The Bat Cave

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Conway the Machine – La Maquina

Rating Scale

10 – Masterpiece
9 – Amazing
8 – Great
7 – Highly Enjoyable
6 – Recommended/Good
5 – Decent/Cool
4 – Lackluster
3 – Bad
2 – Horrible
1 – Torture Material

Top 20 Albums in April (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.

*indicates April 2021 release

1. *Conway the Machine – La Maquina – 7+
2. DMX – It’s Dark and Hell is Hot (1998) – 8
3. DMX – …And Then There Was X (1999) – 7
4. 50 Cent – Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003) – 8+
5. Snoop Doggy Dogg – Tha Doggfather (1996)
6. DMX – The Great Depression (2001) – 4+
7. Benny the Butcher – The Plugs I Met 2 [3] – 7+
8. DMX – Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood (1998) – 6
9. *Kenny Mason – Angelic Hoodrat
10. Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele (2000)
11. *Saigon – Pain, Peace & Prosperity
12. Black Coffee – Subconsciously
13. Ghostface Killah – Ironman (1996)
14. *KOTA The Friend – To Kill A Sunrise [14] – 7+
15. The Notorious B.I.G. – Life After Death (1997) [1] – 9+
16. Big L – Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous (1995) – 7+
17. Pink Sweat$ – Pink Planet [9]
18. The Notorious B.I.G. – Ready To Die (1994) [4] – 9+
19. Tyrone’s Jacket – Tyrone’s Jacket [18] – 8
20. Lana Del Rey – Chemtrails Over the Country Club [6] – 7
21. The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You [7]
22. The Lox – Money, Power & Respect (1998)

Comments: This is the most I’ve distanced myself from new music since I started doing these monthly posts.  Obviously, I did a lot of reminiscing on DMX’s early discography as his life seemed to be in danger and then he ultimately passed away.  I gave DMX a pretty unfavorable write-up when I went through his whole recording career, but his peak was really strong and looking back at my ratings for his earliest albums, I think I was a bit unfair.  For all his flaws as a lyricist, he was a great songwriter and made very enjoyable music.

The 20 Artists I Listened To The Most In April

1. DMX
2. Conway the Machine
3. Ghostface Killah
4. Kendrick Lamar
5. Snoop Dogg
6. The Notorious B.I.G.
7. Benny the Butcher
8. 50 Cent
9. Kenny Mason
10. J. Cole
11. Jay Rock
12. Big L
13. Kali Uchis
14. Saigon
15. Black Coffee
16. Cordae
17. Isaiah Rashad
18. KOTA The Friend
19. Pink Sweat$
20. Ab-Soul

Comments: Snoop crept into my top 5 because I was re-listening to Tha Doggfather plus he dropped a new album last month (that didn’t crack my top 20 spins).  I also re-visited some early Ghostface Killah and 50 Cent while Biggie stayed in rotation from the past couple months.  It was recently announced that Top Dawg Entertainment will be breaking a very long dry spell by releasing new music on May 7th.  This is a label whose entire roster is basically years overdue for a new album.  I’m excited for all of them to drop, so I was listening to TDE releases heavy this past week and four of them ended up cracking my top 20 for the month, with Kendrick leading the way.  TDE season is upon us!   

Top 50 Artists All-Time (since August 2020)

Note: last all-time rank in parentheses

1. Eminem (1)
2. Benny the Butcher (2)
3. MC Eiht (6)
4. Conway the Machine (4)
5. Lil Wayne (3)
6. Che Noir (7)
7. The Roots/Black Thought (5)
8. Toby Ganger (16)
9. Nas (10)
10. Amine (9)
11. Biggie (unranked)
12. Sa-Roc (24)
13. Spillage Village (8)
14. MF DOOM (unranked)
15. Recognize Ali/Dueling Experts (15)
16. Dua Lipa (30)
17. Jadakiss/The Lox (unranked)
18. Ty Dolla $ign (12)
19. Tyrone’s Jacket (44)
20. Boldy James (29)
21. Berner (11)
22. Kid Cudi (46)
23. Busta Rhymes (13)
24. DMX (unranked)
25. Flip Huston (19)
26. The Weeknd (17)
27. Lana Del Rey (unranked)
28. R.A. the Rugged Man (18)
29. 38 Spesh (14)
30. Mac Miller (48)
31. KOTA The Friend (unranked)
32. Blu & Exile (22)
33. Logic (21)
34. Westside Gunn (26)
35. Big Sean (20)
36. 21 Savage & Metro Boomin (23)
37. Jessie Ware (unranked)
38. Scarface (unranked)
39. Felt (25)
40. Brother Ali (42)
41. Pop Smoke (28)
42. Freddie Gibbs (unranked)
43. Nyck Caution (unranked)
44. T.I. (27)
45. Ransom (31)
46. Reason (33)
47. Kendrick Lamar (unranked)
48. J. Cole (unranked)
49. Phoebe Bridgers (32)
50. Playboi Carti (unranked)

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

Ghetts (feat. Jaykae & Moonchild Sanelly), “Mozambique”
Pink Sweat$, “Not Alright”

Yep… I was sleeping on adding new bangers last month.

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Benny the Butcher & Harry Fraud – The Plugs I Met 2

Rating Scale

10 – Masterpiece
9 – Amazing
8 – Great
7 – Highly Enjoyable
6 – Recommended/Good
5 – Decent/Cool
4 – Lackluster
3 – Bad
2 – Horrible
1 – Torture Material

Top 20 Albums in March (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.

*indicates February 2021 release

1. The Notorious B.I.G. – Life After Death (1997) – 9+ [unranked]
2. Jadakiss – Kiss Tha Game Goodbye (2001) – 6+ [unranked]
3. *Benny the Butcher – The Plugs I Met 2 – 7+
4. The Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die (1994) – 9+ [unranked]
5. *Ghetts – Conflict of Interest – 6+
6. *Lana Del Rey – Chemtrails Over the Country Club – 6+
7. The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You – 6+ [unranked]
8. Mos Def – Black On Both Sides (1999) – 8+ [unranked]
9. *Pink Sweat$ – Pink Planet – 6+
10. Marlon Craft – How We Intended – 6+ [6]
11. *Rod Wave – SoulFly
12. Toby Ganger – Free Machine (Unreleased) – 8+ [20]
13. JAY-Z – 4:44 (2017) – 8+ [unranked]
14. *KOTA The Friend – To Kill A Sunrise
15. Madison Beer – Life Support [11]
16. *Robin Thicke – On Earth, and in Heaven
17. Tash Sultana – Terra Firma – 7+ [1]
18. Tyrone’s Jacket – Tyrone’s Jacket – 8+ [unranked]
19. Courtney Bell – Poverty Stricken – 7+ [4]
20. Sheek Louch – Beast Mode, Vol. 4 [unranked]
21. *slowthai – TYRON

The 25 Artists I’ve Listened To The Most In 2021

Notes: Last month I listened to a ton of Biggie. I haven’t been posting many album reviews, but I got them coming for both of Biggie’s albums. I have also been a long time Jadakiss nonbeliever and I’ll probably be giving him some extra attention in the near future because I either wanna prove myself right or start loving someone I’ve never given enough credit to. I pretty much have his first album reviewed – I just need to post it. I started playing live poker again this past week and that is going to drastically increase the amount of time I spend listening to music. Yesterday I listened to Scarface my whole session and that was good enough to almost get him into my top 10 for the year.

1. The Notorious B.I.G. [unranked]
2. Eminem [2]
3. MC Eiht [1]
4. MF DOOM [3]
5. Benny the Butcher [unranked]
6. Kid Cudi [4]
7. Courtney Bell [6]
8. Tash Sultana [13]
9. Boldy James [5]
10. Nyck Caution [11]
11. Scarface [unranked]
12. Tyrone’s Jacket [17]
13. Dua Lipa [7]
14. Sa-Roc [16]
15. KOTA The Friend [unranked]
16. Jadakiss [unranked]
17. Toby Ganger [unranked]
18. Lana Del Rey [unranked]
19. Pharoahe Monch [19]
20. Chris Stapleton [unranked]
21. Marlon Craft [unranked]
22. SZA [9]
23. Kali Uchis [unranked]
24. Freddie Gibbs [unranked]
25. Mac Miller [14]

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

38 Spesh (feat. Benny the Butcher), “Stash Box”
Benny the Butcher (feat. 2 Chainz), “Plug Talk”
Courtney Bell, “Celebrate”
Elcamino (feat. Benny the Butcher), “Immunity”
Gukie, “Make It a Double”
KOTA the Friend, “Wolves”
Lil Tjay & 6LACK, “Calling My Phone”
Lucky Daye (feat. Mahalia), “My Window”
Masego (feat. JID & Rapsody), “Somethin’ Ain’t Right”
Nyck Caution (feat. KOTA the Friend & Erick the Architect), “Product Of My Environment”
Nyck Caution (feat. Joey Bada$$), “How You Live It”