The third and final part in our rundown of our favorite albums of 2011. What made the Top 10? What was #1? Scroll down to find out:

10. aFraKaRen – 11:11 EP

9. Emay – Mind Altering Dynamics

8. Mary J. Blige – My Life 2: The Sequel

7. Watch the Throne (Jay-Z & Kanye West) – Watch the Throne

6. Slakah the Beatchild – Something Forever

5. Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’

4. Amy Winehouse – Lioness: Hidden Treasures

3. Tinariwen – Tassili

2. Roots – Undun

And finally, to find out what our favorite album was here at The Kitchen for 2011, hit the jump for album #1…

Previously:

– Part 1: The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Albums: 30-21

– Part 2: The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Albums: 20-11

1. Common – The Dreamer/The Believer

2011 was truly the year that any sense of formalism or classicism in hip-hop was thrown out the window. If extensive features in such ‘hip-hop’ media outlets as SPIN and Rolling Stone didn’t clue you in, the music should have. From Shabazz Palaces and the teen shockcore-baiting rhymes of Odd Future to even Kanye and Jay-Z‘s conceptual exploration of life as a young, black gazillionaire on Watch The Throne suggested that breaking the rules and being artful as a rapper was in and indulging the traditional orthodoxy of what hip-hop should sound like and how a rapper should act was kind of out or at least feeling really stale and dated!

Which makes my selection of Common‘s The Dreamer / The Believer as my #1 album pick of the year that much more confounding. It’s by no means a daring or ground-breaking album from a creative or artistic point of view, Kanye’s touches and Maya Angelou monologues aside. It’s a safe consolidation of an aesthetic, Common’s being working within since the Like Water for Chocolate days but it’s also a perfect example of something that has become rarer and rarer to encounter over recent years, the well-conceived, flawlessly-executed complete hip-hop album. The fact that it hews so closely to a blueprint (pun intended) Kanye threw out after Graduation and yet still sounds relevant in 2011 is a testament to Common.

Nary a mediocre track in sight and even some unashamed shots fired at the new Young Turks like Drake on ‘Sweet’, Common managed to make an album that old curmudgeons who still miss A Tribe Called Quest and young rap fans who learn about new records via Tumblr sites alike could get with. So yes, my album of the year and unashamedly so. Nice one, Rashid!

[note: this is a minor adaptation of some comments I submitted to the Village Voice Pazz N Jop 2011 Poll.]