Alright here we go. I'll get the smaller stuff out of the way first:
Artist/Group of the Year: Young Thug
- Dude has owned this year in pretty much every respect. Mindshare, success, sheer amount of great songs in this dismal year, etc. THUGGER THUGGER
Producer of the Year: Metro Boomin'
- After looking over the breadth of the work he's done, and the diversity of production he's capable, I think Metro Boomin has earned this, however Mike WiLL Made It and DJ Mustard are up there when it comes to output as well, I just found a bit more variety and :wow: level beats with Metro Boomin',
Rookie of the Year: Young Thug
- For similar reasons as above.
Feature Killer of the Year: Young Thug
- We haven't had any super feature killers this year, TBH. A lot of sole high notes (Game on Chiraq to LA, Jay on The Devil is a Lie, etc.), but when I think back, Thug has murdered many of the joints -high profile ones at that- that he's jumped on. This includes multiple songs on Days Before Rodeo, About The Money, Throw Some Mo, Get TF Out My Face, Hookah, Right Back, and the list goes on. Common is the closest thing to a second, having a lot of fantastic pop appearances as well.
"L" of the Year: Azealea Banks
- She's an idiot, focused her career around disparaging a competitor who blew up to levels of success she won't reach, so she decided to become an even bigger idiot and go on the radio and twitter and tell people how much of an idiot she is. It's like bizarro-world Gucci Mane.
Biggest Disappointment: Oxymoron
- One of the most hyped releases of 2014 that just didn't reach it's mark. Confounded with general TDE incompetency, we were left with something less magical than what we expected, even if the album itself was still pretty straight.
~~~***TOP 10 SONGS OF 2014***~~~
1. The Blanguage - Metro Thuggin (Young Thug & Metro Boomin')
2. Soul Food - Big K.R.I.T. ft. Raphael Saadiq
3. My Nigga - YG ft. Young Jeezy & Rich Homie QUan
4. Def Jam - Trinidad Jame$
5. Old English - Young Thug, Freddie Gibbs & A$AP Ferg
6. About The Money - T.I. ft. Young Thug
7. 0 To 100 / The Catch Up - Drake
8. Tangerine Girl - Asher Roth
9. Dipshits - Cam'Ron & A-Trak ft. Juelz Santana & Dame Dash
10. Muscle - Low Pros ft. Juvenile
~~~***TOP 10 RELEASES OF 2014***~~~
In descending order.
Honourable Mentions: Cadillactica (Big K.R.I.T.), Hood Billionaire (Rick Ross), If There's A Hell Below (Black Milk), PRhyme (PRhyme) & Banco (Sir Michael Rocks).
#10 - Logic - Under Pressure
Listen:
Bounce,
Gang Related
Logic put out a straight shooter of an album, that, on paper is easily one of the most impressive records of the year. Conceptually solid, lyrically solid, melodically solid, sonically solid, just consistently solid. As my first Logic album, this caught me completely by surprise as it did not adhere to any of the things you would associate with Logic's conscious, boom-bap rapper persona. There is no bitterness or focused subliminals at party music, beats that sound like they were also shopped to Styles P, general come-up bars on every record, any of that. The record masterfully manages to mix trap stylings with boom-bap like no other record I've ever heard, and does so while facilitating an absurd number of flows, and most of all
good songs.
Some of Logic's robotic delivery, limited-colour depictions of emotion and the lack of records I feel will stand the test of time take away from the record being higher on my list, but as far as being impressed goes, this may take the cake.
Listen:
Ay Ay,
Divine
This record is almost inexplicably fun. It's short and sweet, something I respect more and more out of releases. The production and tone gives a warm, light party vibe, some shit you'd throw on in a classy penthouse party or something. In a world where producers are dying to find records that nobody has heard of to get the most leet samples yo, the beats feature very popular songs mixed in to extremely great effect. You'll find yourself jamming to this song, then to that other favourite song of yours from your youth, back to the present song all in one swoop like a mix. The sound itself is very funky indeed: part garage, part bounce, part boom-bap, part electronic, part acoustic, etc. It's incredibly lush and neither the beats or the MCs overstep their boundaries. It's hard to criticize because it's just well put together fun and just bumps.
Listen:
Neu Law,
Can't Stop
Perhaps one of the most eclectic releases of the year, London leaves no genre untouched. This is just barely hip-hop IMO, but does well enough to integrate everything together. Much like The God Complex, this album colours all these genres with such a warm and fun feel. Nothing is too pretentious. The album cover is especially fitting, it really does feel like something that you might have one day found in your uncle's living room or something but connected with immediately, and the 80s feel is evoked to the max throughout.
It's jazzy. It's electronic. It's soulful. It's R&B. It's disco. It's dancehall. It's hip-hop. Some put a smile on your face music.
Listen:
My N***a,
I Just Wanna Party
YG hit us with the surprise of the year. An album full of banger after banger after banger. Whilst carried by the production, YG manages to complement it well and come out with a considerable number of quotables and memorable songs period. Songs like My N***a will be in the history books. Eternal jams. Features equally carry their weight, and the project is very well sequenced as well, so it is very much listenable from front to back.
Mustard's magic has never been as infectious as it is in this particular project. Between the aggressive raps and the trademark, the highlights on this album are a heroin shot of energy right into your hips and shoulders. You can't help but bump your head and vibe to most of this shit, or more likely, just get up and dance. It's not even necessarily turn up music, just jams.
Listen:
Nobody's Smiling,
Kingdom
At first, I wouldn't sure if this album would stand out even months later, but I was mistaken. Common and his ear are too nice to fall off, I'm convinced. Common tackles Chicago and general inner-city youths' woes in this album, and a lot of that is from the atmosphere it gives you alone. It's sombre, cold, metallic, glowing, rattling and echoing with a constant ray of sunlight cutting through the smoke. That ray being Common's piercing voice and delivery, which complements the production very well.
Every time I go back to this album, I get re-lost in it to hear what Common Sense has to say, even though it's not particularly novel or effective to the cause ultimately. But he's just a fucking great writer, and the shit he says gets stuck in your head.
You created me from dust, that's why I had to do dirt. Most of the features hold their own as well, and the production is consistently FRESH. Great, solid, project. Com is that dude.
Listen:
Break The Bank,
Fuck LA
Despite being a disappointment to my expectations, this still ended up being a solid, distinctly Q project, with superbly high highs that most albums this year lacked altogether. The raw number of great tracks is the reason why this is even so high, as many of the projects thus far are mostly "just" collections of good songs. Projects really need those :wow: records to bring them up a notch for me. Wasn't any more or less introspective than his previous records, and the theme kind of fell flat, but we still got a host of stellar songs, and a decent chunk of okay ones. Production bangs from front to back and Q is still motherfucking Q.
Listen:
Drinks On Us,
Possible
This might be too early to give this such a high commendation, but it gives me that gut feel of everlasting quality. Listening to this I feel like how I imagined many people felt after listening to Albert Anastasia or Rich Forever, just sheer quality banger after banger. There's great variety to be had here as well, sprung across quite the selection of artists as well. Being a producer tape, and not from some trash or one not producer either, it's top class production from front to back. It's also one of the few projects this year that justifies its long length IMO.
Listen:
Oh My Darling (Don't Cry),
Lie, Cheat, Steal
RTJ came back this year new and improved. Sounding more gutter and refined. Feeling more wild and precise. A fun, headbanger of an album that scratches more itches than one, and definitely more itches than it's predecessor, giving it some decent legs as well. The production has that funk too. Not much to say about this, RTJ doesn't exactly make surprising stuff and you know what you're getting when you, but RTJ is RTJ.
Listen:
Mamacita,
Skyfall
La Flame, don't play no games. Travi$ Scott just
gets it. As a student of southern hip-hop and perhaps one of the biggest driving forces behind Yeezus, Travi$ Scott puts all that he's learned to try and not be like every other trap artist and evolve the subgenre. With La Flame it's never a typical ordeal, there's always a distinct flavour that comes with it, whether it's from his unique ad-libs or his uncanny ability to create mood in his songs. Days Before Rodeo is not the most consistent of records, sonically, or quality-wise but it probably has the most knockouts of any album this year. The highs are high as FUCK and make for some super memorable records that won't get washed away as fast as many of his contemporaries.
Altogether though, it's dripping of swag and darker experiences. That's what you get from La Flame and from this project in general: shit you can bump your head to, but still get a tiny glimpse into the person he is and the type of shit that keeps him up at night. La Flame has always been charismatic on the mic, but his actual skills as an MC have improved on this record and he's shown some versatility in tackling a slew of tracks nothing like those found on his last project.
Listen:
Huey,
Mandela
CyHi manages to do what the combined strength of Jay-Z and Kanye have struggled to and could not do: create the ultimate Black History Project. This is easily the most well-produced project of the year. From front to back it's just.. beautiful. Maybe it's the shitty sound quality too, but it's all so warm, valiant, triumphant, proud and nostalgic. And front-to-back, CyHi is spitting over this shit. Now, we all know CyHi can spit, but the problem has always been that he's never given us a reason to care. I, myself, wrote him off until this concept album arose, and dear god was I shocked. Son was spitting battle rapper level double entendres on a beat.
Pretty much every part of this project is well constructed. You have great writing: simple concepts and metaphors elaborated into full songs like Barry (Bury) White, and some straight up storytelling and knowledge kicking on others. He even manages to make some overwrought topics like Basquiat's legacy feel at home within the context of the album and it's theme. The production, as I mentioned above is top class. The album has both faster and slower pace songs intermixed and sequenced in such a way that always makes you interested to see where CyHi will take you next. This project stripped CyHi of his weaknesses and only left the strengths on show, and I have to commend him for that also.
gmacocry
