(MY) TOP ALBUMS OF 2O11
21- ADELE
In hindsight this should’ve been the album called, “Watch The Throne”, not that crap by those two Ni**as in Paris. There is not a dud in this well crafted album, I’m so surprised that only two singles were released so far (Rolling In The Deep; Someone Like You) with the third (Set Fire To the Rain, should’ve been Take It All if you ask me) said to come out soon. It says a lot when the best album of the year gets dropped in February and everybody still remembers it by the end of the year.
WATCH THE THRONE- THE THRONE
About a year ago, my friend Yoye and I decided to from a group called The Throne, we even decided to call our proposed album, “Watch The Throne”, except everyone thought we meant the toilet seat. This year Jay-Z and Kanye West released their collective debut titled… yes, you guessed it, “Watch The Throne”. Not only did they steal our album title, they stole our name and everybody’s praising them. Due to this my proposed album with Yoye will now be called, “Watch The Clones”, but on a serious note this album was the SH*T! “Niggas In Paris” is by far the best song of the year! Sorry Adele.
4- BEYONCE
The third album on the list is called 4… and wait there’s more. See how I rhymed there?! Initial reaction to this album was mixed. If you ask me it was largely because queen B missed the road on We’re-all-making euro-dance-music avenue and went straight to I’ma-do-what-I-wanna-do-casue-I’m-queen-B-I-set-trends-not-follow-them street and the result is a great album. However I’ll tell you where Beyonce really f*cked up, she picked the wrong singles. Aside from Best I Never Had and Party, there were better singles to promote like I Care, Start Over (my personal favourite) and End Of Time. Hire me Bee!
COLE WORLD: THE SIDELINE STORY- J. COLE
What do you do when you’re signed to the greatest rapper of the moment, but he puts your ass on the bench for a long time that you even release a standout mixtape (Friday Nights Lights) that should’ve been your debut album? If you’re J. Cole you just make another classic. Sure, this album won’t save the industry, leave that to rap’s one hit wonders and Lil’ Wayne’s YMCMB clique.
UNDUN- THE ROOTS
A lot of rappers talk about making concept albums… very few really do. The last two successful concept albums in Hip Hop were Jay-Z’s “American Gangster”, which got criticized for being a revert to Jay’s Reasonable Doubt days (I loved the album anyhoo) and Fabolous’ “Loso Way” (named after the gangster movie Carlito’s Way), which came off more like toying with the idea of a concept album than actually being one. Well fret no more, because Hip Hop’s greatest live band has pulled it off with no complaints. Undun is the story of hustler Redford Stephens told over 10 tracks (tracks 11-14 are instrumentals). There is one catch to this album… it’s told backwards from Stephen’s death to where it all began, which makes sense, because in my opinion the last track, which is actually the beginning is the best. Or maybe it’s because you hear it backwards so when you get to track 10 it all makes sense and makes you appreciate it more. I mean imagine if it was the first track, would you have liked it as much and if you did, would it be weird that the first song was the best and everything henceforth had to measure up to it? WOW!!! What a concept! P.S. There’s a mobile phone app that helps illustrate the story for those of you that have a problem understanding anything beyond two syllables.
HELL: THE SEQUEL- BAD MEETS EVIL
This ain’t for everyone, especially on the surface Eminem fans who are used to his silly antiques. This album goes deeper! Sure the old Eminem is around, but rather than craft songs for one of his commercially viable albums, Em’ alongside original hype-man, one-time friend turned one-time nemesis turned friend, Royce Da 5’9, throw away all existing formulas for making a commercially viable record and spend mostly the whole album trying to out-rhyme each other. And this may surprise you, but Royce does win on more than one occasion, which shouldn’t be all that surprising if you’ve heard him before. While reading a comments section of a review of this album, someone wrote, “Why did Eminem do an album with this guy? Did he owe him a favour?” Actually, if you heard the Shady 2.0 BET cypher, you’ll realize all these guys (Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, Yelawolf and Royce Da 5’9) help make Em’ more relevant. He may sign their checks, but let’s face it, a good boss ain’t nothing without a good team.
THE DREAMER, THE BELIEVER- COMMON
Technically I shouldn’t include an album released in December, ‘cause it’s supposed to count as next year, but I heard this on time and I gotta say I love it. I’ve always been a fan of Common and his 9th LP sees him return to form after the dismal Universal Mind Control. If it wasn’t for the Roots pulling a Memento on their album, I would’ve put this ahead of their CD.
RETURNOF4EVA- BIG K.R.I.T
Never heard of him? Well download the mixtape. BIG K.R.I.T is not only a rapper, he’s an amazing producer as well; he produced T.I’s “Flexin’”. But you know what he did that pissed me off? He shot two videos, both of which should not have happened. Sure “Country Sh*t with Ludacris and Bun B was ok, but he had better songs that featured him only and making a video for a song like “Vent” was just wrong homie! You had better songs! Did I mention he produced his whole mixtape?! AWESOME!
HOUSE OF BALLONS- The Weeknd
Another mixtape, this time by an R&B upstart, who like all musicians misspells his name (and we blame the government for falling standards in education). This guy picks up where The-Dream left off (at least The-Dream can spell, if only he knew how to use hyphens)). This guy does R&B like he invented it, that is to say he doesn’t pay attention to the rules of song making with such stunts as two songs morphed into one, cussing at every opportunity, cause he f**king can… just like that!
Best Debut Of The Year (and No. 6 on our list):- Superstar byy Wiz Kid. (Apologizes to Ice Prince). I have a confession… I haven’t heard this album in its entirety, maybe just 85%, but from the much I’ve heard, Wiz Kid has dropped the best debut of the year despite too many party songs (but what did you expect though). I would’ve given it to The Throne (those two Niggas in Paris that stole my group name), but that debut group features two veterans, so not fair.
Most Slept-on Album Of The Year: The Dreamer Project by SDC. How does an album with at least five potential singles (which is very rare for a Nigerian album, let’s face it. We’re constantly been feed substandard singles, just because Don Jazzy produced it, doesn’t necessarily make it a hit. Tiwa, get your money back!). How did this album pass the general populace with no notice? Lack of promotion? They should hire me! “Jede, I know you met me at La Casa, but that was my first time there!”
Most underrated Album Of The Year: Radioactive by Yelawolf. Sure Yelawolf might not be underrated in the real sense of the word, but his album deserves more attention. For starters Yelawolf (or his label, Shady) made the mistake in my opinion of picking the wrong singles and went with what could easily be played on the radio. The problem is when you sound the same as everybody nobody gives a fuck. Songs like, “Good Girl”, “Made In The U.S.A”, “Everything I Love The Most”, “Throw It Up” (where Eminem has the weakest verse, not really,) and “Radio” have been overshadowed by less than perfect records like “Hard White” (the remix with T.I and Slaughterhouse is awesome though) and “Let’s Roll”, which are just going to confuse listeners about the white boy’s approach to Hip Hop.
Artist of the Year Not Named Adele: Pitbull. You gotta give it to Pitbull, he really came full circle this year from one of Miami’s hottest rappers to one of the world’s biggest pop artist. Sell out? Never! Like Cee-lo Green and Andre 3000, Mr. 305 Mr. Worldwide (as he’s now referred to) has paid his dues, he can do whatever he wants. Plus you know we had to give an award to someone not named Adele for artist of the year, so technically Pit is just second place.
THE TOP 20 SONGS OF THE YEAR
Niggas In Paris- The Throne: Not since G-Unit’s tentatively titled Stunt 101 has a song stunted on our morally damaged material loving psyche quite like this song. “Stunt so hard that shit cray!”Someone Like You (and every other song from 21)- Adele: If you ask me Take It All really is the classic holding this album when it comes to ballads, while Rumour Has It holds the uptempo part of the album.
Beautiful People- Chris Brown ft. Benny Benassi: Last year Mr. Deuces told us to get out of his face while chucking his two fingers in the air and we embraced him. So this time around he came back calling us “Beautiful People”.
We Found Love- Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris: Calvin Harris is the genius here, no doubt.
Sure Thing- Miguel: I refused to be a fan of Miguel even when this song was popping up everywhere on TV, I thought he might have been one of those artist that was being overrated, kind of how I felt about Drake when he first came out. Then one day my ears caught a line from the song, then another, then another, then next thing I’m downloading, then we’re here at whatever number this song is on the list.
Miracle Worker- Super Heavy: On paper this group should not work: Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Damien Marley, composer A.R Rahman and Dave Stewart (who I guess is the producer of this super-group), but somehow they do as evident by their first single, Miracle Worker.
Lay It On Me- Kelly Rowland ft. Big Sean: I have a confession… I’m the only one on this planet who does not like Kelly Rowland’s “Motivation”. What the hell is that? This right here was the better (and slept-on) single, although Motivation had the better video. The video for Lay It On Me was plain wack! I can’t stand the degradation of the male specie. When will women learn to see us for more than just flesh?! And why does Kelly Rowland’s outfit make her look like she’s wearing pampers?
Another Naïve Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism- BIG K.R.I.T: If you look closer at the title of the song it reads Another N.I.G.G.E.R. See it? This has to be the best social-conscious song of the year with K.R.I.T singing, “I don’t wanna be another Nigger!” Clearly he didn’t get his passport to Paris.
The Lost Art Of Killing- King Fantastic ft. Killer Reece One and Troublemaker:- (I understand the title might be disturbing) Remember the 90s when rappers were misogynistic (like that has really changed), when they could say anything they wanted like faggot (try that today), and words like Jew and Hebrew were not immediately bleeped out like when Ice Cube told his former band mates, “You let a Jew break our crew”? Yes you can’t say anything negative with the words Jew and Hebrew connected as you can easily say “cracker” or “nigger”, even if it’s a “positive” stereotype like “Stack chips like Hebrews” (Jadakiss). (Not that I encourage anti-semitism… or any of those other things. I’m just trying to make a point here). Well those days are back… at least on this record. No Jews are stereotyped on this record nor are women degraded with the exception of “my bitches in the kitchen”, but it reminds of when songs weren’t so quickly edited. Words like ‘faggot”, “gay” and terms like “d*ck-sucking lips” do however show up. A sample of the lyrics: “I encourage L.A to stay away from that Techno-pop of the day/That shit is gay/ The good old years I talk about was when a loud-mouth Nigga still got stomped out/Now everybody’s so passive aggressive/ You will get locked up teaching Niggas a lesson/” That’s my favourite line… and my worse, cause I like the techno-pop shit of the day! And no it ain’t gay! What’s up Chris Brown!
Pretty Girl Rock- Keri Hilson: I find it funny that when Keri Hilson finally makes a song that I really like (I usually prefer her on other people’s songs), it’s one that I can’t sing in public. So I wait till I’m alone at home… in my bedroom… pass midnight, to sing, “My name is Keri/ I’m so very/ Fly/ Oh my/ It’s a little bit scary/ Boys wanna marry/ Looking at my derri/ -er/ You can stare/ But if you touch it/ I’ma bury/”. Does this constitute as getting 14 years?!
Lay your head down- Lloyd: I was reminded how great a song this was when I saw a video for the live version of it. Lloyd is perhaps underrated and nowhere near the popularity he enjoyed when he first debuted with Murder Inc, but he’s still a great artist nonetheless.
Double Burger With Cheese- Lupe Fiasco : No one does concept records quite like Lupe Fiasco these days. If you grew up watching black cinema (I mean from the 90s: Boyz N Da Hood, Menace II Society, Juice, Above The Rim, New Jack City, Paid In Full- I think the last one was made in the ‘00s -and not the stuff from the ‘70s) then you’ll get this song! The beat is from electro-dance duo Justice, they that “stole” a best video award from Kanye. “I had one of the best videos, fam!”
Shady 2.0 B.E.T Cypher- Yelawolf, Slaughterhouse and Eminem: I’m putting this song here, because it would be injustice if this isn’t preserved for future generations to teach them what rap is all about. “Hi, Rihanna!”
Pumped Up Kicks- Foster The People: Just because… these guys are so cool!
Super Bass- Nicki Minaj: I feel somewhat compelled to put this song on the list. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, it was great. A year with no mention of Nicki Minaj doesn’t seem right anyway!
If I Die Young- The Band Perry: A country ballad like no other, this ain’t no Taylor Swift sh*t!
Look At Me Now- Chris Brown ft. Busta Rhymes: Notice I omitted Lil’ Wayne from the title, yeah I didn’t like his verse that much.
We On One- D.J Khaled ft. (everybody and their mama) Drake, Rick Ross and Lil’ Wayne: Another star-studded cut by I-didn’t-produce-it-I-just-shout-my-name-on-the-record D.J Khaled. This cut was produced by T-Minus, who put in some work this year producing for the likes of Lil’ Wayne as well.
Song so good it should be a crime: Meek Mill’s I’mma Boss ft. Rick Ross.
Song that always gets the party started: Pitbull’s Give Me Everything ft./ Ne-Yo, Nayer & Afrojack.
FAIL OF THE YEAR: Jason Derulo’s sampling of Robin S’ Show Me Love. He’s sampling of that Africa song was better. I forgot who did it. Beyonce’s sampling (and mishandling) of Major Lazer’s Pon De Replay for “Girls” should be here too, but I was more disappointed with Jason Derulo ruining one of my favourite songs from the 90s. You should not ruin great 90s songs, especially the dance ones; they were very few great ones.
DISCOVERIES OF THE YEAR:
Alexis:- 16 year old Alexis debuted her first single, “Five In The Morning” this December/last December (depending on whenever I post this). The first time I heard it was the very first day it got played on Cool FM and I gotta be honest, I thought it was corny. Then I heard it the second time and I swear like an impulse I started singing, “Five in the morning/ Fiiiiive in the morning/ loving/… Five in the morning/ Fiiiiive in the morning/ loving you/”
Array Moore:- With her sultry voice, you can’t help but side with Array Moore when she sings, “Call Bolaji… tell him it’s over! Mo sufo wo!”
BEST NEW ARTIST(S) OF THE YEAR:
- J. Cole
- Meek Mill
