25 Best Albums of 2023
The conversation amongst most casual music fans is that 2023 was a down year for music, especially hip-hop. Underwhelming releases from prominent artists like Drake and Travis Scott further emphasized the disappointing feel of this year. To add variety to my musical consumption, I relied heavily on Spotify’s “Radar Release” and playlists curated by others, which led me to find many of the artists on this list.
This year, searching for new music and a willingness to explore different artists/genres became more crucial than ever. As my distaste for contemporary music grows, searching for music that resonates with me becomes vital. Even in a lackluster year, good music is available in abundance, it simply requires us to go out and find it.
The most popular snub is likely Victoria Monet’s Jaguar. While I enjoyed the album, I did not find myself returning to it frequently. The list contains the projects I found myself routinely playing, regardless of popularity. See below for my favorite 25 albums of the year — with some notes.
- Wakai — Some People Scream, Some People Talk (see interview here)
- MIKE — Burning Desire (since 2020, MIKE has been my favorite rapper. His a combination of lyrical awareness and production is unmatched)
- Liv.e— Girl in the Half Pearl (see thoughts here)
- Larry June & The Alchemist — The Great Escape
- AMAKA — OASIS (see “Crusin”, the great R&B group VanJess is no more, but AMAKA keeps the sound alive)
- Amaarae— Fountain Baby
- Shay Lia— FACETS (remember the woman dancing awkwardly during a Kaytanada Boiler Room set? She makes music — and she’s great)
- Amaria— All For You (one of my favorite R&B artists today)
- Mndsgn— Snaxxy
- Lojii— $TARTER_PACK
- Ben Jones — mixtape — volume 1
- Sebastian Mikael— PHILEO Deluxe
- Yazmin Lacey — Voice Notes
- Sexyy Red — — Hood Hottest Princess (Sexyy Red is undoubtedly the hottest rapper of 2023. Whether “SkeeYee”, “Hellcats SRTs”, or “Pound Town”, she ran the year)
- Terrace Martin & Gallant — sneek (no one mixes jazz and R&B quite like Terrace Martin)
- Taite Jordan— Jordan Year (one to watch, see “Jordan Year”)
- Gareth Donkin— Welcome Home (see “Tell Me Something”, I bet you’ll stick around)
- Summer Walker — CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE EP (“Finding Peace” is one of my favorite R&B songs of the year. Despite her success, I don’t think we’ve properly discussed just how good Summer Walker is musically)
- Paul Grant— Forward
- Mari Montana — Original Member (the Florida rapper is relentless — see “Prime 112”, “GRWZ”, and “Forever Locked”)
- Sideshow— 2MM DONT JUST STAND THERE! (see thoughts here)
- H31R— Headspace (maybe the most unique album I listened to this year, blending techno/electronic with rap).
- Lady Donli
- — Pan African Rockstar (another new artist I discovered this year — blending afro beats with just about everything)
- Kamii — blk.summers’night (the 19-year-old Baltimore producer has become a personal favorite, sampling from neo-soul)
- Ray Lozano — Pairing Mode
