Rolling Stone eats shit.

Sorry, but that is one lame ass top 5. Clearly Kendrick belongs there, but if they're going to include Black Messiah, then there's no way Kendrick should be #1. BM was from last year anyway.

What the hell? Why does Adele's brand new album get thrown in with an album that is literally 12 months older? Fuck all that. That's a bitchass list. No balls. (yes, I do own and enjoy 4 of those 5 albums... but still - bitch ass list)

Agreed.

I'd rank Black Messiah above TPAB as well.

Sad that none of the "top 5" are rock music. it's dead. been dead. Poor Rolling Stone.

P_green: who exactly are you referring to with the "new crop of popular rappers" comment? Just curious.

Because I think as far as most of the world is concerned, Future and Young Thug fit that description best, even though Future isn't new and Young Thug is crap, and also not new.

I'm afraid Kanye is in his own world right now. He's never waited this long between albums. Drake is just continuing to be Drake, which means yeah, he's popular, but he's also one of the most targeted rappers in the world. He's very "love him or hate him", moreso than Kanye. Kanye's debut is 11 years old, and he's always been kind of a "love him AND hate him" figure. That's because he's objectively brilliant musically, but tends to be a bit of a damn fool.

Kendrick is the only rapper out there who's got everyone in his corner. Sadly, even Kendrick was overthrown by the willful ignorance of the Young Thug hype machine.

But yeah, I'm totally glad it's not about Wayne and Em anymore.

But I think Kanye needs to make the wait worth it, and drop his new joint at the PERFECT time in order to avoid the "bricking" that pitchfork predicted.

The new Pusha-T is happening, and it's probably going to be some insane Kanye produced shit.

Oh, and Quentin Tarantino *may* have purchased Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for untold millions of dollars.

May he share it with the world. If the world doesn't hear that album, ima start hating Rza actively. Never thought I'd say that, but what a fucking bunch of bullshit that was.

You actually nailed it dude. Young Thug has a cult fanbase. Future is pretty big, but nowhere near the rappers you've mentioned.

Drake, J. Cole, Kendrick are the most popular out of the "new generation" right now (sold like 3x more than Future's album) and it's beautiful to see. Kanye is way more important to hip-hop (and music in general) than Jay-Z, Eminem and Wayne. Revenge of the nerds, huh. :) Great post.

Hate to burst the bubble about Wu-Tang's secret album, but I came to realize it's all a marketing ploy. Read here: https://reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/com..._wutang_album/

Oh by the way, J. Cole and Kendrick are setting up to release a collab album in February.

the Wu-Tang thing is beyond stupid. I lost a lot of respect for RZA over this. (Not as a producer/musician/rapper - but as a businessman/brand). If anything I feel like this stupid publicity stunt has only highlighted how out of touch he is w/ the rap world.

Well, I'm not sure what to believe. You never know anymore. What I do know is that over the past 2 years, my opinion of RZA and the Clan in general has absolutely plummeted. For nearly 20 years, I've been a loyal Wu fan, and as recently as 2013 they were still my favorite hip hop act of all time (a position I believe I've made more than clear on this forum). But the infighting and bullshit surrounding ABT looked bad for everyone involved, and that album was fine and all, but it was neither familiar nor different enough to be worth the wait and the non-stop crap that surrounded its release in the media.

I don't care who produced the album. If it's a bomb ass record featuring the entire Clan, that's all that matters. But all this shit about high art can suck a dick. If the album gets released, I will totally buy it and listen to it. As long as it stays stuck in this hip-hop Da Vinci Code melodrama, and nobody gets to hear it, I'm gonna be pissed at everyone involved.

If that Reddit story is accurate, I actually feel bad for Cilvaringz. And I also feel white hot anger toward every member of Wu who knew that this was going on but didn't bother to divulge any helpful details in any of their countless public tirade's against RZA. If Method Man and Rae were so pissed off, why the fuck didn't they say something about what was really going on behind the album?

I'm serious: I feel sick about the entire way in which these guys have conducted themselves over the past few years.

While their first 4 albums, and many of their solo records still rank among my favorites, and even though Wu-Tang is still one of my favorite groups of all time, I no longer feel that undying sense of loyalty that I once did. Death of a fanboy, I guess.

That sounds so much more interesting than Future & Drake. Wow.

(No offense, I still rock Drake all the time, but he's just corny as hell and that "mixtape" sucked)

I was just curious, making sure I understood you correctly.

I think Summertime '06 might be a better album than TPAB. Not more important or whatever. Just better. More enjoyable.

I also still really dig B4.DA.$$ and Tetsuo & Youth and If You're Reading This... But I'm guessing my top 2 rap albs will be Summertime and Butterfly.

Can't help but notice that Hudson Mohawke isn't showing up on any year end lists (Stereogum, Rolling Stone), and I find myself wondering if people were just, uhh, really high all year or something? How is Lantern getting passed over? Fuck that shit.

Disagree strongly man.

Word, well.. Cole can rap and produce, but my issue with him is he lacks creativity and often comes off as fake deep and a try-hard. As long as Kendrick is the driving force behind that project, it could be so good.

I def enjoy Summertime 06 more than TPAB.

I think it's a better hip-hop album, even if TPAB is a better album-album. That probably makes very little sense, but it's kinda where I'm at with the whole thing. TPAB is not the kind of album you put on when you want to bob your head and sing along. Likewise, Summertime '06 isn't really a genre bender or game changer. It's just an explosive album from the year's most formidable new voice in hip-hop.

Kendrick is already transcending the hip hop genre, much like Kanye did with Late Registration. But while LR was kind of like hip-hop's answer to George Martin and Rubber Soul-era Beatles, TPAB is more like hip-hop's Electric Ladyland. Both are destined to be classics in a more general way. Summertime '06 is hip-hop through and through, and it's excellent.

I gotta say I've not listened to At.Long.Last.A$AP in quite a while. For a while it was my pick, but time has just exposed its weaknesses to me. It's like half as good as Long.Live. Which is a bummer.

Lots of disappointments this year actually. I can't tell if it's the immediately disposable nature of our current collective ADD approach to music, or if it's because some of these highly anticipated albums just weren't as good as we wanted them to be. But it's aggravating, and I want Kanye to drop a joint and get shit back on track.

I feel you on TPAB/Summer/etc. 100%.

I feel like a broken record, but TPAB is the better album. It's "better." But I'd much rather listen to Summertime.

For me, each year has this one album that just defines the year for me for hip hop. Good Kid, Long Live A$AP, My Krazy Life and now Summertime 06. It's like this clear lineage to me of these 'new' guys coming out and dropping insane records.

ALLA is really good though. I feel like it's a bit slept on because frankly it doesn't sound quite like Live.Love or Long.Live or even the other shit that A$AP Mob was dropping. It is a really unique record. I mean, something like "LSD" - who expected that song from Rocky? Not me. But it's dope.

I just think Rocky is exploring things right now. And to be fair, Yams' passing was probably very disruptive to the creative process to the whole Mob.

I do think that ALLA is better than anyone realizes right now. I think that is a serious grow-er record. It's a slowburn. But it's quality.

The biggest problem that Rocky & the Mob has is that they are severe perfectionists. Why do you think we still have no group album, nor Rocky's instrumental record that was supposed to drop over a year ago? This is both good and bad of course. It means that we get really solid albums, but it also means long passages of nothing. And the public is fickle and out of sight = out of mind for many.

It was a weird year tho. Most of my favorite albums were jazz. But if we're talking hip hop, well the year's not over but I feel full so let's go...

Action Bronson and Joey Bada$$ dropped excellent albums this year. And I loved that Welcome To Los Santos comp. I thought Drake's "mixtape" was damn good.

But I mean damn. This was a year where Lil Wayne, Ghostface and The Game each dropped 2 or 3 albums... and I couldn't seem to get into any of them. WTF?

Hahaha, I guess I get why it's so difficult for y'all to enjoy TPAB, but I just don't feel the same way.