Jay-Z - Lucifer
In the words of Jay, "Kanye, you did it again, you a genius". Even though the sample is a well-known Max Romeo song, it somehow sounds classic rather than derivative, and the "lucifer, lucifer" is urgent and strongly felt. I could listen to the beat all day long, but Jay nearly upstages it with religious references (he mentions tithes, psalms, "the meek shall inherit the earth"!) and ridiculously crafty internal rhyme schemes (Them a murder me/so I gotta murder them first/emergency/doctors performing proce-/dures/Jesus/I ain't trying to be facetious). Top notch on all counts.
Talib Kweli - Get By
Another quality Kanye production, this time featuring Nina Simone, whom everyone loves. Nina Simone is one of those people that can't be overexposed or overrated no matter how much everyone loves them, because people realise that not to love Nina Simone is just a stupid thing to do, no matter their cred calculations. Here, Kanye and Kweli succeed at the strange task of making a song of economic admonition sampling a song of religious admonition sound joyful and fun and anything but moralistic. Part of it is Kweli's puns (we rock like Paul McCartney/till the last beat'll drop). Part of it is the fact that getting by and getting high is just such an awesome theme (see: Beatles, Spoon). The remix is also good.
Buck 65 - Riverbed 2
Buck is in a class all his own. Although he can be fun and cocky with the best of 'em, he has a whole other side of rap where it seems like he's the only one exploring that direction. Adjectives that come to mind on some of Buck's Riverbed tracks that don't often show up in rap: lovely, introspective, shy, quiet. My favourite might be Riverbed 5, a minute and change on the melancholy of separation, but I have to go with Riverbed 2 for a top ten list. Largely because of the hard to match beauty of "Raindrops seeping into the letterbox while I'm sleeping/Makes it seem like those who wrote me were weeping."
Madvillain - Meat Grinder
To me, what makes Madvillain great is that where everyone is so goddamn earnest, even if it's about having fun, DOOM seems to rap with about zero conviction. His voice is so gruff and smiley, his sound so relaxed, his rhymes so apparently tossed off that he manages to make things like "Y'all best to lay low/hey bro/day glo/set the bet, pay dough/before the chedda geddaway best to get Maaco" sound not only effortless but actually lazy. It's like, yeah, he's just dicking around, but it's on such a high level that you can't blame him.
Insight - Bother Me
Before I used to scoff at rappers' admonitions for others to "practice more". It's talent, I thought, you either have it or you don't. But now, thanks to Insight, I don't think so anymore. Insight has really progressed (Evolved? cough cough) this decade. Whereas way back in the day, guesting on Mr. Lif's "Universal" he sounded self-important, humourless and weak, here he is in control, collected, funny and charismatic. And that charisma and likeability are there even though this song is an over-the-top complaint about freeloading moochers. Insight, winner of the most improved award.
Blue Scholars - Joe Metro
Is Joe Metro one of the 10 best rap songs of the last 10 years? Not really. But it's pretty sweet that there's a song about a bus (the 48 here in Seattle) that I've taken many times. Although Geologic's route (Rainier Beach - Downtown) doesn't even overlap with the one I've taken (U-District - Aurora). One thing this track makes you realise is that the 48 is one long-ass bus route. Another is that there is some pretty great Seattle hip hop. But you knew both of those things.
GZA - Fame
How is it that MC Paul Barman's "Cock Mobster" sounds childish and lame, and this is one of the greatest rap songs of all time? Maybe it's because anyone can imagine doing what Barman did: take the names of celebrities, put 'em down on a sheet of paper, think up long-form rhymes that will sound ridiculous. But "Fame" requires a level of skill that's beyond at least my understanding. To try to make a whole narrative using celebrities as verbs is not something I'd think of. It's something no one probably even attempted before. The fact that it doesn't make any sense as a whole only makes it better. This is rap at its best - playfully toying with English. It's like GZA invented some sort of bizarre semi-language but he is so confident that you don't dare doubt him. ("Drew Barrymore bones"!!!! "Curtis Mayfield her ass"!!!?? Is that insane or what??). Genius (not like he doesn't know it).Nas - Queens Get the Money
Poor Nas. No matter how much he tries to sound thuggish he just doesn't. On paper this track is little more than just a brag, but Jay Electronica's ominous piano loop and Nas' off-kilter flow that runs ahead and falls behind the beat make it sound haunting, and give it this off-balance urgency that I love. Normally this wouldn't make sense on a track featuring lame lines like "Niggas still hatin'/Talking Nas done fell off with rhymin'/he rather floss with diamonds", but somehow it does. Hearing "I'm the shaky hand that touched George Foreman in Zaire/The same hand that punched down devils that brought down the towers" followed by the piano loop gives you a chill like listening to a prophecy.The Streets - Geezers Need Excitement
No matter your opinion of England and its rap, you have something to love here. From the anglophiles who swoon at the accent to the anglophobes who chuckle with found confirmation of their stereotypes at the seedy chavvishness of it all. Like the implication that you're liable to have chips thrown at you by drunk assholes when you visit a shawarma place there. This is neo-realism in rap form. Because he comes from a place that has no rap tradition, really, Mike Skinner (The Streets) doesn't need to play by the rules. He doesn't use the first person. He doesn't do anything meta here. There is no glamour. He is honest, he is giving a simple slice-of-life. Most important, his voice is just plain attention-holding, managing to seem important and casual at the same time.The Roots - 75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)
What often gets lost in all the talk about the Roots is what an animal of an MC Black Thought is. It's easy to forget when you have unbeatable smooth tunes like "The Seed 2.0" (which I was also thinking of putting here). But it's also easy to remember when you hear something like 75 Bars. For my money, this is the best dose of straight up Black Thought. Black's greatest talent is making things that don't have any business rhyming in the normal world sound like they match perfectly. (My favourite example, not from this track but from "Thought @ Work" is "focus flawless/New York to Europe/To lands where my feet ain't even touched the shore yet"). Okay, he does end pretty much every line here with a "niggers"/"niggers" rhyme. That's a valid criticism. But despite that, you listen to the track, and it's so potent that at the end of it you just can't help but say to yourself: "damn!"Buck 65 - Riverbed 2
Buck is in a class all his own. Although he can be fun and cocky with the best of 'em, he has a whole other side of rap where it seems like he's the only one exploring that direction. Adjectives that come to mind on some of Buck's Riverbed tracks that don't often show up in rap: lovely, introspective, shy, quiet. My favourite might be Riverbed 5, a minute and change on the melancholy of separation, but I have to go with Riverbed 2 for a top ten list. Largely because of the hard to match beauty of "Raindrops seeping into the letterbox while I'm sleeping/Makes it seem like those who wrote me were weeping."
Madvillain - Meat Grinder
To me, what makes Madvillain great is that where everyone is so goddamn earnest, even if it's about having fun, DOOM seems to rap with about zero conviction. His voice is so gruff and smiley, his sound so relaxed, his rhymes so apparently tossed off that he manages to make things like "Y'all best to lay low/hey bro/day glo/set the bet, pay dough/before the chedda geddaway best to get Maaco" sound not only effortless but actually lazy. It's like, yeah, he's just dicking around, but it's on such a high level that you can't blame him.
Insight - Bother Me
Before I used to scoff at rappers' admonitions for others to "practice more". It's talent, I thought, you either have it or you don't. But now, thanks to Insight, I don't think so anymore. Insight has really progressed (Evolved? cough cough) this decade. Whereas way back in the day, guesting on Mr. Lif's "Universal" he sounded self-important, humourless and weak, here he is in control, collected, funny and charismatic. And that charisma and likeability are there even though this song is an over-the-top complaint about freeloading moochers. Insight, winner of the most improved award.
Blue Scholars - Joe Metro
Is Joe Metro one of the 10 best rap songs of the last 10 years? Not really. But it's pretty sweet that there's a song about a bus (the 48 here in Seattle) that I've taken many times. Although Geologic's route (Rainier Beach - Downtown) doesn't even overlap with the one I've taken (U-District - Aurora). One thing this track makes you realise is that the 48 is one long-ass bus route. Another is that there is some pretty great Seattle hip hop. But you knew both of those things.
