"I ain't dead, I ain't done...": Snik's Top 15 Hip-Hop Albums of 2008

Ah geez, since it’s past time for me to have posted this, it’s time to do the laziest possible introduction paragraph about 2008’s rap music. I thought 2008 in rap was pretty disappointing, but a lot of good underground albums and several surprisingly excellent albums all made it onto my list; plus, of course, I’m sure there were gems I haven’t gotten to hear yet. Since I’ve gotten closer to finishing the list, I’ve moved a couple of albums around but hopefully have everything where I want it now. However, I’ve bought probably around 20-25 more 2007 albums than I had in actuality come time for my 2007 list to be dropped, but that doesn’t really matter.

The following albums in the Honorables came close to making the Top 15 and are all albums I don’t regret buying, and afterwards full steam ahead for the actual list!
 
Honorable Mentions: “Murs for President” – Murs, “Raw Footage” – Ice Cube, “Absolute Value” – Akrobatik,

15. “Jeanius” – Jean Grae & 9th Wonder

Let me say as much as I can about this album while still keeping it under 300 words for a good rundown. It was leaked at least several years ago however 9th Wonder tuned it up and officially released it in 2008. Even though Jean Grae is one of the best femcees (whom we have way too little of) out, what exactly she’s doing with her career is baffling. Her first two releases were acclaimed if short, and as she released This Week she seemed like she was getting her career where she wanted it but then all of a sudden there were unpromoted mixtapes in the record stores, blogs where she was announcing her retirement from rap, and rumors of apparent sequels to her older work. I hope she’s able to get all of that together, cause I still think “Jeanius” is an enjoyable album. Daily Planet, whom I first though was a random Justus League affiliate completely steals the show on the opening “2-32’s” and “The Time Is Now” is a triumphant collaboration between Jean and Phonte. And I’ve already described the greatness of the personal “My Story”. Even if you feel the album gets monotonous or doesn’t live up to the beginning, both artists demonstrate their talents here, and will hopefully continue (and in Jean’s case, get her career in order again.)

Noteworthy Tracks: “Don’t Rush Me,” “My Story,” “The Time Is Now”

14. “The Formula” – Buckshot & 9th Wonder

I realize two albums completely produced by 9th Wonder bookend each other. The relaxing yet motivating title track sets the stage for the sophomore effort of this duo, which is a straightforward, feel-good album; both of them do very well. “Hold It Down” is one of the year’s best songs with a contemplative, clever Talib Kweli verse; and the funky “Man Listen” will easily help improve a bad mood (as it did one day for me – when I realized that this was definitely a worthwhile album to own.) It also has the best anthem for waking up since Little Brother’s “Beautiful Morning”, and Buckshot’s personality is relatable and he addresses typical problems people have in the city or in hip-hop, however a lot of the album sounds very optimistic regardless of that. Despite a few anonymous and/or substandard songs and never hearing Buck & 9th’s predecessor, there are many superb songs with different topics which makes me very glad I didn’t ignore the recommendation to buy it earlier in the year.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Ready (Brand New Day),” “Hold It Down,” “Man Listen (Cause Umm)”

13. “The Odd Couple” – Gnarls Barkley

Although Gnarls Barkley’s second album was not as good as St. Elsewhere, it has plenty of flair from both Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse. “Going On” is probably the best song I’ll ever find about being at peace with impending death (I’m going to have to request it get played at my funeral), “A Little Better” has Cee-Lo calmly looking at his demons with a smile on his face (it’s a personal anthem for me) and “Surprise” reminds me of the music I used to hear played in the car on long drives when I was younger, as Cee-Lo warns about the selfishness of humankind. Cee-Lo also is wonderful at basically explaining his problems to the listener and how they affect him and it makes him very relatable to me personally, as he sounds like someone who really needs someone to lend him a hand with exorcising his demons (to paraphrase something he said in Cunninlynguists’ “Caved In”.) Gnarls’ sophomore album has some of my favorite songs of the year, even if it’s probably one of the least hip-hop albums of this list (I do wish he rapped just a little more here), but regardless I’m including it and anticipate their third and last album eagerly.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Going On,” “Run (I’m A Natural Disaster),” “A Little Better”

12. “Theater of the Mind” – Ludacris

More people are complaining that “Theater of the Mind” is run-of-the-mill Luda than the unjust fact that he’s stereotyped as an emcee that hasn’t done a quality album since his debut. C’mon. Hopefully more people will understand how good this album is in the long run. Asides from the obvious perfection the album closes out with, it’s more consistent than “Release Therapy,” and has exciting battle tracks like “Undisputed” and a bunch of songs that are way better than you’d expect them to be, like “Call Up The Homies”. A lot of the ending tracks like “I Do It For Hip-Hop” and “Last of A Dying Breed” topically divulge how dedicated artists feel about hip-hop, and Chris Rock playfully lampoons ‘Cris on the creative “Everybody Hates Chris”. There are plenty of renowned producers that contributed to “Theater” as well, including DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, and Wyldfyer. And so far, all the album has gone is Gold.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Last of a Dying Breed,” “MVP,” “Do The Right Thang”

11. “Tronic” – Black Milk

Lots of people think Black Milk has done a lot of improvement since his last full-length album, Popular Demand, but his sophomore album is the first I’ve heard from him as a solo artist – however, it did get a lot of critical acclaim. “The Matrix” is an eerie, compelling street single with two excellent spitters (Pharoahe Monch & Sean Price) that guest and kinda outshine Black, but as an emcee he’s still talented. “Long Story Short” is a worthwhile opener where he talks about his influences and experiences before he went out on his own, and the soulful “Try”, with its catchy hook and soulful sample has Black Milk talking/rapping in the vein of Kanye West for a section of the first verse. The grimy “Overdose” and Alan Parsons-sampled “Losing Out” with a switched-up flow from Royce da 5’9” make up the rest of my favorite songs from the album other than the ones I already mentioned. Otherwise, the album is very solid – good guests (although I wish a few more were let on) and intuitive solo songs and even an instrumental towards the end of it.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Long Story Short,” “Overdose,” “The Matrix”

10. “The Preface” - Elzhi

The consensus on Slum Village is different from every head you could talk to – whether they’re in love with Dilla’s production and think both “Fantastic”s have that intangible ‘classic’ feeling, or hate the banal emcees. But Elzhi, who several years ago became a member, dropped a seriously inspired debut this year. “Brag Swag” has a murky, memorable Black Milk background and Jay-Z and Biz Markie scratches between verses of Elzhi’s braggadocio, “Talking In My Sleep” is one of the best and most surreal songs of 2008, and “Motown 25” has Royce da 5’9” giving a performance it sounds like he wrote after listening to approximately 39,927 Lil’ Wayne mixtapes (and which wide-eyed hipsters ate up as a result – the verse isn’t really bad, but I woulda preferred him sticking to his regular style), whereas Elzhi sounds more inspired by the old rhymes of Big L. Oh, and I didn’t even get to his ingenious “Colors” or spectacular second verse on “D.E.M.O.N.S” pretty much based around the acronym form of the word ‘demon’ and where and when people are affected by them. He’s one of the most technically skilled rappers in the game today and could become an artist who drops consistently superb albums if he’s prolific and keeps improving in different ways – I’m not saying he doesn’t need to cause in ways I expected more from “The Preface,” but it’s still excellent.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Motown 25,” “Talking In My Sleep,” “Growing Up”

9. “Paper Trail” – T.I.

Honestly, even though I knew he had talent, I wanted T.I. to take 2008 off – he dropped two platinum albums two years in a row and got weighed down with attention from critics and the media, and it just made me get tired of him and the arguments he was causing about hip-hop trends like swagger. Fortunately, I was really impressed when I heard the album. Although Jay-Z’s “Brooklyn (Go Hard)” beat it (and Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli”) at its own game, “Swagga Like Us” was a grower of a collaboration between evidently, the only 4 emcees the entire hip-hop fanbase/culture/whatever is talking about. A lot of successful, catchy singles have been released from the album: “Live Your Life” shows a lot of lyrical talent, the first verse using the exact same rhyme scheme for 16 bars, and “Whatever You Like” is just likable and fun. I personally think T.I. has done a hell of a lot better writing his lyrics down than just freestyling lines, and there are plenty of songs I can identify with like “Ready for Whatever” and “No Matter What,” and I don’t blame him for switching his style even if some fans wouldn’t like it (but even some of “Paper Trail”s more standard Tip tracks have been celebrated by different listeners.) I wonder if he will take 2009 off, however I will be much more interested in the new music he will do from now on.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Ready for Whatever,” “No Matter What,” “Dead and Gone”

8. “White Van Music” – Jake One

By far the best producer album since I heard DJ Jazzy Jeff’s “The Return of the Magnificent” in ’07. Although in a rare spontaneous decision I originally listened to this when it leaked and liked it, I’m very glad I gave it another chance – as it’s one of the best albums of this year, with no wack beats and pretty much no wack guest appearances. Jake One has a great mix of artists (even producers rap, excluding him – although he did bring in local emcees for a Seattle anthem at the end of the disc) as there are many different mainstream artists and appreciated underground rappers/groups too. Brother Ali’s guest verse on “The Truth” shows his next album will probably be his magnum opus (dude, make sure to drop in in 2009), Little Brother are featured considering Phonte is the Lil’ Wayne of the faux-underground, and Royce da 5’9” tag-teams with Elzhi and throws a shot at Mr. Carter during “Glow”. And Slug outshines Posdnuos (spelled it right!) on “Oh Really” talking about the current frugalness of the people who fuel the sales of the music industry. I also apologize if going over some of the highlights of these types of albums in this manner is clichéd, but this is gonna probably get heavy rotation in 2009 (and it also includes a CD of instrumentals, helpful for any aspiring MC). I recommend it for any hip-hop fan.

Noteworthy Tracks: “The Truth” (featuring Freeway & Brother Ali), “Trap Door” (featuring MF Doom), “Glow” (featuring Elzhi & Royce da 5’9”)

7. “The Show” – eMC

I will say this here in lieu of trying to in a review that may never see the light of day: I think this album could’ve been better. All right – criticisms first, compensating compliments afterwards. Strick didn’t seem as attitudinal or hungry as he usually was, Punchline’s obvious main forte was much weaker than usual (for every dope punchline, there were two wack ones) and even Ace seemed lazy sometimes (Wordsworth, God bless him, did not falter once). And I don’t know why “Four Brothers” was not put on here. It also is not as good as Ace’s final two albums or Wordsworth’s debut. However, this album has some of the most compassionate and inspirational rap songs I’ve heard in the last several years such as “Feel It,” “Winds of Change” and “We Alright”, and “What It Stand For” is a banger with a capital B. Punchline also makes up for being on autopilot for 75% of the album with his emotive verse on “U Let Me Grow”, stealing the show from everyone else. It’s still one of the best hip-hop albums that was released this year; not to mention it’s rare I actually skip the skits (I realize in Ace’s last two albums they’re essential, but it’s still bothersome to listen to every one of them.) They did well introducing themselves and looking at the future in several tracks, and still work well with each other. With any (good) luck, the group will stick together – maybe make more solo albums, maybe more collaboration albums because either would be welcome.

Noteworthy Tracks: “We Alright,” “Winds of Change,” “Feel It”

6. “Pro Tools” – GZA

All right. Pro Tools is not GZA’s best. There are times where I honestly think he legitimately sounds bored, and at times it also doesn’t sound like a GZA album thanks to factors obvious and intangible. But I’m really not gonna badmouth it, because regardless, I still think it’s one of the year’s best. “0% Finance” is the album’s underrated best track (it should’ve been listed in way more ‘Best Songs of 2008’ lists) as the Genius goes through types of car brands innovatively while telling a story about a woman and her life; and even if he’s used that formula for a track several times before, it’s still stunning overall. And fortunately he doesn’t just grasp at straws when he is going and dissing 50 Cent and his industry buddies on “Paper Plate,” his lines are all inspired and pertain to G-Unit perfectly. Most of the production is orchestraic and mysterious, and the lyrics and stories GZA always have are still riveting. That’s mostly what I have to say.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Pencil,” “0% Finance,” “Paper Plate”

5. “808’s & Heartbreak” – Kanye West

After being petrified of the idea of Kanye singing an album through AutoTune for several months, I finally looked up “Love Lockdown” with caution on YouTube. I liked it more than I thought I would. But hell, that’s definitely one of the tracks that is meant to be a SinGle. On “808’s & Heartbreak,” Kanye is usually depressed (I just added the word ‘Kanye’ to my Microsoft Word dictionary because I was sick of it being a misspelling) but takes a quick sabbatical from the problems he’s had on “Paranoid” and the beyond-awesome “Robocop”. I do think that if some of the circumstances hadn’t happened, he would still be doing hip-hop and he would not have taken this risk – but even though I hope he does go back to hip-hop with his next album, I still love songs like “Welcome to Heartbreak,” “Amazing” and the Moby-esque “Street Lights”, and even a few of the understandably more maligned tracks on the second half of the album have grown on me.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Welcome to Heartbreak,” “RoboCop,” “Coldest Winter”

4. “The Renaissance” – Q-Tip

Although Q-Tip’s “The Renaissance” really grew on me from the first listen, I still unfortunately couldn’t give it #1 – it just didn’t grow on me enough to nab a 5-star rating. I think I must have tried way too hard to “get” it, as the fact is it kept getting better every listen until it seriously became a predicament where I was gonna put it. I have to give props to all the online magazines and hip-hop heads who gave this album the exceptional reception it got, as it’s fully deserved. The whole album has a lot of replay value and is succinct; and every track is at least very good.  “Shaka” is an atmospheric but optimistic tribute to colleagues and family Tip once had who are now in a better place and “Won’t Trade” has an infectious Ruby Andrews sample and is probably the second best track on the album next to the J Dilla-produced “Move,” a fast-paced, accessible-for-everyone song I love so much. He also talks about his own self-esteem, personal problems and thoughts on one-hit-wonders and what he thinks of the rap he hears today on songs like “Believe,” “You” and “Dance on Glass”.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Won’t Trade,” “Gettin’ Up,” “Move”

3. “When Life Gives You Lemons...” – Atmosphere

This is the first time that the Cunninlynguists have not taken my #3 position for a particular year (although hopefully they’re not gonna take 2009 off.) I hold to the belief that this still isn’t Atmosphere’s best album (reissue “Lucy Ford”, guys!) despite their maturity, but it was the album of theirs that got new, more purist fans into their music and hopefully made a few people reconsider their previous emo labeling. Slug is mature and patient, but still is human - “Guarantees” and “Me” have Slug being a cynic sighing at the pitfalls he’s personallysuffered in life. However, “Yesterday” has a musically reassuring vibe where Slug retrospectively looks at his relationship with his father and “Dreamer” is a confident, upbeat tale of a mother let down by the father figure (who, for many reasons it seems, is not the husband) who at long last figures out what to do about her situation using her own rules and methods. It is true Ant has improved - the live instrumentation in the album was welcome; as was the slightly vulgar, yet all the same meaningful, storybook. Despite a few tracks that offset the balance of the album, this is still one of the best hip-hop albums of 2008.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Painting,” “Yesterday,” “In Her Music Box”

2. “Untitled” – Nas

It was hard to have faith in Nas and this album when he was releasing “Be A N***er Too”, or when promotion led fans to believe that this would, in fact, be a very gimmicky album. When conversing once this year with another rap reviewer (how do you do links here?), he said that the fact Nas was forced to rename his album smacked some sense back into him. I still think that’s on-point. The mature “Black President” was forgotten as soon as Young Jeezy put out a half-baked Obama salute himself, but Nas still discusses the history of black rights and the possibilities of the 2008 election much more aptly. I still also love “Sly Fox” and the DJ Toomp-produced “N.I.*.G.E.R (The Slave and The Master)” but most of the songs here will, at the very least, have you intently listening to what Nas says. I don’t quite have the opinion of “holy sh*t, I couldn’ta been more wrong. Modern-day classic” I was kinda hoping for thanks to the quality of the tracks that leaked right before the album’s release, but it’s still fortunate most people/a good amount of critics see the album as quality.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Hero,” “Sly Fox,” “N.I.G.G.E.R (The Slave and the Master)”

1. “Rising Down” – The Roots

Although there were several albums later in the year that gave it competition for #1, I still think The Roots, like in 2006, have the best album of the year. It’s not their best album, nor is it a 5-star album in my eyes, which is a shame. But it might be the most consistent hip-hop disc I’ve heard in 2008, and I’d be lying if I said the anticipation was not worth what it resulted in – the title track has Black Thought, Mos Def, and Styles P of The LOX kill it while pessimistically discussing the times. “75 Bars” has a relentless, lengthy verse from a vocally distorted Black Thought and many of the guest appearances are excellent (even artists who I thought were average at first grew on me when I re-listened to their verses or heard their solo material.) There’s also a verse on track 4 recorded over 20 years ago, apparently in the heyday of rap, and even if the material is bleak, the topics of it are still varied – such as  the self-deprecating “I Can’t Help It” and the captivating “Singing Man”. It also finishes out with all stellar tracks, and it’s hard to say that there’s many flaws in the album period.

Noteworthy Tracks: “Rising Down,” “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction),” “Rising Up”

There we go, I am finished at long last. I was thinking of putting up the albums I’m anticipating in 2009, but perhaps I’ll do that later.

snik1