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 the most recent month will be in bold.

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

September Note: I didn’t get to listen to much music this past month and nothing new really got much attention (and not a lot of interesting new music came out anyway) and none of last month’s albums got extra spins either. As such, there isn’t much movement in my rotations below.

HEAVY ROTATION (heard whole album many times)

EARTHGANG – Mirrorland
Little Brother – May the Lord Watch
Rapsody – Eve
SiR – Chasing Summer

SOLID ROTATION (heard whole album at least twice)

Rick Ross – Port of Miami 2

COURTESY ROTATION (heard whole album)

38 Spesh – A Bullet for Every Heathen
Black Milk – DiVE
BROCKHAMPTON – GINGER
Jidenna – 85 to Africa
Joell Ortiz – Monday
Missy Elliott – ICONOLOGY EP
Ras Kass – Soul on Ice 2
Snoop Dogg – I Wanna Thank Me

SKIM ROTATION (haven’t heard whole album)

Alchemist – Yacht Rock 2
Bon Iver – i,i
Bun B – Bun B Day – EP
Common – Let Love
Dame D.O.L.L.A. – Big D.O.L.L.A.
Ghostface Killah – Ghostface Killahs
Justine Skye – BARE WITH ME – EP
KXNG Crooked – The Weeklys, Vol. 3
Post Malone – Hollywood’s Bleeding
Raphael Saadiq – Jimmy Lee
Snoh Aalegra – Ugh, those feels again

Out of Rotation (removed from my current playlist)

A$AP Ferg – Floor Seats
Curren$y – Hot August Nights
Obie Trice – The Fifth
Slum Village – The Source
Taylor Swift – Lover
Tool – Fear Inoculum
Young Thug – So Much Fun

TOO NEW (zero listens)

Kemba – Gilda
Kevin Gates – I’m Him
Skyzoo & Pete Rock – Retropolitan

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

EARTHGANG – Mirrorland – This is really the only new album I gave more than a courtesy listen to in the past month, but it’s a good one. EARTHGANG is part of J.Cole’s Dreamville imprint, a hip-hop label that now rivals Kendrick Lamar’s T.D.E. as the best collective in rap music. I can see old school listeners wanting to dismiss EARTHGANG and loop them in with the influx of trap crap that is invading the airwaves these days, but that would be a huge mistake. I’ve seen more than a few people compare EARTHGANG to Outkast and while the comparison has some merit – mostly because both groups hail from Atlanta and the influence is obvious – comparing anyone to Andre 3000 probably isn’t fair. No one in EARTHGANG strikes me as an elite rapper. With that said, you don’t need to be an elite rapper to make really good music and EARTHGANG has a vibe to them that makes their entire album sound cohesive and highly enjoyable, maybe even addictive. As you can see below, I’ve already added five songs from their 14-track album to my Best of 2019 playlist and I don’t think they have a weak song on it. I’ve probably listened to Mirrorland 5-6 times through already and I feel pretty confident saying its firmly in my top 10 albums of 2019 already. J.Cole and co. stay winning.

2019 Bangerz Playlist Additions

Common ft. Daniel Caesar, “HER Love”
Dave, “Black”
EARTHGANG. “Top Down”
EARTHGANG ft. Young Thug, “Proud of U”
EARTHGANG, “This Side”
EARTHGANG, “Avenue”
EARTHGANG ft. Malik, “Fields”
Joell Ortiz, “Captain”
Raphael Saadiq, “Kings Fall”
Scarlet Parke, “What We’ve Become”