Honourable mentions: Deluxe albums

Freddie Gibbs released the deluxe version of $oul $old $eparately. He added five tracks that had already been released as singles. While it doesn’t add anything new its nice seeing these tracks on an album and their all good additions to the album.

Baby Keem also released a deluxe version for The Melodic Blue. Some of these tracks are better than regular songs on the album. killstreaks is a killer collab between Don Tolliver PinkPantheress who both show their unique styles and voices. naked freestyle and fine china are two great beats where Baby Keem gets to show off his unique flows. Overall adds a lot to the album and really shows why Keem is one of the most exciting young rappers.

6.

The 3rd edition in Detroit rapper BabyTron’s Bin Reaper series. While you know exactly what to expect from a BabyTron album he still makes it memorable. Very simple, catchy trap beats with a memorable sample and BabyTron rapping completely offbeat. He keeps his signature, almost wonky flow throughout the album. This flow makes his one liners all the more memorable. Some of the best include, “Have my dawg catch the play, he like Air Bud”, “Need a jersey that say “Maravich”, how I pistol tote”, and my favourite, “Supreme Timbs, came a long way from ACGs
He a roll player on his team, call him “KCP””.

The opening track is also probably BabyTron’s most serious song where he raps about his come up and people not understanding his unique style. This storytelling only continues for one a half verses before he breaks into constant one liners. This album also has a great feature from supremely underrated fellow Detroit rapper Icewear Vezzo. Overall, BabyTron shows his unmistakeably, unique style and continues to show the talent of the Detroit trap scene.

5.

The third album from one of the most underrated and versatile rappers out there. This is his most ambitious mixture of hip-hop and R&B yet. Smino creates unique beats with his mellow and abstract style. He employs his features very well on this album with great verses from J. Cole, Lil Uzi Vert and Doechii. These features also show how versatile Smino is creating a mellow, introspective vibe for J. Cole and a more energetic vibe for Lil Uzi Vert. He also shows his ability to make pure R&B songs with Settle Down featuring Cory Henry and Ravyn Lenae. While this album still feels bloated and never fully realised its potential like hist past two albums still shows the voice of the one of the most unique artists.

4.

Che Noir’s second album this year alone, Che follows up Food for Thought with The Last Remnants. While it may not have the conceptuality of Food for Thought or the constant bars of Thrill of the Hunt 2 this is a solid album showing Che’s talent in telling a story and putting emotion into her songs.

In an interview for this album she says 7 of the 9 tracks for this album were recorded 3 years ago. She also doesn’t produce any of the beats on this album with a lot of the production coming from long time colloborator 38 Spesh. Despite this the album still shows increase consistency and cohesiveness throughout.

She uses her vivid storytelling to weave stories of growing up, hustling and beating her competition. The features across this album are all great, especially Benny the Butcher on Wash the Dishes. Over a funky bass line and an enchanting chopped up sample Che raps about trying to provide newfound wisdom from her succes to her friends still stuck in the crime ridden streets of Buffalo. Benny stars with big ups Che at the start verse claiming most female and male rappers can’t step to her level. This high praise is proven true through this album and her past works and Che continues to be one of the most talented and underrated lyricists currently.

3.

Cities Aviv follow up to one of my favourite experimental hip hop albums this year, Man Plays the Horn. While Man Plays the Horn is a winding, conceptual opus on the history of jazz music through hip hop this album provides a more traditional experimental lo-fi jazz album.

Through lo-fi, psychedelic samples Cities Aviv creates everchanging, abstract soundscapes. Rather than trying to cut through or draw too much attention to the vocals Cities Aviv uses his voice to blend into the abstract sounds almost creating another instrument. His abstract, conscious lyricism provides another layer to this album and will help to provide more interest with future listens. While this album doesn’t have the conceptuality and scope of Man Plays the Horn, it’s not supposed to, instead showing Cities Aviv talents as a rapper and producer in creating a specific and consistent mood and tone throughout a whole album.

2.

Prolific Australian rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard release their third, and my favourite album, in this month alone. They show their ridiculous verstality being able to play any sub-genre of rock imaginable. On Changes they seamlessly mix psychedelic pop and jazz-rock together together creating a funky but more traditional experience than their last two albums.With funky guitar lines and tight drumming across the album this album is sure to get you bobbing your head along.

It starts with a 13 minute long winding jazz rock piece with minimal vocals. Gondii also shows their talent in writing catchy melodies adding elements of pop into their jazz-funk sounds. Overall, this album succeeds by having a large centre peice track at the start and shorter tracks following. Because of this conciseness and its blending of jazz and pop sounds this is probably my favourite King Gizzard album from this year.

1.

Despite claiming Hitler Wears Hermes 8 Side A & B would be the last editions in his prolific Hitler Wears Hermes (a play on the Devil Wears Prada) mixtape series, Westside Gunn chooses to surprise release Hitler Wears Hermes 10, shortened to simply, 10. This also apparently counts HWH8: Side B as Hitler Wears Hermes 9 meaning he can skip straight to HWH10. Despite the confusing logisitcs of this album Gunn once again shows why he is the most prolific and famous figure in underground hip-hop right now.

The album starts off with the RZA produced Intro, with AA Rashid narrating over the top of it. A typically grimey and exciting start to a Hitler mixtape this is further elevated by the outstanding RZA production that sounds like it could fit on a 90s Wu-Tang album. The next song, Flygod Jr is produced by Gunn’s son and is full on trap. While there is a good Doe Boy feature this is defintely the weakest song on the album with cheap sounding production paling in comparison to the rest of the album.

The best part of this album by far is its features with an insanely long and talented list of names for a 12 song album. As Gunn has been doing more recently he steps back on his own his album bringing together his features to shine. This has his widest variety of features by far, with a wide range of MCs rapping over the typical Grisleda, grimey, druless and cinematic. These features include a song with A$AP Rocky and Stove God Cooks contrasting beautifully on Shooters in Soho. It also contains songs featuring legendary duos Blackstar and Run the Jewels respectively.

The two most impressive feature lists on this album are the two large posse cuts, Science Class featuring Busta Rhymes, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Stove God Cooks, and the over 10 minute long Red Death featuring Benny the Butcher, Stove God Cooks, Rome Streetz, Armani Caesar, Jay Worthy, Conway the Machine and Robby Takac to end the album. The latter is perhaps Gunn’s most ambitious song ever featuring meaty verses from 7 rappers and a triumphant outro from legendary rock bassist and vocalist Robby Takac from the Goo Goo dolls.

White there is so much more of this album to analyse including the celebration and use of Westside Gunn’s children across this album and the use of local crackhead Eastside Flip as the cover art this review can only go on for so long. If this album truly is the last in the HWH series it provides a truly triumphant celebration of underground hip-hop and the success of Griselda.