Here is our version of the top 2018 American hip-hop. Titans like Travis Scott, Drake, Post Malone, Tentacion are not represented here — we don’t know how to evaluate them, they are doing well without the evaluation of ordinary pedestrians like us. “Black Panther” should have been in the top fifteen, simply because it’s a soundtrack, there are tracks 11 out of 10, and there are quite boring ones for me, so we didn’t know where to put it. I wrote a strictly hip-hop chart.

Black Thought & Salaam Remi – Streams of Thought 2

Black Thought exceeds any expectations this year, releasing massive doses of his powerful intellectual lyrics in a concentrated form under the instrumentals of selected producers. Listening to Tariq’s leaden rap is pleasant and beneficial for the soul, if only because he is one of the few artists capable of reminding that English is, after all, a rich, strong, and beautiful language. Every word of this man is full and polished. Usually, such quality rappers deliver in one or two verses per album, and Tariq’s solo work consists of such bricks. Very pleasing is the form of short tracks from one verse. We don’t have time to listen to 80-minute albums with three verses per track; it’s not 1998 now. Short releases, full of concentrated statements — this is bold, and this is what is needed now. Salaam Remi is a surprise; his music is not only bright and powerfully mixed, but also maximally energetic, so you can even work out in the gym to it! We are used to Salaam as Nas‘s partner in his solo albums, well, NASIR sounds quite dull compared to this album. It can be said that Salaam Remi won this year against Nas with Kanye West, as well as the co-author of the first part of Streams — the decent beatmaker 9th Wonder, because you can’t find fault with his work here at all. In the player entirely and for a long time.

Anderson .Paak – Oxnard

You should be happy for the guy with “the best teeth in the game.” He’s been working hard and brightly all these years, and now he’s getting his due. His third release is bold and boastful, and it came out on the label of the greatest producer in the industry, with whom the guy shines in the studio as an equal. Dozens of talents have perished on the way from signing a contract with Dr. Dre to a full-fledged release, creating nothing. Anderson easily bypassed such a fate and prepared an emotional set of tight and pumped-up tracks for any mood, except dull. True, the signature colorful funk awaits us only on the first track and then appears only in the middle. The lion’s share of the material is presented as a hundred percent rap, even though it is diluted with the wonderful Tints featuring Kendrick Lamar. But in the final third of the album, the quality and diversity of the material nevertheless make you gasp. The consecutive Brother’s Keeper with the meatiest verse by Pusha, Anywhere with a classic loop and flawless verse by Snoop (not to mention equally brilliant work in rap and vocals by Anderson himself), Trippy and Cheers — this is the best sequence of anyone’s four songs for, perhaps, the outgoing year. After such a charge, I want a beautiful end to the album, and it’s a pity it doesn’t happen.

Left with a slight underperformance of pleasant sensations after listening, I found nothing else but to attach the unreleased singles Bubblin‘ and Til It’s Over to the album’s folder. The last song, beautiful and airy — this is exactly what I was waiting for in the album and didn’t get. Understand me correctly, the album is rich, instrumentally pumped up, and generally awesome, but if it were ideal, I wouldn’t have the desire to sooner await the continuation of the NxWorries project, where Anderson will be free from Dr. Dre‘s formulas and will bring us back some of his vocals, brightness, and recklessness. If anything like that ever comes out again.

Jay Rock – Redemption

Jay Rock is the healthy person’s DMX. An ideal example of making a musical product balanced between relevance and conscience. The artist, having such a powerful engine behind him as TDE, bends exclusively his line and doesn’t take stories beyond the perimeter of his beloved theater of action in adult rap — the blocks of his native ghetto. The album is wildly charged: half of the tracks are unequivocal hit singles, and music videos of the highest quality are shot almost for the entire album. Not a single loss of face, not a single frankly weak verse. The guy can read both in the old school and fresher, like in WIN (the video for which I’d like to consider as the video of the year). The evolutionary method Jay grew to the first figures, without losing roots and not wearing, figuratively speaking, a pink skirt.

Noname – Room 25

The girl has long become like family to me. The first two songs of the album make a human out of any monkey. This is a vivid example of music capable of bringing tangible physical pleasure, like a massage or ice cream. A voice flowing like a stream, magical flow, and hurried verses that seem to stroke the music like little fingers, made with live musicians and a backing vocal group. Fantastically pleasant, fresh, and honest. Not knowing Nonka and not loving her is a crime.

Black Thought & 9th Wonder – Streams of Thought 1

In the best traditions of the year, this release is short and concise. Black Thought evidently conceived it following his powerful freestyle on the radio at the end of 2017, and 9th Wonder is the best partner that could be imagined here. He, though, doesn’t sound quite orthodox here — as if he’s adjusting his sound to the needs of the fierce rhymester BT, hardening and roughing it up. In a few tracks, BT fully quenches your thirst for a dose of powerful rhymes — almost the entire release consists only of verses, long and substantive, like in The Roots’ best young years. If this is not a reward for us for the long years of suffering from short empty verses of today’s young guys, then what is it? And in general, it was pleasant to listen to a person with an intellect higher than high, even if he doesn’t know how to pronounce Dostoevsky‘s surname (Doshevski!!).

Czarface & MF DOOM – Czarface Meets Metal Face

This is the best angle of Inspectah Deck, the excellent confirmation of the toughness and status of 7L & Esoteric, and one of the most beautiful and bloody appearances of MF Doom in recent years. Inspectah outside Czarface is boring and derivative, the duo of 7 and Eso is indistinguishable as a duo, long since merged with the image of Czarface, and the supervillain concept on this album is not just declared, as is often the case in HH, but really worked out and laid in the foundation of texts and drawn clips. Magnificent beats with rich samples and thought-out mood could be released on their own, without texts, and still rock. A brilliant release, a real noose around the necks of today’s autotuned wimps (sorry, kids, it slipped out).

Masta Ace & Marco Polo – A Breukelen Story

Such duos are called “dream teams”. Thanks to their 2007 duo ‘Nostalgia’, Marco Polo established himself among the leaders of adequate New York old school, and Masta Ace moved from being ignored old schoolers to the rank of living legends. Years later, they found time for a full-fledged release. The album does not hide its old-school nature and authenticity — the name Breukelen is older than Brooklyn, and here should speak about the authenticity of such HH towards freshmen (although if I’m 50 and have the same voice and body as Masta Ace, call me a “freshMAN”). As always, a Masta Ace release is supplied with magnificent acting skits that connect the tracks into a single story of Marco moving from his native Toronto to NY in the early 2000s, meeting Ace, and sharing brilliant creativity. Marco himself is good, his instrumentals can be recognized from the first seconds, he always makes them luxurious, rich, and smooth, like autumn’s excitement in the Atlantic on a cool morning. The trouble with the albums of both one and the other artist is always that the high level set by the best 5-6 songs is not maintained in the other tracks. In Marco‘s albums, there is always a dull part in the middle, and the music only picks up by the end. And Masta Ace does not have a single album without strange or simply tedious tracks. So it happens here, and since Masta Ace was simpler this time than on his 2016 solo, he approached emotions and storytelling, the album generally produces a calming, but not a very bright impression. But in any case, gets a like.

Nas – NASIR

NAS has been with me for three decades. His peers have long been retired, or do scales for three and a half listeners. He is relatively fresh, and most importantly, physically collected, without a belly and gray beard over his shoulder. And each year his skills as a poet and visualizer are only sharpened. This album of his was slightly lost among the louder, but less thought-out releases that came out simultaneously.

With the same originals as Pusha T, Nasir managed to deliver a kilogram of poetry in a shortened format, once again showing that words in music can be mature, insightful, and devoid of the idiocy that, unfortunately, prevails in freshman texts, no matter how much I try not to pay attention to it and not to hate. It is possible to avoid hating only until the moment you turn on someone like Nas, “a sober father.” However, I would still like to receive a full format from Escobar in the near future — for 70 minutes, with choruses, jazz, a dozen older people on features, and a couple of bright young guests. And unreleased parts by Amy Winehouse, Mac Miller, and some Big L.

DJ Muggs & Roc Marciano – KAOS

Here’s a real bomb. First, it’s unexpectedly from Muggs. He just released a stoned album with Cypress, where half of the beats make you want to sleep or die. Here the simplicity and ferocity of the loops just beat you out of the skin. Roc Marciano isn’t going to change his style and his gangster talk, but it’s time to admit he is one of the best at transformation. He creates a cinematic hero you believe in, his metaphors amuse and surprise every time, though it would seem — what new can be told about the hidden-to-our-eyes world of money packs and cocaine bags. Well done, uncles, anger, and power as they are.

Common, Glasper & Riggins – August Greene

Common in his latest solo works became very serious and gloomy, at least musically. I used to refer to his work for sunshine, for hope, for soul. Two albums in a row about the sad fate of black people — for Mr. Lynn, that was too much. But thanks to meeting Karriem Riggins and Robert Glasper, with whom he gave a live concert inside the White House walls, the project August Greene was born. In addition to the wonderfully soulful rhymes of Common, there is the most beautiful live music here, with a lot of sunshine and love, and good male and female vocals. The same warmth Common hasn’t given us in recent years.

Mick Jenkins – Pieces of a Man

Mick Jenkins feels completely free at the microphone, switching from reading to singing and then to something in between when he wants and always with excellent results. His texts never depart from the proper intellectual level. The beats this time are chosen much more evenly than on the previous album, but especially tasty are Heron Flow, Stress Fracture, Reginald, and Plain Clothes. Mick should push more in this direction because as soon as he tries to read to something punchy and sharp, it gets boring. But most of the beats on this album I would be ready to listen to on a loop and without words, everything is done so neatly and with attention to detail. Whoever still doesn’t perceive Mick Jenkins among the top ten MCs of these years — quit this matter, he is very strong. And the closing obligatory with Badbadnotgood is even above expectations.

Mac Miller – Swimming

A heavenly beauty album, which will be Mac‘s last because his relatives and friends were indifferent extras who did not do what they could to pull a person out of the pit and achieve at their own expense that he became “clean.” Providing themselves a decent life at the expense of a genius lost in himself, they stole a lot of his music from us that will never come out.

And don’t talk about drugs—his choice, etc. Wu-Tangers missed out on ODB, and these people missed out on Mac. And listening to the album, so bright and cute, because of this is very painful. On Ladders, you almost cry.

Black Milk — Fever

Permanent search for beauty within the boundaries of hip-hop and beyond. The next album I will wait with the same interest as I awaited this one. Live instruments, mercury-flowing melodies, and soft recitative. On such you become addicted, like a rare drug for the selected, when the crowd knows nothing about it, and you don’t even want them to know. It amazes how the artist is so indifferent to what commercial success will be, cares only about the nontriviality and aesthetics of sound. Well, and he’s a solid and skillful rapper too.

Vince Staples – FM!

The mini-album struck with its emotionality. All pumped on adrenaline, Vince is good at this. There are tracks that will enter among his best in the results of several years — Feels Like Summer, FUN, Tweakin (generally terrific thing). The themes of the texts are narrow for Vince—a gangsta-shit as it is at the current state of this year. But this is a release for a narrow niche and its radio show type structure and its length speak about this. There will be a longer and broader release then we’ll talk wise. But now you need to scream to get your heart racing. Vince can do it. Great thing, and the snippet from Earl is generally a gift. Vince once again shows everyone that he is MC to the bone — he commands the word, intonation, and technique at the level of 2Pac, Royces, and Snoops simultaneously. Well, a squeaky voice, but Vince ain’t trying to be a darling. For that, we love him.

Logic – YSIV

A quality boom-bap should look somewhat like this. Well done Logic, for a long time on his release, the songs differ from each other, have their face, sound juicy, and are conscientious. For example, the sound of this release I like five times more than his second album (about earthlings who flew into space). Logic suffered most of his career from three things: the same boring reading from an endless cornucopia, the same faceless-eye beats, and the predominance, excuse me, of message over entertainment. In this release, everything is corrected. Everything is much simpler and more powerful. And for the Wu-banger with ten Wu-Tang members under the powerful ninety beat hug and shake hands. Robert did what the Wu-Tang members themselves haven’t been able to do for a long time. The track ends, like in better times, with a flawless verse by GZA, and is remembered better than the rest, as always, by Inspectah Deck’s verse. I recommend a wild track on an excellent release.

Atmosphere – Mi Vida Local

Not being a big expert in the giant repertoire of Atmosphere, we cannot but admit the strength and intellectual power of the main character Slug. The music of such ceremonial mood is slightly stiff for me (exception — Virgo, immeasurable beauty), so the personality of MCs comes to the fore. He reads like a teacher, every word is clear, and disassembles himself like a picky psychologist. A full album of such MCing is a real master class, and will certainly make you think about your unresolved problems and fears. What happiness that favorite music is represented by such powerful, impeccable characters. Every time some face on the internet mentions rap as a shallow foolish music for monkeys, I want to present such an album.

Black Eyed Peas – Masters of the Sun vol. 1

You can’t take away the style from the guys. Will prepared divine music, and every track is interesting to listen to the very end, everywhere there are several mood and beat changes. A real symphony of classic hip-hop. Enjoyed.

In terms of musical perfection, the album fits in the top ten, but the rhymes of the guys are too simple and theatrically old-school, somewhat diluting the pleasure. Well, the last track in the best traditions of their pop “tralalala” with Fergie.

Skyzoo – In Celebration of Us

An unexpectedly strong, full of soul and light album of a Brooklyn wise guy. Very nice when they do not talk to you as if you were a fool. And even better when the selection of beats is so much cooler than everything he previously chose. Sky suffers because he is very retrograde and lets no fresh ideas into his product, which is why he seems older than he is. Moreover, the artist is too verbose and speaks too extensively about what could be said in one verse. But in spirit, the album is completely pure and thought-out.

Royce & Premier – PRhyme 2

The album offers more material and is more diverse than the first “Pryhme”. There are completely classic choruses, loops, and verses. For some reason, without Primal, Royce is more hysterical and more boring, but here, a great pair. Only for the olds, of course.

Evidence – Weather Or Not

An incredibly pleasant journey through the thoughts and experiences of Mr. Slow Flow. Releases like these confirm that classic HH is not a shriveled atavism, but a separate world enclosed in itself, with its own color and mood, so unlike chart music and so like the grayness and ruthlessness of real life. Not every beat here is interesting and energetic, but every text is honest and insightful. What do you say about the story of how the artist’s wife battled cancer, and how their little son indirectly became her savior? Does your favorite artist have texts about something like this?

Royce Da 5-9 – Book of Ryan

Loud, slightly hysterical, very beautiful in places, monumental, sometimes even frightening. Best track for me is God Bless, and things like Power are hard to listen to more than once in a lifetime, really scary. Royce is too verbose, no need to be so thorough. But still beautiful.

Pusha T – Daytona

The album is too short for the boundless personality of Pusha, but everything is fine with reading, and the hyper-simplified beats do not pull the overall picture to the bottom. As part of one big whole, it will do just fine. Pusha T sets (or develops) an excellent fashion for brief releases, which in our hasty time everyone should follow. If they want us to heed everything they want to say. If, of course, they want to say something.

Saba – Care For Me

A very original, very interesting, very melodic young man. An open soul, honest texts. Sirens in the first track already hits the heart, but this is just the beginning. The album goes upward into some nirvana heights. Wonderful.

The Carters – Everything Is Love

The star couple with every line and every chord shows their power and dominance in the music industry (and in general). Worthy lyrics. The sound was made by wrestling titans of Pharrell level, and it crunches like new clothes in a store packet. The last track is generally a ram. What’s interesting is that all this sounds like Beyonce featuring on Jigga’s track, and he in turn, feature on some young guys’ track. They are very cool and stylish, but manage Bey and Jay’s music from the outside.

Eminem – Kamikaze

We feel sorry for old man Em for this reason: his entire life is about chopping rhymes in the studio. Chopping tons until the faces of the whole country turn blue. And when rap is your whole life, there’s nothing to read about except your cockroaches and enemies if they are fortunately on your path. The beats are in full order here, and the main character, under the pressure of enemies, revived and returned to a human face. We are so glad that Em is so alive and healthy and that he is still the best technician in the world (though this is no longer the only thing needed to possess the world, it never has been). But he has nothing to read about. Such is the fate of one who has laid his life to the microphone.

Khrysis & Elzhi – Jericho Jackson

Khrysis as a single beatmaker for a whole album was a slightly roughened, dried-up version of Knxwledge. Samples are chopped finely enough, this is interesting to absorb. In many tracks, they are led somewhere “to the ass,” and this is very sobering against the background of the general fashion for light and clean sound. And Elzhi, as expected, is very modest and honest in his texts and flow. It’s great that there are lyricists who do not play any roles and do not wear any masks at all for a gram. What he came in from the street is what he reads about. The last track especially took the soul. A good dose of 100% HH, without autotune and hoes. And he is not afraid to be bold! “My pen bleeds, while yours be blood-clottin!”

Roc-Marciano – Behold A Dark Horse

Let his position here not confuse you, it’s just too crowded at the top of the list, and Roc Marci is still a very underground guy. And predictable. But all the beats without exception here are oh so beautiful and Marci reads excellently, occupying a niche he himself created. Marciano is for those who appreciate and know it.

Action Bronson – White Bronco

While we sleep and miss Aryan Aslan’s product against the backdrop of louder music, this charming guy, for what year, makes chic impudent rap to the tastiest beats, and with each release, these beats get fatter and more powerful, and the unique charisma does not fade away with all these “darling, bring your mouth here.” The musical style is overrepresented in the industry, but inside of it, Action is the only one like that. Don’t sleep.

Cypress Hill – Elephants on Acid

Perfect Cypress Hill — these are the first three tracks of their album “Black Sunday.” I’m not talking about an exact match to the sound, it was more than 20 years ago, it is now not needed and unrealistic. But there the mood and energy are clearly established. Everything I expected from each next Cypress album is a similar mood and energy. Let’s say their albums in the ’90s stably gave this. And the single Dr. Greenthumb definitely did, though it sounds opposite to “Black Sunday.” And the new album in its middle is something completely on acid. B-Real gives the needed rhymes, but the sound in the tracks 05–15 is heavy and muffled, and from the worldly tunes, the nerves do not tremble, from them only a headache. Well, Sen Dog does not make the weather at all. I’m not a Cypress connoisseur, probably that’s exactly what their ardent fans expected from them, and I’m happy for them. The group holds the level, but the album is entirely built on its hit tracks Gypsies, Put Em In The Ground, and Crazy, like a highway supported by a viaduct. Very boring and very low efficiency, although the ending is strong.

Everlast – Whitey Ford’s House of Pain

The name is made up of repeats of past titles, but here it’s really continuous repetitions. But Everlast is very good, and good can be repeated. I would wish the gray-bearded uncle more to lean towards blues than rap, as his hip-hop comes out dry and old. Very grateful for the Smokin & Drinkin song.

Apollo Brown & Joell Ortiz – Mona Lisa

It is difficult to argue that Apollo Brown has been making the same song for many years. All his moves are within that narrow path of old boom-bap he himself planted it long ago. When you reach the track Come Back Home, you realize you’ve heard something like this a hundred times already. With each new album, the only question is whether he will choose the loops softer or harder, whether will the MCs read brighter or more boring. Joell Ortiz is a traditionalist, he is emotional and honest, but no experiments, which is too bad. With such stability, the album could be limited to seven to eight tracks, nothing would have changed. But when you drive through a snowy street in November fog and grayness, it perfectly fits and calms. But they could have at least tried something new.

Ice Cube – Everythang’s Corrupt

Let us open a secret for you. Ice Cube is not an angry, truth-revealing political rapper. He was like that only for five years of his long career. The rest of the years, he was too successful already, and for the most part in his music simply wanking.

Bloody money on the cover, a lead single titled “Arrest the President.” But do you know how many lines in this single are really devoted to such a hot title? And let me translate for you: “I’ll take your money and fake hair, I’m desperate, and you influenced this, the one you chose is too full of shit, I won’t accept this!” And that’s all, probably. He won’t accept, oh wow! Trump there must have sweated from such duress. The title single, to its credit, is somewhat hotter and angrier, but here’s the trouble — it was already released as far back as 2012. Do you understand correctly, there’s also a wonderful gangster stuff here, there is hot enough beats (not all), and the political commentary is (about 5% of the audacity from 25 years ago). But if the cover matched the content, there should not be fingers in the blood on it, but a bag of weed and a bunch of gold cards. Because most of the time, the revolutionary Cube… that’s right, wanking. A big thank you to him for at least not acting like a fool, as in the last album of 2010. And a big thanks for a really powerful song Good Cop Bad Cop, which closes the album, and after which it’s such a pity everything else here is not quite like that. So in terms of the ideal rapper album at an age, I would better suggest the opus of the great Scarface “Deeply Rooted.”

Lil Wayne – Tha Carter V

Things like “Mona Lisa” are just grenades from space, but not everything here has the same charge and quality. Respect to the veteran for how bright and good he is, but personally, it doesn’t hook me for long.

ASAP Rocky – Testing

Didn’t rock me at all, some kind of a mess. But super clips added some kind of face to the music. Normal album, fresh such, though barely alive.

Kanye West – YE

A normal such Kanye, neither extreme level of madness, and the music is very good. This didn’t cause any hate, more power to him.

Earl Sweatshirt – Some Rap Songs

It’s hard to listen to Earl, but it’s nice. Such a presentation can only be imagined atop such anti-music. Especially stings when he repeats a successful line several times. Like, almost a chorus, but it’s just likely he really likes the line. A very gastric artist, but it’s pure rap. In several tracks, the voice is recorded poorly, spoiling the perception.

J Cole – KOD

Honestly, no way. His usual moves in reading are already tired, and there is no melodies here, just chatter. It’s monotonous and sounds tired. I do not know what to love here. At the end of the year, honestly, I even forgot about this album’s existence.

Sean Price & Illa Ghee – Metal Detectors

In Sean‘s verses, his voice is not as hopelessly sick as on his posthumous solo. Illa Ghee is not someone from nowhere, his voice and delivery quite correspond to Sean’s style. And the beats are so meaty, they tear up the speakers in the car like nothing. Good pure rap.