“I don’t want you to get shooted.” The startling words came from the 4-year-old daughter of Diamond Reynolds. The mother and daughter had just watched Reynold’s boyfriend Philando Castile killed at the hands of a police officer. Between anguished cries, the toddler tried to save her mother from a similar fate. More than a solstice ever could, videos like this mark a different beginning to summer; one built on the endless cycle of chaos wrought by police killing blacks and the protests that call for a type of justice that rarely comes.

Rap, like the chaotic ebb-and-flow of the summer season, follows certain trends. This year Future, Young Thug, and Chief Keef left their trap posts behind for expansive pop pastures. Unlike the recent politicized rap of artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Eminem, or even YG, HNDRXX, Beautiful Thugger Girls, and Thot Breaker aren’t projects made to decipher a Trump presidency or speak on police brutality. Within the confines of each album are lean fueled screeds about toxic relationships (“My Collection,” “Drank Head”), endearingly vulnerable and saccharine songs (“Me or Us,” “Grab A Star”), and the redemptive healing power of family (“Sorry,” “For Y’all”). HNDRXX, BTG, and Thot Breaker are defiant albums for troubling times; although they don’t make overt political gestures, each album reaffirms black humanity by championing black love in all its forms.

The last two years of Future’s career have felt like the five stages of grief siphoned through a promethazine haze. The death of his relationship with Ciara formed the narrative for a prolific mixtape run. Emotions like denial and anger were rampant on 2014’s Monster and 2015’s 56 Nights, but it wasn’t until the melodic exhale of HNDRXX that we arrived at the last stage: acceptance. On album opener “My Collection,” Future sings, “And these codeine habits ain’t got nothin to do with my lil’ child.” It’s a rare moment of vulnerability and the first hint we get that the ATL’s crooner icy exterior has begun to thaw.

The most telling line on HNDRXX—and potentially its reason for being—arrives on “Turn On Me”: “I had to look at this lame happy / Try to figure out then why I ain’t happy.” This bar potentially cuts deeper after Jay-Z’s slight Future jab on 4:44’s “Kill Jay-Z”: “In the Future, other niggas playin’ football with your son.” Future reflects on the elusiveness of his happiness on the hook for “Sorry,” “Yeah, ain’t really mean to hurt you / Sorry it’s gotta be this way.” The line sounds like a raspy and worn Nayvadius finally coming to terms with being the arbiter of his own destruction. The statement, “Fam come first, you never fail them,” is ironically similar to the familial redemption narrative that Jay boasts about on 4:44. Amid the chaos of a fractured relationship, Future comes out stronger on HNDRXX by embracing the very thing that haunted him to begin with.

Family also plays a central role on Beautiful Thugger Girls. Listening to the album is the equivalent of hearing Young Thug’s bloody heart palpitate on Saint Laurent sleeve fibers. The intoxicatingly passionate album is a love letter to Thug’s fiancée Jerrika Karlae and more importantly, his family. In the wake of a social media fight between Thug and Karlae, lyrics on “Oh Yeah" seem awkwardly prescient:

You left a bag for me to see

You left a bag and now you hurt me

I only helped you pack your bag because you irk me

Do it hurt when you gone?

When Thug ultimately asks, “Who you loyal to? Me or us?” the question is never resolved. But it doesn’t have to be. The ultimate redemption of BTG can be found on songs like “For Y’all,” where Thug discusses the joy of his sacrifices for those around him:

I did everything for y'all to ball

Tell y'all risked it all to see a smile on y'all

I risked my future goals for all y'all

For the rapper who proudly boasts about wanting to have more children than God, Thug’s ultimate love might not have been Jerrika all along. Instead, it’s his family, who gets to see reap the fruits of his exhaustive labor.

It’s love that fuels Chief Keef’s latest project, too. Five years ago, the world was introduced to a revolutionary statement: “These bitches love Sosa.” Between run-ins with the law and a commercially stalled career the catchphrase miraculously still holds true, which makes the fact that Sosa is now the one in love on Thot Breaker even more rewarding. Chief Keef’s latest mixtape fulfills the destiny of the auto-tuned, emo wunderkind Kanye placed next to Bon Iver on “Hold My Liquor.” Like the aforementioned song, Thot Breaker straddles the same line of intoxication. Keef’s descriptions of love across the mixtape are marred, warped, and drug induced. The reason for this is never clearly explained—apart from Keef’s storied history with drug abuse—but it might have to do with a wise observation by Keef’s mother on “Grab A Star":

Mama say I have trust issues

I been feelin' like Jesus.

Keef admits this same sentiment on album opener “Alone (Intro)": “You got trust issues, girl you are not alone.” The balance of trust and being open enough to express it runs throughout Thot Breaker and is potentially the only thing that stops Keef from having the same redemptive arc as Future or moment of clarity like Thug.

Future, Thug, and Keef thankfully didn’t make albums about the times. You won’t find any sweeping sentiments about black power or traditional forms of resistance. Despite this, HNDRXX, BTG, and Thot Breaker remain crucial because of how they reflect the flawed and loving humans who created them. Themes of trust, growing from the past, sacrificing for family, and pursuing love and happiness are inherent to the experience of each album. In that way, all three projects represent an alternative method of defiance: one that is more concerned with celebrating how young black men and their families fight to thrive, instead of just merely surviving.

Image via Prince Williams / Contributor for Getty.