Here's Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3, and the Spotify playlist of every remix I've covered in 2025. This might be my longest Remix Report Card ever? This definitely makes 2025 the most remixes I've covered in a year, way over 100. The best/worst lists are on the way in December. 

I like the part of this song where Flippa T riffs on "I Can," but I guess it's not realistic to suggest Nas could've been on the remix. But I'm always happy to hear a Tity Boi guest verse and he killed this one, love the way he went 20 bars with the beat fading out under the last couple bars, good ending. Hate the AI cover art for the remix but it's pretty hard to escape that shit in rap these days. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: A

I'm a little late to this one, I didn't realize Sombr jumped on a remix of this back in February, a couple months before he really blew up. Apparently Sombr is a Rachel Chinouriri fan, which is pretty cool, the song is close enough to his sound that his voice sounds decent on it, he cleverly turned it into a duet where he sings from the perspective of the ex Chinouriri is singing about. What A Devastating Turn of Events was one of my favorite albums of 2024, I'm glad this song did well on the charts in the UK, I wish her label took the opportunity to promote this remix in America more after Sombr got big. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B

Ice Cube and Chuck D were two of the greatest rappers on earth in 1990 when they collaborated on songs on Fear of a Black Planet and AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. Hearing them on a track together again 35 years later, when neither is at his best, is a little anticlimactic. LL, on the other hand, released a great album last year and pretty easily carries the remix (and I'm not sure why it's called a 'premix,' it's not a Premo beat or anything fun like that). 

Best Verse: LL Cool J

Overall Grade: B

I love hearing Wale rapper over Go-Go, I don't think he gets enough credit for repping the D.C. sound in the mainstream, I'd love if he did an entire Go-Go album, but I'll take the occasional tracks like this. And I dig that this is actually him performing the song with TOB, they didn't just put his vocal from the original "Blanco" over the band. 

The original "BNB" was by Brooklyn rappers Jay Gelato and Dee Billz, and the sequel is by the latter and Queens rapper Zeddy Will. These are all young guys who aren't great rappers doing obnoxious new school drill/club stuff, and I debated whether to even qualify this as a remix because they're completely different songs with different beats, 'BNB' doesn't even stand for the same thing ('bad and bougie' in the first track and 'bottles and bitches' in the second one). And they trade lines on the one verse, so I can't even really give the best verse to either. Zeddy Will, whose song "Twerkin Wit Ya Friends" broke through to mainstream radio this year, is a real poet ("I can tell by your butt you the thickest"). 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: D 

Drowning Pool's 2001 single "Bodies" is a nu-metal classic, and sadly the band's original frontman Dave Williams died of an undiagnosed heart condition in 2002, barely a year after the song was released. But the band is still going, and after Offset sampled Williams's whisper from the song, the band got to perform a mashup of the two songs on "The Tonight Show," and it's pretty fun to hear a version of the Offset track with the guitars and everything. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B

The original "BodyRock," which featured Lil Yachty, is one of the most annoying songs I've ever heard. The remix is still pretty annoying, but Uzi's verse is a definite improvement. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B-

Another annoying TikTok rap song, improved very mildly by a remix. 

Best Verse: Cash Cobain

Overall Grade: C+

Ed Sheeran recently released the Play (The Remixes) EP, with artists from India guesting on songs from his latest album. Not really sure why India, just feels like Sheeran is following the Coldplay playbook (Coldplaybook?) of using gratuitous multicultural collaborations to spice up his bland British pop/rock. Hanumankind, who's been in this column before for the A$AP Rocky remix of his hit "Big Dawgs," is a decent rapper, I like how he sounds on this. 

Best Verse: Hanumankind

Overall Grade: C+

"Country Girl" basically riffs on Lil Jon's early hit "I Like Dem Girlz," that was a pretty mediocre song and so is this. Tonio Armani and Jeter Jones have somewhat similar voices, so I don't feel like the remix makes much of a difference, but that's the version that's getting R&B radio spins. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: C

The "six seven" meme that was spawned by a song by Philadelphia rapper Skrilla is absolutely everywhere these days, but the song itself hasn't broken into the Hot 100, even after a pretty big star, G Herbo, jumped on a remix of it. I think that speaks to how shitty the song is, it's just a slow, clunky blur of murder talk delivered in an obnoxious squeaky voice. I'm generally not much of a fan of G Herbo's recent music, but he's got a couple of memorable lines on here ("dirty game, it cost a whole man to play"). Skrilla didn't do a whole new verse for the remix but he added a couple bars to intro the G Herbo verse, and I do appreciate that kind of attention to detail. He also references "Baby Shark" during one of the 'doot doot' parts, which feels apt, the "Baby Shark" toddlers grew up to be the "6 7" teenagers.

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: C+

"Drugs Callin (Remix)" by Hurricane Wisdom featuring Lil Baby

Boring song, boring Lil Baby verse, it feels like he knows to show out when he's guesting on a song by Drake or someone else big, but when he's working with smaller artists you can tell he doesn't give a shit. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C-

The Bronx's Big Take and R2R Moe both basically make "sexy drill" like D-list equivalents of Cash Cobain, but R2R Moe calls his style of music "angelic drill," and I trust that you can sense how hard I'm rolling my eyes right now. 

Best Verse: n/a

The original "Friend Do" is just an obnoxious song with a guy bossing a woman around, so adding a woman on the remix instantly gives the whole thing a better vibe. YK Niece raps 12 bars, which is the longest verse she has on any of her three hit collaborations. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B-

Another boring Hurricane Wisdom song but the remix in this case is actually a slight improvement. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B-

The Jonas Brothers have a hit on country radio right now with Rascal Flatts, and also did a remix of one of the biggest country hits of the year. But these are all pretty much pop/rock songs, nobody's really moving an inch outside their comfort zone. It sounds fine but doesn't really add anything to the song, I much prefer the original

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: C

Oh good, more "angelic drill." Brooklyn's Sheff G is a better rapper than R2R Moe, so the remix is a slight improvement on a pretty whatever song. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: C+ 

This might make me sound like a wet blanket, but I've always hated "Hips Don't Lie." Shakira's first reggaeton song, "La Tortura," was cool as fuck, and then a year later she came along with this cornball English language reggaeton record that was annoying and inescapable. "Hips Don't Lie" won't turn 20 until February but I guess Spotify wanted to get a jump on it with this new version. Ed Sheeran sings bits of Wyclef's parts and Shakira's parts, and sounds about as ridiculous as you'd respect, with some new vocals from Shakira and young Colombian singer Beele as well. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: F 

I'm not too cranky about short rap songs, I think they're great sometimes. But the original "Lick Back" is literally 76 seconds long, so doing a remix that pushes it over the 2-minute mark is like turning a snippet into a real song. The beat sounds a little like "Doot Doot (6 7)" but Skrilla's rapping on here is actually significantly more competent than it is on "Doot Doot." 

Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B 

As much as I love Mobb Deep's The Immortal, it feels a little anachronistic that "Down For You" featuring Jorja Smith is getting the biggest push of any song on the album, I wouldn't really think that anyone checking for a Mobb Deep album in 2025 cares if they have another "Hey Luv (Anything)." It's a good song, though, and there's a good remix/sequel at the end of the album with another R&B hook from H.E.R., and Prodigy, Havoc, and Nas all have different verses from the original track. 

Best Verse: Nas

Overall Grade: B

I love "Midnight Sun" and was a little disappointed that the (also very good) "Crush" has become the American radio hit from Zara Larsson's latest album. So the fact that a remix of "Midnight Sun" with an American artist was just released last week gives me a little hope that maybe her label is still trying to capitalize on it being the album's biggest streaming hit. Not that Muni Long is necessarily such a huge star that this remix is likely to do much, but it sounds good, I wouldn't mind hearing this version on the radio. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B 

I wrote about a Tonio Armani song earlier in the post, and here he's appearing on another southern soul artist's song that's a little slower and more rootsy, lots of guitar and organ. A much better vocal showcase for Armani, but all this stuff sounds a little cheap and sloppily produced to me, I wish this scene had live bands instead of drum machine-driven tracks. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: C+

Julian Bunetta is one of my favorite producers in popular music today, partly because of his versatility. Bunetta has been making pop hits since his work with One Direction, and broke into country first with Thomas Rhett. So I think it's really cool to hear Rhett and a member of One Direction sing together on a new version of a song Rhett originally recorded with Blake Shleton. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B 

A really mediocre R&B song by total amateur, Ne-Yo showing up with his elite pen and seasoned performing chops on a song that doesn't deserve it almost feels like it demeans both of them. 

Teen rapper La Reezy and middle-aged R&B guy PJ Morton are both from New Orleans and made a fun collab EP together, and Rapsody jumped on a remix of one of the project's standout tracks. Rapsody is such a good MC, I wish she did more features, it's always fun to hear her just do a quick hired gun 16. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B

Kavi Synatra is from Miami but this song is really riding that Cash Cobain sexy drill wave, and not very well. Zeddy Will slightly improves the song though. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: C+

This song really seems to be a tipping point hit for Monaleo, I just started hearing it on the radio after this remix dropped, although my local stations are playing the original version. I'm not the biggest NBA YoungBoy fan but this is the exact kind of tempo he can catch a good flow on. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B+ 

I've been a fan of Sam Fender for years and just recently became a fan of Olivia Dean. It wouldn't have occurred to me that I'd like to hear them duet, but they picked the right song from People Watching to do it with. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B 

Do Or Die are cool as hell, I loved that Chance featured them on Star Line and saluted that '90s era Chicago rap. And adding Twista to the remix to reunite the whole "Po Pimp" team makes it even better. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: A- 

Teen Milwaukee rappers Ball Hog q and Tae released their first song in August, and it's already got a million streams and three remixes with regional rap stars. It's a goofy little track riffing on T-Pain's "I'm N Luv) Wit A Stripper" and it doesn't feel like anybody on any version of the song is taking it remotely seriously. I'm not huge on BabyTron but this is one of those situations where he's clearly a bigger talent than any of these other guys. It's pretty funny that each version is about a girl being in love with a different variety of lowlife. 

I kind of felt bad for PartyNextDoor that Drake put several solo tracks on $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, and predictably the two biggest hits from the album didn't have PND on them. Maybe Drake felt bad about that too, because a few months later, they put a big push behind the biggest duo song from the album, releasing 19 (!) music videos for "Somebody Loves Me" and a pretty good remix with Cash Cobain. Drake has jumped on remixes of a lot of other artist's songs, but when's the last time he did a remix for one of his own singles? Has he ever done it? I'm drawing ablank. 

Best Verse: Cash Cobain

Overall Grade: A-

PinkPantheress's music is already a melting pot of different styles, so her remix album Fancy Some More? is a fun opportunity to stir different cultures together even more with a huge international range of guests, including two Swedes and an Australian. Some of the remixes have the same instrumentals as the album versions, some get new beats, I like what Oscar Scheller did with the "Stateside" beat on the Zara Larsson remix and she hits some crazy vocal runs. 

Best Verse: Zara Larsson 

Overall Grade: B+

Dorothy, the band fronted by Dorothy Martin, has been Roc Nation's token rock act for almost a decade without much to show for it besides four top 10 hits on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. "Tombstone Town" fell a few spots short of being their fifth top 10, even with Slash playing on it. The 'outlaw country remix' is the same instrumentally as the original, which already had some banjos and some twang on it, but I enjoy the addition of Lanie Gardner, who released one of my favorite debut country albums of 2025. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B 

American R&B singers jumping on the Afrobeats bandwagon feels a bit transparent but in my opinion the results often sound pretty decent, as is the case here, their voices just seem to fit together naturally. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B 

Bun B had one of the greatest runs as a remix guest rapper of all time back in the day, but last year was the first time he popped up in this column in over a decade, on a random track by a Japanese rapper. So I'm happy that the latest Houston rapper to blow up ended her new album with a remix featuring Bun and some other Texas legends.  

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B+ 

I feel like it's appropriate that "We On Dat" and "We On Go" are next to each other in this post, similarly shouty songs with similar titles. I hold Denzel Curry in pretty high esteem but BIA put a new verse on the remix and I think it's a cut above her verses on the original or either guest on the remix. 

Best Verse: BIA

Overall Grade: B

As usual, YK Niece gives the bare minimum with a 8 bar verse that kind of devolves into talking on the beat in the last bar or two, but it weirdly works for her, and Saucy Santana also does 8 bars, but is a bit more of a professional rapper about it. Sidebar: I hate how often people just say 'Santana' on social media when they're talking about Saucy Santana as if he's the only famous Santana. If he even qualifies as famous anymore, his moment in the spotlight was pretty brief. 

Best Verse: Saucy Santana

Overall Grade: B-

Another pleasant American/Nigerian R&B/Afrobeats crossover that doesn't feel too forced. I think Wayne might really finally be tapped out, though. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: C-

I feel kind of bad for Lizzen, she makes better music than Lizzo but she's way less famous, so I see her name and think of Lizzo. "Sweet Thing (Work It Out)" first with just Saint Lamaar, and that's the version I've heard on the radio a bit, but it was remixed again on Lizzen's collab tape with Jacquees, and he's a nice addition to the song. 

Best Verse: Jacquees

Overall Grade: B

Good song, and I think it's better as a duet with Muni Long -- Marsha doesn't really have a verse, she just kind of ad libs over the outro. 

Best Verse: n/a

Overall Grade: B 

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