Good evening my friends and (mostly) haters! 2019 is here already! Time
really does fly. We’re all one year older, and we move one year closer
to the end of Mr. Spray-tan-man’s Presidency (Fingers crossed). This is
the time for those good old New Years resolutions. What are yours? Mine
are to have my Bank account balance, relationship with God and my
knowledge all increase in 2019.
2018 was quite the year in music. With
that being said, I’ve listed my top five albums. We'll start with some honorable
mentions mixed in there for you all to hate and disagree with me on. Here we go, the Dr. Is IN:
Honorable mentions (these albums were iight but not john blaze s**t)
J.
Cole KOD,
Lil Wayne Carter V,
Lil Baby & Gunna -
Drip Harder (There you
go
Ron),
Conway Blakk Tape
Ok now to the top five albums of 2018.
5)
Jay Rock -
Redemption
A lot of y’all may have slept on this album.
Well I’m the alarm clock. I’ve been a fan ever since I first heard him
on
Money Trees from
GKMC (you know, Kendrick’s BEST ALBUM BY FAR?). I’m a
big comeback/redemption (no pun intended) story guy so when I heard he
was in a really bad accident and almost died I was even more interested
to hear his new joint. He’s always sounded battle-hardened, but on this
album he gives the term a whole new meaning. Whether it’s alongside
Future on
King's Dead or Absolutely holding his own with K Dot on
Wow Freestyle. The man can rock with the best. Also, GO LISTEN to the title track, Redemption
with
SZA. If it doesn’t hit you square in the chest, you the tin man.
PERIOD. If you need a amp- up song for the gym/whatever, look NO
further than
Win. Round of applause, Jay.
4)
Cardi B -
Invasion of Privacy
Not gonna lie, for some mysterious
reason or another I LOVE CARDI, and it’s not because I find her
attractive (quite the opposite). Personally she’s WAYYYYY too ratchet for
my taste. Still I LOVE her, she’s the type of chick I’d love to hit the
bar/booty club with after. She seems like a ton of fun to act up with, and she’s REAL. She’s been the exact same way since she first popped up
on Love and Hip Hop. Gotta respect that. To be honest I didn’t mind the
album. I was loving that old school 3-6 sample on
Bickenhead (and y’all
know I LOVE me some old 3-6 mafia/Project Pat). I was getting my
bachata on all summer to
I Like It that song was FUEGO to me.
Be
Careful sounded like a super ratchet
Mary J. Bilge ladies anthem in
2018. This wasn’t an all time great album but to be honest it was very well
produced and sequenced, and it was a great mix of her strengths. Keep up
the good work Bardi.
3)
Pusha T -
Daytona
There’s an old saying “less is more." In the era of
bloated album tracklists on streaming services to inflate sales, the
quality/quantity ratio is at an all time low. With that being said, King
Push delivered a lean, mean killing-machine of an album. It’s brevity
is matched only by its viscerally. He attacked with sharp lyrics and the best
Kanye West
aka the modern day Uncle Tom’s production in YEARS. That’s the ONLY
props you’ll see me give him, and you all know why. From
If You Know You Know to
What Would Meek Do, Pusha Ton puts on a clinic. Then
there’s
Infared the track that proves that beef is chess NOT checkers
to Push. To Aubrey, it was obviously the other way around. I’ll always
want Push on Pharrell/Neptunes beats, but this s**t was extremely hot.
In a different year it might have been my favorite album.
2)
Nipsey Hussle - Victory Lap
Another album that you may have slept on
since it dropped very early in 2018. I’ve been a Nipsey fan for almost a
decade (since the
Bullets Ain’t Got No Name series). He’s the rare case of
an artist consistently making forward progress on his albums. This was
his debut album, and that’s because he TOOK HIS TIME AND DID IT HIS WAY.
He waited until he got the right deal with a major label (people don’t
know but he’s a very sharp business man). He carefully selected the
producers, engineers and artists for his album.That process results
in a ultra hi-def cinematic representation of his life and times. From
his West coast version of
Hate Me Now on
Rap N****s to the soulful
Million While You Young to the
Hard Knock life sampling
Hussle and
Motivate, Neighborhood Nip achieved a rare feat: an album that was worth
the long wait and then some.
1)
Meek Mill - Championships
I don’t think there’s been an artist worthy
of back-to-back album of the year distinction since Joe Camel made The
Dynasty then the Blueprint in ‘00-‘01. It’s SUPER tough to do. But cot
dammit Meek did it. He had the
album of the year in ‘18 with Wins and Losses. Coming off a prison stint with his future in the balance and
the spotlight squarely on him, he absolutely nails it again. My last
Ransom Review was about this album so I won’t say the same stuff again,
but the bottom line is this project was great on all 3 levels of album
grading: Sound, Content and Lyrics. Just go listen to the album if you haven't already. Sure
there were one or two misfires on there, but no artist is
perfect. Hey
@Carretta24, to think I once called meek “Basura!" You were
right. Very rarely am I wrong about an artist, and even more rarely am I
happy I was wrong about an artist. No album was better overall in 2018.
Dassit
There you have it, my musical class of 2018. I can feel the hate and
disagreements from all the way up here at the top. Like the Emperor in
Return of the Jedi said “Good! let the hate flow through you!” until next
time, I wish (most of you) all a happy and blessed 2019!
Mr. Ransom
Founder/Chief Editor of WTM. MultiMedia Journalist. On-Air Personality. Disc Jockey. Podcast and Event Host. . God Fearer. Son. Brother. Friend and Founder of WTM. I like to talk about stuff and write it down. Sometimes to a microphone. Either way, I need you to feel this.
Instead of the long winded rant. Ramsey explains the confusion. In 2019, what do music blogs even do? Are they part of the blame for the way the music industry is? Press play to listen to the (not quite) angsty music blogger and journalist's response. I made a mention of an article written by @BigSto. I think you should check it out and read it here.
