Jackson Free Press

Hello readers. You might remember me from my time at the JFP as the writer of the bi-monthly column “The Key of G,” where I covered local and national music, as well as just musing about different topics related to music in general.

One of the things I liked to do was to make top 10 release lists at the end of the given year. While I did enjoy that, I always felt a little disingenuous, because I don’t listen to that much new music; I spend most of my time digging for and listening to old records. Hence, my top 10 lists would barely be made, as I squeezed in a few listens right at the end of the year to go with the few albums from artists that I always check for. Further, I never kept a running list, so my top 10 would have omissions, on top of my already poor sample size. (For instance, I somehow left Robert Glasper’s “Black Radio” off of last year’s list).

But this year has been different. I made it my mission to listen to as many new releases as possible, and to document them. What I have now is a list of 60 new albums that I have listened to and ranked in order. Mind you, this list is not meant to be definitive; there is a lot that I didn’t listen to for several reasons, mainly just because there isn’t enough time in the day to hear everything. I did listen to almost everything from artists that I am a fan of, which is something I have done a poor job of over the years. I also branched out to some artists I never was a fan of before, even though I knew who they were and ignored them on purpose. The results are fairly predictable. I also discovered some new artists I had never heard of at all, which was quite nice in most instances.

So, over the next several weeks, I am going to present you all with a ranked list of the 60 albums I listened to this year. Again, this list is not intended to be definitive at all; it is just a list of what I listened to, ranked solely by my opinions. I am sure there will be some disagreement and head scratching, but some of you might also see some new things that interest you that you go check out. And that’s what it’s all about anyway. Thanks for reading and indulging my opinions.

Click http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/weblogs/music/2013/nov/18/6o-new-albums-in-2013-60-51/">HERE for 60-51 Click http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/weblogs/music/2013/nov/25/60-new-albums-in-2013-50-41/">HERE for 50-41 Click http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/weblogs/music/2013/dec/02/60-new-albums-in-2013-40-31/">HERE for 40-31 Click http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/weblogs/music/2013/dec/09/60-new-albums-in-2013-30-21/">HERE for 30-21

20) Chance the Rapper “Acid Rap” You want to know something that makes me feel old? Having a rapper in the top 20 who was born during the golden age of hip hop. I mean, I already had my favorite artists established by ’93. It is so weird. And we are going to remember these days. This kid from Chicago is on the cusp of superstardom. He already can’t really go many places in public because he gets mobbed by fans. The rap game Justin Bieber? (That’s terrible. I’m sorry). The album has a very literal drug reference in the title, and the cover art work features a painting of the artist, splattered in different color paint, set in front of a night sky, with the constellations prominent in the mix. I should probably mention that Chance looks real bug eyed in this picture as well. I mention the art work because the album sounds like the way the art looks: it takes everything imaginable and throws it up in the air and lets it fall where it may, creating a psychedelic kaleidoscope of music. There are no real boundaries put up, in that he can switch effortlessly from gangsta to conscious, from R to Chicago house, all without stopping for psychological readjustment, kind of like the way drugs don’t adhere to your schedule. The overall result is trippy, but in a realistic way, if that makes any sense. This kid is on to something, from his music, to the themes, to the delivery, and so on. I almost feel like I might be listening to a future great in his “I didn’t know any better days.” I for one hope he never figures it out.

19) Big Krit “King Remembered in Time” In my opinion, Meridian, MS based rapper/producer Big K.R.I.T. is holding down Mississippi now, and probably better than any other rapper in history. “King Remembered in Time” is billed as a mixtape, but like many of his other releases, it plays way more like an album as far as cohesiveness and song length go. There are several hallmarks to K.R.I.T.’s career that are all touched on here: lyricism, which moves between very personal tales and baller-specific dreams without much effort; songs that sound greater than the sum of their parts, epic almost; and the production, which sounds completely southern and completely not southern at the same time. His use of soul/funk samples, heavy dirty south drums, and hazy atmospherics positions him as one of the more creative producers in the game, no matter what region of the country we are talking about. (He tends to get caught up in the mix when discussing great beatmakers, leaving him a touch underrated, sadly). Everything we love about our home-state hero is present and accounted for, but there is still a sense of hunger and urgency here that shows progression as an artist, albeit a very organic progression. He seems to keep getting better each time around, especially with the music. I can’t think of another producer from the South that hears music the way he does. For reference, listen to “Talking About Nothing” and then “Meditate” to see exactly what he can do with different sounds. It is pretty amazing and I consider myself lucky to be able to witness it all as it goes down.

18) Quasimoto “Yessir Whatever” To understand Quasimoto, you have to understand Madlib, the man behind this alter (or altered?) ego, of which Madlib has many. Madlib is California based DJ, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper Otis Jackson Jr., who calls Los Angeles based Stones Throw Records home (note that this is in my top 3 current record labels). Madlib hit the scene in the late 90s as the producer of the Lootpack album “Soundpieces: The Antidote,” a great little slice of late 90’s west coast underground hip hop. His debut album, “The Unseen,” was under the guise of Quasimoto, Madlib’s adolescently funny, red-eyed sidekick with the high pitch nasally voice, like he is always inhaling helium, hoping that one time it might turn out to be nitrous (Madlib does the voice the way because he has a rather deep voice that his friends make fun of. He records Quas’s vocals at a slow tempo on a slowed down recorder and then speeds them back up for the final product. He also raps in his real voice alongside Quas to really push the idea that they are together in the studio). Madlib went on to create a jazz-electronic-funk-fusion “band” called Yesterday’s New Quintet, made up of several of his other alter egos, each of which puts out “solo” records under their respective names and styles. Here’s a sample of some of those names: The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz Ensemble, Kamala Walker and The Soul Tribe, Monk Hughes & The Outer Realm, The Eddie Prince Fusion Band, Joe McDuphrey Experience, The Jahari Massamba Unit, Young Jazz Rebels, Sound Directions, Jackson Conti, The Jazzistics, and Malik Flavors. (Hey now puts everything out under the group name Yesterday’s Universe. All of the albums are fantastic, I might add). He has also put out collaborations with MF DOOM and the late J Dilla (RIP) as well as remix albums from the Blue Note vault. The reason I am going to a great length to tell you all of this is because I think it helps out when trying to understand the stuff he does as Quasimoto. The story is that Madlib basically lived for a while in the basement of Peanut Butter Wolf’s studio, the Bomb Shelter, where Stones Throw does a lot of its recording, basically alone all of the time, cranking out beats on the MPC from the infinite amount of ideas in his head from the ridiculous record database that is his second nature. It stands to reason that all of that alone time in the studio with only his musical thoughts would produce all of these alter egos. I can’t say that he is weird, but there is definitely some loneliness at play with someone of that caliber of musical genius. OK, so now on to “Yessir Whatever.” The album is a collection of songs that have been recorded over a twelve-year span, basically stretching the entirety of Quas’s recording career. We can’t say that they are scraps or leftovers or anything, because Madlib’s stuff is just too good. Fans want to hear it all. The album is what we expect from Madlib as Quas: amazing beats (I put him right up there in my top 5 beatmakers of all time), over the top posturing, hilarious jokes, and hazy drug references. It is kind of hard to talk about (you see how long it took me to get to it), but it’s just awesome. That’s all I should have said probably.

17) Jel “Late Pass” Jel’s “Late Pass” is the next to last entry on my list from Anticon (another of my top 3 currently running record labels), who have had a stellar year. I first heard Jel in 1999 through his production work for Deep Puddle Dynamics, a collaborative hip hop group featuring late 90s underground heavyweights Sole, Doseone, Alias, and Slug (of Atmosphere), and several producers associated with Anticon and Rhymesayers. Their lone album “The Taste of Rain…Why Kneel?” is absolutely perfect. There is a legend that says that the artists locked themselves in a cabin in the woods in Minnesota with nothing but some recording equipment and a fat sack of mushrooms. Whether or not that is true, the albums sounds like that was the case. Regardless, the production of the album, including Jel’s work, was key in creating that sound that kind of teetered between straight up indie hip hop and something more ominous, with tinges of electronic and indie rock, both of which would become hallmarks of Anticon’s output as the label pushed through the 2000s. “Late Pass” is in some ways the perfect Anticon album for 2013. It is hip hop at its core, but like a lot of Anticon’s releases, it sounds like hip hop made by a person who listened to nothing but hip hop until college, where they started to listen to indie rock to impress some girl and then went back to hip hop when she got a real job at an accounting firm or something. That’s to say, it is funneled through a lot of influences, which makes “Late Pass” very interesting, with sampled guitars, heavy boom-bap drums, and vocals that kind of resemble rap, but just off kilter enough to stay Anticon-fresh. “Late Pass” is a pretty fantastic record that showcases Jel’s production and influences overlaid with his remarkable skills as a live performer on the pads of the MPC.

16) Black Milk “No Poison No Paradise” Black Milk, aka Curtis Cross, is a Detroit based producer and MC, and one of two Detroit rappers in the top 20 (you’ll see the other near the top of the list). I think the reason Black Milk’s music resonates so much with me is because, like most hip hop heads in our 30s, we came up listening to the same stuff. Black Milk has said his biggest influences as an artist are De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock, Questlove, and so on. And, like the rest of us, those influences led to J Dilla a little further down the road. You can hear the influence all over his work, which is very soulful and jazzy, as one might expect. There is also a touch of free jazz on the record, which gets big points from me. The guest spots are tasteful and not over used (see “Codes and Cab Fare” featuring The Roots’ Black Thought as an example). There is an amazing instrumental track called “Sonny Jr.” that features Robert Glasper. Black Milk’s rapping works very well, and “No Poison No Paradise” is probably the lyrically darkest album he has released, at least when compared to the more sunny influences he wears on his sleeve from the golden age. The album isn’t overly dark, per se, but it has some rather personal moments that make it seem all the more real. Add that to his production style of straight flipping samples and drums and effecting and fuzzing them out, and we get one of the more interesting of the more straight forward hip hop albums of the year.

15) Flatbush ZOMBIES “Better Off Dead” Flatbush ZOMBIES are not for everyone. And that might be the understatement of the entire 60 album project. These guys hail from Flatbush, Brooklyn, and are relative newcomers to the hip hop world, having first worked together in 2010. This is the best way I can think to describe them: imagine if the members of Dead Prez gotten bitten in the zombie apocalypse, but as zombies, were still able to rap and do A LOT of drugs, and somehow make incredible analogies based on said drug use (we are talking very advanced zombies here). They have a very sharp political and social sensibility about them, not shying away from critique of the government and other topics such as institutional racism, gender issues, and the like. And it is all done through the use of really great wordplay that, as I said before, often uses drug references (including mentions of drugs not normally mentioned in hip hop songs, like mescaline and DMT). The sound is heavy, but the topics aren’t always that heavy, which keeps it from being preachy (There is a song featuring Danny Brown called “Drug Parade” that is about exactly what it sounds like it would be about). This is a really cool album, and it makes me excited about what they can do if they keep it going. I can’t really reproduce any of the lyrics here, but if you are interested, check out the song “Palm Trees,” which I think gives a great representation of what they do.

14) Elvis Costello & the Roots “Wise up Ghost” The Roots are one of my all time favorite groups. Since I first heard them in 1994, I think that they have only gotten better with age. On top of that, their more recent stint as house band on the Jimmy Fallon show has introduced them to an entirely new audience who appreciates both their musical dexterity and humor. What has really kept me interested in the band, since I don’t watch Jimmy Fallon, aside from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHogg7pJI_M">THIS, is that they continue to make albums for their fans and these recordings seem to exist in an alternate universe completely apart from their TV personas. (I would love to see the look on some white woman’s face who knows the Roots from TV if I made her listen to “Game Theory” or “Undun” all the way through). 2010’s collaboration album with John Legend, “Wake Up,” was a collection of covers of 60s and 70s songs, most of which dealt with social awareness and consciousness. So, even though they are on NBC and Questlove has a beer commercial, the artistic credibility is still fully intact. I was very excited to hear “Wise up Ghost” when I first about its release. I am not a fan of Elvis Costello (not for any reason other than I have never really listened to him), but I was intrigued to hear what they came up with. It is not disappointing at all. It sounds like a neo-soul album featuring a legendary singer-songwriter in his latter years; it’s dark at times, a little funky at others, and overall very pleasing, giving that The Roots do not play around when it comes to recording. Everything is perfectly planned and laid down, but it doesn’t sound overdone. One internet review site, which I won’t call by name but will say it has something to do with a thing the devil carries around, complained about the song lengths on a few of the tracks. I for one like that, as it gives the songs room to breathe and space for a legendary singer to spread out over grooves laid down by a legendary band. If I have any criticism of this record, it is that Black Though, The Roots’ rapper, does not appear on the record. I think that his inclusion would have added another really cool element to the record. But, alas, it doesn’t hurt the record overall. It just would have been nice.

13) Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge “Twelve Reasons to Die” Looking back on the list so far, I realize that this is the first album with a Wu Tang affiliation. On one hand that is weird, considering Wu Tang is my number 2 all time music act (behind Stevie Wonder). On the other hand, it’s not that surprising, considering that the Wu’s output has fallen off considerably over the years, to the point where I am just happy we get anything, even if the vast majority of it is not that great these days. Ghostface Killah sits at the top of two lists for a lot of Wu Tang fans: best lyricist (this of course is arguable) and member who has remained the most consistent (this is far less arguable). In a group full of lyrical ninjas, Ghostface has maybe produced the most hip hop quotables, so many so that it is hard to pick just one example. But, here is one for you, “4th Chamber” from GZA’s album “Liquid Swords”: “Why is the sky blue? Why is water wet?/Why did Judas rat to Romans while Jesus slept?/Stand up/You're out of luck like two dogs stuck/Iron Man be sippin’ rum, out of Stanley Cups, unflammable/Noriega, aimin’ knives which stay windy in Chicago/spine-tingle, mind boggles/Kangols in rainbow colors, promoters try to hold dough/Give me mine before Po, wrap you up in so-and-so/I ran the Dark Ages, Constantine and great Henry the Eighth/Built with Genghis Khan, the wreck suede wiley Don.” Damn. That brings me to tears almost just typing it. Adrian Younge entered most people’s consciousness in 2009, as he produced and played every instrument on the soundtrack for the cult classic film “Black Dynamite” (If you haven’t seen this, stop reading and go do it now). You can only imagine how excited a lot of us were when word got out that a collaboration was on the horizon. “Twelve Reasons to Die” is a concept album: Ghostface plays the part of Tony Starks (one of the numerous alter egos he’s assumed over the course of his career), an enforcer for the DeLuca crime family who sets out on his own, only to be killed by the family later. His remains are melted into 12 vinyl albums that when played, release the Ghostface Killah, who, as you can imagine, is set for revenge. How dope is that? So, the story is solid, the music is top notch, and the raps, while way more straightforward than most of Ghost’s other stuff, are adequate for such a concept heavy project. Oh, and there is a series of comic books that go along with the album that are really cool in and of themselves.

12) Nosaj Thing “Home” Nosaj Thing, known to his mama as Jason Chung, is a Los Angeles based electronic music producer. It is best to think about him as an instrumental hip hop producer with a bent towards downtempo. Chung has kind of been on the rise in the music scene, especially in the LA hip hop and beat scene. While not gaining as much notoriety as his friend and sometimes collaborator Flying Lotus, Chung is still getting the opportunity to work with hot hip hop artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Chance the Rapper, amongst others. “Home” is a stellar piece of work. At first, I didn’t like it as much as his other stuff, in particular his other proper full-length, “Drift.” After a few listens, though, I caught on with what he was doing and saw a progression in his art that I initially mistook for a step back. “Home” is more accessible than “Drift,” but certainly not overly poppy or anything. The epic soundscapes are still present, but without so much of the overt weirdness that had been present in his beats in the past. As you have grown accustomed to, I do have to complain a little bit about the vocals on the record. However, I do not have too much of a problem with what he does here, namely because I like the vocalists he uses, such as Tor Y Moi and Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino. This is definitely an album that gets better with each listen, especially considering the dense layering of sounds and effects Chung uses. Like Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing pulls you in and then keeps you there looking for, and almost always finding, more.

11) Earl Sweatshirt “Doris” So, there is this rap collective based in Los Angeles that I don’t like very much. It’s called Odd Future and is made up of Tyler, The Creator, rappers Hodgy Beats, Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis, and Mike G, singer-songwriter/rapper Frank Ocean, producers Left Brain, Syd Tha Kyd, Matt Martians, and Hal Williams. They are young and brash (to say the least) and when they emerged, they hit hard. To be fair, I am a pretty big fan of Frank Ocean, and I love what they have done for skateboard culture. It’s just some of the music hits me weird, especially the stuff that plays up the punk rock aesthetic of “We’re just going to make things to piss you off, for no real reason other than we think it’s funny.” I get that, I just don’t really like it all that much. Especially coming from teenagers from LA. I just don’t really pay that much attention to their music, but I am familiar with their story. Earl Sweatshirt, at the age of 16, dropped his debut “Earl” in 2010, to near unanimous critical acclaim. This kid sounded like he could be the second coming of (insert your favorite deceased rapper here). But almost as soon as he appeared, he disappeared. As it turns out, his mom sent him to Samoa (you read that right) to attend a boarding school for at-risk youth. To make a long story short, by early 2012 he was back in the states and this year released “Doris.” And my God, it is amazing. In any other year, I probably would not have listened to this, but being on the mission I was, I copped it after reading several glowing reviews. Earl is only 19, but raps with the skill and bravado of someone much older and wiser, and frankly, darker and crazier. The record is devastatingly honest and personal, and at times funny and disturbing, usually all within one line of a song. A good friend of mind gave “Doris” this one word review: “brutalful.” I fully agree. The only thing from keeping it perfect, in my eyes, is our old dreaded friend the guest appearance. His friends are all over the record, as are RZA and Mac Miller, and that is fine. But in a different world, where a 19 year old rapper at the top of the game might listen to my advice, I would say this: make your masterpiece on your own, and then rap with your friends on the next one.