It's SoundCloud till I die.
1. Key! & Kenny Beats - "Love on Ice" (Kenny Beats)
proof that key!'s mind moves vertically while everyone else horizontal
2. deem spencer - "boy aint a bad boy" (Sylvan LaCue)
the last forty seconds of this are slow breathless and breathtaking
3. dijon - "SKIN"
YOU'RE DRESSING LIKE A SUNDAY MORNING/YOU'RE GRINNING LIKE A FRIDAY NIGHT
4. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Ministry of Alienation" (Unknown Mortal Orchestra)
pay-phoning in from a parallel dimension
5. MIKE - "Poseidon"
instantly one of the most stunning things MIKE has ever done. a controlled gasp.
6. Jacquees - "Back to Me" (Nash B)
this man has built a career off of cutting through murky raps (Rich Gang, Birdman) with his voice — this time it's his own falsetto he's supplanting and it's just stupid
7. Ness Nite - "Watercolor Roses" (Mike Frey & Ness Nite)
the rapping here is so much better than it should be it's almost distracting
8. Fijimacintosh - "Wintertime Nights" (Abe)
this like you dropped me into Super Mario Galaxy
9. LoLifeLane & Freshie - "How Much" (BeatPluggTwo)
money!
10. Lil Baby - "Life Goes On" feat. Gunna & Lil Uzi Vert (Quay Global)
hook of the year, verse of the year (Uzi — every second immaculate), whatever, best 4 minutes of the year, everything
11. YoungBoy Never Broke Again - "Astronaut Kid" (CashMoneyAP)
you get the feeling this is as "sold out" YoungBoy could ever get. that is good
12. KB Devaughn - "Playin" feat. Boogie & Dana Williams (Dezzie Gee)
storytelling is not supposed to come this easy: be woven so easily into the hook, the production, it is not supposed to happen this easily. a star
13. FLEE - "Thanksgiving/My Bitches Shoot Too" (Cash Cobain)
bedtime raps 2018 i've been screaming it
14. Trouble & Mike WiLL Made-It - "Krew/Time Afta Time" (Marz, Mike WiLL Made-it & Pluss)
Mike WiLL man. this one a nighttime highway
15. Vince Ash - "I-80"
this one a scarier nighttime highway. Vince coming for everything by the way.
16. Curren$y & Harry Fraud - "14 Packs" feat. Smoke DZA (Harry Fraud)
Harry Fraud writes basslines different
17. Sada Baby & Drego - "Bloxk Party" (Von Jose)
my vote for best line is the Lauri Markannen one, but also the Brock Lesnar one, but also the dance moves one, but also the David Letterman one. and also the domo arigato Mr. Roboto one.
18. Lil Yase - "Bang Bros" feat. Lil Pete
this song could be three words over and over and I would still listen to it
19. Stinc Team - "Cyber Bullies" feat. Drakeo the Ruler, ALLBLACK & Bino Rideaux (Duse)
Drakeo said "I guess I'm back" and then somersaulted. An American hero.
20. AzChike - "Playa" (DaygoRaw)
permanent snarl etched into his voice i love it
21. ALLBLACK - "P's & Q's" (DTB)
the audacity alone to rap at this pace over a beat this frenetic deserves a medal
22. Valee - "Womp Womp" feat. Jeremih (Cassio)
song of the summer everyone know it
23. Kanye West - "All Mine" feat. Valee & Ty Dolla $ign (Francis and the Lights, Kanye West & Mike Dean)
ye, except it's the part where Ty Dolla kicks in over Valee for 23 minutes
24. A$AP Rocky - "Bad Company" feat. BlocBoy JB (Kintaro & Ricci Riera)
he's revolving-doored through every other aesthetic on the planet who'd have thought he'd end up on "boring." it's a good thing BlocBoy is the opposite.
25. Rucci - "Andalay" feat. KingRikoX & BossMann (HoodBeatz)
out of all the spirit animals Rucci could have fixated on, could he have picked a better one than a dog?
26. DJ Esco - "Chek" feat. Future (Dre Moon & Metro Boomin')
old form
27. $ilkmoney - "My Forte" (Tyler, the Creator)
absolutely nuts that $ilkmoney got Tyler into 2011 for a song
28. Don Trip - "Doernbecher" (Chefry Kitchen)
he rapped about his masseuse saying his shoulders are tense so this an autopick
29. Zaytoven - "Mo Reala" feat. Future (Zaytoven)
it's hard not to feel like songs of this caliber are effortless for these two
30. SD - "Sacrifice"
I don't know if I've ever listened to as much music by somebody I know absolutely nothing about as I have with SD. like who is this dude? he from Chicago okay but that's literally it. I don't even know what dude look like he got shadows on his face on the album cover. it's crazy
31. Gio Dee - "100K" feat. Polo $ummers (Snapz)
lmao "me and the Henny adjacent"
32. Octavian - "Little"
this song is great and all but man this guy got an all-time voice
33. Playboi Carti - "Love Hurts" feat. Travis Scott (Pi'erre Bourne & Playboi Carti)
some Blade Runner, cyberpunk (Tumblr edition), fed-through-a-3D-printer-for-mass-production vision of rockstardom. I vividly remember drawing similar lines back in time the first time I wrote about Lil Uzi Vert's "Luv Scars" and it's hard not to feel like I (and maybe Lil Uzi Vert) was wrong. that 2018 rockstars aren't about neon hair and hurling oneself off towers but, instead, wokstars, flatter and 8-bit and glassy-eyed.
34. Saba - "PROM/KING" (daedaePIVOT, Daoud & Saba)
when the drums fall away around 2:30 this song is really something else.
35. Westside Gunn & Mr. Green - "Part Deux" (Mr. Green)
best piano loop of the year,
36. Pusha T - "Hard Piano" feat. Rick Ross (Andrew Dawson, Kanye West & Mike Dean)
second best piano loop of the year
37. Trae Tha Truth - "I Can't" feat. Boosie Badazz & RaRa
would've been a classic in 2010
38. Janelle Monáe - "Screwed" feat. Zoë Kravitz (Deep Cotton, Mr Hudson & Roman GianArthur)
the musical double entendre was invented for Janelle Monáe
39. Smoke DZA - "The Hook Up" feat. Dom Kennedy & Cozz (Girl Talk)
quietly DZA has been a top ten rapper from his city for half a decade now. Also, Dom Kennedy remembered how to rap. Also, Girl Talk should produce everything.
40. Kimbra - "Recovery" (John Congleton, Kimbra & Taylor Graves)
I probably knew every word to this song by the third time I ran it back in a row