<div align="center">Top 10 Rap Albums of 2013</div>
10. Colour de Grey by Uptown XO
Spangs: Uptown XO is an unknown rapper from Washington, DC, yet he certainly deserves a lot more publicity. His music can certainly be categorized as "conscious hip hop" and his emphasis on lyrics is admirable. There are faults in this album, but that is to be expected given his small stature. The album certainly sounds a step below the mainstream releases and the hooks, at times, can leave a bit to be desired, but on the whole, in a year with a select few good releases in hip hop, Uptown XO provides us with a solid release that gives hope for the future for him. A fantastic starting point for a young rapper, Colour de Grey is worth a listen or two. On the bright side, even if you don't like it, you can say, "I heard of him before he became popular".
Spangs: After making his name well-known in hip hop circles with the release of criticially acclaimed mixtapes such as Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmusic and Baby Face Killa, as well as his collaborations with Statik Selektah and Madlib, Freddie Gibbs finally released his debut album ESGN. Sadly, it is is not as good as the mixtapes before it, but it still provides fans of Gangsta Gibbs with everything they have come to expect. Known for his hard hitting trap influenced production and his gangster rap lyrics, Gibbs provides songs such as "Freddie Soprano" and "Eastside Moonwalker", where he flexs those gangster muscles and shows everyone just how hard he is. But, much like Tupac (I personally see a lot of similarities between the two), he is not afraid to get a bit more personal, as he does on tracks such as "I Seen a Man Die" and "Lose Control". One of the main negatives for this album is the features from a lot of unknown guys (as with most Gibbs releases) and some of are just not good rappers at all, in addition to the length (19 tracks), which leads to a lot of filler. However, if you're been fiending for some gangsta rap in the year 2013, look no further than Gangsta Gibbs himself.
Josh: This is Drakes third studio album and he once again drops one of the most socially aware and introspective albums of the year. Is it better than either of his previous efforts? No. Is it still very solid? Absolutely. Drake is still a much better singer than he is a rapper but his raping is much improved. Tuscan Leather, The Motion and Started from the Bottom are some of his best songs from a rapper standpoint. He is also backed by some real solid production from 40 and some decent guest spots. The stand out track is definitely Hold On, We’re Going Home as it showcases Drakes good RnB vocals and his ability to craft a great song. An overall solid album.
Spangs: Having drawn comparisons to Wu-Tang Clan favorite Ol' Dirty Bastard due to his wacky delivery, Danny Brown sort of went away with that style on his latest release, Old. In many ways, that makes this album his most accessible. Of course, some tracks do have Brown's trademark delivery, but for much of the album, he's simply rapping "normally", allowing for further appreciation of just how good a rapper he truly is. Of course, there are plenty of silly punchlines and bars about pussy (or whole songs a la "Handstand"), so you can truly tell this is a Danny Brown album regardless of the delivery he uses. However, with Brown straying from the style his fans loved, he certainly risks alienating those fans with Old after coming to expect a certain type of music from Danny after his popular albums The Hybrid and XXX.
Josh: This album came as a slight surprise as Ghostface Killa hadn’t done much of substance in a while. Then this masterpiece dropped. This is a concept album through and through and features Ghost spitting hard bar after hard bar. It also gets some great guest features from the usual suspects such as Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa. However, the hero of this entire album is the production from Adrian Young. This shit literally sounds like a movie score, featuring lush strings and sleek piano, while also retaining that east coast boom bap sound that Ghost is famous for.
Spangs: Introduced to the world on Jay-Z's "A Star Is Born" off of Blueprint 3, J. Cole has quickly become one of the most popular rappers around nowadays. His mixtapes, The Come Up, The Warm Up. and Friday Night Lights are frequently cited as being of album quality without a doubt. Yet, his actual debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story was heavily criticized as having many tracks that fall flat over time and being, gasp, boring. Luckily, Born Sinner avoids many of the potholes that its predecessor hit. Largely produced by J. Cole himself, the production is solid throughout and as expected, J. Cole's bars do not fall flat for much of the album (there are some cringe worthy lines, however). In addition, his hook game seems to be much approved with tracks such as "Forbidden Fruit", "Crooked Smile" and "Born Sinner" all featuring A+ hooks. Personally, I think the "boring" issue has been fixed, but I have certainly seen a lot of opinions to the contrary. The album, as mentioned, does manage to hit some potholes, namely the ***** lines on "Villuminati" which are cringe worthy beyond belief, the entire track "She Knows", and though a good song, dedicating a whole song to how you "Let Nas Down" is a poor decision at best (as was having a Kendrick feature and not securing a verse from him). Far from perfect, Born Sinner is the closest J. Cole has come to living up to hype bestowed upon him before his debut album hit stores.
4. Things That Happen at Day / Things That Happen at Night by Milo
Josh:From the second “Sweet Chin Music’s†shallow, chilled beat came in, I knew I was in for an experience. Milo comes off as very self deprecating while remaining very introspective and aware. Firstly, the production is just great. It is very different from most hip-hop. It has a much lighter and aiery sound to it which allows Milo to spit. And boy does he. This man is very smart. He has such clever wordplay and a unique voice that is hard to believe that virtually no one knows who he is. He has a philosophical edge with a pop culture punch to his verses which results in him being this high on the list.
Josh: Run the Jewels is my personal favorite rap album of the year and for good reason. Killa Mike and El-P blend two completely different flows to produce one of the tightest and cohesive project of this entire calendar year. Killa Mike presents his straight to point flow with simplified but still hard hitting rhymes, “I’ll pull this pistol, put it on your poodle or your fuckin baby/She clutched the pearls, said “What in the world†and “I won’t give up shitâ€/I put the pistol on that poodle and I shot that bitchâ€, while El-P uses witty metaphors to paint a great rap picture. There are no songs on this album that are filler and all serve a purpose, most of which is to show two of the best spitters in the game. There is really no flaws with this album minus some production and should be heralded as one of the best rap albums ever.
Josh: “I’m just Painting these drug dealer Picassos†– Pusha T on Only You Can Tell It.
Pusha-T’s albums timeline infuriated the fuck out of me. It got delayed 3 or 4 times and with each subsequent push, I thought it would never drop. But then it did, and man was it brilliant. Pusha T is the hardest dude currently in the game and he tells his life like nobody else can. He is backed by a bunch of hard beats and smooth ass samples (see the two Kanye samples on this album). He also takes adventurous routes for his beats even getting Joaquin Phoenix to produce the opening track “King Pushâ€. Pusha once again drops the cocaine verse like nobody else is able to. His metaphors and imagery is amazing. This is the best gangster rap type album since Get Rich or Die Tryin and that is a huge compliment. Pusha-T hasn’t dropped a bad product yet and like his drug dealing abilities, his music abilities are pure as fuck.
Spangs: While Yeezus may not be Kanye's best album (that title goes to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy released in 2010), it certainly sums up everything that Kanye truly is. Throughout his career, his experimentation has been well-documented (popularizing autotune through his 2008 release 808's and Heartbreak) and bragadocious. Here, we get both of those on full blast. With Yeezus, Kanye plays with heavy electro, acid house, and dancehall sounds and the results are jarring. Extraordinarily dark, the production on Yeezus truly sets the tone for the entire album as a whole. With any Kanye album, you expect some braggadacio raps and you get a whole song full of it in "I Am A God", which features the big man himself. The album was met with critical acclaim from critics, but has divided fans over the approach taken by Lord Yeezus. Honestly, it is impossible to describe this album without having you listen to it. Without hyping it too much, it is honestly something everyone has to experience at least once, even if you don't like it that much. Be ready to feel uncomfortable, shocked, and confused at the hands of Yeezus.
We considered a few other albums though for the top 10, including MCHG. We also considered MMLP2, Indicud, Long Live ASAP, and Flying Colors. Personally, I wanted MMLP2 and Indicud in here, but JT hated both, haha.
Quote:Originally posted by Spangle@Nov 24 2013, 09:08 PM We considered a few other albums though for the top 10, including MCHG. We also considered MMLP2, Indicud, Long Live ASAP, and Flying Colors. Personally, I wanted MMLP2 and Indicud in here, but JT hated both, haha.
Mmlp2 was mediocre for the most part a few really good songs but some absolute trash
Thank you to My boys @Merica and @Ragnar for the lovely sigs!
Quote:Originally posted by Spangle@Nov 24 2013, 09:08 PM We considered a few other albums though for the top 10, including MCHG. We also considered MMLP2, Indicud, Long Live ASAP, and Flying Colors. Personally, I wanted MMLP2 and Indicud in here, but JT hated both, haha.
I knew JT wouldn't put it on, but I liked MMLP2 and would've made it #10 probably. Long Live ASAP and Indicud are honorable mentions to me considering the other ones here. And seeing Born Sinner at 5 is awesome to me, because I definitely love J.Cole just wasn't sure how others felt about him.
An old man's dream ended. A young man's vision of the future opened wide. Young men have visions, old men have dreams. But the place for old men to dream is beside the fire.
BasedMinkus![[Image: UptownXO_ColourDeGrey.jpg]](http://www.okayplayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/UptownXO_ColourDeGrey.jpg)
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