The Bat Cave

I always hear people complaining about how bad music is nowadays and they couldn’t be more wrong. In fact, there is more quality music flooding the industry than ever before. It’s impossible to listen to it all, but… I try to. I give everything a chance and at the end of every month I’ll post everything I listened to and how much, what my favorite album was, what the other must have albums are, and what songs I added to my 2019 Bangers Playlist.

Stop complaining and take some guidance!

Because some albums come out later in the month and I don’t get much of a chance to listen to them before making my post, I’ve decided to make my new music posts containing all albums I’ve listened to over the last two months. New albums for this month will have the artist’s name in bold.

Also, check out my 2019 Albums page to see where I have rated any albums I’ve formed a solid opinion on.

HEAVY ROTATION (heard whole album many times)

BJ the Chicago Kid – 1123
Dreamville – Revenge of the Dreamers 3
Little Brother – May the Lord Watch
Rapsody – Eve
SiR – Chasing Summer
YBN Cordae – The Lost Boy

SOLID ROTATION (heard whole album at least twice)

Bas – Spilled Milk 1 EP
Blood Orange – Angel’s Pulse
Chance the Rapper – The Big Day
Devin the Dude – Still Rollin’ Up: Somethin’ to Ride With
DJ Muggs & CRIMEAPPLE – Medallo
Ed Sheeran – No.6 Collaborations
Maxo Kream – Brandon Banks
Nas – The Lost Tapes 2
Rick Ross – Port of Miami 2

COURTESY ROTATION (heard whole album)

38 Spesh – A Bullet for Every Heathen
Big K.R.I.T. – K.R.I.T. IZ HERE
Black Milk – DiVE
BROCKHAMPTON – GINGER
Jidenna – 85 to Africa
Joell Ortiz – Monday
Missy Elliott – ICONOLOGY EP
NF – The Search
Obie Trice – The Fifth
Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains
Scarlet Parke – Flight Risk
Snoop Dogg – I Wanna Thank Me
Obie Trice – The Fifth

SKIM ROTATION (haven’t heard whole album)

A$AP Ferg – Floor Seats
Bon Iver – i,i
Curren$y – Hot August Nights
Drake – Care Package
Raphael Saadiq – Jimmy Lee
Snoh Aalegra – Ugh, those feels again
Taylor Swift – Lover
Young Thug – So Much Fun

Out of Rotation (removed from my current playlist)

Berner & Curren$y – Pheno Grigio
Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire – Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire
The Lion King soundtrack

TOO NEW (zero listens)

Alchemist – Yacht Rock 2
Bun B – Bun B Day – EP
Common – Let Love
Dame D.O.L.L.A. – Big D.O.L.L.A.
Justine Skye – BARE WITH ME – EP
KXNG Crooked – The Weeklys, Vol. 3
Slum Village – The Source
Tool – Fear Inoculum

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Rapsody – Eve – This was released on the 4th Thursday of August, so it hasn’t been around too long and yet I’ve already listened to the whole album three times and most of the first half at least five times and that’s saying something considering I listened to almost no music while I was in L.A. the last week of the month. I didn’t give Rapsody much love her last time around, even though she found her way to a Grammy nomination, but I did enjoy her last album when I did listen to it. Eve immediately grabbed me though. Three of the first five songs have already been added to my Best of 2019 playlist below and I’ve now added almost half the album. I like a lot about what Rapsody is doing here. She has important things to say, the beats are really good, the songs are extremely well written and Rap isn’t a slouch on the mic either. She does get a little overboard with her adlibs at times and it can be a bit of a distraction, but it’s not a dealbreaker for me and doesn’t take away much from my love for this album. I’ve seen people calling this a classic already and, honestly, I’m pretty close to saying the same thing. I enjoy this album top to bottom, as there is no glaring weak spot and plenty of highlights. Rapsody has herself a serious contender for Album of the Year.

2019 Bangerz Playlist Additions

Ari Lennox, “Up Late”
Ari Lennox, “BMO”
Ari Lennox ft. J.Cole, “Shea Butter Baby”
Ari Lennox ft. JID, “Broke”
Ari Lennox, “Whipped Cream”
BJ the Chicago Kid ft. Afrojack, “Reach”
BJ the Chicago Kid, “Can’t Wait”
BJ the Chicago Kid ft. Anderson .Paak, “Feel the Vibe”
Chance the Rapper ft. En Vogue and Ari Lennox, “I Got You (Always and Forever)”
Drake ft. J.Cole, “Jodeci Freestyle”
Dreamville (EARTHGANG, Smino, Saba, J.Cole), “Sacrifices”
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib ft. Pusha T and Killer Mike, “Palmolive”
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib ft. Anderson.Paak, “Giannis”
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, “Practice”
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, “Flat Tummy Tea”
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, “Soul Right”
Marlon Craft, “Family”
Marlon Craft, “Gang S**t”
Maxo Kream, “Brenda”
Rapsody, “Nina”
Rapsody, “Cleo”
Rapsody, “Whoopi”
Rapsody ft. K.Roosevelt, “Maya”
Rapsody ft. SiR & JID, “Iman”
Rapsody ft. J.Cole, “Sojourner”
Rapsody ft. PJ Morton, “Afeni”
Rick Ross ft. Gunplay, “Nobody’s Favorite”
SiR ft. Kendrick Lamar, “Hair Down”
Snoop Dogg, “Focused”
YBN Cordae, “Wintertime”
YBN Cordae ft. Pusha T, “Nightmares Are Real”
YBN Cordae, “Thanksgiving”