The best new hip-hop this week includes albums, videos, and songs from Kanye West, Lil Tecca, Nas, and more.

At the time of this writing, there’s no telling whether Kanye will actually put out his new album or not, but we’ll proceed as if his next surprise is turning a post Pablo project in on time. In case he doesn’t, though, there will still be plenty of new projects from Nas and Queen Key to fill our time.

Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending August 6, 2021.

Albums/EPs/Mixtapes

Kanye West — Donda

Whether or not Kanye actually drops this album, it’s become one of the most anticipated projects of the year. With features from rising stars like Baby Keem, it could be the first glimpse at the state of hip-hop to come.

Nas — King’s Disease 2

Returning to the well for a second time, Nas doubles down on the well received chemistry between himself and California beat maker Hit-Boy. Pulling in the first ever feature from Eminem and even more young talent such as A Boogie and Blxst, it seems the Queens king has finally found a formula that works for him and his fans.

Queen Key — Your Highness 3

The mischievous Chicago wordplay connoisseur comes with 25 tracks on her third (that’s right, third) release of 2021. I suppose her new productivity is a result of the inactivity of the pandemic year, but fortunately, she doesn’t sacrifice quality for quantity.

Singles/Videos

Doechii — “Girls”

The Tampa TikTok breakout shined on Isaiah Rashad’s new album, and now she’s poised to become a standout in her own right as TDE’s latest signing – and first female rapper.

Lil Tecca — “Repeat It” Feat. Gunna

This kid’s no one hit wonder. Tecca has shown plenty of growth since his breakout with “Ransom” and he’s been hungry to show he can run with the big dogs.

Rexx Life Raj — “HIM”

Another week, another Rexx Life production — like clockwork. The Berkeley rapper remains as consistent as ever on his latest but no matter how smooth the production and delivery, his groovy real world ruminations never get stale.

TOBi — “Off The Drugs” Feat. Mick Jenkins

TOBi’s made noise as an independent artist out of Canada over the past few years, and steadily made inroads to the American scene. This woozy collaboration with Chicago favorite Mick Jenkins should be a helpful next step in that direction.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .