Top 25 Most Played Albums of January 2022 (* indicates new album in January)
*Che Noir – Food For Thought
*The Weeknd – Dawn FM
J Dilla – Donuts (2005)
Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert
Roddy Ricch – Live Life Fast
Lil Wayne – Tha Carter II (2005)
*Gunna – DS4EVER
Baby Keem – The Melodic Blue
Mos Def – Black On Both Sides (1999)
Nas – Magic
Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele (2000)
*Cordae – From a Birds Eye View
Roc Marciano – Reloaded
*FKA twigs – CAPRISONGS
Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III (2008)
Nas – King’s Disease II
Ghostface Killah – Ironman (1996)
Jazmine Sullivan – Heaux Tales
Lil Wayne – SQ4 (2004?)
Adele – 30
Big Boi & Sleepy Brown – The Sleepover
Lil Wayne – Sorry 4 the Wait (2011)
Labrinth – Euphoria Soundtrack (2019)
The Roots – Undun (2011)
Mac Miller – Circles (2020)
The 25 Most Played Artists of January
Che Noir
Lil Wayne
The Weeknd
The Roots
J Dilla
Nas
Little Simz
Ghostface Killah
Roddy Ricch
AZ
Gunna
Baby Keem
Mos Def
Cordae
Roc Marciano
FKA twigs
Mach-Hommy
Westside Gunn
Jazmine Sullivan
Adele
Big Boi
Conway the Machine
Labrinth
Mac Miller
Ransom
Follow me on Apple Music @DarkKnight1717 to add my playlists 2020s Bangers Playlist January 2022 Additions:
AZ, “Jewels for Life” Baby Keem, “trademark usa” Big Boi & Sleepy Brown, “The Big Sleep” Che Noir, “Brains For Dinner” Che Noir, “Communion” Che Noir, “Table For 3” (feat. Ransom & 38 Spesh) Dr. Dre, “Eta” (feat. Anderson .Paak, Busta Rhymes, & Snoop Dogg) Dr. Dre, “Gospel” (feat. Eminem) FKA twigs, “careless” (feat. daniel caesar) FKA twigs, “tears in the club” (feat. The Weeknd) Lute, “Birdsong” (feat. JID & Saba) Lute, “Overnight” Nas, “Speechless” Nas, “Meet Joe Black” Nas, “Wave Gods” (feat. A$AP Rocky) Nas, “40-16 Building” Ransom & Rome Streetz, “Claudine” (feat. Che Noir) Roddy Ricch, “rollercoastin” Roddy Ricch, “don’t i” (feat. Gunna) Wale, “Poke It Out” (feat. J. Cole) The Weeknd, “Take My Breath” The Weeknd, “Sacrifice” The Weeknd, “Out of Time”
Adele – 30 (Pop) Benny the Butcher – The Plugs I Met 2 (Rap) Dave – We’re All Alone In This Together (Rap) Isaiah Rashad – The House Is Burning (Rap) J.Cole – The Off-Season (Rap) Kanye West – Donda (Rap) Nas – King’s Disease II (Rap) Nas – Magic (Rap) Olivia Rodrigo – SOUR (Pop) Silk Sonic – An Evening with Silk Sonic (Pop) Tyler, the Creator – CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST (Rap)
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)
AZ – Doe or Die II (Rap) Boldy James & The Alchemist – Bo Jackson (Rap) Conway the Machine – La Maquina (Rap) Grip – I Died For This!? (Rap) Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (Rap) Lute – Gold Mouf (Rap) Mach-Hommy – Pray For Haiti (Rap) Skyzoo – All the Brilliant Things (Rap) Tash Sultana – Terra Firma (Alternative Rock) Westside Gunn – Hitler Wears Hermes 8: sides A & B (Rap)
Top 25 Most Played Albums of 2021
J. Cole – The Off-Season
Isaiah Rashad – The House is Burning
Dave – We’re All Alone In This Together
Kanye West – Donda
Nas – King’s Disease II
Mach-Hommy – Pray For Haiti
Benny the Butcher – The Plugs I Met 2
DMX – Exodus
MC Eiht – LESSONS (2020)
The Notorious B.I.G. – Life After Death (1997)
Sa-Roc – The Sharecropper’s Daughter (2020)
Tash Sultana – Terra Firma
Conway the Machine – La Maquina
Tyrone’s Jacket – Tyrone’s Jacket (2020)
Tyler, The Creator – CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
Grip – I Died for This!?
Toby Ganger – Free Machine (unreleased)
Pink Sweat$ – Pink Planet
Drake – Certified Lover Boy
Lana Del Rey – Chemtrails Over the Country
Ghetts – Conflict of Interest
Eminem – Music To Be Murdered By – Side B
Nyck Caution – Anywhere But Here
Vince Staples – Vince Staples
Courtney Bell – Poverty Stricken (2020)
The 50 Most Played Artists of 2021
J. Cole
Benny the Butcher
Isaiah Rashad
Nas
Eminem
Kanye West
DMX
Scarface
Dave
Kool G Rap
Lana Del Rey
The Notorious B.I.G.
Big K.R.I.T.
Boldy James
Vince Staples
Sa-Roc
Conway the Machine
MF DOOM
Mach-Hommy
KOTA the Friend
Westside Gunn
Drake
MC Eiht
Outkast
Yelawolf
Dua Lipa
Kendrick Lamar
Mac Miller
Tyler, the Creator
Tash Sultana
Jessie Ware
Lil Wayne
Tyrone’s Jacket
Grip
Pink Sweat$
Toby Ganger
Adele
Freddie Gibbs
Ghetts
Nyck Caution
Snoop Dogg
Elzhi
Jadakiss
AZ
BROCKHAMPTON
Courtney Bell
Devin the Dude
Emotional Oranges
Evidence
Kali Uchis
Top 25 Most Played Artist of December (* indicates released new album last month)
Nas *
Elzhi
The Beatles
Lil Wayne
DJ Quik
Adele
Roddy Ricch *
Big Boi *
Dave
Brother Ali
Kanye West
Russ *
Westside Gunn
Benny the Butcher
Boldy James *
Silk Sonic
Porter Robinson
Khalid *
Big K.R.I.T.
Cozz *
LE$ *
Young Thug
Ghostface Killah
Isaiah Rashad
J. Cole
Top 50 Most Played Artists of All-Time (since like late summer 2020) [last year’s ranking in brackets]
Eminem [1]
Benny the Butcher [2]
Nas [10]
J. Cole [unranked]
Conway the Machine [4]
Lil Wayne [3]
Kanye West [unranked]
MC Eiht [6]
Scarface [unranked]
Isaiah Rashad [unranked]
DMX [unranked]
Black Thought / The Roots [5]
Sa-Roc [24]
Che Noir [7]
Boldy James [29]
Lana Del Rey [unranked]
Toby Ganger [16]
Westside Gunn [26]
Dave [unranked]
Kool G Rap [unranked]
Amine [9]
Outkast / Big Boi [unranked]
The Lox / Jadakiss [37]
Dua Lipa [30]
MF DOOM [unranked]
38 Spesh [14]
Spillage Village / Earthgang [8]
Mac Miller [48]
Dueling Experts / Recognize Ali [15]
Ty Dolla $ign [12]
The Notorious B.I.G. [unranked]
Ransom [31]
Tyrone’s Jacket [44]
KOTA the Friend [unranked]
Berner [11]
Big K.R.I.T. [unranked]
Jessie Ware [unranked]
Elzhi [49]
Busta Rhymes [13]
Vince Staples [unranked]
Kid Cudi [46]
The Weeknd [17]
Drake [unranked]
Kendrick Lamar [unranked]
Pop Smoke [28]
Blu [22]
Flip Huston [19]
Mach-Hommy [unranked]
Freddie Gibbs [unranked]
Brother Ali [42]
Dropped Out: R.A. the Rugged Man [18], Big Sean [20], 21 Savage & Metro Boomin [23], Felt [25], T.I. [27], Goodie Mob [34], Ariana Grande [35], CunninLynguists [36], Jaden Smith [38], Dinner Party [39], Future [40], Kaash Paige [41], Deante Hitchcock [43], Rich Brian [45], Dave East [47], Ice Cube [50]
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 November release
Isaiah Rashad – The House is Burning – 7+
Kanye West – Donda – 7
Nas – King’s Disease II – 8
Dave – We’re All Alone In This Together – 9
Grip – I Died for This!? – 7
Drake – Certified Lover Boy – 5+
Mach-Hommy – Pray For Haiti – 6+
Travis Thompson – BVLD BOY – 6+
Big K.R.I.T. – It’s Better This Way
Boldy James & The Alchemist – Bo Jackson – 6+
AZ – Doe or Die II – 7+
Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert – 7+
Olivia Rodrigo – SOUR – 7
**Adele – 30 – 8+
DMX – Exodus – 6
Baby Keem – The Melodic Blue – 5+
Benny the Butcher – Pyrex Picasso – 6+
Big K.R.I.T. – A Style Not Quite Free
*Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak) – An Evening With Silk Sonic – 8+
Westside Gunn – Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Side B – 6+
D Smoke – War & Wonders – 6
Skyzoo – All the Brilliant Things – 7+
Lute – Gold Mouf – 7+
Tyler, The Creator – CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST – 7
Westside Gunn – Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Sincerely Adolf – 6+
The 25 Artists I Listened To the Most last three months
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
*Dave – We’re All Alone In This Together
J.Cole – The Off-Season
*Tyler, The Creator – CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
*LLoyd Banks – The Course of the Inevitable
*Evidence – Unlearning, Vol. 1
DMX – Exodus
*Vince Staples – Vince Staples
Scarface – My Homies (1998)
Kool G Rap – Return of the Don (2017)
*HRSMN (Canibus, Kurupt, Killah Priest, Ras Kass) – The Last Ride
*Isaiah Rashad – The House is Burning
BROCKHAMPTON – ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE
*King Blitz – THINGS NEVER GO AS PLANNED
Yelawolf & DJ Muggs – Mile Zero
*H.E.R. – Back of My Mind
*IDK – USEE4YOURSELF
Kool G Rap – Riches, Royalty & Respect (2011)
Kool G Rap – The Giancana Story (2002)
*Smoke DZA – The Hustler’s Catalog 2
*Sy Ari Da Kid – Sy Ari Not Sorry
Kool G Rap – Roots of Evil (1998)
Wu-Tang Clan – Wu-Tang Forever (1997)
*Emotional Oranges – The Juicebox
Kool G Rap – Live and Let Die (1992)
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
Kool G Rap
Scarface
Dave
J. Cole
Yelawolf
Tyler, The Creator
Lloyd Banks
Evidence
Benny the Butcher
Vince Staples
DMX
Wu-Tang Clan
Isaiah Rashad
Kanye West
Ransom
Lana Del Rey
Eminem
HRSMN
Sa-Roc
BROCKHAMPTON
H.E.R.
King Blitz
Pop Smoke
IDK
Smoke DZA
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.
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.
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 May 2021 release
*J. Cole – The Off-Season – 8+
*Mach-Hommy – Pray For Haiti – 7+
Vince Staples – Summertime ’06 (2015) – 7+
Westside Boogie – Everythings For Sale (2019) – 8+
*DMX – Exodus – 7+
*Sa-Roc – The Sharecropper’s Daughter (Deluxe) – 8+
*BROCKHAMPTON – ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE – 7+
*Benny the Butcher & 38 Spesh – Trust the Sopranos – 6+
Eminem – Kamikaze (2018) – 6+
Pink Sweat$ – Pink Planet [17] – 6+
Mac Miller – Faces (2014)
*DJ Khaled – Khaled Khaled
JID – The Never Story (2017)
Tash Sultana – Terra Firma – 7+
Yelawolf – Mud Mouth
JID – Dicaprio 2 (2018)
Toby Ganger – Free Machine – 8+
Inverse – So Far (2008) – 7+
Devin the Dude – Soulful Distance – 6+
Guapdad 4000 – 1176
Lana Del Rey – Chemtrails Over the Country Club [20] – 6+
Mello Music Group – Bushido
Comments: Almost no holdovers from the previous month, as I continued to work older albums into my regular rotation. May belonged to J. Cole though. I listened to his new album so much already that he went from unranked in my top 25 most listened to artists of 2021 to #1 on the list below. I’m a big fan of the album. I think every song is good. I can’t say I had high expectations for a new DMX album since he hasn’t made good music for like 15 years now, but this new album is pretty damn good. Certainly anyone that’s been a loyal fan all this time will enjoy it and even those of us that abandoned ship long ago should give it a listen. The production is substantially better than on any of his most recent releases and while X is far from sounding in prime form, his vocals are improved. Plus he also has some stellar features on the album. Imagine Benny the Butcher going half a year without releasing a new project. I’m officially starting my JID and Vince Staples anticipation phase.
The 25 Artists I’ve Listened To the Most in 2021
J. Cole [unranked]
DMX [unranked]
The Notorious B.I.G. [1]
Benny the Butcher [5]
Eminem [2]
MF DOOM [4]
MC Eiht [3]
Sa-Roc [14]
Conway the Machine [unranked]
Mac Miller [25]
Tash Sultana [8]
Lana Del Rey [18]
Tyrone’s Jacket [12]
KOTA the Friend [15]
Dua Lipa [13]
Pink Sweat$ [unranked]
Toby Ganger [unranked]
Kali Uchis [23]
Kendrick Lamar [unranked]
Kid Cudi [6]
Courtney Bell [7]
Snoop Dogg [unranked]
Scarface [unranked]
Boldy James [9]
Nyck Caution [10]
Comments: Since I last updated this two months ago, J. Cole released a new album and DMX passed away and then released a posthumous album so they went from outside my top 25 through March to my two most listened to artists of the year. Conway also got a similar bump thanks to yet another new project. I’ve been listening to a lot of TDE lately since all their artists are due to drop this summer. Almost all of them fell shy of my top 25 here, but Kendrick cracked the list and I expect him to keep climbing it, especially if his long overdue follow-up to 2017’s DAMN. finally drops.
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.
Top 20 Albums in February (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.I’ll 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.
Pharoahe Monch & th1rt3en – A Magnificent Day For an Exorcism – 6+
*Devin the Dude – Soulful Distance – 6+
*Lucky Daye – Table For Two
Sa-Roc – The Sharecropper’s Daughter – review coming soon
*Madison Beer – Life Support
Brother Ali – The Undisputed Truth (2007) – 9
*Dorian Whyte – Truth Be Told
Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon III: The Chosen [5] – 6
Breeze Brewin – Hindsight
Che Noir – After 12 – review coming soon
Rapsody – Laila’s Wisdom (2017) – 8+
Mac Ayres – Magic 8ball
Nyck Caution – Anywhere But Here [14]
Toby Ganger – Free Machine – 8+
*VanJess – Homegrown
Your Old Droog – It Wasn’t Even Close
The 20 Artists I’ve Listened To The Most In 2021
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.
Movies – I went crazy again in February and watched a movie almost every day. I will probably do something similar in March, but by the start of April, I will be fully vaxxed and cleared for takeoff (back to my day job of playing poker) and my days of watching 25 movies a month will be coming to an end. Still, I have the expectation that I can watch every feature film, documentary, and international film that gets an Oscar nomination before the Oscars air in late April and that’s something I’ve never done before.
I also went crazy and made a best films of the year list for every year from 2020 to 1982, the year I was born. I ranked 25 films for 2000 and later and 10 films for 1999 to 1982. I started fizzling out on my lists in the early 90s as I just haven’t seen most of the important films from those early years when I was a kid. I have all the lists on my blog here. Enjoy!
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.
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”
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”
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The Bat Cave 