This month YouTube’s most successful stationary mic platform On The Radar Radio savvily diversified. While the channel started with more boilerplate interview and trending news coverage, the channel’s popularity ballooned three years ago with the introduction of their signature freestyle series. Nowadays, OTR feels like a prerequisite marketing stop for rappers, right up there with “what do you do for a living?” Tiktoks and absurdist sandwiches made “the ocky way.”
But over the past month, OTR has ventured into live streamed recording sessions, first with R2R Moe and again this past weekend with producer-crooner 2300. Viewers get to watch the artists hang out and answer softball questions before trawling through beatpacks and cutting rough tracks on camera. At a minimum, it’s a glimpse into the creative process — at its best, a burgeoning hit can be catapulted straight into the hype cycle well before release.
Given the runaway success of the format for poster child Plaqueboymax and rappers from DDG to Lazer Dim 700, it’s by no means a surprising move given the breadth and frequency of OTR’s output. But it does feel like an early indicator that the hanging mic era, oversaturated by clips courtesy of From The Block and Red Mic District and yes, OTR, has peaked. I don’t expect anyone to quit reheating COLORS’s nachos anytime soon — just watch Rob49 rework “WTHELLY” into “WTFUCKY” and you’ll understand why OTR was able to run up more than a million subscribers.
But the potential views (and even streaming revenue) from having an early stake in an up and coming artist’s hit is likely too good for any platform to pass up, even if the format is a touch outside of their comfort zone. As more of these imitators crop up, my one hope is that people would take a page out of PBM’s book and get artists on weirder beat combinations than their usual fare – but I won’t hold my breath.
Zooming in on music, April was stacked with new releases, from Cortisa Star’s EMO (EVIL MOTION OVERLOAD) to Oodaredevil and Jetsonmade’s SKYDIVIN. I’ve been catching way more live shows the past month, from Bossman Dlow and Thirteendegrees to OsamaSon and Jane Remover. As a result, the music I’ve been listening to in recent weeks has been way more uptempo, best-suited for screaming along and blaring out of car windows.
I was particularly fond of the bop music revivalism of lil2posh’s uniformly excellent Fiesta Boy – when the young Chicago rapper claims he’s got fans in Rio and might do a show in Norway, I completely believe in his ability to take a regional sound global. Moving in almost the opposite direction, Bb trickz is flush with cash and full of pep on the blink-and-it’s-finished 80’z, a generally bright and sprightly EP that perhaps unsurprisingly sounds even better when she raps in her native Spanish – the best song is probably “Superchú!,” but the most fun has to be the chaotic sugar rush of “Pepa.”
The three mixtapes I’d recommend the most this month are pre after party by Cade, MeloManiac by k3, and Papaholic, Vol. 1 by Papo2oo4 & Subjxct 5 (more on all of those below), but I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up a few other favorites. There’s teen Florida rapper Percaso’s FAST CAR MUSIC, a brash burst of digitally-inflected bangers that convinces me rage isn’t anywhere close to dead, and the deluxe edition of rap-rocker ezcodylee’s excellent Stunt And Die 3, which manages to sell even the most boneheaded song concepts. The one mixtape I wish I’d had more time with before this column is Havinmotion’s latest, Fuck You Pay Me – the DMV rapper’s releases often seem to slide under the radar, but he’s still rapping as fiercely as ever.
Here are the Top Rap Songs of April 2025.
cade, “Rut”
Cade’s latest mixtape pre after party is a bundle of calm jams that never let knocking hard get in the way of the Detroit rapper’s carefully considered words. His flows are nimble, assonant, delivered in a murmur that might remind you of Niontay or Veeze; a friend recently described his song “who” as “lofi Ice Spice beats to study to.”
On “rut,” his raspy lower-register is imperturbable, comparing the logo on his Evisu jeans to a McDonald’s worker uniform, and handing out “Hating Me Awards.” He has a sharp sense of humor and a slick tongue to match, like when he smirks, “you should work on execution, it was better on the board.” He echoes himself for emphasis before giggling through his next bars. Still, the flexing is in service of mutual enlightenment – when he chants “if you don’t find it in you, then you’ll never have enough,” it’s hard to tell if he’s talking to his haters, his listeners, or himself.
A$AP Ant, “Mr & Mrs Smith”
A$AP Ant spent 2023 and 2024 in relative hibernation following a particularly flush run of solo albums and Marino Infantry label compilations from 2019 through 2022. His new mixtape Addie Pitino 2 is an ostensible sequel to his February 2020 project under the same title. Where a cabal of DMV producers laced the original with icy synths and cloud rap inspired haze, AP2 seems to draw more heavily on the East Coast hip-hop of yesteryear, updating mafioso raps for modern listeners.
While I’m partial to Paco Panama collab “Ropa Dope” and “Which 1 of these h0es today?,” a duet with Marino signee LuLu P, the tape’s peak has to be “Mr & Mrs Smith,” where a moody synth line props up evocative chords and sparsely tolling bells. It’s a loosely romantic ballad, though Ant is prone to discussing prospective partners the same way a coach might describe an incredibly talented but somewhat distractible star player. Honestly, he’s really more concerned with loyalty and what a woman can do for him than making meaningful romantic overtures – “If this shit go down, you gon wait for me? If I don’t talk about marriage you gon stay with me?” – but the lush DJ Nick beat and Ant’s half-sighed delivery keeps these unsweet nothings sounding more endearing than unconscionable.
k3, “Alice at Magic”
k3 is among a micro-cohort of young female rappers whose imagery collides the cutesy and demure with the crass and demented — think Hello Kitty toting a draco or Megan Fox in Jennifer’s Body. Sometimes this can veer into queasy titillation, but more often than not it feels like watching an unusually bawdy children’s play. Where the Kansas City rapper’s previous output reconfigured the maximum aggression of Baby Kia and Glokk40Spaz, k3’s new mixtape MeloManiac showcases a startling breadth of vocal styles across its scant 8 minutes. She’s still rapping over mostly hard-hitting instrumentals, but her voice works through breathy whispers and muscled barks, singsong chants and drawled flexes.
“Alice At Magic” modernizes the classic Gucci Mane strip club jam, though Guwop probably wouldn’t rap “I just throw my lil shit in a circle, look like magic.” Then again, he probably would say “this n***a so gay, Lil Nas X, on his ‘Panini’ shit,” though k3’s delivery helps reconfigure overt homophobia into mildly less problematic toxic femininity. k3 raps more casually here than on recent hit “walk em down,” where she’s prone to DMX-esque snarling; at times her vocals on “Magic” almost feel like a stage-whisper. Somehow, she still finds time between blowing blunts down and tipping strippers who love her music to cackle about the labels desperate to sign her: “A&Rs fiendin’, my DMs be bustin.”
Molly Santana, “Not Regular”
The latest banger from Molly Santana’s forthcoming Molly And Her Week of Wonders is breezily melodic, drawing equally on the soft chords of pluggnb and harder-nosed trap music. The Los Angeles-based rapper always has plenty of stage presence on her songs, but here her flows are particularly deft, tracing out a sticky melody on the hook: “How I come around and make your shit look off brand? / Nah, you can’t stop that.” But it’s really her super-short verse that keeps me coming back, how she flips from her distinct lower-register to a more agile head voice, and the way her vocal runs pump the energy back up before the chorus repeats.
Tee Grizzley, “They Shot At Trump”
The title of the second single from Tee Grizzley’s upcoming May album Forever My Moment isn’t a political statement so much as an existential one: “Don’t never think you can’t be touched / I don’t care how rich you is n***a, they shot at Trump / and damn near landed one.” Tee is ridiculously consistent whether rapping alongside Boldy James or cutting a mean rug, but I’m comfortable ranking “They Shot At Trump” as one of his best, an exquisite slice of paranoid wealth rap.
Alternately mourning and murderous, what should be a morbid song instead comes across almost celebratory, even if multi-thousand dollar hotel rooms only dredge up memories of nights Tee couldn’t afford a couple hundred bucks. He’s motivational (“You say you ain’t where you wanna be, n***a keep tryin”) and meditative (“Keep it real, that’s all I ask, the other shit don’t matter brother”), even if the only balm is financial therapy – “I bought mansions I can’t get left in the rain again.”
Zukenee, “Bromance”
Atlanta rapper Zukenee (pronounced zucchini) has a predilection for Gothic swords, but his music is distinctly contemporary, a snapshot of the various strains of hip-hop that have percolated in Fulton County over the past decade and a half. You can hear plenty of that on his latest mixtape SLAYTANIC, but his range also includes wonkier instrumentals courtesy of Cardogotwings and PG County producer sxprano.
The latter is behind the chintzy chords and theremin riffs of “Bromance,” which spruces up trite “married to the money” cliches with a simple twist (though I have to admit Zukenee’s hook mostly leaves me wondering how rappers conceptualize the gender of currency in the first place). His lyrics are pretty rudimentary — the “best” bit of wordplay is a groanworthy mukbang/oral sex comparison — but there are flashes of a more capable rapper therein, like when he flexes his translucent CDG shirt. But “Bromance” is a perfect example of Zukenee’s knack for endlessly chantable choruses, the sort that echo in your head for days on end.
Papo2oo4 & Subjxct 5, “KD in Dyckman”
“Aint nobody special, treat the boss same way I’ll treat the runner,” Papo2oo4 sighs in the middle of Papaholic, Vol. 1, the latest collaboration between the New Jersey rapper and longtime collaborator Subjxct 5. I often recall The FADER columnist Brandon Callender’s 2022 interview with Subjxct, where the producer grew fiercely impassioned when the conversation turned to Swizz Beatz — “I don’t give a fuck. GOATed;” his production work here seems laser-focused on recreating the sensation of listening to One Man Band Man on a late summer afternoon at the basketball court.
Rife with throwback DJ tags and a variety of smooth pockets, the tape is probably best experienced as a whole, ideally while cruising around with the windows down or while busting down a blunt with the bros, but for my money, the standout is “KD In Dyckman,” where Papo gruffly asserts, “Ain’t gonna wear no Travis Scotts / too old to be out here chasing thots.” His husky flow is deceptively nimble, shuffling around the downbeat as he flexes on actors, cappers, and “n***as that’s faking the funk.” When he says, “I’m a big dog, you a runt,” it’s superficial — you can hear it in his voice.
Tommy Richman feat. Sexyy Red, “ACTIN UP WITH SEXYY RED”
Tommy Richman, I never stopped believing in you. “ACTIN UP” was already a good song to me, but a new remix with Sexyy Red takes things way over the top. Tommy’s relaxed and assured, not quite as keyed up as he was on “MILLION DOLLAR BABY” but still channeling that song’s outsize swagger. It still feels like he’s figuring out the kind of artist he wants to be and the sort of songs he wants to make, but that flexibility helps Tommy sound equally at home whether he’s working with Mynameisntjmack or Brent Faiyaz.
Sexyy Red is almost at the opposite end of the spectrum, approaching the sparse instrumental with the same unmistakeable verve she brings to thumping tracks with GloRilla and NLE Choppa. Given the song’s original subject matter (women throwing it back, making bitches mad, etcetera), it’s an easy win for Sexyy, who could probably throw off a thousand ratchet anthems like “ACTIN UP” in her sleep.
