For those who are unaware, me and Q here at The Mad Bloggers are fans of surprises, and always hitting you with great analysis as well as musical surprises. Well, this day is no different, as Q and I team up to offer up a collaborative writing effort on the best things to our ears to hit us in 2010. Here's how we worked it out, ground-rules wise: each of us got to pick five releases individually, then we agreed on five. After that, we also each picked five different ones as honorable mentions, so we could cover the musical gamut with some of our favorite releases this year. This is part one of three. Read more after the jump.
Egypto & Q's Picks (The Ones We Agreed On)
Shad - TSOL
Egypto: If there was an MC who made us all turn heads, it was Shad. His exercise in nonchalant delivery, along with his clever wordplay have definitely made him a fresh of breath air. There was a tad of a lapse between his well-lauded The Old Prince, but TSOL picks up right where it left off, never losing a step into self-reflection and well backed production. Need proof? Check the battle hungry stylings of "Yaa I Get It," or even the breakup ode of "Telephone."
Q: I've been a fan of Shad's work since The Old Prince. DJ Hyphen out in Seattle put me on to him over a year ago. When Shad dropped "Yaa I Get It", I was eager to hear TSOL. But Shad, a Canadian artists, only had TSOL available across the border. So, I had to reach out to my Canadian connect when the CD dropped. It jumped straight into rotation once I received it. TSOL, now available on this side of the border, was definitely one of the stronger releases this year. Don't sleep.
Yaa I Get It
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Egypto: It's very few and far between that I get my Kanye ego on, but I will say this, even after that overblown Taylor Swift interruption, part of me rooted for Kanye to make his grand comeback. Regardless of the blow-up, which to be honest, he was about 98% correct on his assumption about Beyonce, and regardless of the many other things that took place for him. Regardless of all that, he joined Twitter and made it more entertaining, he put out the G.O.O.D. Friday series and made us all salivate for his return, and the coup de gras, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy comes, and we're all in awe and amazement.
Q: Remember when "Power" dropped and the internet basically stopped? Yeah, I remember. "Power" came out of no where, and ended with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In between we witnessed a new type of marketing which included a mini concert at Facebook, joining the world of twitter and a gang of free music via his G.O.O.D. Friday promo. With all the free music, he still sold a ridiculous amount of units the first week. Is MBDTF a classic? I don't know, we'll judge that in due time. But it's definitely a memorable album. We'll see if we're talking about this in ten years. Yeah, we'll probably be talking about it in ten years.
Power Remix
The Roots - How I Got Over
Egypto: In April, I had suffered an episode where I was almost near death. Even though I was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism (look it up), I couldn't really comprehend how I felt about it, what was going on with me, or what's still going on with me. Right now I'm taking it day by day. But somehow, Questlove and company understood it and put it all into How I Got Over, which probably summed up all my thoughts and then some. Definitely a release that should be mentioned amongst Illadelph Halflife and Phrenology as one of their best releases.
Q: I played "Dear God" like it was going out of style. And once How I Got Over dropped, if it was a tape it definitely would have popped considering how much it played in the car. My only negative for the album was it had too many features, because I would have preferred Black Thought to flex his lyricism more in stand alone tracks. Even though tracks featuring Blu, Phonte, Dice Raw, STS and others would be missed without their features. I guess it's a double edge sword. At the end of the day, How I Got Over was a favorite this year. It definitely should have received a Grammy nod for Album of the Year (especially over Em's Recovery but that's a convo for another time).
Dear God
Black Milk - Album of the Year
Egypto: Black Milk's album gave me the same exact feeling that The Roots did this year, but it also managed to definitely become a torchbearer for the Detroit sound in Hip-Hop, which relied on drums that were erratic but focused, samples that stood at the foreground as much as the drums did, and there was Black, spitting some of his most personal and best work today. If "Deadly Medley" isn't in one of your best posse cuts this year, then you are seriously delusional.
Q: I won't front and say that I've been a lifelong Black Milk fan. I had heard the name. Heard the production. Heard the rhymes. But I hadn't owned a Black Milk album until Album of The Year. Most folks say that the title came off as a bit cocky and many wondered if Album of The Year would make any of these end of the year lists. But AOTY was right on par, and the project doesn't contain a track I didn't like. Every leak Black Milk dropped prior to the release became my new favorite track. "Welcome (Gotta Go)" is definitely my shit, followed by "Closed Chapter." AOTY is dope from front to back and has received plenty of burn on both The Mad Bloggers Show and my Hip-Hop Breakfast.
Deadly Medley
Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
Egypto: It all happened so suddenly. It wasn't like we ever counted Cee-Lo out. We all knew of his immense talent and the way he is able to flex that muscle when it came to such works like his rapping solo efforts and Gnarls Barkley respectively. But The Lady Killer is an entirely different animal; it pays its respects to 60s/70s era soul, where the arrangements were vibrant, and the sound was equally as happy. Leave it to Cee-Lo to put a whole different spin on that throwback sound than the viral meme stylings of "Fuck You", or even the equally dashing and vibrant "Bright Lights, Bigger City." For anyone to box Cee-Lo in is ludicrous, as with this effort, he is the jack of all trades.
Q: Single. Unofficial video. Official video. Repeat. That was the cycle for the lead up to The Lady Killer, with Stray Bullets released in the middle, providing a healthy amount of fresh music from Cee-Lo Green. A lot of folks either love or hate The Lady Killer. I fuks with this album. I mean, who sings fuck you and makes it sound so dope? Yeah, Cee-Lo. Two of my favorite tracks, in addition to "Fuck You", is "Old Fashioned" and "Fool For You." The Lady Killer is the type of album I needed this year.
Old Fashioned
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