Can this woman save hip-hop? Nicki Minaj at the MTV music awards. Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Eminem and friends – Shady XV

“Lyrical” hip-hop, with an emphasis on fast, image-heavy rhyming, has largely faded from the popular consciousness. Now your average radio rap song favours repetitive chants and simple couplets rather than complex verses. But Eminem has made it his mission to revive the art form, signing rappers who might otherwise be marginalized – such as Yelawolf and Slaughterhouse – and keeping them flush with major label budgets. Shady XV celebrates 15 years of Eminem’s titular label, and will contain new tracks from the aforementioned acts and his old group D12, as well as greatest hits like Lose Yourself and 50 Cent’s Pimp. The album’s run-up has seen strong singles (Y’all Already Know, Guts Over Fear, Detroit Vs Everybody) and Shady Cxvpher, a video featuring both gorgeous cinematography and not so gorgeous musings from Eminem, including one where he punches Lana Del Rey. This is standard Shady stuff, and has predictably helped drive anticipation for the album. But considering it lacks a Rihanna-assisted single, it might not do typical Eminem numbers. Out 24 November.

Nicki Minaj herself was once seen as a savior for lyrical hip-hop. But after a string of highly commercial, highly popular releases she’s now viewed by fans of the genre as a pariah. The mission statement for The Pinkprint, named after Jay Z’s canonical The Blueprint, then, is to win back the heads. This sounds like great news, as Minaj seems to be preternaturally gifted, and able to turn her skills on and off at will. But based on the album’s first singles, it appears she’s left them in the down position. The dazed-sounding Anaconda samples Sir Mix-a-Lot and re-tells Baby Got Back from a female perspective, only without the clever wordplay. Only’s raison d’être seems to be to establish that she never slept with her Young Money cohorts Lil Wayne and Drake. Pills N Potions and Bed of Lies, however, have been a bit more inspired, leaving one hoping that elsewhere on the album she’ll come out spitting Monster-caliber lyrics. Out 15 December .

The Clan haven’t felt cohesive since before ODB’s death in 2004. Their leader RZA, who makes most of their beats and thus gets most of their royalties, has sought to push sonic boundaries and clean up their sound. Other less financially secure members, have different objectives including a return to the old grimy, more commercially-viable 36 Chambers sound. The group’s August appearance on The Daily Show where they announced their “reunion” and played new music was bizarre, considering that elsewhere group members insisted they never really broke up. Their Ron O’Neal performance didn’t get great reviews, though I personally dig the song. Still, A Better Tomorrow follows the highly-underrated 2007 album 8 Diagrams. (Unless you count Once Upon a Time In Shaolin, which they are selling to the highest bidder). But new Wu-Tang is new Wu-Tang, even if it’s coming out of an $80 speaker, and includes a collaboration with Cher. Out 2 December.

Also out:

Another great lyrical hope, J Cole, will release his Forest Hills Drive, which promises nostalgia and a title that references his childhood home address in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Out 9 December .

A concept album where he plays a “Staten Island vigilante inspired by a quest for personal retribution and bent on saving his community from the grips of crooked authority and urban decay”. It will also feature Wu-Tang member and a supporting cast of New York rap veterans, including Kool G Rap, Pharoahe Monch and AZ. Oh, and there’s a graphic novel to accompany a special edition of the album too. Out 9 December.

The is yet another collection of big-budget swaggadoccio for Rozay. Say what you will about his shtick; Ross has grown to be one of the most prolific figures in rap (he averages an album every year since 2006), and so long as he’s around the genre won’t lack bellicose bragging. Out 24 November .