Alright, time to get the ball rolling on this. Last time I put anything up here I was still in another country and this blog didn't really end up on my list of top priorities. Even when I came back home, getting my blog(s) rebooted didn't really end up on my radar. Until today, that is, when I suddenly got the inspiration to write a piece about my favorite songs that have dropped so far this year, of which there is no shortage. If 2014 was a drought for hip-hop (which it wasn't, for the record) then 2015 has been a tsunami. Big names like Dre, Kendrick, Drake, and Big Sean have put out records along with notable LPs from others like Future and A$AP Rocky making this year great for hip-hop fans.
All that said, let's get down to this. I have favorite songs from this year but I can't rate them against each other, so this is just a general list -- any placement is coincidental
Drake - "Back to Back"
I've gotta say, I don't really know what to say about this one that hasn't already been said by others. This song made HUGE waves when it dropped, and still is -- the beef wasn't really huge and was mild by past standards, but given that no big names have had any notable disputes people were hungry for something interesting, and definitely provided some entertainment. His one-two punch of "Charged Up" and this song made Meek Mill's response "Wanna Know" seem not only late but also completely inadequate, and he ended up not even responding to Meek's track. All issues of ghostwriting aside, the shots thrown in this song were pretty awesome and cement Drake as one of, if not the top, MCs in rap right now. I still find it ridiculous that Drake helped put Meek on by jumping on some of his biggest songs, and Meek went and pulled that drama. With the publicity from this song along with the release of If You're Reading this it's Too Late, Drake's been having a pretty good year.
Big Sean - "All Your Fault" ft. Kanye West
Not everyone loved Dark Sky Paradise. I'd go as far to say most people didn't, actually, even if it got an overall better reception than Big Sean's previous album, Hall of Fame. The last time I blogged on here I did a short review of the album, and I really enjoyed it at the time, but six months later I gotta say I don't revisit it much except to listen to this particular song. "All Your Fault" features crazy neo-soul chopped vocals and generally awesome production. Kanye opens up the song with one of his best recent verses and handles the hook well, using a combination of both him and the sample repeating "live for your love." Big Sean kills his second verse with a fast flow, and the song is rounded out by a ridiculous back-and-forth verse between Kanye and Sean. The only thing I'd change about this one is have the beat right out for a bit at the end...I can never get enough of it. Bonus points for the random Travis Scott ad-libs all over the song.
A$AP Rocky - "Excuse Me"
This is one of the standout songs from Rocky's sophomore album, ALLA. Honestly, when I listened to this one when I downloaded the album, I didn't like it at all. I thought the beat was kind of boring and thought the hook was corny, but as I listened a few more times I realized that it was becoming one of my favorites from the album, along with "Canal Street" and "Back Home." The sub-bass that kicks in along with Rocky's smooth-as-butter flow on the second verse really makes the song for me, and the hook became a nice switch-up from the strings backing the verses. The song was made even better for me when I found out the beat is over a decade old. It's probably a matter of mastering but it sounded brand new still.
Dr. Dre - "Talk About It" ft. King Mez
I had a lot of trouble picking a single song of off Compton to add on this list. Between "Genocide," "Deep Water," "Darkside/Gone," and "One Shot One Kill" (you know what, pretty much every song on the album) I really didn't think I could choose one. However, I eventually picked "Talk About It" because the first time I listened to this album that beat smacked me in the face, transitioning the spoken-word intro into one of the most aggressive songs on the album. King Mez, a rapper I had never heard of until Dre put him on, opens up the song with a verse with a great flow and gritty delivery, and Dre kills the second verse with his opening "I JUST BOUGHT CALIFORNIA!" line. There's nothing about this track to dislike -- not the sometimes confusing beat switches on the other songs or weird voices from Dre. Just pure, thundering awesomeness all the way through.
Action Bronson - "Falconry" ft. Meyhem Lauren & Big Body Bes
Not gonna lie: Mr. Wonderful was a huge disappointment to me. When the album dropped, most of the good songs had been released already (and one, "The Light in the Addict," as a Party Supplies single) leaving the rest of the LP as filler. However, "Falconry" really stood out to me for some reason. The song is reminiscent of some of Bronson's more gritty mixtape tracks, with Lauren coming in for a solid verse and Bes delivering one of his classic rambling outros. The Alchemist also came through on this song with an awesome, 90s-reminiscent loop, and Bronson's verse is one of his strongest on the album. My main qualm with this one is that its too short and left me wanting more of this style of Bronson on the album over "City Boy Blues" or "Only in America." Basically, all I want on Bronson's next album is more rapping! Although I'd just be happy with Blue Chips 3.
Kendrick Lamar - "King Kunta"
Yeah, yeah, this is kind of an easy choice given that To Pimp A Butterfly was easily one of the best and most popular albums of the year. I'm a fan of the album, even if I don't go back to it as much as Good Kid, MAAD City, but "King Kunta" remains the easy standout to me. I remember when it initially dropped people were so taken aback by the funk sound when they were expecting something super dark and aggressive following in the footsteps of "The Blacker The Berry," but they came to love everything about this track -- the "what's the yams?" section of Kendrick's verse, the dissonant piano in the background; everything came together to create a powerful song that's funky and dark at the same time. You've got to give it up to Kendrick for making a funk song in the 2010s that achieves this much success. There's a reason TPAB is so critically acclaimed, and it's exciting to see what he'll do next.
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