These are the five best rap albums of 2018. If you missed part 1, which had albums 10 through 6, scroll down below to read it. 5. Some Rap Songs - Earl Sweatshirt The crazy thing about the introspectiveness of this record is Earl is only 24 years old. He has evolved since his Odd Future days from a very lyrically-focused Eminem wannabe into a dark, emotionally conveying creator. The project paints a vivid picture of the struggles Earl has faced while battling depression and dealing with the death of his father. Earl is no longer going for these sonically pleasing strings of internal syllables and his “edgy” lyricism is gone; instead, it’s pure, unfiltered emotion for about 30 minutes. The songs are brief enough where none overstay their welcome, even if a few of them could use a little more meat on the bones. The maturation from his 2010 debut Earl to now is more than some artists go through in their entire career. It’s almost similar to how Eminem released more mature themes lyrically on his albums Recovery and Marshall Mathers LP 2, although Earl takes out the fluff like pop choruses and cringe-worthy disses at other rappers. This is arguably his best project yet, and definitely his most concise and raw. 4. Tha Carter V - Lil Wayne There are about five or so skip-worthy tracks on this album, but Wayne has evolved so much from the guy 15 years ago who seemed his main goal was to say “p*ssy” and “n*gga” as many times as possible in one song. He sounds focused and confident after finally getting out of his Birdman purgatory deal, and still provides different types of songs and new details about him even at his advanced age. A mix of bangers with clever wordplay and slower ballads with themes of determination make for a listen that doesn’t get stale for the most part, and there’s enough features on the project, but not too many to take away from who is supposed to be the main part of the project: Wayne. This isn’t his best project ever, but it doesn’t need to be. Even as Wayne’s career is approaching its final phase, he still proves he can maybe extend his career and become a grandfather-type figure to the rap game like Jay-Z has. His insightful lyricism mixed with his still surprisingly witty bars allow for him to show everybody that the “F” in Weezy F Baby still stands for phenomenal. 3. KOD - J. Cole J. Cole and Eminem dropped rather similar projects this year addressing the new rap generation and issues like drug addiction. However, Cole’s project is easily the superior project. For starters, his mellow voice fits a lot better on the trap beats; Eminem’s jarring voice over 808s is the music equivalent of teaching your old man how to play Fortnite. He also doesn’t sound overly rude or brash when addressing it like Eminem does, but rather he sounds more calm, like a teacher simply wanting the best for their students. With the amount of content and skill Cole’s contributed to rap over the past decade, it’s almost like he’s a teacher to new school lyricists like Saba and JID. The album is lyrical yet manages to be very replayable, and sticks to a few common themes, which is refreshing for an era where many albums sound like a bunch of loose tracks thrown together. Even the love songs that don’t fit in place as well as the other tracks aren’t ruined with jarring singing like the ones on Kamikaze. J. Cole has always been one to be a contrarian in hip hop, whether it’s going platinum (with no features) or taking a stand on things most people wouldn’t touch with 10 foot poles. With the end-of-year praise this album has received, it’s safe to say those risks have paid off. 2. Daytona - Pusha T When a rapper as good as Pusha T has an entire album of beats from a producer as good as Kanye West, great things are just bound to happen. It is seven tracks just like Kids See Ghosts, but is much more razor-focused and entertaining of an experience. The topics are pretty cookie-cutter, nothing that Pusha T hasn’t done before: money, fame, and drug dealing make up the bulk of the album. But it’s the way Pusha presents it with clever one-liners and an on-point flow that allows it to appear so fresh. The hooks on the project are also pretty solid, as Pusha is able to come up with a few catchy sayings that can get stuck in your day for a while after listening to the project. The guest verses from Kanye West and Rick Ross are also pretty decent; Kanye starts his verse with a reprisal of his “poopity-scoop” lines from his song “Lift Yourself” and it’s pretty darn funny. And he even mixes it up; “Santeria” is one of the most audacious tracks of the year behind the beat transitions, the singing in Spanish by newcomer 070 Shake, and the solemn rapping from Pusha about the murdering of his friend. Even as a huge Drake stan, what Pusha did on this album was nothing short of special. This is by far the best project of the five Wyoming sessions Kanye released this year, and Pusha’s best project since he was a member of Clipse. 1. Astroworld - Travis Scott I’m not sure I can say anything about Astroworld that hasn’t already been said. Even if Travis isn’t the best rapper himself, the way he uses everybody around him and the hypnotizing trap beats to create an experience is true music to the ears. Most of the songs take a while to build up, allowing the beat to play out and set the tone for the song, and the transitions from one song to another are also very smooth and add to it. The project has a mix of solemn songs and in-your-face club anthems, allowing for an album that can be listened to over and over again. The album’s slang and various samples are a nod to his hometown Houston, whom he’s said this album is for. Travis has been someone who’s pushed the boundaries of trap music over the past few years, with the hypnotizing beat switches and the lush, psychedelic production. The album’s length is just about perfect; it gives you plenty of time to enjoy Travis without feeling excessive or a chore like Culture II or Scorpion did this year. Every single beat is entrancing and fits Travis, almost every single song is great at a party or another social situation, and maybe most importantly, every song has a purpose. Everything fits together to represent Travis’s roots and represent his musical journey. It doesn’t quite hit the highs of his 2015 debut Rodeo, but it sure comes close and makes for his most memorable project to date. From left to right: Some Rap Songs, Tha Carter V, KOD, Daytona, and Astroworld album covers
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Winter break has come, which means it’s time for Christmas, New Year’s, too much annoying family, and end-of-year lists. I will be doing a list of top ten rap albums of 2018; these won’t be full length reviews, but rather a one paragraph synopsis. 10. Kids See Ghosts - Kanye West and Kid Cudi They say “Two is better than one.” And this is true for West and Cudi, as this easily topples any recent work by the two on their own. The project does a lot of exploring themes of overcoming personal issues and staying strong; Cudi battled depression and substance abuse while Kanye has battled bipolar disorder and debt. Kanye sounds a lot more focused than he does on ye, and maybe more importantly, he sounds happy and genuinely content of where he is right now. The production is creative and pulls in samples from many different sources, allowing the two to be creative over the 23 minute run time. However, there are some problems with it. Kanye is a much better artist and rapper than Kid Cudi; he outperforms Cudi on the majority of the tracks, and for a collaboration album to be truly great, I feel the performances should be near equal. Cudi still has problems with singing in key, and there is one or maybe two songs (4th Dimension is all over the place) that don’t feel like they belong, which is an exclamation point for a seven song album. A seven song album should have everything serve a purpose. The project also doesn’t have any great singles that strike me as replayable years from now. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty solid project. 9. Die Lit - Playboi Carti This may be a very controversial pick. Carti does not have great lyricism or outstanding storytelling. However, he isn’t trying to do that with his debut studio album. He simply is trying to make a bunch of bangers for the car, the gym, or before game day. Almost every song has replay value, as Pierre Bourne’s bouncy beats mixed with Playboi Carti’s humorous lines and ad-libs make for an entertaining experience. There are also many guest features to mix up the sound; most of them are pretty good, although Nicki Minaj’s verse is mediocre like usual. It’s very simple and a lot of the tracks have relatively the same lyrical premises -- money, sex, drugs, cars -- but with how delightfully simple and light-hearted it is, it gets at least somewhat of a pass. It’s different from a lot of trap music and in a way is like a poor man’s Astroworld. 8. Book of Ryan - Royce Da 5’9” Royce has always been someone who, in my opinion, is a much better rapper than artist. He has skills like lyricism and storytelling but never made a project that truly stuck with me -- until this one. The album is like a musical autobiography, allowing Royce to detail some of the difficulties he faced in life. He reflects on things like his father’s cocaine addiction and his abusive tendencies, but doesn’t do it resentfully; instead, he’s happy and grateful his father was able to overcome it and become a better person. The recent trend in hip hop of rappers being more open about their difficult experiences is in full effect here, but it’s not just a sorrow, depressing experience. He still has tracks where he shows his incredible lyricism and rhyming, like “Caterpillar” and “Summer On Lock”. The contrast in style allows for a great listening experience overall. Even if you’re not a big Royce fan, there’s guest features from many big names like Eminem, J. Cole, and Pusha T to make the experience more varied. For someone to release their best project at 41 years old really says a lot. 7. Room 25 - Noname The mainstream dominance of Nicki Minaj and Cardi B has made people skeptical of female rappers, which is a shame because Noname made a fantastic project with this album. It mixes elements of jazz and rap similar to To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar, often considered one of the best albums ever. The album is in a way a female TPAB, exploring themes of African-American casualties, especially on the track “Blaxploitation”. It’s even more difficult for her being a woman, and she definitely makes sure to mention the struggles she has faced as a female rapper more than a few times here. I think this was the album that left my jaw open the most this year. Even a white dude like myself can relate to themes on the album like heartbreak on “Window” and the feeling of wanting to be remembered on the appropriately named “Don’t Forget About Me”. The album isn’t too replayable, and it gets wordy at times, but her pretty frantic flow and ability to go in-depth on many topics makes it a pretty fascinating listen. 6. Championships - Meek Mill This project is far from perfect, but maybe that’s how Meek wanted it to appear due to his life being a series of ups and downs as well. From going to jail twice to Drake making him a meme for most of 2015 and 2016, Meek has definitely struggled over the past few years, but has been able to overcome it and put together one of the year’s most quality efforts. He still sounds as confident as ever, but sounds more focused after his recent affair with jail. Being able to reflect on the toughness of those times while also being able to learn from it and be victorious as a result is a win-win for Mill. The project is slightly bloated, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay if it means Meek has matured and made his best project yet. His reflection on how his darkest moments affected him, both good and bad, allows for a very empowering listen. From left to right: Kids See Ghosts, Die Lit, Book of Ryan, Room 25, and Championships album covers
I really hate that I wasn’t able to appreciate XXXTentacion’s music before he died. He did a pretty good job for the most part showing what it was like to be depressed and hurt, and was able to make several types of music. His singing was often not the most in-tune, but still worked due to the emotion brought out in it, similar to a Kid Cudi-type of artist. But this new posthumous album of his? It’s… not good. (explosions) In all seriousness, SKINS, X’s first posthumous album, suffers from a lot of the same problems as Kanye’s ye that came out earlier this year: it’s too short to leave a true impression, and there’s too many ideas being thrown against the wall in such a short span of time. Each of X’s albums have an introductory skit giving the listeners “instructions” on how to listen to the project and what to take away from it, but this intro is just so jarringly weird that it almost made me want to stop listening. Some sort of robot voice speaking barely intelligible words is such a gimmick and makes it difficult for anyone to take the album seriously off the bat. So many of the tracks are a hook, one verse, hook, end of the song. While it’s hard to get a message across in two minutes or less, at least with his other projects, they had structure. 17 was practically all about depression, and ? was “about the feeling” in the words of the rapper himself. But SKINS doesn’t have any sort of recurring theme. One of the few bright spots on this project is “Train food”, a track where X has an encounter with death himself. The second part of the song gets emotional and thought-provoking and is from the perspective of someone about to die, with hard-hitting lines like “Ask yourself the final question, is you going down or up?” and “Could’ve had a son or a daughter, now what you finna do?” If only the whole album could’ve had this much self-awareness and cohesiveness to it… “BAD!” is also another favorite track of mine, as it’s very catchy and it’s a good idea of what a single should be like. The lines “I may be insane, yeah / But I love the pain, yeah” are lines that I think many people could consider themselves relating to at one point or another. “Whoa” is a track about making his mom proud. I like how X is a bit sweeter on this song, but I don’t understand what the function of the chorus serves. I’m sure he could’ve found a better way to express his emotion than through a bunch of “oh”s. X chooses to do some screaming on this record, with a scream/sing hybrid on “Staring At The Sky” and basically straight-up screaming on “One Minute”. As one could guess, the screaming does not add anything of worth to the album. Speaking of “One Minute”, this track was SO disappointing. I am still a big Kanye fan despite all the stupid stuff he’s said and done over the past year or so, but his verse on this song was disappointing. For starters, he starts by saying “So much hate at the top, it’s a lonely place / When you find out the opps ain’t the only snakes.” I find it ironic how he raps about “snakes” when he snitched to Pusha about Drake’s son. He tries to justify his actions by saying he “follows his thoughts, ain’t no logic in Ye”, when really that makes him seem even more stupid. There are some good lines about how people won’t give you love until you die, but I don’t find the meaning to be as significant coming from Kanye considering Kanye is one of the most critically acclaimed artists in the history of hip-hop music. To top it off, there are some very cringe-worthy lines about fake rape/assault cases: “She wanna give you the cookie, you Famous Amos/She gave you the p*ssy, but you ain't pay for the anus/Now your name is tainted, by the claims they painting'/The defendant is guilty, no one blames the plaintiff.” For starters, false assault and rape accusations are incredibly rare. Secondly, X even came out to admitting that he abused his girlfriend. And I do give X credit for trying to change his ways and donating money to charities after the incident. But the fact of the matter is, he is guilty. He is the only person to blame. The verse just lacks a lot of logic and goes so many directions, and X’s borderline screaming at the end is very annoying. As if X couldn’t get any more barren with his song structure, the last track of the album literally has 3 unique lines: What are you so afraid of? Is it love or wasting your time? Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh I just am so disappointed by the project. It’s rushed, the beats are simple, and X’s voice is weird for the majority of it. There’s a saying about a hole a mile deep and an inch wide versus a hole an inch deep and a mile wide. X’s problem is he uses a bunch of lyrical topics -- depression, isolation, love, acceptance, to name a few -- but hardly goes in depth on them. I would much rather him focus on a couple topics and go into much detail, like he did on 17. I know he’s dead, so there isn’t a lot the label can do about it, but these terrible posthumous releases hurt the artist’s discography and make the owners look like power hungry tyrants. Don’t release posthumous music without approval from close people to them. I’d rather listen to what they gave us instead of listening to another album that’s so bad, it made me wish it didn’t come out. The one saving grace of this project is that it’s short. This album made me want to pull the “skin” off of me at times. Favorite tracks: BAD!, Train food Least favorite tracks: EVERYTHING ELSE Final score: 2.5 Now it is time to cover Meek Mill and Ski Mask's projects. First up is Meek Mill’s Championships. Meek has always been a loud, confident, maybe even cocky rapper; there are Internet memes about him “yelling” on some of his songs. He is still that same guy on this album, but now it serves a purpose. After getting out of jail for “violating his probation” (long story that will be saved for a future article), Meek sounds determined to have gotten out of a bad place and is ready for this next chapter. That’s a common theme in most of these albums; the artists have found ways to respond to bad situations that may make some people give up. Some rap purists have complained that nobody values “real rap” anymore, and Meek does a good job of balancing old-school toughness and lyricism with new-school flows and production. He has a plethora of guest features from veterans like Jay-Z to powerhouses of this generation like Drake to newcomers like Cardi B. Drake and Jay-Z are notable in particular. Drake and Meek Mill had a beef in 2015 over Drake’s alleged use of ghostwriters, and have appeared to squash the feud. The two go back and forth on the track “Going Bad” and have good chemistry. Jay-Z’s verse on “What’s Free” appeared to take shots at Kanye West with lines like “No red hat, don’t Michael and Prince me and Ye”. However, he stated in a tweet that the line meant to not pit him up against his brothers despite their differences. The track addresses corporate slavery, incarceration, and more, and is one of the best songs of the year. The opening song on the album uses a sample of “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins. Despite being one of the most unorthodox decisions I’ve heard on an album this year, it actually works. When the drum sequence hits and the beat switches to a trap-flavored beat, I lost my mind. While the album feels a little long and I wasn’t a fan of all the features (Future in particular was a waste), Meek’s maturation was on full display on this album. The album has thought provoking content, replayable bangers for road trips or workouts, and has the feeling of Meek’s true ascent into the upper tier of rap. When it seemed everybody was against him, he kept grinding, and now he’s here. This is the first Meek Mill album I heard in full, but I will definitely have to check out his other content. This album is an 8. The best tracks are Intro, Trauma, What’s Free, Going Bad, and Cold Hearted II. Lastly, we have Ski Mask The Slump God’s Stokeley. While Ski Mask is an entertaining personality with a tremendous flow, his music is very hit or miss or me, as I find many of his punchlines corny and he doesn’t offer much outside of his flow. The biggest problem with this tape is despite its somewhat short length (13 songs), the project is so inconsistent and bursting with many different ideas. He does a lot more singing than he usually does on the opener “So High”, and while the singing isn’t terrible, it’s not something I want to hear from Ski again. I feel like his formula of profane-ridden lyrics and chopper flow is getting a little predictable. The project only has four guest features, and they’re not exactly used the best. Juice WRLD continues to be underwhelming on most of the tracks he’s on; he’s turned more from a sad boy into an angry boy, and his rapping on this track is very basic and proves he should stick more to his singing style. I give Ski Mask credit, because he’s not trying to be something that he isn’t. He isn’t attempting to make hits for Billboard or for the club; he just wants to give his fans the humorous and erratic material that he is known for. However, I’m just not sure how much of it sticks. Once the initial listen takes place and the shock value of the lyrics is over with, most of the songs don’t have strong enough of a foundation for me to continually go back to. Ski Mask is an entertaining personality and I do like some of his songs. While I want him to succeed, he’s going to have to do more things with his music without sounding like he’s chasing clout. So while maybe singing isn’t his strong suit, I would appreciate if he had some calmer tracks with some lyrical meaning. Ski shows signs on some tracks, but has yet to make a fully enjoyable project. I’m feeling a 5 on this project. The best songs are Foot Fungus, Adults Swim, and Cat Piss (that’s right, that’s a real name of a track.) So that’s what came out on November 30. What album did you like the most? Top: Championships cover Bottom: Stokeley cover Almost all music fans know that feeling of counting down the minutes until an artist releases a highly anticipated and advertised album. So imagine the feeling when four of rap’s bigger names -- Earl Sweatshirt, Lil Baby, Meek Mill, and Ski Mask The Slump God -- all drop projects on one day! Each project will be reviewed, although not the length of a typical review. I will cover Sweatshirt and Baby on this post. The first project is Earl Sweatshirt’s Some Rap Songs. In the age of rappers tending to rush projects to try and put one out each year, often sounding repetitive and bloated in the process, Earl has been one to take his time with his projects. He has only released three solo albums since his debut Earl in 2013, and Some Rap Songs was his first project in over three and a half years. The project is only about 25 minutes despite containing 15 songs. However, this actually works for Earl, as the songs manage to connect into each other and sound more like one elaborate song. The album has a dark tone; there are many lyrics about feeling like he’s drowning, and how he is losing hope. Many of the songs do not have a chorus present, allowing Earl to spit one continuous verse about how he truly feels. While Drake is my favorite music artist, I have found myself disappointed with how his albums sometimes sound like a bunch of good singles thrown together. This feels like a true project, one where every track has a purpose, both in place and in structure. From vivid storytelling of a house robbery on “Cold Summers” to recalling the terrible things he got himself into on “The Mint”, Earl raps about almost every personal problem he’s faced in the past few years successfully. The most powerful moment of the project might not be anything he says. The last track, “Riot!”, is a sample of his uncle’s song. Family is important to Earl and he proves it on the album; he even has vocals of his parents on one of the songs. Unfortunately, his father passed away on January 3rd, 2018. Despite the project lacking any great singles and isn’t the most replayable due to its lack of choruses, it makes a very powerful statement and is the result of the rap movement we’ve seen in the past few years of rappers opening up about their demons and letting people know it’s alright to not be alright. Rappers like Logic, Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTentacion, and Kendrick Lamar have opened up this movement. This is far more than just some rap songs. This is the most open and honest Earl has ever been. It is a great project, and I will give it an 8. The best tracks are Azucar, Cold Summers, and The Mint. Next up is Lil Baby’s Street Gossip. Lil Baby has come out of seemingly nowhere this year after Drake collaborated with him on “Yes Indeed”, dropping three mixtapes, including one with fellow Atlanta rapper Gunna titled Drip Harder. Lil Baby is like a combination of old school and new school, rapping street lyrics while using Auto-Tune with melody like Atlanta contemporaries Young Thug, Future, and the aforementioned Gunna. If I had to compare him to a rapper, he is most like Lil Wayne. Street Gossip is a little more serious in tone than his previous content, with some darker production and more in-depth details from Baby about his drug dealing days. His flow is one of the best things on this project; he is able to switch it up multiple times in a verse. I’m happy for Lil Baby being able to get out of a dark place in his life and getting to become one of the top figures in the rap game. His confidence and determination oozes out of him on this album and shows he is no one-hit wonder. The biggest problems with the album for me are its lack of versatility and the guest features. The guest features are not necessarily bad; Young Thug and Meek Mill have some great features in particular. However, I think that Baby could fit better with his guest features due to the contrasting sound between him and someone like a Gucci Mane, and also I would like to hear more of just Lil Baby. There were seven songs with features; I think a number like four would be more appropriate. I can’t see Baby falling off like Fetty Wap; he can make a great hook and can spit some great bars when he wants to. This was definitely a solid project. I give this one a 7. The best songs are Time, Pure Cocaine, and Section 8. |
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