Top 10 Songs of 2010

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I figured it would be fitting for my first, cherry popping blog post to review 2010 in hip hop music, specifically the top songs of the year. From Kanye to Eminem, The Roots to Talib Kweli, 2010 was full of good (although rarely great) music from artists who have been around the block for a while. Some were pushing the same gimmick as always (which can be good and bad) while others really made an effort to switch up the style and keep us interested. There were a few good newcomers, actually just J. Cole and Wiz Khalifa… and a lot of bad ones.

Unfortunately, and like usual, most of the better hip hop music that was released didn’t make it on the radio or get much hype aside from ‘Love the Way You Lie’ which got REALLY old REALLY fast. Instead, the airwaves were flooded with Rick Ross, Drake, and Wacka Flocka Flame (speaking of.. here is an awesome video which almost made my list, lol). Off the radio, 2010 was a good year for hip-hop music just by the quantity and variety of albums that was released. And if you didn’t hear it all, here’s my list of the top ten:

(click the album pics to listen to the songs on Youtube.. I would recommend right clicking to open it in a new tab/window so you can stay on the page)

10.  J. Cole – Lights Please – The Warm Up

“I said ‘look baby, look how they portray us on the TV screen’, but all she wants me to do is unzip her jeans”

A simplistic, fun beat that is somewhat reminiscent of old school hip hop backs J. Cole’s impressive and clever lyrics about the age-old debate of boning versus trying to educate your girl. The topic is pretty clever especially in J. Cole’s unique approach which allows J. Cole to mix story telling with conscious lyrics and lyrics about  getting laid at the same time. My only complaints with J. Cole in general is that he can get pretty repetitive and his beats are sometime too simple and boring, but Lights Please proves its the exception and gets on the top ten, even though it may have come out in 09? Oh well.

 

9. The Roots Feat. John Legend – The F ire – How I Got Over

“Before my time starts to wind down like the Mayans, I’ll show ‘em how I got the grind down like a science.”

I’m so surprised this song has not been featured on some Nike commercial or highlight video. It has such a powerful head-nodding beat and pump-you-up message that whenever I listen to it I want to go win something. The Roots seem to never stay the same or disappoint. Black Thought spits his typical conscious and motivating lyrics and John Legend is a perfect complement to the Roots style (Maybe thats why they made a whole album together later this year). The song comes from maybe the best album of the year and one of the best groups of all time.

 

8. Kid Cudi – Mr. Rager – Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager

“you hear the birds singing flying around, you never see them too long on the ground, you wanna be one of them“

Let me get off my chest now that I am a HUGE Kid Cudi fan. Best artist out there right now. Even so, it was hard for me to put any song on this album in the top ten list. There are no “Pursuit of Happiness”s on this album, and it is a collection of varied, mixtape-esque types of songs that reminded me more of his EP A Kid Named Cudi. That being said, the album is still really good, really catchy, typical Kid Cudi, and no song portrays that more than Mr. Rager. The song feels like half an epic adventure, and half  a fun trip (who doesn’t want to be a bird?) about, literally, raging. It really doesn’t matter that Cudi isn’t a great, or even good haha, lyricist, or that he mostly sings this one, Mr. Rager is the epitome of his style and is the best song on the CD (although I’m sure I will change my mind next week).

 

7. Big Boi – The Train Pt. 2 – Sir Lucious Left Foot Son of Chico Dusty

“But mines is that intense, hence the way that I spit my shit, Cause I’m fire breathing (fire breathing) dragon in this biiitch”

Big Boi needed to drop this dope album to step out of the shadow that Andre 3000 cast as the lead member of Outkast. A lot of people do not realize that Big Boi played equally big of a role in popularizing Outkast through their first 4 incredible albums before Dre stole the show in Speakerboxx/The Love Below. We can discuss who was actually “better” later. The Train Pt. 2 specifically is an excellent song which calls out fake rappers and “liars” in general as we all ride the “never ending train” of life. Produced by Organized Noize, the greatest production group of all time, the song has an infectious chorus, good beat, and most importantly fits Big Boi’s lyrical style and content perfectly. It’s funny, because while this song is more mental, the next song on the album, Tangerine, is about a strip club, and Gucci Mane is featured on another track, Shine Blockas. Just shows you how versatile Big Boi is on this must-listen-to album.

 

6. Wiz Khalifa – Black and Yellow

“So many rocks up in my watch I can’t tell what the time is”

Do I need to explain myself on this one? Wiz is crazy infectious in a way thats almost impossible to describe, but I’ll try. He’s built up a ton of cred with a ton of braggadocio, girls and money songs that I tried so hard not to like but did anyway. The production on his songs, and especially Black and Yellow, is inventive and varied, and his lyrics reach a personal level that a lot of similar rappers (cough, Lil’ Wayne cough) do not. His style makes you feel like you could totally hang out with him. The beat for Black and Yellow was used by a bunch of rappers but you only hear Wiz’s version because he branded this song so well. I just wish the song wasn’t about Pittsburgh…

 

5. Zion I Feat. Rebelution – Many Stylez – Atomic Clock

“Rhythym what I blow got you swimming in my ocean, underneath the reef keep the Frankenscented potion”

Really, there were a few songs on this great album that could have made this list. Zion I has become one of my favorite groups as they keep making sick music on the reg (Coastin‘ was debatable for the best song of 2009) despite getting any sort of mainstream recognition. Many Stylez is a reggae-influenced pure fun song featuring fellow Californians, Rebelution. Zumbi displays his west coast melodic flow which fits perfectly with the reggae rhythym in the chorus and Amp Live on the boards. I can’t stop listening to this song and Atomic Clock as a whole is probably in the top five albums of the year (with How I Got Over, Legend of Mr. Rager, My Beautiful Twisted Fantasy, and Recovery).

 

4. Reflection Eternal – The Ballad of the Black Gold – Revolutions per Minute

“This oil shit is slicker than preachers, It make the problems in the region amplify like victory speeches”

Talib Kweli made an album this year?? Yup. RPM is his second collaboration with DJ Hi-Tek  as the group Reflection Eternal came over a decade after Train of Thought which basically put Kweli on the map. Unfortunately, the duo’s second try turned out to be a lot of decent, but not-memorable, songs as they tried to straddle their old roots while making more varied and upbeat songs. Ballad of the Black Gold is the definite exception on the album, as it seems effortless in an otherwise forced album. Talib Kweli is right at home rapping about the economic and political themes of oil production, and Hi-Tek delivers a great beat that sprinkles piano  and horns over militaristic drums sooo nicely.

 

3. The Roots Feat. STS & Joann Newsome – Right On – How I Got Over

“It’s the Orion of the Hop, the new star of the Hip, I shine a light for the future so my presence a gift”

I don’t think there’s a single flaw in this song, and thats probably why its reached into my “never skip” playlist on my iTunes. Trust me, its a short playlist. The beginning of the song and first chorus almost defy genre, until you hear Black Thought jump in with the first verse. Ever notice how you can actually hear what Black Thought is saying when he raps? It does so much for his bars which are often strong and effective, but not the most lyrically gifted. Try reciting a Busta Rhymes verse word-by-word and you’ll know what I’m talking about. The song, like a lot of Roots music new and old, features a basically unheard of artist, in this case STS, who ends up killing it and making you wonder why you have never heard of them. Aside from penning the lines above, STS brings an intelligence along with his gritty rhymes and unforgettable voice.

 

2. Eminem Feat. Lil’ Wayne – No Love – Recovery

“When I’m not even in my harshest, You can still get roasted ’cause Marsh is not mellow”

Gone are the days of the real lyricist spitting their hardest rhymes over minimalistic beats and hooks. Gone are the days where a freestyle track can be your favorite song by an artist. Gone are the days where the best MC collaborations were actually battles for lyrical supremacy. That’s why “No Love” is so refreshing, because Eminem (and I guess Lil’ Wayne, sort of…) absolutely kill this track lyrically. Its almost sad how excited I got listening to Eminem’s verse in this song, because I hadn’t heard anything as good since…. The Black Album? 2003?Seriously, this song is an oasis in a desert of sometimes mediocre but often poor rapping we hear nowadays. Literally, its gotten to the point where we think Kanye better than average (more on that later). Just Blaze pulls of a great sample of Haddaway’s What Is Love? which is iconic in pop culture and completely random (a 90′s dance song, really?) and twists into an ever-building beat which fits both Lil’ Wayne’s slow, conversational style at first and Eminem reign of fury attack lyrics to finish the song off. My friend Sam Wappel says they should have just gotten rid of the only chorus in the song and he may have gotten his wish if this were still the 90′s, but this is 21st century big label music and you gotta pay the bills lol. The only reason this song isn’t number 1 is that Lil’ Wayne gets too complacent on some of his lyrics. I know thats his “style”, but its so maddening to hear him kill half the verse and then basically step aside to let Eminem take the cake and the icing. So much for proving your the “Best Rapper Alive”, Weezy.

 

1. Kanye West – Power – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

“I’m livin’ in the 21st century, doing something mean to it.”

Aside from the fact that the contagious beginning; “Oohh, heeyyy” has probably been stuck in your head on more than one occasion, you could probably think of one hundred million reasons to hate Kanye West’s new album and lead single, Power. So why don’t you? Well, for starters, this song boasts easily the beat of the year, as Kanye makes all other hip-hop producers seem sort of amateurish with his incorporation of unrelated cacophonic elements that somehow blend together into a completely new sound, the style which he picked up on the would-have-been-so-good-without-autotune 808s & Heartbreaks. I’ve always been a fan of Kanye because of his unique talent, and also because I  have been purposefully ignorant of him in the news. However, I’m not buying the whole “Sgt. Peppers of hip-hop” “greatest album of our generation” BS from critics about MBDTF. Yes, a lot of songs are good, if not great, especially Power, but Devil in a New Dress? The last four minutes of Runaway which sounds like Kanye having sex with the microphone on autotune? Nicki Minaj’s verse in Monster? It’s so bad! I give her the award for worst line of the year: “Yeah I’m in a Tonka, color of Willy Wonka”. I chose Power as the number one song of the year because its a party song, a zeitgeist for 2010, a satire (or celebration) of Kanye’s cockiness, and most of all, a really catchy song. Nevermind the average lyrics, hip hop is dead anyway, right?