Successfully climbing onto the throne the year before, Drizzy spent this year securing his place and raising the bar. Young Thug may be the MVP of 2014, but there is no denying who wears the crown. The top comment on YouTube for one of his biggest songs “if only the dumbfucks in this video got shot instead of Mike Brown.” Young Thug didn’t have to make political music his entire existence is revolutionary. Beyond his incredible musical accomplishments this year, Thug symbolized the growing counter culture in hip hop and became the poster child for “this isn’t music” complaints by conservatives and white people. (“About The Money”), Tyga (“Hookah”) and his boss Birdman (“Lifestyle,” which also turned into his breakout song). Teaming up with producer London On Da Track, he gave smashes to T.I. He reached the rarified air that Wayne, Future, Drake, and 2 Chainz all reached at some point in the last few years: he was so good he gave away hits. He tore up Chicago drill, west coast slaps, Toronto mood music, and everything in between. It doesn’t matter what type of song it is, Thug simply transports it to another realm. His hooks are heavenly, his rhymes are sharp, and his flows are not mere flows but rivers that course through the beat, which are all mesmerizing. With no formal training and no interest in hip hop tradition or history, he has an innate sense of melody and songwriting. He can unhinge himself and rap with such aggression and then in the very next line croon beautifully. It’s at once visceral and spiritual, immediate and ephemeral. There’s no way to describe how Thug raps, you just have to experience it.
And we got dozens and dozens of loosies, features, and leaks, each one a shimmering jewel. We got a slew of unofficial mixtapes released by former label head Gucci Mane. Instead we got two mixtapes: one with friend Bloody Jay, and one with burgeoning star Rich Homie Quan for Young Money head boss Birdman’s Rich Gang. Stuck in label drama for pretty much the entire year, Young Thug didn’t release an album. He is the most singular artist in rap today yet he works better in groups. He defies gender norms, stylistic conventions, even verbal clarity. An absolute enigma, Thug made all of hip hop his playground this year, becoming an inescapable presence on the radio while rewriting the rules of the genre. But 2014 broke them wide open and nobody symbolized that like Thugga Thugga. Weirdos have always been cult heroes in hip hop and the internet only helped propel them further into public consciousness. And they’re all dope.Ģ014 was the year rap got weird. They were everywhere and somehow represented something more than just themselves.
These five artists were huge this year without their accomplishments being easily measured by one album or one song. So I’m proud to present the Hungry Hippopotamus 2014 All Star Team. But more than recent years, 2014 seemed dominated by people who couldn’t be measured by the normal metrics of success. Who cares who made the best album or song when all of this is happening? I still made them (call it a compulsion) and they’ll be up soon. The year has made these best of lists seem irrelevant. Even the most hedonistic party tracks couldn’t help but carry the weight of countless black lives that were taken too soon. Two years after Killer Mike made political rap cool again, America placed itself in a situation where hip hop couldn’t help but be political, whether it wanted to or not. 2014 was marked by tragedy, personal and political, and the music that I found most helpful were the ones that either took me away or placed me right in the thick of it. Even without the usual superstars dropping hugely anticipated albums, new artists crept out the woodwork and filled the void and gave the country a fresh look at the new generation of rap. Unfortunately this year was terrible, though not necessarily in the musical sense. Welcome to the 2014 Hungry Hippopotamus end of year extravaganza! Because the only proper way to welcome the new year is to take stock of the 12 months that just passed, the next few articles on this site are going to rank the best hip hop of the year. Trapped In The 90… on A Better Tomorrow Can’t… Trapped In The 90… on There Ain’t No Award For… Trapped In The 90… on Eminem And The Generation… Well Versed: Enter T… on Trapped In The 90’s: Hip… Well Versed: Enter T… on A Better Tomorrow Can’t… Holla At Ya Boy My Tweets Recent Comments
0 kommentar(er)
