Saturday, November 29, 2008

thinking bout end of year top tens

folk, fam, flim, flam,

As is inevitable every year, holiday season for me means not presents and cheer (the Fat Money is notoriously broke and cantankerous) but end-of-year best and worst of lists. Only this year, after a few nights spent tossing and (as they say) turning, I am really at a loss as to clear album favorites from 2008. A variety of factors may be at fault: I've basically given up buying CDs (a far cry from my hey-day of $100/week on music conspicous consumption, big up Cheapos); the artists that are usually money have come with weaker-than-usual efforts (the Dude, Weezy, etc); my memory is shot from one (or 500) tooo many spliffies; the music industry sucks. Basically, it seems like this was a(nother) down year for our beloved hip hop (remember 95? Me neither).

I'm wondering if I'm alone in this feeling. Also, I'm sure there are at least ten amazing indie/inderground/local joints that I've either forgotten about or haven't gotten my greasy hands on. What I'm asking for from you, my loyal readers (no doubt all of you discerning experts on rrrrap), are suggestions on some ov your favorite discs from the last year. Whereas others might call this sort of blanket pandering lazy journalism, I like to think of it as an effective form of populist collectivization (sans pleas for the free coinage of silver, read your history kiddies).

My preliminary list includes Bun B, Z Ro, The Roots, Steinski, Q-Tip, Prof EP, Muja Messiah...But what am I overlooking?

Leave a comment with anything you can think ov. Peace peace!

3 comments:

Guante said...

i'm going through the same thing-- having a hell of a time coming up with a list. there was a lot of solid hip hop released this year, but "solid" is becoming my least favorite adjective very quickly.

even the good stuff tends to be overly formulaic and the keyword is probably "safe." no one really exploded my head this year.

i would mention, however, atmosphere. there's a good example of an album i didn't absolutely love, but at least it went into some pretty new and interesting places. same could be said for the new kanye.

invincible was pretty good too.

Jordan 'Fat Money' Selbo said...

my man, thanks for confirming that i'm not falling off, the game is...one more i forgot to include: Haunted Studio Apartment, no doubt top ten paw...

jon jon said...

errrrrrr, Wale,St.Paul Slim and Young Jeezy just for his track "My President" ft. Nas.