With 4 Your Eyez Only, J. Cole deserves consideration for tugging at the heartstrings of listeners with raw human emotion but still leaves open the door to reach a musical zenith.
Although the unconventional song structures and ostensibly clashing influences may create an unsettling experience for some, this is Hip Hop’s most sonically focused project since Kendrick’s To Pimp a Butterfly.
Bestowed with more responsibility and creative control than ever before, Rocky curates and entertains listeners, exercising self-analyzation, and implementing the usage the young talent outside of the mob’s immediate cypher.
There is now a cavern between what Kendrick does and what everyone else does. His lane, his sound, is a roaring train with only he and his team as passengers.
His highly anticipated debut album The Healing Component serves as a 15-track showcase of youthful positivity.
The Hamilton Mixtape is an enthralling musical journey through American history that manages to stay relevant to our country’s turbulent political landscape.
Such menacing musical backdrops, coupled with Ka’s hushed, raspy tone, ultimately imbue Honor Killed The Samurai with a quietly fearsome vibe which never lets up over the course of the album’s 10 tracks.
And the Anonymous Nobody is an album that, though lacking in congruence, displays De La’s staying power.
Back and better than ever are the spaced-out blues he demonstrated on Cilvia Demo, and even if Shad’s slurred bars suffer from hints of attention deficit, he scales scat-riddled verses more smoother than any TDE artist not named Cornrow Kenny.
1992 showcases some of the strongest storytelling of his career.
Still Brazy is a testament that real-life experience breeds the best music but we can do without the shootouts from this point on. We need you alive YG to fully realize your potential because it's nothing short of incredible.
At times profound and others, utterly confusing, the 16-track opus gets denser with every listen. All the while, Soulo becomes more lyrically proficient than he’s ever been on top of some of the darkest production in 2016 raposphere.
While Oxymoron balanced chutzpah and remorse with the maturity of a gang banger who has made it out, Blank Face LP sees Q almost fully immersing himself into his old world, brazen and remorseless.
He seems to have complete control over the proverbial dance floor, switching up tempos to match the crowd’s mood throughout the 15-track album; this prevents 99.9% from feeling bloated and is yet another reason Kaytranada’s debut album is a resounding success.
Pablo could easily be confused for a collaborative album. It’s as if Ye said, “OK, ya’ll tired of hearing me rant? Well listen to how dope the rest of your favorite artists sound when Kanye is conducting.”
Through thick and thin, Tribe embodies the fully fleshed out idea of the Hip Hop their impassioned audience clamors for: work that’s soulful, thought provoking, and gripping enough to transport minds away from strife to another world sonically.