Spin Rate: 15+ Average Song Rating: 3.83/5 SkipPercentage: 0% Certified Bangers: 3
Thoughts: Che Noir did it again. This is the fourth well above average project she’s released since the beginning of 2020. I don’t know if there’s any other rapper that can make that same claim. I feel like this two year run is already enough to put her ahead of the likes of notable femcees like Foxy Brown and Lil Kim on the all-time list. That might seem like too much praise too soon, but I’d honestly have to give it some serious thought to come up with another female rapper I like four projects from. If I know one thing about Che though, it’s that she would absolutely hate my last few sentences. She wants to be mentioned with the best rappers in the world and she doesn’t want gender to be part of that conversation. I think that’s fair and I do think she’s earned a pretty secure spot as one of the ten best rappers or so of the last few years.
Food For Thought is a pretty short album and the biggest difference between this projects and past ones is that Che handled most of the production herself. If I’m being honest, her sound had to grow on me. Of course any new producer is going to sound a little rough following up an album full of Apollo Brown’s wizardry on the boards, but I think Che ends up holding her own. It’s hard to make a banger without really good production and I think she has at least three songs on this album worthy of that threshold and I don’t think there’s a weak song at all. As always, Che absolutely brings it lyrically. For the most part, she’s just bodying verses on this project but “Communion” is one of Che’s most personal songs to date as she touches on the recent passing of her brother over the most soulful beat on the album. “Table For 3” finds Che, Ransom and 38 Spesh all spitting fire over another absolute banger of a beat. It’s absolutely ridiculous. I still think Che lacks versatility in her vocal delivery and I don’t see too much improvement on this album, but it’s not something that bothers me much and she brings enough content and lyrical ability to more than make up for it. Che Noir has quickly become one of my current favorite rappers and this album is another really solid effort in one of the most impressive runs of the last few years.
Spin Rate: Average Song Rating: 4/5 3.5+ Percentage: 100% SkipFactor: 0% Bangers: 3
Thoughts: This was Che’s third extremely high quality project of 2020 and her album with Apollo Brown was a legit Album of the Year contender. I’d say all that makes her a legit candidate for hip-hop’s MVP award last year. As you can see above, this is a short project, but she still has multiple mega-bangers and gets one of the highest average song ratings of any project I’ve ever reviewed. Che has a knack for getting elite production and features (I love seeing her collab with Sa-Roc here), plus she has a tremendous amount of talent herself. I don’t mind someone releasing this much music if it’s this good. If you been sleeping on Che Noir, it’s well past time to wake up.
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”
Notes: As I mentioned last month, I’m using the Eavescrob and Last.FM apps to track the music I’m listening to. I love it! It paints a way more accurate picture of my current listening experience than what I was doing before. Unfortunately, during the last week of August, I accidentally clicked a button on one of the apps and it imported a bunch of duplicate listens and totally messed up my stats. I had to go into the app on my PC and manually delete as many duplicates as I could recognize. We are talking hundreds of listens! It was tedious and brutal, but I’m such a stat freak perfectionist it would bother me too much to have my numbers that out of whack. As is, they aren’t 100% accurate, but close enough that I feel it’s a solid representation of what I listened to and how much last month. I know I listened to The Weeknd probably more than anyone, but I must’ve deleted too many listens and I don’t get how Dua Lipa and Baby B are nowhere to be found on any of these lists as any album I review during the month gets a huge boost. Ah well. Things should be super accurate in September and when I look back on my lifetime stats a year from now, this will be a distant memory. I have to say… my efforts to stay up-to-date on current music absolutely dominates my playlists. My old school Album of the Month (The Chronic) is the only non-2020 album that cracks my top 20 listens for last month and this is probably what a typical month looks like for me. Granted, I enjoy staying current, but not at the expense of almost never listening to anything older than a few months.
* indicates August 2020 new album
Top 20 Albums in August
1. *Amine – Limbo
2. Apollo Brown & Che Noir – As God Intended
3. *Felt – Felt 4 U
4. The Weeknd – After Hours
5. *Nas – King’s Disease
6. Blu & Exile – Miles
7. Logic – No Pressure
8. *Kaash Paige – Teenage Fever
9. Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder & Kamasi Washington – Dinner Party
10. *03 Greedo & RONRONTHEPRODUCER – Load It Up, Vol. 01
11. *Boldy James – The Versace Tape
12. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
13. *R-Mean & Berner – The Warning
14. R.A. the Rugged Man – All My Heroes Are Dead
15. *Rich Brian – 1999
16. 38 Spesh – 6 Shots
17. *Dave East – Karma 3
18. Dr. Dre – The Chronic
19. *DaBaby – BLAME IT ON BABY (Deluxe only)
20. Royce da 5’9″ – The Allegory
Top 20 Artists in August
1. Amine
2. The Weeknd
3. Apollo Brown & Che Noir
4. Felt
5. Blu & Exile
6. Nas
7. Logic
8. Kaash Paige
9. Boldy James
10. R.A. the Rugged Man
11. Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder & Kamasi Washington
12. Pop Smoke
13. 03 Greedo & RONRONTHEPRODUCER
14. Phoebe Bridgers
15. R-MEAN & Berner
16. Eminem
17. DaBaby
18. Rich Brian
19. 38 Spesh
20. Brother Ali
Top 5 Songs in August
1. Amine – Roots ft. JID & Charlie Wilson
2. Amine – Riri
3. Anderson .Paak – Lockdown (Remix) ft. JID, Noname & Jay Rock
4. Apollo Brown & Che Noir – Freedom
5. Guapdad 4000 – Orgasm Full Of Pain ft. Deante Hitchcock
Bangerz Playlist Additions – Follow me on Apple Music @DarkKnight1717 to add my playlists
Amine, “Woodlawn”
Amine ft. JID & Charlie Wilson, “Roots”
Amine, “Can’t Decide”
Amine, “Riri”
Amine ft. Injury Reserve, “Fetus”
Anderson .Paak ft. JID, Noname, & Jay Rock, “Lockdown (Remix)”
Apollo Brown & Che Noir ft. Skyzoo, “Follow the Wisdom”
Apollo Brown & Che Noir, “Freedom”
Apollo Brown & Che Noir, “Winter”
Apollo Brown & Che Noir, “’94”
Baby B, “Do You Better”
Baby B, “Like Girls”
Big Boi & Sleepy Brown, “Can’t Sleep”
Black Soprano Family ft. Benny the Butcher, “Grams in the Water”
Drake ft. Lil Durk, “Laugh Now Cry Later”
Dua Lipa, “Physical”
Felt, “Borbaleta”
Felt, “Sticks & Stones”
Jessie Ware, “Soul Control”
Markis Precise ft. Talib Kweli, “From a Distance”
Nas, “The Cure”
Sufjan Stevens, “Video Games”
The Lox ft. Benny the Butcher and Westside Gunn, “Think of The Lox”
The Weeknd, “Alone Again”
1. Anti-Social ft. Blakk Soul – 4.5
2. Blood is Thicker – 4
3. Hustle Don’t Give ft. Black Thought – 5
4. Money Orientated – 3.5 5. 12 Hours – 4
6. Hold It Down ft. Ty Farris – 3.5
7. Daddy’s Girl – 3.5 8. Worth Gold – 4
9. The Apple ft. Planet Asia – 3.5 10. Freedom – 4
11. Follow the Wisdom ft. Skyzoo – 4
12. Winter – 4
13. Live by the Code – 3 14. ’94 – 4
Spin Rate: 8 Average Song Rating: 3.89/5 3.5+ Percentage: 93% Cuts: 0 Bangers: 9
Thoughts: Apollo Brown is a genius. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the best producer in hip-hop right now. I just absolutely love his sound. Almost every beat he makes sounds like an automatic banger to me. It almost doesn’t even matter who is rapping over his stuff, they basically always sound amazing. He dropped an album last year called Sincerely, Detroit that had a bunch of rappers I’ve never heard of on it and I was shocked how good it was. The man can do no wrong right now and his string of collabo albums with certain rappers (Joell Ortiz, Skyzoo, Ghostface Killah, Ras Kass, Planet Asia) have all been fire. This joint with Che Noir continues that stretch of major wins and it might be the best of the bunch.
I’d never even heard of Che Noir until the song with Black Thought leaked, but that’s one of my favorite songs of 2020 now and immediately put this project high on my interest list. It didn’t disappoint in the slightest. Che Noir has a solid mic presence and her content is really strong also. She’s not on here constantly exploiting her sexuality and is instead speaking on socially conscious topics or making crazy storytelling tracks (“12 Hours”). I don’t know if she has a lot of range in her delivery, but when the production is this good, I don’t care too much about a lack of variety vocally. Che’s rhyming skills are on point and Apollo makes her shine. Top to bottom, this might be the best rap album of 2020. I think it has my highest average song rating and the most bangers of any album I’ve reviewed so far. This is an absolute must listen for any serious rap fan, a potential personal classic, and easily one of the best hip-hop albums of 2020. Don’t sleep.
Notes: I started using the Last.fm app in tandem with the Eavescrob app to track the music I’m listening to even more accurately. This might actually change the way I make these posts. For now, I’m keeping the adjustments I made last month, but I’m going to include a list of the artists I’ve been listening to the most since I started using these apps midway through July. I basically keep every album in my Priority Playlist for ~4 months – and for the purposes of these blog posts, I will include all new albums for the past month – but as far as older recent albums, I don’t see much point in making anyone sift through the vast majority of stuff that never make it past a Courtesy Rotation and will exclude them from all future posts unless they rise up later on. Also, it’s probably worth noting that any album I post a review for got a big boost in spins because I spent extra time thinking about it.
Top 20 Artists I Listened To The Most In July (in order, according to Last.fm)
1. Logic
2. Apollo Brown & Che Noir
3. Blu & Exile
4. Brother Ali
5. Pop Smoke
6. Dua Lipa
7. R.A. the Rugged Man
8. Baby B
9. Juice WRLD
10. Kyle
11. J.Cole
12. Lil Wayne
13. Black Soprano Family
14. Dr. Dre
15. Ellie Goulding
16. Phoebe Bridgers
17. 38 Spesh
18. Blackalicous
19. Flatbush Zombies
20. Lupe Fiasco
HEAVY ROTATION (heard whole album many times)
*Apollo Brown & Che Noir – As God Intended
Baby B – Text at 2 AM
Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
Flatbush Zombies – now, more than ever – EP
Jay Electronica (and Jay-Z!) – A Written Testimony
Lil Uzi Vert – Eternal Atake
Run the Jewels – RTJ4
The Weeknd – After Hours
STRONG ROTATION (listened to most of album 3-4 times)
6lack – 6pc Hot EP
*CeeLo Green – CeeLo Green is Thomas Callaway
Childish Gambino – 3.15.20
Chris Brown & Young Thug – Slime & B
Conway the Machine and The Alchemist – LULU
Deante’ Hitchcock – BETTER
Freddy Gibbs & The Alchemist – Alfredo
Future – High Off Life
Grafh – Oracle 3
Jessie Reyez – BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILL US
Jhene Aiko – Chilombo
*Juice WRLD – Legends Never Die
Lil Brick – Road to Ouroboros – EP
Lil Durk – Just Cause Y’all Waited 2
Lil Uzi Vert – Eternal Atake [Deluxe]
*Logic – No Pressure
Kota the Friend – Everything
*Pop Smoke – Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon
R.A. the Rugged Man – All My Heroes Are Dead
Sam Hunt – SOUTHSIDE
Westside Gunn – Pray for Paris
SOLID ROTATION (heard most of the album twice)
A Boogie wit da Hoodie – Artist 2.0 [Deluxe]
*Blu & Exile – Miles
Buddy & Kent Jamz – Janktape Vol. 1
dvsn – A Muse In Her Feelings
J Hus – Big Conspiracy
Jadakiss – Ignatius
Joell Ortiz & Crooked I – H.A.R.D.
Kemba – The World is Watching – EP
*Kyle – See You When I’m Famous!!!!!!!
Lil Simz – Drop 6 – EP
Lil Tjay – State of Emergency
Markis Precise – No Wings Without Scars
*Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
Polo G – THE GOAT
Wale – The Imperfect Storm
*Westside Gunn – Flygod is an Awesome God 2
COURTESY ROTATION (heard whole album)
*38 Spesh – 6 Shots
*Black Soprano Family – Benny the Butcher and DJ Drama presents Black Soprano Family
*Ellie Goulding – Brightest Blue
*Lupe Fiasco & Kaelin Ellis – HOUSE
*Oddisee – Odd Cure
*RARE Sound & K CAMP – Rare Family
SKIM ROTATION (haven’t heard whole album)
*Charli XCX – how i’m feeling right now
*Pink Sweat$ – The Prelude – EP
*Summer Walker – Life on Earth – EP
TOO NEW/NO LOVE (zero listens)
*Flee Lord – The People’s Champ
*MIKE – WEIGHT OF THE WORLD
*Nyck Caution – Open Flame – EP
ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Apollo Brown & Che Noir – As God Intended
Bangerz Playlist Additions – Follow me on Apple Music @DarkKnight1717 to add my playlists
Apollo Brown & Che Noir ft. Black Thought, “Hustle Don’t Give”
Apollo Brown & Che Noir ft. Blakk Soul, “Anti-Social”
Apollo Brown & Che Noir, “Worth Gold”
Baby B, “Baddest Girl”
Blu & Exile ft. C.S. Armstrong, “Miles Away”
Blu & Exile ft. Jacinto Rhines, “The Feeling”
Jacob Latimore, “Come Over Here”
Joey Bada$$, “Shine”
Joey Bada$$, “The Light”
Lil Wayne, “Glory”
Pop Smoke, “Something Special”
Pop Smoke ft. Lil Tjay, “Mood Swings”
R.A. the Rugged Man ft. David Myles, “Wondering (How To Believe)”
Run the Jewels ft. Pharrell Williams & Zack de la Rocha, “JU$T”
Run the Jewels ft. 2 Chainz, “out of sight”
Run the Jewels ft. Greg Nice & DJ Premier, “ooh la la”
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The Bat Cave 