Spin Rate: 7+ Average Song Rating: 3.5/5 3.5+ Percentage: 69% SkipFactor: 11.5% Bangers: 1
Thoughts: Eminem has kind of become a master at making incomplete songs. At least for me. This album is a clinic in making music that is mostly pretty decent but almost every song has an aspect to it that I don’t like. In “Book of Rhymes” the beat is horrendous. How are you going to have a song that says it features DJ Premier and he’s not even producing it? I was really looking forward to this collaboration and it’s not even a thing. “Favorite Bitch” features Ty Dolla $ign, one of the top hook makers in the hip-hop world right now, and his hook is TERRIBLE. “Guns Blazing” has a Dr. Dre verse and a hook that I just can’t get into. Even the songs that I like a lot tend to feature a beat or flow switch that doesn’t really work for me. The rapping on this album is pretty good, but that’s not much of a surprise – Eminem can still rap his ass off. He can also drop some ultra corny bars, but I’d say that his cleverness and rhyming ability still far outweigh these eyeroll-inducing lines.
I like Side A substantially more than Side B, but if you look at both of my reviews you’ll notice Side B has a higher average song rating. That’s because the highs on Side A are much higher than they are here, but the lows are also much lower (it’s also because this is the first album I started using .25 and .75 when I can’t decide between two ratings). Side B doesn’t have any pure skips, but it also only has one true banger. “Zeus” is a really good song, but I think it’s the only track where Eminem really puts it all together on this album. I’ll take whatever I can get from Eminem (well, not Revival), but I also feel like he’s just going to keep stringing together technically proficient verses while not making all that great of music.
On the Real Tho (feat. Yukmouth & Tha Chill) – 3.5
Stand Up (feat. Mitchy Slick & Tha Chill) – 3.5
Neighborhood Looks (feat. Havoc & Kurupt) – 4.5
Magic (feat. Young Noble & Tha Chill) – 4.5
We Got – 4
Spin Rate: 9 Average Song Rating: 3.85/5 3.5+ Percentage: 100% Pure Skips: 0 Bangers: 11
Thoughts: No album in 2020 took me by surprise more than this gem from Compon’s MC Eiht. When I saw it in the new releases section the weekend it came out, I didn’t even give it a skim. I just don’t expect much from an old school gangsta rap artist in 2020 and it’s not like I’ve ever been much of a fan anyway. But then I saw a thread about it on a hip-hop message board I’ve been posting on since 1999 (LOL) and people I have similar taste as were saying it was nice.
Well, Lessons is insanely good. I actually had to re-think what a 3.5 and a 4 song is to me because so many tracks on this album blur the line between what I think is a good song and what I think is an absolute banger. MC Eiht isn’t an amazing rapper, lyrically or vocally, but the production and song-writing on Lessons are so good that the whole project is elevated to a pretty elite level. I enjoy the beat, hook, and vibe of every track on here. It’s not like MC Eiht is weak on the mic either. He has a very smooth delivery and while his lyrics and rhymes schemes are relatively simple, he is adept at painting a picture of the stories he is telling. It’s a pretty remarkable feat to put out an album with 20 songs and zero skips – and honestly, nothing is even close to a skip – plus I think over half the album is pure fire.
Lessons is one of two albums from 2020 (the other being Che Noir & Apollo Brown’s As God Intended) that feel like immediate hip-hop classics. This album is straight heat from top to bottom. An absolute must listen and one of the best rap albums from last year. Don’t sleep.
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.
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
MC Eiht – LESSONS – 8+
MF DOOM & Madlib – Madvillainy (2004) – 7+
Chris Stapleton – Starting Over – 7+
Joji – Nectar – 7
Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon III: The Chosen [4] – 6
Playboi Carti – Whole Lotta Red [12] – 3
Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure? [8] – 9
Rina Sawayama – SAWAYAMA – 6+
Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa (2017) – 7+
Boldy James & Sterling Toles – Manger on McNichols – 6+
Roc Marciano – Reasonable Drought – 7+
Taylor Swift – evermore [16] – 7+
KRS-One – Between Da Protests – 6+
*Nyck Caution – Anywhere But Here – 6+
Eminem – Murder To Be Murdered By – Side B [2] – 6
Tyrone’s Jacket – Tyrone’s Jacket [3] – 8+
Flee Lord – In The Name Of Prodigy
Lianne La Havas – Lianne La Havas
Isaiah Rashad – Cilvia Demo (2014) – 8+
*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.
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”
Movies – I went kind of crazy this past month and watched a movie almost every day. I continued to put a dent in my 2020 watchlist and when I wasn’t watching new releases I was catching up on some horror movies I’ve missed over the years or wanted to re-watch. I post these reviews on Letterboxd and Facebook/Twitter as I write them, but I figure I should make a post at the end of each month with links to all the reviews I posted. Somehow, I watched 50 movies over the past two months and none of them were directed by Martin Scorsese, the director I’ve been focusing on over the past year. Ah well. I’ll be looking to correct that in February.
T.V. Shows – I completely revamped my T.V. rating page. I have also sorted all the shows by season and the year their first episode aired.
Cobra Kai – Season 3 (2021) – 3
The Crown – Season 4 (2020) – 4
Harley Quinn – Season 2 (2020) – 3.5
The Mandolorian – Season 2 (2020) – 4.5
Stargirl – Season 1 (2020) – 3
What We Do in the Shadows – Season 2 (2020) – 4
Pen15 – Season 1 (2019) – 4
Music – I didn’t review much music this past month, but I’ve been rating songs in my Brand New playlist all month, so I should have more albums to talk about next month even though (as you will see) January was a slow month for new music.
Spin Rate: 6.5 Average Song Rating: 3.92/5 3.5+ Percentage: 100% Skips: 0 Bangers: 7
Thoughts: Woah. That just happened. This is the first album released in 2020 that gets an average song rating greater than 3.9 and is now the highest rated album I’ve reviewed for last year. Does that mean I think it’s the best album of the year? Geez, maybe. It’s definitely amazing, but it’s also outside my comfort zone of hip-hop music so maaaaaaaaaaaybe I have no idea what I’m talking about here. And I’m not going to lie, someone put this on my radar when it came out and I put “Soul Control” on my Bangers Playlist many months ago, but I never gave the album a dedicated listen until I saw Anthony Fantano, “the internet’s busiest music nerd,” list it as his #1 album of 2020. I can’t say I always agree with Fantano’s taste, but I’m definitely on board with this pick. As great as Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia was for a pop album, I actually like What’s Your Pleasure? a bit more. The songs here have more replayability and a bit more soul. Jessie Ware is a good singer, but it’s the writing and production that really stand out to me. So many tracks on this are absolute pop smashes and I can listen to this album on repeat. If you try this out, I guarantee half the songs will get stuck in your head. I’m hesitant to call this my new album of the year, but it’s definitely my favorite non-rap album of 2020. An absolute must listen.
Spin Rate: 10+ Average Song Rating: 3.75/5 3.5+ Percentage: 100% Skips: 0 Bangers: 4
Thoughts: This may come across bias because Flip is a long-time friend of mine – we have lived together in three different places – but I think he crushed this project. I have to admit I was pretty skeptical when he hit me up last year and told me he was making new music and wanted me to help him with the writing process. I turned him down because I haven’t written rap lyrics for at least a decade now and I didn’t really want to work hard to redevelop that skill set. As far as I know, Flip hasn’t made music in nearly as long. Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations for this because, frankly, I didn’t even think it would actually happen. But then he started sending me snippets and telling me about the huge guests verses he was getting and, well, here we are. I was expecting this dude to be dusty, but he sounds just as sharp and talented as he did when he blew my mind back in 2010 at this show. He just has a knack for penning catchy hooks and writing songs that get stuck in your head and stay there. Plus, Flip shows some versatility here with “You Know The Vibes” and the bonus track “Designer,” showcasing some singing and harmonizing abilities I didn’t even know he had. This is just a really solid all around project. The production is good, the big name guests all deliver solid verses, Flip shows off a variety of talent, and every song is good and half of them are straight up bangers.
Notes: Yep. I’m giving my boy the Album of the Month. I was working on a review for this, but I never got around to publishing it – I will be doing that early January, but I can assure this is a good project. If a good friend of mine released something I didn’t like, I’d just tell them it was wack. If someone I know (but wasn’t close with) released something I didn’t like, I’d probably tell them “it’s cool” and it certainly wouldn’t be featured on my monthly blog post. I’m featuring this project because I truly believe in it. Make sure you go check this out. It’s streaming on all platforms. Another friend of mine, Toby Ganger, sent me a copy of his album that is due out sometime in 2021 and it is truly excellent… like album of the year type level good. I’m not sure when the rest of the world will get to hear it, but I’m very curious to see if everyone loves it as much as I do. I’ll go ahead and include a rough rating for each album to make my feelings on each project clearer. Note: 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.
Top 20 Albums in December (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.
1. Toby Ganger – Free Machine – 8+ (unreleased) 2. *Eminem – Music To Be Murdered By – B Side – 6 3. Tyrone’s Jacket – Tyrone’s Jacket – 7+ 4. *Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon III: The Chosen – 6 5. *Flip Huston – Who Is Flip Huston? – 7+ 6. Rapsody – Laila’s Wisdom (2017) 7. *Jack Harlow – Thats What They All Say – 6+ 8. Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure? – 7+ 9. Lil Wayne – No Ceilings 3 – 7 10. Goodie Mob – Survival Kit – 7 11.*Che Noir – After 12 – 7 12. *Playboi Carti – Whole Lotta Red – 3+ 13. Statik Selektah – The Balancing Act 14. Recognize Ali – Guerilla Dynasty 15. *Boldy James – Real Bad Boldy 16. *Taylor Swift – evermore 17. Juicy J – The Hustle Continues 18. Benny the Butcher – Burden of Proof – 9 19. Miley Cyrus – Plastic Hearts – 6+ 20. *Tobe Nwigwe – CINCORIGINALS – 6+
The 50 Artists I Listened To The Most In 2020
Notes: I started using the Last.FM app about halfway through the year, so this is really just six months worth of scrobbles.
Eminem
Benny the Butcher
Lil Wayne
Conway the Machine
Black Thought/The Roots
MC Eiht
Che Noir
Spillage Village/Earthgang
Amine
Nas
Berner
Ty Dolla $ign
Busta Rhymes
38 Spesh
Recognize Ali/Dueling Experts
Toby Ganger
The Weeknd
R.A. the Rugged Man
Flip Huston
Big Sean
Logic
Blu & Exile
21 Savage & Metro Boomin
Sa-Roc
Felt
Westside Gunn
T.I.
Pop Smoke
Boldy James
Dua Lipa
Ransom
Phoebe Bridgers
Reason
Goodie Mob
Ariana Grande
CunninLynguists
The Lox
Jaden Smith
Dinner Party
Future
Kaash Paige
Brother Ali
Deante Hitchcock
Tyrone’s Jacket
Rich Brian
Kid Cudi
Dave East
Mac Miller
Elzhi
Ice Cube
As you can see, new music dominates my listening experience. Out of my top 50 artists, only CunninLynguists, Brother Ali, and Ice Cube didn’t release projects in 2020. A lot of my all-time favorite rappers (Biggie, Jay, Pac, Kanye, Outkast, etc.) and current favorite rappers (Kendrick, J. Cole, Joey Badass) are nowhere to be found. I definitely enjoy staying up-to-date, finding hidden gems, and keeping an open mind to everything new, but I can’t help but feel like it dominates my listening experience and I don’t listen to the music I truly love enough. That makes music feel more like homework than pleasure sometimes. I plan to stay very current, but I want to find more balance with this in 2021.
Top 10 Albums of the Year (in alphabetical order)
Apollo Brown & Che Noir – As God Intended (Rap) Benny the Butcher – Burden of Proof (Rap) Conway the Machine – From King To A God (Rap) Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia (Pop) Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist – Alfredo (Rap) Mac Miller – Circles (Rap? Pop?) MC Eiht – Lessons (Rap) Run the Jewels – RTJ4 (Rap) Sa-Roc – The Sharecropper’s Daughter (Rap) The Weeknd – After Hours (R&B/Soul/Pop)
I feel pretty confident in that list, but there could be an album or two I’d slip in or out and maybe some of the more recent releases will grow enough on me to make the jump. If I had to pick an absolute favorite for the year, I think I’d have to go with the Apollo Brown & Che Noir album.
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)
Amine – Limbo (Rap) Brent Faiyaz – F**k the World (R&B/Soul) Che Noir – After 12 (Rap) Deante Hitchcock – BETTER (Rap) eLZhi – Seven Times Down Eight Times Up (Rap) Felt – Felt 4 U (Rap) Flip Huston – Who Is Flip Huston? (Rap) Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure? (Pop) Logic – No Pressure (Rap) Planet Asia & 38 Spesh – Trust the Chain (Rap) R.A. the Rugged Man – All My Heroes Are Dead (Rap) Reason – New Beginnings (Rap) Royce da 5’9″ – The Allegory (Rap) Tyrone’s Jacket – Tyrone’s Jacket (Rap)
Bangerz Playlist Additions – Follow me on Apple Music @DarkKnight1717 to add my playlists
Ariana Grande, “positions” Benny the Butcher, “3:30 In Houston” Boldy James, “Street Shit” Che Noir ft. RJ Payne & Sa-Roc, “Moment in the Sun” Chris Stapleton, “Devil Always Made Me Think Twice” Conway the Machine, “Ameenah’s Van” Conway the Machine, “Serena vs Venus” Don Toliver ft. Travis Scott & Kaash Paige, “Euphoria” eLZhi, “Hot Winter Cold Summer” Eminem ft. White Gold, “Zeus” Goodie Mob, “4 My Ppl” Gorillaz ft. Moonchild Sanelly, “With Love To An Ex” Jamo Gang, “Runyon Canyon” Jessie Ware, “Read My Lips” Lil Wayne ft. Drake, “BB King Freestyle” Lil Wayne, “Lamar” Miley Cyrus ft. Stevie Nicks, “Edge of Midnight (Midnight Sky Remix)” Reason ft. Mereba, “Westside” Recognize Ali, “Wreck-Ignition” Russ ft. Benny the Butcher & Black Thought, “Momentum” T.I. ft. Eric Bellinger & Killer Mike, “How I Feel” Tyrone’s Jacket, “Backpack Song” Tyrone’s Jacket, “Streets” Westside Gunn, “Shawn vs. Flair”
War Paint (feat. Westside Gunn & Conway the Machine) – 4
Legend – 4.5
Spin Rate: 9.5 Average Song Rating: 3.88 3.5+ Percentage: 100% Cuts: 0 Bangers: 7
Thoughts: Much like with Conway, I was slightly worried that Benny’s solo project was going to be too much of the same stuff we’ve already heard over the last few years, but Benny stepped his game up and shows a lot of versatility on this album. For the second straight project, Benny scores incredibly high in average song rating and, honestly, some of the 3.5s could have been 4s. Every song on this album is good and there is no weak spot, plus have the songs are straight up flames. It’s kind of strange how much better the production is on this album compared to the recent Nas album since both projects were produced entirely by Hit-Boy. Not saying the beats Nas got are weak, but the production here is way more my flavor. This album cements Benny’s status as one of the best rappers in the game right now.
Spin Rate: 9.7 Average Song Rating: 3.83 3.5+ Percentage: 100% Cuts: 0 Bangers: 7
Thoughts: These Griselda boys are having one hell of a 12 month stretch. Including the Griselda project that dropped last December with Benny the Butcher and Westside Gunn, this is Conway’s fourth project in like a ten month period and they have all been good. This album is his most complete and diverse project that I’ve heard (I haven’t checked out all his older stuff) and it’s incredibly refreshing. Some critics point to Griselda as a whole being sort of one dimensional in that they only rap about drugs, but Conway steps comfortably outside that box here while maintaining his wit and high level lyricism. The production on this album is pretty elite and basically every feature is excellent, with Method Man coming through with an insane verse. Every song on here is good and there are many bangers. This is one of the best rap albums of 2020.
Busta Rhymes – Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God
Notes: Wow. I sure didn’t listen to much new music this past month. Half the albums that cracked my top 10 last month were still in my top 10 most listened to albums for November. Only three albums released in November even cracked my top 20 and two albums from decades ago found a way in. My friend Phil sent me a copy of his upcoming album and I listened to it many times through even though some of the songs are still unmastered. His album is due out sometime in December, but you’ll find his project in my #4 slot down below. I’ll go ahead and include a rough rating for each album to make my feelings on each project clearer. Note: 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. MC Eiht’s album jumped way up in my esteem and I’m now wondering if it’s one of the best albums of the year. I’m shocked by it. I liked it so much I added his last album to my current playlist and that project also cracked my top 20 last month. Hopefully, I will get back to doing some actual reviews in December.
Top 20 Albums in November (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 over the past month.
1. Busta Rhymes – Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God – 7 2. Ty Dolla $ign – Featuring Ty Dolla $ign – 6 3. MC Eiht – LESSONS – 8 4. Flip Huston – Who Is Flip Huston? (unreleased) – 7 5. T.I. – The L.I.B.R.A. – 6 6. Black Thought – Streams of Thought, Vol. 3: Cane and Abel – 7 7. Dej Loaf – Sell Sole II – 5 8. TQ – They Never Saw Me Coming (1998) – 7+ 9. Benny the Butcher – Burden of Proof – 8+ 10. Ariana Grande – Positions – 6+ 11. *Goodie Mob – Survival Kit – 6+ 12. *Berner & Larry June – Cooks & Orange Juice – 5+ 13. Conway the Machine – FROM KING TO A GOD – 8+ 14. Lil Wayne – Lights Out (2000) – 6+ 15. MC Eiht – Which Way Iz West (2017) – 7+ 16. Reason – New Beginnings – 7 17. clipping. – Visions of Bodies Being Burned – 5 18. Deante’ Hitchcock – Better (Deluxe) – 6+ 19. *Future & Lil Uzi Vert – Pluto x Baby Pluto – 5+ 20. Sam Smith – Love Goes – 6+
Bangerz Playlist Additions – Follow me on Apple Music @DarkKnight1717 to add my playlists
38 Spesh & Street Justice ft. Che Noir, “Overthrow” Benny the Butcher ft. DOM KENNEDY, “Over the Limit” Busta Rhymes ft. Kendrick Lamar, “Look Over Your Shoulder” eLZhi, “Light One Write One” Freddie Gibbs ft. Big Sean, “4 Thangs” Goodie Mob ft. Big Boi, “Prey 4 Da Sheep” Gorillaz ft. Fatoumata Diawara, “Desole” Jack Harlow, “Tyler Herro” MC Eiht ft.Havoc & Kurupt, “Neighborhood Looks” MC Eiht, “U Kno” MC Eiht, “Lessons” Recognize Ali ft. Planet Asia & Shabaam Sahdeeq, “Elephants in the Room” Sa-Roc, “r(E)volution” Saigon, “Bullets-19” Spillage Village ft. Ant Clemons, “Baptize” Ty Dolla $ign, “Time Will Tell”
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