1. Kap G - "Icha Gicha" feat. Pharrell
it's so nuts that atlantic signed this guy, gave him a standard album roll-out paired with the requisite big name radio features (one of the early singles had chris brown on it), and let him and pharrell make what is probably one of the most bizarre major label rap songs of the year. of course, the secret is that with a few more instrument tracks on logic this sounds a lot more standard, even though kap g is, on the low, one of the more talented/creative of this generation of major label atlanta talents. but then again, the bravery to make a song like this is half the battle anyway.
2. Cousin Stizz - "Headlock" feat. Offset (Vinylz)
i'm all about formulas, especially when they include offset
3. AD & Sorry Jaynari - "Who Dat?" feat. Kool John (Sorry Jaynari)
i've listened to this song upwards of twenty times now and i still couldn't really tell you what the structure is, who raps what and when (besides kool john saying "pockets like mcmuffins"), how many hooks there are, etcetera, but i also find it hard to care
4. G Perico - "All Blue" (Kacey Khaliel)
the second-hand directive has always been arresting in this subset of hip-hop, but there's something particularly forceful/coercive when g perico takes it up: when he raps that he'll "take you all around [his] turf in one day," the excursion doesn't sound optional.
5. K$UBI KAYY - "I Know, I Know" (BLKJCKX)
this beat pulses through the hook, and it takes a really good rapper to know when to step back
6. Jace & Ducko McFli - "Rollin'" feat. IamSu! (Ducko McFli)
bedtime raps 2017!!!
7. Nebu Kiniza - "Coastin'" feat. TK Kravitz (Nebu Kiniza)
this really an excellent update of the nebu kiniza formula; a little bouncier, a little more melodic, a couple new sounds -- this might be the best of them.
8. Nef the Pharaoh - "Move4" feat. OMB Peezy & Jay Ant
this really should be an omb showcase but somehow nef managed to bury him before he even says a word -- but also, how more immaculate can a hook on a song like this get? especially how it's stretched out in the end as the rest of the song falls away?
9. Kevin Gates - "911" (Frank Dukes & Kevin Gates)
what if i think this is better than "what if"?
10. Dominique - "Hey Bardi I Made a Song" (Trapanese)
it's raw, especially the couple times the voice doesn't strike through the beat as decisively as it should, but when it clicks, it clicks.
11. Divine Council - "Talkin' Down" (ICYTWAT)
0:40-1:19
12. Kendrick Lamar - "ELEMENT." (Bekon, James Blake, Ricci Riera, Sounwave & Tae Beast)
there's too much to say about this album; too much to say about this song (the most important, of course, is that this is the best kid capri tag on DAMN.). while good kid, m.A.A.d city was sectioned off -- the subversive radio song, the song for the whip, the festival drop, the twelve-minute jazz epic -- To Pimp a Butterfly responded by swinging all the way into one small corner. DAMN. isn't the best kendrick album (that title was locked in forever two years ago), but it's the one that blurs the lines the most; it's a flex framed in a lament, layered again and again and again. and somebody let james blake produce a whole hip-hop album already.
13. Rothstein - "Ballerina" (Shepard)
this like a boxing match in a song
14. Rich Homie Quan - "Back End" (Cassius Jay)
easy to forget that quan was sleeper the star of Tha Tour, Pt. 1, or that like noz pointed out a few months back, that he was quavo before quavo was really quavo. this whole album a good reminder.
15. Allan Kingdom - "Don't Push Me" (Dro & SinGrinch)
this hook probably the best use of the soundcloud flow ever, hidden in the type of 4:30pm pre-sunset melancholy tone of reflection that has always been the best, most poignant host to that type of rap
16. Freddie Gibbs - "Amnesia" (DYNC3, Dupri, Jay Nari & Speakerbomb)
it's always cool to listen to a new song off a new album and think that when all is said and done, you've listened to something somewhat career-defining
17. Amir Obè - "Cigarettes" (NYLZ)
i would probably be okay with amir obè writing the entirety of drake's next album (given what More Life actually ended up as, i feel pretty justified). i will forever maintain that the best rappers are the ones who make music so fully breathtaking that it makes you forget you ever held some expectation of content or emotional impact. at the end of the day, music is music, isn't it?
18. Playboi Carti - "Location" (Harry Fraud)
this is just so, so, so good.
19. Pollàri - "Star" (YungCortex)
i didn't know i needed disco rap, but i guess i do