TOP 10 RAP/HIP-HOP SONGS OF 2012

[chazraps]

Usually I save my Top 10 of the year lists for January because of how it's typically a cultural dead zone, but this month was so absurdly jam-packed that I didn't get to really put something together until later in the game.

Still, this past year had some absolutely stellar songs, and I've assembled the ten absolute best - popularopinions.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/10rap2012/

[Deleted]

I really liked the new Aesop album. I agree - it's great to see him back.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

#7 is far better than a lot of hip-hop fans and music lovers in general give her credit for.

[Deleted]

i dunno - Minaj is on American Idol, how much more credit does she need?

[chazraps]

Jan 31, 2013 11:26:39 GMT -5 @personman01 said:

i dunno - Minaj is on American Idol, how much more credit does she need?

She's on Idol for her pop contributions like "Starships." Outside of her verse on "Monster," nobody really talks about her potential behind the mic.

[Deleted]

Jan 31, 2013 11:36:04 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Jan 31, 2013 11:26:39 GMT -5 @personman01 said:

i dunno - Minaj is on American Idol, how much more credit does she need?

She's on Idol for her pop contributions like "Starships." Outside of her verse on "Monster," nobody really talks about her potential behind the mic.

Hmm, maybe. To be honest I've never heard anyone really put down her rapping, but I don't really follow music blogs carefully so...

[salsashark]

WTF CHAZ??? WHERE ARE "REAGAN" AND "f***IN' PROBLEMS"??

[chazraps]

Jan 31, 2013 11:56:11 GMT -5 salsashark said:

WTF CHAZ??? WHERE ARE "REAGAN" AND "f***IN' PROBLEMS"??

"...Problems" is absent solely because of my one-song-per-artist rule and, as much as I love it, "Goldie" was the better single for me.

"Reagan" was actually my least favorite song on R.A.P. Music. It's great, but when Mike's at his least subtle, he loses the fun nuances that make his rage so endearing to me. "Anywhere But Here" was the song from that record that almost made the list.

I will say that R.A.P. Music was the best rap album last year though, followed closely by Good Kid, Maad City and History Will Absolve Me.

[salsashark]

Haha, fair enough. "Reagan" is pretty over-the-top, but I think that works. His closing line is just so vicious that it's what sold me on the song.

The two I mentioned aside, I'm also a huge sucker for El-P's "The Full Retard" and "Oh Hail No" (that second one got an astonishingly small amount of love). Speaking of which, I really like what I have heard of Exquire now; I gotta get on that more. Danny Brown, I teeter-totter on. Sometimes, he's terrible and other times, he's great.

[chazraps]

Yeah, I liked the El-P record too. "The Full Retard" was great, but "Stay Down" is probably my favorite moment on it. Whenever El breaks into weird melodic synths on his records (like "League of Extraordinary Nobodies" on I.S.W.Y.D.) always gets me.

I think Danny Brown's going to be like Blu in the sense where he's pursuing projects that are so widely different depending on his aims. However, even when I'm not feeling what he does, he's so committed to his vision that I don't think I could ever call it "Wack," but moreso just "not for me."

[salsashark]

Since we're talking about El-P, are you a Camu Tao fan? I got into him recently and only know a song or two, but I dig him. Sad how everything panned out for the guy.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

As for my list, I think I have #8, #7 and #5 at least on it, but Kid Cudi's "Creepers" off of Cruel Summer and Nas's "Daughters" make mine. I liked "Go Get It" a lot more off of T.I's Trouble Man, and as far as Kendrick Lamar, I thought "Compton" and "Poetic Justice" were way better singles, and "The Art of Peer Pressure" was my favorite track off of Good Kid M.A.A.D City altogether.

[Urethra Franklin]

Songs I would add to the conversation:

- Big Boi feat. A$AP Rocky & Phantogram - "Lines"
- Big Boi feat. Little Dragon - "Mama Told Me"
- Danny Brown - "Grown Up"
- Action Bronson feat. RiFF RaFF - "Bird on a Wire"
- ScHoolboy Q - "There He Go"
- Joey Bada$$ - "World Domination"
- Heems - "Cowabunga Gnarly"
- Maffew Ragazino feat. Das Racist & Grizzly Bear - "Jackson Pollock"

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Christ, Chaz, I respect your opinion and all, especially your number one slot, but having 'Stupid Hoe' on there wrecks my brain.

Nicki Minaj is an immensely talented woman who barely makes use of that talent, and I don't blame her for this in the slightest, but I think 'Stupid Hoe' is the shittiest thing she's ever released. In my opinion at any rate...

[chazraps]

Jan 31, 2013 13:01:19 GMT -5 salsashark said:

Since we're talking about El-P, are you a Camu Tao fan? I got into him recently and only know a song or two, but I dig him. Sad how everything panned out for the guy.

Yeah, Camu's death really upset me. I had the tremendous fortune to see him several times live on tour. In the mid-2000s he was part of a pretty dope duo called S.A. Smash and always really brought it to his live hows.

This single of his, "Hold the Floor" is easily in the top 3 singles that the indie-rap movement of the 2000s produced:

(language warning)


And this is my favorite S.A. Smash song (produced by El-P)

(language warning)

[chazraps]

Jan 31, 2013 16:55:33 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Christ, Chaz, I respect your opinion and all, especially your number one slot, but having 'Stupid Hoe' on there wrecks my brain.

Nicki Minaj is an immensely talented woman who barely makes use of that talent, and I don't blame her for this in the slightest, but I think 'Stupid Hoe' is the s***tiest thing she's ever released. In my opinion at any rate...

I'd say give it another shot, without watching the video. I love the song because it's an absurd choice for a first single, namely for how it draws on a bunch of regional dance musics you never really hear incorporated into national hip-hop. From Baltimore Club, Go-Go, Bounce, etc., there's just so much going on in that soundscape that she kinetically bounces from. "You a Stipid Ho, You-a You-a Stupid Ho" is a hook just built for a bounce club call-and-response.

And beyond that, the verses are some of the best rapping she's done since monster:

"Hey yo, baby bop, f*** you and your EP
Who's gassin' this hoe? BP?
Hmm thinks, 1, 2, 3, to the Nicki Minaj blink
Cause these hoes so busted
Hoes is so crusty, these bitches is my sons
And I don't want custody"

"I get it cracking like a bad back.
Bitch talkin she the queen, when she looking like a lab rat
I'm Angelina, you Jennifer
Come on bitch, you see where Brad at
Ice my wrists and I piss on bitches
You can suck my d***** if you take this jizzes
You don't like them disses, give my ass some kisses
Yeah they know what this is, givin this the business
Cause I pull up and I'm stuntin' but I ain't a stuntman
Yes I'm rockin' Jordans but I ain't a jumpman
Bitches play the back cause they know I'm the front man
Put me on the dollar cause I'm who they trust in
Ayo SB, what's the f***s good?
We ship platinum, them bitches are shipping wood
Them nappy headed hoes but my kitchen good
I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish
A bitch would"

Plus the hilarious two singing parts at the end that really come out of nowhere really show what a wonderfully chaotic mess the whole song is. Even after repeat-listens, it remains entirely unpredictable. There's no method to its madness, and it's still incredible fun. There's not too many rap songs you can really say that about.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

It depends on what you're wanting from a rap song. For me it's not entirely about lyrics, or at the very least, when we're in top ten of the year territory it isn't. Being influenced by obscure music doesn't necessarily make it good music, because for all there is going on in the song, it's pretty much beatless, and for me that's a cardinal sin for a rap song - no beat, or a weak beat, unless it's something where that is clearly the entire point, like 'Suddenly' by A$AP Rocky, pisses me off.

[chazraps]

Feb 2, 2013 18:14:19 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

It depends on what you're wanting from a rap song. For me it's not entirely about lyrics, or at the very least, when we're in top ten of the year territory it isn't. Being influenced by obscure music doesn't necessarily make it good music, because for all there is going on in the song, it's pretty much beatless, and for me that's a cardinal sin for a rap song - no beat, or a weak beat, unless it's something where that is clearly the entire point, like 'Suddenly' by A$AP Rocky, pisses me off.

But, it's not beatless. The BPM is just exceedingly high, and you typically can't rap as slow as she does over that fast of a beat, adding to unpredictable experimental aspects of it. If those somewhat esoteric styles aren't your thing, that's one thing, but taking into account what makes for a solid bounce beat, I don't think it's fair to write it off as wack.

"Stupid Ho" is much more in the vein of this:

(language warning)


and this

(language warning)


and this

(language warning)


Incorporating those elements into the "Stupid Ho" beat, which was effectively performed and released as a rap single, I felt was really well done.

[Deleted]

Now here's my question

I agree with everything on the list, and I have no objections whatsoever

My only question is where is "New God Flow" after everything that I heard about Ghostface Killah's verse (Note: I have not heard the song yet)

[chazraps]

Feb 2, 2013 20:19:16 GMT -5 cageking666 said:

Now here's my question

I agree with everything on the list, and I have no objections whatsoever

My only question is where is "New God Flow" after everything that I heard about Ghostface Killah's verse (Note: I have not heard the song yet)

Thanks for checking it out.

It's absent because it's not at good as the ten songs I listed. Even factoring in Ghost's verse, it's not enough to save the song. That whole Cruel Summer project was a pretty big disappointment.