The Bat Cave

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Dave – We’re All Alone In This Together

Ratings:

10 – Masterpiece
9 – Amazing
8 – Great
7 – Highly Enjoyable
6 – Recommended
5 – Decent
4 – Lackluster
3 – Bad
2 – Horrible
1 – Trash

Top 25 Albums from June 1st to July 31st

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 June/July 2021 release

1. *Dave – We’re All Alone In This Together
2. J.Cole – The Off-Season
3. *Tyler, The Creator – CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
4. *LLoyd Banks – The Course of the Inevitable
5. *Evidence – Unlearning, Vol. 1
6. DMX – Exodus
7. *Vince Staples – Vince Staples
8. Scarface – My Homies (1998)
9. Kool G Rap – Return of the Don (2017)
10. *HRSMN (Canibus, Kurupt, Killah Priest, Ras Kass) – The Last Ride
11. *Isaiah Rashad – The House is Burning
12. BROCKHAMPTON – ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE
13. *King Blitz – THINGS NEVER GO AS PLANNED
14. Yelawolf & DJ Muggs – Mile Zero
15. *H.E.R. – Back of My Mind
16. *IDK – USEE4YOURSELF
17. Kool G Rap – Riches, Royalty & Respect (2011)
18. Kool G Rap – The Giancana Story (2002)
19. *Smoke DZA – The Hustler’s Catalog 2
20. *Sy Ari Da Kid – Sy Ari Not Sorry
21. Kool G Rap – Roots of Evil (1998)
22. Wu-Tang Clan – Wu-Tang Forever (1997)
23. *Emotional Oranges – The Juicebox
24. Kool G Rap – Live and Let Die (1992)
25. Kanye West – Late Registration (2005)

Comments: Recent albums that are absolutely must listens: J. Cole, Tyler the Creator, Isaiah Rashad, and I think Dave just dropped the 2021 Album of the Year so far.

The 25 Artists I Listened To the Most in June & July

1. Kool G Rap
2. Scarface
3. Dave
4. J. Cole
5. Yelawolf
6. Tyler, The Creator
7. Lloyd Banks
8. Evidence
9. Benny the Butcher
10. Vince Staples
11. DMX
12. Wu-Tang Clan
13. Isaiah Rashad
14. Kanye West
15. Ransom
16. Lana Del Rey
17. Eminem
18. HRSMN
19. Sa-Roc
20. BROCKHAMPTON
21. H.E.R.
22. King Blitz
23. Pop Smoke
24. IDK
25. Smoke DZA
26. Sy Ari Da Kid

Comments: My biggest focus over the past couple months was going through the discographies of a couple of hip-hop legends: Kool G Rap and Scarface. I’ve always been a casual fan of KGR, but I have to admit I’ve never really dug into his music too much and it’s hard to have a valid opinion on someone’s place in hip-hop history if you don’t really know what you’re talking about. Old school heads love to put G Rap in their top 20 so not being able to debate that claim intelligently is something I felt like I needed to fix. After listening to basically every project he’s ever made, I think KGR is a great rapper that deserves more credit from the current generation, but I’m not really seeing someone I’d seriously consider for my top 20. He’s vocally nice and lyrically great, but I wasn’t blown away by his discography – it just doesn’t have the versatility or emotional depth I’d like to see from someone I’d consider in my all-time favorites. Scarface, on the other hand, is a fringe top 10 rapper of all-time. His discog is amazing and he’s someone that has evolved with the times and was still completely relevant as recently as the mid-to-late 2010s. The Fix is an absolute masterpiece of a rap album. Every song is a pure banger. It really looked like Covid and the pandemic might take Scarface away from us, but he fought through it and survived and hopefully he will bless us with more great music eventually.

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

You can click the link above to see my most recent additions to either playlist, but I’m not going to list them here because it’s the middle of June and I don’t which songs I added in May and which ones I’ve added in June, so I’ll just post them all in my next writeup.