The Best (and Worst) of 2010: Part 2 of 3

Now that I got the worst of what the year had to offer, it's time to focus much more positively.  This part will key in on basically every award except the really big ones (album, MC, and song of the year).

Last post, I asked how bad was 2010.  This time, I think it's better to ask how good 2010 actually was.  I always think a good measuring stick for this is using the previous year or two to compare to.  It's unfair to try and make comparisons from today to say, 1995, when hip hop was still in its glory days.  I get that the genre will never be what it used to be and I think a lot of people out there would agree with me.  Just as rock had its late 60's and 70's, hip hop will always look to the 90's when it wants to remember the best of times.  That doesn't mean that 2010 or any year after will always necessarily be a bad year for hip hop music either, though.

So now its time to ask, how high was the bar set for hip hop after 2009?  Well, from most of what I heard in that particular year, not very high.  Yes, Raekwon's Only Built for Cuban Linx pt. 2 was a major highlight of 2009 and deserves just about every critical acclaim its received.  We also saw the debut of Kid CuDi, which was a good offering, and Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind ft. Alicia Keys" was maybe his best single he ever released.  Drake also made noise with his So Far Gone mixtape, which subsequently turned him into the mega star he is today.  However, take these things out the equation, and you'll realize pretty quickly that 2009 was a very weak year for hip hop.  This too came after arguably one of hip hop's best years of the entire first decade in 2008.

2010 certainly had a lot of promise at the beginning with albums expected from Lupe Fiasco, Game, Pharoahe Monch, Bun B., Drake, Eminem, Nas & Damian Marley, T.I., Big Boi, KiD CuDi, and Kanye West.  Would the albums live up to the high expectations put on them?  Further, would any of them even see the light of day?  Big Boi's Sir Lucious Left Foot for instance, had been promised almost every year since OutKast's last album, Idlewild, in 2006.  Who would emerge as hip hop's newest stars as well this year?  And what direction would they be taking?

I'm saving my final thoughts of 2010 for the next post, but for now, I think it's time to reveal my year-end awards for just about everything.  3, 2, 1. . .

Best Mixtape: K.R.I.T. Wuz Here - Big K.R.I.T.


Why: This was honestly one of the hardest awards I had to decide on.  Let me start by saying that 2010 was, in my opinion, an unbelievable year for mixtapes.  I spent more time this year than any previous listening to mixtape material and it wasn't because I was just trying to get a jump on who the next great one would be, but that the stuff was just so damn good.  I must have changed who I'd give this award to about 50 times in the past few weeks.  Wiz Khalifa's Kush & Oj was great, as was Royce Da' 5'9's Bar Exam III and Wale's More About Nothing.

It ended up though, really coming down to K.R.I.T.'s tape and J. Cole's Friday Night Lights.  I felt that both tapes were incredibly consistent throughout and that if they were even released as albums, I would still have been impressed.  Both had excellent production throughout and each artist spit probably some of their best verses they've done to date.  K.R.I.T. had more guest appearances, but Cole also gets points for being able to carry his tape almost entirely by himself.  What separated the two for me however, was that K.R.I.T. produced his own beats for his tape.  I usually don't hold that against artists if they don't produce their material, but in this case, the two tapes were so equally matched that I had to use it as a way to put one ahead of the other.  Regardless, I would download both of these immediately if you haven't already because they are both great.  K.R.I.T. edges Cole just by a hair, though.

*Note: I have seen on multiple websites (Wikipedia for one) that says K.R.I.T.'s tape was actually his debut studio album.  However, I found it highly unlikely for it to be released only by web or iTunes and available for a free LEGAL download.  That is almost always an indication of a mixtape and I'm not the only one to give K.R.I.T. this honor, so in my eyes at least, it was a tape, not an album.

Honorable mentions: Kush & Oj - Wiz Khalifa, More About Nothing - Wale, Friday Night Lights - J.Cole, Bar Exam III - Royce Da' 5'9, Royal Flush - CyHi Da Prince.

Best Song from a Mixtape: "Higher" from Friday Night Lights - J.Cole

Why: I think most people would find it hard to argue that Cole didn't deserve this award for one of his tracks from Friday Night Lights.  However, I noticed that the song that was the most talked about was probably his single "Blow Up".  It's a great cut, don't get me wrong, I felt though, that the next song on the tracklist was even better.  "Higher" is a great song for three reasons.  For one it's extremely catchy.  The three-set piano chord that was used in the beat is genius.  You can't help but tap your foot, or whatever you do when you hear something like that, from the beginning of the song.

The lyrics here are also very good, which shouldn't really come as a surprise from Cole.  True, it's not groundbreaking material here, since the song is about Cole trying to get with a girl.  Still, I was impressed with the wordplay he used, especially the lines, "Had a crush on way back, I wasn’t VIP then/But I was plotting on you, I really wish I had got to know you/Before we grew up and I blew up with these benjamins," and then later "Well if its phony your only cause I can get you ins/Too late for turning back, f-ck it we continuing/Get your ass in that position i love to bend you in".  Cole does a terrific job on his delivery on this as well, tailoring his flow to the beat almost perfectly.  One of my favorite songs of the entire year, and for good reason.

Honorable mentions: "The Kid Frankie" - Wiz Khalifa, "The Soup" - Wale, "Glass House ft. Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y" - Big K.R.I.T., "On Fire ft. Crooked I" - Royce Da' 5'9

Best Song With a Featured Artist from a Mixtape: "Spotlight ft. Killa Kyleon" from Kush & Oj - Wiz Khalifa

Why: Okay, okay so this one could definitely be argued.  My Pittsburgh bias might even show a little here, but screw it, this remains my favorite Wiz song for good reason.  The lyrics aren't spectacular (Wiz's best line might be about another dude trying to hack into his twitter) and its not very creative.  That being said, the beat for this is just nasty.  It's easily one of the best produced songs I've ever heard Wiz on and I thought it fit his style extremely well.  Another song that's really catchy and the hook is also well done.

Still, the award is for "Featured Artist" and that's where "Spotlight" earns the honor I'm giving it.  Killa Kyleon gives his best Rick Ross impression and it sounds terrific.  His delivery also complements the beat, and Wiz's verse, very well.  This is just one of those songs I couldn't stop playing when I first heard it.  I still love listening to it today, even six months after Kush & Oj's release, telling me that it still retains its freshness factor, which is huge.  There's a lot of reasons to get Kush & Oj, this being one of the biggest.

Honorable mentions: "On Fire ft. Crooked I" - Royce Da' 5'9, "The Cool Breeze ft. Wiz Khalifa" - Wale, "Glass House ft. Curren$y & Wiz Khalifa" - Big K.R.I.T., "Take Aim. . .Bang! ft. Freddie Gibbs" - The Kid Daytona.

Best Verse of 2010: Jay-Z's verse on "So Appalled"

Why: Another award I had a lot of trouble deciding on.  There were some absolutely insane verses this year.  Big Boi, Nas, and Lupe Fiasco all had verses that I considered for this award.  In fact, before Kanye's album, Nas's third verse on "Strong Will Continue" remained my favorite for the award.  Key word there was "before".  'Ye's album was stock full of lyrical goodies. "Dark Fantasy" and "Gorgeous" had some of 'Ye's best lyrical content I've ever heard from him and Nicki Minaj did a tremendous job on her verse of "Monster" later in the album.

Still, as much as Kanye aspires to be as great or better than his mentor, Hova held on and more to his title this year as being one of hip hop's greatest in the game today.  I personally believe that Jay actually had a better year, at least lyrically, this year than he did in '09.  His verses on "Lights Up", "Power Remix" and "Monster" all got consideration for this award.  If you pick any one of those three, trust me, I won't call you out for it; they were all better than anything he dropped in the year previous.

However, his verse on "So Appalled" was a little bit above the rest.  I loved his lines "Dark knight feelin'/Die you be a hero/Or live long enough to see yourself become a villan," and, "went from the favorite/To the most hated/But would you rather be underpaid or overrated?".  The best line from the entire verse though, had to be his response to MC Hammer.  Hammer had tried to dis on Hova earlier in the year, so Jay responded with, "The hammer went and broke so you know I'm more focused/I lost 30 mill so spent another 30/Cause unlike hammer 30 million can't hurt me." Pure genius.

Honorable mentions: "Super Lupe Rap" - Lupe Fiasco, "Strong Will Continue" - Nas & Damian Marley, "Monster" - (Nicki Minaj's verse), "General Patton" - Big Boi.


Comeback of the Year: Kanye West

Why: I'll keep this short because I think it's pretty obvious why 'Ye gets this.  Yes, he had the VMA fiasco a year before, but I give him the award mostly based on his return to rap.  808's and Heartbreak made me, and a lot of other people, question Kanye's identity of being an actual rapper and I had serious doubts about his album when 'Ye announced he'd be back to rapping.  Leave it to 'Ye though, to release his best work he's ever done in My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, topping many critic's year end lists.  Kanye also released a ton of high quality material with his G.O.O.D. Friday series, most of which didn't even make the album (only three songs actually did if you were wondering).  West made me a believer again of his rapping abilities, and that took a lot.

Honorable mentions: Big Boi, Lloyd Banks

Artist Who Won't Win Any Awards from Me, but Still Deserves Props: Eminem

Why: Look, Em has enough Grammy nominations and awards already, so I don't think he'd really care that I won't give him an award (although if he did, that would be f-cking awesome because he'd know who I was).  When I went over the major awards, I realized that Shady's Recovery just didn't have a place there.  It was a good album and the most successful commercially of the year for any music genre, but it wasn't great.  There were some really bad fillers contained there and I'm still wondering what the old Shady would think of the new one.  I can tell you that Stan wouldn't be worshiping this version of Eminem.

Yet, I still want to give the man some credit.  Eminem surprised me by changing his mentality and somehow finding a way to make it sound pretty good, for the most part.  He also is proving those who believe hip hop is dying as a prevalent form of music, wrong.  His album sold over three million copies and he earned the most Grammy nominations for an artist, ever.  Eminem also didn't drop off much lyrically on Recovery, letting loose some brilliant verses on "No Love ft. Lil Wayne" and "Going Through Changes".  Mathers has a chance to reverse his reputation, if he hasn't already, and still make it something that produces great music.  I also congratulate Mathers for coming clean and making music his focus to try and help his sobriety.  That couldn't have been easy, and then to come back and continue to write music?  That's pretty amazing.

The Best (and Worst) of 2010: Part 1 of 3

I've been putting it off for way too long.  It's my favorite post of the year and damnit, I refuse to let Call of Duty or NHL 11 deprive me from writing this any longer.  Yes folks, it's time to reveal my year end awards for the great ones and the, well, not so great.

To start, I was going to make this three separate posts spread over the span of, you guessed it, three days.  Due to business I've had to attend to, like watching the fourth season of It's Always Sunny for like the fifth time, I just didn't get around to putting this up sooner.  The awards will still be in three separate posts, but I'm going to cram this in the next two days instead.

Okay, so with that out of the way, let me introduce the first set of awards.  There are more, actually a lot more, failures than there are successes.  Hip hop is no stranger to this.  We have seen some really bad artists in the last few years and 2010 wasn't an exception.  I personally think that this list is easier to compile because it's not uncommon that a scandal or disappointment will be the top story of a year, rather than a work of art.

How bad was 2010?  It really depends on how you look at things.  On one hand, this year had some really stellar mixtapes that hit the web.  I probably listened to more mixtape material this year than I had in the past two or three years combined to be honest.  I also think that, out of most of the albums I heard, there wasn't many that didn't meet my expectations.  Hip hop also had a HUGE year when it came to sales.  Eminem's Recovery was 2010's highest selling album and had two #1 singles ("Not Afraid" and "I Love the Way You Lie ft. Rihanna").  Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has already sold a half-million copies himself and Young Money experienced another tremendous haul with Drake's Thank Me Later and Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday.  Add on that B.o.B.'s debut, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, charted at #1 on the Billboard 200 in its first week and I'd say that any argument that hip hop is irrelevant in today's music is a bunch of B.S.

Yet, hip hop certainly didn't have a squeaky clean slate for the first year of the new decade.  In no particular order, here are the artists and other things I found may have wanted to pull an "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (that's erasing part of their memory in case you haven't seen the film, which you absolutely should next time you get a chance).  I'm also adding the blackout scale, a scale that ranks how bad they want to get rid of their particular incident(s), with 1 being the least (meaning it won't really matter in the long run) and 10 being the most (meaning they probably have, or should, make an addition to the ever popular FML website).

- T.I.
What he did: Testing positive for ecstasy on September 1st while still on probation.
Why it matters: T.I. will serve another jail sentence, this time for 11 months and won't see the day of light again until September 17th next year.
Blackout scale: 10

Might as well start off with the obvious one right? Yes, Mr. Harris maybe made the biggest fuck-up of the entire year for any artist.  The arrest marked T.I.'s third in the past seven years and might be the most costly of them all.

How unbelievably stupid was this one?  Well, consider that he was with his wife, supposedly on their way to the VMA's that weekend, and wasn't stopped for speeding or reckless driving, but pulled over at a traffic stop because the car smelled like marijuana.  Dude, really?  You're giving stoners all around the world a bad name for this one.  You couldn't have waited to do this in your five-star hotel instead?  What's funny is that T.I.'s album, No Mercy, was originally supposed to be titled King Uncaged.  I'm sure Harris isn't finding the irony as amusing as I am, but hey, I'm not the one stuck behind bars and wearing an orange jumpsuit for the next 11 months either, am I?

- Game
What he did: Failed to release his R.E.D. album on the much anticipated date of 8/24 (a tribute to Kobe Bryant) and tried to repair the beef with G-Unit.
Why it matters: Game loses a lot of credibility as a "hardcore gangster" for his peace attempt and, once again, doesn't come out with an album when he claims.
Blackout scale: 6

For someone with such promise just six years ago, Game has taken every step he can to try and disappoint.  The Doctor's Advocate was a level below his debut and L.A.X. was even further down.  I was looking for Game  to make a comeback much like Kanye this year, unfortunately though, that wasn't the case at all.  He wasn't the only artist to fail to release a promised album in 2010, but when you're on the slide that Game has been on, it doesn't help.  

Game also tried to rekindle his relationship with 50 Cent, which I find pathetic.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying rappers should always hold beef with on another, but when you completely separate yourself as much as Game did from 50's crew, I found that took a lot away from Game's credibility as someone who was representing the baddest of the bad from the west coast.

- Soulja Boy
What he did: Called out Lupe Fiasco and claimed he "didn't want to be super-Lupe Fiasco lyrical".
What it means: Does it really matter? I mean c'mon, look at who said it.
Blackout scale: 3

I won't comment much on this one just because I can't even call this guy an artist.  DeAndre should be excited that Lupe even made a response to the comment.  And not only did he respond, he probably released one of the best songs lyrically of the entire year.  When you stop making shitty music (his latest album, the DeAndre Way, currently has a 1 out of 5 X rating on HipHopDX.com) or calling out LeBron for one-on-one matches, you'll be making strides Mr. Way.


- Nicki Minaj & Drake
What they did: Posted on their twitter's that the couple had "tied the knot" and were newlyweds, only to revoke the statement a day later, claiming it was a publicity stunt all along.
What it means: Just another reason why the Young Money stars will probably never be anything truly great.
Blackout scale: 1 for Nicki, 8 for Drake

Call me a Young Money hater.  Do it, because you know what, I'd tend to agree with you.  But that doesn't mean I don't give Weezy and his artists a chance.  Not just any cat from the street can sell a million records in a few weeks like these two did, and for that, they certainly deserve some praise.  However, if this is the supposed "future" for hip hop, we are in some serious trouble.

This stunt doesn't mean much as far as Nicki goes.  She's developed a reputation for being "out there" with her pink wigs and wild delivery (just listen to her verse on "Monster").  It annoys the hell out of me to see her steal headlines for trying to dis Lil' Kim or her other antics, but I can deal for the most part.  Drake, however, is a different story.  I will be the first to say that the man has got some serious skills on the mic and he does have tremendous potential.  Stuff like this though, convinces me that Drake will never live up to it.  C'mon Drake.  You claimed to be the "Greatest Ever" and you're doing shit like this?  You think Biggie or Pac or Big Daddy Kane would ever do something like this?  If Drake wants to seriously prove that he can stand with the best of them, he needs to stop being a rich asshole and start focusing.  His album, Thank Me Later, may have sold well, but had nothing to give it lasting appeal (except for "Lights Out ft. Jay-Z", and that's just because Hova saved it).  Step your game up, Drake.

- Kanye West
What he did: After being asked about his VMA incident on the Today Show, Kanye grew furious with the camera crew for keeping the volume up on a video to accompany the question.  'Ye canceled his Today Show performance afterward.
Why it matters: Although Kanye may have a point, it's still not good publicity, furthering his reputation as a "jackass" (President Obama's fine words there).
Blackout scale: 5

I was tempted not to include this on the list because it really depends on how you look at the situation.

If you hate everything hip hop stands for and its artists, or haven't forgiven Kanye for some of the things he's done, then you would see this as another unnecessary outburst from an artist who appears to be a complete tool.  'Ye was experiencing a year without controversy up until this and really could have avoided the incident entirely with a little more composure.  The Today Show does regularly keep sound on clips for its interviews, so to have it come as a surprise to Mr. West was not their fault.  West overreacted and made himself look stupid on national television.  West also went on a rant on his twitter afterward, calling Lauer out for "setting him up".  Add on that West addressed the situation again in a concert a few weeks after, and the whole fiasco wound up being one Kanye's worst.

However, if you were on Kanye's side, you would have seen a different story.  I'm not saying that West should have acted the way he did and that the Today Show is completely in the wrong, but Lauer and his staff's hands aren't clean here either.  Watching the tape, I noticed Lauer did phrase the question preceding the VMA one in order to try and exploit the rapper.  In an interview with George Bush, Bush told Lauer that Kanye's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" quote was "one of his most disgusting moments of his presidency".  Notice he didn't say it was the "most disgusting" but "one" of them.  Lauer asked Kanye though, as if Bush had said the former, which was incorrect.  I also found it very tasteless of Lauer and his crew to bring up the VMA's again.  When I do something that I know I want to take back the very second I do it, I don't want to have to talk about it much and I can't even imagine the regret West feels about his VMA outburst.  He apologized and Swift accepted, that should be the end of it right there.  It doesn't need to be brought up again, especially on national television over a year after the incident.


The Source
What they did: The magazine gave it's hallowed "5 Mic" rating to Bun B's Trill O.G. album, released back in August, which had no business garnering such an honor. 
What it means: One of hip hop's most trusted prints can no longer be taken seriously. 
Blackout scale: 11 

For those of you out there who aren't familiar with The Source, it has remained one of hip hop's premier magazines since 1988.  It is the second longest running rap magazine in the world today and has garnered a pretty good reputation over the years.  The Source has become notorious for its "Five Mic" rating, something that has been given rarely and only to albums that have become classics of the genre.  Only 5 albums since 2000 had been received the honor, and I think it'd be hard for people to argue that Jay-Z's The Blueprint or Nas's Stillmatic aren't classics today.

The recession must have removed a good majority of The Source's news staff then before this year, because the magazine name Bun B.'s Trill O.G. a certified "5 Mic" classic in August.  Don't get me wrong, the album wasn't bad and I wouldn't have had any problem with it receiving "4 Mics".  But 5?  This is for an album that didn't even receive better than a four-star rating on any other major hip hop publication/website out there.  Not only was this a huge mistake by The Source, but it's a slap in the face for other albums that it didn't give the first time around.  You're going to tell me that LL Cool J's Radio or Eric B and Rakim's Paid In Full shouldn't have received the "5 Mic" honor on first listen?  While T.I. will have a chance to repair his reputation after his jail sentence or Drake will still be able to change things with another album, The Source will have an extremely hard time recovering from this one.  The rating has ripped almost all credibility it had before, something that The Source will surely want to forget.

Eleven Reasons to be Excited for 2011

Hard to believe that another year is coming to a close.  In just 16 days, we will be entering the new year.  I'm saving my year in review segment for the final week of 2010, just because I think you can't truly get a grip on what happened in the past 52 weeks until that final one.

Being that I'm going to be busy each day that week wrapping up what this year had to offer, it leaves me little time to start looking ahead to the next one.  So I've decided to take care of this a little earlier than anticipated.  It's also the holiday season still, so here's just another reason to be joyful.  Call it an early Christmas gift (or a late Chanukah one if that's your preference).

While 2010 had some terrific releases (My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy, Sir Lucious Left Foot, Distant Relatives to name a few), 2011 is looking like it could be an upgrade.  There's a lot to be excited for in 2011, so I came up with a list of the eleven things to look for in the upcoming year.  I listed each thing in the order of how anxious you should be for it (hence, the #1 thing on this list is the one you should be the most excited for).  Before reading the list though, remember that 2010 had a tremendous slate at the start of its year as well (just refer to Lupe's Lasers fiasco).  2011 has a slate as good or better than 2010's, but it will remain to be seen whether everything will hold up.  So, without further ado, here are the 11 reasons you should be excited for 2011. . .

11. No More G.O.O.D. Friday's
Hey, I loved this idea when Kanye first introduced them back in August.  The weekly releases were always pretty well produced and three of them even ended up on Ye's album.  They were a cool thing to look forward to, but unfortunately, they also helped spread the idea of a weekly single to other artists.  Artists like Crooked I and Lloyd Banks decided to start their own "G.O.O.D. Friday" knock offs, and the flood gates opened.  They may not completely go away, but don't expect the idea to be quite as popular in the coming year.  With less singles hitting the hip hop scene, you'll be able to catch up on just about every one you want to hear without feeling overwhelmed next year.

10. Talib Kweli - Gutter Rainbows
Have to say, this has gotta be one of the more creative titles I've seen for an album in a while, but maybe that shouldn't come as a surprise from one of the most creative lyricists around in hip hop.  Talib teamed up with producer Hi-Tek this past year and released Reflection Eternal's second album, Revolutions Per Minute.  While the album had its ups and downs, Talib was still very, very good when on the mic.  Kweli hasn't released a solo album since his 2007 success, Eardrum.  If his "Cold Rain" single is any indicator of what Gutter Rainbows should be like, Kweli fans should be making sure their calender has space on January 25th, when the album hits stores.



9. Kanye West & Jay-Z - Watch My Throne
If 2010 proved one thing, it's that 'Ye still has it.  What many of called, including myself, his album Dark Fantasy to be his magnum opus, Kanye's return to rap was proved to be long overdue.  But don't count out Ye's mentor either.  While Hova didn't release an album in 2010, his guest appearances on "Monster", "So Appalled", "Power (remix), and "Light's Out" had some pretty strong verses from the Bronx MC.  Originally supposed to be an EP, the two decided to make it a full-length album after their success from their G.O.O.D. Friday collaborations.  The album may not be groundbreaking, but it's guaranteed to have some tracks that you'll be playing on repeat after its release.  Watch stores around late February for this one.

8. Pharoahe Monch - W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)
Another case of "originally scheduled for one date, pushed back to later date and will definitely be out then. . .then pushed back again".  If I had made a list for this year's "most anticipated", Monch's album would've been on it.  W.A.R. was supposed to be ready by this past summer, but it got delayed and put down for a fall release.  Once the fall season came around though, Monch claimed that the guest appearances weren't completely wrapped up, and so he couldn't release W.A.R. until February.  Don't get too discouraged however, because Monch's third studio album will likely be another great one.  The Queens artist has Royce Da 5'9" listed as a guest on the 13 tracklist, with production done by Marco Polo, Exile, and Monch himself.  With Internal Affairs and Desire on his resume, there should be no reason this one passes you by when it's set to be in stores this February.

7. Damn Good Debuts
What was once the album that usually remained the best in an MC's career (Nas's Illmatic, Biggies Ready To Die, Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt) has become somewhat of a disappointment of late.  2010 saw album debuts from B.o.B., Drake, Big Boi, Curren$y, and Nicki Minaj, most of which were pretty average (excluding Big Boi's).  With the not-so-high standards that this year set for debuts, it's natural to think that next year's will be able to surpass them.  Before I was pretty sure of this, and now I'm certain when I saw the artists who will make their first album entries for 2011.  Just look at these names: Pusha T, J. Cole, Chiddy Bang, and Big Sean.  Not to mention Wiz Khalifa's debut album for Atlantic Records, and you've got a pretty good fresh class of MCs to beef up your hip hop sections of your iTune's libraries next year.

6. Andre 3000 - TBA
If there was more details about this album, you can bet this would've been at the top of this list.  As of today though, you can only go by Big Boi's word that the other half of one of the greatest hip hop duos ever will be ready to drop his solo album debut.  Big Boi has already said he's featured on the album and that it's going to be "special".  'Dre was relatively quiet in 2010, but he did release "I Do", as well as make a great appearance on "Deuces (remix)" and a return to OutKast with "Lookin' 4 Ya (remix)".  He's one of the best MC's to grace the mic ever, so if there's even a rumor of a solo album from him, you should be excited.  No release date or title has been announced for the album yet, so keep tabs on this one as 2011 goes on.



5. DJ Premier vs. Pete Rock
I think producers everywhere are salivating over this offering that is expected for the new year.  In case you don't know who these two already are though, Premier and Rock are considered to be two of the greatest hip hop producers to ever grace the board.  About.com's Henry Adaso has them ranked #1 and #2 respectively on his "Greatest Producers of All-Time" list, in case you may need more assurance (listen to anything Gang Starr or "The World is Yours" by Nas to really get some insight on how good the pair is if you're curious).  Premier and Rock did a concert "battling" each other this past May in Tokyo and enjoyed it so much, they made it a priority to make an LP together.  Premier already has Wu-Tang's lyrical genius, GZA, on his guest list and expect Rock to gather some A-List rappers himself.  Just think of Ocean's Eleven or Inception in star power, and you've got what this album is going to offer.  There's no release date set for the album for now, but expect for it to get on shelves and to your iPods by the end of the first half of the new year.



4. Nas - The Lost Tapes II/TBA
Hardcore Gucci or Young Money fans may want to skip this section, but for the rest of hip hop lovers, keep on reading.  Nas, real name Nasir Jones, dropped the first Lost Tapes over eight years ago and he's ready to give us the sequel in 2011.  The Lost Tapes was a collection of select tracks that Nas felt weren't "album worthy" and proved to still be pretty awesome.  Songs like "Doo Rags" and "No Idea's Original" that came from the original Lost Tapes have even become considered some of Nas's best.  It's obvious Nas thinks that this sequel is going to be as good or better, as he sent a scathing letter earlier this year to his label, Def Jam, that called for the immediate release of Lost Tapes II.  This may not be Jones's only album to drop in the new year though.  Nas has also stated he is working on a tenth studio album that, in his words, is going to be "magical".  There's scheduled production appearances from Kanye, RZA, DJ Premier, and Pete Rock as well (probably enough reason to just buy the album right there).  Nas has failed to disappoint of late too, releasing a strong album with Damian Marley, Distant Relatives, in 2010, and arguably his best album of the 2000's with Untitled in 2008.  Lost Tapes II will most likely be available by the end of the first quarter of next year, but you'll probably have to wait a little longer for the studio project.

3. Dr. Dre - Detox
Seriously?  You're going to put us through another year of this AGAIN Dr. Dre?  Oh wait, it actually looks like it might finally be here.  If you've followed hip hop at all for the past five to ten years, you'll know as well as I do about the almost perpetual delay of Dr. Dre's third and final studio album.  Dre got to releasing a single this past year in "Kush" and it seems he's really serious about getting Detox out.  If i didn't know the guest sheet was for an album before, I would've guessed it was for some music convention held once every decade.  Hell, I'm not even sure if the President could get this many stars aligned at the same time.  Names include: Common, Eminem, Xzibit, Ice Cube, Raekwon, T.I., J. Cole, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Game, Akon, Pharrell, and there's still more!  You know that conversation you have with friends when you talk about the albums that were huge during a particular year?  Like in 2007 when everybody was bumping to Kanye's Graduation or in 2009 when Blueprint 3 and Man on the Moon were as cool as the other side of the pillow (Courtesy of Stuart Scott)?  Well, Detox will no doubt be one of those albums at the end of 2011.  Expected release date is sometime in February right now.  Don't hold your breath though for that date though, as it's likely to be delayed (again) for a later time in the next year.  Just make sure that when it does come out, you get this, because you'll be just so not "in" without it.




2. Lupe Fiasco - Lasers
A lot of people marked this album down as the "most anticipated" for this year, myself included.  When Lupe released his single "I'm Beamin'" back in February, hip hop lovers could barely hold in their excitement for this.  So it was not a minor, but a major disappointment that Lasers couldn't make it to our homes, dorm rooms, or whatever you live in during 2010.  I'm a regular viewer of HBO's new series, Boardwalk Empire, and it's season finale explained the Lasers situation perfectly.  When the main mobsters tried to kill each other, nothing got done.  Business suffered and no one really benefited.  The top guys were making less money by attempting to whack one another than if they would just settle their differences.  Lupe and Atlantic Record's feud lasted the first three-fourths of the year, until finally Atlantic caved to Lupe and his petitioners in early October.  Fortunately though, for Lupe and all his fans, Lasers seems to be in full motion since the "Victory!" Lupe tweeted on October 7th.  Fiasco released "The Show Goes On" as his first official single in late October and it's been very well received so far.  The Chi-town MC also showed that he may be hungrier than ever, when he responded to Soulja Boy's dis in November with "S.L.R. (Super Lupe Rap)", a six minute flurry of rhymes that may have been the best set of verses lyrically released all year.  An album that could be the most hyped in recent memory will finally see the light of day on March 8th next year.  Look for Lasers to be something really, really special.



1. Jay Electronica - Act II
Surprised?  Maybe a little, but if you've followed Jay in the past few years, you won't be.  Jay Electronica hails from New Orleans, yet sounds like he's another one of the NYC prodigies.  Up until this point, he was notorious for making a mixtape that was rapped entirely over the soundtrack of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  His singles "Exhibit A" was very well received and "Exhibit C" was named the top single of 2009 by About.com and he's been a rising star in hip hop for some time.  The man is the ripe old age of 34, but don't let that fool you.  Maybe the biggest news story in the hip hop world from 2010 was Electronica's signing to Jay-Z's Roc Nation record label on November 13th.  Does signing a deal also mean he's ready for an album release?  It appears that way as his debut album, Act II, is scheduled for an appearance in 2011.  So why again is Electronica's work something to be more excited about than Lupe's Lasers or Nas's Lost Tapes II?  Well, imagine your career as an artist comes down to one album.  You want to embody everything that you are into just 80 minutes of a record.  That's Electronica.  Jay may only do one album (his girlfriend Erykah Baduh has even said she didn't think he'd ever do one), but if that's the case, that single set of tracks could possibly join the ranks of the greatest hip hop albums, ever.  He's extremely talented and he has some of the best to ever do it behind him.  For instance, after Jay produced "Queens Get the Money" for Nas's Untitled in 2008, Nas compared himself to Jay, claiming that Electronica resemble a young Nas because of his incredible drive.  HipHopDX.com has even referred to the man as a "myth" or an "urban legend'.  No date has been set to this point and it's probable we won't hear of one until the second half of the year.  However, once it finally drops, expect the hip hop and music world to hear something mind boggling.

A Forgotten Classic: Breaking Atoms

Quick.  Name me the groups that come to mind when you refer to hip hop's golden era (late 1980's through 1995).

A Tribe Called Quest certainly comes to mind.  OutKast definitely has to be included.  Of course you can't forget about N.W.A. or Public Enemy.  De La Soul deserves a mention, as well as Pharcyde and the GZA, the RZA, the WU-TANG CLAN!

But does the name Main Source ring any bells?  Further, has anyone except those that are real hardcore hip hop heads even know who they were?

One of the great things about technology today, the internet specifically, is that you can dig up these groups that get lost in the shuffle.  I certainly had no idea who Main Source was until, while scrolling down the same list that introduced me to Endtroducing (Henry Adaso's "Top 100 Hip Hop Albums Ever" on About.com), I found them sitting at #20 with an album called Breaking Atoms.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not as well researched into hip hop that existed pre-1988, but I always have felt I had a firm grip on the 90's and on forward.  So when I found out that Main Source released their debut album in 1991, I was amazed I hadn't found them sooner.  Turns out that their debut album, Breaking Atoms, turned out to be their only one that they released as a group before breaking up in 1992.  What's more is that this wasn't a group that didn't contain all no-name, never heard of emcees.  One of the greatest producers in hip hop history, none other than Large Professor, was not only part of Main Source, but its emcee!

Main Source was formed in 1989 when Professor, real name Paul Mitchell, decided to team up with Toronto-based twin artists K-Cut (Kevin McKenzie) and Sir Scratch (couldn't find his real name for some reason).  The group was signed to Wild Pitch and just two years later, released Breaking Atoms.  Mitchell stuck with the group long enough to come out with "Fakin' the Funk", which was featured on the White Men Can't Jump Soundtrack of 1992.  Due to financial reasons, Mitchell left the group shortly after this and began to focus more on producing, which has turned out pretty well I'd say (after all, the guy is considered one of the greatest producers ever still today).

Cut and Scratch were left with a troubling dilemma after Mitchell's departure.  How would they replace their only piece that was responsible for actually rapping?  They decided on Mitchell's replacement to be MC Mikey D and things seemed to be back in order for the group.  Source released their follow up to Breaking Atoms in 1994 with Fuck What You Think, but things weren't quite as smooth as their first offering.  The album failed to build on the success of their debut and was a complete failure both critically and commercially.  The failure could be attributed to the three year gap that existed between their first and second albums, but the absence of Mitchell was apparent.  Main Source ceased to be a source for hip hop after Fuck What You Think and faded away into the music abyss.

Still, if Main Source was such a short-lived group, why was their debut ranked so high on a list of the greatest hip hop albums ever?  I decided to make my main source of music for a day be Breaking Atoms, and here's what I found. . .

Breaking Atoms
Release Date: July 23rd, 1991
Label: Wild Pitch/EMI

1. Snake Eyes
The first ten seconds made me think this was going to be real old school, but then the beat comes in.  I could tell immediately from the opening of this smooth, mellow background that Breaking Atoms was going to be extremely well produced.  The samples used here are brilliant and they really give you that "golden era" hip hop feel.  This was the first time I had ever heard Professor on the mic, and man, he wasn't half bad.  In fact, Professor was pretty damn good on his first track.  His delivery wasn't as fast paced as a Nas or Pac, but the man certainly knew how to rap over the beat given to him.  Loved the line, "Once a snake, you stay a snake/When you're small you took cookies, but now you take the cake."
A very strong way to start off the album.

2. Just Hangin Out
Soul and jazz samples defined this album, and this song was a shining example of it.  Another extremely well put together couple of verses by Professor and it's a great song to lay back and chill to.  Even the meaning is very laid back, as the hook is simply "And I like to hang out and hustle with my friends/Yo, I'm just hanging out".  It also contains a sample, "Season of the Witch", that Black Moon later used in their track "Son Got Wrec" on their debut album, Enta Da Stage.  At first listen I was still buzzing about "Snake Eyes".  After a second spin though, I really, really was digging this.  If you're going to smoke to something, this is a good place to start.

3. Looking at the Front Door
By far one of my favorite songs on this album.  A more up tempo beat with a hook that's extremely catchy.  The production, as with just about every other song on this album, is top notch as well as Professor's delivery.  I can easily see myself memorizing the words to this one.  Awesome track.

4. Large Professor
Now this track does sound really old school, which is maybe the reason I wasn't crazy about it.  Don't get me wrong, Professor is good again on the mic and the production is still very good with the piano key loop throughout.  It just didn't fit with the other three songs previous and it doesn't hold up as well over time as the others do either.

5. Just a Friendly Game of Baseball
Talk about creative, this is gushing with it all the way through.  Each verse relates street life to a game of baseball with lines like "Just as bad as bein shot in the groin/To see who'll shoot ya, they'll flip a coin," and, "And watch him run for the stretch/But you don't know the man is at home waitin to make the catch," and "So the outfielder guns you down/You're out, off to the dugout, underground/I know a cop that's savage, his pockets stay green like cabbage/Cause he has a good batting average."  With a great slower, heavy bass beat, makes for the complete package.  This song is an absolute home run in every sense of the word.

6. Scratch & Cut
Well, if Large Professor gets his own title track, than I guess its only fair that the other two members get one as well.  This is a strictly instrumental cut; mostly a way to showcase the skills of the two very talented Main Source producers.  While its got a decent beat and one that stays consistent with what the rest of the album has to offer, it really only functions as an interlude and with it being close to 3:00 in clock, probably a little too long.

7. Peace is Not the Word to Play
Another terrific effort on the production end from Scratch and Cut.  It's a quicker beat than most of the songs on the album, but there's some great sampling going on here, especially about midway through the song.  There's only one verse, but it's good enough to make this track work.  If Scratch and Cut wanted something to prove their production skills, this would be it, which makes their previous self-titled track even more unnecessary.

8. Vamos a Rapiar
I'm not as crazy about the beat here (surprising since Pete Rock actually helped produce this), although it's not terrible by any means.  However, I had to love Professors lines on this track.  Another extremely well written song, just listen to, "Cause so many MCs get star struck/Get on stage and find their washed up," or, "Hey and I make em concentrate on the songs I create/And kids can't wait to get they fork knife and plate/So they can chew what I serve with the nerve/To call themselves real, but I know the deal/So I just place all the cards on the trap/Tell them to cut the crap, now let's rap."  I think I'm starting to understand how Large Professor got the second part of his name, maybe being a professor of creative writing?

9. He Got So Much Soul
A good track lyrically (although, are there really any on this album that aren't?) but the hook is a little too old school for me.  Unlike "Snake Eyes" and some of the other cuts on here, this one doesn't hold up quite as well over time.  If there is a filler on the album, this might be it.

10. Live at the Barbeque ft. Nasty Nas, Joe Fatal, & Akinyele
Quick story.  When I first started getting really into hip hop about two and half years ago, the first artist I really got listening to was Nas (which is one of the reasons that he continues to be my favorite artist period).  I always knew his first track he appeared on was this and I finally heard it when I found his first mixtape, released in 1991, but it wasn't the greatest quality.  Which brings me back to this.  To my surprise, that song that Nas (he was going by Nasty Nas at this point) came onto the scene with was right here, part of Main Source's debut.  If you ever were wondering how Nas got noticed, please listen to the first minute of this.  The kid is only 18 when he did this and still drops the best verse of the entire album.  A classic to this day.

11. Watch Roger Do His Thing
Here is an old school track that sounds fresh as it did almost 20 years ago.  The keyboard/organ sample in the background is very, very sweet.  It makes the song sound sort of like something you'd see on MTV in the morning before you go to school with girls doing hopscotch, the sun shining, shots of graffiti, and Professor dropping lines in the background.  Sounds corny, but this song emphasizes everything real hip hop was about before it became rap (that's a really good thing in case you were wondering, unless you're into that G-Unit or Young Money shit, which is bad).

12. Just a Friendly Game of Baseball (Remix)
I loved, loved the original of this song, so I wasn't real crazy about the remix.  Same lines, different beat, and it's just not as good as the first one.  Kind of disappointing that the album ends on it, but then again, there have been way worse concluding tracks to albums than this one.

Closing Statement: I couldn't believe that this album slipped through the cracks when I was really into the Native Tongues phase (in case you're wondering, that's The Jungle Brothers, Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul).  It's an album filled with excellent production and I loved the combination of jazz/soul/funk elements.  If I didn't know anything about Main Source or this album and heard it, I could still probably predict the year of its release.  It embodies the early pieces of the hip hop/jazz movement, yet retains a lot of the stuff that made hip hop popular from the mid to late 80's.  While it's not quite as good as Low End Theory, it's as good or better than De La Soul Is Dead (both released in 1991), and it's one of the most creative albums I've heard from the 90's, maybe ever.  The beats are great, but Large Professor's rhymes, in my opinion, really make this album a special one.  Add in the first time Nas jumped on the mic for an album, and you've got one package that is pretty damn good. 

The Verdict: If you've read anything in my previous paragraph, then there should be no reason to not already know that this is an album worth that extra money you got for bringing in the groceries.  Hell, the album is worth the $5 just for "Live at the Barbeque".  A must-have for hip hop junkies.

Looking for an Album to Study to? Introducing. . .Endtroducing.

It's 9:00 on a Sunday night.  I'm sitting in my room, trying to figure out if there is any reason for me to not call it an early evening.

I could watch more football (Eagles at the Cowboys), but being that the game means nothing to the team I follow the closest (Pittsburgh), so that doesn't seem like too great of an option.

Ironman 2 is still sitting on my desk, unwatched since it was delivered to me this past week.  Sometimes you just need to be in the right mood to watch that type of movie though, and I can tell that I'm not, so throw that option aside as well.

One of the things I try to do when I reach situations like this is look for something new; discover something that I haven't seen or heard before.  I start searching and turn to About.com's "100 Best Hip Hop Albums Ever" list compiled by their very own Henry Adaso.  Much of the list I already have, or have heard, until I reach one particular name that catches my eye.

DJ Shadow, real name Josh Davis, is the name that sticks out.  For some reason, I've never heard of this guy before, so I do what every other American does when they don't know about someone important, Wikipedia them.  As I scroll down the short bio for of Davis, I decide to see how well his first album, Endtroducing (the same one that appeared on Adaso's list), was received.

What I stumbled upon has indeed been regarded as one of the greatest achievements in music production history.  Endtroducing was released in 1996 and was the debut album of DJ Shadow.  The album was the first album in music history to be made up of strictly samples (it's even in the Guinness Book of World Records for this).  The samples were comprised from both music and interviews that Shadow found when working on the album.  And I'm not talking about three or four for each song.  No, try 6-8.  In fact, on one of the tracks, there's a massive total of 17 samples!

So, with my excitement of finding music that Melody Maker magazine referred to as, "You are incomplete without it," I decide to give Endtroducing a spin. . .

Endtroducing
Release Date: November 19th, 1996
Label: Mo' Wax/FFFR

1. Best Foot Forward
Well, what did you expect? It's an introduction for Endtroducing and that's really all it is.  Still some pretty cool samples used here though, especially the line "DJ Shadow. who is he? Just your favorite DJ savior!"

2. Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
Just listening to the first 45 seconds of this song gives me chills.  The song opens up with the line, "Producing", and then the piano keys come in.  Shadow then uses a quote from an interview from drummer George Marsh and opens with the line, "From listening to records, I just knew what to do.  I mainly taught myself."  To me, this feels like Shadow is talking to whoever is listening and explaining to them, "Welcome to my world, enjoy the musical journey I'm about to take you on".  So far, this journey is one well worth taking, as "Building With Steam" has an incredible bass, as well as piano loop, to accompany it.  If there's a musical definition for "epic", I'm pretty sure this song would have to be included.

3. The Number Song
Remember that song I mentioned earlier about containing 17 samples?  Well, this is it.  Moving in a much more fast paced direction than the previous track, it relies heavily on a drum sample from "Orion" by Metallica.  While parts of this song are brilliant, the beat isn't nearly as catchy as the first and can be a little overbearing at times.  It's not a bad track, but it's certainly not one I'm going to keep on repeat.

4. Changeling/Transmission 1
Another change in pace, but this time one that's more mellow and trippy.  Unlike "The Number Song" though, which sounded like a little too much, this is right on the money.  The "Imagination Flight" by the Chaffey College Jazz Ensemble sample is a brilliant sample for this and everything just seems to blend in seamlessly.  If there was a song that made you want imagine you were in space, floating around, enjoying the view of Earth, this is it.  A true masterpiece.

5. What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4)
An even slower instrumental than "Changeling", it uses some samples from Prince of Darkness, Shawn Phillips, and even the Alan Parsons Project (there's also four other samples Shadow used to make this).  While not as strong as "Changeling", it's nevertheless still impressive.  I'd love to hear the stories of people on hard drugs while listening to this track (and really the whole album) because I'm willing to bet they're wild.

6. untitled
Interlude.

7. Stem/Long Stem/Transmission 2
The second of the three "Transmission" tracks, it doesn't fail to live up to the standards of the first one.  The track begins with a harpsichord sample, which sounds terrific, and then moves into periodic blazing fast drum samples, before returning to the original sample.  If the song stopped at near the four-minute mark, it'd still be great, but the second half of this 9:22 track is what makes it remarkable.  I get the feeling almost that Shadow is the conductor of an orchestra on this.  His sampling changes so dramatically, yet keeps a dark, uneasy feeling.  Someone should feature this in an musical/opera someday, seriously.

8. Mutual Slump
It's hard to follow "Stem", so I'm not surprised that this particular track didn't sound as great.  That doesn't mean this song isn't still good though.  The drum sampling for this creates a pretty interesting beat here and I liked the occasional break for a voice sample.  I don't know how Shadow found Xanadu for his voice sample, but the selections from it make the song have a creepy element to it.  Is there any other song that has ever even used Xanadu as a sample?  I'm going to have to make an educated guess there and say "no".

9. Organ Donor
Interlude.

10. Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96
It's an interlude, but I had to laugh at how Shadow used the soul samples along with the line, "It's the money!"  Hip hop in a nutshell.

11. Midnight in a Perfect World
This is why hip hop doesn't suck.  The beginning of the song uses a short voice sample before moving into what is probably the best beat of the entire album.  It's catchy, groovy, funky, trippy, and there's a bunch of other adjectives that could be used to describe this instrumental.  I could write an article on just how brilliant this song is, but I'll keep it simple and just say that this song is the shit.

12. Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain
Shadow must have literally spent years diving in for samples.  How do you find The Aurora Encounter? It's what he uses for the beginning of this and afterward, the song transitions into a slowly building beat that never seems to end throughout the song.  I loved the guitar riff that Shadow uses in the early part of the song and it, once again, makes me want to try on an astronaut suit and walk on the moon.  I don't know if this is a track I'll be playing a ton from this album, but it's still really good.

13. What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1): Blue Sky Revisit/Transmission 3
Possibly the most "chill" track of the album, it's a perfect way to end it.  Have you ever been in a taxi/car, driving down a street of New York City, while it rains and the street lights glimmer above you?  I haven't, but this song makes me feel like that.  I don't know if this has ever been used to set the mood for that type of situation in film, but it should be if it already hasn't.  I feel like I've been sent back 14 years when I hear this, and that's not a bad thing.

Closing Statement:
As much as I appreciate hip hop for its rhymes and lyricism, I also give a great deal of credit to those who produce its beats.  Without beats, there would be nothing to rap over.  There would be nothing to nod your head or dance to.  Just like if rock didn't have the drums and guitars, it wouldn't be something you cherish listening to.  The title of "Producer" is simple when looked at by itself.  Yet, there is so much more to that title.  Hip hop production is almost a separate form of music altogether, and it's most certainly a form of art that has grown tremendously in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  We think of Dr. Dre, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and even Kanye when discussing who the greatest producers in hip hop, but there is no doubt in my mind that DJ Shadow should be included in that conversation after listening to Endtroducing.

Yes, not every song is easy to listen to and some I won't replay much.  However, creating an album of strictly samples, most of which producers would never dream of touching, is a remarkable achievement.  Songs like "Changeling" and "Stem" showcase Davis's ability to turn a song completely comprised of just samples into something that resembles an orchestra with Davis waving his arms, while "Building With a Grain of Salt" and "Midnight in a Perfect World" stand tall as tracks that need to be heard over, and over, and over again.

The Verdict: An unbelievable blend of samples form a 63 minute package that is well worth anyone's money.  This is a perfect album to put on while studying and it will remain a staple in your library once you add it.  Endtroducing is a work of art that will remain relevant for a long, long time.

Thank God for boredom.

What the Grammys Missed

I've been meaning to jot down my thoughts on the release of the Grammy nominees for some time now, but even with my massive amount of time off, I haven't got around to it. . .until now.

We're right in the thick of the holiday season and another one is rapidly approaching, the awards season.  Most of the major awards for achievement are given once the Christmas holiday departs; some even have started already.  TIME Magazine, for instance, released its "Top Ten Albums of the Year" list just yesterday.  Surprisingly, hip hop had a strong presence in the rankings with Kanye claiming the top spot (Drake's Thank Me Later finished #5 and Big Boi's Sir Lucious Left Foot placed 9th).

I could rant about how TIME has no business including Drake while excluding The Roots or Nas & Damian Marley, but just like Rolling Stone and many other popular magazines, their reviews are heavily based on how an album does commercially and if it is "popular" enough.  Being named to this list is surely something artists will appreciate, but it isn't significant.  Awards such as the Oscars, Tonys, and Emmys are what many actors really strive to earn.  The Grammys are supposedly supposed to hold that same standard for musical artists.

Did the Grammys fix those mistakes that TIME had?  The answer is a definitive NO.

I took a look at who the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences thought deserved a chance at hardware for their work in 2010.  For each category, I listed the Grammy Nominees and then gave my list of the "Real Nominees", which were the ones I felt should've been nominated.  Here they are:

*Note: I took only singles or songs that were part of an artist's album.  Mixtapes were excluded since the Grammys don't consider them in their nominations.  Also, albums/songs that were released from November till now also were not eligible for a 2011 Grammy, hence, they also will not be on my "Real" lists.

BEST SOLO RAP PERFORMANCE:
"Over" - Drake
"Not Afraid" - Eminem
"How Low" - Ludacris
"I'm Back" - T.I.
"Power" - Kanye West

THE "REAL" BEST SOLO RAP PERFORMANCE:
"Power" - Kanye West
"General Patton" - Big Boi
"Don't Let Me Fall" - B.o.B.
"I'm Beamin'" - Lupe Fiasco
"Going Through Changes" - Eminem

Congratulations Academy! You successfully picked just one of the top five solo performances this year! 

Actually, this wasn't even the worst list of nominees the Academy put together for the Rap category (it gets much, much worse, trust me).  I like to start with praise rather than criticism, so I will give the Academy some credit for at least getting "Power" right.  Because "Power" was released in July, it was eligible for this award, even though My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy won't be up for a "Best Rap Album" award until the 2012 Grammys.  "Power" was Ye's best single since "Good Life" and it had the rarity of being both popular and maintaining strong substance.  It was, at least in my opinion, one of the standout tracks on Dark Fantasy, so I was pleased to see it nominated.

The Academy also did get another artist correct with Eminem; it just didn't pick the right song.  "Not Afraid" was incredibly successful and I have even warmed up to it much more than I did when Recovery first hit shelves.  It's not a bad selection from Recovery for this award, it's just not the right one.  I said that "Going Through Changes" was the best track from Em's latest offering back in June, and I still stick by that.  It had more emotion than "Not Afraid", a stronger effort production wise, and also contained as good as, or better, lyrics than "Not Afraid".  "Going Through Changes" may not have been released as a single, but it was still Em's best solo performance of his album.

I also didn't have that big of a problem with T.I.'s "I'm Back" being nominated.  However, the other three nominees I listed that the Academy failed to do, were better.  "General Patton" easily trumps "I'm Back", even with only two verses.  "I'm Beamin'" is clearly much, much more creative lyrically than "I'm Back" and "Don't Let Me Fall" edged it out because of B.o.B.'s well done execution of two verses and a strong hook.  Still, "I'm Back" isn't a terrible nominee for the award and I don't expect the Grammys to nominate every perfect candidate (even the Oscars screw up, i.e. The Blind Side's Best Picture nomination last year).

Now here's where the National Recording Academy really, really screwed up.  "Over" and "How Low"? Are you kidding me?  Create a separate category for "Best Club Song" and put these two in there if you want, but it's ridiculous to include them in this one.  I'm fine if "I'm Back" get's nominated just so that the other two didn't even make the conversation for this award.  A friend of mine (his name's The Truth if you're really curious) made even better tracks on his first mixtape than both "Over" and "How Low".  You think we're going to be bumping "How low can you go" or "I could teach you how to speak my language, Rosetta Stone," ten, even five, years from now and not feel like a complete tool?  I don't think so.  The inclusion of these two destroyed any credibility this award had in my book, so I move on to the next category. . .

BEST RAP PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP:
"Shutterbug" - Big Boi ft. Cutty
"Fancy" - Drake ft. T.I. & Swizz Beatz
"On to the Next One" - Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz
"My Chick Bad" - Ludacris ft. Nicki Minaj
"Lose My Mind" - Young Jeezy & Plies

THE "REAL" BEST RAP PERFORMANCE BY A DUO OR GROUP:
"Shutterbug" - Big Boi ft. Cutty
"The Fire" - The Roots ft. John Legend
"Just Begun" - Reflection Eternal ft. Jay Electronica, Mos Def, & J.Cole
"Lookin' 4 Ya (Remix)" - OutKast ft. Sleepy Brown
"Strong Will Continue" - Nas & Damian Marley

I'm lucky I was able to realize my bank account isn't in the best shape, otherwise,  I would've thrown my laptop at the nearest wall when I read the Grammy nominations.  Again, I'll start with the good, then move to the bad.  The Academy, thank goodness, did put the crack pipe down long enough to at least nominate "Shutterbug".  It was clearly one of the top five, and probably the top single, of 2010.  It had the most creative beat I heard all summer and was accompanied with a seamless set of verses from Big Boi and an outstanding, and very catchy, hook from Cutty.  I pray that it will win this award to give the Academy any sense of sanity after taking a gander at the other nominees.

Unlike the previous award I looked at, the Academy wasn't even close to getting it right for the rest of its candidates.  I could write another whole post on how bad these nominees are, but I'll be concise here.

"On to the Next One" was simply nominated because of the artist's name behind it.  Being that it was one of the worst tracks on Blueprint 3, and Jay-Z still got nominated, I'd love to hear the voter's justification on giving it a nomination.  "Lose My Mind" was a good song to listen to for all of, I don't know, three weeks?  Jeezy isn't great as it is and then the Academy nominates one of his weaker songs for this?  "My Chick Bad" was another one you can add to your recycling bin.  The Academy thinks lyrics such as "My chick bad, badder than yours, my chick do stuff that I can't even put in words" is intelligent, yet doesn't nominate a song like "Strong Will Continue" which has a very moving message of working through struggles behind it.

And then there's "Fancy".  When I saw Drake perform this at the VMA's last September, I was shocked he picked one of his worst songs he's ever done to do in front of millions.  Seems like the Academy decided to take a bathroom break when that one came on, because I can't think of any other reason why this garbage got a nomination.  It contains one of the worst hooks I've heard in recent memory and the verses are average at best.  What's worse is that songs like "The Fire", "Just Begun", and "Lookin' 4 Ya (Remix)" were considered to be lesser in quality than "Fancy".  The Grammys hand out gold plated records as their hardware, but if "Fancy" were to win, they might as well just Mr. Hankie on the record instead. . .

BEST RAP/SUNG COLLABORATION
"Nothin' On You" - B.o.B. ft. Bruno Mars
"Love the Way You Lie" - Eminem ft. Rihanna
"Deuces" - Chris Brown ft. Tyga & Kevin McCall
"Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys
"Wake Up! Everybody" - The Roots & John Legend

Okay, I'll give the Academy credit here, they did make one slam dunk and this was it.  I can't really argue with any of those nominations, as they all contained pretty strong vocals from those who did the actual singing.  I'd hope to see "Empire State of Mind" win just because it was the best I've ever heard of Alicia Keys (she's already built off its success with "Empire State of Mind pt. 2") but I don't have a problem if any of the other four get the nod.  When it comes to rapping & singing as one, the Academy does seem to know what its doing.

BEST RAP SONG:
"Love the Way You Lie" - Eminem ft. Rihanna
"Not Afraid" - Eminem
"Nothin' On You" - B.o.B. ft. Bruno Mars
"On to the Next One" - Jay-Z ft. Swizz Beatz
"Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys

THE "REAL" BEST RAP SONG:
"Power" - Kanye West
"Shutterbug" - Big Boi ft. Cutty
"Strong Will Continue" - Nas & Damian Marley
"General Patton" - Big Boi
"I'm Beamin" - Lupe Fiasco

It's very apparent at this point that the Grammys are reserved for the most popular artists, not the best.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing Eminem or Jay-Z for making millions off of their incredibly popular singles and for mainstream, they were pretty damn good.  But the Academy voters need to clarify whether a Grammy is for how much your single sells or actually how good the song overall is. 

Four of the five Grammy nominations for this award were a #1 single at one point on the Billboard Hot 100 and each one of these four went platinum.  This, for one, proves that even if the Academy nominates only the singles that sold the most, it makes no sense for it to nominate "On to the Next One" for this award.  It also reinforces my point that this award's nominations were given to artists based on popularity in culture.  The Award states "Best Rap Song".  Read that again.  It doesn't say "Best Rap Performance" or "Best Song by an Emcee", it uses the word "Song".  By just going by the simple definition of the award, "Love the Way You Lie" and "Nothin' On You" shouldn't have even been on the ballot to vote for being a nominee of this award.

What's also puzzling is that the Academy nominated "Power" for "Best Solo Rap Performance", yet, didn't nominate it for "Best Rap Song".  By putting "Power" into two categories, it makes perfect sense and the Academy is consistent in its nominations.  But not including the one song that is, in my opinion, an absolute sure-fire nominee and legitimate contender for the award, is unsettling.  I'm not suggesting that "Power" is far and beyond better than the candidates that should've been nominated, but it was certainly a better rap song than any of the Grammy nominees.  I also was stunned to see "Shutterbug" not get a nomination, considering that it was the only nominee the Academy got right in the "Best Performance by a Duo or Group".  The pattern of no nominations for Nas & Damian Marley was another thing to be upset about, as there were at least 4-5 other songs on their album that could've had a serious argument made for their nomination for this award.  The lack of recognition for artists who are actually conscious (Nas, 'Ye) or stick to hip hop's roots (Big Boi, Lupe) was clear when these nominations were announced.

BEST RAP ALBUM:
Recovery - Eminem
Thank Me Later - Drake
The Blueprint 3 - Jay-Z
How I Got Over - The Roots
The Adventures of Bobby Ray - B.o.B.

THE "REAL" BEST RAP ALBUM:
Distant Relatives - Nas & Damian Marley
Sir Lucious Left Foot: Son of Chico Dusty - Big Boi
How I Got Over - The Roots
Recovery - Eminem
The Blueprint 3 - Jay-Z

Ugh. It's unfortunate Dark Fantasy wasn't eligible already, because this past year was not a great one for rap when it comes to albums.  Don't get me wrong, the first three on my "REAL" list are phenomenal and will leave a lasting impression for years to come.  It's rare you hear three albums of that caliber in one year.  However, most of the time, there seems to be one or two albums that are on the level of Sir Lucious, Distant Relatives, and How I Got Over, and then at least 3-5 more albums that are just a notch below that.  This year was obviously not the case.  Sorry Hova and Slim, but Recovery and BP3 shouldn't even be considered in the same conversation as the albums I just listed a sentence previous.

This is what I would refer to as a "cop-out" for the Academy, at least on this list.  They matched two albums on the "REAL" list just because I couldn't think of any more albums that were better.  Reflection Eternal's Revolutions Per Minute had more intelligent material, but it just couldn't stack up as well on the replay factor.  Same goes for Devin the Dude's Suite 420.  Great lyrics, okay production, but it didn't have much to offer in the "Is it still playing in your car 6 months from its release?" category.  Jay and Em, I will admit, had some tremendous songs that I can still play today and love it as much as the first listen.  I even have "Empire State of Mind", "Thank You", "Cold Wind Blows", and "Going Through Changes" in my iTunes "Top 25 Most Played" as of today ("Passing Me By" by Pharcyde is my #1, just in case you were wondering).

I also praised the Academy for including How I Got Over here.  The best album, in my opinion, that The Roots have put together in over ten years (since Things Fall Apart really), it was met with overwhelming critical acclaim, myself included.  My only gripe with How I Got Over, which ?uestlove even tweeted the day after the nominations were announced, was that the album didn't receive a nomination for album of the year.  How Teenage Dream or The Fame Monster get one, but an actual album with messages, outstanding production, and real music isn't included just blows my mind about how bad of shape the music industry is today.  We favor sales over substance, something that will, and already has, destroy music.

I couldn't blame the Academy voters for putting Recovery and BP3 on the list of nominees.  However, I was, and still am, fuming about the exclusion of Distant Relatives and Sir Lucious.  The voters think Thank Me Later was better than both Big Boi's and Nas's latest?  This is about as ridiculous and sad as the "I'm gonna let you finish," by 'Ye just over a year ago.  Give me a break.  An album about how many girls an artist has had sex with and bragging about his newly found riches contains more substance than one that is uplifting, and brings hope to those in Africa and around the world?

It'd be one thing if Nas and Marley had one verse about helping Africa on one song, and then donated the profits (which they did to build schools in Africa), claiming that they had done an album rich with content.  But they didn't.  Not only did they make every track about their homeland and its problems, but their verses were written so intelligently as well.  If the album was just judged solely on how good Nas's delivery was, it's still better than Thank Me Later.  It's also an insult that Big Boi was looked over for this award.  Just because Big Boi sold less than Drake or B.o.B., doesn't mean his album wasn't as good or better.  Remember too that this was Big Boi's first solo album, as well as Drake's.  They were both debut albums and Sir Lucious, I can guarantee you, will still be listened to for years to come, while Thank Me Later has probably already been put on the back burner of the majority of iTunes out there.  The Adventures of Bobby Ray could be argued over Recovery or BP3 if you really, really want to push for B.o.B., but that's about it.  I would've still been upset if B.o.B. was nominated and Big Boi or Nas was excluded.  The wound wouldn't have hurt quite as bad though, if at least one of the two got a nomination over Drake.

The Grammy's have failed, yet again, to make their award one worth trying to earn for rappers today.  The incredible nominations of Drake's "Fancy", "Over", and Thank Me Later, as well as the absolute horrific idea of giving Ludacris any hardware for his year, cements this fact.  The Academy also proved to be inconsistent in it's nomination for "Power" for one category and not the other.  The biggest sin, however, had to be the Academy's failure to give not even one nomination to Nas & Damian Marley.

I'm sure that a good number of the adult population will watch the Grammy's in February.  They'll see mult-million dollar artists walk away with more hardware that they will be able to add to their already massive trophy cases.  They'll see performances by some of these popular artists and maybe even a wisecrack or pun here and there.  But what they'll also see is the supposed awards for "best music" be given to the ones who don't deserve them, and they won't even get a chance to hear the names of the ones who do. 

The Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys all seem to mean something to those who receive it.  When Bryan Cranston won his first ever "Best Actor for a Drama Series" in 2008 after being nominated three times previous, he was quoted as saying: "I guess [the Emmy voters] finally removed that restraining order on me,".  Steven Spielberg said about his Oscar for "Best Director" in 2006, that it was, "The greatest award I've ever received."  And even when Viola Davis won her second "Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Play" this year, she could barely finish her speech because of how emotional receiving the award made her.  But when lead singer Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam won the award for "Best Hard Rock Performance" in 1996, all he could say was, "I don't know what this means.  I don't think it really means anything."

Well said Mr. Vedder, well said.

Is CuDi Overrated?

What is alternative music?  Is it something that replicates a style, then adds a few changes?  What about if it's just something completely different in general?  Does it need to relate to the form of music it branches from?  Or is it a protest to how a particular form of music is made?

This is what KiD CuDi defines himself as.  He is an "alternative" artist.  His music is supposed to be "alternative hip-hop", not just rap.  CuDi emerged on the hip-hop scene in mid-2008 when he released A Kid Named CuDi, his first professional mixtape.  The tape gained the attention of Kanye West, who immediately requested to work with CuDi.  CuDi, real name Scott Mescudi, helped West write his eventual hit single "Heartless" and appeared as guest on "Welcome to Heartbreak" on West's 808's and Heartbreak.  Within just a few months of the 808's appearance, Mescudi released his first single "Day N' Nite" in February of 2009.  The track quickly gained popularity and rose to as high as #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year.  The song also gained a number of accolades, including two Grammy nominations and two more nominations from the BET Hip Hop Awards.  Mescudi followed the success of "Day N' Nite" with his debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, in September of 2009.  The album proved to be a significant achievement for the emerging artist, reaching Gold status by selling over 500,000 copies and meeting generally good reviews. 

It's safe to say that since this, except in the Cleveland area where he was already huge, Mescudi has been one of the most popular emcees that performs today.  He is set to release his second album, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager in just over a week.  Something has been bugging me of late, however.  The more I listen to CuDi's material, especially his recent tracks, I can't help but take a step back and check to see if I've been drinking too much of the CuDi kool-aid. . .and if everyone else has been doing the same thing.  My Ohio friends won't like to hear this, but is there a possibility that we've severely overrated CuDi to this point as a hip-hop emcee?  Should CuDi be looked upon as, what MTV obviously considers, one of the hottest MC's today?  Let's take a look at the CuDi dilema, just to see if I maybe am onto something. . .

- Okay, so first off, let me state that I'm pretty confident the majority of hip-hop listeners don't think CuDi is the greatest rapper ever or even close to being the best one today.  I also acknowledge that CuDi doesn't have near the fan base that an artist like Weezy has.  I'm pretty sure as well that CuDi doesn't intend to try to be the best.  He's stated that he loves the guitar more than rapping, so that should tell everyone he doesn't care about hip-hop a great deal.  So with all of these factors, should I even try to argue that he's overrated?

The answer is yes, and there's the first problem with CuDi.  CuDi earned the "lonely stoner" persona after his descriptions in "Day N' Nite" and the majority of Man on the Moon.  We look at CuDi and instantly feel for him.  He was an outcast in high school; the "class clown" as he describes on "My World ft. Billy Cravens".  Don't get me wrong, much of his music is personally and emotionally charged.  However, why aren't we critical of him like other artists such as Nas?  Think about it.  If Nas ever dropped the kind of rhymes that CuDi gets away with, he'd be crucified by the critics and hip hop faithful. 

Yet, when CuDi drops a song with maybe two actual lines of lyrics that even rhyme, we turn a blind eye.  If CuDi calls himself a rapper, shouldn't he be looked upon with the same standards other rappers have?  Sure, he has a different sound and CuDi's goals are certainly different than other emcees.  But he's still a hip hop artist first, making it unfair for us to give him a pass on rhymes that the rest of the artists today would never attempt, knowing that they were weak to begin with.  You want to tell me that "Mr. Rager" is a good hip hop song?  Constantly repeating the same hook with a three line verse thrown in between doesn't constitute a good song in any genre, especially hip hop.

- Okay, so if it's clear that CuDi lacks behind the rest of emcees in lyrical quality, why do people still love to listen to his music?  There's a couple reasons for this, but my guess is that production is the biggest.  CuDi's music, and this isn't debatable, is a stoner's dream.  It's spacey.  It makes you feel like your really on another planet.  It causes you to feel deeply on both an intellectual and emotional level.  It's these reasons that cause me to consistently come back and listen to his material.  However, what I've come to realize, is that CuDi's stuff is so good to replay is his beats.  After all, isn't that what most casual hip hop listeners look for?  They want to, as well as me, hear beats you can bang your head to.  You want to hear beats to get you pumped, or as in CuDi's case, to lay back and chill to.

It'd be one thing if CuDi produced most of his material.  But he doesn't.  On his latest album, Man on the Moon II, CuDi produced a grand total of one song.  On his debut album, he produced, you guessed it, one song.  Now, there's a lot of emcees who don't produce their own material (I'm not even sure if Jay-Z has ever produced a song of his own).  So if CuDi is like these artists who simply come into the studio to rap, why isn't he held to the same standard of criticism that we give Hova?  He may have a different style, but if that's the case, we shouldn't be calling CuDi a good rapper, but rather, a good artist in whatever genre he's created.

- See where this is going?  I'm not arguing that Mescudi isn't a great artist, I'm arguing that he's an overrated rapper.  What's amazing about Mescudi however, is that he actually is tremendously talented at rapping, he just doesn't focus this talent enough.  I'm going to cite the example of his first mixtape, A Kid Named CuDi, for my resource here.  It stands as the only body of work from Mescudi that I've actually heard him consistently rap on to date.  His track, "Down & Out", which uses a brilliant sample by producer Plain Pat from OutKast's "Chonkyfire", showcases CuDi's ability to rap to its fullest.  It's remained one of my favorite CuDi tracks to this point, and for good reason.  CuDi sounds confident and he's actually really, really good on his raps.  He's got a great delivery on it and he also sounds like he wants to prove something as an emcee.

So if CuDi has the ability to be a great emcee, where has this been in the past two years, especially this one?  CuDi clearly has been able to perform not in his "alternative" element and still sound good.  Is there any reason he won't go back to this?  There could be a couple answers to this question.  One is the influence of drugs.  CuDi has admitted that he was a coke addict and would use it to even just get through interviews.  He also is a well known heavy marijuana user, which could have caused him to want to come off more as the "lonely stoner" persona I mentioned earlier.  People have also embraced this persona, which could have caused CuDi to realize that he could get away with not having to rap seriously and still sell records and get critical praise.  With all the talent Mescudi has, it seems to me a waste for him to continue in the direction he's going.  We know he can rap, so why do we still give him praise for dropping very substandard lines?  Does CuDi even care?

- Which brings me to my biggest, and most concerning, reason why CuDi is overrated.  CuDi doesn't care about hip hop.  In fact, he wants to give it up entirely according to his recent claims.  CuDi has said he loves the guitar more and is planning on forming his own rock band, Wizard, in the upcoming months.  Whether he becomes the next Bruce Springsteen or Weezy (who failed miserably in his Rebirth project) doesn't matter to me.  What matters is that, as of today, CuDi is looked at by the public as a rapper first, rocker second.  That means we should still be critical of his hip hop material first, rather than how he does as an artist in general.  But if CuDi doesn't want to rap, then why should he?

This, to me, is the most frustrating part about CuDi.  He states that he doesn't care about rap, yet, he is about to release his second rap album.  If you don't want to keep rapping, that's fine.  But don't keep doing it when you don't care about it.  When I heard CuDi didn't even want to make a second rap album, it infuriated me.  WHY DID YOU MAKE IT IF YOUR HEART WASN'T THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?  You're basically telling your fans this:

"Hey guys, I'm going to give you what you want with another album.  Except, I don't really care about what music I'm putting on it, so it's probably not going to be what you were expecting.  In fact, it'll probably be pretty bad from a hip hop standpoint, but you know what, I DON'T GIVE A SHIT.  I know you'll just buy the album anyways and tell me how good I am because I have such a screwed up life and that the songs were inspiring and deep, even though I never cared about making them in the first place."

Sound harsh?  That's what it sounded like to me, anyways.  Not only is it a slap in the face to his hip hop fanbase, but to hip hop in general.  There are so many young men (& women) who would give anything to have the resources CuDi has to make music.  They would give up everything they had to get an opportunity to let the whole world hear how good they are behind the mic.  When CuDi says that he doesn't care about hip hop, but still makes an album regardless, it's arrogant and hurts hip hop as a music in general.  I'd much rather listen to an artist like Lupe, who seems to actually give a damn about what he puts on shelves (just listen to his most recent single "The Show Goes On").

I'll end with this.  I like CuDi's music.  "Down & Out" is one of my most played songs on iTunes, along with "Day N Nite" and "My World".  As I mentioned, I think the guy has a ton of talent and that his music is certainly nothing like I've ever heard before.  But, after taking a closer look into what CuDi's produced as an actual rapper, I have come to the conclusion that he is overrated to this point.  I will be very interested to hear what critics think of Man on the Moon II when it is released in just over a week from today.  I hope others will start to see my perspective, but I also realize I could be in the minority with this opinion as well.  All in all, CuDi may be the Man on the Moon, but until that Man understands what he is supposed to be doing, he'll be lost in the musical abyss when his legacy is finally written.