With the chart-topping one-two punch of Future and HNDRXX - both released this year – Future makes a credible claim to rap royalty. He still clings to the ominous, heavy hi-hat trap sound that launched his career in 2010, but he leavens it with layered production that adds cocktail piano and eerie flute to the mix. Lyrically Future relies on a reliable mix of sex, drugs and crime, but its follow-up HNDRXX is a pensive glimpse of the vulnerability underlying the extroverted trap star flow.

Price: $39-69.50