This year of 2025 there was a lot of new music from lots of different artists and there were some great albums and some singles for some new music coming out in late December or early 2026.
One of the first albums this year was WHAM by Lil Baby with songs featuring Travis Scott, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Future, and GloRilla. With standout songs such as “Stuff,” “Dum, Dumb, and Dumber,” and “Outfit.”
“My favorite song off of WHAM was easily ‘Dum, Dumb, and Dumber,’” freshman Clay Memmel said. “I like Lil Baby and most of his stuff so this was a pretty good album in my opinion, I also liked ‘F U 2x,’ ‘Outfit,’ and ‘99.’”
Another popular album early this year was $OME $EXY $ONGS 4U by Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR featuring songs like “NOKIA,” “SOMETHING ABOUT YOU,” “DIE TRYING,” and “GIMME A HUG.” $$$4U which some people think is one of his best albums Drake has made in a long time.
“Easily my favorite album this year was $$$4U,” freshman Jaden Magner Monigan said. “My favorite songs were ‘SOMEBODY LOVES ME,’ ‘SOMETHING ABOUT YOU,’ and ‘RAINING IN HOUSTON.’ The album was really good and I hope ICEMAN comes out and its an instant classic.”
Another standout album that came out this year was Playboi Carti’s MUSIC, with features from people like SZA, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, The Weeknd, and Young Thug, with the most played of his songs being, “RATHER LIE,” “EVIL JORDAN,” and “TOXIC with Skepta.” Some of his popular singles on the deluxe edition were, “2024,” “DIFFERENT DAY,” “BACKR00MS,” and “FOMDJ.” This album was promoted starting back in early December 2023.
“MUSIC was one of the best albums of this year,” Memmel said. “My favorite song on the album was ‘OPM BABI’ . It has lots of other good songs, it also has ‘BACKR00MS’ with Travis Scott and it’s easily one of the best songs. He also has a standout song ‘GOOD CREDIT’ featuring Kendrick Lamar, one of my other favorite artists, it mixes the vibe and style of old and new music.”
Popular artist Lil Uzi Vert recently became an independent artist and joined ROC Nation with other artists such as Jay-Z and Rihanna, he started with three new singles named “Regular,” “Chanel Boy,” and “Relevant.” This is his first release since his album Eternal Etake 2 with some popular songs being “Chill Bae” and “Light Year (Practice).”
Drake came away with the most streamed artist on Apple Music while Spotify had the top artist as Bad Bunny with Drake coming in fourth. Tyler, The Creator won Apple Music’s creator of the year, while Billie Elish won the American Music Award for best artist, and Lady Gaga won the VMA’s award for best artist.
“In my opinion Tyler, The Creator was the best artist last year,” sophomore Jordan Stamm said. “He came out with the long awaited Chromokopia late 2024 and then had DON’T TAP THE GLASS come out in 2025. But I think Drake was a close second for best artist this year, he would be first if his album ICEMAN came out in December.”
Looking into late 2025 and 2026 there are lots of things to look forward to with albums such as, ICEMAN by Drake, Don’t Be Dumb by A$AP Rocky, and BULLY by Kanye West. All of these are expected to come out early 2026.
