DODGE AND BURN – THE
DEAD WEATHER
I realize this isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, that’s
okay, but sonically speaking this is the best album I’ve heard this year. If
you’ve never heard it and just want to get to the good parts, start with track 4
and work you way down (the first 3 tracks are just glaringly Rock and if this
isn’t your genre, might bore you)! The real surprise on this album, aside from
Jack White delivering one of the most unexpected (and coolest) rap verses of
the year on Three Dollar Hat (that’s
the aforementioned track 4) is Alison Mosshart’s crooning on the album closer, Impossible Winner, I mean this is some
epic movie soundtrack shit straight out of a Scorcese flick set in Vegas! I
realize there are albums you feel one year, but as the years go by their
novelty wears off, this might be one of them, but for now I love this shit,
it’s their best work and the one where they sound like an actual group and not
one of Jack White’s or each other’s side-projects. As a precaution to listening
to this album, don’t concentrate too much on the lyrics. I don’t think most of
them were written to make sense!
25 – ADELE
Some people worship at the altar of the Saint of all
things bootylicious a.k.a Beyonce, I say to each his own. For me, there’s Queen
I’ll-Show-Up-After-A-While-And-Slay-You-Bitches, Adele. 25 isn’t 21, it’s four
years older and a few years late, but we waited and it’s here and we’re happy.
Like every great artist who puts out that one body of work that defines their
career, Adele will forever be chasing the ghost of 21, but honestly she isn’t doing a bad job if you ask me. We can’t
continuously ask her to keep going through heartbreaks just so she can make
music to comfort us when we’re heartbroken (remember how you guys did to that
Mary J. Blige and abandoned her when she chose to be happy?! Flip-flop fans)!
Fans have to grow up with their idols too and aging with Adele hasn’t been bad.
IF YOU’RE READING THIS IT’S TOO LATE – DRAKE
Drake had an awesome year. He defeated Meek Mill in Street Fighter 4: Twitter Beef Gone Wrong,
released a joint mixtape with Future which for the life of me I don’t
understand, except for maybe one or two songs (can we kill trap music now that
isn’t T.I or Jeezy?!) and had everybody singing that damn hotline song that I
say I dislike, only to start singing, “I know when that hotline bling…” as soon
as it comes up and he got nominated for a Grammy for Back To Back. Can you say,
“winning”?
BEAUTY BEHIND THE MADNESS – THE WEEKND
The Weeknd a.k.a every girl’s 2015 dream fantasy that
isn’t me, dropped his best work since his debut mixtape, which is still a
classic by the way and boy did he really blow up! There are reminisces of
Michael Jackson on a couple of tracks, but Michael never did doped out music.
THE DOCUMENTARY 2 – THE GAME
The Game finally comes into his own on the first part
of his double disc opus; too bad he does it on what he claims is his final
album(s). That’s not to slight his previous albums (I really liked LAX), but he sounds so comfortable on
this that you actually await another album from him. The only downside to this
is this is just the first half of a double disc. The other half (The
Documentary 2.5) is a bit of a letdown, even though ironically it features
better story telling and more serious subjects, but therein lies the problem:
The more serious side of the double disc is let down by its more serious subjects,
though it does feature the most haunting track of the year, “Gang Bang Anyway”.
90059 – JAY ROCK
Jay Rock may never get the accolades he deserves,
especially for what I think is a well above average and well put together
album. Then again, the best things don’t always get the most attention. As per fellow
TDE artists, Rock eschews the mainstream sound for grittier beats and rhymes.
TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY (TPAB) – KENDRICK LAMAR
Am I the only one who thought Kendrick Lamar might
have over-complexed this album?! It’s not hard to understand really, it’s just
how so many things seem to happen all at once. For the record, here’s what I
think: lyrically, TPAB… might be
superior to Good Kid… in perhaps many
ways, the problem is that while the songs on Good Kid, Maad City stand pretty much on their own and as part of a
whole, some of the songs on TPAB are
better appreciated in the context of the album and not so much on their own.
Does that make sense? Good Kid: Great
songs, great album. TPAB: Some great
songs… greater, if you listen to the album as a whole! Hey he got 11 Grammy
nods, so clearly a lot of people were listening and understood… but damn did it
take a while!
PURPOSE – JUSTIN BIEBER
The Justin Bieber album no one is ashamed to admit
they like. This would forever be remembered as the album that converted so many
atheists to bielibers! (See what I did there, see?!)
WANTED – WANDE COAL
The day that I put a Wande Coal album over a Dr. Dre
one has arrived. While everyone was quickly jumping on the bandwagon to
proclaim this the best album they’ve heard in a while (kind of similar to how
Kendrick’s TPAB was proclaimed a
classic in less than 72 hours), I took my time to avoid that road and listen to
it at my pace and it’s definitely worth it. I won’t even make comparisons to Mushin 2 Mo Hits, that album was what it
is: a classic 10/10. This is Wande surviving the collapse of an empire and then
leaving another one that was never fully built and still coming out on top.
Though I will say I can’t help but think (as many people have speculated) that
there’s a Wande Coal album produced mostly by Don Jazzy on a hard disk
somewhere that we may never get to listen to. Another thing I admire about
Wande here is that he took his time to bring out another great body of work.
This wasn’t M.I stringing us along for four years (though Falz Tha Bad Guy
might see that different as evident to that hilarious skit… and fuck anyone
asking, “who makes skits in 2015?” Gerrarhia!), this was a guy who had many
false starts to overcome, but still won the race. And while some people
criticized Maleek Berry’s production, especially as he’s all over the album,
remember this: Wande made a good Don Jazzy-less album, there’s some other guy
out there who didn’t… I’m just saying!
COMPTON – A SOUNDTRACK BY DR. DRE – DR. DRE
Dre’s 3rd best album as someone called it.
That means so far Dre has never made a wack album (you can debate The Firm and Dr. Dre Presents The Aftermath, but those weren’t solo Dre albums,
were they?) If there’s one major fault with this album (and there a few to
mention) is that I’m not sure Dre put his best work into it. Sure some tracks
bang, but I’m sure some could’ve been replaced by whatever he was hiding on the
abandoned Detox. The new upstarts on
the album (King Mez, Justus & even the really good Jon Connor) get
outshined by most of the vets & accomplished artists (Kendrick Lamar, Ice
Cube, Xzibit, Snoop, The Game) and not all of those vets put in extremely
memorable rhymes (Eminem did kill it though!). This doesn’t usually happen on a
Dre album. There’s usually a balance between the new cats and the old ones, the
perfect example being my personal favourite Dre album, 2001 (You Chronic fans
can go rant in the corner, but remember pretty much everyone on The Chronic was new at the time. THE
CHRONIC IS STILL A DOPE ALBUM. Before you people chastise me like I work for Complex!)
MMM- PUFF DADDY & THE FAMILY
Am I the only one that wondered how this was just a
mixtape? I mean sure, the man born Sean Combs doesn’t need the money, but damn
it this could’ve been an album with a proper release date, some itunes things, but hey I guess when
you’re constantly on Forbes top 5 rich rappers, you can afford to view this as
a “throwaway”. Diddy sure as shit wouldn’t have done this in the 90s, that’s
for sure! That “Working” song is an anthem!
ALBUM PEOPLE SWEAR BY THAT I DIDN’T LISTEN TO:-
BABA HAFUSA-
REMINISCE
Everyone I know who’s heard this album swears by
it. That’s some good testament. Aside from the killer lead single Tesojue (just
knowing it involved sex and lines loosely translated as, “you’ll die tonight”
was fun for me!), there was the almost rap anthem, Local Rappers featuring
Olamide & Phyno which caused a minor stir with it’s “no punchlines” line,
throwing fans and the industry into a frenzy wondering if the line was directed
at one or more rappers (I know for a fact some people caught feelings over
that). Add to a number one position on itunes worldwide chart and an inclusion
on TIME’s 10 rappers around the world to listen to, Baba Hafusa had a good
year.
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