Top 10 Rap Songs of 2011

[chazraps]

Where my hip-hoppers at?

Thought I'd get some rap discussion a'stirred with my annual late-January list of the previous year's best rap songs.

Here's the best I felt 2011 had to offer:
popularopinions.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/bestrap201/

[chazraps]

If you haven't heard it, the second verse of Danny Brown's "Pac Blood" is my favorite verse I heard in any rap song this year:

(slight language warning)

[anticonscience]

My favorite was probably "The Noose" by Tech N9ne w/ Mayday.

[rapidfire187]

Jan 26, 2012 20:35:18 GMT -5 anticonscience said:

My favorite was probably "The Noose" by Tech N9ne w/ Mayday.

I liked it, but I prefer "Who Do I Catch" from the same album.

(language)


Also, no love for Hopsin? I figured that would be right up your alley. Is it b/c of the Tyler diss? It was funny IMO. Plus, who doesn't love a good diss?

(language)


Anyway, here's my (short) take on Chaz's list.

10. Love the hook, don't care much for the verses but they're not bad.

09. I likes it.

08. Technically sound but boring.

07. Sounds good but it's kind of stupid.

06. Sounds good but it's kind of stupid.

05. Not a big fan of Jay Z and only like Kanye slightly more. It's not bad though, but not that great IMO.

04. I like it better now than I did when I first heard it. But number 4 of the year? To each his own I suppose.

03. Kind of reminds me of Necro for some reason. The beat is strangely catchy despite my overwhelming urge to hate it. I dig this.

02. Reminds me of an older Twiztid beat oddly enough. Good track but the repetitive beat and lack of a hook kind of hurts it IMO.

01. Yea, I liked this a lot when I heard it a while back. It might make my top 10 list if I had one, but it wouldn't be in the top 5.

Out of this entire list, I had only heard 2 of the songs before reading Chaz's article. I don't know if that's because I'm so far out of the loop on current hip hop, or if Chaz was making a conscious effort to focus on lesser known artists and songs. I'm thinking it's both.

[chazraps]

Thanks for checking out the list gang.

Jan 26, 2012 21:21:33 GMT -5 rapidfire187 said:

Out of this entire list, I had only heard 2 of the songs before reading Chaz's article. I don't know if that's because I'm so far out of the loop on current hip hop, or if Chaz was making a conscious effort to focus on lesser known artists and songs. I'm thinking it's both.

Well, it's much more so that, because I'm solely living off of writing right now, I have to listen to 8-12 new projects a week. I try to give everything a shot and, with so much access to everything on the internet, there's really a lot out there. I wouldn't go out of my way to try to make lesser known stuff rank higher just to get it out there, rather these were just my ten favorites. My original list was about 45 that I had to whittle down from, and the last ones (painfully) cut were Rick Ross' "I Love My Bitches," Waka Flocka's "Stereo Type Me," Main Attraktionz's "Chuurch," E-40's "Drugs" and ASAP Rocky's "Wassup."

I do love keeping things on an even playing field though as I find that's really the fairest way to get things out there. Really glad you checked everything out. To be honest, it took me a while to get into Roc Marciano too, but "My Persona" has a lot of subtle great stuff in it. Not many other rappers are name-dropping Marilyn Manson in songs about selling coke in 2011. I sugest letting it rock in your headphones next time you go for a walk - hulkshare.com/upxh7lpl0boc

As for Hopsin, he's a little too derivative for my taste. While I do think he has a great ear for beats (that pots and pans song in particular) he seems to Xerox Eminem's 'Slim Shady LP' pretty hard without really grasping any of the nuances that make it a great listen. He strikes me as being transparently too concerned with shock value and forcing as many syllables as possible into rhyme schemes like sardines into a can, often to the detriment of his timing as he'll take forever getting to a good punchline. I'm basing this off just hear 6 or so songs of his and would love to be wrong though.

By the way, speaking of Tech N9ne, did you know he put out an FYE exclusive CD this year? It's a double EP. I hadn't seen anything about it until I saw it on the shelves by chance at the Mall of America a few weeks bad. Never bad to have more Tech around.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I've only heard 'n*****s In Paris' from numbers 10-2, and I remember nothing of it. Meh.

As for 'Yonkers' - I am totally with you for making it number one, and considering its third verse is completely appalling that's really saying something.

The first two verses are dark, funny and brilliant, the video's cheap but perfect and genuinely artful, and the production is one of the most unsettling I've ever heard.