SoundCentric
Posts
#18: The Best Intros of 2025 So Far

#18: The Best Intros of 2025 So Far

Adam Dash
June 23, 2025

Good evening! Welcome back to another edition of the SoundCentric newsletter!

We’re a little over halfway through 2025 (shit), and we’ve already been blessed with some incredible albums. But what really sets a tape up for success isn’t just the singles or the hit song—it’s the intro. So below are some of my favorite intros of the year so far.

You could be reading anything in the world right now, and you're here with me. So, I appreciate it.

Let’s get to it!

Deep Dive

5. “Lewis and Clark” - Dru Kelly & Stix

This beat from Stix just sounds like an intro—there’s no way around it. You know what I mean. Some beats sound like outros, but others just feel like the start of something. This one sounds like the beginning of a journey. It feels like I’m in a boat crossing the sea, guided by the night sky and lit by a full moon.

And Dru? He’s just insane when it comes to rapping. I don’t know many rappers who can flow like Mr. Kelly. This is how you start a tape—intense, angry, and a perfect preview of what’s to come.

4. “Thief” - Little Simz

I haven’t had enough time yet to fully digest Simz’s new project, Lotus, but this intro is unlike anything I’m hearing in hip-hop right now. A bunch of tracks on this tape have a punk rock feel. The chorus is wild—sick and experimental. Four minutes of some of the realest bars you’ve ever heard. The British rapper has clearly been through a lot since 2024’s Drop 7.

“Your company going down the hill, thank God I never signed no deal/I’m tryna forgive myself, I do'n’t need to forgive you so I can heal/ Years of living on egg shells/No one can believe that you meant well.”

Simz here discusses her public fallout with long time collaborator and producer, Inflo. Inflo has failed to pay “a loan of £1.7m, including £1m to cover Sault’s only live show to date, an opulent extravaganza at London venue Drumsheds in December 2023 at which she performed. The London-born rapper and actor said that the debt left her unable to pay her full tax liability in January 2024.”

3. “Every Painting Has A Price” - Saba and No ID

Getting the chance to see this song—better yet, the entire album—performed live with a band at The Blue Note in Manhattan was a peak moment in my life. I don’t know how many shows I’ve seen that have topped that, or ever will.

This track is just beautiful. I don’t know why more artists aren’t running to BJ The Chicago Kid for vocals. I’ve got him right up there with Anderson .Paak as one of the best vocalists a rapper can bring in.

“What ya on? What’s the update.”

The perfect refrain to open our first Saba tape in years. What’s he been up to? This song feels like a preview of the reflections we’re about to hear from a grown, 30-year-old Saba.

2. “California Girl” - Q

I don’t know what album is topping 10 Songs by Q for me right now. I’m even driving to NYC tomorrow to see him perform in Brooklyn with my best friend—a friend I sent this album to after hearing just half of the song above, because I knew we were in for something special.

This album is summer to me. It’s my good-weather, feel-good album—even if the subject matter doesn’t always match that vibe. The moment I heard his voice come in on “California Girl,” I knew it was game over.

1. “New Flower!” - Aminé

Aminé intros just hit for me.

Across his discography, his intros tend to be his most personal and introspective songs. “DR. WHOEVER” on ONEPOINTFIVE was there for teenage Adam during the roughest mental stretch of my high school years. The singing on “Veggies”? Classic. “Mrs. Clean” on Limbo (Deluxe)? A banger that was on repeat my sophomore year of college. “Who He Iz” on KAYTRAMINÉ perfectly set the tone for a summer tape from Aminé and KAYTRANADA.

“New Flower” might be my favorite since “DR. WHOEVER.” Aminé walks us through the start of his career—interning at Def Jam, grabbing lunch for Big Sean, while his college friends had the money to enjoy life a little more freely. And the beat? No words. Okay, a few words—what are those chords at the 2:00 mark? This one sounds insane in headphones, and I love Leon Thomas’s vocals toward the end.