2015: A Year In Review

It's that time again. We reach the end of a year, and it's the period where everybody discusses on website forums, WhatsApp group chats or together, about what that year has done. Whether it was good or bad. Many either choose a certain topic to focus on from that year, maybe "20__ in music" or "in film". But since this blog focuses on music, mainly hip-hop & R&B, you should know what I'm focusing on.

When we ended 2014, everyone was ranting about how mediocre it was. Although we saw G-Unit finally reunite after a long period, people only named a few highlight projects of it, such as Isaiah Rashad's Cilvia Demo, Freddie Gibbs & Madlib's Piñata, Mick Jenkins' The Water[s], the collaboration with Royce Da 5'9" & DJ Premier aka PRhyme, and J. Cole's classic album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive. Hip-hop fans could only name 4-6 highlights, unlike other years, where they could've think of more than 5 (mostly 10 good albums). Not only that, last year was the beginning of the social media era, where annoying songs came and went, such as the incarcerated Bobby Shmurda's "Hot Nigga" and OG Maco's "U Guessed It!", and trust me, it was annoying as hell. Not many legends were dropping. Where was Nas? Would Lupe finally drop an album? What about Dr. Dre? And I've been waiting too damn long for Jeremih to release a freaking album!

So when Rae Sremmurd announced their album, we were all hyped cos we needed something to bang in the whip, and vibe to. But, fans started to get happy that 2015 would be the opposite of what last year was, when Lupe Fiasco finally was gonna release Tetsuo & Youth, along with Joey Bada$$ dropping his debut album, B4.DA.$$. Hip-hop heads got both these albums on the same day (January 20), and they started a debate about which was better, and what they liked about it. It went to February, and surprise, surprise, Drake dropped a "mixtape" out of nowhere (you should know why I put quotations marks on the word, mixtape) called If You're Reading This It's Too Late, and damn, was we fed with some good music on that day (February 13). A fortnight later, Big Sean followed up his period of showing off his lyricism more with a third album, Dark Sky Paradise, with positive reviews that were happy that Sean improved his sound on this one, instead of coming with mediocre and cringeworthy bars.
By March, we saw the year was getting better. Kendrick Lamar tweeted a link to an album with hardly any details, apart from it saying "untitled" with his name on it, and the planned release date of March 23. That would later become the critically-acclaimed To Pimp A Butterfly, which was pushed forward to March 15. A week after, Earl Sweatshirt would release IDLSIDGO, along with Action Bronson's Mr. Wonderful. And Ludacris & Wale released their highly-anticipated albums, Ludaversal & The Album About Nothing. April saw releases like the (also) highly-anticipated Pilot Talk III from Curren$y. Cherry Bomb and Barter 6.

We were getting more quality albums along the way. In May, Snoop Dogg released his funky collab with Pharrell called Bush and A$AP Rocky released his sophomore, At.Long.Last.A$AP. And even if J Dilla & Baatin are gone, and Elzhi left, Slum Village still continued the legacy as a duo (T3 & Young RJ), and released YES! in June and Meek Mill released the highly-anticipated Dreams Worth More Than Money. Future was having one hell of a year, dropping projects non-stop like Beast Mode, 56 Nights and DS2. And the fact that Dr. Dre released a freaking album after scrapping Detox, surprised me, and it was worth it! Even Jay Rock did, The Game released the sequel to his classic album, and at the end of the year, Jeremih dropped, along with Logic, Freddie Gibbs, Pusha T and Fabolous!

With the quality music being dropped, what about the general shit? Well, remember when I said 2014 was the beginning of the annoying social media era. Last year saw the annoying songs and the recycled Vines trending, and everybody forcing it down till another trend came. The same thing happened this year, and it was worse! I just watched this year's YouTube Rewind not long ago, and it was SOOOOOOOO bad! Seriously, the title, "Watch Me 2015" just makes me cringe, and the trends used on there was so corny, especially watching people Whip & Nae-Nae (where was the Dab? Billy Bounce? There was more better trends than this). It was a video that showed how shit this year was other than in music.

I noticed more than that though: Fanbases are freaking CRAZY!!! And everyone gets emotional these days. We should all know about the Drake & Meek Mill beef that happened earlier this Summer. Drake won and all, and the way Meek responded to all this was just... *sighs* (especially after everyone was loving DWMTM, and that he couldn't back up his ghostwriting argument), but the annoying part were the Drake stans. They pretty much proved how bad they are as a fanbase (even worse than the Beyhive, God damn). They were going ham on Meek, spamming him with anything that related to Drake (battery and diamond emojis and I know when Views for The 6 is about to drop, they're also about to spam him with praying hands or something). I mean, they were overrating Drake, calling him the GOAT in rap. and saying "don't come at the 6 God ever" (as if there are not any better rappers in this generation). What was even worse was that recently, he's in some serious issues that may lead him to jail, and all because of some stupid ass beef, they want him to spend time in prison (I even saw a guy comment that he hopes he get raped. I'm freaking speechless). Damn, they really didn't like it when Meek accused him of not writing his own shit.
I felt that more people started to get very VERY emotional on social media! Like, so what if a guy talks shit about your favourite rapper, does it give you the right to go and just react like a little kid? Black Twitter, along with Instagram, have started the trend #WhitePeopleWednesday, that took a light jab at white people and the funny stuff that they do on camera. Some whites ran along with it, laughed and continued that trend, while some just started crying like a bitch, and taking it as racist. Like, the amount of flags people with many followers' posts got just because they were laughing at it.

Overall, 2015 has been a good year. Apart from some BS, such as school thoughts and the social media issues, everything has gone well. We had some quality music, and not to mention, some amazing films. I was going out and about every now and then, watching Avengers; Age of Ultron, Fast & Furious 7, Pitch Perfect 2, the long-awaited Star Wars: The Force Awakens and of course, Straight Outta Compton. 2015 has made me very happy, and the amount of albums I had to catch up with was too damn high. Hence why I'm counting down my top 20 favourite albums of the year. However, I ain't reviewing them cos it's gonna be too much work. So here it is:

20. Future - Dirty Sprite 2 (6/10)
19. Drake & Future - What A Time To Be Alive (6.5/10)
18. Mick Jenkins - Wave[s] (7/10)
17. Travi$ Scott - Rodeo (7/10)
16. Fabolous - Summertime Shootout (7.5/10)
15. Kehlani - You Should Be Here (7.5/10)
14. Rapper Big Pooh & Nottz - Home Sweet Home (8/10)
13. A$AP Rocky - At.Long.Last.A$AP (8/10)
12. Bryson Tiller - T R A P S O U L (8.5/10)

11. Drake - If You're Reading This It's Too Late (8.5/10)

10. Big Sean - Dark Sky Paradise (8.5/10)
9. Dr. Dre - Compton (9/10)
8. Logic - The Incredible True Story (9/10)
7. Joey Bada$$ - B4.DA.$$ (9/10)
6. Jeremih - Late Nights: The Album (9.5/10)
5. Big K.R.I.T. - It's Better This Way (9.5/10)

4. Mac Miller - GO:OD AM (9.5/10)

3. Pusha T - King Push: Darkest Before Dawn (The Prelude) [10/10]
2. Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth (10/10)
1. KENDRICK LAMAR - TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY (10/10!)

Honourable Mentions:
Game - The Documentary 2
Jay Rock - 90059
Freddie Gibbs - Shadow of a Doubt
Curren$y - Pilot Talk III + Canal Street Confidential
Rick Ross - Black Dollar + Black Market
Lloyd Banks - Halloween Havoc 2
Young Thug - Barter 6

So there you have it. My top 20 albums of the year + my honourable mentions. I gotta say, 2015 really gave us a lot. From Lupe Fiasco to Pusha T, it wasn't just a year of shitty music from aspiring SoundCloud artists. We had quality music, even from the people that we normally hate. Chief Keef delivered, Mac did, Kendrick did, Drake did, and everybody did. This was my top 20 favourite projects, and sorry if you're upset that one of the honourable mentions didn't make it onto the list (keep in mind that YOU can make your own if you want to). It was very hard choosing the top 20, and I went through a lot of changes just to make this great and nice for myself.

Anyway, will 2016 be a drought? We may have had a lot, but we're even speculating that next year will be EVEN better. Lupe Fiasco is dropping 3 albums in 2016, Drake's VFT6 is gonna be out anytime. Mick Jenkins is finna drop The Healing Component. Pusha is gonna drop the highly-anticipated King Push. And of course: Lloyd Banks. The Cold Corner 3 is due out anytime soon, as since it didn't drop this year, we're expecting a 2016 release.

Due to this post, there won't be any New Year's Review tomorrow. I worked real hard on this, and messed up my priorities. Be sure to look out for a review on Rapsody on January 16. In the meantime, may you have a great year this coming 2016.

Adios...

Owen