But musically, 2016 was another great year. 2014 was a bit dry, with only a few great projects like Cilvia Demo and The Water[s]; and 2015 was a freakin' drought, everybody dropping from Joey Bada$$ & Drake to Jeremih & Pusha T. That doesn't mean 2016 didn't deliver. At the start of the year, Anderson .Paak released his debut album Malibu, preceded by his appearances on Dr. Dre's Compton and "Suede", the breakout single from NxWorries, his duo with Knxwledge. After a few delays, Kanye West released his highly-anticipated The Life of Pablo. Elzhi managed to come through with Lead Poison, his first project in five years. Throughout the year, we got projects from Jeremih, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Drake, Bas, J. Cole, Kid Cudi, J Dilla, Lloyd Banks and A Tribe Called Quest. Yes, A Tribe Called Quest, ladies and gentlemen!
Drake had a pretty good year. His fourth album, Views, was released in April to mixed/lukewarm reception, with many people (including myself) declaring it as his worst work. But Views managed to be his bestselling work, being on top of the Billboard charts for months and winning an American Music Award. He went on the Summer Sixteen tour with Future, where he brought out special guests from Dipset to J. Cole & Big Sean. He also used the tour as an opportunity to diss his enemies such as Joe Budden, Tory Lanez, Hot 97 and Meek Mill. Drizzy featured on a lot of hot tracks from Rihanna, Gucci Mane, French Montana, Future, 2 Chainz and more.
Curren$y was the most consistent rapper this year, in my opinion. This guy was putting out heat nonstop this year. In fact, he had a mixtape out every God damn month, from The Owners Manual to 12/30. All those songs and he put it out for free. And he got a new album dropping next April too. Forget about Future, Gucci, Young Thug and all them rappers. If that ain't consistency, I don't know what is.
Lloyd Banks has been going beast mode this year. After F.N.O. (Failure's No Option) in 2013, he took two years off without any projects and returned with Halloween Havoc 2 in 2015. But this year, he released not one but TWO mixtapes: All or Nothing: Live It Up and Halloween Havoc 3: Four Days of Fury, and he revived the Blue Friday series, releasing a new song every Friday starting from November. Last time he was this consistent was like a few years back.
At the start of the year, Top Dawg Entertainment promised to release four albums this year from SZA, Isaiah Rashad, Ab-Soul & ScHoolboy Q. But they were one up this year, releasing 5 albums this year! But the schedule was slightly different: SZA didn't release anything this year and instead, it was Kendrick Lamar, who released untitled unmastered. in March. It was a short compilation of outtakes from his 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. July saw the release of the long-awaited Blank Face LP from ScHoolboy Q, September was when Isaiah Rashad finally released his debut album The Sun's Tirade, Lance Skiiiwalker was the new signee of TDE, dropping his first project Introverted Intuition in October, and Ab-Soul ended the year with his fourth album Do What Thou Wilt..
Meek Mill also had a decent year. He continued to be a laughing joke to the mainstream audience, being known as the King of Ls ever since his beef with Drake, but still released some heat throughout the year: the 4/4 EPs, a few throwaways and remixes, and the highly-anticipated DC4 mixtape. He had a short beef with The Game, because apparently, Meek ratted to Sean Kingston about a shooting. Game lyrically won the beef, releasing "92 Bars" and "Pest Control". But Meek still came out strong at the end, releasing DC4 and selling more than Game's 1992 album.
But just like last year, there were a lot of albums that I enjoyed, from Malibu to Do What Thou Wilt.. Last year, I did a top 20 list of my favourite projects, which stressed me out because I went through a lot of changes and did a review to every single one. But this time, I lowered it down to the top 10 albums I really digged, and this time, I'm gonna stick with my list instead of adding every single album I loved on there.
So, enough talking, let's go!
Released: September 16, 2016
Rating: 7.5/10
I honestly think not a lot of people give Mac Miller his props as an artist. He has really progressed a lot and has improved with every project. He came into the game making music that you'd hear at college/frat parties and shit. But there was a slight change when he released Macadelic. It was when Watching Movies with the Sound Off dropped in 2013 and people started to become more interested in his music. The production was on another level, and unlike his earlier work, Mac was in a depressing mental state, where there were less celebratory/party joints and more introspective and depressing songs. He continued this in 2014 with Faces, which was a pretty long project (24 songs, 86 minutes), but still managed to deliver from start to finish with its wonderful production, vibe and content.
2015 saw the release of GO:OD AM, his third album, which was a departure from the depressing content of Watching Movies with the Sound Off and Faces. Mac managed to get over his depression, which influenced the content in the album. He was happy, and was even more confident about his position in the rap game.
While us fans were consuming the album, Mac was already working on something new. In July, he was hinting at something new, captioning his then-recent pictures with "Next Thursday", "Thursday", "2 days" "Tomorrow" etc. I was expecting a little mixtape from him before his new album drops like next year. Instead, what we got was a new single with Anderson .Paak called "Dang!". In August and September, he released two more singles: "We" with CeeLo Green and "My Favorite Part" with Ariana Grande. On September 16, The Divine Feminine was finally released and featured 10 tracks with guest appearances from Bilal, Ty Dolla $ign, Kendrick Lamar and Njomza.
The Divine Feminine was supposed to be an EP that probably would've bridged the gap between GO:OD AM and what could've been his upcoming fourth album. But as he continued recording, he turned it into an album. The album revolves around love and relationships, touching on his learning experiences from women throughout his life. In my opinion, it's an album that continues Mac's progression and improvement as a rapper and artist. The album has 10 tracks with a runtime of 53 minutes.
I enjoyed most of the tracks. I honestly thought "Congratulations" was the weakest song on the album. When I first saw the title and the Bilal feature, I expected it to be some next-level funky tune. Instead, what I got was some boring piano song where Mac was singing and rapping throughout. It didn't interest me at all, and I was left disappointed. Obviously, "Dang!" is the next song, and it's still on repeat for me. It was a good single to get the hype up for the album, and still gets me vibing when I play it. Mac delivered with his rapping, the flow was on point and even the singing was aight. Anderson's hook was fire too, it's always in my head, a catchy one! But the next two songs on the album are some of the best: "Stay" is a funky tune, with a vibe that reminds me of Chance the Rapper a lot. And I mean, A LOT!!!! The trumpets, the melody, background singing, it sounds exactly like a Chance song. You would've thought Nico Segal/Donnie Trumpet contributed to this shit. Mac was nice on it, his singing flow was great and the vibe was good. But I would've loved Chance to do a verse on it, he would've killed it! "Skin" is a smooth song, which I vibe to the most. It's one of those songs you can ride to. A slow jam, not only for the ladies, but for the car too. The singing was alright, and he really did well with the content and lyrics.
Unlike the rest of his projects, Mac does a lot more singing than usual, which did cause a mixed reaction from fans. I personally think his singing isn't bad, but a lot of people acted like his singing was as bad as IceJJFish or something, haha. The intro, "Congratulations" balances the singing and rapping very well, although the song overall bored me. "Stay" and "Skin" has singing throughout. "Soulmate" is a funky track, with Dam-Funk, MisterNeek & ID Labs on the boards. The beat is fire, and Mac's singing really fits with the track very well. I loved when the beat switched up a little towards the end. That gets me vibing. And "My Favorite Part" features his current girlfriend Ariana Grande, and he sings a lot on that track. Obviously, Ariana outshines him with her soft vocals, but that doesn't mean Mac doesn't complement the track too. Again, while his singing sounds like a drunk guy, it's actually not as bad as everybody makes it out to be.
We still get some rapping though. "Dang!" features more rapping than singing, and on both of his verses, Mac raps a lot more. "Planet God Damn" is the song with the most rapping, while Njomza is on the hook and ending bridge. "We" is a slow song and Mac only does a little bit of singing, and around the middle of the song, it's CeeLo that is left to do most of the singing throughout. We end on a pretty good note with "God is Fair, Sexy Nasty", where Kendrick Lamar doesn't do a verse and is instead on the hook. Seeing Kendrick as a feature, I thought this song was gonna be on some TPAB shit and be some smooth funky shit. But, we get a more modern instrumental from Tae Beast & Aja Grant, and that shit was wavy. Once again, Mac balances his singing and rapping, he raps on the first verse (with a little bit of singing inbetween), and sings throughout the second verse. There is an outro after the song that lasts over 2 minutes, and is about how Mac's grandmother met her husband and had children. It's a good way to conclude the album, and it's really overwhelms me overall.
In conclusion, I enjoyed The Divine Feminine. Is it better than GO:OD AM, Faces or WMWTSO? Hell nah. But it was a great project from start to finish. He executes the love and relationships concept very well, in my opinion, and the production is solid. I loved the features on here, and they do a pretty good job with their singing. The content was good, the singing was alright, he came through with decent raps and the flow and delivery were on point. It's something I can vibe to, and I love it. I'm looking forward for his next move in 2017.
Best Songs: "God is Fair, Sexy Nasty", "Skin", "Stay", "Dang!", "My Favorite Part", "Planet God Damn", "Cinderella", "Soulmate"
Songs I Don't Care About: "We", "Congratulations"
Released: October 28, 2016
Rating: 7.5/10
2015 was supposed to be a great year for Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill. He went to jail in July 2014 after having his probation revoked, which caused a delay in his second album, Dreams Worth More Than Money. When he was finally released in December, everybody was celebrating. To boost anticipation, he was releasing standalone cuts including "Monster/The Get Back" and "B Boy" with Big Sean & A$AP Ferg. And he also started a relationship with Nicki Minaj. So with the highly-anticipated release of DWMTM, it debuted at #1, with 250k copies sold in its first week. Everything was going good for the boy!
But it all started to go wrong for him in July 2015 when he went on a Twitter rant, in which he took shots at fellow rapper Drake, telling people to stop comparing him to Meek, and that Drake apparently didn't even write his verse on the DWMTM standout cut "R.I.C.O.". This got a lot of people in a frenzy, and there were a lot of people who doubted that Drake would even go at him. "Charged Up" was the warning, but "Back 2 Back" was the finishing touch. Meek replied with "Wanna Know", which ended up to be a disappointing diss, especially after he took a long time to reply to Drake's disses. But then it happened. The "it" I'm talking about was OVO Fest, which was a way for Drizzy to embarrass him in front of his fans in Toronto with memes and performing "Back 2 Back". He even hinted at another diss, saying "You don't want that 3-peat". Ever since then, Meek has been a laughing joke to the mainstream audience.
Ever since September 2015, Meek was hinting at Dreamchasers 4, and that the songs that didn't make Dreams Worth More Than Money were likely to be on the mixtape. He started to preview new music on Instagram, including collabs with YG, Rick Ross, Tdot Illdude, Travis Scott and more. He then teased a Christmas release date, but got pushed back. In January though, instead of leaving fans even more hungry, he released two 4/4 EPs, which had 4 tracks each. More standalone cuts were released including an "All the Way Up" remix with Fabolous & Jadakiss, and a leaked version of "Boys in the Hood" with DJ Drama, Ty Dolla $ign & Pusha T. But DC4 was taking long to release, and too many snippets were surfacing that fans had enough. It then had a September release date, but was once again pushed back to October. On the 27th of the month, Meek finally broke the silence on Instagram, revealing the cover art and captioning the post with "Tomorrow". And I was so happy I could cry!
DC4 aka Dreamchasers 4 is the highly-anticipated mixtape, which you'd expect to be a double disc project, with the amount of snippets that surfaced within the year. It featured 14 tracks with guest appearances from Nicki Minaj, Don Q, YFN Lucci, Quavo, Tory Lanez and more. And damn, wasn't it a comeback. The amount of beefs he got into, the Ls he took every now and then, and when the tape dropped, everybody loved him again, ha! What a comeback, that really impressed people, who were justhating a few months back.
The tape is a lot more trappy and has more energetic joints, compared to his other Dreamchasers installments. "On the Regular" is a probably his most energetic intro. I'm not saying that it's his best intro, but it does set the mood for the mixtape very well, starting on a good note. While the Dreams and Nightmares intro and Lord Knows were litty tunes, this one is something which is more accessible to the clubs. "Litty" is a freakin' tune, that shit bangs like a MF. "The Difference" is a solid track on the tape, which gets Migos member Quavo on a verse and Desiigner doing his ad-libs. No joke, Meek & Quavo are rapping while Desiigner is simply doing his "GIT! GIT!" "TTTTLLLLAAAAHHHH" shit, haha! "Lights Out" is a dark, menacing banger, and is probably one of the best songs on the tape. As soon as the beat kicks in, it's amazing. Both Meek and Don Q do their thing, the hook is great and the way the instrumental is like is sick. Everything flows together so well on this track.
We still get some introspective and slower cuts on the mixtape, and they are even better. "Blessed Up" has some nostalgic drums, with a little modern twist, as Meek raps about his success and blessings. He delivers effortlessly, and towards the second verse, it's where he shines the most. "Shine" is the most heartfelt track on the album, where Meek reflects on the success and fame he has earned from hard work, and touches on his struggle and close friends that were lost. "Blue Notes" is the best song on the mixtape, with Dolla Bill Kidz/Butter Beats sampling the sombre "Midnight Blues" by Snowy White. Here, Meek once again reflects on his success, fame, early struggle and the respect he had got from many people. "Two Wrongs" gets fellow singer Guordan Banks and Pusha T, as Meek and Pusha raps about the streets, fake friends, snitches and robbing. Meek continues the Tony & Paulie saga with "Tony Story 3", picking up after what happened in Part 2.
The production was sweet though. "The Difference" and "On the Regular" are some of the best bangers on the tape. Those songs are fire, the producers went in on those beats! "Blessed Up" has a great beat, the nostalgic drums are on point! "Offended" is probably my favourite instrumental on the tape, and it always gets me hyped up. "Lights Out" is also another banger. A dark, menacing tune, and again, I love it when the beat kicks in.
One thing about DC4 is that there are a lot of features and they're also just as great. Young Thug outshined everybody on "Offended", he made it his song. Even 21 Savage did a decent job. Guordan's singing was nice on "Two Wrongs", Tracy T did his thing on "Way Up". Quavo killed his verse on "The Difference", I loved Tory Lanez on "Litty" and Don Q snapped on "Lights Out". The only feature I didn't like on the mixtape was Nicki Minaj on "Froze". While Lil Uzi Vert did his thing with the hook and verse, I hated Nicki's verse. It was so generic and lame, and it bored the hell out of me. She ain't been the same since she broke up with Safaree, man. Her verses been downhill for me since then. We finally end with the "Outro", formerly titled "Mo Money", in which we get a posthumous Lil Snupe verse and 2 incredible verses from Meek. The beat bangs in the first half, but it switches up in the latter, with an instrumental reminiscent of the Dreams and Nightmares intro.
Are there a few weak tracks? Yes! "Froze" was the weakest track for me, and it was where the overall track wasn't as I expected it to be. It was anticipated for a while and I thought it was gonna be a club banger, but honestly, it's not one I come back to when revisiting the album. Lil Uzi Vert was decent, but again, Nicki's verse was awful and she didn't impress me at all. And Meek was just... alright. "Two Wrongs" was one of the deep and introspective cuts on the album, and I remember anticipating it a lot ever since January. But when it came out, it was just... decent, not even the best song on the album. Meek's verse was decent, and I was disappointed with Pusha's verse, I expected it to be a bit longer and more impressive. "You Know" was another song with least replay value. It's good for what it is though, a radio-friendly song that had potential as a hit. It could've had a video with Nicki having an appearance, and maybe her and Meek fooling around. It would've had the girls screaming "#goals", haha! But as a song, it wasn't anything special, and nothing stood out to me. Maybe Nicki's background vocals, but that's it. "Way Up" is a forgettable banger, that honestly goes a little too quick. I thought this was gonna be a tune for me, and I would turn up to it. But nah, that didn't happen. The song went so fast (it was 3 minutes, and it felt like 2), and both Meek and Tracy's verses weren't anything special.
Overall, DC4 is a solid comeback effort after a year of embarrassment and slander from the mainstream. The production was solid, the features did their thing and Meek came through with the bars. I enjoyed it a lot, it was something I can turn up to, with a few deep cuts I can relax and ride to. Is it the best Dreamchasers installment? Nah, DC2 will always be the best one. But, it has a lot of replay value and Meek really came back strong with this one. If there was anything Meek could've done to change the project, it would've been to take off "Froze" and add a few more tracks; reduce the amount of features and more solo tracks. Nevertheless, it was a great project, and I enjoyed it!
Best Songs: "Blue Notes", "Lights Out", "Blessed Up", "Offended", "Shine", "On the Regular", "Outro", "Litty" "Tony Story 3", "The Difference"
Songs I Don't Really Care About: "Way Up", "Two Wrongs", "You Know", "Froze"
Released: December 9, 2016
Rating: 8/10
In 2014, Ab-Soul was the fourth person on Top Dawg Entertainment to release a new album: his 3rd album These Days.... According to him, it was a fun record to make, but the album had mixed reception from fans. Some found it fire, some though it was "decent", some said it was disappointing, and some called it trash.
A little bit after These Days..., Soul started to work on the new album, and by July, said that it was "almost done" and it is a "love story". He started to tweet and caption posts on Instagram with the hashtag #DWTW, which, at the time, was presumed to be the acronym to the official album title. In June 2016, he announced that the album was done and turned in for audio mixing.
But we still didn't get the album. After ScHoolboy Q's Blank Face LP was released, we were expecting Soul to come through. Nope, that was Isaiah Rashad with The Sun's Tirade in September. So fans were still anticipating the album. Again, we didn't get it, instead we got Lance Skiiiwalker with Introverted Intuition in October. We were still expecting DWTW, but in November, TDE boss Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith finally said to fans that Ab-Soul was delaying it himself, and that he wasn't done with the album yet. But in the first week of December, the wait was over. December 9, Do What Thou Wilt..
Do What Thou Wilt. is the highly-anticipated fourth album from Ab-Soul, and is a concept album on the Thelema religion. The law of this religion is "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will.". The title is also a rebellious message towards biblical messages and the idea of God, which Soul touches on throughout the album. The album features 16 tracks and a runtime of almost 77 minutes, with guest appearances from Punch, SZA, ScHoolboy Q, Zacari, Mac Miller, Rapsody and more. And you know what, this album was DWTW, as in definitely worth the wait! It's an enjoyable project, with a very interesting concept, and Soul goes through it very well.
We start with the hardcore, menacing and potent intro "RAW (backwards)", which features Zacari on the hook. He takes aim at other rappers, including Jay Electronica (if you remember what happened a few months back, Jay dissed Kendrick Lamar, saying he's his son) and Troy Ave (his diss to Joey Bada$$ & Capital STEEZ). It's a great track and sets the mood for the album very well. Up next are the previously-released singles: "Braille" features Bas, and uses a lot of weed references. Soul even does his twist on the "Peter Piper" tongue twister towards the end when the beat switches. Bas does his thing with his verse too. And "Huey Knew", now retitled as "Huey Knew THEN" is up next, which is named after the Blank Panther Huey Newton and features a verse from Da$h.
As said before, Soul touches on the Thelema religion, along with idea of God, and how he believes God's a woman. And after "Huey Knew THEN", that's when Soul really starts exploring these topics. The fourth track on the album, "Threatening Nature" details his reflections on religion and the Christian faith, and features some highlight quotes, including "Listen, listen, hear and understand/Or just give me some insight/You get on your knees every night/To pray to a man that you barely understand/Or have even seen with your eyes closed/Then turn around and do the same thing/Get on your knees, then put a ring/On the woman that you wanna call your wife/Somethin' ain't right, yo" and "Way back when I was in grade school, I learned about history/But what about her story—did anybody ask?". "Womanogamy" has ScHoolboy Q on background vocals while Soul raps about his commitment to all women, and not just one. "Wifey vs. WiFi" compares the problems his friends face in jail to the arguments he has with his girl, and also mentions an encounter Soul had with his friend Riley when talking about Riley's mother. The second part of that song, "P.M.S" sees some guy called BR3 rap about his life in jail and losing faith in the system. This part also connects with the first part, as the title is an abbreviation for when girls act moody and aggravated during their periods. And "Wifey vs. WiFi" dealt with arguments and women aggravation.
There are a few more tracks that touch on more topics rather than Thelema and Soul's idea of God. "P.M.S." segues into "Beat the Case", when BR3 raps about losing his case and going to jail. So with "Beat the Case", Soul gets Q once again for a banger, which is about beating cases and getting away with things. Soul did his thing, but I gotta say Q outshined him, to be honest. The latter track, "Straight Crooked" is a short interlude about how not everybody is perfect, and has done bad things. Nobody is straight nor crooked, but are likely inbetween. It's a great song that I enjoy a lot, and I found it slightly better than "Beat the Case". I just wish it was longer. "Now You Know" is a dark and hardcore head-bumper that focuses on women appreciation and enlightenment, and also highlights misogyny and refers to feminists, using "mis-" prefixes during his verses. "D.R.U.G.S." is a nod to Lupe Fiasco's coined acronym of "Don't Ruin Us God Said", and Soul reflects on the love he has for those who are close to him, including his mother, his cousins and his father in particular, while Mac Miller does some background vocals. Soul also touches on his love for drugs, but knows he needs some help.
We get back into Soul's concept of God being a woman, with the song "Evil Genius", which refers to a belief of how God is an "omnipotent demon". Longtime collaborator JaVonte & Teedra Moses both do some background singing in the intro and after Soul's verse, we even get some sampled vocals from the late Alori Joh. "Lonely Soul" is the lowest point for Soul on the album: lost friends and family, drug abuse and short comings, which makes him full of sorrow and wanted to be left alone and lonely. Punch comes in to do a verse, and somebody tell me WHY HE AIN'T PUT OUT A MIXTAPE YET?! After SZA does some singing at the end of that song, we get into "The Law", which refers to the mantra/law of the Thelema religion; "Love is the law". Mac Miller sings the hook, and Rapsody does a little poem after Soul's two verses, about how God is a "queen". The final track, "YMF" ties all these topics on the album together and it's a dope closer to the album, recapping everything we heard.
The production is actually amazing on the album. I remember on the day it dropped, I had second thoughts of listening to the album, maybe because I wanted to go to bed. But when I pressed play, I was stuck in and eager to hear was. Almost every beat on the album was fire. The single "Braille" is a banger, and the beat was A1. "Threatening Nature" is a dark track, with an amazing instrumental, and Soul's lyricism is on point. "Beat the Case" is a banger, and it always gets me dancing and bumping my head. The drums are incredible on that song."Straight Crooked" is a great interlude, which should've been longer. The production on that song was nice. "Now You Know" is a head-bumper and is something to ride out to. "D.R.U.G.S." is a tune, man. It's a deep and dark song, but at the same time, you can vibe to it. "Lonely Soul" is an introspective and personal track from Soul, with bass from Thundercat and vocals from SZA, I enjoyed the production on that and it is my favourite track on the album. I played that song a lot throughout this month. "The Law" is such a smooth ass track, something to vibe out to and bump your head to. It's so relaxing.
The features also did a good job on the album. Zacari was alright on "RAW (backwards)". Bas killed his verse on "Braille". Da$h was nice on "Huey Knew THEN". Kokane's vocals were A1 on "INvocation". Punch had an impressive verse on "Lonely Soul", and SZA's vocals were wonderful on that song. JaVonte & Teedra Moses came through with the singing on "Evil Genius" and I loved it. ScHoolBoy Q did his thing on "Beat the Case". Mac Miller was alright with the singing on "The Law", and Rapsody's poem/verse added a lot more to the track.
There are a few weak and forgettable tracks on the album. "RAW (backwards)" was a solid intro, but outside of the Jay Electronica and Troy Ave shots, it wasn't too interesting. It was just an intro I could just listen to when playing the album in full. It wasn't one for me to play again, and compared to the rest of the tracks, it was alright. It could've worked even better as a little throwaway single before the album dropped. "Portishead in the Morning///HER World" is the weakest one of them all, and if I'm being honest, it didn't capture my attention like the rest. I found it boring and forgettable. "God's a Girl?" was a pretty corny one, and while it adds on to the album's concept, it wasn't that great. "Womanogamy" is alright, but doesn't have enough replay value. I might get used to it as time goes by, but for now, I felt it wasn't up to par with the others. "Evil Genius" is another decent one, but if I'm being honest, Teedra & JaVonte's singing saves the track, along with the sampled Alori Joh vocals. Also, the beat switch at the end, that was nice AF. Not even Soul impressed me that much with the verse.
But yeah, overall, Do What Thou Wilt. was solid, a step up from These Days.... The production was on point, the features were minimal and managed to deliver, and Soul really went into his various topics very well. The idea of God being a girl was used nicely, the Thelema religion concept was good too, He appreciated women on "Now You Know", and spoke some truth on "Straight Crooked". From start to finish, Soul managed to deliver a cohesive piece of work. I enjoyed it a lot, and it has a lot of replay value. He wasn't lying when he said it was a "love story", and he messed with the concept effortlessly. Another solid album onto TDE's discography.
Best Tracks: "Lonely Soul", "Now You Know", "Straight Crooked", "Beat the Case", "D.R.U.G.S", "Braille", "Threatening Nature", "Huey Knew THEN", "The Law", "YMF", "Wifey vs. WiFi"
Songs I Don't Care About: "Womanogamy", "RAW (backwards), "Evil Genius", "Portishead in the Morning///Her World", "God's a Girl?"
Released: March 4, 2016
Rating: 8/10
I first heard of Bas in 2014 when J. Cole released the Revenge of the Dreamers mixtape with his label Dreamville. It was the same time I (and probably some other people) found out that Cole had a label. I never cared for Bas at first, nor the rest of the roster, because at the time, I only cared about Cole. Bas released his debut album Last Winter in 2014, and again, I couldn't be arsed to listen, not even to the ones that had J. Cole on them.
Fast forward two years later, he released his second effort, Too High to Riot. It was released on March 4, just a few months after Revenge of the Dreamers II. But I was more interested in Kendrick Lamar's untitled unmastered., which was released on the same day. But later into the month, I managed to be scrolling through Instagram, and found some guy I followed, mentioning how he was feeling Too High to Riot and thought it was one of his favourite albums, I was eager to hear more from Bas, especially after hearing those snippets of "Methylone" and "Night Job". I went through his discography first, starting with Quarter Water Raised Me, Vol. II (it was difficult to find Vol. I at the time). That mixtape was good. And Last Winter was decent too. But when I went to Too High to Riot, I was amazed.
The album is kinda short, a little bit like an EP. It features 12 tracks and a runtime of 37 minutes, with guest appearances from Cozz, J. Cole and The Hics. On my first listen, I was amazed and loved the vibe of the album. Out of most of the albums on the list, this is probably the most slept on. A lot of people say it was "alright" and that it was nothing special, but the vibe and production on here was amazing, and so relaxing. It got me in the zone so much. Almost every song is a goddamn banger.
We start with the title track intro, which uses the same beat as Mick Jenkins & Noname's "Comfortable". This time, the instrumental sounds a lot more better and finished, rather than a looped beat like the early track. It sets the mood for the album very well, and Bas did his thing, as he raps about the problems America is facing, but is too high off life and drugs to take action. "Methylone" is a banger, which always gets me singing and rapping along to it when I play it. The hook is catchy, Bas's verses were great, and his flow was on point. I liked it. Cozz is the first guest appearance on "Dopamine", one of the best tracks on the album, and both him and Bas snap on the beat, as they rap about their past lives and wanting to create a motivational pathway as they further their career. It always gets my head bumping. "Housewives" is another banger, with such a dark and foggy vibe, and a nice and impressive flow from Bassy. The interlude "Miles and Miles" is nice and all, and it's just something to vibe out to, changing up the vibe of the album.
By the 6th track, the album gets a little deeper and serious, and isn't just about bangers, fake friends or trying to have a successful career. "Live For" ventures into Bas's past life and is dedicated to his aunt, who sadly passed away from cancer. "Clouds Never Get Old" is a chill track, and another one of my favourites. I feel that it ended a little short and could've been longer. "Matches" is another chill track, and gets electronic band The Hics to sing. They really add on to the track, and do a great job, especially near the end. "Night Job" is the third collab on the album, which samples Jeremih's "No More" and features Dreamville boss J. Cole. They both provide solid verses, but it's Cole that impresses me the most, especially his last verse. The Hics are back on "Ricochet" as Bas reflects on life and an old flame that he hasn't seen in time. It's one of my favourites, and even if it's 3 minutes, it goes pretty quickly and even sounds like an interlude. The song leads into "Penthouse", which is another personal song on the album, following "Live For", which follows not wanting to fail in life and trying to get yourself back up before you hit the ground. It's a very introspective track, and is one that gets you thinking about life as you ride out to it. We end with "Black Owned Business" is a fast-paced closer to the album, which discusses Bas being someone who shines light to receive inspiration. He also touches on issues in the black community, and how he wants to help put his people on even more. It's a very interesting song, with a hard-hitting instrumental, and it's nice to hear how Bas wants to inspire and help the black community.
As I said before, I loved the content and production on Too High to Riot, it's actually so amazing. For me, it's one of the best produced albums on the list, to be honest. When I listened to it for the first time, I wasn't expecting it to be this good. "Methylone", "Dopamine" and "Night Job" are freakin' bangers! "Too High to Riot", "Matches" and "Ricochet" are songs you can ride to, day or night. They have such a good vibe and gets you in the zone. Then you got the personal and deeper songs that make you think: "Live For", "Penthouse" and "Black Owned Business".
Bas has a range of topics to talk about on the album. "Methylone" touches on lost people, deceivers, fake friends and how things aren't always how it seems. "Dopamine" sees Bas & Cozz rapping about trying to have a successful career and provide for their families. "Live For" is dedicated to his late aunt, as he reminisces about the memories he had with her. "Ricochet" sees Bassy reflecting on life and trying to reunite with his girl. Bas sings and raps about trying to get himself back up before hitting the ground in "Penthouse". "Black Owned Business" is a motivational track about inspiring and helping the black community.
The features on Too High to Riot are little, but manage to do a lot. Cozz had a solid verse on "Dopamine", and interested me a lot with it. J. Cole killed his verses on "Night Job", especially his last verse. That always gets me bumping my head, that boy was snapping! The Hics added a lot to "Matches" and "Ricochet", their vocals were on point. Their verses near the end on "Matches" was nice and I loved the hook on "Ricochet". Out of the two, "Matches" is my favourite collaboration between Bas & The Hics. That one is a rider.
In conclusion, Too High to Riot is a great album, with wonderful production and interesting content. I enjoyed it a lot, and Bas really stepped it up from his previous efforts. The features did their thing, the content was great and it's something to vibe to. A lot of people say it's an alright project, but for me, it's such a solid effort, and is much better than what people make it out to be. It's unfortunate a lot of people are sleeping on it, it really gives a great vibe. If you want something to vibe out to in the car or on the way to school/work, this is for you.
Best Tracks: "Penthouse", "Black Owned Business", "Live For", "Too High to Riot", "Dopamine", "Methylone"
Songs I Don't Care About: none. Pretty much every track is great!
Released: November 11, 2016
Rating: 8.5/10
In 1998, A Tribe Called Quest released The Love Movement, what was supposed to be their final album, due to relationship issues between the members. A few years later, they started to reunite every now and then, but with no new music released. This started from 2004 when headlining Street Scene, a music festival in San Diego. In 2006, they did a few concerts, performing in the U.S., Canada & Japan. They also performed in the 2008 Rock the Bells concert series and their 2010 festival series. In 2013, the group headlined Yahoo! Wireless and Splash!, and did what was supposed to be their "final" performances on Kanye West's Yeezus Tour. In 2015, they got together once again to perform on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, promoting their 25th anniversary reissue of their debut album People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.
But March 22, 2016 was a sad day for hip-hop. Phife Dawg unfortunately passed away, due to complications with diabetes. It was sad news to hear and broke a lot of people's hearts. In April, during the "A Celebration of Phife" event at the Apollo, it was revealed by André 3000 that OutKast had plans of a joint album with A Tribe Called Quest, which interested a lot of hip-hop heads. But in August, we got some good news: L.A. Reid revealed that Tribe were working on a new album for this year, which we weren't expecting, considering the fact that Tip or other members had never said anything about new music, especially when they were reuniting every now and then. The album was officially announced in October, with the title and release date: We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service was to be released on November 11. And when the day came, everybody flocked to hear it.
The group begun work on We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service following their appearance on The Tonight Show in November 2015. It was actually Phife Dawg that came up with the album's title, but the other members didn't know what the title meant, at the time. The album was incomplete by the time Phife died, but the surviving members (Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Jarobi White) managed to complete it and they used Phife's suggested album title, in memory of him. The politically-driven album features 16 tracks, separated into 2 sides/discs, with guest appearances from Busta Rhymes, Elton John, Consequence, André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak & more. And unlike Tribe's previous work, Jarobi actually raps on the album (back in the 90s, he was seen as an occasional/unofficial member of Tribe, and wasn't on their albums AT ALL).
"The Space Program" is the opening track on the album, a groovy one that is reminiscent of their old efforts. Here, Tip, Phife & Jarobi illustrate the struggles and harsh reality that the black community continue to face. "We the People...." is a hardcore political track, that illuminates the problems in modern America, including police brutality, racial and religious discrimination, lack of equality and more. Tip & Phife both spit some interesting verses, that give an important message, considering the state of America right now. Consequence is the first guest appearance on the album, with "Whateva Will Be", which talks about the inevitability of the social issues blacks face. Everybody delivers a verse and they really impress me on this one, especially Tip & Cons. They really did well on the track and impressed me a lot. "Solid Wall of Sound" gets the legendary Elton John & Busta Rhymes over a slow but amazing instrumental. Tip, Phife & Busta really deliver with their verses, going back and forth with their fast-paced flow and Jamaican dialect style. "Dis Generation" is an ode to the new generation of hip-hop, with Tip, Phife, Jarobi & Busta going back and forth on two verses. The beat is pretty light, and I love the flow on this song. "Kids" isn't one of my favourites on the album, and honestly, it's a boring one. Even with André as a feature, the song doesn't interest me as much as the rest. "Melatonin" is a pretty smooth and solid tune; a solo from Tip, which details the struggle of daily modern life, while Abbey Smith sings about how the Melatonin drug can be used to help calm the thoughts in one's mind, particularly at night. "Enough!!" is the final track on Side A, and I remember thinking it was boring, but this shit smooth AF. It's a wavey track which describes the duality of time and love, and both Jarobi & Tip provides some dope verses.
The second side is where the album gets even better, and Consequence & Busta Rhymes start it off with "Mobius", which is a hardhitting banger. Cons & Busta come with a verse each, and they freakin' snap. In my opinion, Busta had the upper hand, especially with the beat switch that happened while Cons was spitting. "Black Spasmodic" sees Tip & Phife on their usual shit, providing solid verses while Consequence is on the hook. "The Killing Season" is the second track without the rest of Tribe, and instead features Talib Kweli & Consequence, and a hook from Kanye West. Jarobi is the only Tribe member to appear on this standout, and I love when the melody changes by the time Kanye sings his hook. But if I had to choose who had the best verse, it had to be Consequence. Even with his lazy and monotone voice, he still managed to deliver some bars for me to enjoy. "Lost Somebody" is one of the best songs on the album, and is a dedication to Phife. One of the hardest songs to make, Tip & Jarobi each provide a solid verse, which speak about the memories they had with Phife, while Katia Cadet does the hook. Anderson .Paak sings on the smooth "Movin' Backwards", which explains themes of being lost, being remembered and gaining success without losing your qualities overtime. Tip & Jarobi once again are back to provide some important messages for us, and Paak is on his Malibu mood on this one. At the end, when Tip & Paak sings together, it's when the song gets more better and even funkier. It's a track that gets me grooving a lot. "Conrad Tokyo" is a decent one, which I happened to like a little more. It's a reflection of the modern economical and political situation in America. And it's Phife that's the only member on this song, while Kendrick Lamar comes with a solid verse. It ends short though, and all there is after is some instrumental. It's still a good song though. "Ego" is my favourite on the album, and it's where Tip raps about the ego, and what it can do to people. The beat is simplistic but still a head bumper, and I love the message Tip sends. "The Donald" is the best way to end the album; a tribute to Phife Dawg, which gets Busta Rhymes to do a catchy ass verse. Phife even comes through with an impressive posthumous verse. Tip is up next and defends Phife, saying he will continue his legacy and celebrate him. The ending of the song is amazing, and I love the guitar and the catchy vocals. The instrumental is dope too. A solid conclusion to the album.
Overall, We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service is a solid piece of work. It was a good way to remember Phife, and everybody who was involved contributed wonderfully. The production on here was solid, the guest appearances on the album were nice and provided good verses and hooks. I enjoyed almost every song, and the content was interesting, touching on everyday life and politics. The album doesn't sound like it was from the 90s, but also doesn't sound like a 2016 album. It merges the smooth vibes of their earlier projects with new elements that their old projects didn't have before. Tribe managed to send a very important message to people around the world for the album, and I'm glad they got back together to make another album, and remember Phife. He'd be proud of this album.
Best Tracks: "Ego", "Whateva Will Be", "The Space Program", "Solid Wall of Sound", "Black Spasmodic", "The Killing Season", "Dis Generation", "Lost Somebody", "Melatonin"
Songs I Don't Care About: none. Solid from start to finish.
Released: March 25, 2016
Rating: 8.5/10
In 2011, Elzhi released the Elmatic mixtape. It was preceded by his departure from Slum Village in 2010 after what was originally gonna be their final album Villa Manifesto. The mixtape was a tribute to and remake of the classic Nas album Illmatic, with remade beats from Will Sessions.
In 2012, After the release of the mixtape, Elzhi dropped some more original music including "Blue Widow" and "Can't Lose", and started a Kickstarter for his second album Lead Poison. 2 years later, the album was nowhere to be found, and by 2013, he started to do some features, including "Wings" with Union, "Gunshowers" with Ghostface Killah & BADBADNOTGOOD and "Without Warning" with Flip & Phat Kat. He also released two songs in 2015: "February" and "P.S.".
But in January 2016, after 5 years of no new album and frequent guest appearances, Elzhi finally announced that the new album was coming, and released 4 new singles from January to March: "CoSIGN" with Skonie, "Two 16s", "Alienated" with Smitty, and "INTROverted". On the 25th of March, the album was finally released, Lead Poison. It turned out that the delay was due to his personal life and battling depression. He also was dealing with writer's block. The album featured 16 tracks, with guest appearances from Smitty, Chris Dave and Skonie. According to an interview with 2DOPEBOYZ, the album was about finding your outlet and deals with topics including drug addiction, depression, happiness and more.
We start with "Medicine Man", where El attempts to write about his encounter with the Medicine Man, but his writer's block is preventing him from doing so. That's when the Medicine Man comes in and cures the block. The song is an outline of the album's concept, and sets up the album's mood. Now, "INTROverted" is a dope one, as El gets straight to the point and officially introduces the album after recovering from his writer's block. Over a sombre but hardhitting instrumental, Elzhi spits a long and impressive verse, with an impeccable flow and great bars, as usual.
Throughout the album, Elzhi raps about a range of things. "Weedipedia" is a true story about how he got arrested for smoking weed & driving, and as punishment, he had to do community service. He thought he was going to get off community service, but it turned out he was dreaming. "February" is where El raps about the winter climate and his depression. He shares memories from his childhood, and even mourns the death of the legendary J Dilla. Over a dark and menacing instrumental, "Egocentric" shows how El's ego take control of him. Both verses are his ego rapping and we hear how it controls him a lot. Elzhi doesn't have enough strength and power to control the ego, and loses his battle with it. The second verse is the more impressive one, where the ego goes into depth with the personality. The flow is sick, once again, and the lyricism is on point. "Hello!!!!!" represents El's problems with the rap industry, talking about a song not being listened to enough and the listener not being engaged
Now, let's go through some of my favourite tracks. "Two 16's" is where Elzhi spits two 16-bar verses about two 16 year olds: Quentin & a girl who was pregnant at 16. They're the same story, but different perspectives. Quentin was a young kid, hustling on the streets and getting girls by giving them fake names. He got one of the girls pregnant, and decided to become a deadbeat. As a result, he was killed by a rival crew before his daughter was even born. In the second verse, it turned out that the girl's pregnancy has affected her life, and has led her to miss school and have morning sickness. At first, she wants to ignore Quentin and move on, but finds out from a girl she gets her weed from that Quentin gave her a fake name called Dylan. So the pregnant girl gets the "rival crew" to kill him. But, her water breaks and she gets arrested, missing her daughter's first words. It's a very interesting song, with great storytelling and a chill beat. "Friendzone" is a little story about El having a crush on a girl, but his love is hopeless as he is trapped in the friend zone while his crush is interested in other guys. "The Healing Process" was probably the most experimental track out of all the tracks on the album, and is where Elzhi realises he can better the listener's life, and also himself. He comes with a faster and sped up flow, and the beat is pretty weird and was probably very hard to catch for El. "Cloud" is my favourite track on the album, with such a smooth banging instrumental. Here, El spits a long and impressive verse where he likens depression to a dark cloud that follows him around, and makes it hard for him to be happy. It ends short though, and I wish it was extended!
We get deeper into the concept of the album, and it's where El shines out a lot. "ALIENated" is where Elzhi raps about his struggle with being isolated and estranged from society. Smitty is on the hook, and does his thing. "She Sucks" is a story about El hooking up with a vampire, and ending up becoming one. I thought it was the weakest song, but honestly, I started to like it more, and the song even got better when the drums kicked in at the end. "CoSIGN" is a dope track, where El does a long verse about how he's able to still rap and put out new music without cosigns. "Misright" is a funky track, which kind of has a smooth Dilla vibe to it. It's a track which always get me grooving and vibing out. El uses wordplay with the "mis-" prefix to describe the different females he had dated. Thabisile Griffen, a friend of El, does a little poem on "The Turning Point" before we get into a solid outro, "Keep Dreaming", where he conquers his depression and comes out a better man. He comes with some impressive bars, and the beat is fire too. But at the end of the album, he reveals a second verse of "Cloud" that didn't make the final cut, which shows that the cloud still hasn't gone away and isn't far behind, even with his depression conquered.
In conclusion, I enjoyed Lead Poison a lot. It was a solid follow up to The Preface, and it's nice to see how El's doing during his 5 years of little music. The storytelling was great, I loved the production, which was surprisingly fire, El came with the lyricism & flow, and the concept of the album was very interesting, as it shows how he managed to conquer his depression and deal with his problems. For me, it had a lot of replay value, and the way the album flows is amazing. I'm happy for El and glad that he managed to get out of his depression. Hopefully, 2017 will be a solid year for him.
Best Tracks: "Two 16s", "Cloud", "Keep Dreaming", "Egocentric", "INTROverted", "Friendzone", "Misright", "CoSIGN"
Songs I Don't Care About: none. All of the tracks are great, none of them bore me at all.
Released: January 15, 2016
Rating: 9/10
In February 2015, NxWorries released their debut single, "Suede". The duo consisted of singer/rapper Anderson .Paak and producer Knxwledge. The song became a viral hit, and the duo gained a lot of fans. Paak played the track to the legendary Dr. Dre, who loved it, eventually resulting in Paak being a frequent guest appearance on his new album Compton in August 2015. He featured on 6 tracks including "All in a Day's Work", "Animals" and "Deep Water". His contributions on the album attracted even more fans than before, who wanted to check out some more music from him.
A few months passed and that's when he started to roll out and promote his second album Malibu. "The Season/Carry Me", a double track, and "Am I Wrong" with ScHoolboy Q were the first two singles, which was released in November 2015. "Room in Here" with The Game & Sonyae Elise was released the next month, and "Come Down" came out in January. A few days after the single release of "Come Down", Malibu was finally released to widespread critical acclaim. The album consists of 16 tracks with guest appearances from BJ the Chicago Kid, Rapsody and Talib Kweli, along with production from Madlib, Hi-Tek, Kaytranada and more. For a long time, I wasn't planning on touching the album. But during the Summer, I came across it on Spotify and decided to listen. I was freakin' blown away.
The album carries a very bright, sunny and smooth but powerful vibe from start to finish. It gets your head bumping and you can even find yourself dancing and grooving to it as the album goes on. "The Bird" is a sombre and laidback opening, which sees Paak sing about the hardships of his youth, including his mother's gambling problem and the absence of his father. Despite this, he promises to continue on the path of righteousness until he reaches the top. It's a solid opener, which gives a very interesting insight of his past life. The bass and drums are tight too. As the album continues, we get into groovier tracks including "Heart Don't Stand a Chance", the standout "The Waters" and the groovy jam "Am I Wrong".
I absolutely loved the production on Malibu, that shit was on another level. Madlib did his thing for "The Waters", and it had me vibing. As usual, 9th Wonder had some great production on some of the best songs on the album; "The Season" and especially "Without You". I can't get "Lite Weight" out of my head, that shit funky as hell and Kaytranada did his thing with the production. I've always said Kay doesn't disappoint with his beats. From his 99.9% album to them Mick Jenkins songs. "Come Down" was a dope one too, Hi-Tek came through with some funky production on that. Like provided a chill ass beat for "Room in Here". Even Paak did some production: on the laidback opener "The Bird", "Put Me Thru", "Parking Lot" and "Celebrate".
The features do a pretty good job too. The Game provides a solid verse on the jazzy and refreshing "Room in Here", while Sonyae Elise does some background vocals. Rapsody was great on "Without You" and she added on to the song very well. ScHoolboy Q was on his groovy shit with his verse on the energetic "Am I Wrong". BJ the Chicago Kid's singing was amazing on "The Waters". With Paak rapping, BJ managed to add on to the track a lot. But the album ends with "The Dreamer", which reflects on Paak's struggles when he was younger, and how he has become successful as an artist now. The song gets Talib Kweli, who comes with a great verse about how he wants to make miracles with his music.
In conclusion, Malibu was a solid effort from Anderson .Paak, with a blended sound rooted from funk and soul. I slept on it for some time, but I'm glad I managed to hear it. I really enjoyed it, it brings a lot of vibes from start to finish, not just one. Paak took a lot of balanced his singing and rapping, coming with interesting flows and had some appealing content about his life. The production was great and the features did their thing. Paak brings something new to the table, with a gift that might suggests that he's here to stay, providing more vibes for the fans to enjoy.
Best Tracks: "The Waters", "Without You", "Lite Weight", "The Season/Carry Me", "Am I Wrong", "Room in Here", "Heart Don't Stand a Chance", "Celebrate", "Your Prime", "Parking Lot"
Songs I Don't Care About: none.
Released: September 2, 2016
Rating: 9.5/10
In 2013, Chattanooga rapper Isaiah Rashad was the newest signee to Top Dawg Entertainment, after releasing a number of songs and working on a long-awaited mixtape. He released the song "Shot You Down" to celebrate the signing. At this time, I didn't care for him and was interested in the other artists on the label (you know, Black Hippy and 'em). The next year, Isaiah released his debut project Cilvia Demo. I still wasn't interested in it, and didn't understand the hype with the guy. It wasn't until last year when I was planning on reviewing the project that I decided to listen to it. I absolutely loved it and I couldn't stop banging it out.
This year, I found myself anticipating his debut album, after months of playing Cilvia. I came across snippets on Twitter & Instagram, and I was so hyped. Replaying Cilvia wasn't enough, not even the recent single releases at the time ("Nelly" and "Smile") were enough for me to listen to before his album drops. But, while I was on holiday in Portugal with my family during the Summer, The album's first single "Free Lunch" dropped and I was playing it non stop, anticipating the album even more. September 2 was the day the album, titled The Sun's Tirade, finally dropped. I woke up, did my daily routine and spent almost the whole day listening to and reviewing it. It was most definitely worth the Goddamn wait. 3 months later and I still feel the same way.
The Sun's Tirade carried an improved vibe from his previous effort, dealing with a bigger range of topics, rather than just the absence of his father and depression. Not saying that Cilvia didn't have songs about society and police brutality, but here, Isaiah sounds more focused and comfortable with his sound, trying to step it up and make it different for his other work. The album features 17 tracks, with guest appearances from Jay Rock, SZA, Kendrick Lamar, Hugh Augustine, Syd and more. The title refers to his Xanax and alcohol addiction he had in the last two years, which actually delayed this album; saying that these years have felt like "the longest day you could have".
Throughout the album, we get some skits from TDE co-president and Kendrick Lamar's manager Dave Free, who sends a few messages to Isaiah about where Isaiah's album is, his father hearing Cilvia and how Isaiah is young but went through a lot of experiences in his life. Obviously, we've got into the singles, "Free Lunch" and "Park", which were both solid tunes and have been on repeat a lot. "4r da Squaw" is a laidback tune about Isaiah expressing his gratitude towards the industry, and also realising his responsibilities as a father and son are helped by sobriety. "Rope//rosegold" is a great double track. The first one deals with underlying issues and depression, giving enough rope to either "help yourself or hang yourself". The song even talks about his father, and how he called Isaiah one time. "rosegold", the latter track, is my favourite out of the two, sampling Minnie Riperton's "Inside My Love", giving a chill and soulful vibe. The beat reminds of early J Dilla when he was part of Slum Village. "Wat's Wrong" deals more explicitly with the substance abuse problem, which almost caused him to get dropped and was the reason for the album's delay. With Zacari on the hook, Isaiah battles with his emotions, while Kendrick's fire verse can be read as a conversation between him and Isaiah. "Tity and Dolla" is such a standout on the album, with such a laidback and bright instrumental. Hugh Augustine & Jay Rock also jump on the track, and they do their thing, especially Jay. His flow was on point!
There are a few different songs on the album, that I kinda didn't expect from him before. I didn't care for "AA" before, but I happened to like it a lot more. It sounds like a song I'd expect from a popular rapper, and Isaiah's flow is different. I like it! "A Lot" is where Isaiah sounds lazy and sleepy on what's supposed to be an energetic trappy beat. At first, I thought it was average, but I happen to bang it out every now and then. I do think his flow connects with the beat very well. Not the best, but still a decent song on the album. If OutKast & Gorillaz ever hooked up for a joint, "Don't Matter" would be the result. That song is the mixture of "B.O.B" and "Feel Good Inc.", with the fast paced instrumental and Lance Skiiiwalker's vocals on the hook. "Brenda" is a smooth track, my favourite song on the album, with an instrumental that reminds me of Kendrick Lamar's recent work. Maybe it's because of the sax, I don't know. Even Isaiah's voice and flow reminds me of Big K.R.I.T a little.
The production is dope as hell. I loved "Park" so much, it's such a banger. The beat was fire, and it always gets me vibing and turning up when it plays. It's one of the most accessible songs on the album. "Wat's Wrong" features a chill ass beat from D. Sanders & Al B. Smoov. Everybody complements the track very well, and their flows are impressive. "Brenda" has the smoothest beat on the album. The singing is decent, and I liked Isaiah's flow on his verses. "AA" has a nice beat too, with a different but spectacular flow from Zay. "Tity and Dolla" bangs like a MF. It got a catchy hook, a tight beat, and Zay, Jay & Hugh don't disappoint with their verses. The final 2 tracks "by george (outro)" and "Find a Topic (homies begged)" are dope as hell, they got those type of beats you can vibe to anywhere: in the car, bus or a flight.
Overall, The Sun's Tirade is a great step up from Cilvia Demo. I loved Cilvia for its content and vibe, but this album is even better. The production was amazing, the features were nice and Isaiah really improved his flow and content on this one. The replay value is mad on this one! All 16 tracks are solid, and carry different vibes and styles. It was worth the wait, and a project that didn't disappoint. I'm expecting a great year for Isaiah in 2017. He's here to stay, providing the music for the vibers.
Best Tracks: "Brenda", "Tity and Dolla", "Wat's Wrong", "4r da Squaw", "Park", "Free Lunch", "rosegold", "Find a Topic (homies begged)"
Songs I Don't Care About: none.
Released: September 25, 2016
Rating: 10/10
I grew up listening to 50 Cent and G-Unit. They were a massive part of my childhood. As a young kid, I was always fascinated with their videos, and they always came with the hits, whether it was "In da Club", "Stunt 101" or "I'm So Fly".
Out of all the members in the Unit, Lloyd Banks was always my favourite. Even when I was too young to understand and care about bars, songs like "On Fire" and "Hands Up" were some of my favourite songs growing up. As I got older, I really got with his music, understanding the lyricism he had back when the Unit were popping.
Halloween 2013 was the release of Failure's No Option, the first volume of Banks' new All or Nothing series, hosted by DJ Drama. The next month, he announced The Cold Corner 3, the third installment of the Cold Corner series (the first Cold Corner was originally part of the 5 and Better series). We expected the tape to come around the Christmas period, but we never got it. When G-Unit reunited at Summer Jam in 2014, I was a happy person. Waking up to hear the news got me hyped and we were getting new music. Lloyd obviously had to prioritize his time and spend it with the Unit, which probably delayed the recording of CC3. A year later though, we were surprised with Halloween Havoc 2 on November 1st, the day after Halloween weirdly.
However, I never thought Lloyd Banks was gonna be very consistent in 2016. This year, he released not only one, but TWO mixtapes: All or Nothing: Live It Up in September and Halloween Havoc 3: Four Days of Fury in October. Not only that, but in November, he brought back the Blue Friday series, releasing a new track every Friday. Out of these releases, I happened to enjoy AON: LIU the most.
Live It Up is the second volume of the All or Nothing series, and is one of the few projects from Lloyd that plays like an album. The mixtape features 15 tracks, with a runtime of 58 minutes, and guest appearances from Joe Budden, Styles P, Tony Yayo, Prodigy & Vado. It continues the introspective and thought-provoking style introduced in the first volume Failure's No Option, revolving around the harsh realities Banks has faced in his lifetime and how he overcame them.
Now I didn't like Failure's No Option and Halloween Havoc 2 that much when I first heard them. I've gotten used to them now, but they still have their flaws. The lyricism was there, and the content was decent on those mixtapes, but at the time, I felt the beat selection was shit. I was bored, and not much impressed me. Fortunately, I can't say the same with this. Live It Up is his best project in a long time, in my opinion. The content has improved, the lyricism has gotten better and the beat selection is amazing on this one. A big flaw with his previous two tapes was that the production was lacking a little and I ended up liking a few tracks, making the whole thing to be a bit forgettable. However, it isn't like that with Live It Up.
The mixtape features a mixture of introspective cuts and hardhitting grimy bangers. The intro, "Pledge of Allegiance", along with "Do or Die", "Holy Water" and "Reap What You Sow" are some of the favourite thought-provoking highlights. We also get some grimy banging tracks that show off his lyricism, and it's still impressive. "Seniorities" is a dope standout, with bars such as "Anxiety luminates me makes the room glow/Dedication will take you higher find my footprints on the moonhole". "Land of Opportunity" gets Styles P, and is filled with dope lines including "Wind up with the rule of the willing/Die tough when the movie ending/Bending these corners with the piece out, you panicking". "Insomniac" is one of my favourite tracks, and is probably the one where Lloyd really snaps. The beat is tough, the flow is on point and the bars are sick.
The production has really improved from his previous efforts. Lloyd has upped his beat selection. "Holy Water" and "Blood, Sweat & Tears" are some of the best songs on the mixtape, not just because of the lyricism and introspective/reflecting content, but because of the sick beats as well. "Holy Water" has a chill sample, but banging drums; as Lloyd raps about fake friends, lost ones, police brutality and more. "Blood, Sweat & Tears" is your typical gritty song, with a banging instrumental and lines including "Banks back snappin, without the app in/I'ma dance away from trappin, and still going to sleep G-stackin". "Miserable" is a catchy headbumper, "Bad Weather" is a sombre and thought-provoking track. And "Bags of Gold" is actually pretty decent. As much as it didn't suit the mixtape that much, it's still a dope song where Banks doesn't fail to impress. It even could've had a 50 Cent feature, he would've killed it!
Overall, All or Nothing: Live It Up is a dope and fantastic effort from Banks. It was a big step up from his previous efforts, his best effort in a long time, in fact. It's up there with The Cold Corner 2 and V6: The Gift. The features were dope, especially Joe Budden, the production was fire from start to finish, and it's obvious Lloyd still got them bars. The tape is a lot better than FNO, and Banks sounds more focused and ready to get back in the game with the heat. He's been consistent this year, and here's me hoping 2017 is gonna be an incredible year for him. He's likely to continue the Blue Friday series into January, and The Cold Corner 3 is on the way. Expect some more heat next year.
Best Tracks: "Holy Water", "Do or Die", "Blood, Sweat & Tears", "Miserable", "Price of Life", "Reverse", "Reap What You Sow", "Seniorities"
Songs I Don't Care About: none
Released: July 8, 2016
Rating: 10/10
Now, here's an album I didn't expect myself to like this much!
Blank Face LP was ScHoolboy Q's fourth album, released in July. It was the second TDE release of the year, following Kendrick Lamar's untitled unmastered.. The album featured 17 tracks, with guest appearances from Lance Skiiiwalker, Justine Skye, Miguel, Anderson .Paak, E-40, Tha Dogg Pound and more. Now, I've always been interested in Q's music. Setbacks was dope, Habits & Contradictions was amazing, and Oxymoron was solid as well. But none of them blew me away as much as Blank Face LP.
I gotta give it up to him, cos this shit was so damn experimental, compared to his other work. From Setbacks to Oxymoron, Q has always carried a dark, hardcore Gangsta sound, and also a banging commercial style. But instead, with Blank Face, Q sounds more mature, and you can hear a lot of progression in his music. I was really banging the album out a lot, especially this Summer, and with every listen, it damn sure got better. The album opener, "TorcH" provides a slow, hungry beat, which introduces us to the album in a very great way, setting up the experimental and gritty mood. Anderson .Paak is on vocals on the hook and towards the end. "Lord Have Mercy" sees Q spitting a short verse, that reflects on his sins over a soulful beat from Swizz Beatz, wondering if he'll be forgiven. When that beat kicks in, it's where the song stands out the most, with Swizz on hook duties. We've already heard "THat Part" and "Groovy Tony", but unlike the single version, the latter features a verse from Jadakiss, who really impresses with the bars and raspy flow. "Groovy Tony" is also a double track, connecting with "Eddie Kane", a hardhitting West Coast banger, where Q draws comparisons to the Eddie Kane character in The Five Heartbeats, painting a picture of his life.
By the fifth track, it's where the album's mood starts to become versatile and we get a range of vibes. "Kno Ya Wrong" is my favourite song on the album, it's kinda a double track, where the feeling is pretty innovative and creative. The first part has The Alchemist on the boards and is a smooth soulful track where with an ODB-like flow, Q touches on the fake friends who pretend to like him for the money. The beat shifts into a wavy instrumental produced by J. LBS, where Lance Skiiiwalker does a verse, which likely personifies money into a woman. Q's flow on his next verse is impressive, and his verse always gets me vibing. "WHateva U Want" is a funky track, something very different from his past work, and does have potential to be a groovy radio banger. "Dope Dealer" is a great song. I never cared about it before, but I happen to go back to it a lot more. Both Q and E-40 do their thing, while Metro Boomin & Southside provide a banging beat. "JoHn Muir" is another standout, which talks about his past life, including having a gun at 13 and dealing dope at 14. The beat is fire, and I was very impressed with Q's flow. It was interesting, catchy and added a lot of value to the song.
Q touches on a lot of topics. "Neva CHange" is a personal and thought-provoking track, with SZA on the hook, which explores his feelings about the world never changing. It's a smooth track, with a lot of quotables on society, murder and more. "Black THoughts" addresses the current state of the hood and the overall black community, along with its stereotypes. "Blank Face", the title track, gets Anderson .Paak once again, and is a beautiful song that stands out even without banging drums or hi-hats. Just a little bit of bass and piano. Both Q & .Paak discusses their struggles, and Q also touches on the difficulty of raising his daughter and seeing the world for what it is.
The production is dope as hell, and carries a lot of vibes and styles. Metro Boomin & Southside were fire on "Dope Dealer". Swizz Beatz came with some smooth shit on "Lord Have Mercy". Tae Beast provided a hardcore and menacing instrumental on "Groovy Tony", with Dem Jointz creating a smooth and wavey West Coast joint for "Eddie Kane". I enjoyed the production of "JoHn Muir", along with the smooth and also laidback production of "Kno Ya Wrong". "Tookie Knows II" was a banger too, Traffic & TF came with dope verses and Nez & Rio killed the beat. "By Any Means" is an underrated one too, it was the first part of a mini-movie Q made, and he delivered so effortlessly, with that flow. Even songs I hardly revisit like "Big Body" and "WHateva U Want" are funky as hell and gets you moving around the place
Overall, I enjoyed Blank Face LP. It was his most experimental work, and pretty different compared to his other projects. All 17 tracks were fire from start to finish, and Q managed to impress me throughout. It was my favourite album to listen to, not only in the Summer, but almost all the time. Compare it to his hardcore and grittier projects like Habits & Contradictions and Oxymoron, and you can tell how focused and more mature Q has become over the years, reflecting on himself, society, life as a father and so much more. It didn't disappoint me one bit, and it had such a sound that was different from the other projects I listened to. Now, Q got a new album dropping next year. Here's me hoping it's even better!
Best Tracks: "Kno Ya Wrong", "JoHn Muir", "Neva CHange", "Lord Have Mercy", "Groovy Tony/Eddie Kane", "Blank Face", "By Any Means", "Dope Dealer", "Tookie Knows II"
Songs I Don't Care About: none.
Honourable Mentions:
Mick Jenkins - The Healing Component
Noname - Telefone
Nyck Caution - Disguise the Limit
Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered.
Lloyd Banks - Halloween Havoc 3: Four Days of Fury
Curren$y & The Alchemist - The Carrollton Heist
I'm done now. My top 10 projects of the year, and the honorable mentions. I wanna thank you guys for viewing my article and giving feedback to me. I really enjoyed reviewing this year, and I really hope you guys enjoyed my reads. 2016 has been a decent year for me, hopefully, 2017 will be even better. But this is the year I'm doing my GCSEs, so I won't have too much time for this like I used to. Maybe I'll review albums on this blog, every now and then. But not as much as last year or 2015. But yeah. I'll see you guys later in the year.
Sincerely yours, Owen!
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