Ed Sheeran had more good rap tracks on his album this year than most rap releases, and that says it all. I'm struggling to think of 10 albums I liked overall this year. It really is just Megan Thee Stallion and BROCKHAMPTON that dropped all-around great projects to me. Still don't know how I feel about Lost Tapes 2 and I think I might like Rap or Go to the League more if I revisit it, but the list would be a struggle regardless.
It wasn't all terrible because almost all of the mediocre albums had great singles or exceptional songs on them (Rap or Go to the League/Death Race for Love/FATHER OF 4/The Wizrd/Ramreaper/Diaspora/K.R.I.T. IZ HERE/uknowwhatimsayin?/JESUS IS KING). Like, I didn't really care for FATHER OF 4 overall, but you'd be tripping if you didn't think Lick and Came A Long Way are amongst the best tracks of the year and almost make the project worth it by themselves.
But if I'm thinking of all-around good albums, this ain't the year. No contest one of the worst years for rap since 2012 or 2014. That said, I didn't listen to Bandana because I haven't really enjoyed what I've heard from him in the past, but might be forced to give the Madlib projects a shot this drought. And maybe the Dave, which I've been meaning to get to.
It's been decent for R&B/poppy/more melodic rap-adjacent stuff though. Assume Form was good (Mile High whew), I discovered Jai Paul which is great, the Bon Iver album has some of the most spiritually moving songs I've heard in a minute, the Snoh Aalegra album might be safe but the execution is damn near perfect for that style of R&B, and I can't stop listening to the different vibes on this Tinashe which is slowly climbing up my rankings for her projects.
I feel like I'm just old now and not discovering or caring for new artists. Even when the production is good (which is what I care about most), artists like Trippie, A Boogie, all of Dreamville, etc. don't really have enough of an it factor or consistency to stick for me.
