I haven’t been blogging. It’s not that I had nothing to post, I just couldn’t do anything new until I’d got my end of year post out of the way.
Everyone seems to do their “best ofs” in like the first week of December now. I like to let the year actually finish. Then I like to have another two weeks to mull it over. Then I’ll play some Xbox.
Anyway, this is of no interest to anyone now but I have to get it out of the way so I can get my flow back. Like Bobby Brown prizing a “dookie bubble” from Whitney’s sphincter, I am finally dropping my top 20 tracks of 2008.
In last to first, one track per artist, youtube links or download links where available…
20. Ne-Yo – Miss Independant
The Robert album got leaked and pushed back and “Hair Braider” was nice but no cigar, so I have to look elsewhere for my token RnB track. Nice synth line on this here Ne-Yo track and Ne-Yo isn’t too offensive. This is pretty much just here for the synth line really. That’s the cheap way into my year-end list.
19. Gorilla Zoe – Lost (Feat. Lil’ Wayne)
Best Wayne verse of the year that I can think of. At least it’s “interesting Wayne” as opposed to “superstar Wayne”. Good track. Nice bit of paranoia and the choppy “ah, ah, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’ma keep that styrofoam with me” is for good.
18. E-40 – Showin Out (Feat. B-Legit & Laroo)
Most of the best Hiphop releases were cramped up at the tail end of the year but the Sick Wid It Umbrella comp kept me going through the middle of the year. It all sounds like 2099 and the whole crew gets theirs. This track was even better than anything on the (also very good) E-40 album.
17. Lil’ Wayne – A Millie
More people bought his records than ever before. More people hated him than ever before. He fell off a little but “A Millie” was something we hadn’t really heard before and now it’s what everyone else is trying to sound like. It is pretty nuts and rapping like that is harder than it sounds, see this for proof.
16. San Quin – Rockin Up Work
Strong album. Hard to pick between this and “Reinforced Steel”. Fillmore’s finest seemed to get people’s attention this time round. There is no way of spelling the way he pronounces “boy” on this record. Not in English.
15. P Brothers – Digital B Boy (Feat. Milano)
My token UK track even has an American rapper. What can you do? I’m not too fussed about Milano actually but the beat here is as HEAVY as you’d expect from the Notts duo. How do they have such opposite taste in modern Hiphop to me, while still making beats that I love?
14. Danity Kane – Pretty Boy
My token Pop tune and the year’s best work from writing team The Clutch. I believe the Danity Kane project has been abandoned but they gave me this for my summer, before sailing of into the distance. Most credit must go to Danja for the music. Cheers. Nice one.
13. Re-Up Gang – Rainy Dayz
Pusha, Liva, Sandman and Malice continued their quest to boil up and condense series 1 of The Wire into hard rocks of songs. This is just them rhyming over a classic RZA beat but you know… The bit about dude moping around on Christmas day is pretty grand. Can haz proper Clipse album in 09 plz?
12. Count Bass D – Can We Hang Out Tonight
The Count is the man. Way cooler than Ted Hankey. The most human person in rap continues to make beats, rap and sing like nobody else. His album, L7 is even better than following him on Twitter! Also this is recommended for “I don’t really like Rap too much” folk as well.
11. Big Boi – Royal Flush (Feat. Raekwon & Andre 3k)
Dre doesn’t seem to want to do an Outkast album or whatever but he hooked this beat up, took half of it for himself and dropped the verse of the year. Dope Isleys sample. Return of the “BREAK”. “The morals that you think you have go out the window, when all the other kids are fresh and they got new Nintendo… Wiis, and your child is down on her knees, praying hard to the God for a whopper with cheese”. This should be higher up but it’s like a year old now and I rinsed it a little. Bring on the album…
Half way, long huh?
10. K.D. – Talk Like A OG (Feat. Jackie Chain & FDP)
Mostly under the radar, I really like the K.D. mixtape. Get it for free. The chorus on this just hits. Nothing much to say about this. Bama gettin’ money. RIP Pimp C.
9. Keak Da Sneak – P.I.M.P.
To say I’m up for a disco-rap renaissance is a pretty big understatement. In imaginary Beezland this is the kind of track that tops the charts all summer. Everyone has street parties and the chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand.
8. Wyld Money – Money Maker (Feat. Hollow & Owe)
Danja! When he’s not producing for Britney, Duran Duran and T.I. and making truckfulls of money, he’s helping out his Myspace rapper buddies. Bless. The Wyld Money Street Power 2 mixtape had 8 beats from him and was pretty nice. This track has the DRAMA and CHORUS sliders at maximum. Only a few months later “We buy land, we do the asset thing” is sounding a pretty dated bit of swag though.
7. Killer Mike – God in the Building
Rapper of the year. No question. His Sunday Morning Massacre series is probably the most musically fruitful thing to be delivered by Hiphop blogs ever. His album “I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind 2″ (mouthful) is my 2nd best of the year and he can’t give an interview without being a million times sharper than any other rapper. Oh, the track? I really struggled to pick my favourite and this won. Outstanding.
6. TV On The Radio – Family Tree
Last year I wrote; “Next year TV on the Radio will have a new album out and I can put a track by them on my list, tokenlike”. Here it is. My rock track of the year. If anyone tells you its their “Coldplay track” you have my permission to stick a chopstick in their eye. (Don’t you love youtube sometimes?)
5. Nas – Hero (Feat. Keri Hilson)
Everyone hates this but me. I usually sickup a little when Nas tries to get a pop hit. He’s such a cornball that he always goofs it up, but I dunno… you can’t go wrong with this Polow beat. Not for me anyway. The chorus doesn’t quite deliver and it sounds more like a Puffy song than Nas but… DRAMA! Oh and there’s a marching bass drum in the video…
4. Turf Talk – I’m Mannish (Feat. E-40)
Ridiculous. Turf and 40 have to be my favourite rappers that come packaged together. This track has it all. Beats. Rhymes. Bass. Chorus. I can’t really play this loud enough. “I jusswanna hitchyo broadmayn”.
3. G-Side – Run Thingz
“Block Beataz got the best beats” was the truth in 2008. Inexplicably sampling Eurohouse cheese, Elton John or football chants and making about a million incredible next next next shit tracks for everyone in Alabama. The G-Side album is my favourite of the year. It’s so cohesive. It sounds like a real album. ST and Clova’s rapping has really grown on me. My favourite line of the year is “Massa tryin’ to make it Mars, I mean NASA tryin’ to make it to Mars”. That new “New South”.
2. Young Gunz – Chase That
“Smoother than Persian, younger version of The Mack”. The opening bars of this are so fire that I can’t play it without pulling it back. People that spent any time with me in my country lair can probably attest to this. I’m doing it now. I wish this was on vinyl so I could buy doubles and act like an annoying mixtape DJ all day. Young Chris is still great even if Jigga did steal all his mojo for his self. Actually you know what, I can’t explain this tune, if the first bar doesn’t grab you then just leave it alone. It pretty much blows my tiny mind. Rewind.
1. Jackie Chain – Rollin’ (08 Remix Feat. Jhi Ali, Rich Boy & Attitude)
Yeah, this originally dropped the year before but I never heard it then, and the retarded extended remix is way more better anyway. REGARDLESS, this stupid, E-popping, Robert Miles sampling(!) nutbag tune has to be my tune of the year so I don’t give a shit about dates and all that. Block Beataz completely ignoring dusty old rules of what you are and aren’t allowed to do with Hiphop beats. If Mali Boi and C.P. aren’t multi-millionaires by this time next year then this “Hiphop industry” is worthless.
Whew, that took ages.
I have to go and listen to “Rollin” again now. About five times. It’s nine minutes long and it’s 5 AM already…
“We ain’t slept in weeks”
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me es no listmaker… but I like a lot of stuff on yours.
I would have went with “Reenforced Steel” or “From a Boy to a Man”… but really that Quinn is so top notch it dun’t matter.
Check out the Jay Jonah and Shady Nate lp… it adds a whole lot of Detroit 303/808 techno into the hyphy beat and kills it more than a mediocre dancer does Lil Mama.
Comment by nattymari 19.01.09 @ 3:55 pmdo you HONESLTLY believe dat de Ne-Yo song in actually better then on of the monster tracks Ro dropped? I mean, MAYN HOL UP!
Comment by MAYNHOLUP 19.01.09 @ 6:26 pmYeah its a good album. There’s not a track on it that jumps out and onto my list. When it comes to top tracks of the year, for me, they’ve got to be anthemic, iconic, attention grabbing or something. Not rso much solid listeners. I think you look at Z-Ro to make albums rather than tracks, and that’s a really good thing. You think I want to listen to a Ne-Yo album?
Comment by Beezer B 20.01.09 @ 7:45 amIs it okay for me to not know any of the above songs?
You just about talked me into checking out that Sick Wid It thing.
You should definitely check the Sick Wid It comp, the San Quin, the Killer Mike and you might wanna check out the G-Side. I think you’d definitley like the first three. How about the Big Boi?
Comment by Beezer B 20.01.09 @ 10:57 pmThey aren’t alternatives though. Mannish is a Turf Talk song.
Comment by Beezer B 21.01.09 @ 5:59 pmi mean…have you heard ‘Lonely’ or “The Mo City Don’?? I could argue doze sum uv Ro’s best tracks…i mean you put a song off We Got it 4 Cheap 3?!?!?!?!? Mayn hol up. dass absolutely ridiculous. not like dat wuz an anthemic track either…neva seen such blatant Ro hatin mayn u need ta step ya Rother Vandross game way up mayn
Comment by MAYNHOLUP 21.01.09 @ 8:04 pmi liked the synth on that ne-yo song. i have the instrumental, which is great, but i wish i could find a better quality copy of that. same synth as on kanye’s “flashing lights” right?
that count bass album is really good. “can we hang out tonight” is my other favorite track on there besides “personal things”. i thought the previous album was a little hit or miss, but this one kind of feels like he took the best ideas from that and refined them.
i didn’t hear that killer mike track on your list, but i really liked that ghetto extraordinary album, which i guess was from way before but just got leaked in 08 by him since it’d have been shelved otherwise. “mama said” is the shit.
“family tree” is really good, but definitely not my favorite track on that album. i think that’s still “cryin”.
i haven’t heard that mix of “rollin”, but i have heard the one with kid cudi, which i like a lot, and which uses the same robert miles sample. but yeah agreed, ridiculously good beat. i actually heard a sampler for the fear and loathing in huntsvegas mix, that had some version of “rollin” with that beat, and that pretty much sold me on the mix. which i got in the mail yesterday which i’ve listened to maybe 2 and a half times in the last 24 hours. on the cd, the diplo remix of “rollin” samples orbital’s “halcyon” and the song before that samples “born slippy”. there’s also a weezer “say it ain’t so” sample and a “moments in love” sample. and all of those are used really really well. i really like the production, including the sound quality. these guys sort of remind me earlier 3-6/hypnotize or something. and their crew might have both the best (jackie chain) and worst (dawgy baggz) mc names ever.
Comment by suntzu 22.01.09 @ 10:21 amCan’t find an instrumental for that Ne-Yo either. I had the same thing the year before with that “Me & You” by Cassie. Just played the instrumental to death.
That Robert Miles version of Rollin is the orig. The remix just has different rhymes except for obviously the Diplo mix. I assume that Born Slippy one is “Stuntastic” by Blaqstarr? Great cut. That moments in love is “Natural”? That is my shit.
The funniest one is that Diplo produced one that samples “Careless Whisper” by George Michael… “Bama Gettin Money”. Crazy. You heard the one that samples a “Soul Glo” commercial? Anyway, I’m rambling. Definitely on some Hypnotize Minds tip. Sometimes they’re a little ONP/ET3 aswell.
Comment by Beezer B 22.01.09 @ 11:18 amyeah, slippy=stuntastic, moments=natural (well, “naturalz 2″ on the disc i have, but same beat/different verses, i’m guessing). “grind baby” is the weezer sample. and yeah, that “soul glo” one is dope. i’m surprised i’ve never heard anything use that before.
where do i find the original version of rollin?
Comment by suntzu 25.01.09 @ 4:21 amLeave a comment