My Top 5 Albums of 2010

I'm back with my 4th installment of my personal best albums for the year passed. Once again here are the rules:

1. The albums are selected from what i have personally heard
2. There is no need to argue because my opinion is what i deem to be the total after tax, it's nothing else to add.

This was a good year for music's sake, at least as far as I am concerned. Before I delve into the list i have to do the obligatory honorable mentions. J.Cole finished the year so strong with his Friday Night Lights mixtape [Correct, I count mixtapes as they are the new albums.] and followed up on the momentum his labelmate Wale's mixtape More About Nothing. I am utterly grateful for Kanye's GOOD Friday series, that's an album worth of material and it keep me musically fed all fourth quarter. And my last honorable mention is Kenneth Whalum III, simply phenomenal, see post below.




5. Drake - Thank Me Later
As amazing as i think this album is there is one deficiency, i didn't feel like he finished quite a few songs. He delivered one verse on many of the songs [See "Light Up", "Up All Night", "Unforgettable", "Miss Me"]. The one thing that i feel Drake does better than a lot of artists, he doesn't waste any words. All of his bars are hearty, very little cliche statments or metaphors/similies that don't really mean anything. The album is relatively personal and you feel like you get a grasp of his journey, even dating back before the music; tidbits that shaped Aubrey's well-rounded outlook on life which he fights to hold on to after his introduction to the fastest life he's ever seen. I would be remiss if i didn't mention the versatility of what he does, a major part of the reason he instantaneously strolled to the top; he sings with acceptable precision and is easily one of the better new rhyme-sayers. He's that rare.




4. Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon II
I hate to repeat myself so I'm going to try to highlight some points i possibly left out of my Cudi post late last year. Cudi does a LOT with his music, it's quite versatile. One of the things that i like about his album is that it's really an adventure. Artist development is very hard to find these days, but so is album development. Cudi's albums always feel like stories that you can follow and not just a collection of songs. When you can get in the booth and take people where you want them to go and not where they want to go, that's special. Also i had to give him credit -- which often eludes him from what i hear -- his songs tend to have quite a bit of a message, sans the ones where he goes on his "stoner" binge.



3. Nas & Damian Marley - Distant Relatives
I was mildly surprised at how mammoth this album was. Now when i say that, don't think for one second-hand on the watch that i didn't assume it was going to be good. I just had no way to predict it would be this good, considering i 'thought' i didn't understand Damian Marley. The island influence on this special delivered this to my heart. The synergy these two created was top-shelf, it makes Jay-z & R.Kelly look like 4th grade homework [I shouldn't have done that, as it was demeaning, but comparisons work wonders for perspective]. Frankly, it's hard to explain this album, which is another reason i used a comparison. Just trust me that it's great.



2. N.E.R.D. - Nothing
This is the best #2 I've ever posted, it hurts me to even associate this with a silver medal. This album means so much to me and as contradictory as this sounds, it is my favorite album currently. The undertones of social commentary in the lyrics are sheer genius. I tell people this is my life manual [behind the Bible of course]. The music comes from left-field, yes even for N.E.R.D., but it works so well with your ears. I am convinced that Pharrell has a voice suited perfectly for music, it's magical and unclassifiable. The layers in N.E.R.D.'s music is so much more developed than what i usually hear these days.



1. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
This album is so complete it forced me to move my own favorite to #2. The first observation i had when i heard this is, there's at least two songs within every song. He creates so much mood and build in each song, nobody shifts the music like Kanye. Another amazing feat he conquered was turning a bunch of features into a positive and not a negative. Kanye is a symphony director that organizes the people with the sounds. He put 11 highly acclaimed artist, a few legendary, on the same song and it came out sounding amazing. He does the complete gamut when composing, and i had to give him his just due for just that. I wouldn't be surprised if he mixed the album himself. When i listen to this album i can't even go find another hip hop album to put in without it sounding simple, this simply dwarfs all of it's contempararies. The one thing i can always thank Kanye for is pushing the envelope. If you can stomach more of my superlatives about Kanye go back and read my previous post.

Man On The Moon (Revisited)

I spoke on Twitter earlier today about music artist Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi and pointed out things that i perceived to matter with music pundits. Cudi's second musical offering, Man On The Moon II, was released today with what seems to be minimal hoopla; seems interesting for a widely known artist that commands so much money in concert appearances and is the absolute favorite artist and understudy of arguably the best hip-hop producer/artist actively working. Nonetheless reality prevails.

As a person who ardently seeks music to love and enjoy, I find Kid Cudi a very fascinating artist. I am under the heavy belief that i am witnessing history, I think Cudi is the first of his type. As I told my good friend @Kerrel_ he is a "howler", not a rapper or a singer. I've witnessed him in concert twice and I swear that if you turn your back at times during his show you would think a wolf has been switched into Cudi's place when you were not looking. As i think back to when Cudi was introduced to the world there were a lot of people that were confused by his musical presence, initially he was called a rapper until those in charge of the titles could no longer produce evidence to support that claim. However it was apparent to everyone that he wasn't a singer, or at least not by the definition we have commonly adopted. I will indeed admit, when introduced i didn't know what to call him either (If i was ever asked to call him something, generally I refer to him as an artist). This discovery alone was substantial enough to keep me listening to him in an effort to learn more about him and I'm sure i wasn't the only one.

Another facet of Cudi's commanding music presence is his leadership and pioneering ability. He is the torch bearer for a section of society that never really had a quality representative in the mainstream music world. Matter of fact my friend @Kerrel_ who is from Cleveland told me a story a while back of a house party he and Mescudi attended where there was quite a bit of substance abuse taking place in one of the bathrooms -- and Cudi was firmly planted in the mix. And for the those still wondering, drinking doesn't happen in the bathroom. Cudi was attempting to rap and from the account i received it wasn't really good. This is long before he was thee Kid Cudi. But the point is he represents a large part of a youthful experimental culture that trades Excedrin for Ecstasy. A generation that never really felt the need to deal with their problems without abetment. This is probably the one subculture of America that didn't really have it's own music catalogue. No matter what you are pioneering you have to be a secure and sturdy individual or either simply not care, which i think Cudi is both. Cudi believes he is that "Nice" when it comes to music (See Complex interview). There are few music artist that give the fans an open book to read, for instance Jay-z shows very little of himself through his music, most songs aren't really too personal or relatable (how many of us honestly have Maybachs); Mescudi on the other hand will point out his instabilities with no concern for side effects and i find that to be commendable and I'm sure for him it's empowering.

Kid Cudi gives you quite a bit of feeling through his music, and that is paramount to attract listeners. The sound isn't what entrances you, its the feeling. People like music that feels good, or takes them somewhere they want to go. Music is simply what feelings sound like. If you are indeed adept at putting your feelings into music then you will win every time. I'm under belief that a lot of artist don't do what they feel when the music strikes, they operate only in the confines of what they believe to be acceptable, or what they are supposed to do. Cudi came along at the right time and is afforded the opportunity to be free with his song making and doesn't appear to be impeded by the machine too much. He probably can send a lot of his gratitude to his boss, Kanye West. The point is this, a liberated artist is a heck of an occurrence to witness. It will usually end up in superb material or atrocious material and Cudi is surely standing in the superb line only behind a very few.

For anybody looking to get a one-of-a-kind music experience i recommend Kid Cudi, it is imperative that you show up without reservations. Pop the album in (I or II) and slide your headphones over your ears. You'll find something to latch on to, I guarantee it.