As satisfying a year for new music as 2010 has been so far, quality hiphop has been mostly absent. I guess everyone was waiting for Summer to arrive, because the next month is packed with releases, and you can’t take two steps without tripping over someone’s new mixtape. Some other dudes from Atlanta dropped mixtapes recently too, but none of them excited me (or disappointed me, unfortunately) as this morning’s unexpected Cee-Lo release, Stray Bullets. It’s gonna get at least a few more listens, ’cause it’s Lo, but so far nothing here is smacking me upside the head like pretty much everything on Soul Machine did. I’m still expecting great things from upcoming album, The Ladykiller, based on stuff like the incredible first single “Georgia“, but most of this feels a little uninspired – then again, that’s probably why it’s on the mixtape and not the album.
Also, Sugar Lo wins the prize for best MC aliases I’ve heard in a while: Lonan the Destroyer and (shout out to Mike Myers) Lothar of the Ill People.
If you’ve heard me talk about hiphop this year, then you know I just won’t shut up about Pill. 1140:The Overdose finally dropped this week, and while it’s not as good as last year’s 4075:The Refill, all that really says is that it’s not as good as the best mixtape that dropped last year. This is trap rap at it’s finest, but it would probably benefit from a little more variation in subject matter, like The Refill‘s “Pain in They Eyes” or “Music” – even so, this is still some of the best hiphop you’ll hear all year.
T.I. is one of those MCs like Chamillionaire that I don’t think about or listen to very often, then they drop a new record and I’m like “This is dope. Why don’t I listen to this guy more often?” Clifford’s contrarily-titled Fuck A Mixtape continues that tradition – I listened to it the day it hit the blogs and thoroughly enjoyed it, but haven’t made time for it since (The new Pill probably has something to do with that). I am, however, more excited than I was about King Uncaged, and enjoyed a new Timbaland production for the first time since he helped Chris Cornell commit career suicide.
If you know the name Young Jeezy then you know what to expect out of this and whether or not you want to click the link. Trap Or Die II is 80 minutes of gravelly-voiced trap rap over solidly produced southern tick-tick-bump. This is a little more Jeezy than I usually care to hear in one sitting, but there’s some great stuff here and guest spots by The Clipse, Scarface, Trick Daddy, and Bun B help break up the monotony.
So half of the rappers in ATL put out mixtapes in the last few weeks, but we still make hiphop here in NYC too. Seeing as I’m posting this from his home borough, it’s only right that I mention Raekwon’s new tape. I’m only just now giving Cocainism Vol. 2 a first listen right now, so I don’t have much to say about it, but it’s a Raekwon tape produced by Alchemist so there’s no reason it shouldn’t be dope, right?
And how about a few loosies to keep you occupied until some of these records drop in the next couple weeks…
