The albums presented here reflect our enthusiasm for all styles of music, whether classical, contemporary, jazz, pop, rock, 'world' music, rap, electro or ballad, rather than a ranking of the year's "best."

Stéphanie Binet's selection

1. GNX, by Kendrick Lamar (pgLang-Interscope Records/Universal Music)

2. Chromakopia, by Tyler, The Creator (Columbia Records/Sony Music)

3. Bando Stone and the New World, by Childish Gambino (RCA Records/Sony Music)

4. Alvalm, by SDM (92i-Capitol Music France/Universal Music)

5. Pourvu qu'Il Pleuve, by Shay (Jolie Garce Records/Because Music)

2024 was a very productive year for American rap, marked by the rivalry between two giants of the genre: the Canadian Drake and the Angelino Kendrick Lamar. This verbal and stylistic competition ultimately resulted in a full-blown victory by Lamar with the track "Not Like Us," which broke all online streaming records. Not content with giving a legendary concert in Los Angeles on June 19, the day celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, the Compton rapper went one better in the fall with the release of GNX, an album less tortured and cerebral than its predecessors, but which celebrates California, its lifestyle, gang culture and the resilience of its inhabitants.

Tyler, The Creator, another highly creative rapper from Los Angeles, went in the opposite direction with Chromakopia, an album that explores his psyche, childhood and traumas. As for Childish Gambino, he ended his rapping career with Bando Stone and the New World, a deliciously pop record. On the equally productive French rap scene, our preference goes to the album by suburban Paris giant SDM for its lucidity and maturity, and to the explosive Shay, holding her own against the immature machos of her milieu, both on her records and on stage.

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