Key Takeaways:

• Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U leads the pack with a Valentine’s Day drop that blends R&B and rap.
• Summer Walker, Coco Jones and Mariah the Scientist delivered albums that middle girls’s voices and emotional depth.
• Newcomers like SAILORR and DESTIN CONRAD redefined the style’s future with daring, emotionally wealthy tasks.

In 2025, R&B followers had loads to look ahead to. We won’t have acquired full albums from heavyweights like Kehlani and Chris Brown — who held us down with singles comparable to “Folded” and “It Depends,” respectively — however the 12 months nonetheless delivered a beneficiant slate of albums from some newcomers within the style and mainstays alike.

The Weeknd opened the 12 months on a excessive observe with Hurry Up Tomorrow, adopted by Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR doing their massive one with $ome $exy $ongs 4 U. Over the spring and summer time, we bought releases from artists who could also be much less acquainted however simply as gifted, together with SAILORR, DESTIN CONRAD and extra.

As with all our year-end lists, narrowing issues down was no easy process. However, the vital and fan reception helps every alternative right here. So, with that stated, listed below are Rap-Up’s 10 greatest R&B albums of 2025.

10. SAILORR’s FROM FLORIDA’S FINEST

SAILORR’s first mission expands the world she created with final 12 months’s breakout “POOKIE’S REQUIEM.” Across FROM FLORIDA’S FINEST, which is technically billed as a mixtape, she goals to seize the “highs, lows and seemingly every emotion in between.” By the tip of the gathering, it’s clear she reached that objective. For each “DOWN BAD,” the place she sings about going again to an ain’t-s**t man, there’s a “DONE SHAVING 4 U” or “SOFT GIRL SUMMER,” the place she steps again into her confidence and offers the girlies permission to seek out theirs too.

9. 4batz’s Still Shinin

Lots of people anticipated 4batz to vanish from the highlight after his Drake-assisted hit “act ii: date @ 8 (remix).” The downside for them is that the Dallas crooner remains to be delivering, and in some methods, he sounds higher now than he did once we first met him. Still Shinin’ walks by his experiences with love — some euphoric and a few just a little harder to sit down with — and collectively they present precisely why he’s not going anyplace.

“act ix: too dam young” opens the document with, “Well, girl, I’m too damn young / To be worried if I’m still your main one,” a line that most likely hits near residence for anybody determining younger love. Meanwhile, “act xi: she ain’t no angel” options him and Leon Thomas grappling with the ups and downs of coping with a difficult companion. Altogether, Still Shinin’ offers us an unbelievable album from a narrator who’s neither drowning in remorse nor utterly shedding himself for love.

8. The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow

I do know, I do know. Putting The Weeknd so low on a greatest albums checklist feels borderline legal. However, each installment within the “Blinding Lights” singer’s After Hours–Dawn FM trilogy has progressively gotten extra experimental than the one earlier than it. That was the case with Hurry Up Tomorrow, which is scattered with synth-pop throughout tracks like “Open Hearts,” “Wake Me Up,” and my private favourite, “Timeless.”

As a lot as many people hoped he’d circle again to his roots for what’s stated to be his remaining album beneath this title, Hurry Up Tomorrow nonetheless offers us loads to take pleasure in.

7. GIVĒON’s BELOVED

Given that it took three entire years to lastly get a follow-up to Give Or Take, GIVĒON’s BELOVED proves that typically all you actually need is endurance and correct execution to ship an awesome album.

There’s actual emotion, storytelling and readability all through tracks like “RATHER BE,” “BACKUP PLAN” and “AVALANCHE.” His highs and lows in love discover their decision within the closing line: “I love you ’cause you love me / Through the good, bad and ugly.” For an album that largely depends on GIVĒON’s voice and the producers shaping his sound relatively than a roster of options or elaborate detours, BELOVED is a rewarding hear by and thru.

6. Mariah the Scientist’s HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY

Our queen of dropping 10-song albums earlier than gracefully driving off into the sundown returned with HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY in August. Throughout the LP, Mariah the Scientist takes a stand towards all of the “heartless womanizers” on the market, reminding everybody {that a} girl’s love is “a cause worth living and dying for.” From the runaway success of “Burning Blue” to her lone duet with Kali Uchis on “Is It a Crime,” the Atlanta singer delivered certainly one of 2025’s strongest tasks by a mile.

You can hear shades of Babyface and Sade on “Sacrifice” and “Rainy Days,” respectively, whereas “More” reveals Mariah reaching for one thing larger than heartbreak. It’s disappointing that HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY missed out on a Grammy nod, but when she isn’t losing sleep over it, perhaps we shouldn’t be both.

5. DESTIN CONRAD’s LOVE ON DIGITAL

LOVE ON DIGITAL, DESTIN CONRAD’s debut studio album, pushes towards custom in quite a lot of methods. As a queer singer, his model of affection naturally unfolds in a different way, particularly when filtered by relationship apps, screens and long-distance relationships.

“You so far from my job, you in LA, I’m in London / You so shy, I wonder why you won’t do my love,” he sings on “KISSING IN PUBLIC.” Then, by the “OUTRO,” he wonders aloud if a connection constructed on-line would really feel completely different face-to-face: “Love on digital / I wonder what it would be like on a mattress.” Between collaborations with Kehlani and Teezo Touchdown and the mix of neo-soul and progressive R&B, LOVE ON DIGITAL presents but one more reason to like the burgeoning star.

4. Coco Jones’ Why Not More?

Coco Jones is all grown up on Why Not More?, her long-awaited debut album. Far from the Disney child many people grew up watching, the “ICU” singer has lived, liked and, judging by just a few tracks, damaged a few hearts alongside the best way. The musician wears her coronary heart on her sleeve on tracks like “On Sight” and “Thang 4 You,” which minimize straight to the feelings she’s been holding again.

Jones takes some actual dangers on the album, too. On the Britney Spears–sampling “Taste,” she doesn’t draw back from her personal wishes in any respect. “Most Beautiful Design” pairs her with Future — a collaboration you wouldn’t instantly anticipate. Her skill to show atypical emotions into intensely melodic tracks makes Why Not More? undeniably worthy of its spot among the many 12 months’s greatest R&B albums.

3. Leon Thomas’ MUTT Deluxe: HEEL

It’s been one hell of a 12 months for Leon Thomas. He scored his first Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “MUTT,” earned six Grammy nominations, and so many extra milestones. MUTT Deluxe: HEEL reveals precisely how far that momentum carried him, with the deluxe album including 9 songs to an already loaded mission. Along with the Halle-assisted “RATHER BE ALONE” and the Chris Brown–assisted model of “MUTT,” the expanded tracklist brings in Big Sean — who seems twice — plus a brand new collaboration with Kehlani.

One factor that is clear from begin to end: Thomas actually is aware of his manner round a superb monitor (which is not any shock, contemplating he writes and produces many himself). “CATCH A STRAY” finds him working by an on-again-off-again romance, whereas “PARTY FAVORS” sees the musician giving a bit too generously with out anticipating a lot in return. With all that in thoughts, HEEL holds house for the tenderness of affection and the bittersweet moments that stick with you lengthy after.

2. Summer Walker’s Finally Over It

Summer Walker’s Finally Over It is an R&B lover’s fantasy. The Atlanta songstress delivered a two-part album filled with greater than a dozen visitor appearances, a lot of whom are style favorites like Chris Brown, Mariah the Scientist and Brent Faiyaz. On paper, that appears like loads. However, Walker by some means stored herself on the middle whereas letting all these voices carry the mission round her.

The opening epic, “Scars,” finds her urging a particular somebody to drop their guard, solely to flip the script on the very subsequent monitor and confess she ought to’ve robbed them on the peerlessly titled “Robbed You.” As her listeners know effectively from social media, the Over It singer has a sophisticated relationship with love, one thing she presents bits and items of all through the 18-song album. There’s the revenge-driven “Get Yo Boy,” the sultry Latto and Doja Cat collaboration “Go Girl,” and the emotional exhale on the closing title monitor, “Finally Over It.”

Dropping an album-of-the-year contender in November was dangerous enterprise, however what higher time for Finally Over It to reach than cuffing season? Come get your crown, Summer.

1. Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U

We watched Drake get completely taken out in 2024 throughout his rap battle with Kendrick Lamar — to not linger on that for too lengthy — and, predictably, he circled again to a style that all the time retains the door open for him: R&B. Released on Valentine’s Day, his joint mission with PARTYNEXTDOOR, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, reminded everybody that Drizzy isn’t going anyplace, regardless of how a lot critics want he would.

Tracks like “CN TOWER,” “MOTH BALLS,” “OMW” and “SOMEBODY LOVES ME” got here extraordinarily shut (if not all the best way) to perfection. We may spend all day breaking down favorites, like Pimmie making her grand entrance or the irresistible funk of “NOKIA,” however hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 sums up how many individuals felt about $ome $exy $ongs 4 U.

Since that is an R&B albums checklist, we received’t get too deep into the straight-up bars The Boy gave us on “GIMME A HUG” and “SMALL TOWN FAME,” however belief us, they landed. Taken altogether, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U captures Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR at their absolute peak.