[MP3] Uncle Murda – Rap Up 2017

You heard Skillz‘s take, now here come Uncle Murda‘s Rap Up of the 2017 year. Who got it this year??

DIFFERENT KITCHEN’S FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2016

Just like last year, picking our Top 10 favorite albums for my Village Voice ̶P̶a̶z̶z̶ ̶&̶ ̶J̶o̶p̶ Music Critic’s Poll ballot this year was tough! 2016 was yet another especially good year for music overall and quality full length albums specifically. Many of the ‘Honorable Mentions’ below were more than worthy contenders for a spot on my Top 10 (actually Top 12, I added Maxwell and I think my stupid ass actually forgot to include Childish Gambino‘s throwback funk-rock-inspired opus, Awaken, My Love! on my ballot so I had to make amends here on the blog).

I don’t have that much to say about the individual albums here except:

– Vets and newbies alike put in work! A Tribe Called Quest dropped a masterpiece/tribute to their late member, Phife Dawg that should’ve been a coda on the joke-cum-nightmare that was the Donald Trump presidential campaign but instead became a balm for our souls as we contemplated what it meant for him to, instead of becoming a footnote in history, actually be taking office as commander-in-chief and ‘leader’ of the free world. Sibling act to Tribe in the Native Tongues, De La Soul, as they always do, rewrote the playbook for making hip-hop and proved veteran MC’s can still drop impeccable wordplay while their original producer and mentor, Prince Paul, showed he still had the same innovative, fun and inventive spirit in his music as he ever did with his latest Latin/world music-meets-hip-hop album project, Brookzill with Digable Planets‘ Ladybug Mecca, Don Newkirk and Rodrigo Brandão. Meanwhile underground stalwarts like Dave East, Torae, Stalley and long-time Kitchen favorite Mickey Factz (with acclaimed producer, Nottz) all dropped excellent projects that garnered varying degrees of buzz.

– R&B/Soul kicked ASS this past year! Solange ended up towering above them all for my money although the Beyhive would probably be up in arms that I’m not according her sister that accolade for LEMONADE (for the record I loved that project more as a short film visual than as an album but I wouldn’t fight anyone who disagrees with my take on it). For most of the year before, Anderson .Paak‘s Malibu and A Seat at the Table were released, I thought ANTI was going to be my album of the year and it still amazes me how many wouldn’t give it a chance just because it was made by Rihanna. Be clear: ANTI is an alternative pop-soul tour de force that would be getting universally heralded if it had been made by Solange, SZA, FKA Twigs or some other boho black girl beloved by indie/alternative media types and not pop’s resident, gives no f-cks, bad girl (Riri). She gets love in those quarters too but not quite so across-the-board. And, speaking of beloved by indie/alternative media type artists, while it didn’t blow me away like Channel Orange or as much it did other people, Frank Ocean‘s Blonde was further proof that he is one of the most creative talents in music, period. If you liked your R&B a little bit more down the middle of the traditional road (or as traditional as it gets in 2016) though, albums by Maxwell, new jack Maxwell heir apparent, Gallant, John Legend, Alicia Keys and Tweet, in a very welcome comeback after a looong hiatus, were all well worth your time. That last album, Tweet’s Charlene was so criminally overlooked, it almost hurt my heart.

– Toronto and Canada represented! Albums by Drake, The Weeknd, TOBi, Roy Woods, Daniel Caesar, Dvsn, Clairmont the Second, Kaytranada, LAL, River Tiber, Harrison, SATE, Tona Tencreddi, Zeds Dead, A Tribe Called Red and many others I didn’t even include on my list, confirm we now have the best urban/Black music scene in the world, no discussion!

So all that said, here’s the list:

FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2016:

Top Albums (in no particular order):
A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
Childish Gambino – Awaken, My Love
Anderson .Paak – Malibu
Rihanna – ANTI
Solange – A Seat at the Table

Best of the Rest:
J. Cole – 4 Your Eyez Only
De La Soul – and the Anonymous Nobody
Dave East – Kairi Chanel
The Game – 1992
Maxwell – BlackSUMMERS’night
Stalley – Saving Yusuf
Tweet – Charlene

Honorable Mentions:
A Tribe Called Red – We Are the Halluci Nation
Beyonce – LEMONADE
Blitz the Ambassador – Diasporadical
Brookzill – Throwback to the Future
Daniel Caesar – Pilgrim’s Paradise (note: rel. Nov. 2015)
Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book
Clairmont the Second– Quest For Milk And Honey
Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
Consequence – A Good Comeback Story
Domingo – Generation Next
Drake – VIEWS
Dvsn – Sept. 5th
Gallant – Ology
Harrison – Checkpoint Titanium
Kaytranada – 99.9%
Alicia Keys – Here
Kendrick Lamar – Untitled Unmastered
LAL – Find Safety
John Legend – Darkness and Light
Mickey Factz & Nottz – The Achievement: Circa ’82
Frank Ocean – Blonde
Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
River Tiber – Indigo
Royce 5’9” – Tabernacle: Trust the Shooter EP
SATE – Red, Black & Blue
TOBi – FYi EP
Tona Tencreddi – The Ivy League
Torae – Entitled
The Weeknd – Starboy
Roy Woods – Waking at Dawn
ZEDS DEAD – Northern Lights

If you missed any of these during the past year, you really should consider giving them your time and attention now. I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll dig. Did I miss or overlook any albums you think should have been mentioned here? Let us know in the comments or Tweet / Facebook us.

Previously on The Kitchen:
DIFFERENT KITCHEN’S FAVORITE SONGS OF 2016

DIFFERENT KITCHEN’S FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2015

DIFFERENT KITCHEN’S FAVORITE SONGS OF 2016

Similarly to how it went down for 2015, this year’s list of The Kitchen‘s favorite songs or singles is pretty much what I picked for my Village Voice Pazz N Jop Music Critics Poll ballot.

Unlike last year though, I didn’t really have a true, standout favorite song this year. While I definitely really loved Young M.A‘s “OOOUUU”, if I absolutely had to pick a favorite song, I’d have to go with YG‘s “FDT” (“F-ck Donald Trump” ICUOENO) featuring Nipsey Hussle instead for what should be obvious reasons.

While we’re on the subject of “FDT”, the standout music trend for us was the fact that 2016 was a year marked by the very welcome return of great Black protest music inspired, on the plus side, by The Black Lives Matter movement and, on the negative side, by the ongoing state-sanctioned police violence against Black bodies that led to the formation of the BLM movement in the first place and the outrageous, racist, sexist, nativist, xenophobic and Islamophobic presidential campaign conducted by Donald Trump. They say troubled times creates or inspire great art and 2016 certainly proved the point. Songs like Vic Mensa‘s angry but powerfully moving “16 Shots” or Common‘s brilliantly eloquent “Letter to the Free” gave me goosebumps or stilled my heart every time I played them. Even Macklemore‘s contentious “White Privilege II” (that clunky middle section was way too heavy on the self-congratulatory promotion and others have issue with the entire song itself, I do not though) had a part to play in the dialogue. This is one time though that I wish that troubled times-great art adage were not the case. I’ll take Black lives saved over Black art protesting those lives lost, any day.

For those who wanna chirp off about why there’s no “Broccoli”, “Black Beatles”, Beyonce etc. on the list, keep in mind this is our favorite singles, not the ‘top’ or ‘best’ ones, regardless of how those terms are defined or used. No disrespect to the aforementioned songs, I like them and probably any other ‘noteworthy’ songs for the year you might throw out for consideration fine, they just weren’t our personal faves or, believe it or not, I might have just plain missed them no matter how big a hit they may have been last year. So take that in, stay mad or kick rocks and go check another year-end list elsewhere. Anyway, here go…

FAVORITE SONGS OF 2016:

01. YG – FDT feat. Nipsey Hussle
02. Black Thought – Making A Murderer feat. Styles P
03. Danny Brown – Really Doe feat. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt
04. J. Cole – False Prophets
05. Common – Letter to the Free feat. Bilal
06. Desiigner – Panda
07. Drake – One Dance feat. Wizkid & Kyla
08. Vic Mensa – 16 Shots
09. Nas & Erykah Badu – This Bitter Land
10. The Weeknd – I Feel It Coming feat. Daft Punk
11. Young M.A – OOOUUU

Honorable Mentions:
Chance The Rapper – No Problem feat. 2 Chainz & Lil Wayne
Denzel Curry – Knotty Head feat. Rick Ross
Dubb Santora – Money Came feat. 2Cz
Lil Uzi Vert – Do What I Want
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – White Privilege II
NxWorries (Anderson Paak & Knxwledge) – Lyk Dis
Radiohead – SPECTRE
Tona – Red Eye feat. Fixaveli
Usher – No Limit feat. Young Thug
Yo Gotti – Down in the DM

(note: links in the song titles go to posts on The Kitchen blog about the songs, the artist or the full lengths they are from. Soundcloud playlist above or alternatively, here’s a playlist of these songs on TIDAL also.)

Previously on The Kitchen:

DIFFERENT KITCHEN’S FAVORITE SONGS OF 2015

DIFFERENT KITCHEN’S FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2015

Picking our Top 10 favorite albums this year was tough! It was an especially good year for music. Many of the Honorable Mentions below could have made it into Top 10 (the same Top 10 I submitted for my Village Voice Pazz & Jop ballot) if I was in a different mood. Truth be told though, those first 8 titles are pretty much a lock and, unlike last year, this list is in rough order of how much liked the albums although after the first four, the order for the rest of the albums is kind of interchangeable.

If you missed any of these last year, click away on your favorite streaming site, they’re all worth your time and attention. And on the flip side, if I missed or overlooked albums you think we might have dig based on these picks, let us know in the comments. As much music as there is out there (and how behind we perpetually were with the messages sent to us with more), we’re always down to hear music we don’t already know about that we might be into.

FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2015:

01. Scarface – Deeply Rooted
02. Raury – All We Need
03. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
04. The Internet – Ego Death
05. Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment – Surf
06. Justin Bieber – Purpose
07. Planet Asia – Zapco Exp EP
08. Badbadnotgood & Ghostface Killah – Sour Soul
09. Jill Scott – Woman
10. Aleya – Carbon Copy Trip

Honorable Mentions:
Azari & III – Rarities from the Extremities
Beach House – Depression Cherry
Big K.R.I.T. – It’s Better This Way (mixtape)
Clear Soul Forces – Fab 5ive
Dornik – Dornik
Drake – If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late
Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt
Foreign Exchange – Tales From The Land Of Milk And Honey
The Game – The Documentary 2 & 2.5
Jack Ü – Skrillex & Diplo present Jack Ü
Jeezy – Church In These Streets
Talib Kweli – F-ck the Money (Mixtape)
Teedra Moses – Cognac and Conversation
Peaches – Rub
Puff Daddy & the Family – MMM
Jay Rock – 90059
Rick Ross – Black Market
St. Germain – St. Germain
SepTO – God Mind
Spek Won – Sofa King Amazing
Jazmine Sullivan – Reality Show
Tame Impala – Currents
Bryson Tiller – Trapsoul
Tona – Carpe Diem
Tyler the Creator – Cherry Bomb
Yo Gotti – Concealed

(note: links in album titles go to streams on The Kitchen blog, Tumblr or other sites)

Related:

Check out our Favorite Songs & Singles of 2015 list HERE.

DIFFERENT KITCHEN’S FAVORITE SONGS OF 2015

The 2015 list of favorite songs or singles at The Kitchen is kind of in rough order and not much different from what I picked for my Pazz N Jop ballot. Jidenna‘s “Classic Man” was most definitely my favorite song of the year without a doubt although The Weeknd‘s “Can’t Feel My Face” gave it a good run for it’s money for that #1 slot! Some great music overall this year though with no signs of it slowing down as we head into 2016.

FAVORITE SONGS OF 2015:

01. Jidenna – Classic Man
02. The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face
03. Jay Rock – Gumbo
04. Fetty Wap – Trap Queen
05. Jack Ü – Where Are Ü Now feat. Justin Bieber
06. Rihanna – B-tch Better Have My Money
07. The Game – Everybody on the Floor feat. Migos
08. Major Lazer & DJ Snake – Lean On feat. MØ
09. Raz Fresco – Cortez Nikes feat. Chuck Inglish
10. Alessia Cara – Here

Honorable Mentions:
Justin Bieber – Sorry
Drake – Back To Back
Flying Lotus – Coronus, The Terminator
Major Lazer – Wave feat. Kali Uchis

(note: links in song titles go to posts on The Kitchen blog or Tumblr about the songs, the artist or the full lengths they are from or alternatively, check out a playlist of these songs on TIDAL HERE.)

Related:

Check out our Favorite Albums of 2015 list HERE.