The Bat Cave

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

MC Eiht – LESSONS

Notes: January was a super slow month for new music. I only added a handful of new albums and only two 2021 releases cracked the top 20 albums I listened to the most over the past month. Because of this, I cheated and gave Album of the Month to something that came out over four months ago… and why not? I listened to MC Eiht’s <i>LESSONS</i> more than any other album last month. It’s incredible. I have a review coming for it soon, so I won’t say much else now, but if you’ve been sleeping, it’s time to wake up. I’ll go ahead and include a rough rating for each album to make my feelings on each project clearer.  The more I’ve listened to an album, the more accurate my rating is. Any rating that has a + symbol means that I’ve found my floor, but I could rate it higher. I won’t leave a rating for anything I don’t have a good feel for yet.

Rating Scale

10 – Masterpiece
9 – Amazing
8 – Great
7 – Highly Enjoyable
6 – Recommended/Good
5 – Decent/Cool
4 – Lackluster
3 – Bad
2 – Horrible
1 – Torture Material

Top 20 Albums in January (all ratings are out of 10)

Note: These albums are NOT ranked in order of preference; they are ranked in order of number of songs listened to (scrobbles) over the past month. Previous ranking in brackets. Year of release in parentheses if it’s not 2020 or 2021.

*indicates January 2021 release

1. MC Eiht – LESSONS – 8+
2. MF DOOM & Madlib – Madvillainy (2004) – 7+
3. Chris Stapleton – Starting Over – 7+
4. Joji – Nectar – 7
5. Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon III: The Chosen [4] – 6
6. Playboi Carti – Whole Lotta Red [12] – 3
7. Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure? [8] – 9
8. Rina Sawayama – SAWAYAMA – 6+
9. Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa (2017) – 7+
10. Boldy James & Sterling Toles – Manger on McNichols – 6+
11. Roc Marciano – Reasonable Drought – 7+
12. Taylor Swift – evermore [16] – 7+
13. KRS-One – Between Da Protests – 6+
14. *Nyck Caution – Anywhere But Here – 6+
15. Eminem – Murder To Be Murdered By – Side B [2] – 6
16. Tyrone’s Jacket – Tyrone’s Jacket [3] – 8+
17. Flee Lord – In The Name Of Prodigy
18. Lianne La Havas – Lianne La Havas
19. Isaiah Rashad – Cilvia Demo (2014) – 8+
20. *KOTA The Friend – Lyrics to GO, Vol. 2 – 6+

The 20 Artists I Listened To The Most In January

Notes: I spread my listening out a lot more this past month and spent very little time focusing on brand new releases since there were very few I was interested in. I created a playlist of artists and albums I feel I’ve overlooked and want to get more familiar with and listened to that. I was actually inspired to do this when I heard MF DOOM had passed away and realized how little of his catalog I had listened to. I also split time between my Brand New, All-Time Favorites, and Best of 2020 playlists.

1. MF DOOM
2. MC Eiht
3. Boldy James
4. Kid Cudi
5. Chris Stapleton
6. Eminem
7. Joji
8. Playboi Carti
9. Jessie Ware
10. Mac Miller
11. Dua Lipa
12. Rina Sawayama
13. Roc Marciano
14. Taylor Swift
15. KRS-One
16. Nyck Caution
17. Nipsey Hussle
18. Sam Cooke
19. Tyrone’s Jacket
20. A Tribe Called Quest

Bangerz Playlist Additions – Follow me on Apple Music @DarkKnight1717 to add my playlists
2020 Bangers Playlist
2021 Bangers Playlist

38 Spesh (feat. Ransom & Klass Murda), “Toll Booth”
38 Spesh, “Road Back”
Che Noir (feat. The Musalini), “Cruise Control”
Chris Stapleton, “Joy of My Life”
Flip Huston (feat. Jim Jones), “Outta My Mind”
Flip Huston (feat. Dame D.O.L.L.A.), “Momma I Made It”
Flip Huston, “You Know The Vibes”
Jessie Ware, “Spotlight”
Jessie Ware, “What’s Your Pleasure?”
Jessie Ware, “Ooh La La”
Jessie Ware, “In Your Eyes”
Jessie Ware, “The Kill”
Joji, “Your Man”
Kid Cudi (feat. Phoebe Bridgers), “Lovin’ Me”
Kid Cudi, “The Void”
MC Eiht (feat. Young Noble & Tha Chill), “Magic”
Nyck Caution, “Dirt On Your Name”