2010 Magazine's Albums Of The Year Thread For Posting Lists and Discussion

oh sorry misread, why are you *rmde* at that? i think i made a pretty solid case here that sales arent reflective of the popularity of the genre as a whole

or are you just trolling per usual

i mean i basically think the music critic line on rappers 'finally' getting over the 'staid' template of gangster rap is pretty much one of the most tiresome conceits of writing from writers who basically fuck with only the 1st rap artist they hear. afaik nonviolent drug offenses still impact an overwhelmingly huge number of black men & this is basically what 'gangster rap' is and has been about. yuppie rap fans trying to turn the genre into a 'post-gangster' 'art form' are imo basically doing the musical equivelent of destroying public housing, watching the poor scatter & then acting like anything has been 'fixed'

http://i40.tinypic.com/1zqzvjt.jpg

fleeing children otm

http://premiumplusmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/drake-so-far-gone-retail-front1.jpg

hahahahaha

"yuppie rap fans"

1 result (0.09 seconds)

guess the 1 result ; )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsaW5wLHY64

deej i think there's obviously some merit to what you're saying, but you're still overstating your case. fact is gangsta rap was more or less the norm, or one of them, in mainstream rap 10-15 years ago, and the majority of the biggest stars qualified in one sense or another, or were kind of positioned as a much cleaner alternative (Will Smith, Nelly, etc.). now most of the biggest mainstream rappers are either as non-gangsta as possible (Kanye, Drake) or are kind of apologetic reformed ex-gangsta rappers like Jay-Z. only Lil Wayne kinda sorta still flaunts that angle of his music, but he's not nearly as associated w/ it as 50 Cent. a lot of minor and mid-level stars w/ a lot of gangsta content in their music, but nobody near that peak 50/Snoop level no matter how you measure their popularity.

eMusic posted their editorial top 80 albums, and the member-voted top 20 albums:

http://www.emusic.com/features/hub/best2010/index.html
http://www.emusic.com/features/hub/memberspoll_2010/index.html

their lists are always interesting, in part because they're limited to what's available on the site

oh for the love of god

And while Krell can't match R. Kelly's silky tenor, his reverb-laden coos are nearly as sensual

hahaha omg NO

in other news i listened to the warpaint album this morning and "reverb-laden coos" is an apt summary (though i must say, it sounds nice)

Spin - The 20 Best Songs of 2010

20 > Les Savy Fav "Let's Get Out of Here"
19 > Yeasayer "Ambling Alp"
18 > Tame Impala "Solitude Is Bliss"
17 > The Black Keys "Tighten Up"
16 > Das Racist "hahahaha jk?"
15 > Tracey Thorn "Hormones"
14 > Chiddy Bang "Opposite of Adults"
13 > Superchunk "Digging for Something"
12 > The-Dream "Make Up Bag"
11 > Dom "Living in America"
10 > Gucci Mane "Lemonade"
09 > Janelle Monae "Tightrope"
08 > Robyn "Cry When You Get Older"
07 > Kanye West "Runaway"
06 > Deerhunter "Helicopter"
05 > Neil Young "Hitchhiker"
04 > LCD Soundsystem "All I Want"
03 > Kanye West "Power"
02 > Arcade Fire "Ready to Start"
01 > Cee-Lo Green "Fuck You"

con's

arcade fire #2 zzzzzz
kanye "runaway" top ten zzzzzzz, so overrated
no big boi in top 20

pro's

cee-lo #1 -- glad to see spin got this right!
kanye "power" ranked over "runaway"
robyn "cry when you get older" -- good choice, stunning track
gucci #10 -- even if it's a "token" rap choice, this song is awesome
the-dream at #12 -- surprising track choice
#13 to #20 spots don't really look like any other tracks list this year, v. refreshing

funniest blurb

The Black Keys
"Tighten Up"
On the Keys' crossover pop-soul stroll, Dan Auerbach's grainy, nuanced croon and unassuming, scene-setting guitar show precisely why John Mayer sucks.

deej i think there's obviously some merit to what you're saying, but you're still overstating your case. fact is gangsta rap was more or less the norm, or one of them, in mainstream rap 10-15 years ago, and the majority of the biggest stars qualified in one sense or another, or were kind of positioned as a much cleaner alternative (Will Smith, Nelly, etc.). now most of the biggest mainstream rappers are either as non-gangsta as possible (Kanye, Drake) or are kind of apologetic reformed ex-gangsta rappers like Jay-Z. only Lil Wayne kinda sorta still flaunts that angle of his music, but he's not nearly as associated w/ it as 50 Cent. a lot of minor and mid-level stars w/ a lot of gangsta content in their music, but nobody near that peak 50/Snoop level no matter how you measure their popularity.

― hann am0n tana (some dude), Wednesday, 29 December 2010 13:02 (2 hours ago) Permalink

yeah i agree w/ this but thats not what im criticizing when i suggest whiney's argument was marginalizing this stuff, and that i think this kind of rap is heavily hit by downloads to a greater degree than BoB/Lupe "superstar" type shit

also yeesh jordan & whiney u dudes are overreacting what im saying is really not that controversial is it??

top 50 albums by The Needle Drop (aka, one of YouTube's biggest music reviewing personalities)

http://www.theneedledrop.com/albumslist2010.jpg

oh sorry misread, why are you *rmde* at that?

for basically the reasons some dude mentions - it seemed like you were acting as if gangster were still the predominant idiom within rap music instead of one strain among many. i mean its cool if you think it *should be* but it seems clear to even a casual observer that it simply isnt & that while gangster rap may well be fairly popular its no longer culturally dominant (which goes so far beyond show attendance or album sales or downloads anyway) in the way that it seemed to be a decade and a half ago.

yah i think there has been *some change* -- what i was arguing itt was that the change has been overstated to a large degree, that gangster rap (trap rap / crack rap / whatever its being called) is still a musically potent scene & that sales numbers are a tip of the iceberd kind of deal. that the audience for that style is going to be more effected by internet DL's than starbucks-safe BOB type 'rap'.

gorillaz? for realz? in 2010? the blur dude? really? ???

(????)

I don't think you're going to hear BOB in Starbucks until he gets Emmylou Harris to sing a hook.

i would start fucking w/ BOB if he did that tbh

afaik nonviolent drug offenses still impact an overwhelmingly huge number of black men & this is basically what 'gangster rap' is and has been about. yuppie rap fans trying to turn the genre into a 'post-gangster' 'art form' are imo basically doing the musical equivelent of destroying public housing, watching the poor scatter & then acting like anything has been 'fixed'

So there were non-violent drug offenses before Schoolly-D and NWA and Getto Boys, etc. but the rapping was different. Not to get all Bill Cosby, but it seems that once gangsta got started, it has gotten institutionalized lyric-wise over the years, although there are obviously differences (lyrically and musically and due to the internet, music-making computer tools, etc. and sociological changes due to welfare reform, recession, drug wars, etc.)

im certainly not arguing that all gangster rap is original or whatever but i would contend that the vast majority of innovation in terms of rapping style came from this world w/ a few exceptions -- mf doom comes to mind. obvi a bunch of early 90s dudes -- guru (although he was pretty street rap-oriented) q tip de la etc.

this division between 'street rap' & not is pretty artificial too obviously

drake & wiz khalifa are the first stars who really seem to break w/ that in their music -- you can say wayne & jay-z did it first in the way their music's been received though too.

i do kind of wonder, tho, to what degree the internet's impact on the industry has prevented gangster rap from taking a central place in rap culture the way it did circa g-unit & earlier

^^^^thinking aloud btw & not trying to state some thesis-on-rap here

gorillaz? for realz? in 2010? the blur dude? really? ???

i'm hearing ya, skot...that album has been conspicuous in it presence in a huge majority of these list, and it has like four good songs in it tops...

i'll be fucking amazed if the only year-end list I readwith both Erykah Badu and The Fall in it is my own; must be something wrong with me...

just that you like shitty music

thx 4 dat luv u

Ha. Badu and the Fall are on my list too.

The Gorillaz are showing up more on Brit EOY lists, but some elsewhere as well. IMHO the album reads better on paper(special guests Bobby Womack, Mick Jones, Paul Simenon)than it sounds.

yeah plus Lou Reed & MES-->perfect for the rock critic who never listens to the music s/he loves...

I mean, Stylo still sounds good, but there's quite a bit of dead space on that album. A lot of the blurbs I've read tend to fixate on Snoop Dogg who only makes an appearance on the 2nd track; not a good sign.

*a lot = maybe 2...

I do think I should add to what we were discussing above, that I think there's an element of self-fulfilling prophecy to the 'gangster rap is no longer big' thing anyway ... that its sales that drew so much attention to that phenomenon for so long anyway -- like do you think mainstream media would over 50 Cent if he hadnt been breaking sales records? so when media doesnt cover because they dont think there's a story there, as a mainstream phenomenon it ceases to exist anyway

i mean, just as an example, the youtube for yo gotti's biggest single this year has more than 3 million views & the one for the arcade fire from this year has 1.2 million.

(and im not even counting the 5 star bitch rmx cuz im guessing the nicki appearance distorted that but btw it has FIFTEEN MILLION views)

jesus christ can we stop "add[ing] to what we were discussing above" pleaaaaseee for the love of sanity (a foreign concept to deej/whiney i know)

how about you stop contributing bullshit

i'll keep it pertinent to this thread

ilxor lecturing other people on quality control is like rolling stone lecturing other magazines on overrating rock albums made by 50 year olds

take your own advice

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― i genuinely thought when i first joined that he was the admin (ilxor), Wednesday, December 29, 2010 6:47 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

low millions isn't really that big a number for youtube views at this point, tbh. and lol @ "bigger than the arcade fire" once again being the easy hurdle to fly every example over.

do you think mainstream media would *cover* 50 Cent

that should read

low millions isn't really that big a number for youtube views at this point, tbh. and lol @ "bigger than the arcade fire" once again being the easy hurdle to fly every example over.

― hann am0n tana (some dude), Wednesday, December 29, 2010 6:55 PM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well i figured that the 'nabisco otm!' article about indie takeover here was a reasonable thing to be comparing it to.

compare gangster rap youtubes to whatever you want, al

i mean, was there any other reason you can think of that made this stuff a mainstream phenomena other than a bunch of suits in the media realizing that NWA was suddenly outselling tons of legacy artists?

i mean, just as an example, the youtube for yo gotti's biggest single this year has more than 3 million views & the one for the arcade fire from this year has 1.2 million.

okay, contributing to the thread, then... arcade fire live streamed a NY concert from MSG earlier this year, 3.7 M in one night --

"After the album dropped on August 3, the band teamed up with Vevo, YouTube and American Express to put on a live-streamed show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The stream attracted 3.7 million viewers, according to Google, and boasted a ton of interactive features [...]"

how can you compare a live concert promoted by credit card companies to youtube searches.