2022 has been an impressive year in music so far. It feels like a culmination of a lot of the art that was created during the years of the pandemic is coming out swinging with new and exciting releases nearly every week. There has been highs and lows this year and I’m here to discuss some of them so that I can have some kind of purpose in life. Lets go.
Diving into some pure highlights and masterpieces I have experienced this year I would have to begin with Billy Woods’ “Aethiopes.” This album is immaculately produced by the legendary Preservation and if you’ve been paying attention at all in the last few years, Billy Woods is one of the most poignant and profound lyricists to ever grace a microphone. This album is no different. Woods slides seamlessly across the twisting and unpredictable creations of Preservation. The lyricism, like many of Woods projects, spans countless topics and rabbit holes of abstract thinking. The opening track “Asylum” features Woods diving into his time as a kid spent in Zimbabwe with his mother and father with his youthful belief that the tyrant ex-leader of Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam, was his next door neighbor. This creates an already mind bending concept before the listener has even had a chance to settle into their seat and maybe light a bowl of the finest pack. Woods goes on throughout this opener to detail the high gates and mysterious parties he would observe from the soaring peaks of the branches of his backyard tree. The album just seems to gain momentum as it runs on and Woods’ writing gets more and more existential and thought provoking. This is an incredible body of work as we’ve come to expect from the master that is Billy Woods.
On the other side of things. DRIZZYYY. Oh man what can I say, that shit was bogus. This 12.5 track intro to a great 21 Savage verse almost broke me. Two songs, two of them, had a sample of a bed squeaking which was appropriate because my ears were getting fucked. It’s pretty impressive for an artist to release back to back to back to back poorly done and uninspired albums but the champagne papi managed it. Maybe this year I just haven’t really been in an upbeat mood but “Honestly, Nevermind” made me even more depressed than I already was. I go outside a lot but I don’t dance. y’know? I just post up outside. I really enjoyed being told to go touch grass on the internet for not enjoying this though. I’m sure that Drake will get his obligatory Grammy or he will pull the self righteous move of not submitting his work for consideration. He’s a bit too cool and successful for award shows. She say she a lesbian girl me too. I know that’s from his last album but I’ll be damned if I can remember a single moment on this entire new one besides 21 Savage calling me a pussy which really gets me going usually. Sweet let’s continue.
I got put on more aggressively than I ever have in my life a few months ago to SUPER NACK MAN!!! NACKMANDELA!! The warping and seemingly-LSD infused music of Estee Nack and Al.Divino. I would have been tapped in to these two a long time ago on the level I am if the music was a bit easier to access. I’ve known of Estee Nack for a while now ever since hearing him on Westside Gunn’s “Hitler Wears Hermes 7” on the legendary track ‘Banana Yacht.’ However, most of these guys best projects and real life magnum opuses are on Bandcamp and I was blessed with a little link to quite a few of them (shhhhhhhh) Nack and Divino have released some insane collaborations together such as “The Door,” and “Abracadabra, Alakazam,” but this year Nack teamed up with frequent producer collaborator and underground legend Sadhugold to craft one of the most potent rap albums I have ever heard in all my days. The production leans on primarily drumless which allows Nack all of the space in the world to craft aggressive and bending rhyme schemes full of grimy, dusty, drug dealing prophecies.
Big K.R.I.T. Came with an album that was disappointing coming from the man who crafted some of the finest songs of the 2010’s. He took a genre bending detour with his newest (solo) offering “Digital Roses Don’t Die” into a softer more R&B side of things; please do not get me twisted, I will always be a huge fan of great R&B music but I just do not feel like it is Krit’s lane. There were still some really cool songs on here like ‘Boring’ and ‘Southside of the Moon’ but a lot of the project felt a bit flat and weirdly, bored me at certain times. It was also pretty strange a lot of the tracks are censored for no apparent reason. I specified this as his newest solo offering because K.R.I.T did put out some great content on his later released collaboration with Wiz Khalifa and Smoke DZA produced by Girl Talk titled, “Full Court Press.”
I heard some experimental pop/R&B this year that was dope as hell. Rosalia released a pretty industrial and fast paced album with “MOTOMAMI,” and Kilo Kish released and album that had my entire body spasming in my bed, tweaking in my crib out of pure bliss, geeked up off an angelic woman’s vocals type shit. The album is called “American Gurl,” by the way sorry shit gets kinda hazy when I start to think about it for too long. Another one that had me ascending in the crib was Ravyn Lenae’s newest album titled, “Hypnos.” This one was definitely crafted off lots of psilocybin because I was feeling the vibrations. The song with Smino on there is a must listen track from this year in my opinion.
One of my favorite rappers of all time released another great album. Earl Sweatshirt popped out in January with “Sick!” I honestly believe that since Some Rap Songs and forward Earl took the obvious influences from the sLums collective, (Standing on the Corner, MIKE, and affiliates like Navy Blue, etc.) but the idea of creating an album that runs less than 30 minutes but is somehow still packed to the brim with substance and interesting beats and random infectious quotables had to have been inspired by the great Mach-Hommy, the master of perfecting the short album. Sick! is a quick 24 minute dive into Earl’s headspace as of late and it’s a fairly positive one luckily. There are bleak moments spread throughout but Earl seems to be happier than ever on this new album and that can be seen as a success within itself. It’s a bonus that the songs are great and Earl’s pen is as sharp as ever. Wouldn’t complain if his next project leaned on 40 minutes though, can’t get enough of this guy.
Westside Boogie and Saba… their albums were great and worth many listens. They both crafted a heavy and thoughtful body of work while also keeping it accessible and easy to listen to on a nice date with your bong around 5-6pm. Success in my book. Denzel Curry also released what is likely his best project to date. It’s incredibly mature yet there’s still folks out there that want this guy to devolve and go back to screaming shit like , “JIZZ BOSS MAKE HER DRINK THE CUM SAUCE.”
That was really unnecessary; that’s just a top 3 bar of all time so it had to make an appearance:( (its on ‘Ice Age’ off 32 Zen btw :()
Yeat came and went I apologize if you are still a die hard Yeat fan like I was 3 weeks ago aghhh
Oh man underrated project alert. “2 P’Z IN A POD” by Larry June and Jay Worthy produced by LNDN DRGS is an outstanding summery west coast album. It includes some stellar features from Ceelo Green and Roc Marciano as well as some of the bounciest production of the year, please don’t bring up Drake right now.
Boldy James and Real Bad Man kept the Griselda train moving in between Benny’s outstanding “Tana Talk 4” and the upcoming “Peace ‘Fly’ God” coming later tonight from Westside Gunn. There are so many Griselda releases this year already I don’t have the energy at the moment to detail all of them for you so just listen to them, lazy fuck. They are all good okay? But I will discuss “Killing Nothing,” from Boldy James and the new force to be reckoned with in the production world, Real Bad Man. This is a gritty noir-esque album full of gloomy beats and the usual barbaric and vile street poems that Boldy James can always be counted on to push forward and break new ground with. ‘Bo Jack (Miller Light)’ and ‘Hundred Ninety Bands’ are two of the best songs of the year and a top songs in Boldy’s catalog.
Kendrick Lamar released another project that I suppose must be discussed. This is, by all means, a great album filled with great songs, however it left my daily rotation unusually fast for a rapper with as much stature and relevance as Kendrick. I revisit it fairly often but I am rarely struck with the inspiration to go listen to the whole things front to back. This was necessary in Kendrick’s discography, a plea from him to the world to relent on a man they’ve randomly volunteered to save music (and society) to a certain extent with the impact he’s made throughout the years to spread positivity and share real pain with millions of listeners. Sonically there are some great moments on this album it just lacks consistency slightly enough that I can usually only listen to one side or the other of this double album offering. ‘Father Time,’ is one of the best songs of the year and ‘Silent Hill’ is a banger, I didn’t take as much egregious offense to Kodak Black’s presence on the album as others did, but I get it. I also really love the three track run in the beginning and ‘Worldwide Steppers’ is ill as fuck. Good job Kendrick, though I will bump his previous albums before I head to this one, it is still better than the vast majority of what is getting released these days.
Listen to Quelle Chris. There is a real experience to be had on his new album, “Deathfame.” Quelle has always been quietly putting out thoughtful and prolific bodies of work and his newest is no exception.
This year my life has been graced with some great live music as well, just to take a little detour from what I’ve been typing about for two hours now. I was able to see the NBA Leather Tour with Alchemist, Earl Sweatshirt, Boldy James, and Action Bronson (who also released another great album this year, FUCK, there is too much). I was anointed by the FLYGOD himself at the Griselda tour, caught the first show of Denzel Curry’s Melt My Eyes Tour, and I randomly decided to go see Babyface Ray on a Wednesday which turned out to be pretty dope.
I think I might call this one for now, might throw out a few proper length reviews for some albums later this week or next. STREAM NAMIR BLADE.
Peace to your mental,
STEVE
The First Spin 