I started making this thing before you posted this thread, Orlando, so my post doesn't fit your layout. You can count my picks or not; doesn't really matter since the only other person that's probably gonna be nominating these albums is Rubbersoul, so I doubt my votes are really gonna put a dent in this thing anyways.
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Best Albums of 2009:
I didn't bother to seperate mixtapes from albums because, really, at this point, that's beyond stupid. Alot of the best records coming out these days are mixtapes, and alot of them are really albums; artists are just calling them mixtapes to cover for the fact that they can't get distribution for a "real" album anymore.
I was gonna comment on all of these, but it won't be long until that turns into rants on all of these, and that's gonna take forever. If anyone happens to be really interested in my logic behind any of these picks, just holler.
1. Drumma Boy & The Drum Squad: "Welcome II My City" (DSU Records)
2. J Stalin & Guce, "Giants & Elephants" (Livewire Records)
3. The Jacka, "Tear Gas" (SMC Records)
4. Tum Tum, "Tumthousand9: The Grassy Knoll" (TBTG'Z Records)
5. J Stalin & Maybach, "The Real World 2: East Oakland Edition" (Livewire Records)
6. UGK, "UGK 4 Life" (Jive Records/UGK Records/Wood Wheel Records)
7. Zion I, "The Takeover" (Gold Dust/Koch Records)
8. Nump, "Student Ov Da Game" (Sick-Wid-It Records)
9. Shady Nate, "Gasman Unleashed" (Livewire Records)
10. D'lo & DJ Fresh, "The Tonite Show With D'lo" (CLR/PTB/Livewire Records)
11. Yung Redd, "Eviction Notice 3" (TF Records)
12. Hollow Tip, "Still Flawless" (Mercenary ENT)
13. Paul Wall, "Fast Life" (Asylum Records)
14. Various Artists, "Livewire Empire" (Livewire/SMC Records)
15. Freeway, "Philidelphia Freeway 2" (Real Talk/Koch Records)
16. Keak Da Sneak, "Thizz Iz Allindadoe 2" (Thizz Records)
17. Eddie Projex, "I Got Tha Streets On Fire" (SMC Records)
18. Panacea, "Corkscrew Gaps" (Rawkus)
19. Lil Cali & Mouse, "Just Because" (Trill ENT)
20. XVII, "The Reason" (UGK Records)
Honorable Mentions (in no paticular order):
- Clyde Carson, "Base Rock" EP (Moe Doe)
- Bueno, "Can't Knock The Hustle" (Noyz R Us/SMC Records)
- Shady Nate, Jay Jonah, DJ Fresh, "The Tonite Show With Shady Nate & Jay Jonah" (Livewire Records)
- Beeda Weeda, "When Tigers Attack" (PTB/Demolition Men)
- Method Man & Redman, "Blackout! 2" (Def Jam)
- Various Artists, "Livewire Radio Volume 1" (Livewire Records)
- Big Rich, "Heart of the City" (3 Story Gang)
- Lil Blood, Lil Rue, HD, & Ronald Mack, "Murda Fa Hire" (Livewire Records)
- Lil Flip & Mannish Man, "Certified" (Real Talk/Koch Records)
- Juicy J, "Hustle Till I Die" (Asylum)
- DJ Paul, "Scale-O-Ton" (Select-O-Hits)
- Trick Daddy, "Finally Famous (Born a Thug, Still a Thug)" (Dunk Ryder/Fontana)
- DJ Fresh & The Whole Shebang, "The Tonite Show: The Album" (SMC Records)
- Yung Redd, "Eviction Notice 2" (TF Records)
- Slim Thug, "Boss of All Bosses" (Boss Hogg Outlawz/E1/Koch)
- G-Stack, "Dr. Purp Thumb" (SMC Records)
NOTEABLE EXCEPTION: While there are still plenty of records from this year that I have yet to check out that could very well make this list, one in particular would be Wale's "Attention Deficit". Regardless of what people on this forum have said, I have a feeling that album might crack my top 10.
Best Songs of 2009:
2009 was definetely a move in the right direction for the bay area and, to a lesser extent, United States rap in general. The past few years have, unquestionably, been single based. 2005/2006 was truly an interesting time for bay area music, as literally every day brought a couple amazing new songs. The only problem with it was that all these songs were coming from people either without deals, or holding out for better deals, so the singles never backed an album. Singles have been drying up over the past few years, and 2009 found artists confronting the reality that the only way to keep a name for themselves was to release an entire album full of good material. And with so many good artists releasing albums this year, 2009 resulted in perhaps the largest quantity of quality music in ages. The result of that, though, would be that this list would be somewhere around a thousand songs long, so, in the interest of space, I'm going to limit this to one song per album (in other words, every song from Tumthousand9 won't be on this list, even though it should be).
1. Nump feat Eileen VA, "Goin Hollywood"
2. J Stalin & Maybach feat Chris Da Vth, "Fast Life"
3. The Jacka feat Dubb-20 & J Stalin, "Our Heroes"
4. D-Lo, "Blaaat"
5. Paul Wall feat Z-Ro & Yung Redd, "One Hundred"
6. J Stalin, Shady Nate, & Lil Blood, "Pray For Me"
7. Shady Nate & Jay Jonah feat J Stalin, "Piles 'Em In"
8. Drum Squad, "Aye Yo"
9. Project Pat feat OJ Da Juiceman, "Freaky Hoes"
10. Hollow Tip, "Blow Up 2"
11. Shady Nate feat E Da Sanga, "Planes, Trains, & Automobiles"
12. Lil Cali feat Young Dro & Mouse, "Ric Flair"
13. AP.9 feat T-Nutty & Frank Sticks, "Tonight"
14. Panacea, "Reasons"
15. Eddie Projex feat Beeda Weeda & Matt Blaque, "Shine At Night"
16. J Stalin & Guce feat Maybach, "Till My Casket Drops"
17. UGK feat Lil Boosie & Webbie, "Harry *******"
18. Yung Redd feat Lil Keke, "Time Machine"
19. Juicy J feat V-Slash & Project Pat, "North Memphis Like Me (Remix)"
20. XVII feat Pimp C & Too $hort, "Where It's At"
21. J Stalin, "Livewire"
22. Tum Tum, "The Grassy Knoll"
23. Freeway, "Gotz 2 Be Tha Bomb"
24. Chalie Boy, "I Look Good" (original version)
25. Bueno, "Cool"
26. Slim Thug, "My *****"
27. Keak Da Sneak, "Get Money"
28. Zion I, "In the Mornin' (Caged Bird 2)"
29. G Stack feat Nate, "Neva Come Down"
30. Philthy Rich feat Lil Blood, Lil Rue, Shady Nate, HD, Jay Jonah, Stevie Joe, J Stalin, & Maybach, "Extortion Music"
31. Yung Redd, "Drippin"
32. Juice feat Bun-B, "Can't Crush My Cool"
33. Wale, "Pretty Girls"
34. Sleepy D, "You Maufukkin' Right"
35. T-Rock, "Let's Go"
36. Clyde Carson, "Crooked"
37. Lil Blood, Lil Rue, HD, & Ronald Mack (Murda Fa Hire) feat Shady Nate & J Stalin, "All Gas"
38. Method Man & Redman feat Bun B, "City Lights"
39. Big Rich feat Glasses Malone, "Wassup"
40. Shady Nate feat Dru Down, "B.I.G.G.A."
Worst Albums of 2009:
1. Mike Jones, "The Voice"
I'm really not sure what the hell this is. Either Mike Jones thought he was a waaaaaaaaaaaaay bigger star than he actually is, or he COMPLETELY misunderstood his fan base. Mike Jones' debut album was actually a good album, and I don't think it was a mistake since he had plenty of good cameos on other people's songs around the time it dropped. His biggest selling points were great production, good flow (seriously), and an almost amusingly over-developed character. Now, on this album, even with about five tracks from Mike Dean, the production is terrible, he has almost no flow to speak of, and his all his character and ad-libs are gone. Probably over half of this album is watered-down for-the-ladies songs. Again, Mike Jones had to know that he was in a position where satisfying his fan-base was the only way he was going to survive the current rap climate, but he seems to have gotten confused about the matter somewher along the line. Have fun signing to Koch, man.
2. Gorilla Zoe, I don't really care enough to look up what the name of this album was
Pretty much everything I said about Mike Jones album; the only good thing that came out of this album was that autotune lost a lot of it's appeal after this disaster.
3. Flo Rida, "R.O.O.T.S."
I don't think I really need to say anything about this.
4. Kid Cudi, "Man On the Moon"
I've probably said everything that needs to be said here elsewhere, but in sumation, this album pairs up pretty great production with some truly terrible rapping.
5. Raekwon & Ghostface, "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II"
Kinda similar to above; basically this album has excellent production and a great outing for Ghostface, but Raekwon is boring enough to kill this album.
Most Anticipated for 2010:
1. J Stalin, "The Prenuptial Agreement"
2. The Mekanix, "Under The Hood"
3. D'Lo, "Undeniable Talent" (produced entirely by DJ Fresh & The Whole Shebang)
4. Tum Tum & Chalie Boy, untitled mixtape
5. Eddie Projex & DJ Fresh, "The Tonite Show W/ Eddie Projex"
6. Tum Tum, "No Struggle No Progress"
7. Webbie, new album
8. E-40, "Revenue Retrievin"
9. Yung Redd, "Dead Presidents"
10. Sleepy D, "Sleepy Deprivation" & Tonite Show W/ DJ Fresh
Other albums I'm anticipating ... in no particular order ... some didn't make the top 10 simply because I've been waiting for them so long I have my doubts they'll ever drop.
Too $hort, untitled independent album
Turf Talk, "Thug Therapy"
J Stalin, Beeda Weeda, & Mistah FAB, "N.E.W. Oakland"
E-40 Presents "The Bay Bridges II Compilation"
The DB'z, "Mannish Music"
Droop-E & B-Slimm, "The Money Stretcher & The Fedi Fetcher II"
Cousin Fik, new album
Hollow Tip, "Crime & Poverty"
The Jacka, "Broad Daylight"
The Jacka & Ampichino, "Devilz Rejectz II"
Mouse, solo debut
Lil Cali, debut
Lil Flip, "Ahead of My Time"
J-Dawg, solo debut
Lil Blood & DJ Fresh, "Heron Music"
Lil Rue & DJ Fresh, "Fully Loaded"
Lil Blood & Lil Rue, "Shottaz"
Beeda Weeda, "Turf Radio"
Beeda Weeda & DJ Fresh, "Baserock Babies"
Trae, "The Truth"
Stevie Joe, "80's Baby"
Guce & Matt Blaque, "A Gangster & a Gentleman"
J Stalin & Lil Kev, new "Real World" album
Chris Da Vth, "Town Thizzness" project
Kokane, "Back II Tha Future"
Traxamillion, "The Slap Addict II"
Trackademicks & 1.O.A.K., group album
Keak Da Sneak, PSD, & Messy Marv, "Da Bidness II"
Bun B, "Trillogy (Trill-O-G)"
Worst Rapper Name of 2009:
- Chip Tha Ripper
That name has been bothering me all year long. It doesn't get much worse than that.
Rapper of the Year:
- J Stalin
Yeah, Stalin didn't even release an official album this year and still walks away with the top honors. He's released two cIassic albums in one year and very well may have went all the way past E-40 as the biggest artist in the Bay Area off of work ethic and word of mouth alone. It's beyond refreshing in this age to see someone take such a quality-first approach, and you can be sure I'll be supporting Stalin as long as he's releasing music if he keeps up this level of quality.
Producer of the Year:
- DJ Fresh & The Whole Shebang
A disappointing solo project notwithstanding, you can't argue the quantity of quality music these guys flooded the market with this year. Or the quality. Or the diversity. It would be a remarkable achievement for anyone to produce and album like "Real World 2: East Oakland Edition" or "The Tonite Show With D'Lo", but for someone to produce both (very different) albums is something else. The end of 2009 found these guys perhaps stretched beyond their means, but I have little doubt that 2010 is going to bring more incredible music from this brain-trust.
2009 In Review:
I don't know if I've ever seen a year in rap as polarized as 2009 was. Rap's recession hit harder then ever this year, and quality was the issue at stake, and rappers fell into one of two categories. A lot of rappers decided that the only way to make it in 2009 was by making a quality album. It makes sense, as the only albums people continue to bump from years gone by are solid albums, and if you make a solid album, some of your promotion should be done for you by word of mouth. The other group of rappers tried to sell records by things other than quality music, mostly either through some of the most overwrought mass-marketing campaigns I've ever seen (Gucci, Drake, Asher Roth, etc.) or just hoping that their once-famous name will get them by (Nelly, amongst many others), and pretty much none of this worked as possible.
So, as a result, albums this year tended to be either great or terrible; I don't think I've ever seen this little middle ground. I also don't know if I've ever seen so many quality albums in one year. There wasn't much that was particularily ground-breaking or all-time cIassic, but the amount of excellent music this year was almost overwhelming. Still, it's hard to tell how much longer we can expect artists to put out fantastic music to such low sales, so I'd say enjoy 2009 as much as you can; we might not see another year this great for a while, if ever.
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