New Year’s Eve is a time for reflection, and 2010 has been a big year for me. I graduated university and began this rapidly growing and successful website, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in helping this progress, from my friends, family and girlfriend who put up with me, to my guest-bloggers and affiliated artists, the site sponsors; Exact Science, NorthSkull and Danksquad, everyone I’ve interviewed over the past 6 months, and most importantly the readers, who continue to visit the site and read the posts, articles and interviews that we put out.
Now to the main point of this post, my top ten albums of 2010. It’s been a great year, it seems like great hip-hop is everywhere, with the boundaries between real and commercial closing together, we’ve seen RZA and Pete Rock working with Kanye, Mos Def signing to G.O.O.D Music, Jay Electronica signing to Roc Nation, the West beginning to rise again with artists like Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Dom Kennedy, Blu and countless others… Whatever you want from hip-hop it is there, from the Boom Bap of 1982, Nottz and Black Milk to the more pop-influenced experimental work of KiD CuDi, Kanye West and Nicki Minaj and the Gangsta/Drug rap of artists like Freddie Gibbs, Pusha T and Rick Ross… For these reasons selecting a top ten has been insanely difficult, and some great projects weren’t included (honourable mentions go to J. Cole, Nottz, Slaine, Dom Kennedy and Drake.)
These albums were chosen because they are records that I feel have had an impact, and will continue to be played on my Ipod in future years, and are placed in no particular order…
Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
After all of Kanye’s controversy over the last couple of years he came back with a classic. Setting up a “Rap Camp” with all of todays rap heavyweights like Jay-Z, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj alongside veterans like RZA, Pete Rock, Q-Tip and Mos Def, helped Kanye craft a truly original sound that took influence from real hip-hop whilst adding a fantastical element, backed up with a film which brought a juxtaposing aesthetic to the finest album of Kanye’s career…
Bun B – Trill O.G.
The third in and final volume in Bun’s “Trill” series saw him perfect his craft as a solo artist, and put together a solid and well rounded album…
Curren$y – Pilot Talk
Spitta dropped two albums within a few months this year and has a mixtape and another album planned for early 2011, demonstrating the work ethic required to make it as a top hip-hop artist in the current climate. Heading the BluRoc, DD172 movement with Ski Beatz; Curren$y’s work has an old school sensibility whilst remaining relevant…
Kendrick Lamar – (O)verly (D)edicated
One of the leading emcees in the New West Movement, and recently getting a co-sign from Dr Dre, it appears that Top Dawg Entertainment’s Kendrick Lamar is working with Dre on crafting his highly anticipated “Detox” which looks like it might actually see a release early next year. Before all of this happened, Kendrick released his excellent “(O)verly (D)edicated” album which sounds unlike anyone else’s music, whilst providing brilliant lyrics with a unique and original flow. Kendrick Lamar is set for huge things in 2011, but make sure you don’t miss out of his fantastic 2010 effort…
Eminem – Recovery
Eminem was another artist who has suffered from a lot of controversy lately, and decided to get his music back on track, admitting his last couple of albums weren’t up to scratch. With “Recovery” he demonstrated a maturity within his work that reminded us all why he is considered one of the greats…
Rick Ross – Teflon Don
Officer Ricky continues to demonstrate his talent (and improvement) for beat selection and putting together a very cohesive and entertaining album. I reviewed the album around its release date for Okayplayer, and gave it a decent review, however on further listens after the date, this very addictive album grew on me a lot and feels very easily justified in my top ten…
Black Milk – Album Of The Year
Detroit based rapper/producer brought some soulful boom bap to 2010, with some really hard hitting drums and lyrics to match.
Ski Beatz – 24 Hour Karate School
After a lot of delays due to sample clearance hip-hop production veteran, Ski Beatz, finally delivered this compilation which saw his classic boom bap production recorded by house-band “The Sensei’s” with an array of up and coming New School rappers on vocals such as Curren$y, Stalley, Tabi Bonney, The Cool Kids, Smoke DZA and more… This album really documents the creativity and work ethic coming up from Ski’s “Dojo” and promises some great things ahead for the BluRoc/DD172 movement and it’s affiliated artists…
The Roots – How I Got Over
No matter what kind of music you are interested in, The Roots always provide a quality, soulful album, and this years release “How I Got Over,” which contrasts between melancholic and the uplifting, was one of the Roots best releases of recent years.
KiD CuDi – Man On the Moon 2: The Legend Of Mr Rager
Darker than the previous volume, but no less brilliant. The sequel to one of my favourite albums of 2009 arrived in the final quarter of the year. I know for a lot of purists, this isn’t hip-hop, however I have always enjoyed “genre-bending” projects that help to evolve the culture into new realms. Here CuDi spits raw emotions over an intriguing soundtrack crafted largely by Plain Pat & Emile.
That ends this years line-up, again shout out to J. Cole, Nottz, Slaine, Dom Kennedy, Drake, Freddie Gibbs, and more who were all worthy of making the list, and again this is just my opinion, the records I like. Please add your list to the comments below and talk about your favourite music of 2010.
I wish everyone a happy new year, and look forward to some big records coming soon…
-Grant Brydon
Honourable Mention:
Dessa – A Badly Broken Code
For some reason this album already feels like something I’ve had for longer than a year. The songs feel like they are now deep-rooted into my consciousness and I have been with me for years. When I realised that this only came out in 2010 I was shocked and decided to add it here despite having already chosen a top ten, as for me personally, this album was up there. The album is like a melodic blend of rap, poetry and literature, and is a truly original album that takes influence from, but isn’t confined by, the essence of hip-hop.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by B-Better / TinMan and others. B-Better / TinMan said: Looky-look! RT @grantbrydon: @BBetter Check out HipHopFiend's top ten albums of 2010 http://bit.ly/fWCov9 #HappyNewYear [...]
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[...] was mentioned a few weeks back (and also came up in the HipHopFiend Year Round-Up), and it dropped unexpectedly last night for the New Year. The tape has a few tracks that have [...]
this is not hip hop. these are rap albums. hip hop would suggest the involvement of graff writers, b-boys and DJ’s. I see no graff on the covers or b-boys in the videos or at the gigs, and there are few if any scratches on the tracks. hence… not hip hop.
Hip-Hop has moved on, I think it’s important that we move with it… I’ve just picked my favourite albums of the year, and explained why I liked them, which is all I was claiming to do.
Check this… http://abovegroundmagazine.com/blogs/words-i-manifest/09/30/hip-hop-a-culture-of-four-elements/
I’m not disputing that things have moved on and fractured, I’m just of the opinion that the term Hip Hop should not be applied to one part of the culture in isolation, and especially not rap “..the spoilt brat of hip hop” (Crazy Legs).
A lot of rappers now have missed the point of Hip Hop entirely. Its become a totally different entity, driven by marketing and who can shift the most units. Rap has become the very thing Hip Hop began as a reaction against! Its not meant to be about who has the most, who can sell the most, its about what you can achieve with what you’ve got…not what your record company can achieve with PR and advertising. I’m not saying that theres not a place for all that, its just the way its passed off as being raw and representative of reality when its not. At least, not the reality the majority of us experience!!
Listen to the albums before you comment, most of these aren’t about the stuff you mentioned. Plus rapping is an element of hip-hop, and therefore is hip-hop. If all of the elements have to be in place for hip-hop to exist, then it really is dead. At bboy jams we don’t have rapping, djing, bboying and graff all at the same time, yet you wouldn’t dispute whether that was hip-hop or not…
I personally am thankful that people can branch away and look at things from a fresh perspective, its all hip-hop. Hip-hop is about appropriating things to a fresh perspective, there are no rules….
y’all got quite a list here. Definitely enjoyed a lot of those albums. Wanted to let everyone know that my site Da-what.com just posted our Top 10 Albums of the year list as well. We got a couple overlaps and a couple that yall left off. http://da-what.com/2011/01/02/top-10-paid-albums-of-2010/ Check it out and let us know what you think! All comments are appreciated. Thanks in advance for your input!
Surely Roc Marciano has got to be in there, Apollo Kids too. Rick Ross , Kid Cudi and those dudes are wack, I can’t see how real rap heads can rate this shit.
Its all opinion man, and there were a lot that I liked that didn’t make it. These for me, are all iconic albums that will last the test of time. There were some good albums like Gangrene and Ill Bill and stuff that could have made the list, but I was looking at what albums I’ll think of in the future when I think of 2010, Rick Ross dominated this year with “B.M.F” and his album is really solid…
As for “Apollo Kids” it’s a dope album, but came out too late in the year to make the list. I haven’t had enough time to listen to it for it to make the list… But like i say its all opinion, I don’t really care whether the word “real” applies, I’m just looking for good music, and good entertainment…
abraded diamond…
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