Thursday, December 19, 2013

MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2013

No real surprises, but here are my 20 favorite albums of 2013.

1. Kanye West - Yeezus
2. Drake - Nothing Was the Same
3. Majical Cloudz - Impersonator
4. Blood Orange - Cupid Deluxe
5. Shy Girls - Timeshare
6. Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Daze
7. Bill Callahan - Dream River
8. Travis Scott - Owl Pharaoh
9. Haim - Days Are Gone
10. Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
11. Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety
12. ASAP Rocky - Long. Live. ASAP
13. The Men - New Moon
14. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
15. Rhye - Woman
16. Lil Durk - Signed to the Streets
17. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold
18. Pusha T - My Name Is My Name
19. National - Trouble Will Find Me 
20. Young Thug - 1017 Thug

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Memorable 2013 Rap Singles

Another year of Kanye and Drake popping a wheelie on the zeitgeist? Yes, but for fun I wanted to highlight a few other (as in 5) rap singles that stuck with me through it all.

 1.  GrandeMarshall - Mugga Man

 This North Philadelphia native mixes a honed breezy aesthetic with a demographic usually gasping for breath.



2. Lil Durk - Bang Bros

 Also a favorite of the now deceased Sixers rap group WHOP headed by Tony Wroten. RIP WHOP.



3. Travi$ Scott  feat. T.I. and 2 Chainz - Upper Echelon

 A standout track from the very promising mixtape "Owl Pharaoh", GOOD music/Epic Records/Grand Hustle signee Travis Scott turns out a MTV Jam of the Week that aged surprisingly well.



4.  A$AP Ferg ft. A$AP Rocky, French Montana, SchoolBoy Q & Trinidad James - Work Remix

 This gets the nod over "Shabba Remix" strictly on the shoulders of the Gucci level goofiness that is French Montana's verse.






5. Pusha T feat. Chris Brown - Sweet Serenade

 Pusha T soars on this swooning anthemic cut blessing us with his classic ad-libs like EGHCK and a few WOOOs!!! in a row.