Music.. Fashion.. Travel.. and all things dope.

My insatiable lust for music knows no bounds.

Most moments that don’t involve me communicating with humans are spent with my earbuds securely plugged in and drowning out my inherent apathy with the stories of others set to their choice of rhythmic accompaniment.
(Peep my twitter, refer to hashtag #Knockin). If the refresh button on a web browser was a physical tool you could bet that the designated paint would be worn away as i constantly refresh sites like Nahright and Onsmash (by the way #freeonsmash) scouring the web for new music with most of it proving not worthy of the effort that it takes to download.

I judge a good album on whether i could listen to it in its entirety with minimal time spent racing across the room to skip through its unfortunate missteps. Here are 5 albums, in no particular order, that kept me from lunging for the fast forward button in 2010.

Kanye West-My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The personified tragic comedy of celebrity culture usually overshadows artistic output. People are more interested in the beefs and romances of artists than the actual art itself and the art suffers. Kanye West has mastered playing both sides of the fence giving the media the conniving villain/hapless buffoon that they need to amass pageviews and giving music lovers the sounds that reflect the struggle of trying to live a private life in the public eye. This album could have been a mess as his tendency for overproduction rears its head on a couple of tracks but juggled with tracks containing a pared down simplicity this album proved two things to me.
A) You can be a paparazzi chased multimillion dollar pop artist and still make good music
B) Chris Rock is the worst thing to happen to comedy since the death of Mitch Hedburg

Roc Marciano-Marcburg

I’ve always been a fan of Roc Marciano. From his album with the group the U.N. from, from his Strength and Honor mixtape from even way before that as a short lived member of Busta Rhymes Flip Mode Squad. His lyricism is a poetic drone, a calm agression that abuses syllables into submission. That being said I expected his debut solo opus to be an unlistenable underground rap shitshow. Rappers with a long tenure in the game and limited mainstream success can tend to bend to the public whim and create a guest appearance laden piece of work with formulaic club bangers. Roc Marcy made an unabashedly hip hop album that would have sounded just as good 10 years ago as it does today.

Danny Brown – The Hybrid

If i had to tell you the artist that i listened to the most in 2010 it would be Danny Brown. Not just based on the strength of his out put but for the sheer volume. With about 10 mixtapes to his credit and a bunch of loose songs floating around the internets, Danny is just now really making noise with his free album release The Hybrid and his album with G-Unit’s Tony Yayo Hawaiian Snow. While new rappers feign weird tendencies to appeal to an audience of privileged malcontents Danny brings that real mental patient rap. the Hybrid is like the answer to the question “What would happen if i got punched in the face by a dude in skinny jeans and a Pokemon backpack?”

Tame Impala-Innerspeaker

Im not sure if rock as a genre still exists. The stuff that we label rock hasn’t been rock for a long time. Groups like the XX or Beach house is what girls listen to while they watch the Notebook and learn about menstruation for the first time. The pussyfication of America is evident as the people we deem the voice of our generation warble and whisper over faint production that sounds like a commercial for feminine deoderant spray. Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker is a low-fi meld of psych rock and harmonies that is a reminder of a time where a guitarist might actually hit you in the head with a guitar instead of hit on you homeboy.

Big K.R.I.T. -K.R.I.T. Wuz Here

I’ve already gushed about this mixtape ad nauseum so im gonna be lazy and take a clip of my last review.
“His music is the answer to the question “what would happen if Pimp C was the third member of Outkast?” and throws out the question of lyrical talent and proficiency behind the boards being based on region. The kids goes from “Hustle and Flow” to “Def Poetry Jam” in 0 to 60 without making it seem contrived. He details the human experience without the use of absolutes, sometimes we think deeply, sometimes we dont want to think at all, its the multiple dimensions that make us who we are.”

Honorable Mention – Rick Ross Teflon Don

We all have different listening habits so my list is in no way definitive, no ones is. There is no real validation in agreeing or disagreeing with the general public but i would love for people to tell me what they thought were the top albums or why they would agree or disagree with my list just so i can get put on to some new music that I may have not given a chance to before.

Here’s to more good music in 2011.

<3 Es’Q