Lists
Part 4: The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Singles: 20-11 [NSFW Art – again today!]
Geez, we’re practically turning into an adult content blog between this post and this one earlier today [warning: also NSFW] Anyway, on a more ‘serious’ note, we gettin’ down to the wire, you getting mad yet at my single picks yet??!
20. Nova Delai – All For the Best
19. Raekwon – Rock N Roll (remix) feat. DJ Khaled, Busta Rhymes, Game, Pharrell
18. Lil B – Base For Your Face feat. Jean Grae & Phonte
17. Cam’ron feat. Vado – Hey Muma
16. Action Bronson – Barry Horowitz
15. Jean Grae, Talib Kweli & Styles P – R.I.P.
14. Killer Mike – Ready Set Go (remix) feat T.I. & Big Boi
13. Teedra Moses – I Adore You
Originally posted HERE. [sidebar: the sentiment of this record is really resonating right now but that’s a subject for another kind of blog]
12. Supamane – Da Supamane (prod. Big K.R.I.T.)
[audio: http://different-kitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/02-UPAmANE.mp3]11. TeV95 x Admiral Grey – It’s Good
MP3 Download: TeV95 x Admiral Grey “Its Good” by TeV95
Previously:
– The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Singles: 29-21
Part 3: The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Singles: 29-21
And as we continue on…
29. DTMD – You
Originally posted HERE.
28. Talib Kweli & Cyhi Da Prince – I’m On One (remix)
27. Diddy-Dirty Money – I Hate That You Love Me & Chuckie’s Marquee Remix
26. Teyana Taylor – Valentine
25. Camp Lo – Tall Glasses
24. Styles P – Rocks Out Here
23. Sade – Moon and the Sky (remix) feat. Jay-Z
22. King – The Story
The Story by weareKINGworldwide
21. Juan Atkins – Dayshift
MP3 Download: Juan Atkins – Dayshift by ScionAV
Previously:
The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Singles: 54-40
The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Singles: 39-30
Part 2: The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Singles: 39-30
And moving right along….
39. Dirty Ghosts – Shout It In (Aesop Rock remix)
Dirty Ghosts – Shout It In (Aesop Rock Remix) by dirtyghosts
38. Reema Major – Ghetto Kids
37. Jeremy Glenn – New Life
Jeremy Glenn – New Life by future classic
36. Papoose – Party Bout to Pop
36. Maffew Ragazino – Black Sheep
34. Planet Asia – Boilermakers (prod. Madlib)
33. Phonte – Paper Lines (prod. 9th Wonder)
Originally posted HERE.
32. Kendrick Lamar – Rigamortis
31. Pusha T – My God
30. Rjd2 – The Glow (Flosstradamus remix)
MP3: The Glow (Flosstradamus Remix) – RJD2 by AndamosArmados
Previously: The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Singles: 54-40
The Best Of The Kitchen 2011 – Singles: 54-40
Like I just declared on twitter, making ‘Best Of’ lists and ranking art, music, film etc. is kind of retarded but they do help to make you think about how you engage with art: what really moved you and why (and… how much, maybe??!). That being said there’s probably more interesting ways to curate and classify art (and life!) as others may be proving.
That being said, here’s part 1 of my top songs as featured on The Kitchen in 2011. The key clause here is as featured on The Kitchen. With maybe a handful of exceptions, every song on this list was covered on the blog during the past year. That means, do not take this as even being close to a comprehensive list of the top-selling, most-played, popular or even ‘best’ songs of the year as far as culture, the world, Canada, the ‘hip-hop nation’, the blogosphere or any other kind of continuum or community you can dream up or configure goes. These are simply tracks and songs that entered my consciousness via whatever means that I felt strongly enough to take time to then share via this blog. That’s it!
Another quick note about the rankings, such as they stand. The Top 10 is a pretty good rendering of what I felt were my 10 favorite songs and unquestionably the #1 pick (when you see it – soon come…) was my #1 by a country mile. You can also be sure that if a record was #14 I pretty much liked it more than #34. But #14 vs. #17 or # 42 vs #50? Take those respective placements with a grain of salt. On another day with my mood different or some other different set of factors at play, those relative rankings and placement coulda been a lot different. Not gonna get into a lot of description about each of the tracks either, I’ve written about most of them before and will try to link back to where I did that, but if we wanna get into a discussion about my picks and how they stack up, hit the comments sections and let’s do this!
And with all that said, leggo….
54. Meek Mill – Hip-Hop Flashback
53. E40 – F-ck ‘Em
52. Herstory – Jack Dat Body
51. Busta Rhymes – 80s Baby feat. Wyclef Jean & 50 cent
50. Shabaam Sahdeeq – Sicker Than Your Average
Originally posted HERE.
49. Oun P – What Chu Talkin Bout (remix) feat. Lloyd Banks, Fred the Godson & Jadakiss
Originally posted HERE.
48. St Joe Louis – Show For It
47. Humans – Wake Up
Wake Up // Humans by Lucy vs. the Globe
46. iLLo feat. Bone – Bop Head
45. Sade – Moon and the Sky (remix) feat. Jay-Z
Originally posted HERE.
44. Azealia Banks – 212
43. Katalyst feat. Stephanie McKay – Day Into Night
Katalyst – Day Into Night Feat. Stephanie Mckay by Duendiness
42. Jammer – Back to the 90s
[audio: http://different-kitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/02-Back-to-the-_90s-radio-edit.mp3]
41. Spectre – Black Widow feat. Lai Lo
Black widow by Spectre, The Ill Saint
40. Bow Wow – Young, Rich N Dangerous
[audio: http://different-kitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Bow-Wow-Young-Rich-Dangerous.mp3]
My Picks for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize Long List: An Explanation
The names of the nominees for the Polaris Music Prize long-list were announced last Thursday so this post is kind of moot at this point, but I thought it might be worth sharing my voting insights as a new member of the jury pool, such as they are, for those who wonder what the thought process is behind how these lists get determined. With that in mind here goes:
Here is your final Long List vote:
#1 = Art of Fresh – When The Night Comes In
#2 = Slakah the Beatchild – Something Forever
#3 = Emay – Mind Altering Dynamics
#4 = The Weeknd – House of Balloons
#5 = Eternia & Moss – At Last
Art of Fresh – When The Night Comes In
No joke, this was my favorite album of last year, period and, while I was up on Art Of Fresh before When The Night Comes In dropped, I discovered their most recent album in wholly nontraditional way (for hip-hop, at least): by seeing them perform much of it live in a short, ramshackle but incredible set at the album release event at the Czehoski bar in Toronto.
Now honestly, saying this was the best hip-hop album of 2010 is probably not the most hop-hop thing I could cop to admitting because, while producer and co-member Slakah and D.O.‘s credentials are without question, nonpareil (D.O. used to hold the Guinness World record for the longest freestyle and Slakah is signed as a solo artist to the highly-respected London record label, BBE), this album is not a pure hip-hop record by any measures that apply in 2011.
As a matter of fact, the analogy I would used to describe it’s amalgam sound of rare groove, house, electronic, pop and rock is that this is the album The Black Eyed Peas would make if they were UK soul boys reared in weekender culture and not crass, hit-seeking whores. All that being said, I play this album repeatedly and never tire of it and I can’t really say that for very many new albums nowadays.
I tried to rally people on the Polaris jury to support this record but ultimately I think it had a few too many beats aimed solely at the dance-floor for me convince the critic types on the Polaris to take it seriously. Albums with their phasers set on ‘Fun’ (not that the entire album actually is lightweight, throwaway fare in this case though) rarely get taken seriously as works of art (Michael Jackson‘s Off The Wall and Thriller being two very notable exceptions, maybe?) and that’s a damn shame. Shouldn’t having fun and celebrating the joy in life be an essential part of making art too??
Slakah the Beatchild – Something Forever
I knew I was probably shooting myself in the foot nominating two albums by essentially the same artist but Slakah the Beatchild has got to be one of my, if not the favorite producer of mine over the past 12 months. For those in the know, Toronto has long been known as a connoisseur’s market for rare groove and progressive urban music arguably second only to London and maybe Japan and Slakah’s super-soulful, organic production sound as heard on Something Forever, first released as an EP but later as Special Edition full-length release with four bonus tracks, are in many ways the embodiment of that aesthetic.
If you’ve ever nodded your head or tapped your toes to beats produced by Dilla, the Soulquarians (The Roots, Common, Erykah Badu etc.), the Ummah or Pete Rock, you owe it to yourself to check out this album. It features some rapped, some sung and some instrumental tracks but in no way sounds schizophrenic like some ‘producer-artist’ projects trying to straddle the hip-hop and R&B divide often do. This is a real album: cohesive-sounding and a true body of work. Even the vocal-less tracks will speak to you and fit with the whole. Something Forever is an absolute favorite of mine and while there seemed to be some other strong champions for it on the jury, I was gutted it didn’t make the long list of nominees in the end. Truly deserving of at least long list attention in my mind.
Listen to a sampler of Something Forever:
Now hit the jump to see my thoughts on my last three picks including Emay, Eternia and MoSS and the much-hyped, Drake-cosigned left-field R&B act, The Weeknd.