Our Most Anticipated Albums of 2026

This is a content collaboration with Urban Pitch, the leading website covering soccer culture.

The year 2026 has long been circled by soccer fans as a landmark year. Of course, the summer will see the biggest World Cup of all time, with an expanded field and matches spread across three host nations.

It will likely be the swan song of the Messi-Ronaldo era (something we’ve been saying for years), while other top talents will look to take their chance at glory. But the World Cup isn’t all 2026 has to offer, even in the United States, where it will certainly have the biggest impact.

In the women’s game, the NWSL will welcome two new teams, Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC as the league continues to grow not only in numbers, but in impact. The new High Impact Player rule could attract new talent to the league, which is coming off a solid 2025 season. A record 1.18 million fans tuned into the championship game between Gotham FC and the Washington Spirit, where Gotham won its second title in three years.

Then there’s music. Whether it be footballers getting shoutouts in verses, featuring in music videos, or even creating songs of their own, music and soccer are inseparably intertwined. Just as there is plenty of soccer to look forward to this year, we are hyped for tons of new music in 2026.

Looking back at 2025, we finally got a new album from British sensation Dave, but we are still waiting for a handful of projects that we were hoping for. A$AP Rocky and Skepta, who are frequent collaborators and have become equally known for their fashion endeavors as their musical prowess, are both expected to drop their albums this year. Jill Scott thrilled music enthusiasts with the announcement that she is dropping a new album. And we have some hidden gems to look forward to as well. We know you trust our expertise in all things around the culture of the beautiful game, including music. So let’s get to it.

A$AP Rocky — "Don’t Be Dumb"

Anticipation has been high for A$AP Rocky’s fifth full-length project, "Don’t Be Dumb" and its seemingly never-ending rollout. It’s been eight years since "Testing," but perhaps what makes the excitement extra high is that Tim Burton collaborated with the Harlem artist on the visuals for his latest project, which is dripping with whimsical darkness.

"Testing" was received with mixed reviews because of its experimentalism and it seems like "Don’t Be Dumb," previously titled "All Smiles," will follow a similar pattern of defying genre. In 2021, Rocky told GQ that he was working with Morrissey, and while “Hood Happy” wasn’t part of the official tracklist Pretty Flacko revealed earlier this week, we’re yet to see the full list of features on the project.

The recently released lead single “Punk Rocky” lives up to its name with snappy snares and smooth lyrical delivery about falling in love. The video is wonderfully weird and features the different characters from the album artwork at a garage concert and stars Winona Ryder.

Other singles he’s dropped in the past few years, including the layered “HIGHJACK” and the witty “Tailor Swif,” were braggadocious and hypnotizing. They aren’t included on the "Don’t Be Dumb" tracklist, but they give us a glimpse of where Rocky’s mind has been creatively.

A lot of life has happened for Flacko since "Testing," including a stint in Swedish prison, being found not guilty of gun assault charges brought by A$AP Relli, an AWGE show at Paris Fashion Week, and becoming a father to three children. Release dates for this new album have come and gone, but it seems like we will finally get "Don’t Be Dumb" on January 16. We can’t wait to hear what he has to say.

Skepta — "Fork & Knife"

One of our favorite A$AP Rocky collaborators, Skepta, is also expected to release a new album in 2026, which marks the 10-year anniversary of his groundbreaking debut LP, "Konnichiwa." Skepta first announced "Fork & Knife" in January of 2024 as "Knife & Fork," and we can expect it to drop this year, according to his recent cover story with British GQ.

The Tottenham icon released his last album, "Ignorance is Bliss," in 2019, and in the seven years since, he’s established himself in the fashion world with his MAINS brand. But he’s stayed in the mix with music and has been flexing his prowess as an expert collaborator. He released the group album "Insomnia" with Chip and Young Adz in 2020 and then a joint EP with Fred Again.. last year, not to mention one of our favorite tracks of 2025, “Cops & Robbers” with Sammy Virji. He’s also been performing house sets across the world under the name Más Tiempo and hosts his Big Smoke Festival in London with some of the biggest names in British music. Oh yeah, he also had a brief lyrical beef with Joyner Lucas. Random, right?

As Skepta’s gotten older, he’s expanded from being a godfather of grime to an electronic connoisseur and so much more. But at his core, he’s still “a rapper,” as he said in the GQ story. “Gas Me Up (Diligent)” dropped in 2024 supposedly as the single for "Fork & Knife." It is an uptempo bop full of flexes that starts “We don’t get angry, we don’t get even” and has a hook where Skepta tries his hand at some melodies. It’s clear that he doesn’t have anything to prove anymore, but now is just living out his purpose doing what he loves.

Stormzy — Something

Another British rap titan that we love is Stormzy. And we were hyped to read in his Instagram letter to fans on New Year’s Eve that he is, in fact, in the studio working on a new album.

The wait for an album hasn’t been as long as some others on the list, but it has been four years now since 2022’s "This is What I Mean." It was a deeply personal album that still exhibited the duality of bravado and spirituality we know and love from Stormzy with even more vulnerability. It served as a love letter and an apology to Maya Jama. And it worked (kind of) because the couple did get back together after the album, but then broke up again a year later.

Since then, the Manchester United fan and Romelu Lukaku doppelganger has been floating around the music scene with a few singles and features and a performance at the 2024 F1 British Grand Prix. He ventured into reggaeton with an appearance on J Balvin’s “Uuu” and dipped even more into the international space with an appearance on Odumodublvck’s “Pay Me” with Zlatan (that’s another rapper, not THAT Zlatan). Although it’s perfectly reasonable for Stormzy to work with a soccer icon at this point. He did have José Mourinho in the video for “Mel Made Me Do It.”

In his note, Stormzy described some of the personal battles he’s been facing since the end of 2024. He said he went into a personal wilderness where he was “tested physically, spiritually, professionally and creatively” and said that there were events that happened that are better suited for music than an Instagram post. It seems like Big Mike has a renewed sense of purpose and confidence in himself as a man of God and an artist for the people. “2026, we go again.” Yes.

CRYS — "Nueva Era"

Latin music has a chokehold on the music industry right now. Bad Bunny is even going to be the Super Bowl halftime show performer in February.

A fresh voice in the Latin music space is singer-songwriter CRYS. She is releasing her album, "Nueva Era," this year and it’s promising to be a special one. When sharing her story with us, CRYS said that this album is an amalgamation of her life experiences up to this point. She went back through old journals and even went to Joshua Tree to have a moment of personal reflection and write for the album.

One of the singles is the Afrobeats-tinged “RAPHA” with Ryan Ofei. The song is about her miraculous healing journey after being diagnosed with a vocal chord injury. Besides showcasing her faith and ability to inspire others, the track also exhibits CRYS’ love for collaboration and experimenting in different genres. There’s sure to be something for everyone on her album.

Thinkwatts Global — "Nothing To See Here: Watts"

This is one you are going to be thankful you knew about early. You can tell your friends and they’ll think you’re cool. You’re welcome.

Distinguished writer, producer and philanthropist Stix is preparing to release an incredibly artful project in the form of "Nothing To See Here: Watts." The album, which will drop through his new venture, Thinkwatts Global, is the soundtrack to a documentary of the same name. The film was screened in Los Angeles in October at the Peacock Theater with Stevie Wonder in attendance and the event was followed with a listening party for the soundtrack at the historic El Rey.

The documentary brought together members from all aspects of Watts, including rival gang members, students, and police officers. The soundtrack, produced entirely by Stix, has that same message of unity. It celebrates the musical history of Watts by using samples from greats like The Sylvers and Charles Mingus and bridges the sound to the modern era with songs from today’s top artists like Jhené Aiko, ScHoolboy Q, Kehlani, Rapsody, SiR, and Jay Rock. Stay tuned…

KwolleM — Something

OK, you can thank us later for this one, too.

KwolleM is a British rapper who we first came across because AJ Tracey was featured on “Grandma’s Kitchen” off KwolleM’s 2023 album, "Melo." The song was a smooth feel-good track full of nostalgia. The entire album was really good, balancing rap prowess with gentle reflections on life and love. He had Slawn on a skit for the opener “Girldad” way before the rest of the world embraced the artist’s genius.

KwolleM (“Mellow K” backwards) released his debut album, "c2c," in 2020 and had several soccer references, including the song titles “West Ham” and “Woolwich Arsenal.” He established himself as a smooth spitter and a founding father of a movement called Mellow Grime, which blends the fierceness of the rap genre with soulful production and vulnerable storytelling.

KwolleM has been fairly quiet since "Melo," which was named after his daughter. But in September, he posted an Instagram gallery recapping the summer with the caption promising “Mellow Grime season is around the corner!” and the hashtag “#NextPostWillBeMyAlbumCover.” So turn your notifications on!

Read the full list of albums we are looking forward to in 2026 at Urban Pitch.