2011 was a crazy year for rap and me.  This wasn’t the year that I learned to love the craft.  We’re far from it.  This was the year that I think I learned to love all of it.  I love the ignorant hype music and I love the super-underground lyricist stuff that’s been honed for years.  The only thing I don’t love is this emergence of frat rap, and I could go off on a diatribe right now, but as Juvenile once said, “We ain’t beefin’ right now, we on a positive vibe.”  I think it’s really easy to tear people down, but why even give them exposure when I’d rather turn you on to what I thought was great this year?  Besides, I’m saving that particular diatribe for when Mac Miller and Machine Gun Kelly drop a song together.

Anyway, doing an album list wouldn’t cut it this year as what I listened to this year wasn’t about full albums.  A lot of mixtapes got streamed from DatPiff and Spotify, and a lot of videos got played on Youtube.  I didn’t listen to a ton of full rap albums that impressed me front-to-back, and if I did, I wrote about them in a review or an earlier edition of The Rap-Up.  That being said, here’s my top 10 rap songs this year:

10. “Championship Music”- Future

9. “Shiraz”- Action Bronson

TIE: 8. “Spend It”- 2 Chainz

TIE: 8. “15th And The First”- Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka Flame featuring YG Hootie

7. “No Time”- Mr. Muthaf***in’ eXquire feat. Goldie Glo (This could just as well be any of the songs in his “Huzzah” series)

6. “free press and curl”- Shabazz Palaces

5. “Gotta Have It”/”N—az In Paris”/”Illest Motherf—er Alive”- Jay-Z and Kanye West

4. “Body Work”- Pusha T featuring Juicy J, Meek Mill, and French Montana

3. “Bangarang”- Doomtree

2. “30”- Danny Brown

1. “I Do”- Young Jeezy featuring Jay-Z and Andre 3000/”Way Too Gone”- Young Jeezy featuring Future

An honorable mention should go to Das Racist for “Rainbow In The Dark,” but that song has been out for two years and got re-released on their full-length.  It would have probably shown up in that #3 slot because it’s the most effortlessly technical song that I think I’ve ever heard.  I know the whole thing word for word.  Another honorable mention to Kendrick Lamar for giving me hope in the west coast.  I’m revisiting his Section.80  album right now and it’s probably the best thing I didn’t listen to in 2011.

Best Rapper/Rap Album of 2011:

XXX- Danny Brown

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, but Danny Brown won this year.  The Detroit rapper held his own against some of NY’s finest (eXquire, Das Racist, Despot, and El-P) on the best remix of this year.  Putting that song in my list is cheating.  That’s a dream lineup for me, and Danny Brown demolished the track.  His album XXX is free and came out on Fool’s Gold.  This album starts off Mr. Hyde and ends Dr. Jekyll.  The first song I ever heard by him was “Greatest Rapper Ever” off of The Hybrid.  Is he?  I don’t know, but he makes a very convincing case.  Go download the album and wait with baited breath for him to put something else out so you can be just like me (I don’t know why you would ever want this).

 

It goes without saying that I don’t only listen to rap music.  This was my top 10 list of albums from 2011:

1. Bomb The Music Industry!- Vacation

2. Title Fight- Shed

3. Danny Brown- XXX

4. This Will Destroy You- Tunnel Blanket

5. Banner Pilot- Heart Beats Pacific

6. Lemuria- Pebble

7. Touche Amore- Parting the Seas Between Brightness And Me

8. Doomtree- No Kings

9. Bon Iver- Bon Iver

10. Joyce Manor- Joyce Manor

As usual, I’m here to give you some new rap to listen to.  This week?  It’s Lakutis and his new EP, I’m In The Forest.

Lakutis is a frequent collaborator with Das Racist and those guys make some appearances on this EP.  He’s a part of Greedhead Records, which is the label set up by Heems of Das Racist.  I’m In The Forest is free and it’s fun.  What’s not to like?  Per the usual Das Racist tradition, it’s not all about what’s being said, but how it’s being said.  There are lots of tricky rhymes and seemingly nonsensical lyrics.  He’s got a track called, “I’m Better Than Everybody,” that’s hilarious and awesome at the same time.  “Wifey,” with Das Racist, is a love song in the most relaxed sense possible (“I never wife ‘em out, but I’ma wife her out,” Heems says with the tiniest bit of conviction)  and I’m not sure what’s going on during the New-Jack-Swing-meets-chillwave, “Ja Rule,” but I know that I like it a lot.

“Wifey” f. Das Racist

“I’m Better Than Everybody” f. Kool AD of Das Racist

“Ja Rule”

You can download I’m In The Forest right here for free: http://mishkanyc.bandcamp.com/album/lakutis-im-in-the-forest-ep

So there you go, that was 2011 for me.  As the late, great John Peel said, “People ask me, ‘What was the best year for the music?’ I always say: ‘This year is the best year for music. Prior to that it was the previous year’.”  That’s how I treat music, so undoubtedly, 2012 will be the best year.  Enjoy it.

 

By: Jay Papandreas

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