Best.Of.2010 Honorable Mention - The Stimulus Package

“It’s the reason why we named the album the stimulus pack,
all the fans giving us love and now we giving it back”

This project is pure love. You can feel it in every kick and snare, every pad press by Jake One, every guest verse, every sample, every exclamation of “Throw your hands up!”, and every line spat by Freeway himself. The sheer enthusiasm espoused here for hip hop is a rare commodity in a release these days. Too often we are given records that are hip hop in name only, with a cold detachment to the genre, or records that treat hip hop as something fragile, that needs to be saved, preserved. Freeway and Jake One get over these hangups by essentially ignoring them, making great music and have your head nodding constantly as a result.

This year there were more adventurous and forward thinking records, stuff that was crazier or cleverer, but there was nothing that was done so enthusiastically, with as much love for the art form. A true hip-hop album in a decade where true hip-hop albums don’t come along very often anymore. All of this done without a holier-than-thou attitude or vintage throwbacks, it’s an album that is undeniably 2010.

Freeway & Jake One - Throw Your Hands Up