Was there anything more draining in 2015 than Drake?
Last Friday, I was at an open bar my alma mater’s alumni association put on. Now let me preface this by saying that I don’t talk about the week/month/year Drake in the real world often. His music? Absolutely! The previous time I discussed his music was in July at my last job. It’s great that hip-hop debates have reached the water cooler, but this weekend made me realize that these discussions are often more reductive than the ones you expect at a barbershop or on Twitter. The topic, again, was Drake’s beef with Meek Mill. The essence of these discussions were someone telling me that Drake bodied Meek on wax. The biggest loss for Meek is that this whole nonsense overshadowed his perfectly fine album.
There’s no debate that Drake won the beef. But it clearly had more to do with Meek’s poor strategy than “is that a world tour or your girl’s tour?” In the world of metrics, Drake is teflon. While I hate to dismiss people who think it’s more than that as uninitiated, or worse, hypebeasts, this is what my experience suggests. If we didn’t live in a world where those types have more gatekeeping power than they deserve, more of us would have listened closely to what Sauce Walka had to say on “Wack to Wack”.
None of it is worth talking down to Drake about. He’s an expert at playing the game. After his foe was vanquished, he released the biggest song of his career off the lifeblood of the hip-hop underground and an all-time classic (the Sade cover of the latter is very worth your time). Just another season in Drakeland. One could only jump to conclusions about the person Drake is from his music and it’s a fruitless endeavor. His latest mixtape-cum-album is exemplary albeit laden with one-dimensional characters and ideas as per usual. Nothing we saw this year from the Toronto rapper was worth lionizing, but Drake won the year because we let him.
It’s no coincidence that the transition from summer to fall was owned by singers that Drake tried to siphon cool points from. The Weeknd gained enough notoriety through his own ordeal to do so with the right blend of talent and focus and Fetty Wap was in the moment enough to get away with leaving the Drakeified remix of “My Way” off his album without losing too much shine from a so-so Drake and Future collaboration. Other acts Aubrey managed the same treatment of (Migos, iLoveMakonnen) kept making music that spoke to the traits that made them overnight successes in the first place.
What got us off of the Drake channel for a minute was the release of a Dr. Dre album. Not the Detox we were initially promised, Dre’s cross-promoting ass gave us something good enough to not appear cheap. Though the album was glossed over, it’s a pound for pound equal of 1999’s 2001. The combination of an unexpected new star (Anderson .Paak), seething political commentary, olympic-class beats and rhymes, and the attitudes that made most of what the doctor touched perfectly imperfect coalesced together in a way that can only happen on a Dre album.
When the discussion around the album suddenly vanquished, rap spent the rest of the year flipping back and forth from Drake’s channel to whatever else was going on. Meddling work from Travi$ Scott and Fetty Wap weren’t proper distractions and another late-year push from the bawse fell on its face. For as great as big rap music was in 2015, the best thing we got from our heavy hitters between Dre in August and Pusha T in mid-December were a couple of exhausting, yet occasionally brilliant tapes from Young Thug. But even fans of his would be hard pressed to recant the recent releases of his cronies that helped made Barter 6 so special. Hell, I haven’t listened to Duke and Yak Gotti’s solo work. Meanwhile, Drake’s latest single, “Hotline Bling” held up by American culture like it’s the second coming of “In da Club” (it isn’t). But there’s something to be said for making Kidz Bop money while everyone sits on their thumbs, right?
Top 75 Hip-Hop and R&B Albums of 2015
Apologies to all of the great stuff I didn’t find a place to talk about in this series. Most egregiously: The Underachievers, Junglepussy, G Herbo, White Boiz, BeatKing, and Travis Porter. Here’s my 75 favorite releases rap and R&B gave us this year.
75. ILLFIGHTYOU – Cash In the Bathroom
74. Starlito – Introversion
73. Lucki Ecks – X
72. Vic Spencer – The Cost of Victory
71. Billy Woods – Today, I Wrote Nothing
70. The Weeknd – Beauty Behind the Madness
69. DonMonique – Thirst Trap
68. Ghostface Killah / Adrian Younge – Twelve Reasons to Die pt. II
67. Chief Keef – Bang 3 / DP Beats – DP Almighty
66. The Alchemist – Retarded Alligator Beats / Gangrene – You Disgust Me
65. Georgia Anne Muldrow – A Thoughtiverse Unmarred
64. DT Blanco – Vanity
63. Zora Jones – 100 Ladies
62. Lianne La Havas – Blood
61. Maxo Kream – Maxo 187
60. Sasha Go Hard – Nutty World 2
59. Kool Keith / L’Orange – Time? Astonishing!
58. Bilal – In Another Life
57. Mic Terror – Live From Your Momma’s House
56. Verbal Kent – Anesthesia
55. Bodega Bamz – Sidewalk Exec
54. Skepta – The Tim Westwood Mix
53. Snoop Dogg – Bush
52. FKA Twigs – M3LL155X
51. Chris Brown / Tyga – Fan of a Fan: The Album
50. Gunplay – Living Legend
49. Alexandria – Bad
48. Oddisee – The Good Fight
47. RJ & Choice – Rich Off Mackin’
46. Sporting Life – 55 5’s / Wiki – Lil Me
45. Tink – Winter’s Diary 3
44. Beatking – Houston 3 am / 3 Weeks
43. White Boiz – Neighborhood Wonderful
42. Janet Jackson – Unbreakable
41. Young Thug – Slime Season / Slime Season 2
40. Iglooghost / Mr. Yote – Milk Empire
39. Payroll Giovanni / Big Quis – Billboard Brothers
38. TeeFlii – AnnieRUO’TAY 4
37. Travis Porter – S.A.Q
36. Junglepussy – Pregnant with Success
35. Quelle Chris – Innocent Country
34. Boogie – The Reach
33. iLoveMakonnen – Drink More Water 5
32. G Herbo – Ballin’ Like I’m Kobe
31. Busdriver – Thumbs
30. Knxwledge – Hud Dreems
29. Jazmine Sullivan – Reality Show
28. Future / Zaytoven – Beast ModeFuture
27. Heems – Eat Pray Thug
26. Dâm-Funk – Invite the Light
25. Dr. Dre – Compton
24. Rae Sremmurd- SremmLife
23. Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
22. Abra – ROSE
21. Erykah Badu – But You Caint Use My Phone
20. Father – Who’s Gonna Get Fucked First?
19. Tree – Trap Genius
18. Mac Miller – GO:OD A.M.
17. Kelela – Hallucinogen
16. Johnny May Cash – My Last Days
15. The Foreign Exchange – Tales from the Land of Milk and Honey
14. milo – so the flies don’t come / scallops hotel – plain speaking
13. Pusha T – King Push—Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude
12. Young Thug – Barter 6
11. Thundercat – The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam
10. Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside
9. Miguel – Wildheart
8. Vince Staples – Summertime ’06
7. Dr. Yen Lo – Days with Dr. Yen Lo
6. Jeremih – Late Nights
5. The Internet – Ego Death
4. Future – DS2
3. Sicko Mobb – Super Saiyan, Vol. 2
2. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
1. Dawn Richard – Blackheart