Top 50 of 2025: #10-6: A Cruiser, A Reggae Supergroup and Hip Hop Royalty

It is now the top 10. This is a fun top 10 with a wide variety of genres, some artists who have been in past top 10s and some new comers. So, this top 10 will have a little bit for everyone. Let’s get right into it.

10. Sampa The Great: Can’t Hold Us

The Zambian born, and past Australian resident, Sampa the Great is continuing her climb the hip hop ladder. She has gone from making mixtapes to tracks on Black Panther soundtracks and now a major release. Can’t Hold Us is a hip hop Zamrock fusion that has interesting musical layers and is simply a joy to listen to. Her cultural pride and pride in being a woman shine through this call to action. Nothing can hold her back and she wants you to reach your full potential and break free. Sampa the Great is a socially active and important artist at a time where, politically, pride in diversity, culture and gender is being discouraged by the right.

9. Clipse: So Be It

It has been close to 15 years since the last Clipse studio record. There were some singles, but we have been waiting a long time for Malice and Pusha-T to get together. This Earth shattering record is worth all the hype and the wait. With sitar, tight beats, creative sampling and some of the tightest bars from the band yet, the track both breaks new ground and reminds you how great they are. There’s something about bars about how rich and amazing you are that I can’t resist. I mean…”Your soul don’t like your body, we help you free it…” what else can I say.

8. Kabaka Pyramid, Wayne Marshall, Jesse Royal and Natural High: Cane Fields

What do you get when three of the foremost modern reggae artists in music team up with a leading Jamaican production duo? You get a socially active track that took reggae music by storm. Natural High’s unique fusion of classic dancehall with samples and quick hits of EDM acts as a powerful backdrop to Pyramid, Marshall and Royal. The track traces modern day racial and gender injustices to a history of slavery in the western world. This track continues reggae’s history of speaking out against social injustice. Moreover, everyone is bringing their “A” game and the track is a great example of the genre at its best.

7. Mo Ruf ft. SZA: PT Cruiser

This laid back R&B track harkens back to those summertime tracks you listened to in the 90s with the top down. Having said that, this track has a modern introspection thematic quality as both Mo Ruf and SZA explore the highs and lows of a relationship forged in the back of a…you guessed it…PT Cruiser. Lyrically, this track covers fertile R&B ground, which is looking back at a relationship and simultaneously reliving how great it was, but also lamenting how it destroyed your life. It was a relationship that was never meant to be, but it is great to have SZA on the track giving the other side to the story…not to mention that her vocal is ethereal. A great R&B track that will have you putting the top down on the highway.

6. The Drawn Out: Swallow My Pride

This indie trio has been making music for a couple years and some members were in a previous end of year list as the band Moses way back in 2015…that’s when the top 50 was only 25…times have changed. The band has changed as well. We have moved from harmonising folk to Fugazi inspired guitar crunching and bass cutting indie punk. However, the heart of a folkie is still there in beautifully heart wrenching vocals about navigating a relationship on the brink. In an emotionally devastating bridge, she realises it is not about her and the person she is with is the source of the breakdown. The contrast between the raw grounded vocals with the crunchier stripped back punk sound, complete with feedback, is what really sets this track apart from other bands out there.

The next group is the top 5….it’s all led to this….