2022 Year End

Position. Artist-Album Title- Explanation *Favorite Song

Sleeper- Wale- Folarin II- I am a documented Word Play Le stan, he was the first artist that I found through the blogs, as a baby hip hop head, that went on to blow up . As such, when I review his projects I try to auto-correct my own feelings to make sure that there is limited bias in my reviews. I over corrected with this project. It is truly phenomenal. *Fire & Ice

Best EP- Doechii- she/her/black bitch- TDE’s second generation might have found its voice in Doechii. She is an incredibly talented, out of the box, triple threat artist. She can out bar you while creating beautiful melodics and having superstar personality. *Swamp Bitches

Honorable Mention- Drake and 21 Savage- Her Loss- 21 Savage makes amazing projects and is an excellent addition that gives Drake an opportunity to get a little gully on tracks. Its too bad that Drake takes this opportunity to attack women, while 21 talks about killing every opp this side of 85 South. I had some trouble connecting with this album, but it is undoubtedly a good project with great raps. *Middle of the Ocean

10-Latto- 777- Here Latto stretches her artistry and pulls out a few surprises, including melodics and more introspective bars. This is a great collection of songs that works together through diversity of sound and content *Sunshine

9- Smino- Luv 4 Rent- Smino is an amazing singer and rapper. His ability to bend words and their meanings actually blows my mind. I am still catching bars months after the release of this project, because I am often lulled into the chill atmosphere of the project. While Smino has not been an album artist to me in the past, it seems like he might have turned a corner with this project. *Blu Billy

8-Big KRIT-Digital Roses Don’t Die- This album is the quietest I have seen a KRIT release, likely due to him now being independent. However, this project is a stroke of genius, pushing KRIT the furthest outside of his comfort zone as we have ever seen. This truly sounds like the perfect marriage of hip hop and my fathers favorite 70’s R&B. This is made more impressive by the fact that there are no samples on the entire project. *Would It Matter

7- Westside Boogie- More Black Superheroes- Boogie is one of those artists that everybody who loves music is a fan of, but has never truly popped for some reason. Here, Boogie finds a perfect blend of introspective bars following his therapy journey and straight up ignorance. On the album Boogie embraces the fact that he is both, while spitting some crazy bars and creating amazing melodies. *Nonchalant 

6- Westside Gunn- 10- Probably a good time to end the Hitler Wears Hermes series with the current zeitgeist. I could truly do a Griselda list alone (2-God Don’t Make Mistakes, 3-Tana Talk 4, 4- The Liz 2). Only Gunn could get Black Star, RTJ, Raekwon and Stove God on the same album. *Peppas

5-Nas- Kings Disease III- He cant keep getting away with this. Nas is releasing some of the best music of his career 3 decades in. Him and Hit-Boy have truly found something special and have proved it for the 4th time in 2 years. *Reminisce

4- Pusha T- Its Almost Dry- Cocaine’s Dr. Seuss does it again. May Pusha-Ton rap about coke for 20 more years. He proves what he sought to prove on this album, that nobody rides a Ye or Pharrell beat as well as he does.  *Let The Smokers Shine The Coupes

3- Kendrick Lamar- Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers- Kung Fu Kenny returns on a completely different frequency than anybody expected. Kendrick raps mostly about his therapy journey, uncovering his wrongs and making peace with the past. This is not an easy listen, but it somehow became my airport album. Volume 2 greatly outshines the first, but still presents some issues that are hard to come to terms with like Dot’s use of homophobic slurs as a tool to expose homophobia. Cole attempted the same almost a decade ago to similar affect. Lets just agree that it is not a tool to be wielded by cis-het men. Otherwise there are some incredibly raw and open emotions on this album. While not a classic like the past 3 album releases, it is still a great body of work. *Mirror- that hook has become a mantra for me.

2- JID- The Forever Story (Extended Version)- JID shows incredible growth on this album which he stated was always the plan. We know the ATLien as a rappers rapper who will out bar anybody on a track. On this project he is still that, but he bottles that killer instinct up to create something more personal and cutting. In interviews you can see that he is coming into his 30s with a different perspective and as a man at 29 years myself, I identify with this change. Whether on Kody Blu 31, Sistanem or 2007, JID gives us a clear view into his family and life, both good and bad. *Bruddanem 

Before moving on I want to thank everybody who continues to read these a literal decade later. This was a tough year in hip hop with so much death surrounding the genre. It was also a tough year for me personally. While I am still struggling through many of the things that have been plaguing my life lately, hip hop has been an oasis. I am glad to share it with you all. As Lupe once said, hip hop saved my life.

1-  Freddie Gibbs- $oul $old $eparately- Gangsta Gibbs continues on a classic run. Pivoting from projects with one producer, the sound of this project is different, but the amazing coke bars are the same. Gibbs has had a rough year with beef and physical altercations with other rappers. But it is implicit of me as a person removed from the streets that I allow the streets to stay just there. Big Rabbit made an amazing project and who am I as a lawyer to dock points off that album for things that took place outside of the music among consenting men? *Blackest in the Room