MY PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2012 BET HIP HOP AWARDS

Best Hip-Hop Video

Nominees:

• 2 Chainz f/ Drake – “No Lie”
• A$AP Rocky – “Goldie”
• Drake f/ Lil’ Wayne – “HYFR”
• Wale f/ Miguel – “Lotus Flower Bomb”
• Kanye West, 2 Chainz, Big Sean x Pusha T – “Mercy”

Perhaps the biggest award of the year, the best hip hop video is a representation of well, the most viewed hip hop video on TV. The biggest contenders as far as I’m concerned are Drake for HYFR and Kanye West and his G.O.O.D posse for Mercy. Personally I’d go for Kanye West, but I’ve learnt to never underestimate Drake and his drone of fans. That being said 2 Chainz can cause an upset with his No Lie video, which features Drake.

Who should win: Drake for HYFR (based off his MTV win).

Reese’s Perfect Combo Award

Nominees:

• 2 Chainz f/ Drake – “No Lie”
• Drake f/ Lil’ Wayne x Tyga – “The Motto”
• J. Cole f/ Missy Elliott – “Nobody’s Perfect”
• Wale f/ Miguel – “Lotus Flower Bomb”
• Kanye West, 2 Chainz, Big Sean x Pusha T – “Mercy”

This is for collaborating as the name indicates. Personally I’d go for J. Cole’s collaboration with Missy Elliot, but Mercy has been playing in clubs, Nobody’s Perfect hasn’t.

Who will win: Kanye West for Mercy.

Best Live Performer

Nominees:

• A$AP Rocky
• Drake
• J. Cole
• The Throne (Jay-Z x Kanye West)
• Kanye West

This is between The Throne and one half of its members, namely Kanye West. If you’ve ever seen Jay-Z perform (I have, I just thought I’d throw that out there) you’ll know he’s very laid back kind of like his personality, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t engage the crowd. He has 40/40 vision after all. Kanye West on the other hand is a monster on stage as evident to his numerous live performances.

Who should win: Kanye West            Who will win: The Throne.

Lyricist of the Year

Nominees:

• J. Cole
• Jay-Z
• Kendrick Lamar
• Nas
• Kanye West

This is arguably my favourite category of all. I’m going to say hands down this award belongs to Nas and if he wins perhaps he can address that ghostwriting accusations levelled against him. Personally I don’t care if Stic-man and Jay Electronica ghostwrote or co-wrote his Nigger album, it was never one of his best works. However, Life Is Good has re-energized my faith in the true God Mc (Jay- who?). I can’t undermine the lyrical achievements of young cats like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, but Lamar will be judged largely on his previous works (two mixtapes) and J.Cole on his debut, which was a notch less than a classic. Kanye & Jay-Z (although nominated separately) will be judged on their collaborative debut, which really didn’t have them saying anything new, so we’re back to Nas, the only one with a classic album in the last year (all the other albums are too distant to be remembered).

Who should win: Nas

Video Director of the Year

Nominees:

• A$AP Rocky x Sam Lecca
• Benny Boom
• Chris Robinson
• Kanye West
• Hype Williams

Videos aren’t my thing, you’ve seen one booty shaking video, you’ve practically seen them all. That being said, the fact that Hype Williams is still relevant today makes me wanna vote for him. Let’s face it, as big as an underground artist that A$AP Rocky is over in the United States, his videos aren’t getting airplay over here like those directed by the other on the list, so he and Sam Lecca are out.

Who will win: Hype Williams (All Of The Lights is still in our memory)

Producer of the Year

Nominees:

• Hit-Boy
• J. Cole
• J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League
• No I.D.
• Kanye West

By virtue of producing the biggest hit of last year, Hit Boy should win, but one hit don’t make you shit, unless you can follow it up with another and so far Niggas In Paris has been Hit Boy’s biggest accomplishment, which brings me to No I.D who is finally getting some shine. The man who taught Kanye West the basics finally gets the spotlight himself and oh what a spotlight. After single-handedly producing most of Big Sean’s debut album, he went back to work on long time collaborator Common’s ninth album, The Dreamer, The Believer and assisted by producing half of Nas newest opus Life Is Good. If we’re going off one hit, Hit Boy is your man, but sincerely:

Who should win: No.I.D        Who could win: Hit Boy.

MVP of the Year

Nominees:

• 2 Chainz
• J. Cole
• Jay-Z
• Rick Ross
• Kanye West

Here’s a category I never really understood its purpose, but nonetheless if there’s anyone who’s had a presence in the last year, it’s Rick Ross, love him or hate him. Again, I believe 2 Chainz who was written off since Player’s Circle had that one moment of fame seems to be the award’s underdog.

Who should win: Rick Ross               Who could win: 2 Chainz.

Track of the Year

Nominees:

• “Cashin’ Out” (Ca$h Out)
• “I’ma Boss” (Meek Mill f/ Rick Ross)
• “N–gas In Paris” (The Throne)
• “No Lie” (2 Chainz f/ Drake)
• “The Motto” (Drake f/ Lil’ Wayne x Tyga)

This is fairly easy; as it stands now, Cash Out is a one hit wonder, so let’s eliminate him. Niggas In Paris is undoubtedly a hit of the year, but I’ma Boss is that Street Banger of the year. No Lie hasn’t been around long enough to be embedded in your membrane, so let’s put 2 Chainz out as well. The Motto is a great contender and I’ve learnt to never underestimate Drake and his fan of drones who go where ever he go.

Who could win: Niggas In Paris.        Who should win: I’ma Boss.

CD of the Year

Nominees:

• The Dreamer, The Believer (Common)
• Take Care (Drake)
• Cole World: The Sideline Story (J. Cole)
• Watch The Throne (Jay-Z x Kanye West)
• TM 103: Hustlerz Ambition (Young Jeezy)

Huh, album of the year. Let’s do this by elimination. Drake is going to bring his fans to the table, The Throne is going to bring their prestige, Common is going to bring some good production from No I.D. Three of the nominated albums made my list of album of the year for 2011. I eliminated Take Care from that list, because I slept on it last year. I admit now it was an okay album. So we have four nominees here (let’s eliminate Young Jeezy first). Let’s pit Drake against J. Cole, lyrically Drake can’t touch Cole, but musically a Drake album has more songs to be remembered, so let’s remove Cole World. Common vs. Drake: There’s no common sense about Drake fans, they just vote for him regardless, which is funny cause Drake had beef with common, who used to be known as Common sense. Production wise I’d put Common’s album ahead of Drake’s, really I would, but when it comes to the masses, Drake is a more recognizable face, which brings us to his only competition: The Throne.

Who should win: The Throne.           

Who could unfortunately win: Drake (I just think Watch The Throne was a better CD)

DJ of the Year

Nominees:

• DJ Drama
• DJ Enuff
• DJ Envy
• Funkmaster Flex
• DJ Khaled

This is between Funkmaster Flex, who had dropped some great exclusives on his show this year and Hip Hop’s great curator D.J Khaled. In case you don’t know what a curator is, he’s the guy who takes care of a museum, that’s what D.J Khaled is. He figures out which rappers go together and on which track and then he takes credit by shouting, “We The Best”. D.J Khaled does not produce shit; he just collects the art and puts it on display. D.J Envy hosts MTV 2’s Sucker Free, my favourite show on MTV, but that just makes you a TV presenter, not a D.J. D.J Drama put out one of the best mixtapes this year, if not the best so far, Slaughterhouse’s On The House. So he’s the only D.J with some sort of D.J achievement, but today a D.J is much more than that, he’s a curator as Khaled has made it clear.

Who will win: WE THE BEST.

Rookie of the Year

Nominees:

• 2 Chainz
• A$AP Rocky
• Ca$h Out
• Future
• Meek Mill

For a lack of better nominees (I presume J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar were nominated last year), Future, 2 Chainz and Meek Mill stand out as clear favourites. Future could win, he resurrected auto-tune, which Ca$h out banked on, but I’m seeing no better winner than Meek Mill here.

Who could win: Meek Mill    

Who should win: 2 Chainz (considering how he rose to the top after being left for dead… figuratively speaking)

Made You Look Award (Best Hip-Hop Style)

Nominees:

• 2 Chainz
• A$AP Rocky
• Big Sean
• Nicki Minaj
• Kanye West

This is one of those crap vanity awards (that has nothing to do with Hip Hop, but commercialism) and the only one I’m looking at is the one with the booty. How you going to vote four guys over a girl?

It Better Be: Nicki Minaj.

Best Club Banger

Nominees:

• “Cashin’ Out” (Ca$h Out)
• “The Motto” (Drake f/ Lil’ Wayne x Tyga)
• “Same Damn Time” (Future)
• “Ni–as In Paris” (The Throne)
• “Mercy” (Kanye West, 2 Chainz, Big Sean x Pusha T)

I really want Same Damn Time to win, for its simplistic lyrics, but Mercy, The Motto and Niggas In Paris are great contenders. Once again, let’s eliminate Cashin’ Out, though I loved the remix with Akon.

Who should win: Same Damn Time (the song even got a remix featuring Diddy and Ludacris at the same damn time!!!)

Best Mixtape

Nominees:

• LiveLoveA$AP (A$AP Rocky)
• 1999 (Joey Bada$$)
• Dreamchasers 2 (Meek Mill)
• Rich Forever (Rick Ross)
• Taylor Allderdice (Wiz Khalifa)

The clear winner here is Rick Ross; which mixtape dropped like an album with all original beats and had a video or two?

Who should, could and will win: Rich Forever (Rick Ross)

Sweet 16: Best Featured Verse

Nominees

• 2 Chainz – “Mercy”
• Diddy – “Same Damn Time (Remix)”
• Drake – “Stay Schemin’”
• Ludacris – “Same Damn Time (Remix)”
• T.I. – “Magic (Remix)”

Everybody knows Diddy don’t write his rhymes, but whoever wrote his rhyme on the Same Damn Time Remix did a good job, but 2 Chainz verse is so ahead of everyone else’s on this list including, dare I say, Luda’s verse on Same Damn Time. T.I’s verse on Future’s Magic was the only memorable thing about the song in my opinion, which says a lot and Drake’s verse on Stay Schemin’ was what started his verbal beef with Common, it was a good verse, but how you going beef with Common and win? You think Ice Cube na your mate?!

Who should win: 2 Chainz (for some great colour descriptions: “coupe the colour of mayonnaise” “chain, the colour of Akon/ black diamonds”

Who could win: Diddy/Ludacris.

Hustler of the Year

Nominees:

• 2 Chainz
• Jay-Z
• Lil’ Wayne
• Rick Ross
• Kanye West

The top two contenders for me here are Rick Ross and 2 Chainz for getting signed to Def Jam, then being a sort of member of Kanye’s G.O.O.D Music team. That’s hustling!

Who should win: Rick Ross.

Impact Track

Nominees:

• “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)” (Lupe Fiasco)
• “Bitch Bad” (Lupe Fiasco)
• “Daughters” (Nas)
• “Murder To Excellence” (The Throne)

This is easy, as much well good-intentions Lupe’s Bitch Bad meant to do; it’s caused as much debate over the use of the word, which paves the way for Nas’ personal dilemma, Daughters to take the award.

Who should win: Nas.

People’s Champ Award

Nominees:

• 2 Chainz f/ Drake – “No Lie”
• Driicky Graham – “Snapbacks & Tattoos”
• Meek Mill f/ Rick Ross – “I’ma Boss”
• The Throne – “Ni–as In Paris”
• Kanye West, 2 Chainz, Big Sean x Pusha T – “Mercy”

I want to give this to the underdog here, not 2 Chainz, but Driicky Graham. This could go anyway.

Who should win (based on my sentiments): Driicky Graham.

Best Hip-Hop Online Site

Nominees:

• 2DopeBoyz.com
• AllHipHop.com
• Complex.com
• HipHopDX.com
• NahRight.com
• RapRadar.com
• WorldstarHipHop.com

I’m a bit partial here to Complex.com, too bad XXL didn’t make the nominees (see what happens when you fire your bloggers). I don’t care who wins this, pretty much like all the other categories.

WAITING ON A RELEASE DATE

Do you remember when release dates were an event, when your favourite rappers used to have to push their albums forward by a week to avoid piracy, when the Internet and Napster were carefully taking over? Do you even remember Napster? How old are you? It was actually due to how the Internet made piracy so accessible that threatened release dates. In the old days, cave man days by music industry timeline, it took a while to get a physical pirated copy of a CD. I can attest to that, it usually took us about two weeks or so to see a pirated copy of our favourite rapper’s CD, maybe even three. We often had friends who lived abroad telling us that new Nas album was good before we got our hands on it. With the coming of the Internet you could hear that album within a week, because someone could upload it on the Internet before its release date and that made it easy to pirate quickly.

          

 Today, the event that is the release date has been marred by constant push backs. Everyone has conceded that you will be pirated, unless you’re The Throne in which case it might take a while before your album hits us, but then again Jay-Z and Kanye work for the Illuminati so they can do anything. That was a joke, do not take me serious… or not. Anyhoo, some rappers push their albums back due to sample clearance, case in point Drake’s Take Care album and some because they probably underestimated the work involved. The last two albums I ever remember being pushed forward were Eminem’s The Eminem Show and 50 Cent’s debut Get Rich Or Die Trying. They were avoiding Internet piracy. Oh, if they only knew there was no escaping it. Cue The Beatnut’s “No escapin' this”.

I bring all this up because I’m trying to get down with this British Council entrepreneurship competition (and I have to write something new) and because (and more importantly, truly this is the more important one and not as shameless as the first one) I’ve been waiting for Slaughterhouse’s sophomore album Our House since March when it was originally supposed to drop, then it went to April, then May, then June and now July. Either way you can’t get pissed about the delay, because you’re most likely not going to pay for it when it comes out (all you people with your Internet connection and download know-hows.) Now the only release date I’m waiting on after Slaughterhouse is The Faculty, but like all faculties in the Nigerian school system, there’s a lot of going back and forth before you get to see the supervisor, in this case, before we get to see an actual album, which I will buy, not download. No, come to think of it, I deserve a free copy to review. They owe me for this cheap publicity.

FUEL SUBSIDY MATTER!

Read my other blog.

MUSIC IN 2011

(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:

1. J. Cole
2. Meek Mill

16 Years Ago (1995) We Got Defended!