Staff Picks AOTY 2015 - @Natural_Nation

So first let me start off by saying that I find lists a bit silly. A majority of the time it's an inaccurate depiction of a vast sample size. I've heard a sliver of all of the music released this year and yet I'm supposed to judge who's music is better than the other. So I can only rate the work of rappers that I've heard.

Number 5: Barter 6, Young Thug/ Sremm Life, Rae Sremmurd

Yeah I'm cheating, but I can't help it. The Barter 6 and Young Thug are my guilty pleasures for 2015. I actually listened to the Barter 6 more than any other album this year.. I'll admit I didn't expect much from him at all. I summed him up to a two to three song fad. But honestly the overall production of the album was really dope. I blasted this album in my car all summer, all fall, and it's still hanging on. But, there’s really no denying the success of the shrimp boys. SremmLife is mainly making my list due to its popularity, it was too big to ignore. This is not an album you listen to if you want to be blown away by lyrical content. But the style of rap that we've heard in 2015 puts this album near the top and for many people in the top 3. I happened to absolutely hate the last song. I thought it was a lame attempt to appeal to the masses but that aside it was the party album of the year. When it comes to these two I am honestly not able to separate my bias so I’ll let you choose for me.

Number 4: If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late

Drake has yet to disappoint when it comes to music, almost since the beginning of his career.  Whether it’s mixtapes, singles, albums, the man is currently one of the greatest. Period. And this is coming from an individual who has always found him to be a crybaby. The amount of music Drake has showered his fans with this past year was unmatched. It started to get to the point where it was hard for me to keep track of what he released and who's song he was featured on. The man single handedly made a word famous. How many of ya’ll ( outside of the south) knew what a woe was before Drake?...I’ll wait. Don’t lie, most of ya’ll thought it was a ho with a 'W'. This is the album all Drake fans will refer to when he decides to tone it down and sing a few more melodies again. It was an album you could bump in your car. It was Drake unapologetic, a man who spit with conviction and gumption. He definitely poked out his chest with this one. 

Number 3: The Incredible True Story

The thing I love and appreciate about Logic is that (so far) he always comes with great production, flow, and content. He is successful at creating exactly what an album should sound like; a collective body of music that flows from beginning to end.  This album was a story. On this sophomore project we again hear familiar references to Quentin Tarantino and Frank Sinatra. We also get insight on his issues with the way he is viewed in the rap industry based off of his race. Logic is solid and anyone who says otherwise is childish. The sample near the end on track 18 spoke to me immediately. The way the album phased out alone snatches the third spot from Drake.

"But its absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like, and to teach our children to follow in the same track...therefore it’s so important to consider the question: What do i desire?"

Number 2: Dark Sky Paradise

Dark Sky Paradise!!! Let us address the thoroughness of this one. Big Sean once again brought his A game with the creation of his 3rd album. This is one of those artists where  took me a while to appreciate them. I remember hearing his voice on the radio allll the time. I was always asking, "who is that?”  Sure enough, every time I didn't know who the artist was, it was Big Sean. Eventually it got to the point where all I could hear was his voice and I had his music on repeat. Dark Sky Paradise is definitely some of  the best collection of work I have heard from him so far. It's awesome to see and hear the progression of his music up to this point. He's working hard and it shows in his music. And I don't care what anyone says, Paradise was one of the best rap songs of 2015. It will probably go down as one of the best songs in his career. The album does not disappoint in any area. I wouldn't feel right giving this spot to anyone else but Big Sean, not even Logic.

Number 1: To Pimp A Butterfly

Okay, I mean I guess this may be an argument to some people but uh...not to me. Kendrick Lamar grabs the #1 spot without question. To Pimp A Butterfly claims the throne because it was an instant classic...in hip-hop history. This album easily joins the likes of other great rap albums like The Chronic, Life After Death, All Eyez on Me, Aquemini, etc. etc. etc.. It's going to be timeless and for that, it automatically becomes best rap album of 2015. This is the product of a creative mind not stuck in the boundaries of the "2015 sound". This is what happens when you study your craft, pay homage to the oldies, and approach with a listening ear not consumed by ego and pride. The progression of the album was genius. The features were perfect and the musical influence of the album flowed from beginning to end. It was the only piece of artwork I listened to all year.... and I don't really see how he could top this album. If he retired now he would already have two of the best rap albums in the past 3 years. One of the greatest in my generation, album of the year goes to King Kendrick.

Honorable mentions

Travis Scott: Rodeo

Lupe Fiasco: Tetsuo & Youth

Wale: Album About Nothing

Staff Picks AOTY 2015 - @AQueens_Crown

2015 has been a crazy one for me, and I wouldn’t have gotten thru some it without music. So here is my top 5 of the best of the best in music this year.

Number five: Drake - If You're Reading This Its Too Late

Yes it’s a album!

As the kids would say, Drake’s IYRTITL went HARD! Drake was much more aggressive on this album compared to the others. Maybe he was tired of the jokes, who knows, but the Drake we have seen since this album dropped has been a beast. “Is that your world tour, or your girls tour” I don’t even have to say anything else, and I already know you’re picturing your favorite meme.You heard the aggressive tone on tracks 6PM In New York and 6 God. He spit raw bars into some of these tracks. He didn’t sing on this album that I know many expected. One of lines where Drake is letting you know how they feel comes fom Engery "I got rap niggas that I gotta act like I like. But my actin’ days are over, fuck them niggas for life." 

Number four: Ty Dolla $ign- FreeTC

I was honestly surprised with how much I liked this album. Granted Ty Dolla $ign leans more on the R&B side of things. He often crosses into the rap genre so I was expecting more rap. However, you get a nice medley of his voice and feels of old school R&B. Horses in the Stable is one of my favorites. Mirale/Wherever ft TC & d-Loc was another song that was nice to listen too. Even though you can tell the features were done behind prison walls, it doesn’t take away from TC’s amazing voice.

Number three: Chance the Rapper, Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment - Surf

Overall, this was a fun album. Filled with great features such as Big Sean, KYLE, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, and many more. I know many look as this project as the work of Chance the Rapper, but its not. This comes from the great minds of Donnie Trumpet and The Social Experiment. Think of them as similar to The Roots if you need a reference point. It's hard to find a track that I didn’t like on this album. The whole thing is filled with smart lines, beautiful instrumentals, and uplifting messages like on Wanna Be Cool, about being yourself, or Sunday Candy, an ode to Grandmas everywhere.

Number two: Wale - The Album About Nothing

This is the album I have always wanted from Wale.  Going with the same theme as his most popular mixtapes  The Mixtape About Nothing and The More About Nothing. Wale enlists the help of stand up comedian  Jerry Seinfeld  to narrate the album.  They talk about love, drugs, and just life in general. I wish Wale was appreciated more as an artist. His viewpoint on all things life have always been expressed in his work, but with this album I felt like it was really delivered properly. The Girls on Drugs was a great song about, as the title suggests, girls on drugs. It describes a cautionary tale of a woman's battle with pills. I hope Wale continues to deliver and be received by old and new fans to come.

Number one: Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly

Everyone is lying if they say Kendrick didn’t have one of the best albums of the year. To Pimp a Butterfly is a milestone in the history of hip hop. I cant descried the album anything less than beautiful. The theme of black empowerment, which ran throughout the whole album, heard clearly in Complexion. I cherished the poetry in These Walls, Kendrick speaking on different types of “walls” and what they mean for the person.  I know when the first single i was released, people didn’t really like it, but it set he tone of Kendrick’s mindset when making this album. In u he faces his own demons as a black man, that is suddenly thrust into the spotlight. Feeling like everyone is changing, causing him to question his faith. A place I am sure people can relate to. If you haven’t already or even if you already listened go give the album a listen, make sure you listen carefully.

Staff Picks AOTY 2015 - @Maryyy_UK

It seems like we are getting hip hop back. We must be because it was actually difficult to pick my top five albums for this year. There were a lot of albums with a lot of different sounds. Sometimes I think music can blend so much that they're aren't specific genres any more. This can be a positive thing, because it enhances the community of the music world, but it can also make artists not stand out. The albums in my top five were able to find a way to stand out among the crowd, especially for their quality.

 #5 The Album About Nothing - Wale 

Wale’s Album About Nothing received some criticism when it first came out. it sold pretty well, but some people thought the piece was boring. I disagree. While it’s not trap music, and it doesn't have many club beats in it, is was very well-crafted. I love the way that even though it’s a album about nothing in particular, it has the common Seinfeld theme (which is a show about nothing, for non-Seinfeld watchers out there). His single, The Matrimony featuring Usher, was well received by audiences. He also had J. Cole in The Pessimist. This track was the realest sh*t he ever wrote to be honest. He and Cole list the reasons why our people are feeling hopeless, and most of them are pretty relevant to now. “If a nigga kill a nigga he another statistic, but if his skins a little different they gonna say it was self defense, a nigga feeling hopeless.” Sza, and Stokley Williams are also featured on the album. It’s definitely not the album that listen to before you go out Friday night, but like the show Seinfeld, it has classic moments that we can all relate too, and sometimes laugh about.
4.0 out of 5.0


 #4 If You're Reading This It’s Too Late. - Drake 

 WITH MY WOES! sorry, I had to do it.

Just when we thought Drake was getting too soft, he gives us this album. I’m not going to pretend that I wasn't a fan of his emotional pop stuff; Take Care was my album, but not everyone was on board with that. He gave the people who say, Drake doesn’t rap a reason to shut up. In No Tellin’ he says “Please do not speak to me like I'm that Drake from four years ago, I’m at a higher place/ Thinking they lions and tigers and bears, I go hunting/ Put heads on my fireplace." Yup its clear that Drake is in a different place now. He’s not all hard, but this more aggressive side he is showing is waking people up. This isn't the new Drake, this is the real Drake, and he is taking control of his own sound.
4.25 out of 5.0


 #3 Tetsuo and Youth - Lupe Fiasco 

As a Lupe fan, I was satisfied with this album. It was about a three year wait between this and his previous album, Food and Liquor II, but it was well worth the wait. His second track, Mural, is what had everyone talking. Eight minutes of rap; no chorus, bridge, or even another person featuring. It was just Lupe and the beat. Even if you hated what he said in the track, anyone would respect the ability to actually flow for that long. But I loved it. It was what a mural would sound like: different images that are seemingly independent, but in the end create a masterpiece. But that wasn't the only song that was great. There is this amazing religious imagery in songs like Madonna, Adoration of the Magi, and They.Resurrect.Over.New, that connect to faces you see in your neighborhood. Dots & Lines probably has the most intelligent and well crafted lines in a rap. This is a treat for you who like math and rap. I’m not even a numbers person, but I respected the hell out of it. Lupe also incorporated the youth in the seasons interludes, showing how kids would see each one. This was an intricate construction of an album, no wonder it took him three years.
4.4 out of 5.0


 #2 Summertime '06 - Vince Staples 

The up-and-coming Vince Staples surprised me with this album. “Man the sea’s been polluted baptism for the shooter." Damn. This guy has bars, I want to compare him to my number one spot holder (scroll down to see.) He just has a gift with words, building a distorted image in your mind like a twisted dream; somehow he makes the strangest comparisons make sense. He has a two disc album, and while all the songs are hearty in content, most of them are 3 minutes or less. These short vignettes aren’t scene of a warm and happy California, this album is picture of the Long Beach that most people don’t see. Lift Me Up and was a favorite of mine, other good ones were Dopeman, featuring his old group member Joey Fatts and Kilo Kish and Might Be Wrong featuring Haneef Taleb and eeeeeee. On this track Staples doesn't even rap. Its a speech followed by a phone recording. Rolling Stone called Staples “the most exciting rapper” this past summer. But this isn’t his first rodeo. This was technically his debut album, but he caught our attention with his EP Hell Can Wait. This album is just another stepping stone for him. I have a feeling he’s the type of artists that gets better with age.
4.5 out of 5


 #1 To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar 

I don’t know how there can be any dispute on this one to be honest. This album is what hip hop needed at the right time. I've been a Kendrick fan for a while and I think this is his best work yet. From the beat to the arrangement and of course the lyrics, Kendrick makes an album that is a perfect mix of rap, poetry, and ultimately art. The song that haunts me is How Much A Dollar Cost. The development of the story peeks inside the mind of every person who has walked by a homeless person who asks for money. This was President Obama’s favorite song in 2015 and the man has good taste in music. Even if you can’t relate to the content that he raps about, you can appreciate the way he conveys a message to his audience. The reoccurring character Lucy, short for Lucifer, comes and tempts Kendrick throughout the album with glitters that ultimately kill us all in the end. In “u” we get into K.Dot's mind. It is a dark track, where he battles with his own thoughts of despair and depression. However In “i” he combats that saying “I love myself.”  However this isn't just a celebration of him escaping the prison of self hate. This is a version where he breaks up a fight in the middle of a concert, reprimanding kids who say “fuck niggas” telling them to have respect of themselves and each other. And his interview with Tupac in Mortal Man was the icing on the cake, the greatest of our generation talking to his mentor is genius. The whole thing is raw. Good raw.
4.65 out of 5

This year showed me that we have real rap. One honorable mention was Big Sean’s Dark Sky Paradise, his third studio album. He is the one of the top MCs in the game, but he leans more to a commercial audience and hasn't reached his full potential yet as a lyricist. I always come in contact with people who always try to downplay rap. They tell me it’s disrespectful, mysogynistic, and violent. Before I would have to go far back in the crevices of my mind and find the most obscure rappers to prove that they were wrong, with this years productions I don’t have to do that. These rappers are making art and yes while the lyrics can include all of the aforementioned things, they are creatively and intelligently making beauty of the environment that surrounds us. Yeah it can be grotesque sometimes, but they have made it a true reflection of this world. Artists this year have held up the mirror to their audience and are basically saying just what Tupac said in Mortal Man “We aren't even really rapping. We are letting our dead homies tell stories for us.” In short, they're letting their lives and experiences motivate the message in their art.

#RoyalThrone: It's Still too Late @Drake by @AQueens_Crown

The first one to pull a Beyoncè since...Beyoncè.

Drake recently released a mixtape (or album, no one really knows) called If You're Reading This It's Too Late. The Toronto native first released it on Soundcloud only to remove it within minutes. I guess that attributes to the album title. iTunes later distributed it for $12.99. The 17-track long project is a different Drizzy than we are used to. Unlike his other works, this mixtape will not be anyone's go to if you are in your feelings.

Drake is much more aggressive this time around. You hear it with tracks like 6PM In New York and 6 God which was also on his three track EP he dropped on his birthday via ssoundcloud.  I was surprised by how hard he went this time around spitting raw bars into some of these tracks. Part of me was waiting for him to start singing so I could sing along but he didn't really get into that. From Energy there are Lines like "I got rap niggas that I gotta act like I like. But my actin’ days are over, fuck them niggas for life." He even called out Tyga for what he said in his Vibe Magazine interview. "I heard a little little homie talking reckless in Vibe. That's quite a platform you chose, you should've kept it inside. Oh, you tried. It's so childish calling my name on the world stage. You need to act your age and not your girl's age." This shows who Drake is now. All in all, the new Drake is cool. He did a good job of setting a new tone for himself. If you haven't already you can get it on iTunes or stream it below via Spotify.