So no one can keep their eyes closed. “This is what it’s all about folks” — Theravada.

We’ve shared our top picks—now it’s your turn. Share your favorites on Instagram and let us know where you agree with us and where you see things completely differently.