The Bat Cave

ALBUM OF THE PERIOD

Adele – 30

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 August 1st to November 29th

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

1. Isaiah Rashad – The House is Burning – 7+
2. Kanye West – Donda – 7
3. Nas – King’s Disease II – 8
4. Dave – We’re All Alone In This Together – 9
5. Grip – I Died for This!? – 7
6. Drake – Certified Lover Boy – 5+
7. Mach-Hommy – Pray For Haiti – 6+
8. Travis Thompson – BVLD BOY – 6+
9. Big K.R.I.T. – It’s Better This Way
10. Boldy James & The Alchemist – Bo Jackson – 6+
11. AZ – Doe or Die II – 7+
12. Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be Introvert – 7+
13. Olivia Rodrigo – SOUR – 7
14. **Adele – 30 – 8+
15. DMX – Exodus – 6
16. Baby Keem – The Melodic Blue – 5+
17. Benny the Butcher – Pyrex Picasso – 6+
18. Big K.R.I.T. – A Style Not Quite Free
19. *Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak) – An Evening With Silk Sonic – 8+
20. Westside Gunn – Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Side B – 6+
21. D Smoke – War & Wonders – 6
22. Skyzoo – All the Brilliant Things – 7+
23. Lute – Gold Mouf – 7+
24. Tyler, The Creator – CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST – 7
25. Westside Gunn – Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Sincerely Adolf – 6+

The 25 Artists I Listened To the Most last three months

1. Kanye West
2. Isaiah Rashad
3. Nas
4. Dave
5. Big K.R.I.T.
6. Eminem
7. Grip
8. Outkast
9. Westside Gunn
10. Drake
11. Benny the Butcher
12. Travis Thompson
13. AZ
14. Mach-Hommy
15. Boldy James
16. Lana Del Rey
17. Little Simz
18. Adele
19. Olivio Rodrigo
20. DMX
21. Halsey
22. Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak)
23. Baby Keem
24. D Smoke
25. Skyzoo

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

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.

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

J. Cole – The Off-Season

Ratings:

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

Top 20 Albums in May

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

1. *J. Cole – The Off-Season – 8+
2. *Mach-Hommy – Pray For Haiti – 7+
3. Vince Staples – Summertime ’06 (2015) – 7+
4. Westside Boogie – Everythings For Sale (2019) – 8+
5. *DMX – Exodus – 7+
6. *Sa-Roc – The Sharecropper’s Daughter (Deluxe) – 8+
7. *BROCKHAMPTON – ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE – 7+
8. *Benny the Butcher & 38 Spesh – Trust the Sopranos – 6+
9. Eminem – Kamikaze (2018) – 6+
10. Pink Sweat$ – Pink Planet [17] – 6+
11. Mac Miller – Faces (2014)
12. *DJ Khaled – Khaled Khaled
13. JID – The Never Story (2017)
14. Tash Sultana – Terra Firma – 7+
15. Yelawolf – Mud Mouth
16. JID – Dicaprio 2 (2018)
17. Toby Ganger – Free Machine – 8+
18. Inverse – So Far (2008) – 7+
19. Devin the Dude – Soulful Distance – 6+
20. Guapdad 4000 – 1176
21. Lana Del Rey – Chemtrails Over the Country Club [20] – 6+
22. 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

1. J. Cole [unranked]
2. DMX [unranked]
3. The Notorious B.I.G. [1]
4. Benny the Butcher [5]
5. Eminem [2]
6. MF DOOM [4]
7. MC Eiht [3]
8. Sa-Roc [14]
9. Conway the Machine [unranked]
10. Mac Miller [25]
11. Tash Sultana [8]
12. Lana Del Rey [18]
13. Tyrone’s Jacket [12]
14. KOTA the Friend [15]
15. Dua Lipa [13]
16. Pink Sweat$ [unranked]
17. Toby Ganger [unranked]
18. Kali Uchis [23]
19. Kendrick Lamar [unranked]
20. Kid Cudi [6]
21. Courtney Bell [7]
22. Snoop Dogg [unranked]
23. Scarface [unranked]
24. Boldy James [9]
25. 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.   

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.