But both will likely end up slightly underheralded for being quality continuations of an existing formula: Drake adding some slightly polyglot tastes to his woozy emo woes-and-“woes” sing-song Kendrick following the ambitious To Pimp a Butterfly with some sketches and B-sides raided from the archives. Of course, Drake’s Views and Kendrick Lamar’s Untitled Unmasteredare the two “surprise” releases that hip-hop fans will stream with the same fervor as West and Chance.

Chance crewmate Joey Purp’s iiiDrops is more street-level, with album centerpiece “Cornerstore” delivering a litany of vivid expressions of struggle - talking to his brother on the prison phone, finding a gun while looking for his remote control car charger, paying college tuition by flipping drugs, and condominiums gentrifying the neighborhood. The title track is the traditional recap of a burgeoning rapper’s career, but the twist is that it’s deathly personal: Adderall, depression, drunken fights with his girlfriend, amphetamines, jealousy, ecstasy, writer’s block and suicidal thoughts. The shooting death of 17-year-old Chicagoan Laquan McDonald looms largest for Vic Mensa, who, on his EP There’s Alot Going On, counters Black Lives Matter sentiment like Kendrick Lamar’s “We’re gonna be all right” with old-fashioned fuck-the-police boil-over: “Ready for the war, we got our boots strapped/100 deep on State Street, where the troops at?” On “Shades of Blue,” he details the Detroit water crisis using the sad, synthy avant-blues that propels Future, but for bigger picture issues (“Now you’ve got toddlers drinking toxic waste/While the people responsible still ain’t caught no case”).

Lil boosie albums 2016