Over the last twenty days of December (and obviously 2013), I’ll be writing about my favorite twenty albums and songs of the year, one a day. Not best. Not most influential. Not most likely to land on a Complex slideshow. Just my favorite, ranked in order.
9. pusha t – my name is my name
My Name is My Name couldn’t have come at a better time – it’s a reminder that no matter how inconsistent and illogical he’s been with his solo career until now, he’s capable of hunkering down and rapping about cocaine better than virtually anyone alive. Pusha might be thirty-six, but that doesn’t mean he’s lost any of the slithering menace that he’s sported since his early days with Malice in Clipse. Of course, he’s doling it out in portions, but the times My Name is My Name really shines are when Pusha throws caution to the wind and snarls out bar after bar. It’s a short album, but that doesn’t stop it from suffering from filler: we could have done without the (hyper-acccurate) Ma$e impression on “Let Me Love You,” and even if it presents an introspective side of Pusha we rarely see, “40 Acres” doesn’t really belong here. And Wrath of Caine’s “Revolution” really, really should have been on here somewhere. But it’s really not a concern when Pusha decides to really rap. It’s funny, because Pusha’s overbearing persona exemplifies the type of approach most new artists seem to be taking with their career: style first, and Pusha does minimalism better than anyone else, including Kanye. “Numbers on the Board” strips down a hip-hop beat right down to its spine, and most of the time, his idea of a hook seems to be a quick afterthought of a bar between verses. And while it can be a bit limiting to cast yourself almost exclusively as a drug-flipping rapper (it ruins the effect when Pusha decides to kick the thugging down a notch), it truly is hard to care once Pusha starts flinging around lines like he used to fling around kilos.
9. nipsey hussle – “face the world (prod. 9th wonder)”
This is the type of song that defines lost potential. Nipsey’s been making music for years now, and nothing he’s made even remotely touches this masterpiece. Sure, a lot of it stems from the beat, for sure (I shouldn’t even have to explain how good 9th Wonder is, and this is him at his very best): but Nipsey’s the real star here. It’s not like he’s throwing around lyrical beauties or anything; all about the atmosphere. Nipsey’s the rare rapper (like Blu) that can be optimistic and offer advice and drop lines like “Yeah, this your life, you can play with it/You make your bed, you gon’ lay in it” without sounding remotely played-out. Maybe it’s the confidence, maybe it’s the delivery, or maybe it’s the fact that Nipsey pulls off the slightly-harried, determined-with-a-hint-of-desperate tone here better than Game ever will. But what it means is that this reads less like a Macklemore preaching session and more like a rapper who made it out of Crenshaw laying out his lessons. I listened to this song again to write this, and I think I got chills about three different times.