Best Rap, 2015
December 28, 2015 1:21 PM Subscribe
According to Andrew Noz
... and the year's best Slime (huh?). Lots of these could have appeared on the main list if only for the "one artist / one track" rule.
... and the year's best Slime (huh?). Lots of these could have appeared on the main list if only for the "one artist / one track" rule.
WHERE IS HEEMS
"Flag Shopping" is better than Earl Sandwiches' entire album.
posted by pxe2000 at 1:40 PM on December 28, 2015
"Flag Shopping" is better than Earl Sandwiches' entire album.
posted by pxe2000 at 1:40 PM on December 28, 2015
Previously in best rap of 2015.
Where is [artist]?
posted by naju at 2:01 PM on December 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
Where is [artist]?
posted by naju at 2:01 PM on December 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
Heems - Flag Shopping, Michael Christmas - Michael Cera (official video) and M.I.A. - Borders (official video) (random selection for the last two, 'cause I'm not sure which tracks to pick).
posted by filthy light thief at 2:03 PM on December 28, 2015
posted by filthy light thief at 2:03 PM on December 28, 2015
Happy to see some Vince Staples and it's a good pick, though Jump off the Roof is still lodged in my brain, months since I've heard it.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:10 PM on December 28, 2015
posted by filthy light thief at 2:10 PM on December 28, 2015
Love this list. Vince Staples' album is a knockout for me personally, with "Norf Norf" being on rotation constantly, but I gotta say his song "Summertime" is incredible and not a typical rap song.
My teachers told me we was slaves
My mama told me we was kings
I don't know who to listen to
I guess we somewhere in between
My feelings told me love is real
But feelings known to get you killed
My feelings if I miss it's true
I spend my moments missin' you
I'm searchin' for atonement, do I blame my darker tone?
I know somethings are better left unsaid and people left alone
Pick up the phone
Don't leave me alone in this cruel, cruel world
posted by gucci mane at 3:01 PM on December 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
My teachers told me we was slaves
My mama told me we was kings
I don't know who to listen to
I guess we somewhere in between
My feelings told me love is real
But feelings known to get you killed
My feelings if I miss it's true
I spend my moments missin' you
I'm searchin' for atonement, do I blame my darker tone?
I know somethings are better left unsaid and people left alone
Pick up the phone
Don't leave me alone in this cruel, cruel world
posted by gucci mane at 3:01 PM on December 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
"Flag Shopping" is better than Earl Sandwiches' entire album.
i don't like shit, i don't go outside is one of the most powerful musical statements on depression i have ever heard, and as far as hip hop there's very little even close (maybe 808s & Heartbreak). heems is going for something entirely different on this track, i don't get the comparison at all. but if we must make it: i have felt for a long time that as powerful as heems' message is on this track, his flow is fucking garbage. powerful lyrics but as far as being a "rap song" goes it pretty much fails.
and getting the name of the artist you're insulting wrong just makes it look like you didn't even give the record a chance.
posted by JimBennett at 5:35 PM on December 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
i don't like shit, i don't go outside is one of the most powerful musical statements on depression i have ever heard, and as far as hip hop there's very little even close (maybe 808s & Heartbreak). heems is going for something entirely different on this track, i don't get the comparison at all. but if we must make it: i have felt for a long time that as powerful as heems' message is on this track, his flow is fucking garbage. powerful lyrics but as far as being a "rap song" goes it pretty much fails.
and getting the name of the artist you're insulting wrong just makes it look like you didn't even give the record a chance.
posted by JimBennett at 5:35 PM on December 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
(Sampling a few random tracks, I have to admit that very little contemporary US rap works for me, but Vince Staples was an exception. Thanks for highlighting him.)
(Btw, someone lamented the lack of non-English stuff in the other thread, so going to use the opportunity to link to one of the best reviewed Swedish albums from this year, all categories: Erik Lundin's Suedi. The lyrics are insanely good (understanding the language helps, of course :-).)
posted by effbot at 6:44 PM on December 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
(Btw, someone lamented the lack of non-English stuff in the other thread, so going to use the opportunity to link to one of the best reviewed Swedish albums from this year, all categories: Erik Lundin's Suedi. The lyrics are insanely good (understanding the language helps, of course :-).)
posted by effbot at 6:44 PM on December 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
Man there's a lot of rap I never heard of, this is great!
posted by PHINC at 11:51 AM on December 29, 2015
posted by PHINC at 11:51 AM on December 29, 2015
I might've also included: Action Bronson (yeah, I'm white, also old), A$AP, Heems, Joey Bada$$, Open Mike Eagle, Pusha, Rapsody, Sean P, and Your Old Droog (you might even talk me into including some Blackalicious or Ghostface or J-Live, though those are partially nostalgia picks), and some stuff from Apollo Brown and Statik Selektah and DJ Efn's producer showcases (and some instrumental stuff from people like Alchemist and Knxwledge and Pete Rock (though if you want to argue that production and instrumental hip-hop are not rap, okay, I hear that).
Still, though, everything on this list I know is good or better, and, as I work through the list, the things I don't know have mostly been the same. It's a very good list.
posted by box at 5:30 AM on December 30, 2015
Still, though, everything on this list I know is good or better, and, as I work through the list, the things I don't know have mostly been the same. It's a very good list.
posted by box at 5:30 AM on December 30, 2015
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