Dr. Octagon - Blue Flowers

Used to listen to this album all the time back in high school. Kinda forgotten about it. Just a thought, but I'd love to hear Rick Ross over this beat. How awesome would be be if after all of this opulence rap, Rick Ross got weird? Like reallllly weeeeeeeirrrrd.

Best.Of.2010 Honorable Mention - New Amerykah Pt.2

There was no way this was not going to end up somewhere on this list for me. Listened to it far too many times for it not to have a place at least somewhere. It’s not perfect, not by far. Some tracks go on for way too long, some tracks are boring, some are unnecessary. The Rick Ross version of Window Seat should have a place here. Jump Up In The Air should have been on here. What happened to the 12 different versions of Jump Up In The Air? But it is irrelevant because towering beyond all that is the fact that this is simply one of the weirdest records of the year and I love it for that.

One of the original appeals hip hop had for me back when I picked up my first De La Soul album on a whim all those years ago, was its unabashed strangeness, its off the wall tendencies that were missing from other genres. New Amerykah pt. 2 has that in spades. Biggie lyrics sung on loop in a maniacal manner, Madlib having a duet with harpist Kirsten Agnesta, 9th Wonder contributing a beatless beat. And at the centre of it all like a ringmaster at a circus, this wondrous, complex, enigma of a woman, Erykah Badu

Course it wouldn’t mean much if it didn’t absolutely knock, which it most certainly does. Rolling funk, Dilla boom-bap, and the cruising vibe of a track like Window Seat make a fantastic soundscape for Badu’s psyche. At the end of the day, this is one of the best albums of the year; it’s a journey into the mind of a soulful woman who has hip-hop pumping through her veins. It’s a beautiful thing.

Erykah Badu - Fall In Love (Your Funeral)
BONUS!
Erykah Badu - Jump Up In The Air (Ft. Lil Wayne)

Kanye West - Monster

Wow. Just wow. Look at that lineup. Most of the time in rap, big track lineups are designed to be ‘too big to fail’. Yet mostly they do because we’ve seen so many huge ones over the years (DJ Khaled, I’m looking at you*) and they never really live up the to the potential that they had in the minds of fans. This one here differs for a couple of reasons. Firstly Kanye and Jay strictly regulate the supply of their verses to big posse tracks, hence they’re a hot commodity, something that will get left at the top of Nah Right for maybe a day if they’re lucky. Secondly Rick Ross and Minaj are veterans of the posse tracks; one who’s on a career high of form right now and the other has a habit of stealing the show. Finally the addition of Bon Iver is bait to the indie crowd, and even those of us whose hearts aren’t exactly a flutter at the news are interested to see how it turns out.

That’s all well and good for context, but how does the track sound? Awesome. Assuming Kanye actually produced it (I’m gonna say yes cause it sounds like the sort of drums he has been using these days), he’s had a bit of a return to form behind the boards. His production has seemed a bit wanting of late to me yet this track just works. Each rapper tailors their verses to the variations in the beat so everything sounds like it belongs and isn’t just tacked on. Even the Bon Iver parts that bookend the song sound like they’re crazy important and not simply an afterthought of a power mad ‘Ye.

In terms of the rapping, Nicki Minaj comes out on top, simply because she has that fantastic quality of someone who sounds like they’re having the best time of their lives rapping. Her extended verse is both wildly enthusiastic and completely off the wall, and it’s these qualities that allow her to outshine rappers who are far more skilled than she. Not unlike Kanye back in the day come to think of it. Jay Z gives us what’s one of my favorite verses from him in recent memory. Getting his Vincent Price on, he conjures up vintage monster movie images to explain his current situation in rap and since he isn’t saying UGHHHHH every single line, it’s a joy to listen to. Also of note, Ross’s** 10-second intro and Yeezy’s Napoleon Dynamite reference. All in all, it’s a wildly entertaining song that for once lives up to the promise of its lineup.

* Is it just me or is T-Pain going for that Wolverine look.
**Oh dear, that’s two Rick Ross related posts in a row.

Kanye West – Monster (Ft. Jay Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross & Bon Iver) LINK FIXED!

Ross x Erykah

"Anyhow, I begin to yawn,
the human bong,
kick my Clarks off and recline,
just like a Don"
-Rick Ross