Kanye West

The follow up to West’s “Yeezus” has proved itself to be heavy in featuring artists. Already this year, Kanye has released “Only One,” a collaborative single with Paul McCartney. His work with McCartney continued and the duo released “Four Five Seconds” with Rihanna. The latter single is expected to be on both Kanye and Rihanna’s upcoming albums. “He’s just the best you know,” senior Langston Bush said. “[I’m excited for the new album] because he always drops some serious fire. I liked ‘Yeezus’ for the most part. It was pretty different compared to his other stuff. But I have a good feeling about this one just from the recent release.”

Frank Ocean

After releasing the widely acclaimed Best Album of 2012, Frank Ocean began work on his sophomore album. According to an interview with BBC’s Zane Lowe, the album was intended to carry the feel of the previous album’s closing song “Golden Girl.” Ocean, however, has yet to release any work under his own
name since Channel Orange. He has, however, been working with Lil B, so content from either of them will be expected to drop this year. “I think some of his music is really touching, and [working with] Lil B — that’s crazy awesome,” sophomore Logan Stone said. “But Frank spits.”

Kendrick Lamar

Lamar’s last album, “good kid, M.A.A.d city”, was his first major-label studio album. The majority of the album speaks to Kendrick’s life in Compton. “If I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?” This compares his success coming out of Compton. The success is apparent, as the album has sold more than a million copies since its release. Since then, he’s been working on a follow-up to be released this year. The album was rumored to be released on Jan. 27, but really the album has no publicly known name or album cover.

Drake

Drake has put out arguably my favorite hip hop albums. “Nothing Was the Same” has been one of the biggest rap albums since its release, and will be until the upcoming “Views From the 6.” “If it had to be between Drake and Kanye, I really like Drake because he’s a mix between R&B and rap,” senior Ivan Davidson said. “I really like Kanye because he’s so innovative and he wrote my favorite album, ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.’ But I really like Drake. Drake’s new stuff has been pretty tight, like ‘Six God’ and ‘How About Now,’ and I like his most recent album. I hope [his new album] comes out soon.”