Merry Christmas people. In case you don't know, this is almost my 100th post on Underground Trini Artiste so thank God for things going so long. As you'd probably know, I was busy for most of this year working on my album Hitchhiker's Guide to Uwi so things have severely slowed down on this side but no worry, we still here and we're going to be pushing throughout next year. And Raining Shots video is out but trust me, there are many more to come. Look out for the video for "Stress" scheduled to drop Ash Wednesday.
Now I've listened to a lot of rap this year and it hasn't been the best of years. I know you cynical guys going to be like how hip hop dead and how dey spoiling de music years now and oh blame it on [insert currently most popular rapper here] but dats not the reason I don't rate this year though. For me the big anticipated albums largely disappointed, so much so that there are two mixtapes on my list of top albums. One of the traits of many good blogs is controversy and I willingly intend to cause it here by saying that this IS the definitive list of top 5 rap albums, I not disclaiming with no "this is my opinion" ish. If you disagree then yuh free to comment and explain yuhself but unless I didn't get a chance to listen something, this is DE LIST homie lol. So in no particular order...
ONLY BUILT FOR CUBAN LINX PT II - RAEKWON
It's a known fact that most sequels suck, especially when they come out over a decade after the original. Not this one though. Far from actually. Featuring a host of old school-sounding, mystical sampling, boom bap beats with mainly Wu-tang alumni tearing them to shreds, this album sounds like a throw-back but in the best way possible. As a matter of fact, this album actually continues the storyline of the first so you can actually listen from the first one straight into this one. How bad is dat?
NO CEILINGS - LIL WAYNE
Yeah yeah, so ah know there is going to be Wayne hate and I admit Weezy has been releasing auto-tune flavoured mess for de longest while but de boy come good here. Some of the most clever, creative and laugh out loud hilarious punchlines for the year all live on this tape and I suggest any of you haters to google the tape and listen first before hating. No ceilings!
ENEMY OF THE STATE - LUPE FIASCO
Yeah ah know, another mixtape? But yuh cyah be so. This year wasn't the best one for rap releases and oh gosh, is Lupe. The highlight is when mih boy spazzes over Lil Wayne's "Fireman" and does to him what he usually does to other rappers. Classic.
ATTENTION DEFICIT - WALE
Normally you won't expect one of the best rap albums of the year to come from a guy who had the lamest verse in the BET Cypher in which there was stiff competition for lameness. However, I must admit the man was killing on the mixtapes a while now and his album is pretty dope. It's definitely different but the punchlines are there, the music is there and the features are almost all on point. Don't sleep on this.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE - SLAUGHTERHOUSE
Now I'll start by saying that this album in my opinion was a big disappointment. Based on the individual work of the four members of this group and the tracks that they released prior to the album dropping, this album should have been at least twice as hard as it was. Nevertheless, the album is still hard and although the concepts and beats weren't what they should have been, the sheer lyrical and mcing skill of these four pull the album through.
And that's it folks. Let me hear what allyuh think. Till next time, Face out!
