THEY didn’t want me to comeback for the #USTop5Top20 but THEY cant stop this! if you missed my UK Rap / Grime choices for the year take a read of them here; in that post I also set the scene of these.
In the 2016 #USTop5Top20 I talked about “mumble rap” and how the leaders of this sub-genre had my attention. The prominence of that style (minimal technical lyricism and drug heavy references) and the production which comes with it is even more dominant. I would go as far to say that the majority of us would describe that as “mainstream hip-hop”; for example Lil Pump rise has surpassed anything of the mumble’s of 2016. Arguably, what he makes is more like meme music but in either way I can turn up to Gucci Gang and so can a lot of you based on his view count!
Aside for the meme mumble there were many moments where I was refreshingly reminded about the other more traditional styles of Hip-Hop. Two of schoolings which quickly come to mind are; Jay-Z’s culture conscious 4:44 and Mase’s heavyweight Cam’ron diss/nuke The Oracle.
Now that I’ve given some background points lets get to the list. The playlists are at the bottom as with the previous post.
1. Kendrick
Numero Uno, King Kendrick gave us the best of both worlds in 2017. From his very strategically placed features to his Grammy nominated provocative single HUMBLE. Seeing Kendrick run rings around Rich The Kid and Future in the Trap lane with New Freezer and Mask Off was a real WOW moment. Most notably in Mask Off where his verse is a uplifting flip of the whole song. HUMBLE outside of the conscious messages is a troll of both the industry and the rappers especially Big Sean who still hasn’t responded with weight to the b.A.A.d kid.
2. Meek Mill
Meek took the summer by the neck with two Eps(Meekend Music 1+2) and a solid album(Wins &Loses) which was a step up from DC4. His ability to give us that pain, raw emotion and feeling in songs was magnified when Wins & Loses came out. As we all know his intros are a moment and the one on Wins & Loses is up there with the best of them. Sadly, he will be locked up for 2-4 years, hopefully he’s got a stack of tracks that can just be rolled out in his absence.
3. Drake
The more I listened to More Life is the more I appreciated it. The platter of styles from the focal point genres (UK and US). KMT, Blem, Portland etc. shine above a few forgettable others and as a whole it does play as a poorly sequenced “playlist” so hats off to that. It’s not the end of the year yet but it seems like the OVO spearhead is allowing his label mates to get a look in for once. Roy Woods has dropped, Majid Jordan have dropped, but we are still waiting on PND’s Club Atlantis… Why Drizzy?!
4. Migos
The C U L T U R E aka the MIGOS undeniably had a lane to themselves in 2017 after the Bad and Boujee craze. Their album Culture has hits which have been in continuous circulation since the release. Also with the leaders in the trio Quavo and most recently Offset working with pop stars a Destiny’s Child type of dynamic has been created. I don’t really know what to expect of Culture 2 as most Migos project don’t differ that much flow wise, personally I’m more excited for what Quavo and Travis Scott cook up.
5. Future
Future Hendrix started off 2017 with the most noise, tailed off and came back again. His back to back albums in February (FUTURE and HNDRXX) definitely placed him at the head of the pack for a while. FUTURE as you can read here I thought (and still do) was a poor album but HNDRXX is another story. HNDRXX, after DS2 is my favourite body of work from Future and I’m shocked to see how he is continually overlooked by the Grammy’s. Maybe enhanced visibility on some of the deeper cuts off HNDRXX would’ve helped? (e.g. Sorry, Damage and Fresh Air).
Thanks for reading!
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