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.
No comments:
Post a Comment